To Caress My Day

“We’re going on tour with that mystery superstar I mentioned next Monday, Twigs!” Amira squealed down the phone in excitement, not giving her best friend a second to greet her accordingly like a normal person would. She couldn’t help herself. The instant she got the news, she had to tell her girl and let her know what was going on behind the scenes with her and Neon Jungle.

“For how long?” Twigs asked her in a groggy voice thick with sleep that still wouldn’t come. After having jerked her head back because of Amira’s rowdy tone when she answered the phone, she dropped her head back down onto her pillow to give herself a moment to recover. She soon heaved her head back up to engage in the conversation, but allowed her eyes to fall shut due to how heavy they were.

“Until March 22, so don’t be expecting us to drop by anytime soon for a visit, okay?” Amira updated her tentatively, biting on her lower lip. She went from thrilled to now worried in a matter of seconds. They’ve usually been able to keep in touch and visit often enough since they were signed to Neon Jungle, but times were changing. Their numbers of fans were boosting which only meant the more prodigious industries were only a step away from discovering them too. Once that happened, their lives would forever be altered and the times given to family and friends would have to decline for their careers.

It was happening with their good friend, Simone’s career, too. Now it was their turn.

“Until March 22?!” Twigs exclaimed the foreboding date, her brown eyes snapping open in shock. She hadn’t been expecting that short length of time! Sure, Neon Jungle had been off the radar before, but never for this long. Attempting to muzzle the dread spreading an icy winter storm through every nerve, Twigs stammered over her words in a forlorn tone. “T-That’s a very long time. I…I’m gonna miss you guys so much over here.”

Amira felt the exact same way now. The excitement was still sending electric shocks through her system, sure, but it wasn’t the same as before. She didn’t feel like a rocket ready to take off to space unknown anymore. Now, she was only semi-excited and felt guilty for it. Pouting, Amira softly conceded. “Me too, girl. I know we’ve been gone for a couple weeks before but it’s never been this long. Despite that, I want you to call me anytime you want, Tahliah! We won’t be onstage as much as the main artist is gonna be so I’ll have some free time to pick up and chat with you if you need someone to talk to.”

What was the point?

What was the point of picking up the phone and calling any of her friends anymore?

They were actively living their lives and dreams out to the fullest.

And Twigs?

Well, she was doing her own thing too, but now she had her mother’s health concern to worry herself sick about on top of her now boyfriend forsaking her even though she still loved and missed him dreadfully, and to put the cherry on top, the load of bills she had to miss meals over in order to pay them! Life was giving her crap one moment after the other with no breaks in between. It wouldn’t even give her the chance to taste Seth’s lips again, not without trying to bust her kneecaps in with a lead pipe and leaving her for dead in an alleyway in the dead of London’s winter!

Twigs couldn’t stand it! She also couldn’t stand how ‘woe is me’ she was becoming as well. She did well enough to bury it from others so they wouldn’t see, but when she was alone it bombarded her to no end. But she wasn’t alone right now, so she had to swig it back up and let it fester on the inside until Amira had to go back to her outstanding life without her.

“I will...” Twigs sighed miserably. A plump tear she hadn’t noticed had formed dripped down across the bridge of her nose and onto her pillow, soaking into the fabric. Annoyed with herself for feeling so abandoned and commiserable, she closed her eyes then squeezed them shut to exile any others from flooding to the surface.

“How have you been doing since Simone left?” Amira inquired, intransigent about checking up on her best friend now that she was living alone for the first time since moving out to London at seventeen. It wasn’t nosy-ness that was asking, but rather the Mother Hen within Amira.

The last time they spoke, Twigs was trying to manage paying the bills on her own, and from what Amira could tell, she was struggling to do so on her own, not that she’d admit much to it. Twigs could resort herself to selling her body on the streets of London at the red-light districts and still wouldn’t reach out for help from her loving friends and family to come rescue her! Knowing that about her best friend, Amira had to goad and pry into the woman’s life in order to make sure she was good.

“Making it through better than I thought I would actually.” Twigs lied quite unconvincingly. Gritting her teeth at how inadequate her endeavor at duplicity was, she rolled her eyes and yearned to kick herself for it. Amira wasn’t gonna believe a flabby falsehood like that, not when her tone was all wrong and spoken morosely! She was supposed to sound sure of herself, confident against all the odds against her!

But what did she sound like instead?

Like a brittle weakling in need of her own Hercules to save her from the fatal Hydra called Life.

“Riiiiight…Twiggy-Baby, I gotta be honest, I don’t really believe a damn word you just said, BUT knowing the way you are I’ll just say okay for now and we can keep it pushing.” Amira told her in a knowing voice that abetted in letting her know that she wasn’t duped by her dishonesty. It’s not like she was born yesterday.

“Yeah…I’d appreciate that very much.” Twigs sighed mournfully, slapping a hand over her face as punishment for her failure.

“But you also know me!” Amira went on, not able to go along with her previous statement. The Mother Hen in her was clucking like crazy and wouldn’t be ignored. Yielding to its demand, she once again extended an offer to her best friend that had been declined time and time again, and would continue to be in the coming future. “And that all you have to do is ask, and I will send any amount of money you need in order to help you in any way I can.”

Rolling her eyes because she knew Amira couldn’t resist offering, Twigs declined the money. “No, thank you. I’m fine.”

But Twigs wasn’t fine financially, and like some kind of all-powerful psychic, Amira could somehow see the loose change clinking around in her bank account.

“Or fuck it, I could just send you some money any damn way!” Amira threatened with a shrug, praying her words would wear down the headstrong Tahliah. “It’s not like you can stop me!”

“Do that, and I’ll just send it straight on back!” Twigs countered with annoyance in her voice. “You need it way more than I do if you’re gonna be headed out on tour soon anyway.”

“Whatever.” Amira grumbled in defeat, rolling her eyes. Needing to drop the subject or else the two would get into a fierce dispute over it, Amira asked. “Anyway, how did your Valentine Days go? Did Seth at least give you a call longer than two measly minutes?”

A smile finally split across Twig’s exquisite, melancholy face as she recalled the event dreamily. “Yeah, actually. He did more than I thought he’d ever be able to find the time to do with his schedule.”

“Oh yeah, like what? I’m interested!” Amira drove Twigs on, utterly fascinated in what Seth had managed to do in such a short amount of time and while also being an ocean away from his girlfriend.

“He bought a shit ton of flowers for me and had them delivered here. They took up so much room before they started dying off.” Twigs recalled with a faint giggle, her brown eyes shimmering with love as she stared up at her ceiling. “Then he sent a band over to sing me a love song right outside my window. After that someone came over to provide dinner for me and Seth and I dined on video call in the kitchen.”

“Shit…well that’s better than damn near nothing, I’d say!” Amira rejoiced, her faith restored in Seth’s ability to keep his relationship with Twigs alive while living on two separate continents. “That’s the kind of shit I’m talking about! Score one for Seth!”

“I kinda felt bad at the time because I’d honestly would’ve just been fine having him here with me than to be given all the roses in the UK, you know?” Twigs confessed to her, her brows furrowed with shame.

No, girl, I agree with you!” Amira assured her before hearing a voice behind her hiss out her name. Sighing, she hurriedly bid Twigs farewell before returning back into the studio to rejoin Neon Jungle.