mesmerised | blake richardson

one

Serenity found herself, two days later, wrapped in her white comforter with her book open beside her. She fell asleep while reading one of her favourites; Nightfall. She'd read it so many times, she could practically recite it word for word. Books were her favourite pastime— that and listening to music. Most of her time was spent reading and listening to music, taking photographs, or writing.

Serenity Parks has been good at writing ever since she was six years old. On her sixth birthday, her mum got her a pink notebook that took shape of a flamingo. She used to constantly write small, one paragraph stories about anything that came to her mind. She always worked hard on her writing.

She chuckled softly, remembering one of the letters she had written when she was around seven. She used to be absolutely in love with frogs, right? So she had decided that she was going to write to her mum and dad a list of reasons why she would be an amazing frog keeper and why they should get her one. The whole thing ended in her getting a goldfish that died a year later.

On Serenity's eleventh birthday, Ezra had gotten her an instant camera. She would sneak out of her room and onto the balcony in the middle of the night, just to take pictures of the trees under the moonlight. She would take the photos, tape them to pages in her notebooks and write small stories about them. Over time, her stories would get longer and longer. She was proud of herself.

She was snapped out of her train of thought by a soft ringing tone coming from under her covers. She scrambled around to try and retrieve her phone from beneath her large comforter. She just barely made it before the call went to voicemail.

"Hey," Serenity said, trying to calm her heartbeat.

"Hey, bitch," Rosa's voice rang through her ears. She rolled her eyes and scoffed slightly to herself.

"What's up?" She said, her voice lacking any emotion.

"Wanna hang today?" Rosa asked, chewing loudly.

Serenity stalled for a few minutes while she checked the date on her phone. Time had always easily slipped by her for some reason. "Oh," she said softly, "I can't."

"Excuse me?" Rosa said, her voice going higher with annoyance.

Serenity had never told Rosa about Cassie; mainly because she knew she would lose her shit. Rosa hated it when she wasn't the centre of attention— she would go out of her way just to make sure everyone knew she was the only one that should have the spotlight on her. Honestly, Serenity wasn't quite sure why she was still friends with her. She simply just hasn't snapped yet.

"Plans," she told her blatantly. "I've got to go."

"Serenity—" Rosa tried to say before Serenity cut her off by ending the call.

'God,' Serenity thought, 'people exhaust me.'

She threw her phone over towards the edge of her bed and looked at the small alarm clock on her black bedside table. It read 11.28 a.m., which meant that she had about eighteen hours until she had to be at the airport to pick Cassie up. She had decided that she'd just continue on reading her book until at least three in the afternoon.

-

The wind rushed through Serenity's hair as she ran along the sidewalks of downtown London. For the midst of November, it was nearing on 9°. Beams of sunlight crashed upon her face, turning it a bold shade of gold. It was just about half eight and the sun was on its way down, which turned everything much, much more beautiful.

Serenity could feel the burn in her shins as she ran. Her ponytail was bouncing all over the place as she bounced forwards. Her breathing was ragged and music was blaring through her ears, but all she could think about was the way the sun felt on her tanned skin. The wind tickled her arms, causing goosebumps to erupt everywhere. A pair of black, spandex leggings that ended just under her knees stuck to her thighs with sweat. She wore a dark blue, loose cotton t-shirt that had sleeves which ended around the middle of the palms of her hands and a neckline dipped down in the shape of a 'V'.

She stopped at a crosswalk about ten blocks away from her flat, waiting for the stoplights to turn red so she could continue on her run. She bent over slightly and placed her hands on her knees, trying to regain the air in her lungs. It was starting to get dark, so she decided that she'd go around this block and then back home. Serenity knew that her mum would be home when she got back— that was one of the reasons she didn't want to go home.

The run back felt shorter than the run there had. The moon was out and the sun was just barely peeking over the horizon, causing a bluish yellow haze to dawn over the city. It was starting to get colder, but the burn of Serenity running was fueling her veins.

Once she got back, she was surprised to notice that her mum hadn't been home. It was starting to get later, but she didn't have a single worry in the world. It was only a few hours before she got to finally meet her best friend and a day before she was able to go see New Hope Club in concert— and meet them, as well.

Serenity went straight into her bedroom and pulled her phone out of her thigh pocket. She had been pretending that she hadn't noticed the fifty-three texts from Rosa, but now it was starting to rather annoy her. She decided on replying, even though she knew it would cause a huge fight. That seemed like all there was to her friendship with Rosa.

Serenity; Sorry, having a mate come to stay with me for a while. Won't be hanging out.

She smiled to herself almost proudly and left her phone on her bed while she peeled her sweaty clothes off of her body. She threw them into her hamper, grabbed a towel from the shelf that was on the inside of the bathroom that was attached to her room and placed it on the sink counter.

Serenity filled up the large bathtub with hot water and poured her favourite floral scented bubble bath in. She watched happily as the bathtub filled with bubbles and the room filled with the smell of lilacs and roses.

She slipped in and let the warmth overtake her body completely. She sunk down a little, letting the water soak her hair before coming back up and draping her arms along the sides of the tub. She let out a content sigh and smiled, knowing that in just a little bit over twenty-four hours, she'll be meeting her idols.