Time Is Nothing (John Frusciante)

Chapter 7

It was now February 9th, one day away from Cecilia's birthday. John had tried his best to come up with something special for it and thought he had finally come up with the perfect plan. A few days earlier, still having no clue on what to get her, he was aimlessly lying on his couch, flipping through some TV channels. It was by chance that he spent a few moments watching a random news program when it started saying something about a meteoric shower.

"The meteoric shower is set to reach its peak sometime between February 10th and February 11th," the news anchor read.

At that exact moment, a light bulb lit up in John's mind. He remembered the night he and Cecilia spent talking on her balcony, and Cecilia recalling how she loved looking at the stars and how it reminded her of Oklahoma. What if he could bring the stars to her? And Oklahoma? He decided to rent the best star observing equipment he could find and set it up in his apartment as a surprise. He also booked a three day trip to Oklahoma for her so that she could go and visit her dad. He knew she hadn't seen him in a while and even called Gus to make sure she had those days off.

*

"Dude, are you proposing or something?" Anthony chuckled as John was telling him about his plans in their band rehearsal.

"What? No. It's just.. Her 20th birthday, you know. A new decade, has to be a bit more special."

"Well, alright. It's actually very cool. Now I know who to turn to when I need some inspiration for some future girlfriend's birthday or something," Tony took a drag from his cigarette.

"That future girlfriend's name happen to be Jessica?" John grinned.

"What? I don't know what you're going on about, man," Anthony mumbled, looking all uncomfortable, and got up from the couch they were sharing.

"Sure you don't," John only laughed behind him.

They continued their rehearsal and spent some more time hanging out. Since Cecilia was having a little get together with friends in a tiny club on her birthday as well, John decided to invite all of the guys to join in. After leaving the studio, John headed home to set up all the crazy equipment he had rented. While in the middle of going through some instructions, he was interrupted by the sound of his phone ringing.

"Hello?" he picked it up rather quickly.

"Hey, babe. It's me. What are you doing?" 

"Oh.. Uh.. Just.. Nothing. Playing guitar. Working on some melodies," John lied.

"Are you going to take long? Wanna come over? Or maybe I can come over, we haven't spent time in your place in a while?"

"Oh, no, no. You know, uh.. You don't want to do something wih Jessica tonight? You haven't really hanged out in some time," John was trying his best to come up with excuses to keep Cecilia away from his apartment and also stay at home for the night and set everything up for the surprise.

"Uhm.. Yeah, but she'll be coming to the club tomorrow and we're hanging out there anyway."

"Right.. Well.. You know sweety, I didn't want to like hurt your feelings, but I'm just really on a streak here with these melodies and stuff and I would just like to finish those. You know that you're my favourite distraction to have, but we're seeing each other tomorrow anyway," John was out of excuses and knew that saying something like that would keep her away for sure.

"Oh.. OK, I.. I guess I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Bye, babe," John quickly ended the phone call and felt relieved. Friggin' close, he thought, and continued preparing the equipment.