I gulped down almost whole bottle of water at once. I woke up so damn thirsty, I had no idea I could be that thirsty in my life.

It was currently about noon. I came back from the party late at night, I remember texting Jack about 2:30 or something. However, from there I have no idea how I got home and that caused a little amount of stress butterflies to appear in my stomach. Normally, you do remember some stuff, even only imagines, but after this I didn't remember a thing.

I shook my head to get more conscious. I don't think that mixing alcohol and pills was a good idea. I'm not much of a heavy drinker, not mentioning drugs.

Though yesterday's Molly felt like a pure euphoria. It's somehow familiar to when you're so happy about something, but so, so happy, and you get all the wills to live. The only difference is that it lasts 5 hours straight. Also, why it's so hot in here? I swear, if the air conditioner broke again-

My face twisted in confusion. Why did I still have Johnny's jacket on?

Due to my half-alive state I haven't noticed it earlier. Looking around the room, I noticed a note on my bedside table. Well, more like a letter but not this long. I picked it up;

Ma chérie,

A grin started forming itself on my lips. I knew someone who had a very characteristic handwriting and spoke french fluently.

First of all, sorry for leaving a note and not meeting in person, but I didn't wanna disturb your sleep to ask if I can stay overnight. Oh, right, when I'm writing this it's like 3 in the morning and Jack just drove us to your house. He's actually a cool guy.

Anyway, I don't want you to think that I'm some weirdo following you home,

I rolled my eyes. Yes, Johnny, that's the first thing I thought.

but after we got off our high, you looked so absent and pale, like you were going to faint any moment, and I wanted to make sure you got to your house in one piece. Don't worry, Jack will drive me back to my place.

I guess now we know why I lack some of the memory. It is possible that I felt exactly how I looked like.

As soon as you laid in your bed, you fell asleep, so I hope you'll feel better tomorrow morning. Oh, and you might probably wonder how is my jacket still there. Well, I tried to take it off of you, so you'd be more comfortable, but you just nuzzled into it even more and mumbled some hard-to-understand things. Something like 'piss off,' and 'it's too cozy'.

Finally, I'm so happy you agreed to record with us! I promise you, it's gonna be great fun.

P.S. I know we both don't wanna talk about what happened earlier. Don't worry, I'm not mad or anything.

Toujours à Toi,

(always yours)

JD

Though a smile has been plastered on my face, the last paragraph and P.S. got me a little worried. Record what? And what happened the other night?

I stood up to find my vision spinning lightly. Woah- think I gotta make my brain work correctly first and then think of the action plan for today. I feel like taking a shower in the first place.

I took off the jacket and hung it on the chair near my desk. It had black and white Hollywood Vampires logo on the back. Damn, it's awesome. I wish I had one myself, but I don't think I will ever be in any band. At least not planning to be.

As I looked in the mirror, I almost got scared. My non-existent-anymore mascara on my eyelashes made dark circles around my eyes. I kinda looked like Beetlejuice.

--

When I had already finished the shower, the only thing left was to pick an outfit for the day. Don't know what you guys expected, but it's just some sweatpants and a jumper. I wanted to fit into the weather and it's currently raining. I also put The Neighbourhood on the speakers.

Since the curiosity's been eating me up, I decided to call Johnny to find out what I missed yesterday. I dialed his number and put the phone up to my ear. I felt a little nervous, but had no idea why.

After a few signals I heard someone picking up.

"John speaking," a familiar voice said in a calm way. I grinned but quickly bit my lip.

"John? Do you always answer your phone like this?" I asked and earned a snort from the other line.

"Why? Do you not like it?" I could tell he said it with a smile.

"I don't know," I replied teasingly. "What if I do?"

"I don't know," he repeated. "You tell me." he said in a way that made blood flow straight to my cheeks.

I let out a chuckle with not-hard-to-guess color of my face. God, why do I have to be like this? He did the same thing (not sure 'bout the cheeks, though) and soon after asked:

"So, what do you need?"

"I saw your note and I have a couple questions." I started and he hummed as a sign for me to keep going. "First of all, I don't remember a thing from when you wrote that I looked pale etc. and since, so can you explain what I agreed to record?"

"Wait," he answered confused. "so you don't remember what happened moments before we entered the car, do you?"

Now it was my turn to frown. "No. Why?"

I heard him moving around and then there was a moment of silence, and I was just about to ask if he's still there, when he spoke again.

"Can you meet me somewhere?"

"Now?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

----

As I drove to the cafe Johnny said we shall meet- Why did I just sound like Gandalf?

Anyway, I'm feeling extremely nervous. What's so important that he has to say it to me in person?

As the pit in my stomach grew, Jack parked somewhere near and I got out of the car. I also told him that he can have the afternoon free and that I'll take the cab back to my place. I still wasn't used to actually having my own driver. Elsie made me hire one, but I don't understand how you can employ someone to be there just to drive you everywhere at any time.

The coffee shop was more on the suburbs, so I hoped that there won't be any guys running around with a flashing camera. That's the second thing I'm still not used to, and doing which makes me feel terrible.

I opened the door and a little bell above me rang. It was a nice place, kinda old-fashioned but absolutely gorgeous. There wasn't a lot of people, just a few elderly couples drinking tea and coffee. Actually, the whole place smelled deliciously like it.

I spotted a man on my left, sitting at almost last table, near the window. His hair was half-messy and he wore black, almost square sunglasses, through which you couldn't see his eyes. Kind of ironic, if you look at the pouring rain outside. As he rose a hand to ran through his hair I saw multiple rings.

I smiled and approached him. He was writing something in a little notebook, looking deep in thought. He reminded me of like a private detective who's been hired by a jealous wife to see if her husband is cheating on her. Jesus, when did I start deduce people so much? I gotta take a break from reading Sherlock.

As soon as Johnny saw me, he stood up, smiling contagiously, which made me smile too and make the nervousness vanish somewhere.

"Hi," he started softly, taking my hand to kiss it quickly.

"Hey.. Thanks." I replied, mumbling the last part. Johnny frowned, taking a sit and I sat on the opposite side.

"You're thanking me for greeting you?" he asked. I noticed a black coat on the bench beside him. He must've had it over the blue and white striped shirt he was wearing. On the top of it sat a dark blue hat, still wet from the pouring rain.

"No- Just, not every man has greeted me like this, that's all." As I answered I also took off my almost drenched, denim jacket I had over a grey hoodie.

I found him staring at me with a enigmatic smile. "What?"

"You're blushing." he simply exclaimed.

Fuck.

"No I'm not," I replied, probably blushing even more. "It's just warm in here-"

"Yeah, yeah, tell yourself that." he said with a shit-eating grin.

"Oh, fuck off," I replied playfully, also smiling by now. Why does he always have such an influence on me?

Not soon after a waitress came up to us and we ordered some coffee.

"So, why did you want to meet here?" I asked as the woman walked away.

"I just.. Thought it's better than a phone call." he said and I nodded. "Yesterday we were talking about recording our new song, Heroes, and Alice asked you if you'd want to join us, since he knows that you love Rock. You said that 'of course you'd like to'."

I agreed to record a song? What in the-

"And what would be my part?" I asked puzzled.

"To play one of the guitars in the background."

I'm pretty sure my heart stopped for a moment. Basically, I will play with a band that toured all over the world. Although I adored Rock and rockstars, there was one problem in this situation.

"Johnny, I can't play the guitar."

At first his face didn't tell me anything, then his expression changed to surprised. "What do you mean? I saw you have two guitars in your living room."

"I do, but I only know how to hold them, that's all." I replied. I expected him to be mad or disappointed, but after a moment a bright smile appeared on his lips, like he just got a brilliant idea.

"We'll teach you." he said and soon after added, looking at my confused expression "I'm sure Joe and Alice will be up to it as hell."

We discussed it for a while, but after Johnny's convincing, I finally obeyed. I don't know why, but it all seems so surreal.

We got our coffees and I stole a glance at the man sitting near the main bar. He was giving the, I think, boss waitress money. But a lot more money than you pay for a coffee. He sorta reminded me of this one boy at the party yesterday. Weird, that I still remember him.

Nah, I don't think that's him, he had a different hairstyle and all. Also, why do I care? It's not my business.

"What about the other thing?" I asked Johnny, sipping on my coffee. "The one you weren't mad about?"

He put the coffee mug down on the table and started fidgeting his rings. "As we waited outside, waiting for Jack, you.." he stopped and looked at me. I raised my eyebrows, waiting until he speaks again, though the nervousness came back again.

"You tried to.. Kiss me."

These 5 words hit me like a fucking train. I did.. what?

"Kiss.. You?" I asked shocked and he nodded. "And.. we did?"

"No, no, I remember stopping. You then apologized, and I don't remember much more from it, because I wasn't completely sober either." he replied.

I felt so incredibly embarrassed. "I'm so sorry, I-"

"Don't worry, I used to do weird things while high too. That's why I'm not mad" he reassured, looking straight into my eyes. I, however, couldn't meet his gaze for a long time.

"But I have one last, important question and then we're all good." he added. I nodded, still kind of deep in thought. "Are you sure you don't have any feelings towards me, though?"

Was I sure? Shit, of course I was. Dreams are just dreams. That's all.

----

We spent definitely too much time at the cafe. I'm not sure how long, but we were both absolutely high on caffeine.

"Shit, I gotta go." I said while looking at the watch on my wrist. I planned doing some work today, since I haven't been doing a lot of it lately.

"What time is it?" Johnny asked curiously.

"Almost 5." I replied putting on my jacket. Well, giving that I've been here from noon, it's a lot of time. And suddenly I remembered something. "Shit, I forgot your jacket. When can I give it back?"

He waved his hand dismissively "Whenever you want. Don't worry, I have other jackets too." he replied, offering me a smile.

When we were all dressed up, we made our way to the door.

I froze.

There were two groups of people, on the either side of entrance, waiting with cameras and microphones. No, no, no.

I've really been wondering, how the first time I met paparazzi was so calm, and I even said to the guy that it's not his business. When I thought more about all of this, it made me be scared of them even more. Right now I felt really weird, and above all, terribly nervous.

"What's wron-" Johnny started, but quickly stopped when he noticed what I did. He cursed under his breath and I took a deep breath.

"Oh no," I muttered sadly.

"Hey, is everything all right?" he asked concerned.

"Yeah.. I just have to call the cab." I replied and he moved to stand in front of me, cutting off my view on the door. I looked up to his eyes.

"What? A cab? These guys will eat you alive!"

"Then what should I do?" I asked resigned.

He looked down, then outside the window, and then into my eyes again. "My driver will drive you home. He's waiting right on the other side of the street."

I opened my mouth to disagree, but then I realized that it could be a great way out of this situation.

"Alright. But what about them?" I asked, pointing to the paparazzi. Johnny looked at me curiously, and then his brows had risen, like he just figured something out.

"Here." he took of his glasses, encouraging me to put them on. "It's less scary." and smiled right exactly like he understood me now.

I did as he wanted and also put the hood of my jumper on.

"C'mon. I'll be right beside you." he said and we moved confidently towards the door.

As soon as flashes hit my eyes, I tried to keep my head down and stay tough. It's the time for self-confidence to go up.

After a while of walking, I'm afraid I started loosing my cool. The questions were becoming more personal, and I have no idea how they knew these things.

I grabbed onto Johnny's coat-covered bicep for reassurance. At this point I really didn't care about what pictures they're gonna snap.

We made it to the car and Johnny let me go in first, putting his hand on my lower back. He went quickly right behind me and shut the door.

I sat down and Johnny beside me. I kept my eyes closed to calm myself a little. I felt the car moving from place.

Suddenly his hand started caressing my left one. I opened my eyes to see fingers still clenched tightly on his biceps, fingertips turning white. His touch made me somehow relax.

"Sorry," I mumbled, taking my hand away, but he kept it in place. Thank god.

I know this whole thing sounds cliché, but I wasn't expecting paparazzi to affect me so much. My heart was still beating fast and the uncomfortable heat was all over my body. I'm so glad I was walking with Johnny and not alone.

"It's alright. How are you feelin'?" he asked, still caressing my hand.

"Better now." I replied with a hint of smile, actually feeling better.

"Damn, these guys stunk," he randomly commented, which made me burst out with laugh. "They did! Didn't you smell it?" he continued with disgusted expression, shivering falsely and making me laugh even more.

Johnny told his driver my address and we also thought that by the way I could give him the jacket back.

🌼