Lost Souls

Chapter Two: Do You Have to Rub It In?

Aubrey's POV:

It was a sunny, yet humid day. Water droplets from last night's rainfall were dripping down the window route, as if they were in a race to reach the bottom of the window first.

The tree outside my window was bathed in sunlight, casting long shadows of the branches onto my wall. I rolled over onto my side to stare out the window. I smiled. The view from my window was the one thing that could bring a smile to my lips in the early, dreadful mornings.

Deciding it was finally time to get on with my day, I walked over to the window and stared at the scenery before me. It was like a picture. The sea, rural trees and green rolling hills, and the mountains far, far away all immediately made me much more at ease.

Closing my eyes and letting my hearing be the only sense in function, I could hear the birds chirping and the faint sound of the waves crashing on the shore.

I tend to take notice of the smallest things. It creates an illusion that time stops just for you to enjoy the little things that matter in life, rather than the harsh reality of it, the way time doesn't care about you at all and just moves on with you still engrossed in the past.

Everything about this morning was so peaceful, the weather, everything, until a certain someone barged into my room, unexpectedly.

I opened my eyes, annoyed at the person that had the audacity to interrupt my moment. I whirled around, my face twisted in dismay. I groaned when I saw the person who so rudely decided it was a good idea to pay me a visit in the early morning, when I still looked like a horrid monster.

"What, Megan?! What brings you here at this ungodly hour?!" I gave her a glare. It was no surprise to me, the fact that she was here in my house, even though everyone in my family was still sleeping. My father were stupid enough to give her the spare key, much to my dismay.

"Oh, I see someone's finally up," Megan smirked at me, "And by the way, it's nine, that's late," she said with a lifted eyebrow. I huffed in annoyance.

"Not for me, especially not on a Saturday! For God's sake, what do you want?" I rolled my eyes at her and rubbed my forehead.

"Oh, you know, nothing. Though, if I think about it, a special someone is turning nineteen today," she stated, rubbing her chin as if she was thinking. I groaned, burying my face in my hands.

"Do you have to rub it in?" I muttered, peeking through my fingers. "For the love of God, get over yourself, Aubrey!" she said in frustration, "I'm older than you and I'm still not dead," she pointed out, still clearly exasperated with me.

"Not yet," I mumbled. Her head whipped around, giving me a death glare in deadpan. Or, at least, I hope it was.

I didn't always hate my birthdays. I simply began to dislike them when I realized life was getting more and more dull and monotonous, the more birthdays I had. Call me sentimental, but you can't disagree with me on the fact that being a child was the most fun anyone had in their otherwise uneventful lives. Throwing birthday parties as a child, as you receive all kinds of toys, Christmas mornings, playing with friends and dolls, playing dress-up; everything was so much more fun and enjoyable as a child. Now, life is just a collection of repetitive rituals that goes on for several decades, without any breaks. You can say I miss being a carefree child.

"I will just ignore you said that," she said, looking scary," Anyway, I brought your gift with me," she grinned, a little too excited, causing me to narrow my eyes at her, a little suspicious. "And before you say anything, please take it. It would mean the world to me if you accepted the gift, and it would make me very sad if you didn't," she told me, pouting and batting her lashes. From behind her back, she handed me a pink and fairly small box with a white bow.

"It better not be something expensive," I told her, reaching for the box. She smiled widely and nodded eagerly for me open it. I drew a breath and slowly started to lift the lid off.

I laughed the moment I saw the box's content. Inside, there was a toothbrush resting on silk paper.

A toothbrush.

"What! You did say you wished for a toothbrush! But it's not any toothbrush, actually-" I laughed even harder when I realized what she was about to say. It was a clear toothbrush, lightly tinted pink. But that was not the thing that got me rolling on the floor, laughing. It was the fact that it had a see-through picture on the handle.

Of Johnny Depp.

"This. Is. The. Best. Gift. Ever!" I managed to say between laughs. She flipped her hair behind her shoulder in deadpan, looking happy with her work.

"That's not all," she told me after I managed to calm down. 

"There's more?" I questioned as I curiously started to unwrap the silk paper. "Well, yes, you did also say you needed new water colors," she didn't lie, inside the wrapping paper lay a water color palette. My jaw dropped to the floor.

It was one of the expensive ones. Though, I specifically told her not to buy something expensive, I couldn't refrain myself from getting excited about getting water colors of better quality. I opened the lid carefully. To my surprise there was an envelope inside, laying on the colors. I picked it up and looked at her suspiciously.

"Well, open it!" she said eagerly, nodding her head in excitement. I gave her one more suspicious look before I carefully began to tear open the envelope.

My eyes widened when I saw what was inside. I gaped at her, not believing my eyes.

"But- but I thought they were sold out months ago! How did you-" she interrupted me, "I bought them several months ago, long before they were sold out," she said, giving me a wink. I shrieked before I threw myself at her, engulfing her in a hug, almost squeezing her to death.

"Happy nineteenth birthday, Aubrey," she said, hugging me back.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" I couldn't stop myself from grinning. She patted my back awkwardly. "You can release me now," she said, her voice sounding a little short of breath. That was when I realized I was cutting off her air circulation.

"Sorry," I said, smiling apologetic. "I will pay you back for the concert tickets, I can't allow you to spend so much money on me," I informed her.

"Are you kidding me?!" she asked in frustration, "You deserve them, so please accept them," she assured me with a slight smile. "Fine, I will take them, but I will find a way to make it up to you, whether you like it or not!" I insisted. She rolled her eyes, clearly not the answer she wanted to hear.

"Whatever. Now tell me, who is the lucky person that gets to come along with you?" she wiggled her brows. I raised an eyebrow. "Are you kidding me? You, of course! Who else? It's not like I have anyone else to bring," I chuckled. She gave me a sad smile before joining in.

I looked down at the tickets. I didn't really study them before, I was too preoccupied with shrieking and fangirling like the groupie I am. When I looked closer at the date of the concert, I realized...

"It's today?! In only six hours?!" I began freaking out.

"We better start getting ready then," she smirked.

This was going to be the best birthday ever.

-

Hi! Here's the second chapter! A pretty boring one though, you'll have to have me excused for that. I will try to speed up things a little bit in each chapter.

I guess I did have time to write another chapter after all, lol. Don't really know how many I will write in total, but by the looks of it, I don't really think I will even manage to write more than ten, best-case scenario. The first chapter didn't really break through yet (not surprising at all), so I don't really know why I'm continuing to write a fanfiction no one's reading... I guess I will just have to give it a few days.

If you're reading this, please let me know! I would really like to know if there even is anyone reading this crappy fanfiction, lol.

(Btw, if you have the chance, please listen Hollywood Vampires' cover of David Bowie's Heroes! It's so goood!)

See you in the next chapter :) Hopefully...

Love,
XXVIIXXX