Rue's Mad World

Chapter 4

I woke up the next day tired and with bags under my eyes. I hadn't gotten much sleep because my parents were having their Wednesday Scrabble night, with Lou and Chuck from down the road. I was still in disbelief that adults could make so much noise playing a board game. There were so many screams and groans you could have sworn they were watching a world cup game.

 Unfortunately my parents exponential  love of word games wasn't the only thing that had kept me up: the black iPhone, which I had stuffed in my dresser drawer, had weighed on my mind all night. The more I thought about it, the more I dreaded having to go back to Ash's house so that I could give him and his smug little face their phone back. I could already see him grinning triumphantly as my fingers pressed the doorbell to his flat. Oh and of course we can't forget a 3rd sleep depriver: figuring out how I was going to apologize to Pax.

I decided to first tackle my greatest obstacle: Ash Valentine's cellphone. I sat on my bed, staring at the drawer that his phone was in, wondering what exactly I was going to do about it. I considered mailing it to him, but knowing his conniving ways he'd probably just see my return address and stalk me home. I refused to play by his rules in his little game of cat and mouse: He was not about to catch me in his claws as some weak desperate girl, powerless to his fame and good looks! If anyone was going to be the cat, it was going to be me.

 I sighed, I knew that I had to eventually turn his phone back on, otherwise I'd never be able to contact him and be rid of the awful thing. I walked over to my dresser and pulled out Ash's phone. I turned it back on and waited for the string of texts, missed calls and voicemails I was sure was coming.

 Buzzzzz Buzzzz

Ash's phone vibrated for a good solid minute. When it finally stopped, I looked at the screen and saw that he had 32 text messages and 5 missed calls. I didn't even get that many in a week.

I went into his contact list to try and find a number that could help me reach him. First I checked for some sort of home number but I had no luck.

 Ugh, guess I'm calling the other members of Mad World.

 The only other member I knew by name was Zander, and there was no way I was calling him after he had accidentally mistaken me for Ash's girlfriend. I instead confided in the trusty source of the internet. I silently thanked god for the invention of Google and quickly  typed in Mad World to the search bar. I clicked on the first page that appeared.

A smiling photo of the boys popped up. It looked like they were at some sort of award show.  I scrolled down until I reached the bio section.

I recognized the other member's faces immediately, but not their names. The drummer's name turned out to be André Camden. He was half Brazilian, half English, which resulted in an envy-worthy tan complexion and light blue eyes.  His bio read that he was known for  sporting a pretty stern looking expression at all times, so I decided to skip him and move on to the next member of Mad World: Nolan Fraser. I remembered seeing Nolan on TV playing the bass one time. He had a mop of brown curly hair and really kind looking hazel eyes. His bio stated that He was known as the "quiet " member of the group -- he was definitely the one I'd be calling.

The final member listed on the website was Ash. Curious, I decided to read his bio as well.

 ~

Ash Valentine

Ashton William "Ash" Valentine was born on March 17th, 1995 to Parents Denise and Mark Valentine in Westminster, London, England.  He has one older brother Keegan, and a younger sister Elle

As a child, Valentine was praised for his musical talent by his primary school teacher, who suggested to his parents that he be enrolled in guitar lessons, as a way to challenge and further his musical ability. By the age of 11, Valentine had begun to sing and perform with his guitar at competitions on a regular basis, which resulted in a 1st place win at a local talent show held by his neighbourhood theatre.

In high school, Valentine  wrote Mad World's critically acclaimed starter single "Thursday's Daydreams" at only 14, upon meeting and forming the popular group with his highschool classmates. Since Mad World's signing to Contraxx records in 2011, Valentine has written or co written every song  the band has ever released.

Despite the other members of Mad World's numerous  high profile relationships, Valentine has never publically dated anyone since his rise to fame. He was quoted back in 2013, in an interview with GQ magazine stating  "When I find the right girl then the whole world will know, but for now I prefer keeping my love life as private as possible."

~

Hmm so Ash was a believer in true love? 

Yep. Red flags were going up everywhere in my mind. It was safe to say that Ash was probably one of those sappy romance on the whim,  "let's go kiss in the rain" type of guys who texted you good morning and serenaded you from below your balcony-- oh I definitely didn't want anything to do with him. To me, Ashton sounded like he'd be a really good match for Pax.

Maybe I could even kill two birds with one stone and steer him towards her. Pax would be so happy, she'd probably forget that our little fight ever happened!

I put my daydreams of "Paxton" becoming a thing to a halt and  once again searched Ash's contacts, this time trying to find anything that sounded like it could be Nolan Fraser's.

"Ahhh here it is" I mumbled to myself.

Nolan had to be the contact listed as "Nolan reFRASed." I clicked on his name and waited for him to pick up.

It rang a couple times before a voice said, "Hey mate what's up."

Relieved he answered, I immediately spoke.

"Ummm hey, yeah I'm not Ash," I blurted.

He chuckled, " Yeah I think I can tell by the voice. What are you doing with his phone? I was wondering why he wasn't answering my texts."

"Well you see, he kind of left his phone in my purse and since I can't find his house number I was wondering if you could help me-- yeah know, cause you're both in the same band together....I was hoping you could help me get it back to him." I crossed my fingers.

"Haha sure. We have practise at my place at like 12ish. You could drop it off then...if that's okay with you?"

My heart fell. PRACTISE FREAKING PREACTISE? Just when I thought I might be able to avoid having to see him again. Now I had to meet his whole band. Maybe I could Doorbell Ditch and leave his phone on Nolan's front porch, but that was a low blow even for me. I asked Nolan where he lived and his address turned out to be fairly close to mine. I had absolutely no excuse to not go to his house and give Ash back his damn phone.

"Okay I think I've got the directions right." I sighed. I hoped Nolan wouldn't notice the disappointment in my voice.

"Yeah okay," he said. "Oh and  what's your name by the way? I'm sorry I didn't ask before."

"It's Rue." I told him meekly.

"Well Rue, I'll see you in two hours."' And with that he hung up.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

a/n: where is this going idk idk. but it's been fun to write. If no one ever reads this then all is good bahahahahahah

-abby