Donuts and Tomato Soup (Alexis story #1)

This is part one of a spin-off of thexxrevolutionx's story I'm Not In Love. This is written in the POV of Alexis, who in the story is William's gf, and each section is based on a scene in I'm Not In Love. Usual disclaimer applies. I do not know or own any of these characters. Not even Alexis. She belongs to Danielle. Enjoy!

Donuts and Tomato Soup

“It’s my elephant! No, Sisky! Mine!” William shifted in his sleep, not really having anywhere to move in the small bunk and ended up hugging me close to him. I assumed that I was the elephant from his dream and that he was hugging me to declare that I was his and not Adam’s. I rolled my eyes. I swear that boy has the dumbest dreams.

Before I could even finish that thought, Will’s leg tensed up and he kneed me in the butt before unraveling his arms from around me and turned to squash his face against the wall of the bus. I let out a deep sigh, wondering why I had even decided to come on tour with them in the first place. Yes, of course I missed him when he wasn’t home with me, but sharing a bunk on a crowded tour bus with a bunch of smelly guys wasn’t exactly my idea of a great time. I thought about my queen sized bed, sitting empty in my clean apartment that had a bathroom that one could actually use. The toilet didn’t have specks of vomit and pee on the seat. What the hell was with guys anyway? Why couldn’t they just aim for the bowl, why did they always have to pee on the seat?

At home, in my comfortable, large bed that wasn’t attached to wheels and propelling down a highway at 65 miles per hour, William’s sleep talking and kicking seemed minor. The talking wasn’t directly in my ear most of the time, and there was enough room for him to kick and not hit me in the process. Besides, when he was home with me, he always slept better, meaning that there was rarely any kicking or talking at all.

“A cream donut and a bowl of tomato soup. No, make that a chocolate donut, with extra sprinkles,” Will murmured and rolled over again so that he was facing me.

From what I could hear of his dream, it reminded me of the first time we met…

The Blue Jay Way Diner, decorated in all of it’s Beatlemania glory, was empty that night. I was stuck with the night shift and wasn’t getting off until 5:30 in the morning. It was 3:00 when a group of young guys walked in, and up until then, the chef and myself had been busy playing hangman on the back of one of the takeout menus. There were eight guys and I helped them pull two of the tables together before handing them menus. They were all fairly attractive, and I was surprised that there were no girls with them. The one with the pretty face and the brown, well-groomed hair that probably took more time to fix in the morning then mine did, winked at me when I gave him his menu, and I remember vividly wanting, in my sour middle-of-the-night mood, to slap him across the face just to make the cocky half-smile disappear from his lips. Being a good waitress, however, and not really wanting to get fired from my much needed job, I smiled politely, stated I would be back in a minute with their drink orders, and walked away from the table.

As the night wore on, the annoying pretty one kept flirting with me and throwing suggestive glances my way. However, contrary to my mood and earlier behavior, I found myself actually liking the attention that he gave me. He was clearly one of the most attractive men at the table, and usually it was just dirty old men and grimy middle-aged truckers who flirted with me that way while I was at work. They all requested separate checks, which seemed silly to me, as it was a diner and our most expensive item was probably $7.50. While writing out the pretty man’s check, I found myself doing something completely out of character. I jotted down my cell phone number and my name underneath the total that was due and handed it to him when I handed out the other checks. A moment later, while I was back behind the counter, making a fresh pot of coffee, he approached me with a sheepish look on his face. “This seems to have a phone number on it,” he said, pointing to the check.

“Yes, I put it there purposely,” I stated. Was this guy for real? I almost regretted my rash decision.

“Oh,” he smiled and all my regrets melted away, “I just wanted to make sure that it was intended for me and not someone else at the table.”

“No, it’s for you,” I said, not quite meeting his eye while I measured out the right amount of coffee into the filter.

“What time do you get off work?” he asked.

“5:30,” I simply stated.

“Is it okay if I wait until then? Instead of calling you?” he shifted his weight uncomfortably.

“Oh, okay. Sure.” I said, watching his friends all leaving their money on the table and walking out the diner, waving their goodbyes. He took a seat at the counter and I poured him a cup of coffee without even asking if he wanted one.

He introduced himself as William and talked to me for the rest of the night, while I cleaned up the table after his friends, waited on the few other people who staggered in and out of the diner in the wee hours, and got everything ready for the next shift. When my shift was through he walked me to my apartment a few blocks away and promised he’d call. That was the beginning of our relationship.

I was brought out of my memory with an elbow to the face. “Ow!” I whispered, rubbing my stinging nose as my eyes burned with tears that were ready to escape with the pain. I’d had enough. “What the fuck, William?” I shook him awake.

His eyes fluttered open and he smiled at me, “Hey booboo.”

I rolled my eyes again, hoping that he couldn’t see. Where did he get these ridiculous nicknames for me? “You elbowed me in the face again,” I pointed to my nose, which in the dark probably didn’t look out of the ordinary, but felt like it was blazing red with heat.

“I’m sorry, Kitten,” he kissed my nose and closed his eyes again, laying flat on his back. He pulled me over to him so that my head was resting on his chest. “Go back to…”

I was assuming that he was going to finish the sentence with the word sleep, but he was already breathing lightly, signifying that he’d had no trouble falling back asleep. I kept my head resting on his chest while he slept and soon the rhythm of his heart and steady, soft breaths acted as my lullaby as my eyes closed.

I awoke only a few short hours later to William smacking his lips. “Thanks for those. I love that particular brand of savory snacks.” He smacked his lips a few more times and his jaw moved in a chewing motion. William always did have a way of sounding extra intelligent even when he was only talking about something dumb like snacks or urinating (A/N: see William’s blog for the poem about urination that he posted the other night).

I was just falling back into a shallow slumber when William starting rubbing my back in a circular motion, “Thanks for coming to the show,” he said in a whiny voice, “I hope you enjoyed it.”

I let out an exasperated sigh, knowing that he wasn’t going to let me go back to sleep again this morning, “Dammit, William!! You always wake me up with your sleep talking gibberish!” I said, climbing out of the bunk and throwing my pillow into his face before sliding the curtain shut. I made my way to the front of the bus only to find Andy sitting next to a girl I had seen before, but didn’t know well. “Oh, sorry guys,” I said, while my mind really screamed, ‘THANK GOD! ANOTHER FEMALE!’

“Hey Alexis” Butcher started, “You know, the sleep talking only occurs when you’re around.”

“Yeah, uh, he just started rubbing my back and thanked me for coming to the show and hoped I enjoyed it. I’m kinda disturbed. Does he treat fans that way?” I questioned, deciding to leave out all of the other weird sleep talking he had done.

“I try not to pay any attention,” Butcher shrugged off my query.

I giggled and held my hand out to the girl, “Hi. I’m Alexis, William’s girlfriend if you didn’t catch that.”

“I actually did pick up on that one.” She finished the sentence and made room on the couch by moving more toward Andy. She told me her name was Jamie and that she was the merch girl for a band called Sofapunch.

A yawn escaped my lips, and I couldn’t hold it back anymore. “You can go sleep in my bunk if you want” Andy said.

“Really? Thanks!”I made my way back to the bunks. There was no way that I was going to sleep in Andy’s bunk when he had just had Jamie over all night. I didn’t know what they had been up to and I knew he didn’t have time to clean the sheets yet. Instead I started hitting William on the arm, “William, get up. Butcher said you could sleep in his bunk, and I’ll sleep here.”

“Oh-kayyy” William said tiredly and got up. He kissed me on the cheek and said, “You know, I really love you.” I nodded and watched as William got down and opened the curtain to Sisky’s bottom bunk.

“Uh, Bill, that’s Sisky’s bunk” I warned him, shaking my head. I love him, but sometimes he just doesn’t think.

“Oh-kayyy” William responded deliriously and slipped into the bunk anyway. He put his arm around Sisky, who didn’t even stir. I shook my head and closed their curtain before climbing into the bunk I shared with William.
+
“No Sisky! My elephant!” I heard William’s muffled whine from behind the two sets of curtains and tried to hold back my giggle as I shut my eyes.