The Art of Living

[52] Birthday Ideas

On Sunday, when Ellie woke up to an empty bed, and it wasn't a good feeling. When she rolled over, part of her expected to see an undefinable mass of curls beside her, but there was nothing. Not even an empty pillow, because somehow it had ended up in her arms during the night. Because it faintly smelled like him, and that was comforting to her.

Surprisingly, despite the fact that she had slept alone, she had still slept until past ten, because she had stayed up long the night before, because she couldn't fall asleep. Her mind kept straying to Brian.

When she got up, she went straight into the bathroom to take a shower, before she went into the kitchen to make herself breakfast. She still had a little less than two hours to kill before she had to go to Imperial College, to meet up with the band - and hopefully Mary - to present them the pictures from the gig, and to watch them practise. Something which she was very much looking forward to. It had only been a day since she had last seen Brian, but she missed him a lot.

Shaking her head a little about that, she got up and walked into the living room, flopping down on the couch. She put her legs up on the arm rest and lay back on the couch, closing her eyes to relax for a moment.

The next thing she knew was that her phone was ringing. It took a moment for her to realise what was happening, but when she did, she quickly got up from the couch and hurried into the hallway.

"Yes, hello?" She asked and rubbed her eyes.

"Ellie, hello." The voice was familiar, and even though Ellie was happy to hear it, it wasn't the voice she had hoped to hear.

Nonetheless she smiled. "Hey Mary, what's up?"

"Not much, I just wanted to hear if you're still going to come to the practice and show them the pictures?"

Ellie nodded and rubbed her forehead. "Mhm, yeah... What time is it now?"

"Don't you have a clock?" Mary asked amused. "It's half past twelve."

Ellie widened her eyes. "What?! Oh crap.. I fell asleep, I have to get ready. I'm sorry, Mary, I'll talk to you then, okay? I'll answer all the questions you want, but I don't want to be late. I'll see you there," she told her before she hung up, not waiting for a reply.

She rushed into her bathroom to fix her appearance. She had taken a shower, but then she had fallen asleep on the couch so she was a slight mess again. When she had applied her make up and braided her hair, she hurried into her bedroom and put on the first dress that caught her eye. She looked somewhat presentable in her opinion, it could definitely be worse. And she was running out of time, so she just decided to leave it like that and go into the living room to pack all the pictures that she had promised to bring.

Once they were all securely placed in a box, Ellie packed them in her handbag, along with a notebook and pencil and the usual necessities before she went to spray on some perfume. When she was somewhat certain that she had everything she left her flat and made her way to the tube station. She didn't have to wait long for the next train, but the ten minute trip and then the walk to the college buildings seemed incredibly long. She couldn't wait to see Brian again.

Brian had told her the number of the room they were practising in, and also how to get there. Nonetheless Ellie was nearly certain that she would get lost anyway. She walked through a gate, when she could hear a voice coming from behind her.

"Miss! Miss, stop!"

A little confused she turned around and saw a man walking towards her. "Yes?" She asked, slightly sceptical of what he wanted.

"I need to see your student ID please," he told her and stopped in front of her.

Ellie furrowed her eyebrows a little. "Uh... I'm not a student here.."