Meet Me On Thames Street

Alex’s Point of View:

Guilt pulsed through my veins as I woke up. Rubbing my eyes I pulled myself out of bed and puled on some clothes. I noticed hers accompanied mine on the floor but I didn’t touch them; I’d invaded her enough. I decided to make some pancakes, with my hangover non-existent; I wanted Addison to feel… loved. If I could achieve that.

I let the pan warm up as I mixed the ingredients together, occasionally sighing and thinking over last night. After the first batch was finished, I heard a frustrated sigh come from my room, indicating that Addison had awoke with an awful hangover that wasn’t just from the alcohol. I decided to go and see how she was, even though I could guess.

“Addison?” I asked, knocking on my bedroom door.

“Fuck off, Gaskarth,” she growled from behind the door.

“Why? It’s my house,” I spat, losing my temper, as I opened the door.

When I walked in, she was still lying in my bed, tears streaming down her porcelain face. The second she saw me she screamed in frustration and pulled the thin sheets up to her ears.

“You’re still in bed,” I commented as I moved across the room and sat atop of my drawers.

“That’s because I have the hangover from hell. I see you’re nice and chirpy,” she scowled.

“That’s because I didn’t drink,” I muttered but she heard every word.

“You didn’t drink? Are you fucking serious?” she screamed as she sat up in the bed, “yet you still[.i] had sex with me?”

“You want to know why, Addison? You really want to know why?”

“Yes, Alex. I DO!"

“It’s because… it’s because I love you Addison! All those times I stole things, I was trying to get your attention but it didn’t work. It never worked. I ended up just pushing you further and further away. This time I had it planned out, I knew your ‘friends’ would ditch you and you would drink. I didn’t want to be drunk every time I had sex with you, I wanted it to be an experience, not just another fuck – “

“Shut up,” she seethed, cutting me off.

“But it’s the tru – “

“SHUT UP!” she screamed.

“I’ll be in the kitchen,” I said before hopping of the drawers and going into the kitchen where I trashed the pancakes. I then sighed deeply and jumped onto the couch, making sure MTV was blaring loudly from the television. Five minutes later I heard Addison stomping into the lounge, huffing every so often.

“If you loved me, you’d tell me,” she spat.

“And what would you do if I did, Addison?”

“I… I,” she stuttered.

“Exactly. Just go if you have nothing to say. You either forgive me, or you don’t,” I said calmly, concentrating on my shoes.

I heard her huff before her feet carried her away from me and out of my house. When I heard the front door slam, I broke down. Tears cascaded down my face and I held my head in my hands in shame. I knew she would react that way but it still hurt. But somewhere, I didn’t know how, but I just knew that I had touched her. And that she felt the same way. Then and there I decided to turn down the Gaskarth charm, and focus on Addison and her feelings. If I wanted to get through to her, I had to ‘be’ her.

Addison’s Point of View:

As I marched out of his house, I felt warm tears gush from my eyes. All this time, Alex had loved me. Suddenly the sex meant a tiny bit more, my screams of ‘I love you’ that tiny bit truer. Something in the pit of my stomach agreed and the tears lessened.

I smiled, taking out my phone and dialling Holly’s number. I was just about to give up when I heard her groggy voice answer the phone.

“Huh?” she said, obviously still half asleep.

“Holly, doll. Where are you?”

“Um, just a sec… Travis where are we?” she asked. Not bothering to cover the speaker, “um, I think we’re still at Alex’s,” I heard him answer.

“Really?” I asked, smirking to myself, knowing exactly what they’d been doing, “I’ll meet you in his lounge when you wake up.”

I flipped my phone shut, and smiled to myself as I marched confidently up to Alex’s front door and knocked on it three times. It took him a while, but eventually a crying Alex answered the door.

“Addison!” he said, hurriedly wiping the tears from his deep brown eyes.

“Mind if I stay awhile? Um, Holly and Travis are taking me home and they’re kind of still – “

“Upstairs? Sure,” he half smiled, leading me back to the lounge.

As I sat down, an uncomfortable silence fell between but I ignored it, Alex’s words still running in circles around my mind. For Alex. The silence was hell because after two or three minutes h began talking.

“On estimate, how many people do you think had sex last night?”

“Good question. I’d say… about half the guests? The rest were underage,” I giggled, all awkwardness leaving my tired body.

“Probably,” he smiled back, an awkward smile but a smile at the least.

“Um, about last night,” he said and I instantly stiffened.

“What about it?” I asked, attempting to stay casual.

“I apologise, and you probably won’t accept my apology but you must understand. I did it because I, well, I love you and I didn’t want to have drunken sex with you.”

“I accept your apology but Alex, you used me. And that’s what kills me,” I explained, moving closer to him on the couch.

“I’m sorry, Addison, I really am,” he said, copying my moves and shifting himself closer to me on the couch.

We were both smiling as we crept ever closer to each other on the couch, until finally my hand was atop of his. He leaned in to me, smiling gracefully until we heard a loud gasp and the sound of thumping feet.

“Addison!” Holly shrieked.

“Hangover,” I winced as the high-pitched squeak hit my eardrums.

“Sorry,” she whispered. “Um, we’re going now. Meet you in the car.”

“Kay,” I smiled, secretly frowning that she’d interrupted our ‘little moment’.

I waved her goodbye as she entwined her fingers in Travis’ and skipped out to his car.

“Um, I guess I’ll see you Monday,” I shrugged, knowing our moment had been ruined.

“Yeah, Monday. See you, I guess,” he smiled, as he jumped off the couch and ran ahead to open the front door for me.