Just Like Nicotine

Chapter 4

(Celia's POV)

I know, I was supposed to be going to sleep...but then I remembered that my favourite little leaf didn't tell me her new address. So of course, I had to fix that minor issue and decided to call her. No answer. Maybe she wasn't near her phone during that call? I'll try again.

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Leafy <3
Missed calls : 13
Missed messages : 26

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She hasn't answered any of my messages nor my calls. That's when it hit me ; she turns her phone off completely when she charges it for the night. I sighed and grabbed my laptop, turning it on and logging in. It took a short while but I soon managed to find her email and send her a document with three words, all largely in bold.

"CALL. ME. NOW!!!!"

She must have gotten the document quite quickly because she soon FaceTimed me from her laptop, a large smile placed on her noticeably tired face.

"Heyyyyy" she whispered in an exaggerated tone, I smiled back with a similar reply. We chatted for a little bit making sure to stay decently quiet out of kindness for Theo and Will. Alaeia surprisingly lived alone, it's a shame if I'm honest seeing as she always exclaimed how much she'd love to have a roommate when she moved back to London. She's been living here for a year now, and barely lived in the flat she rented seeing as she was always out somewhere in the big world. I'm glad she's happy though, she's finally gotten strong enough to battle the beasts that so desperately wanted to destroy her happy mindset.

~

What I didn't take into account was the fact that it was now extremely late at night, and I was sat alone on the living room couch in the dark. We'd been chatting for over 3 hours now, and even though I was barely tired, I knew Alaeia was on the verge of passing out.

"I've only just realised that you haven't told me why you wanted to call in the first place. Why so late, too?" Alaeia mumbled, her eyes drifting her in and out of a sleeping state. She was right, we'd spoken about absolutely nothing for the past three and a half hours and I still hadn't asked her for her address.

"Oh! I just wanted to know your address. You didn't tell me before you left and you've been here a year but you haven't actually been here - if that makes sense?" I said awkwardly. She giggled lightly and slightly nodded as if to clarify her understanding.

"573 Woodward Lane. Happy now?" She groaned in feigned annoyance and shuffled in her seat a bit, what I assumed was her making herself comfier. After she shuffled I heard the sound of slippers being dragged against the living room floor from behind me, I was guessing it was Theo making his nightly routine of grabbing some water, but to my surprise when I turned around I saw a slightly dishevelled and half awake Will leaning over the couch frame, staring down at me and the laptop.

"You complained to me about cleaning yet here I find you chatting away to a clearly asleep girl at midnight" he sighed jokingly, clearly teasing me from earlier in the day. I shook my head quickly, muttering a quick "nah she's perfectly awake - here. Yo leafy, give us a fit check!" And witnessing my exhausted friend groan softly before pulling herself off her couch and setting up the laptop to visualise her whole height. She was wearing a completely mismatched array of bundled clothes and was inaudibly mumbling whilst pointing to each layer of clothing.

She was wearing a red and white patterned Christmas jumper on top of a grey tank top with a pair of lemon pinstripe print pyjama bottoms and fluffy orange socks. Her hair was lazily shoved into a bun and all and any traces of makeup were non existent. This is why I loved her so much, she didn't care for what consisted of her indoor outfits. She didn't have the heart to tell her friends she wanted to leave a call and go to bed. She just kind of sailed smoothly in the ocean of life, sometimes a wave bumped her around, but she just naturally drifted back on course. She was perfect in my eyes.

"See, perfectly awake." I grinned back to Will, he chuckled back.
"Just about. Let the poor girl go to sleep, she's spoken to you all day!" He whisper-yelled jokingly, though I swear I could hear an undertone of seriousness. I nodded, turning to Alaeia and smiling at her barely awake stance.

"You look great sweetie, now go get comfy in your bed. You deserve it." I smiled, she smiled back gratefully before mumbling a sweet little 'goodnight, love you!' and ending the call.

(Will's POV)

Here I was sat on the couch with Celia, just chatting at midnight with her and a new friend - Alaeia. Me and Celia had been eating ice cream whilst sharing a blanket and just chatting about every topic that came to mind, Alaeia chipped into the conversation every few minutes, but I could tell after every interaction she was growing even more tired.

At some point I made sure to mention something about her mostly unconscious state to CeCe and of course she just had to test how awake her friend was. A simple fit check dragged the poor girl from the opposite screen away from her couch and made herself fully visible for us to see her choice of sleepwear.

She looked adorable if I was to say so myself, from wearing the Christmas jumper in the middle of august to her orange fluffy socks.

Celia finally let her go after some convincing and we decided to just sit and chat for a little while seeing neither of us were tired.

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This is and will forever be my favourite chapter <3

Thank you for reading, I love you <3