Another Sunny Afternoon (The Strokes Fan Fiction)

Chilling and Killing My Annabel Lee

After devising some type of plan with Albert and Fab, they were off to their interview while I stayed back with a bottle of rum and my phone book. I flipped through the pages and found the number I was looking for scrawled in my father's handwriting, with a little note that said:

When you feel like you wanna talk to her again.

Lighting a cigarette, I stretched for the hotel phone and dialed the number slowly. After 3 rings, someone answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hudson?"

"Annabel Lee!" my half brother cheerfully screamed at the end of the phone.

"Hud, how ya been?"

"Your New York accent got strong Lee, but I'm fine!"

"How's... mom?"

A long pause followed after.

"Annabel, mom... mom died on your birthday in 2002 in a car accident," Hudson said almost silently.

"W-what? No, no, your lying. Mom didn't die two years ago."

"No one told you?"

"She's not fucking dead, Hudson," I yelled, my voice breaking.

"Annabel Lee, she's dead! Gone! I thought you wouldn't care! You didn't care about her before!"

"Because she didn't give a flying fuck about me! All she cared about was your stupid asshole of a father! She saw all the wrongs I did and he could get away with murder in her eyes! I haven't heard her say she loved me since the divorce, I JUST WANTED TO KNOW SHE FUCKING LOVED ME!" I sobbed, slamming the phone onto the receiver.

I curled up on the bed, crying as I grasped the neck of the rum bottle. It didn't take me even two minutes to finish the bottle, but it didn't stay for long until I had to run to the bathroom.

I sat against the bathroom wall, shaking. I felt as if I was losing my mind, and nothing seemed to be going right. No one even called to tell me my mother was dead. She's been gone for 2 fucking years, yet no one called me. I felt empty.

Dead, is more like it.

I rocked back and forth, reciting:

"The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,

Went envying her and me-

Yes!-that was the reason (as all men know,

In this kingdom by the sea)

That the wind came out of the cloud by night,

Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee."

"Annabel Lee, you should of been there, it was- A.L.? Where are you?" I heard Julian say as the hotel door closed.

"Annabel Lee?" He opened the bathroom door and his face turn to worry-more than worry- as he ran toward me.

"What's wrong?"

"The world, Jules, the world."

"C'mon, what happened?"

"I don't know."

"Annabel Lee, you're being difficult, what's wrong?" He asked once again, leaning against the wall next to me.

"You wanna know what's wrong? My fucking life, Julian. My mother's fucking family had the god damn audacity not to call me about my mother's fucking death on my 21st birthday. I bet you 5 dollars that even Ryan knew, and my father would never tell me that because he probably doesn't even know, either."

His eyes widened as he slid down next to me.

"I-"

"Oh, and you need to tell your friend Nick to control his fucking emotions."

Shouldn't had let that one slip.

"What are you talking about?"

"He's an asshole," I covered up.

"He's a joker, okay? You know that, you guys know each for ever."

I looked at the time. I was supposed to meet Albert, Fab, and Nick in Albert and Fab's room in 5 minutes. I started to stand up but Julian grabbed onto my hand.

"Are you okay now Annabel?"

"I'm fine Jules. I just need to go see Fab for some tips, you doing anything tonight?" I asked.

"Just probably to the bar downstairs."

I kissed him lightly on the cheek.

"Don't get too drunk, alright?"