462A/N: Just so everyone knows, this is the sequel to Not So Crash Hot. Sure, you can try and read this, but I recommend at least skimming through the other story beforehand.
Happy reading!
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Crash and Burn
Chapter One
The Beginning
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"Get a life? I'm a gamer, I have many lives!"
I yawned hugely, blindly shoving the key into the hole and when the lock clicked open, basically falling against it. The door swung open with a bang but I disregarded it, throwing my keys into the bowl as another yawn overtook me.
"Hi-yaaa—Oh."
My eyes flew open at the abruptly cut off scream and I jumped.
"Sandy? What the hell are you doing?"
The guy stood there, rainbow umbrella raised over his head threateningly but with a sheepish look on his face. He slowly lowered it.
"I-uh… Sorry? I thought you were a burglar!"
"Alexander Mundy, I unlocked the door! With a key!" I said incredulously, not sure whether to be angry or amused.
"Yeah, well…" He looked defensive, glaring at me slightly. "Still! You might've picked the lock! Duh!"
"Why would a burglar crash into the door!?"
"I don't know! I thought you were Sir Killalot!"
At this point, I couldn't help but laugh. Even though he never tried to be funny, I found him hilarious. 'Sir Killalot' was his number one rival from Call of Duty and he was convinced that somehow, he'd found out Sandy's real identity and had come to finish him off.
"You make me laugh, Sandy," I said, walking past him and dumping my books into my room.
He grumbled and threw the umbrella down, disappearing into his room once more. As I pondered over to the kitchen to make myself something to eat, he stuck his head out of the door.
"How'd the exam go?"
I groaned as I opened the fridge. "Terrible."
"Bullshit," he quipped straightaway.
"Alright, I think I did pretty well. All that studying better have paid off," I grumbled. I'd stayed up all night, taking catnaps every two hours so I could cram in as much as possible.
"Huh. Wanna play some Xbox?"
I weighed up catching up on sleep or playing a fairly useless game and wasting a few hours of my life.
"Hell yeah," I said, grabbing the whole drumstick off the chicken and munching on it as I made my way over to his room.
He eyed it warily as I pulled up a beanbag in front of the television. "Bryce is gonna kill you when she realises that you haven't used a plate."
I cocked an eyebrow at him. "And since when have you cared?"
He pondered this for a moment. "Yeah true. Halo or Super Smash Brothers?"
"Halo."
And the hour that followed was the most intense hour of my entire life.
Okay, not really, but still.
"Honey, I'm home!" called Bryce as the door slammed open and she entered dramatically.
"Shut up," both Sandy and I said at the same time, staring intently at the screen. My eyes narrowed as I tried to find Sandy as my player zoomed around the map in a hovercraft. I cried out in alarm when my player died suddenly.
"Hey! What the fuck?!"
"Head shot!" Sandy crowed. "I snipered you and got you in the head! Just call me the man!"
"You sneaky little bastard!" I accused, glaring at him and punching him in the arm. "I'm gonna get you this time and you're gonna pay—"
We both shrieked in alarm when the screen went black. My eyes flew over to the girl holding the power-plug in her hand, smirking victoriously.
"Bryce!" we both whined, once again in unison.
Her look of triumph turned wary. "You guys freak me out when you start talking at the same time. Anyway, you've had too much TV. You're eyes will go square." She let the cord drop as she walked away.
"She is such a bitch," Sandy said, turning to me.
"Yeah. We should kick her out."
"I can still hear you!" she called out from the kitchen.
We both started giggling and I stood up, stretching. "I'm feeling awfully sleep deprived. Good night, small fry," I said, patting Sandy on the head. "It was awfully fun whooping your arse."
"You did not! I won easily!"
I didn't answer, taking a detour to the kitchen to throw the chicken bones in the garbage bin. Unfortunately, Bryce caught me.
"Regan you didn't! How many times do I have to ask you to use a plate? Why is personal hygiene such a chore for you two?!"
"I'm off to bed!" I called over my shoulder as I ran out of the kitchen, slamming my bedroom door and locking it, just to make sure.
Without further ado, I whipped off my clothes and pulled on my pyjamas, even though it was only three in the afternoon. I was dead tired, and the exam on biochemistry had completely worn me out.
I fell into bed and was dead asleep within minutes.
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Riiiiiiiiiing. Riiiiiiiiiing. Riiiiiiiii— Slam.
I grumbled as I rolled away from the alarm clock and tried to get back to sleep for the precious five minutes that the snooze button allowed me. However instead of going back to the wondrous dream I was having, a memory floated to the surface and played.
"Babe, can I talk to you for a sec?" Logan asked, grasping my elbow. I grinned at him, then gave him a confused look.
"Yeah, sure! We have to be in our places in about five minutes, though," I said, glancing back at all the other graduating students who were slowly getting themselves into order.
He said nothing, but led me away from the main bustle of people and around the corner of a building.
"What's this all about?" I asked, frowning when I noticed the seriousness in his silver eyes.
He shifted from foot to foot and ran a hand through his hair, avoiding my eyes. "You see… Regan… you know how I told you that I had accepted that scholarship at Columbia?"
"Yeah…" I said slowly, dread beginning to seep in. "And I'd decided to go to NYU, so we wouldn't be too far away from each other."
He still wasn't meeting my eyes. "The thing is… um... I don't actually plan to go to university. At all. I didn't accept the scholarship."
My whole world stopped. "What? You're not serious are you?" I asked incredulously. He said nothing, but finally met my eyes. His eyes held a steely determination. "You're going to give up a scholarship at one of the best universities in America?! And you lied to me! For months, while I've been planning… you knew and you said nothing! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" I snarled, advancing on him and poking his chest.
"My cousin works in Hollywood and he heard Intimate Danger play, and he said he might be able to get me a deal."
"And the rest of the band? What about them? You're just going to run off to Hollywood? I know for a fact that you're parents are strongly for you going to university! They could cut you off! Then what will you do? Work at a dingy café while you try and make it big?!" Angry didn't even begin to cover what I felt at that moment. He had lied to me. For months!
"I was the only one serious about continuing music as a career, and they all supported my decision. And I'm fully prepared to become self-sufficient. My cousin's offered to help me out."
I just stared at him. "You're serious about this?"
"Yes, I am. I've thought about it quite a lot and it's what I want to do. Can you understand that?" he asked, his eyes pleading with me to understand.
"No, actually, I can't. I can't have the guy I love throwing away a great opportunity at Columbia to become a bum on the streets of Hollywood with all the other hopefuls—"
"This is a great opportunity! You of all people should know how much my music means to me!" he said, and I could tell he was starting to get annoyed at my resistance to his stupid idea.
"Of course I understand that!" I snapped. I closed my eyes and took a long breath, then opened them. "I'm extremely upset that you would hide this from me for all these months—"
"It's because I knew you would react like this!" he interrupted, and then said softly, "And I'm a coward."
"That's fucking right you are! I can't believe you'd—No, I won't get even more worked up about that. Why can't you do both? Get your law degree at Columbia and then pursue this music career. I will support you then."
"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, Regan."
I snapped.
"And so is getting a scholarship at Columbia! Do you have any idea how hard some kids work to get what you're throwing carelessly away?!"
"Then maybe one of those hard working students can have it now! And I'm not throwing it away carelessly; I've thought about it a lot."
"And you don't even trust me enough to tell me about it! That's what makes me absolutely furious! Trust and communication is what a relationship is based on Logan! And you've violated both!" I paused and just glared at him. "If you choose Hollywood, then I can't support you in that," I said softly, even though my heart was shattering inside. I swallowed down the tears that were rising and stayed firm.
His face crumpled and he looked at me pleadingly. "Regan, no. You can't make me choose between my dream and you."
I looked into his eyes and heard the words that he had left unspoken: 'Because I know which one I'll pick, and you won't like it.'
"I'm not making you choose between your dream and me, Logan! I want you to get your law degree, and then go after your career as a solo artist! At least then you'll have something to fall back on if – and probably when – you don't make it big!" My tone softened. "I don't want to see you fail and have absolutely nothing left. It would kill me. Please, Logan, think."
The pleading was suddenly gone and the determination again held residence. "Matt thinks I have a very good chance of getting recognised by one of the big companies—"
"And then what?! What happens with me? Okay, let's say you do make it big. What will I become to you? The nagging high school crush? While you're up living the high life I'll be stuck down the bottom, insignificant compared to your career. And then, inevitably, you'll be drawn into the ranks of the other cheating, lying celebrities. No, I don't particularly like that road."
"So… what? You're just going to run away? You're not even going to try to keep this relationship? You called me cowardly before, but now look what you're doing!"
I swallowed, hard, as my stomach dropped to my feet. "No. You made your decision and now I'm making mine. Have a nice life, Logan."
And I walked away. He never tried to stop me…
With a sour taste in my mouth, I jolted awake. Frowning, I turned my alarm clock before the second snooze had even gone off. I still had a dark scowl on my face when I stumbled into the shower. Even after four years, that memory still haunted me. Of course, I didn't regret. Sure, I would've loved if it had gone a different way but I never regretted my decision. And I never regretted my decision to pull out of NYU, take a year off to clear my head, and then accept a soccer scholarship at London University.
Pushing these morose thoughts from my head, I finished my shower and found some clothes, before stumbling into the kitchen, yawning widely.
"You are so lazy in the mornings," Bryce commented as she sipped at her smoothie. Normally, I'd love smoothies. But not her ones. She put all sorts of stuff in them, like ginger, carrot, celery… ew.
"Shut up," I mumbled as I grabbed the bread out of the fridge and put two pieces in the toaster. I turned to face her and noticed her wrinkled nose. "Yes, I know white bread has lots of carbohydrates and sticks to my stomach!"
Sometimes, having a health freak as a roommate was seriously crap. However, she was an amazing cook so I kept her around. And she was one of my closest friends plus she shared the rent. I looked back at her and noticed she was in her exercise clothes.
"Hey!" I whined. "We were s'pose to go for a run this afternoon!"
She shrugged. "Yeah, yeah, I will. But I ate this huge hamburger last night and I can basically feel the bread, cheese and oil accumulating on my thighs." She shuddered dramatically.
"Oh, you're such a freak Brycie," muttered Sandy as he also stumbled out of his room and collapsed on the couch, Bart Simpson flannelette pyjamas and all.
"Pipe down, Alexander. Don't you have class?"
He made a face at the use of his full name, then answered, "Yeah, at ten though."
"Really? Because it's quarter past ten now," Bryce said nonchalantly, and smirked when he leapt up and raced into his room.
"You changed the time on my clock!" His accusing voice drifted in from the other room.
"You love annoying him, don't you?" I said, laughing as I began to munch on my toast.
She grinned wickedly. "That's what he gets for replacing my soy milk with full cream. Asshole." Bryce and Sandy were always pulling pranks on each other, but I knew they were great friends. We all were, thus the reason for sharing this apartment. Neither were doing the same degree as me – Bryce was doing communications and Sandy ancient history – but we went to the same college together when we first started, and had decided to move out after the first year together. As I mentioned before, Bryce was a major health freak while Sandy was the complete opposite. After months of complaining, we had finally divided the fridge into two sections: healthy, and unhealthy. I just scabbed from either side whenever I felt like it.
Sandy grabbed my other piece of toast as he ran out of the room, the door slamming shut behind him.
"What do you have today?" Bryce asked me and I made a face.
"I have an anatomy and histology lecture at eleven then a tutorial straight after that, so I won't be back till about four or five. And then we're going for a run."
"Cool!" she said. "Oh wait, shit! I promised Eddie both us of would go out tonight, seeing how it's Friday and all. So, we don't need to go for a run!"
I made a face at her. "Why do you always make these decisions without telling me?" I whined.
She elbowed me cheekily as she passed me on the way to her room. "You know you love it. She asked me to rope in Sandy as well, which I'll leave for you to do since you'll probably see him at lunch."
"Why don't you?" I complained. I hated convincing Sandy; it was hard work.
"Because I don't have any classes today so I'm catching up with my parents!"
Bryce's parents were the typically rich, high-class people but they were quite nice to me once they got over my American accent. They were the type that funnelled a huge amount of money into the university, but they were very considerate and caring towards Bryce so that's all that really mattered.
I grabbed my shoulder bag and slipped my books into it. I then pulled my new black blazer and white scarf out of my closet, as it was a pretty cold day, and headed off. Thankfully the block I was living in was part of the university, so I didn't have to walk too far. On the way there, I stopped at Dozer's, the local university café, and ordered a strawberry thickshake. I'd never developed a taste for coffee or tea, but I did drink it when I needed to stay up late to complete an assessment.
I turned my attention to the television, which was playing some insipid gossip show.
"…and," a blonde bombshell was saying, "much to many of his fans' delight and much deliberation, he has decided to hold the finale of his tour around America and Britain in London! The tickets will be on sale from tomorrow morning, and I can assure you that they're going to go fast! His other London performance sold within hours of being opened! Now, I have a surprise for everyone watching. Logan Williams… is in the studio!" The crowd of mainly women began to cheer wildly as Logan strode out on stage, the camera zooming in to a close up of his face. I flinched, grabbed my thickshake and quickly left the café. I couldn't help but noticing, however, that the four years had definitely been good for him. I shook the thoughts out of my head. That was four years ago. How much sadder could I get? He had chosen his music over me, and I was fine with that. That was life.
Once I arrived at the lecture theatre, I took a seat in the back row, against a wall, so I could lean on it when I decided to fall asleep. Which probably would happen.
I was getting my books and pens out of my bag when someone slid into the seat next to me. I looked up, expecting to see Eddie, but instead I met blue eyes.
"Hey sexy," Ryan said, smirking at me.
"Ah! Why can't you just go away?" I moaned.
"You know you love me. Hey, I'll even go as far as to say that you miss me."
"Can you please just fuck off," I said, scowling at him. Ryan's smirk grew.
"How about I fuck you," he said, making his voice husky as he leaned in.
I yelped and pushed him away by palming him in the forehead.
"I love it when you play rough!"
I just rolled my eyes, stifling my laughter. Ryan and I used to go out, quite a while back, but, as with all my other relationships, I couldn't commit properly and get serious. Thankfully, neither could he so we just ended it one day and he'd taken to annoying me. Which he did do when we used to go out, but he'd upped the ante now that we weren't. He was a friend in a weird, convoluted way.
"There's a nice seat over there that's calling your name," I said, pointing my pen at a chair all the way over the other side of the auditorium.
He pouted. "Aw babe, first you want me and now you're playing all hard to get?"
"Ry Ry, why the fuck are you so annoying?" Eddie asked as she came to a stop next to the row I was sitting in. "Righteo, out you get!"
For some stupid reason, he listened to her. He winked at me as he picked up his bag and swaggered off.
"Thank you for saving me! He's so annoying," I moaned as Eddie took her seat beside me. "And what's this about going out tonight? I was gonna stay home and… um… study." That is, if studying meant catching up on the latest season of Skins on the Internet.
She gave me a look. "Okay firstly, there's no way in hell you would be studying on a Friday night – you'd probably be playing the Xbox with Sandy or watching some stupid TV show. And secondly, this isn't just any outing. We're gonna pay the Orient a cheeky visit." She winked and nudged me with her elbow. "Plus I know one of the bouncers who's on tonight so we'll get in quick."
"You know everyone." And that was not an exaggeration. Eddie Caldwell was a socialite – I swear she knew at least someone from every single place we went to. Her stunning looks and vibrant personality helped her along phenomenally, and I had no idea why she would choose something like medicine. It completely clashed with her personality, yet she has always managed to come somewhere near the top in assessments and exams. Needless to say, I got pretty jealous sometimes.
The lecturer, Mr Falloon, walked into the theatre and everyone quietened down when he started talking. He was a dry old bag, and I didn't like him very much, so I ended up falling asleep half way through. I woke up and glanced at my watch: five minutes to go. I stretched surreptitiously and glanced at Eddie: she was still focusing intently on Mr Falloon and her pen was zooming across her page, her blonde hair falling down between us so I couldn't see what she was writing.
I yawned and closed by eyes, reminding myself that every second of sleep counted.
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A/N: I know, I shouldn't be putting up ANOTHER new story when I have so many unfinished ones, but I've written about five chapters for this and its getting a bit ridiculous!
Also, pictures can be found here (without the spaces): : / / . / / / % % /
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