BOOK ONE: COMPLETE ✅ Introverted music student, Abi, only ever wanted to write songs for other people. But, when she's thrust into sexy-but-secretive guitarist Noah's spotlight, Abi must uncover and accept the truth about his dark past before she ca...
With what seemed like the longest day ever finally over, my phone buzzed furiously in my coat pocket as I trudged back to the bus stop.
"Abi, we're going out tonight." Charlotte's blunt tone suggested this was not an invite, but an instruction.
"Not tonight, Char," I replied. "I'm exhausted. I'm covered in spilt coffee and I just want to go home and crawl into bed."
"Not happening," she laughed. "There's some new band on at The Lock and they're meant to be insanely good. Everyone's heading down and there's no way we're missing out on this one."
"Seriously, Charlotte," I sighed. "I'm shattered. Plus it's been a weird day. I just don't feel like-"
"Abigail!" she snapped, cutting me off mid-sentence. "We can run home to change, then still be there in time to grab food before the gig. Anyway, wait for us, we're just behind you."
Glancing back down the street, I smiled at the sight of Charlotte and Kris practically skipping towards me. Maybe some dinner and one drink wouldn't do too much harm.
Grabbing me by both arms, Charlotte and Kris practically dragged me onto the bus as it pulled up. Giggling as we fell heavily onto the back row of seats, the disapproving tut of an old lady in the row ahead only caused us to laugh more.
Kris wailed deliberately loudly as she shook her head. "Thank fuck that day's over with. I need alcohol."
"Tell me about it," I laughed. "You won't believe the day I've had. It was just so... weird."
"Spill!" Charlotte demanded.
As the bus trundled slowly home through the streets of London, I recounted my double whammy of accidents with the boy from the bus, throwing in a good deal of actions and impressions for dramatic effect.
However, I chose not to tell them about the way he had gently touched my face outside the classroom. How his green eyes had seemed to look into a deeper part of me. The way the soft warmth of his rough fingers had fleetingly contradicted everything about his cold, rude exterior.
As the conversation died down and we settled into the long journey, the beautiful-but-blunt stranger who had appeared that morning on the very same bus was still at the forefront of my mind. Who just runs out like that at the start of a class anyway with no apology to the tutor? He didn't even acknowledge my introduction, just upped and left.
Oh well, I thought. So long as I can avoid having to sit next to him again, I'll be fine.
Yes, that's exactly what I would do. If he was going to be attending our university, in future I would just sit somewhere in theory class where I wouldn't have to interact with him.
A seat where I could just look at him now and then, slouching in his tight black jeans like he was God's gift to women, with his messy hair swept upwards to show off his chiselled features and the greenest eyes I'd ever seen.
Yep, that would be just fine by me.
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"You're not wearing that are you?" laughed Kris as I made my way into the lounge.
"What's wrong with this, it's my favourite dress?" I murmured. The urge to crawl into bed and hibernate was fast returning with a vengeance.
"Abs, if you were two stone heavier and hiding an amputation then yeah, maybe. But, honestly, the Goth look just isn't doing it for you."
Kris' words were sharp and stinging but, as I gently ran my hands down the front of the long black number I'd chosen, I could see where he was coming from.
"Oh, I don't know, maybe I just shouldn't come?" I sighed. My confidence had taken a knock during the year that I had dated George, and I didn't feel like the same girl I'd been when he first met me anymore.
"Abi, you're a beautiful piece of work," Kris stated matter-of-factly, snaking an arm around my waist. "Whatever that prick of an ex told you, he was lying. Now, come on. I'm sure Charlotte's got something that will fit you, tucked away in that designer wardrobe Mummy and Daddy paid for."
Less than ten minutes later I was staring at the reflection of someone who looked a hell of a lot less like the coffee-covered sack of shit I'd resembled earlier.
"Perfect." Kris smiled, as he held out my favourite leather ankle boots.
Hoisting my black tights up, I smoothed down the bottom of Charlotte's dark green, floral tea-dress and couldn't help smiling at the girl in the mirror. For the first time in a long while, I had to admit I looked okay. Feminine. Pretty, even.
My hair was loosely curled from being up in a bun, and the low-cut neckline of the dress accentuated the curves that I'd spent the last year of my life trying to hide. My eyes had been subtly rimmed with a smoky eye shadow, and an attack from my housemate with her trusty red MAC lipstick had turned my lips into a statement, rather than the feature I was most self-conscious of.
I gently reached up to touch my mouth just as Charlotte burst back into the room carrying two bottles. Catching my eye in the mirror, she flashed me a wicked grin, looking a little too proud of her handiwork.
"Hot as fuck!" she squealed. "Now get those lips around this."
No sooner had she handed me an already half-empty bottle of Prosecco, she promptly cracked open a fresh one.
After finishing off both bottles between the three of us, we stumbled out into the chill of the evening sky. Luckily our local bar, The Lock, was only a few minutes' walk away. For Charlotte and Kris, this naturally meant enough time to slip into a shop to get three cans of pre-mixed gin and tonic 'for the road'.
Already slightly wobbly on my feet, I reluctantly took my can and began to drink. With each sip of the crisp, bitter liquid, each crude comment from my friends, and each outburst of giggling, my mood began to lift.
Today was just a bad day, move on and enjoy tonight, I thought, smiling to myself as I repeated the mantra Kris had used that very morning in my head.
