City Lounge: London (Book Three, Chapter One: Happy New Day)

City Lounge: London: Book Three

Chapter One: Happy New Day:

-Paul-

The sun slipping through my blinds, waking me up. I grumbled and rolled over onto my side. I am not a morning person. I think it should be illegal to be forced to get up so early in the morning. I pressed my pillow over my head. Mornings like this are what remind me of my life growing up.

Even back then I didn’t want to get up for school. My mum would come into my room and start singing. She would do it so loudly. I would cover my head with the pillow until I surrendered.

“Okay! I’m up! I’m up!” I would cry. I would sit up and see mum smiling at me.

“Good morning,” she would say. I’d roll my eyes and get ready for the day. Remembering all of this gave me the urge to call her. I reached over for my mobile on the floor. Well, what do you know?

“Hi, mum,” I said. I hoped that she wouldn’t start singing like she used too.

“Paul?” she asked. “Is that you?”

“Yeah,” I  mumbled. “I just woke up. Did you call me?”

“Yes,” she said. I had a puzzled look on my face.

“Why?” I asked.

“I just miss you,” she said. I frowned to myself. Couldn’t you have done this later in the day? I sighed and rubbed my forehead.

“You are so sweet,” I said. I prepared to have a twenty minutes of her talking my ears. Mum didn’t fail to deliver. I just let my mind wander as I stared at my wall. She’s just talking about funny stories about her neighbours and neighbourhood. It’s always the same thing when she calls. I just wish she didn’t try to call me so early in the morning.

Then, she asked something that threw me for a loop.

“Are you and Sophie back together?” mum asked. I about hit the wall with my face.

“What?!” I asked. Mum giggled over the phone.

“I heard from a flock of little birdies that you are spending time with Sophie again,” she said.

“Well… yes,” I said. “I just ran into one night and we’ve been hanging around ever since.”

“So are you back together?”  mum asked.

“No,” I said.

“Do you want to get back with her?” she asked. I paused. Did I want her back? I found myself asking that question almost every day now. I lowered my eyes.

“I don’t know…” I murmured.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” mum asked.

“Listen… I’ve got to go,” I said. “Goodbye, mum. I’ll talk to you later.” I hung up before she had a chance to say another word. I stared at the wall as clutched my mobile. I didn’t need to have all of that this early in the morning. I rolled and looked up at the ceiling. Oh well, looks like I might as well get up. I leapt out of bed and walked to my bathroom.

———

I stared into the bathroom mirror. I don’t have to work tonight. Ha, work. Mum is still asking when I’m going to get a real job. I love the one that I have. I get to mix beats and play music. Speaking of music, I still have my new music to work on. The song is really coming along, thank you. I can’t wait to play it for Sophie when’s finished.

There I go again. I can’t stop thinking about her. She’s the only one restoring the sanity back to my life. I think I am doing the same thing for her. So far, neither one of us has made any moves to get back together. I don’t think she knows what she wants either. I shook my head.

There I go again. I need something to think about. I walk into the shower and cranked up the water.

———-

By the time I got out of the shower, my phone had some of the usual texts and e-mails. Jay invited me out to another party tonight. I think I will pass. I may be a DJ, but I just don’t like to party that much. A couple of old schoolmates texted me. How did even get my number in the first place? I bet Jay gave them my number. I need to have a talk with that tosser when I see him. I’ll reply to them later. I scrolled through the text and then I came across one from Sophie. My heart jumped up into my throat. She actually sent me a text? Are we at that stage now?

I slapped myself in the cheek. Come down, stupid. It’s just a text. It’s not like she’s asking you to marry her or anything. Just open it and take a look. I opened the text and took a look.

“Good morning” was all it said. Plain and simple. No emoji or weird smilies in the message. Just “good morning”. I could actually read it too. Such a welcome change from Jay’s misspelled and caps lock texts with too many exclamation marks at the end. Sometimes I don’t even know what the hell I’m looking at with his texts. I am tempted to grab his mobile and beat him upside the head with it. I pushed my mate out of my friend and focused on replying back to Sophie.

“Good morning,” I typed back. “How are you doing today?” I smiled as I hit send. I still don’t know what I am going to do today. I walked back into the loo and started brushing my teeth. I began to play back the beats to my song in my head. I didn’t feel like working on it today. I don’t really feel like doing much today either. I just want to flop down onto my couch and fall asleep in front of the TV. At least I can say that mum has stopped trying to hook me up on a date with a “nice girl”. All of those dates ended in a bloody disaster. Who needs that?

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