So...this is happening, haha.
While I do also love writing this blog and nonfiction, writing fiction has always been my main passion. As a special Valentine's Day gift to all of you here is a silly little short story I've been working on. I had intended to have the whole thing finished by Valentine's Day but it ended up being way longer than I expected so here is just the first part. The second part should hopefully be out sometime next week.
It's obviously a little different than the kind of thing I usually post here but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless and Happy Valentine's Day!
The Three Times I Fell For Him, Part 1
Alwyn Foster was perfect for Demi. They had so much in common. For starters, they were both huge nerds who loved video games and comic books. She loved to listen to his insight and mad conspiracy theories about the latest volume of whatever it was they were both reading at the time.
They had the same taste in music. It was difficult for Demi to find others who shared this particular passion, as while she did enjoy cheesy pop songs where the boys who sang them added 'girl' onto the end of every sentence she also had a taste for really obscure micro-genres like emo-pop-screamo-rap-metal. She would always look into the artists that Alwyn recommended and more often than not, end up loving them.
She and Alwyn shared the same sense of humor. It was lazy, cynical, and sarcastic and she often found herself giggling uncontrollably at the dry yet quick-witted comments he made.
Demi and Alwyn had even grown up in the same town. She still remembered the first time she'd met him, in a fast food restaurant of all places. Actually, the place didn't deserve to be called a restaurant, not really. It was a dingy little take-out place that housed only about two or three tables (that were in desperate need of a clean) and the place itself was only one health and safety check away from being shut down. Demi had been working there part-time mainly because her parents wanted her out the house and doing something they deemed useful.
Demi had been the only one working that day. She'd probably been cursing her no-good boss Mr. What's-His-Name for not bothering to show up when she clearly wasn't qualified to be running the shop by herself when Alwyn had stalked through the door. He was handsome, she'd noted but then so were a lot of guys. His lazy green eyes were barely open as he ordered a burger meal to go before slinking over to one of the tables. He made a face at the mess before taking a seat but Demi was too underpaid to care.
She slapped the meal together in a matter of minutes and placed it inside a brown bag on the counter. She called to him a few times but he didn't seem to hear her. He was facing the window with his head resting on one of his hands. She wondered if he'd fallen asleep. She came out from behind the counter and grabbed the take-out bag, intending to bring it to him but somewhere along the way she'd lost her footing and ended up on the floor. The sound of her body smacking against the cold, hard ground had been enough to pull the boy out of his daze and with a cheeky grin he'd turned to her and said,
"We only just met and you're already falling for me."
Demi's cheeks had been burning as he'd helped her to her feet but she couldn't help but laugh at the terrible pun. She was grateful that none of the food had spilled out of the bag at least. He took the bag from her, nodded his thanks, then left without another word. As she watched him go it was only then she'd realized he'd either forgotten to or deliberately decided not to pay but she just shrugged and return to her post behind the counter, deciding it wasn't her problem.
Yes, she and Alwyn were perfect for each other. The only problem was he probably didn't even remember who she was.
It was a few days after the incident at the fast food place that Demi had slunked through the front door of her house and into the front room. She'd just been fired from her job at the restaurant, though she wasn't particularly surprised nor did she really care. The familiar face she saw on the TV screen that her younger sister was sat watching attentively was enough to surprise her though.
"Who's that?!" she blurted.
Her younger sister Kori turned around long enough to raise an eyebrow at her. Then with her gaze fixed back on the TV she said, "21 Reasons. They're a new boy band."
Playing on the TV was some mindless talk show, the kind that normally bored Demi to tears. On an armchair sat a woman who's name Demi didn't know but she recognized as some famous TV presenter. The audience in front of her laughed as she apparently said something funny. On a long sofa next to her also sat a group of five boys -- all young and handsome, in that pretty boy sort of way that was typical of the type of groups that Kori liked -- but it was the one on the far end of the sofa who looked like he'd rather be any other place except where he currently was that had caught her attention.
"I mean the blonde one," Demi said, gesturing vaguely at the boy. "Who's he?"
Kori turned to look at Demi again, clearly suspicious at her sudden interest. She knew her sister well enough to know that boy bands weren't her thing. "His name's Alwyn. He's from around here apparently. Why? Do you like him? Will's my favourite. He's the one with the black hair."
"Huh," was all Demi said before shrugging off her coat and bag, then crouching down to join her sister where she was perched on the floor. They'd watched the remainder of the programme together, Kori occasionally filling Demi in on little tidbits about the group.
The following day -- now with a plethora of free time since she was once again unemployed -- Demi had then gone on to do a little research of her own. Googling '21 Reasons boy band', 'Alwyn from 21 Reasons', and finally 'Alwyn Foster', she'd found several of the boy's social media pages and even a blog. Backtracking to his earlier blog posts, she'd found out that he was indeed from her small town in the middle of nowhere but had recently moved to the city for 21 Reasons' official debut. Prior to that he'd lived at home with his parents while occasionally traveling to the city to train with the rest of the group.
Looking at the dates that the updates were posted, she'd figured that the day that he'd come into the take-out place had been his last day in town before moving to the city. Why he'd chosen to get food from there of all places on his last day in town she had no idea.
When she brought up Alwyn to her two best friends one day over lunch at a local cafe, she'd been surprised to find out that both of them had actually known him. Her friend Erin had went to the same college as him while her other friend Laurel said she lived near him and knew his family.
Erin had commented that he'd been a very quiet soul who mostly kept to himself. He had been very popular with girls but didn't seem to have much time for them as he was always rushing off to some dancing or singing class as soon as the college day ended, or so she'd heard. She knew that he had left college and moved elsewhere, but not that it had been to join a boy band. Laurel had known however, and was very excited about it (as she was a lot of things).
"I didn't really talk to him much before he moved but I bumped into his mom once and she told me," she'd gushed. "I was so happy for him. He was always so dedicated to performing so I knew it would happen eventually. Imagine someone famous coming from our town."
"I don't think he's famous quite yet," Erin had argued. "The group's only just made their debut."
"Oh, don't be so negative," Laurel said with a dismissive wave of her hand.
What had started of as a mild curiosity had turned into Demi becoming a dedicated fan of 21 Reasons, and of Alwyn in particular. She'd read all of his blog posts, bought every single the group released on iTunes, and had even found a new way of bonding with her younger sister Kori -- who she'd previously had a rather strained relationship with -- through regularly watching the group on TV together. She'd not seen Alwyn in person since that day in the take-out place but today that was going to change.
A few months ago -- still having no idea how she'd done it -- Demi had managed to score herself a job at a local music store. She loved it a million times more than her old job at the take-out place, and so did her friends because it meant that she could keep special signed copies of the CDs they wanted for them. Ever since then she'd been saving up the pennies for this fateful day; she was going up to the city to see 21 Reasons Valentine's Day concert. When Kori had found out she'd cried and begged Demi to take her but their mother had said no, stating that the 7-year-old was too young to travel that far without an adult (At 18 Demi was technically an adult but whatever). Although she'd felt sorry for Kori, Demi had been kind of glad. She didn't want her younger sister getting in the way when it came to meeting Alwyn.
Demi knew she had to have a plan. She'd read countless fanfiction where the girl in the audience would lock eyes with the boy on stage and they'd instantly fall in love but she knew that things like that didn't really happen in real life. She needed to find a way to talk to him one-on-one and make him remember her. She pondered this throughout the long train journey, staring out of the window wistfully.
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