Time Is Nothing (John Frusciante)

Chapter 2

The next morning, Cecilia woke up to the sound of her phone ringing.

"Hello?" she answered with a groggy voice very much asleep still.

"Cecilia? It's Jess. You got home safe?"

"Yeah, I'm home, I'm fine," Cecilia mumbled and remembered how she and Jessica promised to make a check up call to each other the previous night.

"You went alone?"

"No. John walked me home."

"John? John Frusciante?"

"Uhh.. I don't know his last name," Cecilia realized that she didn't even know the Tony's bandmate John's full name.

"Tony's bandmate?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

"How did you two get talking? Neither of you didn't seem too enthusiastic with each other when we were chatting with Anthony."

"We just bumped into each other. He was heading home as well," Cecilia decided to give Jessica little information figuring there was no reason to fill her in with too many details. At least not yet.

"Well OK, just wanted to check up on you. Go back to sleep," Jess finally said on the other side of the line, definitely sounding a lot more lively than Cecilia would have predicted based on the amount of drinks she had last night.

"You always do, bye Jessie," Cecilia softly laughed and ended the call.

Comfortably lying in her bed, the events of the previous night started to circle in her head. After getting home, she took off her clothes, took off her make up, brushed her teeth and went to bed. She was exhausted. But even her immense exhaustion didn't guarantee sleep for her. She thought of John. Her first impression of him was deceiving. He wasn't crude or arrogant. At least not with her. He was nice and funny. He was interesting. He had a gorgeous smile. He smelled of cigarettes and rather cheap cologne. He wanted to buy her a new camera. He walked her home.

Cecilia wondered whether he did it out of politeness or whether he was really interested. She continued analyzing last night's events when suddenly, she eyed the figures on the small clock on her bedside table. 

11.47

"Shit!" she shrieked and jumped out of bed like she had been bit by something.

John was supposed to come at noon. He would be there any minute. Cecilia considered her options and realized that she didn't have any time to get ready. She didn't have time to do anything really. She also realized that John didn't know the number of her apartment nor her phone number. She rushed to the kitchen to see whether John was waiting for her. And he was. Standing right where they had parted last night, smoking a cigarette.

"John, hey!" Cecilia opened the kitchen window and hailed.

John looked up and noticed her. He smiled and answered quickly, "Hello! Are you ready to go?"

"Uhh.. funny thing. See, I just woke up. Like 15 minutes ago. I slept in," she excused herself.

"Oh.." John replied looking disappointed. He was already convinced that Cecilia had changed her mind and was trying to turn him down. 

"Do you mind waiting a little? You can come upstairs," Cecilia offered, completely on the contrary to John's thoughts. 

"Oh, no, not at all," his face lit up.

"OK then, I'll buzz you in," Cecilia closed the window and opened the downstairs door for John.

Considering she lived on the highest floor of the building, she met him half way in the hallway so that he would find the right apartment.