1:The Present At Her Door

Amelia turned her head to the other side, her trimmed eyebrows pulling towards each other in an obvious disgruntled frown. She didn't want the soft violin music to stop but it was fading away no matter how much she willed it to stay. The birds—about three judging from the sounds— were chirping quite jovially outside her bedroom window, happy to be awake. However, Amelia wasn't. She didn't want to wake up yet.

Just a little more, she begged the violin music that was barely audible, squeezing her eyes shut as she fought her body from entering into full consciousness. The violin music faded into silence, all Amelia could hear was the chirping birds which appeared to have received a fourth member. With the way the chirps sounded with a high pitch at one instant and a sharp crisp response at another, one would would think those birds were having a light-hearted conversation.

Amusing as they sound, Amelia hated that they had replaced the violin music and were making her efforts to return to sleep futile.

After I'm done unpacking, I'm going to cut down that goddamn tree! Amelia hissed internally, giving up on returning to dreamland. Just as she opened her eyes, something buzzed underneath her back causing her to jerk away and off the bed in a very inelegant fashion with her blanket trailing after her.

It buzzed again and upon seeing what the object was, a half-sigh half-groan escaped from her lips as she sat on the bed and picked up her vibrating phone, rubbing her eyes and yawning as she swiped her thumb towards green icon.

"Hey girl." She yawned again.

"Hey geeee–uuuuurl!" A drug-like thrilled shriek burst through the speakers of her phone. Amelia winced, her eyes squeezing shut, her shoulders jerked upward and her mouth curved upwards in slight distaste.

"Girl! What drug are you on?" Amelia asked her best friend, smoothing stray hairs on her cornrow to the back with her palm as she released another yawn.

"I'm on the help-Amelia-unpack-in-her new-house drug and lawwwwd! It's so good." Chantal replied with an equally excited chuckle. She appeared to be more excited about helping Amelia unpack in her new house than Amelia, herself, was.

Amelia rolled her eyes playfully but contracted Chantal's chuckle. She stood up from the disarranged bed and slipped her legs into her fuzzy slip-ons. "I don't know where you get your morning energy from, you ever groggy?"

"I guess it comes with my job, I don't know." Chantal sounded like she had added a shrug as she replied Amelia. "The world of gossip got me on my toes most of the times so I guess it's a habit to keep this mood on now."

Chantal worked at The Issue, both as an article writer and as a presenter for their show titled What's the issue? The issue started as a magazine and soon expanded into a TV show of their own. Amelia thought it suited her perfectly, that she was made for the job and the job for her. Chantal used to run their High School journalism and was nicknamed Miss Information. She had a knack for getting the latest juiciest news quickly and could make anything that's as boring as watching paint dry to be as thrilling as going down a giant water slide.

Leaving her bed messy, with the covers splayed over the egde of the bed, Amelia walked out of her bedroom towards the kitchen, the coffee maker already working in her mind.

"Is that a car honk I hear?" Amelia asked, frowning at Chantal through the phone.

"Yep! I'm stuck in traffic." Chantal replied. Why? Of all days." She bemoaned.

"You're on the road already!" Amelia's cat-like eyes expanded as she took her phone away from her ear to glance at the time for a moment.

7:03, she read in her mind. How on earth is Chantal this energetic on a Sunday?

"How long have you been awake and why is there such a slow traffic this morning?" Amelia asked.

"A couple of hours ago I think and something's up with an empty school bus up front, it's holding everybody up." Chantal replied and honked her car twice. "It looks like it's gonna take a–"

"Shit!" She heard Amelia swear vehemently through her phone.

"What?" Chantal's tone switched to one of concern as she peeped outside the window of her purple sedan car. The vibrant rays from the sun glinted off the windshields and metallic top of the several cars that were either unmoving or at a snail-like pace.

Amelia groaned at the nearly empty kitchen, the only reason the kitchen was nearly empty was because of the used take-out plates from last night's ordered dinner. Apart from that, there was nothing else that related to food and certainly no coffee maker.

"How long is it gonna take you to be here?" Amelia asked.

"Ummm….I can't tell. Oh! We've started moving."

"Great, get me coffee and some food on you way, nothing's here." Amelia roamed her eyes over whiteness of the kitchen— white walls, white, drawers, white cabinets and a white ceiling from which three bright lights from her point of view glared at her— before turning away from the kitchen with another groan leaving her lips.

"You could have added a please." Chantal teased lightly.

"I'll pay double the amount you spend on both of our meals."

"There you have it guys! A better way of saying please when you ask your friend for a favour. Try it out with your friends next time." Chantal replied with the voice she uses to end the What's the issue show before ending the phone line with a chuckle.

Amelia walked back to her room, pushing boxes on her path with her legs and paused just in front of her bed. With a groan she allowed herself to drop on to it, bouncing a little.

Why do I feel so groggy this morning? She asked herself. It must be this new place.

Amelia used to move around much in the past due to her line of career: modelling. Whenever they had to travel to a new city or state or place for a show, Amelia made sure to sleep early and have a coffee first thing as soon as she opened her eyes to avoid feeling groggy for half the day. She had forgotten how that felt since she stopped modelling and settled as a jeweler. Travelling was not as often.

The birds cried again then tweeted, earning another groan from Amelia.

"Why did I move again?" She muttered as she forced herself up to a sitting position. "Oh yeah, that idiot decided to move back to his hometown with his stupid-ass botox girlfriend." Amelia nagged with a frown, the grogginess slipping away as she remembered bumping into them. Not wanting to remember her ex and the fact that he still affected her, Amelia decided to start unpacking instead of waiting for Chantal to get here first.

She got out of her clothes and showered, putting her body wash and shampoo into a waterproof cosmetic bag.

"He thinks a military style tux would make him look better when he never liked them when we dated." She scoffed and nearly slammed the bathroom door. Realizing how agitated she had become, Amelia closed her eyes and took deep breaths in.

"It's all in the past Amelia, you ought to have moved on." She opened her eyes, her chest deflating as well. "It's why you moved isn't it?"

She dried her hair with a towel."Well not because of him, certainly not." She refuted. "It was high time you left your parents house. It's time to be independent. Yeah that's it."

She threw on a dull moss-coloured shirt and jeans shorts. "That's it." She said again and waited in silence as if the house would applaud her or something. However, her stomach did.

"Can't wait for Chantal." She shook her head sideways. "I should probably order something before I die." She said as she searched around for her phone. Just when she found it and was scrolling through some menus, the doorbell rang.

Amelia's head snapped up. Chantal! She gasped in relief. Perfect timing! A huge grin made its to way to her face.

The doorbell rang again. "Coming!" She yelled and nearly tripped over as she raced to the door from upstairs. She paused to catch her breath for a second before placing her hand on the doorknob to twist it open.

"Girl you're such an angel!" Amelia was going to say immediately she opened the door but the words got swallowed and she ended up stuttering instead as she took in the sight in front of her. Huge grin turned into a confused cheeky one.

Amelia let her eyes give him a steady down and up sweep as she wondered.

Why the hell is a gorgeous man wrapped in a huge bow with flowers and a helium love balloon standing in front of my door?