Stay Gold {O2L}

45 Days

KATIE GREENE

The apartment was slightly scary when no one else was around. It was as if the walls were slowly closing in on me, which I knew wasn't the case but couldn't stop myself from thinking so.

I haven't been out much in the past few days. Melinda and I both caught a really bad cold so we decided to stay in our rooms until we felt better. Melinda felt good this morning, so Sam and her went somewhere, leaving me alone in this impressively large apartment.

My favorite thing about this place could be the grand piano that was placed right in the middle. It was absolutely beautiful, but no one was allowed to play it while Andrea was around, because it 'interrupted her beauty sleep'. How someone could sleep so much was beyond me.

"Well I don't see her around now" I said aloud to myself and sat down at the bench, giddy with excitement. I looked around me, to check yet again whether or not I was alone, and once confirming I was I began playing.

"I could write a song with my new piano,

I could sing about how love is a losing battle,

Not hard, it's not hard, it's not hard, it's not hard,

And I could sing about Cupid and a shooting arrow,

In the end, you'll find out that my heart was battered

Real hard, it's so hard, real hard, it's that hard" I took my gaze from the keys and saw Kian standing in the doorway.

"Holy shit!" I jumped, my fingers pressing on the piano in a quite unharmonious manner, making me cringe.

"Sorry, oh my god Katie I'm so sorry I didn't mean to startle you" he walked in quickly, shutting the door behind him.

"Well you did an awful good job at that" I chuckled, "how did you even get in here?"

"With this" he held up a key and I gave him a 'duh' look. "Oh, right. I got it from Andrea"

"If you don't mind me asking, why are you here? Andrea left hours ago, and I thought she was going to see you" hard as I tried, I couldn't hide the obvious irritation in my voice at the thought of that girl.

"Actually, I came to see who was singing. I heard you from my apartment, thin walls" he laughed awkwardly as he banged on the wall, "anyways, I thought you were fantastic. We're you singing Ariana Grande?"

"Yes, I am absolutely obsessed with her. She has an amazing voice and I literally know every word to each one of her songs. How'd you know it was her? Is there a secret Arianator inside the manly Mr. Lawley?" I walked up to him and poked his chest.

"Haha, very funny Ms. Greene" he laughed as he looked down at me, considering he towered above me by about a good half of a foot. "She's hot, so I listen to her" I smacked him on the arm playfully "ow!" He pretended to be in pain as she clutched his arm and fake sobbed.

"Aw did I hurt the poor baby?" I laughed and reached out to touch the hand that was on his arm. Sparks, just from touching his hand for one second. I pulled my hand back and suddenly the both of us were looking at each other, serious expressions written across our face.

"I never knew you could sing like that" he said.

"That's because the only time you heard me singing was when we went camping" I laughed at the memory. Last summer the whole O2L gang, Melinda and I went camping in Texas and horribly sang campfire songs the entire time.

"Oh my God, Connor would not shut up that entire trip. If I knew the boy knew every word to every damn campfire song, I would've left him at the bottom of the mountain" Kian chuckled.

"Yeah, and it happened to slip Melinda's mind that she was allergic to bees and her face blew up to the size of a watermelon" we were getting closer. It was like the incident at the mall all over again, and yet again I wasn't stopping it.

Nor did I want to.

MELINDA SMITH

"You're so ugly" I joked with Sam as I slapped his phone down so he couldn't take yet another selfie.

"Oh c'mon I know you love this" He made an awful face as the two of us walked up towards our apartments.

"I had fun today" I said.

"Any day with me is fun" he winked.

"Hey I'm trying to give you a complement, don't go trying to sex it up Pottorff" he laughed and looked up at the door number.

"Well this is you" He said and I nodded, "I guess I should say goodbye. Stay cool Smith, stay cool" He slicked his hair back awkwardly which caused me yet again to laugh at his stupidity.

"Unless you want to come in?" I asked, hoping he would say yes.

"Yeah, yes I would love to" He said and I put the key in the door to realize it was already open, which was weird because I knew Katie was the only one there and she hates being alone with the door unlocked.

I swing open the door to see Kian and Kat kissing passionatly in the middle of the hallway by the piano.

"Holy Fuck" Sam and I said in unison.