The cold and crisp breeze hit me hard as soon as I stepped out the front door of the building where the practices were held. I don't really know why I was surprised by the cold air since it is a normal thing for the beginning of October. Maybe it was just the swift change in the weather. It was a fair climate when I left my quaint little house at about 12:30 but now it's very, very chilly. Too chilly for the little material I was wearing. The warmest piece of apparel I had put on this morning was my wool socks and those are doing diddly-squat for the rest of my body. Oh so cold.
"Where are you, apple?" I questioned as I took my sack and proceeded in rummaging through it in attempts to find the piece of fresh fruit that grows on trees. The practice had taken quite a large toll on my hunger and it was now relevant for me to get something down my throat before I was dragged off to the club. I'm hoping that I can get home with enough time for me to cook myself a half decent meal before I was forced to leave. I hate club food, and you'll never be able to get me to consume a single bite of it. They call it food but I wouldn't even see it good enough to be fed to starving dogs, and they'll eat just about anything.
One time Jessica tried to get me to eat a plate of nachos at a club one time and she ultimately regretted it in the end. The food made me a little queasy and after about 10 minutes of Ginger Ale being walked right to me, I projectile vomited all over her. Everybody learned a lesson from that little mishap. And to think I predicted that that would happen in the end. I laugh at the mere upbringing of it but Jessica, not so much, we all just get ugly glares from her. I ruined her favorite, and most expensive, party dress. Serves her right for trying to feed me club food. Jessica would just be an outright idiot to try something like that again. I don't think she wants to lose yet another party dress. This did happen about a year or so ago but I don't think my stomach's tolerance of club food has grown any, of anything just the opposite.
"There you are," I exclaimed as I pulled the apple out of my little sack. "About time I was able to find you," I added before taking a bite out of it. I pulled out my bottle of water to get something to drink only to discover that it was frozen through and through. Looks like I won't be drinking that then. The water almost most likely would have been too cold for me to want to drink anyway. I took out my phone from my pocket to check the time to see that it was approaching five o'clock. Jessica has the tendency of claiming me at 6:30 and the subways don't start up again until fifteen past six, so looks like I'll be eating at a cafe tonight. I don't have a problem with that.
The streets oddly weren't as busy as I would have originally expected then to be. Yes, it's a little colder than one would think for this time of day but it's early evening on a Friday. I seriously thought there would be a lot of commuters going home from a day of work or housewives or homemakers they prefer to be called leaving to have a girls' night out. Looks like I was wrong about that.
As soon as I caught sight of my favorite cafe, I broke out into a full on sprint. I desperately hope that they have the heat on, but with how busy it usually is this time of day and with how cold it is, it would be dumb of them not to have the heat on. The thought of the warm space is already heating me up from the inside out. I already know exactly what I'll be getting and the thought of that is also warming me up as well as putting my taste buds into a mad frenzy.
I almost slid off the ice that had began to form on the paved asphalt as I continued to run towards the cafe that I wanted to be inside of as quickly as possible. I had devoured the apple right down to the core quite quickly but it wasn't enough to even subside my hunger for a short amount of time. I guess the smell of different foods all around me doesn't help very much either.
"This feels oh so nice," I muttered under my breath as I stepped through the doors of the little restaurant. There were only five or so people standing in line to order so that was good. The less time I have to wait, the better.
"Hello Alex," The cashier greeted. "What can I get for you?" He asked. I knew this cashier fairly well. His name was Jackson. I'd been here so much when I first moved into town because I was living in a motel until my house had the closing and because of that, I had to go to eateries for every meal. I fell in love with this restaurants paninis so I came here all the time. I had little conversations with Jackson every time I dropped in to pass the minutes while my order was being fulfilled and we became good friends. We rarely ever associate anywhere other than here when he's working, but we're still good friends. There have been a couple times when he's finished his shift where he sat himself across from me at the table and we had a conversation while I ate.
"Oh, the usual," I replied, not being able to help but allow a smile to spread across my face. It's been about a week or so since I've been here or seen Jackson so it was a pleasant surprise to see that he was working his shift now.
"Tomato and parmesean panini with a cup of green tea and bag of kettle cooked chips it is," Jackson concluded as he hit a few buttons on the cash register. "So how's life been?" He asked, noticing that there was nobody in line behind me.
"It's been treating me pretty well," I answered. "The play we're performing in community theater is almost ready for an opening night so that's good. Starting to get annoyed of that play but the only part of community theater I don't really like is the apathetic director of ours."
"Who's the director, Mr. Cavalier?" Jack asked. "He used to be a happy person you know."
"So I've heard," I commented. "The senior members of the club have told me this time and time again but I won't believe them until I see proof."
"He used to be happy then some bad stuff came his way and he's been a somber man ever since," I was informed. Those words have made me now feel some sort of empathy towards Mr. Cavalier. "How's life been for you?"
"Not that bad to be honest," He answered. "Gotten a bit of a raise and got a new apartment."
"That's nice," I said, staring down at my hands for a split second before bringing my attention back up to Jack.
"What do you do for a living?" He asked, me never having told him the answer to this, yet again, he's never asked. Actually, nobody's ever asked me where my money came from, and I'm somewhat glad for that.
"Well..." I trailed off.
"I have a feeling that this is going to be a long story," He concluded. "Lucky for you, my shift finishes in just a few minutes. Here's your order and I'll be joining you as soon as I can." He added as he handed me a plate that had my order on it.
"Thank you," I thanked before venturing off to the other end of the building and sat down at a table that was by a window. I took a couple bites of my grilled sandwich and a sip of tea before being spooked slightly.
"Nice to see you again," Jack stated as he sat in the chair across the table from myself. "So, what do you do for a living?" He inquired, repeating his question. I ignored him for a fair bit of time, enjoying the bite of the tomato and parmesean panini still in my mouth before giving him a blunt answer.
"I used to be a YouTuber," I shared. "I still get checks that are usually enough for expenses but sometimes they're not so I go busking every so often to make ends meet, or to have some extra spending money."
"You used to be a YouTuber?" He questioned, not sure if he had heard me correctly. I nodded slightly as I took another sip of tea.
"I started a channel with one of my friends and we became quite well known for our silly videos, which were mainly our own takes on popular radio games on the BBC, but we did a couple of other cheeky things that were our primary source of attention. We had a bit of a fall-out so that account was deleted but before doing so I posted a video to direct the million or so subscribers to my solo channel and I was a hit right away. After about a year of making videos and raking in the money, I had a realization that this isn't what I want to do with my life, so I posted my final faewell video and was done with it. I'm thankful that people still watch the dumb videos and that nobody knows my real name, or my name at all."
"Incredible," Jackson replied, highly intrigued by my story. "I have a couple questions though."
"Will I have the right to refuse to answer them if need be?" I asked, clueless as to what kind of questions he would ask. I most likely would answer his questions but I just wanted to be able to have that offer at my disposal in the case that I may need to use it.
"Sure," He answered. "My first question is whether or not Alexandria Blake is your real name."
"Indeed it is," I smiled, happy that this question was very simple. The next one can't be that bad.
"My next question is whether you have any tips to being a success," He continued. "I've been trying to have some fame but I haven't gotten any notice whatsoever.
"I'm sorry to hear that but in all honesty, it's not all it's cracked up to be," I replied. "But if you want it that badly the key point is to be different. The only way to get any notice when there are so many YouTubers out there is to be different. Do something that will get you noticed."
"Thanks for the tip," He thanked. I was hinting at a bit of sarcasm but I wasn't sure if there really was any so I didn't bother to bring it up.
"What kind of videos are you making?" I asked, wanting to get some idea as to what he was trying to achieve with his videos.
"Oh, nothing very special, just playing some silly games, recording them, and posting them," He informed.
"Ah, there's your problem right there," I pointed out. "If you don't believe in your own videos then they're not going to get any lift. You're also not putting effort into your videos so that's why nobody's watching. Why would somebody waste their time watching a ten minute long video of you playing a pathetic game with your friends when they could be watching Tyler Oakley's latest upload?"
"Then what do you suggest I do?" He questioned, not snappish or anything even though that's what I expected.
"I suggest that you try something different and put effort into your videos. Take something that you're quite talented at and use that to your advantage, whatever your special talent may be," I suggested. As soon as the words flew out of my mouth I knew immediately what his talent was. he can sing, and damn can that man sing. He can't just sing, but he can sang. "Meet me tomorrow afternoon at Dumond square and bring your guitar."
"Why?" He asked.
"Just do as I say," I answered. "I have an idea that I believe will work, I just need to test it out and see if it'll work the way I expect it to."
"Why does this plan require me meeting you at Dumond Square and bringing my guitar?" He continued.
"Because it does," I snapped back before shoving the rest of my panini in my mouth rather ungracefully. I don't really care whether my current style of eating is graceful in the viewpoint of others or not, I just want to get the food from the plate to my stomach.
"Sheesh, okay then," He responded. "Should I expect to be playing Secondhand Serenade?"
"Wow, you know me almost too well," I replied, giving him yes for an answer but it being more in a terms of having to dig through the words, but not too hard though or then you wouldn't get the answer.
"I'll practice up then," He informed. "See you tomorrow then."
"See you tomorrow,' I returned before picking up my tray, dumping the trash into the specified bucket, then exiting to make my way home. It was now six o'clock and I needed to get to the Subway so I could get home in time for Jessica to pick me up and drag me off to the club.
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