His Champagne

Chapter 5: Surreal

The phone rang, and it kept ringing. The obnoxious tune began to become louder as my mind started to awaken. My arms stretched out and all those bone cracks suddenly unleashed the most painful sounding noises. I sprung up from the couch and slowly opened my eyes to extreme bright sunny streams of light coming out of the window.

Must be Alec calling, hopefully.

My hand reached for the glass of water I left on my bedside, perhaps for a bit too long. I quickly chugged it and got up, looking for my annoying phone. I shuffled through the piles of clothing on the floor, digging through each of them for some hope to find it. As I shoved my arm under a random pile, my phone was finally retrieved.

"Hello-"

I gasped out of shock, "Romeo!? Oh uh, I mean- Good morning!"

"Good morning, Aria, I just-"

I choked on my sentence, "Sorry for not answering, I was in the shower!"

"No worries, Aria." He let out a chuckle then spoke, "Heh, so I was just checking up on you. Is everything okay?"

I paused and looked at my room, with a glimpse of realization. It was in a terrible condition, too terrible. Then my eyes leaned over to the other mess, which were the glass cups of leftover champagne and trash piles of water bottles. I glanced at the extra mess that was lurking out of my office room, more things awaiting to be rotting over the floor. And now that I thought about it, what was that smell?-

"Aria?"

"Oh, right, everything is great- I'm excited for today!" I replied, collapsing onto my bed in doubt.

He said, "That's great to hear. I'll see you there in 2 hours, goodbye Aria!"

"Goodbye!"

I dropped down my phone and exhaled out. Now what do I wear...?

[...]

A taller and intimidating man in his 60s approached him from behind with a cunning stare. "You've made it, Romeo." He was nearly an inch bigger than Romeo, and wore a dark black suit paired with a thick red scarf. His wrinkles were dark and deep and shadowed his white pale complexion. The man held a black and skinny stick between his legs, leaning a little lower towards himself. His eyes were bright blue yet they were full of emptiness, he glimpsed again at Romeo with a distasteful look.

Romeo turned around and stepped back in surprise, "Hello, Director. You've come to watch?"

"You know me well, do not bother to ask me useless questions." He stepped down the hallway with his loud stomping cane and faced Romeo with an unsatisfied look, "Why have you come to Venice?

"You see... Italy is a beautiful country and I want to continue touring here because-"

"Romeo. You won't get anywhere with this small country. Go abroad to America or China, they're much more known for piano music like yours." The Director scoffed and tightened the grip on his cane. "You have such great potential and musical talent, people of our kind need to recognize it."

Romeo sighed and crossed his arms, "Sir- Cedric, classical music is much more than just a genre-"

"I know. Do your best." He continued to walk, meeting up with other elderly-looking members of the event.

He clenched his fists in frustration and walked back to his dressing room. How could he disregard Romeo like that? Although he was furious about him neglecting him and not letting him speak, the performance was about to start. He couldn't let that old man get inside his head again, and he will never be him.