Counting Down The Days To Go

My eyes slowly opened and I looked up to the ceiling of my room. It had various things drawn on it. I smiled as I thought back to that Saturday afternoon when I had decided to give my room a makeover with the help of Aiden, Amanda and a few other friends. All of them pitched in and they each drew something that represented them on my ceiling. Why did I let them draw on my ceiling? It is because I wanted to wake up with a smile on my face every morning, knowing that I have such wonderful friends. I looked over at the robot that Aiden drew. It was just too cute and so Aiden.

I stretched and sat up on my bed, remembering yesterday’s events. Mike and I went to a small Italian restaurant that served the best home-cooked spaghetti for a quick dinner. Following that, he gave me a ride home and we parted with a sweet good bye.

Snatching my cell phone from under my pillow, I scrolled through my contacts till I arrived at Mike’s name. Today was a Saturday yet I had no plans whatsoever. Should I ask Mike to hang out with me today? But we did just hanged out like most of yesterday. So would me calling him now make me seem very desperate and obvious about my feelings for him? I looked at the clock, 10.02 AM. I usually woke up around this time on weekends.

Still thinking about whether I should ask him out, I walked into my bathroom and began to freshen up. I turned on the heater and decided to get a quick shower and just think things through.

I stepped out of the shower and picked out a pair of shorts and a tank top to wear. Still thinking about whether I should call Mike, I walked down into the kitchen. My parents had already gone off for work so I pulled out a random box of cereal for breakfast.

What the heck. What’s the most that could happen right? If he’s busy, he’d say no. If he wants to chill out for the day with me, then he’d say yes. As simple as that.

Without pondering on anymore, I pressed the call button and Mike’s phone began ringing. After the third ring, Mike’s smooth voice entered my ears.

“Hello?” Mike said.

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Oh, Crystal. Nothing much. I just woke up and I was thinking of what to do for the day.”

“Me too. I called to ask if you wanted to hang out today. I was thinking we can go to the mall and do the lame crap all teenagers do,” I said hesitantly. My heart was pulsating like a jackhammer. What if he says no?

“Alright. I’d love to. Why don’t I come pick you up around eleven-ish? I’d just honk when I reach, is that cool? I haven’t taken a shower yet and I don’t want to stink around you.” Mike said with a small laugh.

“Sure. See ya.” I said, grinning into the phone.

“Yup. See you.” With that, I hanged up the phone and a smile appeared on my face.

He said YES!

I finished up my breakfast and went to pick out a pair of jeans, some flats and a cute t-shirt with musical notes printed all over it. I accessorized with a long necklace with a black heart pendant and some tribal bracelets. I did my hair to give it more volume, as usual and after putting on my war paint, I was done.

10.45 AM

I still had some time left so I lied down on my bed to watch some music videos.
Just as “Famous Last Words” by MCR started to play, a distinct honk was heard from my driveway. I hurried over to my window to look down and sure enough, that gorgeous car was waiting for me once again.

I switched off the TV and skipped down to my door. I took in a deep breathe and opened it and walked calmly over to Mike’s car.

“Hey you,” I said as I opened the passenger side of the car.

“Yo,” Mike said.

“Thanks for hanging out with me today,” I said with a smile.

“It’s alright. Hanging out with you isn’t something bad. It’s something quite enjoyable, really.”

As usual, the radio was turned on and we enjoyed the good music throughout the ride.

We reached the mall in a short while but Mike had to drive around the car park to look for a free space for awhile. It was a Saturday after all, so the mall was no doubt packed with people.

Very soon, we walked into the air-conditioned mall side by side and grinned at each other.

“Where to first?” He asked me.

“Why don’t we hit the CD store?” I had been meaning to get some new DVDs and CDs for quite a while now and I figured now was the opportunity to do it.

I led Mike to Gramophone, the shop that sold the cheapest CDs available, and began to look around.

Mike headed over to a random table full of CDs and began cracking up.

“What’s so funny?” I asked, walking over to him.

“Disney has definitely taken over the world,” He said, pointing down to the CDs below him. Sure enough, Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana CDs were there, so were the Jonas Brothers’ CDs and beside them, it was the soundtrack for Camp Rock. In the next row were the HSM soundtracks and DVDs. I gave a small laugh.

“They should make a DVD collection of their porno antics and other scandals somewhere in here too,” I scoffed.

“Totally. Come on, let’s head over to where the real music is.”

We headed to other tables and I immediately saw the new Avenged Sevenfold DVD.

“I’ve got to have this!” I said out loud.

Mike jumped a bit with shock from beside me and he looked at the DVD I held in my hands.

“A7X? I don’t see why you are so obsessed with them. I like their songs Critical Acclaim, Bat Country and a few others. But that’s about it.” Mike muttered.

“Because Synyster Gates is soooooo sexy!” I said loudly.

Mike rolled his eyes good-naturedly and smiled.

“I’m sexier,” He said with a wink.

I paid for my purchase and Mike bought a CD of a band that I’ve never heard of, it’s probably something overly hardcore because that’s his favorite type of music.

We then headed over to a random shop called Ice Lemon Tea. It was a cute shop that sold accessories and clothes too. They sold both male and female clothes and Mike and I both decided that we needed some new apparel.

I walked down the aisles and I spotted this uber cute hoodie! It was black and it had a zip running down the middle of the front with a hood at the back (duh!). But on the front was a caricature of a green frog and on the hood, I saw two frog eyes attached on it. It was those kind of eyes whereby the black pupils were able to jiggle around the white encasing. On the back of the hoodie was the back view of a frog. Looking over at the price tag, I saw that I could afford it. I immediately draped the material on my arm, preparing to try it on then maybe purchase it.

I saw a couple of cute shirts with funky graphics on it and I decided to buy them too. Looking down at another aisle, I saw some skinny jeans and I decided to buy one of a baby pink color. I saw some girls’ boxer shorts and I grabbed two. One of it had Hello Kitty prints all over it while the other had Elmo on it. It was just too cute!

I bumped into Mike just as I had picked out the shorts.

“Whoa. Shopping spree much?” He asked.

Looking down at his pile full of hoodies, shirts and jeans, I said, “You’re no better yourself.”

“What can I say? I don’t go to the mall much and I felt like this was a great time to buy some new clothes.” He explained himself.

We both headed to the cashier and paid after trying on the clothes.

“Where shall we go now?” I asked.

“Why don’t we pop into that shop for awhile?” Mike said, pointing to a shop that sold musical instruments and stuff like that.

“Sure.” I agreed to his suggestion.

We walked into the shop and looking around the semi-huge store, I saw guitars, drums, pianos, scores and other musical stuff everywhere. An elderly man was manning the counter and he gave us a kind smile before returning to whatever he was doing.

“I was thinking of buying a new guitar,” Mike said, walking over to the guitar section.

“Oh? I thought you already had one at home?” I asked.

“Yeah. But that one is just too old for me now. I want something newer and nicer.” He said. His hands began to gently touch some guitars and pluck a few strings here and there. His trained eyes scanned the wall full of guitars and they finally concentrated on one. I followed his gaze and saw a black acoustic guitar with a silver-ish white pattern on it. It was beautiful and it absolutely suited Mike’s personality.

“That black one is gorgeous,” I said.

“I agree. I like it,” Mike said, simultaneously reaching out to see the price tag. “And it’s affordable too. Do you think I should get it?” He asked, turning to me.

I nodded. “That one is so you.”

He walked up to the kind old man and pointed to the guitar. The old man nodded and walked over to the wall and took it down. He tuned it and handed the guitar to Mike, letting him strum it a few times.

Mike strummed a few chords from Guardian Angel by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. One of his legs was propped up on a small stool, supporting the guitar on his thigh and he expertly switched from chord to chord whilst strumming with his right hand. He looked so pro, to say the least.

“I think I’m going to get this one,” Mike said to the old man.

“Alright, boy. Let me go get you some new strings and a guitar bag and all those fancy stuff.” The old man said, taking the guitar with him.

Just then, my wandering eyes fell on a white piano that was in a corner of the shop, almost hidden by the other, bigger pianos.

“Hey, I’m going to go check out the pianos for abit,” I told Mike absentmindedly whilst walking over to the white piano. It was cute and it had some sort of gold pattern outlining it. As I got closer, I saw that the gold was actually small gold roses.

I sat down on the bench and decided that the old man probably wouldn’t mind if I played a few notes. A song popped into my mind and I began to play the first few notes of the song Warmness on The Soul by Avenged Sevenfold. I had always loved the piano part of the song and taught myself how to play it awhile back.

I got so into the song that I forgot my surroundings for that few minutes. I finished the last few notes of the song and looked up, startled to see Mike staring intently at me.

“Wow. That was beautiful,” He said.

I shrugged with embarrassment. “It was from a song by A7X. Nothing much really. You should go listen to the song, it is way better than what I had just played.”

“No, you were awesome. I had no idea you played the piano.” Mike said.

I shrugged again. “You never asked.”

Just as Mike was about to say something, the old man interrupted him by passing him his new guitar. Mike paid and we walked out of the store.

“Lunch?” He asked, turning to face me.

“Alright,” I said. It was almost two now and way past my usual lunch time. Time sure passed quickly when you’re having fun.