To Caress My Day

After finally wrapping up their time in the Jessie J’s tour they were slotted in to perform at, Neon Jungle immediately wanted to celebrate by winding down at their good friend’s house. They weren’t planning on hanging out for a couple of hours or even spending the night on her living room floor. No, they were determined to spend two FULL nights at Twig’s apartment to make up for lost time. The excitement could barely be repressed when they knocked on her apartment door and then exploded into a series of squeals the moment Twigs answered. The skilled dancer’s brown eyes magnified with delightful surprise at the sight of her wonderful friends and their…bags? “Oh my god, you guys! What are you doing here?”

As soon as Neon Jungle received their bear hugs from their girl, they entered the apartment as she stepped aside to welcome them in with a sweep of her arm. Ditching their bags by the door, they advanced further into the clean and minimally furnished apartment with Amira in the lead. “Oh you know us, girl. We were just in the neighborhood aftering finishing up our shows on Jessie J’s tour.”

Spinning around in a white, blue and red Adidas long sleeve top with light blue jeans and her white sneakers, Jess tilted her head adorably to the side and inquired with a grin. “So what’s for dinner tonight, Twiggy-baby? Your girl is starving!”

Having locked her front door, Twigs froze in place at the mention of food. Her distressed brown eyes flew to her shut small fridge that contained enough food for herself only, no guests. She had gone grocery shopping the day before but it wasn’t for enough chow to sustain anyone…barely even herself. Damnit, what the hell was she gonna do now?

Reading her best friend like an open book, Amira was already ready to come to Twig’s rescue. Fetching her phone out from her acid wash jeans that paired so well with her blue, white, pink and aqua blue sweater, and black platform boots, Amira addressed the entire apartment. “Tell me what y’all want to eat then so I can get this shit ordered today and not tomorrow!”

All at once, the other members of Neon Jungle spouted out options, their voices overlapping each other. Amira waited patiently until they finally came to a unanimous vote two minutes later. Dressed all in black from head to toe, Shereen advocated. “We want as much as you can get off the menu from that Chinese restaurant that we used to frequent back in the day when we slept over here all the time.”

With the restaurant in mind, Amira got to calling the establishment and making their orders while Twigs aided the others with their bags and organized the living room for them to sleep in as comfortably as she could make it. Once every task was done, they all united around the TV to chill, but ultimately ended up muting the device to chatter amongst themselves instead.

“Oh my god, Twigs! I hope that we will become super famous after having performed in that huge tour and stadium!” Shereen gushed with yearning, her brown eyes shining with prospects for their future opportunities that will hopefully come flooding in any minute now.

“Same here!” Asami conquered from where she sat, swathed in a floral cardigan over a tight gray shirt with matching sweatpants. Unlike Shereen, her brown eyes were practically sparkling with confidence that they would most certainly make it one day, it was only a matter of time. “And the second we do, we’re gonna dominate this entire planet overnight!”

Clapping a hand over her mouth, Shereen gasped with excitement as she looked about the room at her friends. “And then be household names like Rihanna, or Michael Jackson or Whitney Houston!”

“I don't see why that can’t be possible.” Twigs told them with a proud grin, once again being their main cheerleader. She couldn’t help herself. She’d never been the type of person that could hate her friends and their accomplishments. Applauding them along was always how she operated. “You work hard enough for it, you’ll make it for sure.”

“That’s the goal!” Jess promised her with a wink as she threw an arm around Twig’s shoulders to give her a side hug for being so amazing. “And we have our biggest driving force in the room with us that’ll make it happen!”

Noticing that all eyes were on her now, Twig’s eyes widened on them as she pointed a finger to her chest. “Who, me?”

“Fuck yeah, you!” Amira confirmed with a laugh, sweeping aside her braids that she’d taken out during parts of the tour but was now re-rocking the style all over again.

“Why me?” Twigs asked them, not believing that she could be their biggest encouragement right now.

“Do you really need to ask?” Shereen countered right back, arching a brow in disbelief.

Amira spread her arms wide to indicate Twig’s tiny apartment. “Look at your life, Tahliah, and all you’ve achieved thus far from this puny hole in expensive ass London alone!”

“Think about your life before you make your EP, and then look at it again after you made your EP.” Jess instructed her next, ignoring the ravenous growls from her furiously impatient stomach. “Okay yeah, your EP wasn’t as successful as an album dropped by Taylor Swift these days, but you don’t give a fuck about all that! That fact alone has not dissuaded you even the slightest bit from your course! You’re still out here in these streets hustling to make your shit happen despite the odds against you.”

“Thank you, guys.” Twigs managed to whisper out despite finding it hard to speak. Their reasons for finding her to be an inspiration to them to keep going for their own dreams touched her deeply and left her speechless for a moment. She had to swallow back some tears and change the subject off of herself soon or else she’ll be crying next. “So how long are you guys gonna be home before you have to go on another tour?”

Asami shrugged. “Not sure. As far as we know, we don’t really have any more tours lined up.”

“We’ll still perform and stuff. Likely music festivals here in the UK.” Amira answered, leaning herself back against the cushions on the couch. “We want to take advantage of as many opportunities to go on stage in front of people as we can so we can be used to being around tons of people, you know?”

“I for one think that’s a brilliant idea!” Twigs commended them, finding it an excellent solution to getting one comfortable to crowds. It also made her wonder if she should be doing the same while working on her second EP and being a video girl. “Do you think I should do the same?”

“Girl, what you think?” Asami laughed at her before reaching out to grab her knee and give it a supportive squeeze. “Of course you should! I can’t see why it would hurt you.”

“We’ll probably be working on our first album too in the meantime.” Jess let her know before giving her a hint by way of a wink. “Just like you should get a move on with yours.”

“I can’t wait to hear your first album, you guys!” Twigs squealed with excitement.

“Yo! I was gifted by God the greatest idea known to man just now!” Shereen gasped, this time with both hands over her mouth. All eyes were on her so she didn’t keep them waiting long. “We should plan one of these nights going to a Karaoke bar or something! That way Twigs can hear one of the songs off our soon-to-be album too but in a badass private concert kind of way!”

“Are you kidding me!? That's a superb idea!” Twigs exalted, her brown eyes glittering with excitement as the perfect location came to mind. “You know what? I’ve heard of a place that recently opened up downtown that has an open and private Karaoke we can sing at!”

Slapping her hand down on the rug beneath her, Asami declared. “It’s final! We’re checking this place out tonight!”

Twigs watched as Jess was the first to launch to her feet to get properly dressed for tonight’s change of plan. She hesitated though because she imagined one would have to pay to enjoy these types of establishments. Her eyes stared down at her rug as she tried to mentally calculate how much she could financially spare for tonight’s occasion.

Planting a hand on a troubled Twig’s shoulder, Amira privately assured her. “Hey, don’t worry about anything, okay? Tonight is on me. If you wanna pay me back, you can do it by enjoying tonight with the rest of us without any backtalk, you hear me?”

Instinctively, Twigs wanted to give Amira that backtalk she didn't wanna hear and then politely reject her offer. But Neon Jungle just got back from tour and so that made her clamp her mouth shut. She missed her friends and didn’t wanna ruin tonight by being stubborn over money she didn’t have to spend.