don't you walk away

-4-

/december 23/

It was the night of the party and I had no idea what to wear. Mark and I had gone for coffee a few times in the past few weeks or so and were getting along pretty well. I'd admitted that I wasn't really into his music and he'd understood completely.
"Our music isn't for everyone and I can't judge you for not liking it!" I sat down on my bed and stared at my dresser. Since it was wintertime, I'd brought out my sweaters from the top of my closet and was currently debating between my cat Christmas sweater and my Coca Cola polar bear sweater. I finally decided on the cat sweater and picked up my pair of red high top Vans to wear with it and slipped the sweater on over my shirt. I left my shoes by the front door while I went into the kitchen to gather the chips and dip for the party. I put it all in an old plastic Walmart bag and went to the door to put my shoes on. The party was starting soon and apparently Mark wanted me there early to introduce me to his band mates. Because even after knowing him for a few weeks and designing an album cover for them, I still hadn't met them. Apparently the party was at Mark's apartment, so I put the address into Apple Maps and got into my car after locking my apartment.

I pulled up to the address and parked beside Mark's Audi in the parking deck. I locked my doors and walked inside the lobby. I was a little lost but apparently his apartment was on the fourth floor. I rode the elevator up and knocked on what I hoped was his door. It opened to reveal Mark, much to my relief. He had his hair styled up as usual, but a single curl had fallen out and was laid on his forehead. Shit, dude. I tore my eyes away from his hair and noticed he was wearing a leather jacket with some band t-shirt under it and a pair of black jeans.
"Tal!" He held his arms out as he said my name. I held out my arms in response.
"Mark!" We hugged and he welcomed me into his apartment. At this point, he'd taken my bag away from me and was poking through it.
"Pita chips and spinach artichoke dip? Dude you went all out!" I shrugged.
"I just got what I thought people would like." Mark patted me on the back.
"You did well." We got into the kitchen and Mark placed the bag on the counter and took the dip and chips out. I looked around the space. It was a fairly decent apartment that had a nice view of downtown Los Angeles. I lingered in the kitchen, waiting for Mark to finish up putting out my snacks. I caught him dipping a chip into the dip and chuckled. He looked like a deer in the headlights until I grabbed a chip and some dip for myself.
"Come on, let me introduce you to the guys." I trailed behind Mark as he walked into the living room which was already occupied by four other guys. I could only see one of their faces and he had a very sharp jawline and short dirty blonde hair. We made eye contact and for a moment I thought I recognized him. He raised his eyebrow at me, which caught the attention of the other three guys and caused them to turn to face me.
"Guys, this is Thalia. She's the artist who did the cover for Supermodel." I waved and smiled at them. Mark pointed at the guy with the sharp jawline. "That's the Other Mark, Mark Pontius. We all call him Ponsi though." He moved on to the guy sitting on the couch furthest from me who had short brown hair that was done up similar to Mark's but was a bit longer on the sides. "That's Jacob, also known as Cubbie or Old Man." I laughed at this and Cubbie frowned at Mark. He moved on to the guy next to Cubbie who had curly ginger-ish hair and a bit of a baby face. I was glad to notice that he was wearing an ugly Christmas sweater too, so I didn't feel too out of place. "That's Isom. He's okay, I guess." I chuckled and Isom stuck his tongue out at both Mark and I.
"Nice sweater," he said. I grinned.
"Thanks! You're the first person to say something about it," I said as I squinted at Mark. He just shrugged and made an innocent face. I rolled my eyes in response. "Anyways," Mark cleared his throat and continued with the last guy left on the couch.
"That right there is Sean Cimino. The one and only Mago." I raised my eyebrow and looked at Sean.
"It's a long story, Thalia. A story for another time." I shrugged and glanced around the living room. The only spots left were on the loveseat. How convenient.

Mark and I had gotten as comfortable as we possibly could on the loveseat without sitting on top of each other and the boys began barraging me with questions. Isom started first.
"So, Tal, what kind of music do you listen to?" I smiled.
"Well, I listen to a lot of things, mainly alternative. I listen to a lot of Bastille and Imagine Dragons, but I also listen to Grouplove and Cage the Elephant, so there's a lot of variation. Although, I've just recently discovered a band called Delivery that I've absolutely fallen in love with." Everyone looked over to Ponsi who was blushing. "Everything alright?" Isom snickered and I heard Mark snort beside me. Cubbie just had his eyebrow raised at Ponsi. I narrowed my eyes at the guys. "Wait a second. I knew I'd recognized you from somewhere! Holy shit, you're Mark Pontius! How the hell did I not make that connection earlier? Dude, you're a lyrical genius!" Ponsi just seemed to blush even harder.
"Ah, not really, I just-" A knock at the door interrupted Ponsi. Mark got up and answered the door, just to be face to face with another guest. Time for the party to begin.

apologies for the late upload, yesterday got out of my hands. lots of lazing around tbh lmao so it's actually just my fault oops...