Desirable

~68. All Alone

Bruiser lightly brushes his pencil along the small canvas of his sketchpad, nodding his head along to the music in his earphones. He was curled up on the wide sofa in Tommy's lounge, occupying himself as the group of people in the other room worked. 

It'd been a few days since Tye's party at his penthouse and the night seemed to be successful. The next morning, Tye got into contact with Tommy himself after reviewing Louis' work online. Today, he had come round to talk properly with them and start working on some ideas he had. Louis was over the moon about the visit and Tommy was equally as thrilled.

Louis, Tommy, Tye, Arisa and a few of Tye's friends were in the studio room now, Bruiser could hear tracks repeating over and over as well as Tommy's excited shrills when things sounded good. So, he put his earphones in. 

He was working on his tattoo portfolio again, which he always enjoyed doing. Since being in London he had finished three new designs and he was excited to show them to Clementine. 

His face frowns as he thinks of the short girl back home, he hadn't spoken to her today. It was 4:12 PM in London, meaning that it was 11:12 AM in Virginia. 

Just as he grabs his phone from the seat next to him, the studio door opens. 

Arisa walks out, briefly glancing at Bruiser before going into the kitchen to open the fridge. 

He takes an earphone out, "How's it going in there?"

She grabs a chilled bottle of water and turns around with a blank expression. He watches as she unscrews the cap and takes a sip - he takes her silence as the best answer he would get. 

"Oh, forgot! You're a bitch, nevermind," he rolls his eyes and puts his earphone back in. 

Arisa scoffs and leaves again, closing the studio door behind her. 

Bruiser goes back to his original plan and opens this phone screen, tapping on the 'Contacts' icon.  After finding the desired name, he listens to the phone dial out. With his earphones in, he was only one that could hear her. 

She takes a while to answer.

"Hey, B! I'm on the other line with Emily, you okay?" 

He goes back to drawing in his sketchpad, smiling softly at the sound of her voice. 

"Yeah, I'm all good. I was just wondering how you were doing."

"It was a stressful morning, Celise kept crying and AJ was late for school again. But he has a sleepover at a friend's house straight after school, so that'll be a relief. What's going on over there? Louis didn't call me last night or this morning," she twists her mouth to the side after her last statement, it was unlike him. 

"It's going good, there's a big dude here and they're all in the studio right now," he glances up from the paper and to the closed door. 

"A big dude?" she quotes him with confusion laced in her soft voice.

"Yeah, like.. a big musician dude. Tye Alexander is his name," he shrugs, he wasn't too familiar with him and wasn't that impressed either.

"Oh yeah, I've heard of him," she lightly sighs and looks down at her lap. Clem was sat in the garden and Celise was playing in the grass with a plastic toy. 

Bruiser notices the tone of her voice, "What's up?" 

She shrugs as if he could see her, "Nothing, he just didn't tell me."

"I'm sure he would've, Clem."

"Yeah, he would've."

Bruiser's hand pauses on the paper as he sighs. He knew exactly what she was feeling and he hated that. He could tell by her voice that she was upset, that she felt alone. She didn't have them around anymore and when Louis forgot to call her when he had promised to, it just made her feel more and more alone. Recently, he had been forgetting more often.