cigarette daydreams ⋆ ruel van dijk

‣ 03

RAVEN

"get your ass out of bed," a voice yelled from the kitchen as raven hesitantly sat up.

she pulled the bed covers off her body and slowly stood up. she checked her phone for the time. 6:55. far too early in her opinion.

her hands then reached for her new uniform which had been thrown on the floor due to the fact that she was too lazy to fold it up. it was the usual public school uniform. a blouse and a skirt, that ended below her knees and required adequate rolling.

she put it on and walked over to the upstairs bathroom, she rinsed her face with water and took a deep breath. time for the first day at her new school.

raven headed downstairs with her backpack in hand. she looked around to see that nobody was home, her mum had left without saying anything, great.

she decided to grab a muesli bar and began to walk to school.

RUEL

"fuck ruel, are you serious? you are meant to leave for school in two minutes, get up!" ruel heard his sisters voice echo from his doorway.

as he came to the realisation that he did in fact, have to leave his home in two minutes if he wanted to get to school on time.

ruel dragged himself out of bed and threw on his school uniform, he slung his backpack over his shoulder and ran downstairs. he kissed his mum on the cheek and ran out the front door.

as he got onto the street, he spotted a familiar face, walking with earplugs in. it was raven, the girl he met the night prior.

her head was bopping along to whatever song she was listening to while she skipped down the road. he smiled to himself about her carefree attitude, the thing he seemed to like most about her from the moment he met her, less than a day ago.

ruel contemplated whether or not to approach her or not. he didn't want to seem like a stalker but he also didn't want to look rude by ignoring her. but before he could make up his mind, he was interrupted by a car full of girls driving past.

"holy fuck it's ruel!"

"can we have a photo?"

he nodded with a fake grin as the girls jumped out of the car and snapped many photos together. they attempted to talk to him about his album but he just told them that he had to get to school, it was partly true but he also just wanted to escape so he could talk to raven.

as the girls hopped in the car, he began on his walk to school, again. but as he turned around he spotted raven looking back at him while chuckling.

"got yourself quite the crowd there, huh?" she laughed as ruel ran to catch up with her.

"yeah, i guess," he sighed.

"so, why do you have a bunch of teenage girls following you around? are you a tiktok boy or something because i will literally dump you as a friend," she giggled, half joking, half not.

"how dare you even think i'm a tiktok boy!" ruel said, acting offended.

"well, you kinda look like one! anyway, how are you so popular?" raven chuckled as ruel went on.

"i'm kinda well known for my singing," ruel said as a rosy tint arose to the surface of his cheeks.

"bro, that's sick! sing for me right now, i wanna hear why you're famous!" she exclaimed with a grin.

"but we're on the street! everyone will hear!" ruel laughed.

"well then come on, let's go this way," raven said as she pulled him around the corner to a back alleyway which appeared to end where they had to walk anyway.

"ok then, what do you want me to sing?" he asked nervously.

"hmm, show me your playlist and i'll tell you," she said.

he grabbed his phone, opened his spotify and pulled up his PAINKILLERS playlist. raven scrolled through and spotted miracle love by matt corby.

"sing miracle love by matt corby, you don't have to the whole song, just the chorus, that's the best bit anyway," she chuckled.

ruel nodded with a laugh and took a breath before he began to sing.

we got carried away
all the love that i was blind to

raven listened to his amazing voice as she shut her eyes and mouthed the lyrics as he sung along.

and i made my mistakes
and i laid them all beside you

she jokingly imitated the guitar with a twang in her voice, causing ruel to let out a stray chuckle.

we got carried away
so much love that i was blind to

raven swayed side to side, dancing to ruel's captivating voice. she could've died on the spot right then and there but she had to hold herself together.

and i made my mistakes
and you put them all behind you

"fuck yes! keep going please you're killing it right now!" raven yelled as she jumped around in excitement.

can we bring back that miracle love?
can we bring back that miracle love?

"now that's what i call legendary, no wonder you're famous!" the girl chuckled as ruel began to blush even more.

the teenage boy playfully grinned as raven continued to somewhat swoon over his voice. he had butterflies swarming around inside his stomach, he never got this nervous, not even before his live shows. but with raven, he acted completely different.

"anyway, are you good at anything?" ruel asked, distracting her from talking about him.

"nah, not really. i've never really tried to pursue any of my hobbies," she sighed.

"surely you're good at something!" ruel exclaimed, as raven awkwardly smiled.

"ok, well, i used to play piano and sing a bit, so i guess i'm sorta good at that," she laughed.

"what do you mean 'used to'?" ruel asked.

"well, i haven't been able to play piano for around a year because my mum got mad at me for sneaking out and going to a party so she sold my keyboard. i could've kept singing but i sorta just lost motivation, i guess," raven rolled her eyes and released a sigh.

ruel wanted to learn more about raven. she was funny, mysterious and pretty, which made her all the more intriguing to ruel. but as luck, or unluck in that matter, had it, they were already out the front of school.

RAVEN

raven peered up at the large school building in front of her as ruel stood beside her. the building was easily five storeys tall, people were everywhere and the uniforms were awful. she hated it already.

"what's it like?" ruel asked, interrupting raven's thoughts.

"it's fine- just different," raven sighed, this was going to take a lot of getting used to.