Normal //Ryan Metzger

09: hey there ohio

I jolted up from my sleep as my phone and watch buzzed with an incoming call. The vibration scared me, causing me to regain reality as my mind slowly woke up from my sleep.
   I picked up my phone to see my own face with text at the tops of my phone reading 'Ryan Met would like to FaceTime..'
   "Holy shit," I looked at the time. Truly it had been seven hours since his flight departed and it had been a good seven hour nap for myself too.
   I tried fixing my appearance before answering the call. I combed through my knotty waves with my fingers and swiped my index finger under both eyes to catch any mascara that had smeared down. After I looked decent, I answered the call.
   Ryan appeared, looking happier than ever but beat. He wore a maroon dad hat that allowed tuffs of hair to flow from the front. He layered two of his sweatshirts on over his Pixar tee shirt and had a flannel tied around his waist.
   Even though I saw him this way just seven hours prior, he looked more happy and more like Ryan Metzger.
   "Hey Ohio!" He said with a cheery voice. "Did I wake you up?"
   "No," I lied with a smile. "I've been up doing stuff around the apartment."
   "Oh my gosh hi!" I heard Natalie's voice say from off camera. Her tiny hands took the phone from Ryan.
   All I saw was her cakey makeup job and flowey blonde hair that cascaded perfectly over her shoulders. For being on a seven hour flight, she sure did look beautiful.
   "Lauren, don't you worry," Natalie said with a giggle. "I'll make sure Ryan is taken care of in every way." She said her last words in a very sexual tone that made me shiver from cringing.
   Ryan took the phone from her, cutting off her talking to me.
   "Sorry 'bout that," He said looking in her direction. "She had a little too much flight champagne."
   "I can tell," I said with a slight laugh that pulled at one corner of my mouth. I held the phone in one hand and picked at the couch's fabric as Ryan and I sat in awkward silence.
   "Hey so we are planning a new cover," Ryan said into the phone, breaking the silence. "It'll be live tonight around 11 here so I think 6 there?"
   "What's the cover?" I asked.
   "You'll see," He said with his devilish grin he always had when he was messing with me. "I know you'll love it though."
   "I better or you will get a strongly worded email from my lawyer, Mister," I said joking with him. We both cracked up at the joke, him laughing harder than me. "So how was the flight?"
   "Well you see," Ryan said, still displaying his smile. "This fucker slept on me the whole time."
   He panned over to a zombie looking version of Adam, who was clutching a pillow with one arm and rolling his suitcase behind him with the other.
   "Hey, you consented!" Adam said, raising his voice at his younger brother.
   "I'm guessing that espresso wore off mid flight, huh?" I laughed.
   "More like crashed," Jack laughed from the background. "Hi Lauren!"
   "Hi Jack," I smiled. "It looks like you guys are already having fun and you haven't left the airport."
   "Oh a blast," Adam said off camera, making me chuckle.
   "He might be dead for the cover video," Ryan laughed.
   "Ryan, come help me with my luggage," I head Natalie's voice off camera say from a distance. It was almost whiny in a way.
   "Alright, Lo. I've gotta go. I'll text you once  the video goes live, okay?"
   "Okay," I said smiling at him. "By Meztger."
   "MmBye Pearson," He said. His face was frozen for a few seconds in his ending smile as the three beeps signaled the FaceTime ending.
A few minutes after the FaceTime call ended, Jess walked into the apartment. She tore her coat off and rubbed her hands back and forth to reheat them.
"Where were you all day?" I asked, turning on the TV.
"Considering my best friend was passed out in the couch for 7 hours, I did a little window shopping downtown," She said. "Of course I didn't buy anything."
I laughed and flipped through the channels on the tv.
"Oh, we still have to watch This Is Us," she said flopping down beside me on the couch. I went to our recordings and clicked the newest episode of the drama TV show.
"Oh hey, I have a question," I said turning to her. "Wanna go see AJR with all V.I.P access?" I asked, pulling the two lanyards out from the coffee table drawer.
"Holy shit," Jess said, looking at the lanyards. "So they're like a legit band."
"Yeah," I said smiling. "If you're not going them I'll sell it to a thirteen year old."
"Fuck that I'm going," she said snatching the lanyard in her hand. "I've gotta see what your boyfriend is all about."
He's not my boyfriend. I said to myself.
*
We sat and watched hours of TV, sobbing in almost every episode we watched of This Is Us.
My phone buzzed during a sob fest and when I realized it was Ryan, I paused the TV show.
"What the hell?" Jess said as she cried and wiped her tears. "We were getting to the good part."
I ignored her and hurried to the video link he had just sent. The thumbnail showed the three brothers sitting in a hotel room. Ryan holding the ukulele, Adam the bass, and Jack the guitar.
"Ryan sent me a new cover," I said to Jess, moving towards her so she could see the screen with me. "He said I'd love it."
"Hey what's up you guys," Jack said to the camera, waving. "Here is our cover mashup of 'Hey There Delilah' by The Plain White Tees and see if you can guess the second song."
They all started playing their instruments, the melody matching perfectly with the original song but with an AJR twist.
Ryan started the lyrics but morphed them to be his own.
"Hey there Ohio,what's it like in New York City? I'm three thousand miles away but girl tonight you look so pretty, yes you do. I know you're wearing my Columbia grey and blue,"
"Holy shit," Jess said. "You're Ohio!"
I blushed and continued to watch the video as Adam took over the lyrics, matching them to him and Emily.
Jack started the chorus that almost perfectly blended into a familiar melody that was all too familiar. The three harmonized the chorus.
"I guess you'd say, what can make me feel this way is my girl," they said. My heart skipped a beat as they continued. Finishing the song.
"Thanks for watching and that was for you guys at home. Keep New York in order while we are gone," Ryan said. The video ended and their cover of Riptide was the 'play next' video.
"Aww, Lauren," Jess said.
I clicked out of YouTube and texted Ryan.
Lauren: you were right
Lauren: I loved it
________________________________________
-cute lil chapter before some real shit goes down.
-chapter song is Hey there Delilah by the plain white tees
-also I know the chapter photo is from riptide, I just needed one from a cover lol.