Someone Else

Chapter 5

Soundtrack for this chapter
Changes—David Bowie
Demons—Imagine Dragons
Say You Like Me—We The Kings

5

Surprisingly, I slept quite peacefully through the night. I must have been so exhausted from the previous twenty-four hours that my nerves stood no chance of keeping me up. As I stretched in bed, no matter how many times my brain told me this is a bad idea, my whole being felt electrified and excited to see Jude again. I pulled myself out of bed to go enjoy my ritualistic coffee.

That morning, I closed my eyes and brought myself back to the spring I spent finishing my Masters degree. Every morning, I would sit on the quad outside the academic buildings, sip my coffee, and catch up on any work that needed to be done. Sometimes I was copy editing various publications the university was going to send out, and other times I was working on pulling my resume together to distribute at the end of the semester. I had chosen to get my degrees done at once in a five year program because I figured that if I was going to keep racking up student debt, I might as well have done it all at once. In hindsight, it probably wasn't the best idea. With the salary I'm bringing in, I'll be lucky to have paid them off by the time I'm forty.

After finishing my morning coffee, I set out to shower and get dressed. Just as I was standing in my closet to pick something out, there was a tap on my door.

"Are you decent?" Lily's groggy morning voice carried quite easily into my room.

"Even if I wasn't, would that stop you from coming in?"

The door burst open and Lily rubbed her eyes.

"Nope. What're you wearing? It has to be perfect."

"You woke up early to make sure I picked out the right outfit? Do you have zero confidence in me?"

She tried to stifle a yawn as she made her response. "Listen, the first time he saw you, you were all dolled up for a formal event. We have to show him what he's going to be seeing on a regular basis, so I don't want you overdoing it."

As soon as the words left her mouth, we both burst out laughing. Of the two of us, I was not the one to overdo anything regarding the way I dressed. Overthink? Absolutely. But never one to put too much thought into what I was wearing.

"Well, even though it's the middle of June, my phone says it's only going to be 16 degrees Celsius. What does that even mean? The metric system is honestly like a foreign language to me."

"It's roughly 63 Fahrenheit," Lily called from my bed.

I'd forgotten about how she spent her four years in college. "I guess your science degree comes in handy every once in a while. 63...that's like typical spring weather for us. What if I cuffed my jeans and wore this top?" I pulled out a simple black, high-necked sleeveless blouse.

"I think that's a great choice. Good work my little pupil." Lily smiled at me and left to go make herself some breakfast.

I was looking at the shoes I'd brought from home and kept going back and forth between a pair of strappy sandals and black slip on canvas shoes when my phone dinged on my bedside table with a text from Jude.

'Wear comfortable shoes.'

Well, that solved that. I slipped on the black shoes before heading back into my bathroom to finish getting ready. I touched up the naturally wavy dark brunette locks that adorned my head with a curling iron and slapped a little concealer under my eyes to mask the ever present dark circles that resided there. When I was happy with how I looked, I stared into my eyes and promised myself that I would enjoy the day. Live in the moment. Stop overthinking every little thing. I only hoped this was a promise I could keep.

I walked into the kitchen to say goodbye to Lily, who was reading something on her phone.

"It says here that his last relationship ended almost a year ago." She kept her eyes glued to the screen.

"What?" I wasn't sure if she was talking to me or to herself.

"It was with one of his co-stars. They were together for quite a while."

"Lily, who are you talking about?"

"Jude!" She held an exasperated expression on her face.

"No. I told him I wouldn't look him up. Don't read any more." I didn't want to know anything the internet had to say about Jude. I wanted to make my own judgments about him and learn about him in time, not by reading whatever the internet cooked up about him.

"Well, you didn't, I did. So don't worry about it. Hey, did you know—"

"Nope. I don't. Or maybe he told me Friday night. I don't know, and I don't want to. I can only imagine what some of the tabloids have to say, and I don't want anything negative to work its way into my mind. Now please, don't look him up. Or, if you do, keep it to yourself."

"Okay, okay. Sorry. Come here and let me get a good look at you."

I walked over and stood in front of Lily.

"Now turn."

"No."

"Okay, couldn't hurt to ask, right? Have fun!" Lily winked at me as I turned around and headed for the door.

"If I don't text you every so often, he has kidnapped me and you need to call 999, not 911. That one doesn't work here."

"Will you stop overthinking everything? Just go. He's not going to kidnap you. He's famous. Someone would recognize him immediately."

"Right. Okay. See you later." I grabbed a light jacket from the hook by our door and left.

The sun shone strongly as I started my ten minute walk to the nearest Tube station, and although it was brilliantly bright out, I was glad to have brought a jacket as there was still a crispness about the morning air. I pulled my sunglasses out of my bag, put them on to shield my eyes, and pulled my jacket tightly around my torso.

Once I got to the station, I swiped through the gate and hopped on the next train to pull in. The train seemed crowded for a Sunday morning, and since my ride was going to be fairly short, I just stood by the doors for the duration of my journey.

When the muffled sound of the automated voice announced that we had made it to Leicester Station, I should have been the first to hop off the train, but all of a sudden, my legs felt leaden, and I considered staying on the train and forgetting about the whole thing. Passengers started pushing past me, and I looked at my reflection in the window pane. Get off the train. What's the worst that can happen?

Before I knew it, my feet were carrying me off the train and towards the exit. I started picturing Jude in my mind as I had seen him on Friday night. He was as clear as a photograph imprinted in my brain. As I exited the station, I looked around, but saw no such face as the one I had seen just two nights before.

Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no. Idiot. How could you think someone like him would actually want to see you again?

I could feel my body temperature rise, and my stomach lurched as I turned back to retreat into the station. As I went to pull the door back open, someone grabbed my arm and pulled me to the side, leading me to believe I was actually about to get kidnapped.

A/N: As always, thanks for reading :) if you liked this chapter, please tap that star to vote or leave me a little note! ⭐️