Little Things

“Your hand fits in mine
Like it’s made just for me
But bear this in mind
It was meant to be”

Lisa read in a, now crumpled, piece of paper she found inside her gloves.
She stood there for a moment, confused as to what it meant, until she recognised the handwriting. It was Alex's. She couldn’t even help herself but grin at this, her heart beating faster for no apparent reason. They had spent the past week at their Baltimore house, but left the day before to go to a few meetings in LA.

Lisa turned the paper around, to see if there was something else, but the behind was blank. Looking around the room, she scrutinised the place, trying to find more papers. She couldn’t find any. Sighing happily, she placed the one she had in her hand on the night stand and grabbed her phone to text Alex.

‘Found your note inside my glove <3’

'Did you find the rest? xx’

'There’s more? xx’

'Maybe ;)’

'Are they in our room?’

'I’m not saying anything xx’

'Are you setting me up for a scavenger hunt?’

'Have fun <3 Can’t talk now, going to meet the guys. I’ll ring you later <3’

Lisa bit her lip - a habit she took from him, obviously - before placing down her phone and looking around the room once more. She tried to remember how the song went. Maybe these were the clues. The strophe she found inside her glove was talking about hands, after all.

“Lisa are you coming or not?” Kristin was yelling from downstairs.

“Yeah, just a second!” She yelled back, only now remembering why she was looking for her gloves in the first place. She was going out with Kristin to do some shopping. Forgetting the notes for a moment, she grabbed her stuff and left the house.

“What’s up with you today?” Her friend asked once they got inside his car.

“What do you mean?”

“You have no makeup on…” Kristin explained, and Lisa gasped with shock.

“Oh my god! I forgot!” She laughed loudly before turning on the ignition. Lisa fumbled inside her bag to find her makeup bag - that was almost as big as the main bag itself. After fishing around for the concealer, Lisa found the right brush and opened the mirror to begin the chore. Just as she was about to dab the brush on her face, she noticed another piece of paper.

“And I’m joining up the dots
With the freckles on your cheeks (back)
And it all makes sense to me”

Lisa tried to fight the smile that was forming on her lips, just to avoid questions from her friend, but she couldn’t. Not when she had the vivid memory of them lying together in bed, his fingers trailing random patterns on her back, pulling up her shirt every now and then to continue his trail, making her shiver. She remembered asking what he was doing, and his simple answer: “Drawing on your freckles, you have loads”.

“What are you smiling at?” Kristin asked, eyeing her weirdly.

“Nothing, just remembered something funny.” Lisa murmured, trying to refrain herself from smiling again. She knew Alex couldn’t answer at the moment, but she texted him all the same.

'Please tell me the rest of these notes are not inside things I might use in public. Kristin thinks I’m a loon because I started smiling for no reason when I looked at myself in the mirror xx’

A few hours later, her phone went off inside her bag. He was ringing her.

“Hello?”

“Hey. Sorry about the mirror, I thought you would check it at home.” He chuckled softly. Lisa smiled before walking out of the shop she was currently in.

“I have two thousand mirrors at home, why would I check the teeny one inside my bag?”

“I… haven’t really thought about that. I didn’t want to make it obvious.”

“What if I find the rest of the notes out of order?” Alex faked a sigh, which made her giggle.

“Stop trying to ruin it! It sounded like a good plan in my head.”

“I’m not trying to ruin it, but it’s a possibility.”

“The order doesn’t really matter.” He stated, quietly.

“I know. I’m just messing with you. I’m loving it so far.” She could hear him smiling even through the phone, and suddenly a myriad of voices made its way to the line. She could hear someone moaning sexually, a high pitched voice - that sounded a lot like Jack - miming what Alex had just said, and someone laughing rather loudly.

“Go away!” Alex yelled, but he was laughing. Lisa waited until it got quiet to speak again.

“What happened?”

“What do you think? They were listening to us, those idiots.” She could faintly make out the laughs and mocks the boys were throwing at Alex.

“Who’s there with you?”

“Jack and Zack, and Rian just arrived. We’re actually going out for lunch now. I’ll text you later, okay?”

“Okay. I’m going to find Kristin and eat, too. Say hi to everybody.”

“Will do. Bye, Lis.”

“Bye, bye!” She chirped, and turned off the call.

__________________________________________

“I know you’ve never loved
The crinkles by your eyes
When you smile”

Lisa found the third note three days after she’d found the first ones. She smiled softly at the paper. It was true, after all. She didn’t like her laugh - or the faces she made when she was laughing, for that matter.
She had found the note rolled inside one of her favourite lipsticks. It was a bit stained with red, but she didn’t care. After failing at finding any more notes during the first day, Lisa had kind of forgotten about them. Leaving her makeup halfway done, she got up from her vanity to look around the room. The next verse was about stomach and thighs, so it only made sense that Alex would have placed them inside another piece of clothing. And she was right.

As soon as she opened her drawers, she found a piece of paper on top of one of her most used shirts.

“You’ve never loved
Your stomach or your thighs,
The dimples in your back
At the bottom of your spine”

Lisa had never realised how much she related to this song until now. She’d always thought that it was a sweet song, but now with this… It was true. Everything. She didn’t like her stomach. Not because she thought she was fat, but because she was so teeny. She’d never liked showing her waist or tummy, and that’s why she’d always avoided crop tops. And she hated showing off her legs because they were so skinny. Truth be told, she had been a bit more adventurous lately and started wearing shorts and dresses more, but still.

“But I’ll love them endlessly (I already do <3)”

It was written on the back of the paper. Lisa felt her heart tighten as a wave of love washed over her. How dared Alex be so adorable? Leaving the note with the others on her night stand, she grabbed her phone to ring him.

“Hello?” His sleepy voice greeted her. Oh, shoot. She’d forgotten that it was early.

“Hi. Sorry I woke you up. I just… I found some more notes.” She could hear his faint chuckle and him sitting up on the bed.

“Which ones?”

“Surprisingly, they’re in order so far. So, you love the dimples in my back that doesn’t even exist?”

“I won’t let these little things slip out of my mouth…” He began, and Lisa shivered, her arms now covered in goosebumps. “But if I do… it’s you they add up.”

“Fuck, Alex.” She muttered, and that made him cackle. His singing never failed to completely mesmerise her no matter how many times she's heard it.

“Not exactly the reaction I was expecting, but I think it will do…” He joked, making her chuckle.

“You can’t do these things when you’re not here for me to attack you with kisses!” Lisa explained, frustrated. She wanted so bad to tackle him down and hug him until her arms hurt and her heart stopped beating so fast with everything he did.

“You know, one of the reasons why I did this, was so you wouldn’t miss me during these two weeks.”

“Well, you failed at that, because now I really do miss you.” Alex sighed and Lisa could almost picture him biting his lip.

“I miss you, too. Eight days and I’ll be there.”

“Actually, can I come to you? I miss LA.”

“Sure. We’ll meet at the band house, then?”

“Fine for me. I think Baz and Pey are waking up, I’ll text you later.”

“I’m going to record this afternoon. I’ll ring you when I’m done.”

“Okay. Have fun recording, love.”

“You have fun with these shopping trips.”

“I don’t see that happening, but I’ll try. I love you.” She muttered softly. Lisa smiled, her heart beating faster again. He was going to turn her into a tachycardic person very soon.

“I love you.” He whispered back, before turning off the call and staring at the screen of her phone. A photo of them both hugging and smiling in her garden, taken by Rian.

———————-

“Lisa? Can you come here a second?” Kristin called her from downstairs, frowning. The girl popped her head on the kitchen door.

“Yes?”

“I came here to make some tea, but I couldn’t find my favourite mug so I went for yours and found this inside. Why would you forget a piece of paper inside a mug?”

“I didn’t…” She began, and then she remembered. “Oh.”

“What?”

“Nothing! Thanks, Kristin.” She snatched the note away from his hand and ran up the stairs to her and Alex's room.

“You can’t go to bed
Without a cup of tea
And maybe that’s the reason
That you talk in your sleep”

She had to laugh at that. She didn’t really drink tea everyday (or every night, for that matter) before going to bed, but they had come to the conclusion that her sleep-talks would increase if she had any kind of hot drink right before she went to sleep. That’s why now she avoided caffeine at night.

“Where’s the next one?” She asked herself out loud, scrutinising her room for the hundredth time, even though she knew she wouldn’t find a thing. She thought about texting Alex to ask, but she knew he wouldn’t tell and he couldn’t answer anyway, seeing as he was in another studio that day.

Lisa went on with her day, although on the back of her mind, she was still thinking about where the next note was. If she remembered well, the next line was also talking about the sleep-talks. And then it dawned to her.

Running to her laptop, she waited impatiently for it to start. After taking a second or two to smile at her desktop background - an updated photo of them in London, when they went on tour - she looked through her files. Alex had this habit of recording some of her sleep-talks if he was awake to hear them. They would always have a good laugh out of these records, because they made no sense at all. And then she found it: the file where they kept them all. He had renamed it. Lisa grinned reading the gigantic name.

“And all those conversations are the secrets that I keep, though it makes no sense to me”

__________________________________________

“I know you’ve never loved the sound of your voice (laugh) on tape…”

Lisa was rummaging through the files on her newest external hard drive, looking for old work files and family photos – when she saw a file with this gargantuan title, containing a short video. She was smiling before it even started.

It was a footage she didn’t even know she had. They were in Australia with the band and crew, at the beach, specifically. Alex was filming – sneakily, Lisa noticed, because she had no idea he had recorded that moment – therefore, he wasn’t appearing on the screen, but it was possible to hear his chuckle every now and then.

Zack was telling some ridiculous story from when Jack was a pre-teen, but the focus of the video was on Lisa. After filming her entirely for a few seconds, Alex zoomed in and focused on different parts of her features. First her mouth, now wide open because she was laughing hysterically at whatever Zack was saying. Then her nose, that would wrinkle ever so slightly every time she smiled openly. And lastly, her eyes. Lisa wasn’t sure if her eyes would usually shine like that or if it was the sun reflecting on her iris, but they looked looked amazing – even to herself, who was already used to seeing them every single day.

Lisa still didn’t like the sound of her laughter – it was too high pitched and weird – but she could understand now why Alex liked it so much. Not only for the laughter itself, but because of how she looked whilst laughing.

‘I still don’t like the sound of my laugh and thanks for the video #creepin haha xx’

‘I love the sound of your laugh and I’m sure you understand why now <3 xx’

‘… I do. I love you <3’

‘I love you too. Five days! <3’

‘Can’t wait for you to get back! Xx’

‘Me neither :) You have five days to find the rest of the notes. Better be quick! Xx’

‘Why can’t I find them when we come back?’

‘Because. Stop wondering and go find some more xx’

‘Alright, Lex. Xx’

Lisa smiled and clicked her phone off after exchanging a few texts with Alex. Sighing, she decided to look up the lyrics from the song to have some ideas of where to find the next notes. Although she didn’t mean to find them all in order so far, she decided it would be funnier if she did.

The next verse was about weigh, Lisa thought. It would be either inside a piece of clothing or inside a dishware, like the mug one. She had gone through her drawers before, when she found the note on her top, so she was almost a 100% sure it couldn’t be there. Trying to follow Alex's train of thought for this whole thing, Lisa thought about a place to hide a note where it wouldn’t be too obvious for her at first sight, but that she would find none the less.

Thinking about the verse, it could only be talking about how much rubbish she ate. She knew she would regret being so unfit and eating so much crap once her metabolism started to slow down, but for now, she didn’t really care. She was thin, sure, but she didn’t mind because she was not that unhealthy.

With that in mind, Lisa went down to the kitchen to look through the cupboards. She had all of her cereal stocked inside one of the doors, seeing as she couldn’t fit them all in her room. She looked inside the already opened box of Fruit Loops. Nothing. Lisa was about to close the cupboard and look somewhere else when her eye caught up on the box of Lucky Charms next to the one she had been holding previously. There it was: the next note.

“You never want to know how much you weigh”

Smiling to herself because she was oh so clever! Lisa detached the paper from the box and went up to her room again. The next verse was about squeezing into jeans. She didn’t wear jeans that often and she didn’t really have to squeeze into them, so she had no idea what that could be about. Still, Lisa decided to look through her trousers hangers to try and find something. Pinned almost on the inside of her charcoal skinny jeans– that she didn’t wear all that often, therefore why she hadn’t found it before – it was the next note.

“You still love to squeeze into your jeans (Not really, but it is a struggle to take you out of these)
But you’re perfect to me”

With her heart pounding on her chest, Lisa grabbed the note and placed it with all the others. Now she had a nice pile of different sized and coloured paper on her nightstand. She was yet to find a place to keep them all, but she didn’t know where. She would think of that later.

‘Found a couple more. I’m getting the hang of it :) xx’

‘Aren’t you a smart little thing? Glad you’re now using your brain xx’

'Meanie'

_____________________________________________

“You’ll never love yourself
Half as much as I love you”

Lisa was looking inside her purse, trying to find one out of the thousand shop cards she had – she wanted to check an address – when she found this paper mixed with everything else. Frowning for a second, suddenly she understood what it was.

Five days had passed since she’d found the last note, and she had convinced herself there wasn’t anything else to find. She was about to leave her house to drive to the airport so she could finally be with Alex. It was a long flight and she wanted to buy some snacks – hence why she was looking for the address of the shop. Lisa texted Alex quickly before going back to looking for the card.

‘So I’ll never love myself half as much as you love me? Xx’

‘You’ll never treat yourself right, darlin’. But I want you to’

‘Stop! I’m hours away from you, you can’t be cute yet!’

‘If I let you know I’m here for you, maybe you’ll love yourself like I love you <3’

‘Alex, I do love you’

'Let me know when your flight lands'

‘I’m about to leave home’

‘See you in a few hours <3’

‘<3’

_____________________________________________

Lisa was sat waiting impatiently on her suitcase for Alex. He’d texted her a few minutes ago saying he was about to arrive, but so far she hadn’t seen his black car pull in. Ten minutes later, though, she received another text.

‘I can see the airport. Are you still out there? X’

‘Yep. Waiting for you’

‘;)’

As soon as she saw the car arrive, Lisa sprinted out in front. She still wasn’t sure what she was going to do when she saw him. Wait for him to get to her? Kiss him? Slap him for being such a tease for these past two weeks? Hug him? Jump on him? Tackle him down? The options were infinite.

However, when she saw him at the distance, his backpack hanging around this torso, his hands shoved on his pockets, his hair hidden inside a beanie, her heart started beating at an inhuman pace and she started to sweat. She was feeling like a teenage girl going out on her first date.

Lisa didn’t realise she was walking until she kicked a small rock on the ground and felt the pain on her toe. Alex, finally seeing her, started walking faster. They were both smiling by the time they could make out each other faces.

It wasn’t dramatic. It wasn’t a cinematic re-encounter. It wasn’t raining – and it hadn’t stopped raining either – and they didn’t start running towards each other like in the films. They just met halfway through and Lisa threw her arms around his neck, pulling herself as close as she could physically be. Alex draped his arms around her waist, picking her up so she had her feet dangling above the ground.

For a moment, they didn’t mutter a word. It wasn’t necessary.

“I missed you.” Alex murmured after a few minutes, finally putting Zoe back on the ground. "So much."

“I missed you, too.” She mumbled before moving her hands from his neck to his face, bringing his face down for a slow kiss.

Normally, she would never kiss him in public. Neither of them appreciated public displays of affection. But neither hesitated to gently make-out in the middle of the car park. They needed it.

“I should be mad at you.” Lisa muttered in between the kisses. Alex moved his head to kiss down her neck, inhaling her scent.

“Why?”

“For making me hunt for notes.” Alex stopped the kissing to stare at her.

“You enjoyed it, don’t lie.” He chuckled.

“I did. But it was so frustrating! And I couldn’t find all of them.”

“Which ones are missing?”

“The last verse. Or the texts were the last ones?” Smiling softly, Alex leaned in until his lips were hovering over Lisa's ear.

“I’ve just let these little things slip out of my mouth” Lisa shivered, her hands instinctively clutching at his shirt, pulling him closer by the waist. “‘Cause it’s you… it’s you they add up to”

“Alex…” She wasn’t sure of what to say. She felt overwhelmed by her emotions and the surrealism of the situation.

For a moment, Lisa thought she would actually faint. Her heart was beating faster than ever and her hands were sweaty and ice-cold. Her arms were covered with goosebumps and she was sure if she tried to move, her knees would fail and make her collapse on the ground.

Looking up to meet Alex's eyes, she smiled.

“This is crazy.” She frowned as soon as the words left her mouth. Of course, her mind was twirling with loads of thoughts about the whole thing, but she didn’t think this would be the winning thought to come out of her mouth.

“You always surprise me with your reactions.” Alex laughed.

“Sorry. I didn’t really mean to say that.” Lisa was still frowning, but she was smiling. Feeling him move, she looked down to see he had extended his closed hand between them.

Opening his fingers slowly, there laid the last note on his palm. Lisa didn’t have to pick it up to read, because the two verses were written in gigantic letters.

“I love you
And all these little things”

“Fuck, Alex.” Again she was surprised by her choice of words, but she couldn’t help it. He just kept going and making her insides turn into goo from cuteness.

“Hey, I’m here now, you don’t have to whine about me being too far for you to attack me.”

“You get inside that car right now. We’re not going out for dinner.” She muttered between her gritted teeth, making Alex cackle. He leaned down, kissing her temple before pulling himself apart and walking to his car. Lisa was left standing alone for a moment, trying to regain her breath, before following him.

That night, Alex made sure he showed her over again, now with muttered words, kisses, moans and touches, all the little things he loved about her.