Small talk | Reece Bibby | Jake Sims | Stereo Kicks

xiii

l e a h

It was on the third second right before 2015 had arrived, that Jake's lips met mine. I kissed back without hesitating. It was only a friendly kiss, right?

"Happy New Year," I smiled, after pulling away.

He smiled warmly and I hugged him. I went over to all the others, hugging them all and wishing them a happy New Year. As I approached Ivy, I noticed her face showed a shocked emotion. Every time a firework lit all of us up, I only saw how worried she looked.

"Is everything okay?" I asked her, now being concerned.

"Yeah! I don't like fireworks very much is all,"

She was lying. "You always loved fireworks..."

"I've changed,"

"Really? In the space of two months? Because on Halloween the fireworks were all you looked forward to,"

She made up some other excuse and I decided just to leave it. I probably wouldn't get whatever it was out of her.

We were all sleeping in Reece's house that night. We didn't stay up very late, as we were all super tired.

The morning after, I was up before everyone else. I was waiting for someone to arrive. There was a knock on the front door and I quietly made my way down. I opened the door to find my smiling ex-boyfriend. Jack. We had to break up because of the X Factor, long distance and not enough time and all that. We had started texting around my birthday again.

I jumped into his arms, squealing, as he spun me around. I missed him so much, as I hadn't seen him in person for nearly five months or so.

Jack was bringing me out today, to a café and then shopping. I followed him to his car, after slipping on my Uggs. In the car, I quickly sent Ivy a text.

Leah🐺: hey, i went out shopping if you're wondering x

We had a nice long chat during the car ride. I was so happy we were going out together, to catch up on things. Jack was one of my best friends, I'd known him for a good few years.

We arrived at my house and we both entered. I ran up to my bedroom, threw all my stuff onto my bed beside my sleeping dog and went to my wardrobe. I picked out light blue skinny jeans, a black tank top and a maroon coloured jumper. I made sure I had everything including my purse and phone, then I put on my Timberland boots and a parka coat.

I went back downstairs to Jack who was waiting patiently. He smiled and we went back to his car, then drove off to the shopping centre.

The day went great. Jack insisted he'd buy me whatever I wanted, but me being me, I couldn't, as I would have felt too demanding. He paid for my Starbucks beverage though.

Jack dropped me back to my house and I told him to text me later. I went upstairs to my bedroom, laying down on my bed after taking off my boots and coat. My white husky soon came in and hopped on my bed, laying down beside me. Hunter was my cuddle buddy honestly. It was sad yeah, that I cuddled my dog, but he was so big and fluffy. He was basically the same size as me and had this soft white fur and was always clean.

I took a selfie of me and Hunter cuddling and posted it to Twitter saying, 'cuddle buddy 🐶'. Soon Jake tweeted,

'@JakeSims: @LeahSmallTalk ur sad 🌚'

I laughed and responded with, '@JakeSims ikr 💁'. People were going crazy after that.

Suddenly I had an idea. I wanted to record a cover with one of the boys. It probably would be Jake. His voice was so under appreciated.

I called Jake. "Hello?" he answered.

"Hi Jake,"

"Oh, hi, Leah. How are you?"

"Great. Look would you like to record a cover with me? And I'll put it on me and Ivy's Youtube channel?"

"Yeah, that sounds great! Do you have any songs in mind?"

"Mhm, you know that song by Ariana Grande and Nathan Sykes? Almost is Never Enough?"

"Oh yeah!"

"I was thinking I could sing Ariana's parts and you can sing Nathan's."

He was extremely happy with the song choice. We were going to a theme park tomorrow, so we organised everything to be the day after.

I got a Twitter notification saying Reece had tweeted a picture. Curiously, I clicked into the tweet. The picture attached was Reece hugging Ivy, and she was covering her face. Reece had put 'With this one again today 🙈' as the caption. They were literally the cutest. I was so happy for Ivy, that she was getting close to Reece again, but I was also concerned for her in case he broke her heart again. Reece seemed like a bit of a player.

While those two were having fun, I continued cuddling Hunter. Also I tweeted that I was doing a cover with a special guest, which would go up on the channel in less than a week.

I decided to learn some of the lyrics for my part, as I had to sing most of the song. I would also have to do backing vocals and extra bits and things like that.

The next day, I was up bright and early. It was 9:15, which was a little too early for me, but I was excited to be spending the day with my best friends.

I took a shower and dried my brunette jungle hair. It was in messy waves, so I pulled it into a loose side plait. I put on an oversized cream knitted jumper, black leggings, my white Doc Martins and a denim jacket.

Before I left, I took my purse and made sure my phone was fully charged, I wanted to vlog some of the day. I said goodbye to my parents and set out to Ivy's home, which was just fifteen minutes away. We lived in the same estate, where all the houses were huge and expensive.

I walked up Ivy's garden and knocked on her door. She let me in. The first thing I did was go to her kitchen, as I'd forgot to have breakfast, typical me. I prepared myself some waffles, so that they would keep me going for the long day ahead.

I was texting Jake until he stopped replying. We had weird and deep conversations.

Reece had texted Ivy that him, Jake and James were on their way.

"Reece said that Jake ran out of credit," Ivy giggled. "I wonder why." she said sarcastically, looking at me as if it was obvious that it was my fault.