Please Don't Try and Turn On the Lights

8. Nachos and Unwanted Excuses

My phone had buzzed uncontrollably all morning. I had woken up each time, but quickly forced myself back to sleep, not wanting to see what Alex had to say to me.

At 11.58 a.m. I was completely awake, unable to go back to sleep. I decided to get the inevitable out of the way and found my phone under the pillow.

8 text messages from unknown number the screen read.

I opened them:

Received at 04.53 a.m. from Unknown Number:
Hey Rhea? Where'd you storm off to?  - Jamie

I felt a small pang in my chest as I realised that "unknown number" was in fact Jamie and not Alex.

Received at 04.58 a.m. from Unknown Number:
RHEEEEAAAAA?

Received at 04.59 a.m. from Unknown Number:
You with Alex, yeah?

Received at 05.17 a.m. from Unknown Number:
Where the fuck are you?

Received at 06.04 a.m. from Unknown Number:
Okay, I'm now officially worried. You disappeared an hour ago. We all thought you were with Al, but he just showed up alone.

Received at 06.32 a.m. from Unknown Number:
Alex seems upset. You guys have a fight or summat? I'll try and talk to him

Received at 06.34 a.m. from Unknown Number:
ABORTED MISSION. FLICKED CIGARETTE AT ME IN ANNOYANCE

Received at 07.16  a.m. from Unknown Number:
Right. So I'm leaving now. Can't see straight. Hoping you got home safe. Text me in the morning, yeah?

I sighed and contemplated not answering Jamie until I realised that he hadn't done anything wrong and just wanted to know what was up. I wrote a quick reply stating that I had just woken up and that I was alright and safe in my hotel room. I stood up from the bed and went to get dressed.

My travelling group had gone to Grand Canyon earlier that morning and were going to stay there overnight before moving on to Las Vegas. When Alex had presented me with the extra ticket yesterday, I had contacted our tour guide, telling her that I would meet up with the rest of the group when they got to San Fransisco. So I now had a few days on my own in L.A.. I decided that I didn't want to waste my trip, sulking over some bloody rockstar I had only just met.

My phone buzzed from the bed

Received at 12.11 p.m. from Jamie Cook: Glad you got home safe and that you're okay. Wanna go grab a bite just the two of us? I could really go for some nachos. We don't have to talk about yesterday if you don't want to.

I quickly replied that nachos sounded magical and I got a reply saying that he would pick me up ASAP if I sent him the address of my hotel.

-

"Mornin' - Hope you don't mind Matt tagging along. He couldn't resist the thought of Nachos," Jamie said as we met outside my hotel.

Matt was pretty cool so I didn't mind. I was just glad that it wasn't Alex who had tagged along.

"Yeah, sure!" I nodded, "Rough night? You guys look like you drank the pacific ocean."

Matt grunted something and Jaime nodded slowly as he ran his hand through his unruly hair.

The three of us walked to a small hipster café close to my hotel.

"How'd it go with the girl you were chatting up?" I asked Matt as we had found a table with three chairs in the shade.