The Original High (Koli) ✔️

29: London La Lune

The minute I arrived in London, I immediately took a cab to the hostel that I was staying at. This lovely elderly lady owned the place and took her time to show me around, even though all I really wanted to do was sleep.

I was so nervous during the entire flight, I didn't get a single second of sleep, and the jetlag wasn't quite helping either. It was 11 in the morning here in London, even though in my head it was still 3 am. I kindly followed the lady around until we finally arrived at the room that I was staying at.

"Here is your key, darling." She said as she handed me the key to my room. "You know where to find everything now. If there is anything else that you need to know, you can ring my sister or me. I'm here Mondays to Thursdays, and you will find her here on all the other days."

"Thank you so much." I told the lady, ever so grateful for her kindness. "I will be testing out the bed very soon, I'm sure." I added with a chuckle, clearly not being able to keep my eyes open much longer.

The lady smiled and nodded. "You go do that now, darling. Have a nice stay."

As soon as I entered the room and shut the door behind me, I placed my suitcases beside the bed and let myself flop onto it. And already I was comfy enough to never want to get up again.

Here I was, in London. . . just like I had planned. It still felt pretty crazy knowing I had actually done this. But I felt no regrets.

Slowly I drifted off to sleep, until I realized something. "Shit, gotta call Tay." I muttered to myself as I jabbed my hand into my pocket in search for my phone.

I kind of doubted she would pick up since it was way early in the morning in LA, but knowing she had insomnia anyways, she might've still been up. I turned my phone back on and immediately dialed her number. And of course she picked up within like two seconds.

"Hello?" She asked, sounding slightly groggy.

"Hey, sis." I began. "Well. . . I made it to London."

"That's great, Kell. I'm glad you arrived safely." She told me, her voice lighting up in an instant. "You sound exhausted though." She then pointed out.

I chuckled softly. "Not much more than you do. I was about to go to sleep but then I remembered I was supposed to call you." Dear god I made myself sound like such a goodie-two-shoes.

"Alright, well. . . go to sleep then. I hope you'll have a good time there. And please stay away from band members. I swear, if you end up bringing home like Harry Styles or something, we really need to have a good talk."

I just rolled my eyes and laughed. "Harry Styles, you say? You're giving me ideas, sis." I told her jokingly.

"I'm dead serious, Kell!" Tay then warned, trying to hold back her laughter.

"Ugh, everything will be fine. Now you go to sleep too, at least try anyway."

"Sure. . . mom."

I rolled my eyes and said goodbye. Tay was an idiot, but I knew she loved me, one way or another. I groaned, rolling over onto my back on the bed as I threw my phone on the nightstand.

I desperately needed some sleep now.

The rest of that day I spent my time sleeping. In a way I suppose it wasn't a bad thing since I would soon be working nightshifts anyways. I stayed up half of that night and then fell asleep again. Jetlag was a crazy thing.

On my first workday I decided to leave the hostel early, since I had yet to find the bar that I would be working at. I slipped on some black skinny jeans, a Misfits tank, wore my usual toms that I knew I could stand and walk in for hours, grabbed a jacket and headed out.

I roamed around the busy streets for a while until I was back in a more quiet area. I remembered Michael telling me that the bar wasn't all that far from my hostel, but for the love of god, I could not find it. I saw someone leaning up against a wall and decided to approach him to ask for directions.

"Hey, I'm sorry. . . can I ask you something?" I wondered, catching the guy's attention. He turned around and looked at me, momentarily shocked out of his wits, before he finally smiled and put his phone in his jacket's pocket.

"Sure love, what do you want to know?" He asked kindly. I smiled as I subtly scanned him from head to toe. He was wearing black combat boots, skinny jeans, a brown fluffy coat, and he was littered in tattoos.

He had hazel eyes, brown slightly poofy hair which was curled at the ends, and there was just something so familiar about him.

"Um yeah. . . do you have any idea where I can find La Lune?" I chuckled, feeling slightly embarrassed, imagining that I probably looked like a total tourist.

"La Lune? The pub?" The man then asked, to be sure. All I did was nod; glad he had at least heard of the place. "Well you were going in the right direction, love. All you need to do is walk down this street here." He explained as he pointed behind him. "Then at the end you take a left. Somewhere along that street you will find a blindingly white building, which if I might add, has the most amazing loft in all of London, do not be fooled. . . across from there you'll find a small alleyway, follow that and you will find La Lune on your left."

"That sounds easy enough, thank you."

The man then looked back at me and smiled; now scanning me from head to toe, but a lot less subtly. "Having a drink this early in the day, are you?" He asked sounding slightly amused, almost as if he knew that was something I would normally do.

With the jetlag that I was suffering from, one would think so yeah. "No, I quit drinking quite recently. Besides, I work there. Or at least. . . today's my first day." I simply told him.

The man nodded, looking impressed for some reason. I scratched the back of my neck and smiled. "Well, thank you for the directions, I better get going."

"Alright, love. See you around."

People seemed nice enough around these parts. And it was a relief to see that there were types of people like me around here, too. . . you know, a bit alternative. I believed that I was going to like it here. Yeah, this had been a good decision.