“It’s been awhile since they came back.” Minho says while I practice. “Are you still sulking?” Min continues to pester as I attempt to focus.

“She could have been the one.” I say, well it slipped out, all the plans I wanted to make with Lexi, with Hollywood…well they won’t ever happen. I saw how he watched her, looks at her, holds her so carefully and bravely; did what I wouldn’t or rather couldn’t. I couldn’t ever get so close like he did.

“But obviously she isn’t.” Minho says frankly. “I think it’s time you moved on, or at least start pretending you have.” I can’t even say anything before Min glares at me. “Are you seriously going to try arguing that this is you moved on?”

“Well what exactly am I supposed to do?” I snap at him, for a moment I feel like everything is closing in. “Lexi was and always will be special to me, I can’t help that.”

For little I think Minho has finally dropped it before I see him walk to stand in front of me. “Let her go.” He says simply. “I don’t mean to forget or anything, because I know that’d be stupid. But Jay, it’d been a while now. You’re not trying, at least not really.”

I purse my lips, let go of Lexi, just let her go? I know I should, I know what I told her, but part of me hoped she’d hold on to me, to us. “Let’s just go record that song.” I mutter grabbing my water from the ground, readjusting my hat I nod for him to follow.

Noah and Alfie come into the building with huge grins on their faces, talking animatedly as per-usual. “You know, their friend is really cute.” Minho says with a shrug. I frown again, I agree, she’s cute, but something about her is really off-putting. “You know, that face makes it look like you don’t exactly like her.”

“It’s not that I don’t like her. I just don’t know how to respond to her.” I decide, after she left I was confused. She’d said all these things I know are true, but in a way no normal person would.

“Alfie told me she used to dance.” I perk up at this, she’d said she was a writer; Minho tilts his head to the side. “Said she suddenly just gave it up.”

It’s something I can’t fathom, just giving up dancing, letting it go. Music and dancing are like air to me, a distraction that lets me forget everything that’s going on, just lets me be. Noah and Alfie both walk up to us with suddenly grave faces. “Hey guys?” I say deciding to choose an amused expression.

“Err” Alfie says glancing at Noah for a second before looking at me. “About Maude, we know she can be a bit too forward, but she usually means well.”

“She just can’t relay that correctly.” Noah says sighing with a small frown. “She’s coming by later to apologize, she’ll say it in a way that doesn’t quite sound right, the tone” He says trying to explain their friend.

“Yeah, it’ll sound insincere and maybe not all the right words, but she means it.” Alfie sums up; Minho is sending me an interested glance.

“I’ll be in the recording room with Minho, when she gets here just knock and I’ll come talk to her.” I reassure them. “She’s lucky to have you two.” I say with chuckle, her lack of propriety seems to be a bit endearing.

Minho and I walk away; my good friend is smirking at me. “What happened last night? You came off the patio with a sour look.” He says with a cheerful tone.

I glare at him again. “I heard something you’ve been saying since Lexi came back from Japan with the guys” I say finally after he won’t stop looking at me with that smug look. “Just in an indelicate way.” I mutter while rolling my eyes.

This seems to be enough, but I feel like Minho is holding something back, when the hell did this guy get all-knowing? As I get in the booth I stare at the lyric page, the notes and everything seeming to be jumble for a moment.

“Jay, ready?” I hear Minho’s voice, nodding my head I take a deep-breath.

When I start recording and being in this room makes me feel a bitter after-taste. Part of music seems to be Lexi, that mysterious and rebellious girl. I’d brought her here, I’d taken her to a lot of places, but she seemed to be happy watching me while sitting next to Minho when she could come in.

“Again” Minho says for the fifth time. “Don’t sound so depressing, this is a happy song.” He commands, and I nod my head, he’s right. Completely and totally right. Well damn, he is right, about more than the song.

After a while he nods his head happily at me. I come out of the booth and sit next to him. “What’s for lunch?” I ask him leaning my head back to look up at the ceiling, I hear a sharp knock; looking at the door I feel Minho push me up from the chair. “I don’t know, I’m going out with Yoora today.” He says happily.

I nod my head, happy and sad at the same time. Minho’s lovely girlfriend that he’s very happy with. As I open the door I’m surprised to see it is Maude in fact and not Noah or Alfie (or the pair of them). Stepping out I gesture for us to take a seat down the hall. She follows me.

As she sits she glances at me with a perplexing face. “I went to bed last night and was woken up by Noah and Alfie staring at me.” She starts with an annoyed tone, then her expression softens. “I said things in an indecent way. I shouldn’t have, especially since I don’t know you. I mean you’re just tacky tattoo guy. I only just learned your name yesterday.” She says, and Noah and Alfie are right.

I smile at her again, she glares. “You seem to already have an idea why it’s funny.” I say as she mutters something about ice and water.

“Alfie and Noah, they may look out for me, but I wish they’d stop making it sound so amusing to everyone else.” She says in a defeated tone. “Anyways to sum up all that, sorry.” She says sitting up and looking at me with an indifferent expression. Her friends know her well.

“You know, you’re right about what you said,” I glance at her; she doesn’t seem to look comfortable anymore. “And so you know, my tattoos aren’t tacky.” I say smirking; she glances at me arm and does this head thing.

“If you like them, that’s what matters.” She says finally. “Anyways, Noah and Alfie say that the polite thing to do is to treat you to lunch.” Maude looks unsure of this but goes along with it. “I’m not sure I really understand it, but there is this nice place that makes good sandwiches.” She says.

I nod my head, it didn’t exactly sound like an offer, but she wasn’t getting up to leave either. “We can go now; Minho and I are going to break for lunch.” I say leading the way back down the hall. I text Minho to take a long break to eat with Yoora, part of me is intrigued with Maude, the part that says she’s not a bad person, it’s like her two friends say, she can’t relay correctly that she is a good person.

As soon as we get out on the street she picks her pace up and starts walk, easily avoiding people. Again what Minho had said, her being a dancer at one time nags at my head.

~~~

I eat happily, she definitely wasn’t wrong. “How long have you known Alfie and Noah?” I ask her curiously, she doesn’t seem to put up with crap, or people that she doesn’t like.

“Since kindergarten.” She answers with a distant face. “I came into the school half-way through, a lot of the other kids were nice, but Noah and Alfie both latched on to me by the second day and before I knew it, we were a trio and all the other kids stopped trying to talk to me.”

“That exclusive?” I ask curiously, Maude almost sounds affectionate talking about it before she frowns and has an offensive look.

“No, they were trouble-makers. Sure, popular with people, just not to be really good friends with them, at least not when we were little kids.” She says with a frown, but then she returns to that almost there emotion. She looks up at me and her head to the side. “Who is ‘L’?” She asks me suddenly.

I look down and try to explain Lexi. “Lexi,” I mumble quietly, I glance around, mostly older ladies sitting and chatting happily. “We dated for a while, she’d been like air.”

“So you’re suffocating.” Maude says plainly, and it seems to make sense. “She must have been great, so what happened?”

“I left to go on tour, we’d been having problems before and well I let her go.” Her eyes narrow before she seems to make a decision. “Go ahead” I say holding my hand out for her to say whatever it is.

“You let her go, she obviously met someone else, probably with some encouragement, so I suppose I want to know, why are you still holding on?”

I shrug my shoulders. “I’m kinda disappointed, like part of me thought she’d choose me and not” I stop before I glance around again. “Not him.”

“Well, that does make sense.” She says finally, she sips her coke. “Just so long as you know, you know you’ll have to let go or let it eat you alive.” Maude looks up surprised and stares at me. “, I did it again.”

I frown and give her a crazy look. “Did what?”

“Jay, you have to tell me if you don’t want to talk about something.” She says with a slight glare in her eye.

I chuckle; she doesn’t pick up on any social interaction I guess. “I don’t mind, not this time. You’re not wrong, and I know I should listen, because you’re not the only person saying it.”

“It doesn’t matter who says it” She says pausing for a beat before looking up at me from her half-eaten sandwich. “It doesn’t matter until that person is you, when you decide that it is time.”

“So what about you?” I ask finishing mine off. “I heard you didn’t always write, you in fact were a dancer.”

She seems surprised again, and for a split second it’s like everything about her is human, no lack of emotion or knowledge of them, then it’s gone. “It didn’t feel real anymore, to be honest.” She says glancing out the window. “I started because Alfie asked me to, I kept at it because Noah got into it too, I stayed with it for a long time because it felt real, then after a while it stopped feeling like that.”

Looking back at me, Maude looks as if she’s considering something. “What?” I ask feeling a bit more at ease around her.

“You’re not so bad.” She says while shrugging her shoulders, she starts eating again.

Looking up her eyes start following something, she starting to look a bit more alarmed, turning around I see some guy approaching. Said guy stops and looks at Maude pleadingly. “Can we help you?” I ask seeing her frozen.

“We?” The guy says shocked. “Maude?”

She looks up, it seems like she reboot. “I said no, I’m not going to.” Getting up she grabs her tray and tosses the contents in the trash before leaving the shop. I watch completely shocked, she’d just left me here.

“Are you a close friend of hers?” The guy asks taking her seat. “Could you convince her?” He asks not even giving me a second to process.

“Look man, I don’t even understand what just happen.” I tell him grabbing a napkin to wipe m hands off. “I don’t know her all that well, but to me it seems like you go a very solid answer.”

I'm debating on how long I'll make this.
I kinda want this to go on longer than ten or fifteen chapters, but
I'm still not sure.

Let me know what you guys think c: