Avenue [h.s.]

01.

"You said when you met me you were bored,

And you, you were in a band when I was born"

Motion Sickness ~ Phoebe Bridgers

"Scarlett, get the fuck up." I hear a voice scream at me as I struggle to open my heavy, tired eyes.

"What time is it?" I say, my voice thick with sleep. I begin to slowly unravel myself from my light blue sheets, my eyes still not fully adjusted to the bright bedroom. The fully risen sun was beaming in through the windows leading me to believe it was way later then the time I had intended to get up.

"It's almost 10:30. I'm running late to an important fucking meeting and can't find the keys." Ashton says as he walks into the messy bedroom with a scowl on his face, sounding very ambiguous.

I met Ashton three years ago when I was just starting to land some very small shows in Los Angeles. I had just gotten off the makeshift stage, still catching my breath, at some trashy dive bar when he approached me and flirtatiously offered to buy me a drink.

I nervously accepted his offer, ordering a tequila soda. Before I knew it, one drink turned into two which then turned into five. By the time the bar closed, we were both heavily slurring our words, laughing at everything and nothing simultaneously.

As we wobbled our way out to the front, Ashton suddenly turned to me and told me he had a confession. My face turned bright red as a wave of panic flushed over me. Sensing my nerves, he quickly began to explain that his dad was the founder and head of Legacy Records, arguably the biggest label in the world. I vividly remember the range of emotions I felt in that moment, from disbelief to amazement to panic.

My cloudy, intoxicated brain didn't know how to respond so I jokingly asked him what he was doing in this shithole bar.

Taking me by surprise, he told me that he had been at my last show with his friends, and wanted to approach me but I left before he got the chance to.

He asked one of the bartenders what my name was and looked me up to see my next show.

The gravity of his words settled in my mind, causing me to almost collapse on the floor. He continued to slur that he wanted to talk to his dad about scheduling a meeting with me, and show him some of my work.

The rest was history. We've been together for nearly three years. To this day I still don't understand what was special enough about me for him to come watch me perform again.

"I thought I put them on the kitchen table." I respond back groggily, still not fully awake.

"If they were actually on your kitchen table, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now." Ashton yelled back while turning over every object in my bedroom. "I let you borrow my car and you lose the fucking keys."