Stage 16 - JAMIE FLATTERS

chapter twenty eight

All week long I was at the studio, wrapping our stuff with Julia. We had reunited the next morning I had landed in New York, me almost still half-asleep and her on crutches. It was nice being at her side again, and not in a hospital bed or in a crisis phone call and instead of making boxes of our props, we had talked all morning, catching up on the few days we hadn't seen each other. 

"Not to be crude but I'm glad I got injured." Julia said, which caused me to frown, confusion and surprise making my nose to scrunch. She chuckled at my reaction. "I mean, I've seen the gram."

I laughed. "The gram? What are you trying to do?" Julia sighed but her lips were upwards, showing some kind of amusement in my teasing. "You know what I mean. Instagram, Charlotte." She said. My cheeks flustered as I recalled my previous weekend with Jamie, causing Julia to excitedly gasped at my reaction, confirming whatever she was thinking which made my face turned an even darker shade. I couldn't look at her so I got up of my seat and proceeded to continue packing our stuff. 

"Do I need to force it out of ya kid?" Julia's voice caught my attention back to her, her eyebrows now risen and her arms crossed tight on her chest. There was something unknown that had stopped me from telling her everything, maybe because it meant I had to explain why I had extended my trip to London. And I wasn't ready to talk about it yet. With Jamie, it had felt natural, safe enough to express what had happened to me but with everyone else in my life, I feel like I was forcing the words out of my mouth. So I settled for a simpler response. "I like him." I admitted. 

"You like-like him?" Julia questioned, causing me to chuckle. "What are you? Four?" I teasingly said. "But, yes. I like-like him." 

Julia smiled, satisfied of my response as I let out a subtle and quiet sigh, thankful that I hadn't had to explain further and then we proceeded our day to pack boxes and did the same the next few days until our room was empty and the production's van was packed with them. Now, I closed the trunk's door and wiped the dust on my jeans. Over the week, Julia had gotten rid of her crutches and walked almost without lumping and her ankles had shrunk too. 

"You sure you don't mind going to the warehouse?" Julia questioned, her body leaning on the car to put less weight on her ankle. I nodded, grinning as I stretched my hand for her to give me the car's keys. "Thanks. So I guess I'll see you in a week for the wrap party?" 

"Of course." I smiled, hugging her before getting up in the car and driving to the production's warehouse where I would put all of our boxes in a private locker. I quickly unpacked the car, going from the trunk of the car to inside the locker which was only a few meters away. As I locked the locker's door, I sensed my phone vibrate in my jeans' back pocket and instantly grabbed it to see the caller ID's name on the screen, my lips quickly curling. 

"Hey." I answered. 

"Hey." He warmly greeted back, my heart skipping a beat only by hearing his voice. It only had been a week since we had parted ways but it still felt like forever ago, us laying in his bed, us visiting London, us drinking morning coffee on his balcony, us kissing... I wanted to go back. "How was your week?"

"Fine. It was nice working with Julia, again." I grinned to the phone. 

"How is she?" Jamie questioned, his tone fully genuine. I remembered how distressed his traits were when the accident happened back in Toronto when he told me that Julia had been hurt.  "She's good, almost fully healed." I respond which he replied with a faint and quiet good before I returned his question. 

"My week consisted of making a new film in my room." He chuckled, his tone showing slightly his embarrassment which I thought was the cutest thing ever. Jamie had shown me a few of his home-made videos when I stayed in London and the whole time, he had his face hidden in his pillow, too mortified of seeing my live reaction of his work. But truly, he had nothing to be embarrassed of. His work was art, beautifully shot and written equally. I remembered thinking he was such a natural at film-making and I slightly envied him, I wished I was good at something as much as Jamie was good at creating stories. "When can I see it?" I asked. 

"I'm actually finishing up editing right now." He admitted. 

"Wait." I paused, looking back at the clock on my phone, noticing that it was 6PM in New York. "What time is it for you?"

"Eleven." He yawned which made me smile as I pictured his tired self, almost wishing I could be with him, watching him edit on his computer from his bed. 

"So, why you calling me?" I asked, intrigued. 

"I needed some inspiration to continue." He paused, chuckling to himself. "And I missed your voice." 

I laughed. Thank god, we were on the phone so he couldn't notice how flustered my whole face was. "I actually missed your voice too." I hear music in the background, probably from his computer's speakers which hint me that I should probably let him continue his editing. "I'll leave you to it. I don't wanna bother-"

"You never bother me." He was quick to answer, cutting me off from finishing my sentence which made me chuckle, again. Jamie made me feel like a teenager all over again. Always giggling and blushing. "Still." I said. "Send me that video when you're done. I can't wait to see it." 

"Maybe." Jamie teased. "I'll see you soon anyways." 

"Yeah, okay. Bye, Jamie." I answered before the call ended. When I jumped back in the car, that was the moment where his last words finally sunk, looping in my head. What had he meant by that? Jamie was an ocean away from New York, clearly it would be some time before we saw each other, that was the reason why parting ways had been so hard. We didn't knew when or even if we would be in the same city again. I couldn't afford another impulsive escapade to London and Jamie was working daily on his YouTube channel, he couldn't just fly to another continent. But, a part of me hoped he had meant those words because now, I was going to hold on to them until I could look in those piercing blue eyes again, until I could feel his soft pink lips pressing onto mine again, until I could reunite with my person again. Yes, Jamie was my person and in his arms, I felt like the luckiest girl in the world.