Call it Fate, Call it Karma

Head Starts

The next day, I spent most of the morning sat in a coffee shop with Ryan, Adam and Fab as we talked over last minute plans and made sure things were ready for Albert's birthday extravaganza. Julian, Nick and Nikolai were off keeping Albert distracted, so we had quite a lot of time to make sure everything was going to go smoothly.

"So The Strokes are booked for seven-thirty tomorrow night. It's gonna be a huge turnout." Ryan explained. "I also got a cake made and that'll be brought out after the show."

"That's great, Ry!" I smiled and ticked off something on a notepad, then turning to Adam.

"Nick, Nikolai and I sorted out pretty much everything for the camping trip the next day. Drugs, booze, fireworks—you name it!" Adam exclaimed, almost spilling his coffee as he leaned over to look at my checklist.

I rolled my eyes with a soft chuckle and ticked off another thing.

"Everything seems set then!" Fab chimed in, looking just as excited as Adam.

"Albert better be grateful for this because I am broke!" I exhaustedly sighed, squeezing my eyes shut after sipping an espresso that was immensely strong.

"So...what now?" asked Fab.

"Well, I'm going home to take a nap." I said with a yawn, handing the rest of my coffee to Fab. "I got no sleep last night because of that damn party."

"But you went home early!"

I huffed. "I accidentally did some coke there, okay?! I was up all night."

"How do you 'accidentally' do coke?" he asked, doing air quotes.

"See you guys later...maybe." I said as I stood up and excused myself.

Feeling quite delirious from lack of sleep as I walked home, I almost ran into a few sign poles, but I managed to make it home and I jumped right into bed without even kicking off my shoes.

I woke up a couple hours later to a weight on the other side of the bed. It was Julian sitting down after a shower to put his jeans on, and them some shoes.

"Good afternoon." he said softly once he'd realised I had been watching him. "Sleep well?"

I sat up slowly, rubbing my eyes as a smile formed. "Are you going out? Again?"

"Everyone's at the studio." he said as he pulled on a jacket. "I just dropped in for a quick shower and to see if you wanted to come..?"

I flattened my messy hair and crawled over to him, resting my head on his shoulder. "I guess so."

He turned around to plant a kiss on my forehead. He looked as if he were about to go for the lips, but he stopped to speak, "We're finally alone."

I could feel his hot breath against my face because he was so close and it was making me wanna kiss him...hard. "We are."

"The studio can wait." he said as he snaked his arms around my waist and pressed his forehead to mine.

As much as I wanted to make out with him, and see where that would've lead, I knew I couldn't...mostly for his sake.

I pulled away from him and jumped off the bed. He looked quite confused, and a little hurt, but watched skeptically as I walked over to the door.

"I'm sorry Julian, but you need to get your album finished." I said, grabbing a jacket. "Let's go!"

"You're right." A smile replaced his frown and he got up to walk over to me and wrap an arm around my waist.

As we walked to the studio, Julian's hand creeped it's way into my back pocket. A squeak escaped my throat and I looked up at him with a raised brow. "What's gotten into you?"

Julian instantly retracted his hand, looking quite concerned. "Sorry, was that too much?!"

"No, no! Just didn't expect it is all." I said, giggling. "You're such a dork, Jules." I kissed him on the cheek. "Just don't do that again while we're in the studio, or I'll have to...pull you aside."

A smirk tugged at his lips. "Pull me aside to do what?"

"You know exactly what." I said in a hushed tone, then skipping ahead. "Race 'ya!" I yelped as I began to run once I saw the studio doors were in sight.

"Head starts are for cheaters!" Julian called from behind me.

"Go cry about it!" I called back, whizzing into the studio.

"What took you guys so long?" Ryan asked, looking quite annoyed as I sat down on an amp to catch my breath. "Wait...where's Julian?"

We looked over at the door as Julian made his way in, panting heavily. He looked at me with an evil glare. "That...wasn't...fair." he managed to say in between breaths.

"Life isn't fair, sweetheart."

Ryan rolled his eyes with crossed arms, looking like a disappointed father. "Get in the booth, Jules." He motioned to the recording booth with a nod of his head as the rest of the guys picked up their instruments.

"Yes, sir!" Julian exclaimed.

"Okay, guys! This is the last song, so make it extra special!" announced Ryan, walking over to sit beside me.

"Is this really the last one?" I asked him as the band began to play.

Ryan nodded. "Yeah! Then we've just gotta mix it and do all that technical shit and we're done!"

I clapped my hands with glee and an excited squeal. Ryan had to shush me so I wouldn't be heard in the final recording...but I thought that would've been quite funny.