I smile broadly as my body relaxes, my face muscles moving with ease. With the amount of smiling I've done recently, I am not surprised. I depart from my world as I open my eyes, entering a world in which I am welcomed by applause, cheers, whistles, words of praises and the second best thing that ever happened in my life.
My friends - I can't be more proud to call them that - approaches me, but keeps a small distance as I put Corda, my violin, away. Nav tries to step closer, but Eric and Kat simultaneously pulls their hands out to stop her. I smile proudly - they've learned the hard way never to approach me when Corda's in plain sight.
The second the case clicks shut they dash towards me, arms open widely, immediately engulfing me in them. I return their hugs, but they aren't the one's I've been anticipating the most. I step back, heading for that golden pair of arms that eagerly awaited me, but Lou hug me again for a second time, gripping my arms to my side and lifting my feet off the ground.
He sets me down and kisses my cheek. "That was awesome, Mel! And thanks to you, my customers have doubled in two months. Thank you, thank you, thank you!" He says each words of gratitude with a kiss to the cheek.
I cringe and pull back, feeling his drool all over me. "Ew! Gross, dude! Sick!" I wipe my cheeks furiously as he howls his laughter.
He leans in, aiming for another kiss between my cheeks, and I pull back abruptly. He laughs again, louder than ever, eyes teary from all the laughing. When he stops, his lips pull into a slight smirk.
"Mine isn't the one you want, right?"
I blush furiously and this piece of work begins to laugh again. I punch him, but he doesn't feel it. My fist probably bounced off its fatty trampoline-like surface. I pout, but it disappears as a set of arms wraps around my waist. Judging from the tingling feeling eminating from the contact, I know who it is and I smile at that.
I turn to him and he smiles just as wide as me, if not wider. "That was beautiful, Rose." Over the months he noticed how everyone calls me the way he did so he decided to change it. One French class I happened to let my middle name slip the same time my teacher gave us the vocabulary list of the unit. "Rose" means "pink" and the literal "rose". My middle name "Rose" and my bad habit of blushing kinda became the cherry on top.
For once I try not to blush, which takes everything in me, but fails the second I see the smirking faces that Jules is oblivious to. "Thanks."
He notices this and turns but the smirks are gone by then. Confused, he shrugs and turns back to me. The second his eyes turn back to me they're smirking again, wider than ever.
Is it hot in here or what?
"Let's go grab some cake," I announce, uncaring of who noticed.
I sit by the counter and Lou serves me my new favourite: a strawberry cheesecake with chocolate drizzles and damn, it is mind-blowing.
"So what are your plans for the future?" Lou asks me, leaning across the counter.
"What do you mean?" I ask, unsure where this is going.
"Like ... you know, career-wise. Have any plans yet?"
I blink. I actually never thought of it. The future, I mean, it seems like its a millenium away, like this moment, here, with my friends, will never move on. In all honesty, I forgot I even had one.
Lou, apparently, knows what I'm going through, better than anyone. He gives me the smile, the one that people give you when they try to be supportive when they know they can't do anything else for you.
