I Won't Give In (A Denis Stoff Love Story)

Chapter 4: California Dreaming

Los Angeles, the home of Hollywood, the rich and famous.

When we landed, we headed straight to our apartment we were renting and slept due to minor jet lag.

Denis headed to the studio and I decided to travel around LA and take some photos. My interview was tomorrow and to say I was scared was a complete understatement. I looked up the company and apparently they specialise in music photography, which I'm interested in. I used to photograph Make Me Famous, when Denis was in the band, and then I photographed Down & Dirty when they did little shows in Russia and Ukraine.

Tattooing was my job, but the pros of owning your own studio is that you can work whenever you want. Plus my business partner Oscar was working there, so the studio wouldn't be closed whilst I'm gone.

I decided that I would go and see my parents, which would be a bit of a shock due to the fact that they haven't physically seen me in 4 years. We frequently Skyped, but I'd not been to place I used to call home for a long time. Kiev was my home now, Denis was my home. Wait what?!

What the fuck? Denis was my home? Since when?

I shook my head, erasing the thoughts out of my mind and knocked on the door to my parents house in Beverly Hills. My mom opened the door and the look on her face could tell that she wasn't expecting to see me.

"Alexa?" she gasped.

"Hi mom" I replied. She invited me into the house and I sat down on the sofa.

"LORENZO, COME DOWN, ALEXA'S HERE" mom shouted. I could hear footsteps on the stairs.

"What did you say Rose? I thought I heard you say that Alexa's here" dad entered the living room and looked at me.

"Hey dad, I'm home" I stood up and ran up to him, he picked me up and spun me around like he used to when I was a little girl.

I explained to them why I was here.

"Denis is here too?" mom asked. I nodded.

My parents had visited me in Kiev once or twice, and they'd met Denis a few times, but they'd not seen either of us in a while.

Suddenly there was a knock at the front door.

"I'll get it" I said, heading to the door. I opened it to reveal a dishevelled looking Denis.

"The fuck are you doing here?" I asked.

"You weren't at the apartment, so I figured you were here" his breath smelt of Whiskey.

"Are you drunk right now?" Denis shook his head. 

"I know you are Denis, your breath smells of Whiskey and you look like you haven't slept in months" he looked like he was either going to lose his temper, or burst into tears.

"Do me a favour Denis and go back to the apartment, take some painkillers, drink some water and go to bed. You are not in the right mind to be here right now." I was angry now, he never acted like this during the day, so what changed?

Denis nodded and stumbled down the steps. I would deal with him later, I just couldn't do it right now.

I closed the door and headed back to my parents. 

"Who was that darling?" mom asked. 

"Oh, no one mum just a sales person" I hated lying to my parents, but I didn't want to tell them it was Denis because then they would ask why I didn't let him in and I wasn't in the mood to answer those questions.

I spent another hour with mom and dad before I headed back to the apartment, to Denis. 

I definitely wasn't California dreaming anymore.