She plays on the corner of St. Monica Boulevard and Ocean Avenue every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon. She captures the attention of many beach dwellers and those who stumble across The Georgian Hotel. I happened to be the latter.
At first...
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Niall Horan;
She didn't perform the next day. After I was done with more sightseeing and going to a recommended restaurant, I was eager to see her again. Eager at the possibility of receiving a surname, eager to learn more about the girl that intrigued me and the background story to her character but alas, my next step came to a halt when I found that street corner empty.
I would be lying if I said that I wasn't disappointed.
The rest of that day I kept peeking out my window and looking down at the street below me, in hopes that she'd magically appear with guitar in hand. Today it was only the ocean that performed and I was not in the mood.
- - - - -
Friday was the next day and I planned on going to the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium as not only do I greatly enjoy aquariums but because my favourite animal on this world happened to be starfish. Starfish have been my favourite marine animal since the age of nine because that was the first time I saw one and when I asked my science teacher about them, he said that you could cut off one of their points and it'll grow back (of course, at the time I thought of them to have some strange super power) and I was sold ever since.
To go around the entire aquarium with enough time to pet a starfish, took about an hour and a half ( I didn't like to take too much time on any of the animals in hopes to get to the starfish faster) it was already three in the afternoon. After observing the rest of the pier and deciding that it was worth coming back to, I started heading back to my hotel for my daily dose of room service and another show that I was not familiar with.
But she was there and my plans just might have to get pushed back.
"Clock strikes upon the hour and the sun begins to fade, still enough time to figure out how to chase my blues away. I've done alright up 'til now it's the light of day that shows me how and when the night falls, loneliness calls." I'd be a liar if I said that this wasn't part of my top fifty songs, and I'd be more of a liar if I said that it sounded horrible being acoustic. The cover Piper was presenting, though less upbeat, was breathtakingly sad. "Oh, I wanna dance with somebody. I wanna feel the heat with somebody. Yeah, I wanna dance with somebody, with somebody who loves me."
First she sang The Man That Can't Be Moved, then, A Daydream Away, and now I Wanna Dance with Somebody. I know that there are a selected few songs out there that aren't about relationships but something tells me that she's using these songs to sing about someone; it's all in her performance.
Just like the first performance, her eyes switch from looking at the cement below her feet and fluttering closed. I wanted her to meet my gaze, but as I wasn't at the front of this huddle, it seemed unlikely that she would find me.
"I've been in love and lost my senses," she sings as her eyes look up toward the sky, they were glossy, "spinning through the town sooner or later the fever ends and I wind up feeling down. I need a man who'll take a chance on a love that burns hot enough to last, so when the night falls, my lonely heart calls."
She looks back at the crowd, and as if she had a Niall-sensor, her eyes met mine spot-on. "Don't you wanna dance? Say you wanna dance, uh-huh... with somebody who loves me."
My smile is wide, letting a "woo" slip past my lips as the crowd goes up in applause. Not waiting for the crowd to diminish or for me to be the one to approach her, she walks toward me whilst moving her guitar to her back, letting her strap take its weight.
"Robinson," she states simply.
"Uh, pardon?" I blink in surprise, she was the one approaching me? I was certain that she hated me - maybe it was a facade so I could be intrigued by her. That was a nice play.
"My last name," she clarifies with raised eyebrows. She gives me a once over and I do the same. To accompany the hot June weather she wore denim shorts and a Bon Jovi t-shirt. She clears her throat making me avert my eyes from her tan legs to meet her similar coloured eyes. "I promised you last time and I wanted to get this conversation over with."
Okay, so maybe she does hate me. I part my lips to speak but she was already putting her guitar in the case. I walk to her and frown. "Why don't you like me?"
"Don't take it personally, blondie."
"It's Niall."
"As I've been told." She closes the case and stands up, completely unaffected as she meets my eyes. "I'm not too keen on getting to know creeps."
My jaw drops, offended. "I am not a creep."
"Yeah, and I'm not a girl," she scoffs and turns around again, this time making it clear that she was leaving. I most certainly am not a creep, I think with a grimace as I watch her leave. The only thing I could be accused of was being a hormonal boy as I had let my eyes linger on her lower half a bit too long but I am most definitely not a creep.
I just, I wanted to figure her out and she could make this a whole lot easier if she didn't hate me. Maybe I'll have to continue my Niall charm on her (if that even existed) to ease up on me, I know for sure that it'll take time but something inside of me says that it'll be totally worth it.
"Bye, Piper!" I yell just before she turns the corner.
I wasn't too sure if she heard me until she lifted her right arm in a half-attempted wave. I smile before turning around myself, walking toward my room to contemplate how exactly am I going to figure this girl out when the last things she wants to do is talk to someone she thought was a creep.
