chapter one

At the end of the night, Mick stayed the night, too. Annie and Mick fell asleep, using each other as blankets-Mick was wearing nothing, but his blue shorts, and Annie, a tank and her shorts. She woke up sweating that morning. And went out to the balcony to smoke a cigarette. Mick woke later, his hair all messed up, but she liked it that way. 

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They ended up spending the next week together.

Mick and Annie decided to go back out for a cigarette. Once they were out there, Mick took the only chair, but Annie decided to sit on top of him. He didn’t seem to mind. Mick hadn’t lit his cigarette by the time they started kissing and Annie forgot about hers. It just seemed right to Annie. They made out until they were interrupted by Ashley and Will coming to smoke. Will seemed a little hurt by being forgotten and mentioned a couple of times about Annie’s shoes and “cute panda on her shirt”. But she didn’t care. Later in the night, she found out it was a fight between the guys that was causing Will to hit on her. She didn’t care; she didn’t like Will anyway. 

continued chapter one

They eventually went onto the balcony and smoked cigarettes. The whole time, Will was hitting on Annie, but she barely noticed. That night, she was brave. She decided it would be a night where she didn’t end up taking a line from a dimwit who just wanted sex. Then, once everyone went inside, Mick started flirting with Annie. 

Chapter One-continued

Annie and the group arrived at Ashley’s apartment. They all went inside and into the living room. It was hot as satan in that apartment, because her air conditioner didn’t work. Mick and Annie sat on the couch and Will and Ashley sat on the opposite, smaller couch.

Chapter one

Annie was sitting at a cookout that she weekly attended, and a friend, Ashley, walked up and sat next to her. Ashley handed her a flyer, and told her about an open mic night, that was supposed to happen a week later. Annie said she’d try to come.

When the day came, her mother, who she called, Momma, drove her to Saffron’s, the place from the flyer. She used to go here a lot with her mom, before the bakery moved, but hadn’t yet been to this location. She walked in and was directed out the back to a patio setting, where a band was playing, but not many people were there.

As more people came, she took her seat with Ashley’s friends. Soon after, a guy with a microphone asked if anyone wanted to sing, or what-have-you. She wanted to sing, but had been out of practice for a while.

Annie sang in church and school choirs since she was little, but was too afraid to go about singing something un-practiced. The guitarists took a break and one came over and sat at the table behind her. He was ordering a mimosa and asked Ashley and Annie and their friends if they wanted one. He payed for Annie’s drink, and continued to drink them most of the night.

He also shared his small boxes of nerds with her. He needed a pen for some reason a little later that night. His had gone out, so Annie searched her purse and found in the black hole, a pen. He showed her the paper, where he was writing a song. All she remembered was the song was beautiful and she could easily add a tune to it.

He told her his name was Mick. He was in a brown shirt and jeans that rolled up at the ends. She used to think all his pants came that way, but realized after a while, that he did it himself. 

Later, her friends from Freedom arrived. The cookout company was seated in the back and she went to hang out with them.

At the end, she called her mother, but her mom was too “tired” to come get her, so Ashley offered up her apartment for Annie spend the night. Apparently Mick was going too. And a guy named Will. 

They all walked to King Street to Ashley’s apartment, giggling and laughing the whole way.