Photograph

Seventeen

We had successfully got Billie's huge clumpy chair on the bus, but sadly meaning I had to withdraw myself from her lap, and we had to say bye to Felix. He had given me his instagram handle, because he was scared Billie's platform was so big, she wouldn't be able to see his DM in the ocean of fans flooding her inbox.

A subtle way of saying I'm small enough for him to notice me.

I saw his follow.

And his DM.

And his spam of likes that filled up my entire notification centre.

I ignored it.

"Can I braid your hair? Can I cut bangs for you? You'd look so cute with bangs, Alex." Katie said, sitting on my small bunk on the top of the bus.

"No, babe. You can do your own, though."

She suddenly tugged on the hair tie that was in her hair and let her blue hair flow behind her, curtain bangs hugging her forehead. "Been there, done that."

"Shave it, then."

"Are you fucking crazy?"

"Just giving you options." I shrugged, stuffing my phone in my pocket and going down the small set of stairs.

I heard humming, followed by different, soft ukulele chords being strung from a distance.

I pushed the door open in the narrow space where the stairs were, and saw the familiar bun peeking from the boxes, like the first time we had interacted. The only difference was, she now had a blue LV boot sticking out the side, and crutches propped up against the wall as her small voice filled up the small room.

There was no phone illuminating her face this time.

She was singing a random song in the darkness of a box sized room we weren't even allowed in.

I felt her gaze on me in the darkness as the noise of the door closed shut, interrupting her little song and secluding us into the cosy, claustrophobic room.

Sitting across from her, I felt her eyes follow me.

"So much for being a ninja spy this tour." She sadly said, placing the small instrument next to her and leaning back against the wall.

"As Ariana Grande once said, 'give you the whole world, Imma need space.' I can leave if you want me to— you can have space while I'll take the world."

I heard a gentle laugh fill the room up suddenly. "You quoted my baby. You can stay."

"Okay." I muttered. "Such amazing wordplay. She's a genius. Accurate too, because you're literally a star."

We sat in a fairly comfy silence for a while, my heart warming up as she drew patterns on my knee as she laughed softly again.

Scooting closer to me, I heard her hand feel around the wall to flick on a dim light that illuminated the tiny room, suddenly making her face light up.

She looked dead tired.

Her beautiful, ocean blue eyes were being held up by big, puffy bags. Her lips were drawn down in a frown, and she looked at me as if it was a cry for help.

"You look exhausted."

She nodded. "I'll sleep when I get home."

"You better."

"You can come too. I wanna show you my room."

"I don't think that's necess—"

"It was a comment, not a question, love."