The Impossible Miss Blue

Thursday, November 27th

The only sound that filled the house was the quiet patter of rain on the windows and occasionally thunder. My brother and I were seated on opposite sides of the couch, thinking to ourselves.

I had planned to tell him about what the boys had said two days ago. Of course I chickened myself out of it. I expected myself to do it, even. Idiot, just spit it out, I scolded myself as lightening struck outside, lighting up the dark room in a flash.

“Aaron, I—” “I need to—” We spoke in unison. I stifled out a small laugh, “You go.” And he nodded, not doing that thing that people do all the time where it’s the constant—You know what I mean. “I’m losing my job.” He voice shook slightly as he spoke and a silent-filled tension laid across the air like a thick blanket.

“Wait, what? Why?” I asked abruptly after a long pause. He merely shrugged and I scoffed at him. “We could lose our home! We barely make enough money with our jobs combined,” I stopped in the middle of my rant as I remember what I had planned to tell him. “Wait, never mind. That’s actually kind of perfect.”

His face contorted. “What the—Perfect?”

“Yeah. Well, you see, I was invited to travel the world. Maybe you could come with… And then, maybe, we could finally live a happy life with no— no stress?” God, how terrible could you get at explaining something? (Possibly worse) “Ashton and the boys invited me to go on tour with them and I just—how could I turn that down?—And then I said yes, but then I realized… Oh my God, what were you going to say about that?! So I was freaking out but then you said that you lost your job and I thought—”

“Whoa, whoa! Calm down, Lexi. You’re rambling.” Aaron said quickly, placing a hand on my shoulder. I mumbled an apology as my eyes met his. He had a look on his face that I couldn’t read. Before I could ask, he was already talking. “Are you sure you would want to travel the world? You’ve never been on a plane, much less a thousand or something.”

I could see his point, but I honestly didn’t really care. “Well…”

“I barely know them, too, so I’d have to… think about it.” He pondered, crossing his arms. I slowly nodded and pursed my lips into a thin line. “Right,” I said quietly. “You can get to know them on tour? Did I mention they were opening for One Direction?” 

“Is that supposed to automatically make me say yes?” He chuckled. I smiled a little, “Yes, yes it should.” I looked over to the clock hanging on the wall behind me. “I’ve got work in twenty minutes, I should probably go now.” I said, already on my way to my room to change into my uniform. 

“Think about it and text me later!” I yelled as I walked out the front door.

When I got there, Madison was already putting her small apron around her waist. She looked up at me with her brown eyes filled with excitement. I looked at her questioningly. “Luna, thank God. I need to ask you about something—well, someone.” She explained, throwing me a rag to wipe down the counter of the bar. I nodded to tell her to continue as I put the rag under the hot water running in the sink. “Who was that guy with the, uh, purple hair?” 

I made a sound similar to a snort as I threw an empty beer bottle into the trash can behind me. “Michael Clifford. Plays guitar and has a good voice, constantly changes his hair colour, loves pizza, and kind of always plays video games.”

She made a thinking face for a few seconds and crossed her arms. “I think I like that… Do I?”

“He seems like your type, but how do I know? They’re coming today so—” I was suddenly interrupted as she put her hands on my shoulders and shook me. “What?! They’re coming tonight? I am not presentable! Oh… Oh god oh god oh god.”