Nightmare on Broadway (California Dreaming Sequel)

Chapter Fifteen

Hey there everyone! ...everyone who's still around after my RIDICULOUSLY long period of not writing this!! I'm sorry, i truly am, and I can't promise that this is the end of my dry spell, but, for now, here is the next chapter :) I'll try to find some time to finish this story off because I know what's going to happen, it's just a matter of writing it all down on paper...

Also! If you haven't already, PLEASE go vote for 'California Dreaming' in The Watty Awards! It would mean the world to me if I actually won my category (it's undersicoverd thriller.)

If you're stil reading this, please say hello, I'd love to see that people are still enjoying Jia's adventure :P

Thanks x

Oh! And also! I've dedicated this to my good friend Eve because she's just uploaded a short story called 'Bus' and it's really beautiful and I really think you should go check that out, so, yeah :) read on! 

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I fell out of the crowd, pushing my hair back off my face, fanning myself with my hand as I tried to get my breath back. I giggled madly, clinging onto Edward’s t-shirt, which was damp with sweat and beer. I was sure that I stank of weed and cigarette smoke, which was hanging around the venue like a dense fog. Ed laughed and hugged his arms around me, swinging me from side to side.

“They were incredible, weren’t they?” I said exuberantly, hurrying to the bar and hopping onto one of the stools. Ed lent against the side top with each of his hands on either side of my waist, swiveling round the seat and making me feel dizzy; my head was spinning.

“They were really good,” Edward agreed, grinning, his sea green eyes glittering as the lighting changed from red, to blue, to green and back again. “I loved when they did that song-”

“The one with the-”

“Guitars, I know!” We both burst out laughing and I lent against the bar, smoothing my fingertips across the smooth, varnished wood. “What are you drinking?” He asked, as he hollered the barman over to us.

“Just a beer please,” I smiled cheesily and he beamed back at me, ordering our drinks before perching on the bar stool besides me. “I’m glad I came here,” I confessed, looking around the venue with a sense of wonder.

“To this gig?” Edward frowned.

“No,” I shook my head, sucking on my bottom lip perturbedly, “this city.”

“It is beautiful,” he agreed.

“It’s not just that though, it’s the sounds and the lights and the height.”

“The height?” I got the sense I wasn’t making much sense.

“Where I’m from there are so many open spaces, in California, the beaches, the ocean. Back in England, countryside, the buildings no more than ten stories,” I tried to explain. “But this city, has so much to offer. It’s the vibes of the streets, of the concrete and the cracks and the fog of tobacco; something tragically romantic, wouldn’t you say?” I turned back to face Edward, who was looking at me with an odd kind of curiosity.

“I have never met someone as lovely as you, Jia,” he admired, “and I don’t think I ever will again.”

“You know what they say, no two people are alike.”

“But you’re not like other people,” he persisted, leaning in closer, so I could make out individual freckles in his pale complexion, “you don’t try to be, which is what makes you so unique. Other people are idiots, pricks, they use a front to try to be strong and beautiful and normal. You are all those things, but not through trying, you just are.” I was finding it hard to meet his gaze.