The Nothing of the Everything

“One, two–Oh my God, Natalia! What is wrong with you?” Miss Harrison screeched, throwing her papers on the floor. “This is completely unacceptable! How did you even get a place here at the Royal Opera House?” The woman shook her head, ignoring the embarrassed and mortified look of the young ballerina.

Elaine took a deep breath and watched the scene in silence, knowing that saying something would mean having Miss Harrison against her and nobody wanted that.

“It’s enough for today. Hopefully you all come back here tomorrow in good shape and actually remembering how to dance!” The woman said and walked away, leaving all the dancers in the room.

“Don’t worry, she’s always mad at someone.” Elaine said to the girl. She was new to the Royal Opera House and from what she heard, she graduated from the Moscow Academy just like her. Elaine gave her a sympathetic smile. “You did good today, don’t think about what she said. Enjoy the rest of the day.” She added in Russian and Natalia’s eyes immediately lit up. She knew Elaine studied in Moscow, she just didn’t expect her to speak to her, nor to speak to her in Russian.

“Thank you.” Natalia said, giving Elaine a small smile.

The blonde smiled back at her and turned around, ready to get changed.
“Witch Harrison needs to calm the fuck down.” Olivia whispered as they entered the changing room.

“Agreed, although she isn’t as hard to please as my teachers at Bolshoi. Those were crazies, but simply amazing.”

Only people in the business could understand her words, others would simply think she was crazy for admiring, yet considering “crazies”, her former teachers.

Elaine picked up her phone and smiled as she noticed a new text from Jimmy.

The drummer and the ballerina had been texting for over a month now, but only recently started speaking on the phone. Obviously, they tried their best to use Skype or all the other cheap options to call each other, not wanting to spend all their money on phone calls, even if both of them were financially stable.

“Is it him?” Olivia asked, taking her body off.

“Who?”

“You know, Jimmy.”

“Yeah. Johnny did something stupid, as usual, and Jimmy live-texted me the whole thing.”

“Mh-mh…”

“What?”

“Nothing. It’s just… You two are texting a lot and by a lot, I mean a lot.”

“So?”

“So nothing. It’s just… He texts you as much as Zacky texts me and he made it quite clear that he’s into me.” She explained and shrugged. “Just remember that he’s got a girlfriend. Lea, Lana… I don’t know.”

“How do you know?” Elaine asked, looking up at her friend. “I don’t care. I mean, we’re friends and that’s it. Friends can’t text now?”

Olivia tilted her head and looked at Elaine, meeting her gaze.

“I didn’t say that and you know it. Just… Just know what you’re doing, alright?”

“Yes, mom.” Elaine mocked her friend and laughed. “But again, we’re just friends. Plus, he keeps me updated on all the shit my brother does.”

The blonde put her leather jacket on and ran her hands through her long hair.

“Speaking of crushes, what’s going on between you and Zacky V?” She asked, raising an eyebrow. She loved teasing Olivia about this.

“Oh, you know. He can be rather… Clingy, to say the least. But he’s cute.”

Elaine squealed, knowing how much her friend didn’t like to use words such as “cute” for a guy. Olivia raised her eyebrows, not understanding why her friend was reacting like this.

“You said cute.” Elaine explained. “You like him!”

“Oh, please. I don’t. He’s good looking. But only when he’s not wearing eye shadow, because I’ve seen pictures I wish I could erase from my mind.”

Elaine laughed and grabbed her bag. She probably saw old pictures, where almost each member of Avenged Sevenfold used make up for their shows, music videos and photoshoots. It was hilarious.

“Have you seen your brother?!”

Elaine was on her ten minutes break from training when she received a phone call from a very upset Leslee Seward. She already knew what her mother was talking about. Johnny sent her some pictures of himself and the band and it was obvious they were wearing make up. Her mother’s reaction, however, made her laugh.

“Yeah, I have. Don’t be too upset, mom. You know he likes to dress up for Halloween, let’s just pretend it’s Halloween, alright?”

“But it’s not! Your brother is going around wearing make up! He looks like he’s high on drugs or someone punched him in the face!”

“Thank God he’s the one having to go around looking like that. It’s not you, nor dad.”

Elaine laughed as she remembered her mother's reaction to Johnny wearing make-up and followed her friend out of the building.

“Thankfully he doesn’t wear eye make up anymore.”

“Yeah, thankfully.”

Ø

“I haven’t heard anything from you all day. I thought someone kidnapped you or worse!”

“What? You thought that someone might have stabbed me fifty fucking times and ripped my heart out right before my eyes?” Elaine asked with a smile on her lips, quoting one of her favorite songs from Avenged Sevenfold, A Little Piece of Heaven.

“Ha. Ha. How funny.” Jimmy said. “I don’t know what kind of people there are in London, but never say never.”

“Aw, you missed me.” Elaine joked as she laid in bed. “Just kidding. Sorry for disappearing all day, but I trained all day, then went grocery shopping and… Shit, you’re right. I almost stabbed with a banana by an old woman.”

“How is that even possible?”

“She was holding her bananas, I bumped into her and that’s it.” She shrugged, although he couldn’t see her. “The best part of today was being able to speak Russian after a very long time.”

“Wait. Do you speak Russian? As in the language people speak in Russia?”

Elaine laughed out loud, rolling over in her bed.

“I spent five years in Moscow, Russia. I had to learn their language, otherwise I would’ve just died there.”

“You’re beautiful.” Jimmy whispered and Elaine frowned.

“What?”

“You’re badass for learning such a language.”

Elaine smiled and sighed softly as she remembered how hard it’d been to learn Russian. No one spoke English, so she had to do almost everything by herself.

“Thanks…” She said and paused, thinking of how her life completely changed when she moved to Moscow.

“What is it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Your pauses always mean something, so what is it?”

Elaine frowned a little, wondering how he could know her so well. Maybe he was just guessing, maybe not. Either way, he was right. There was something on her mind.

“I was just thinking about how everything changed since when I moved to Moscow. I didn’t exactly have a normal life.”

“Neither have I. Do I have to remind you that I lived in a laundry mat for 6 months?”

Elaine laughed at the thought of him sleeping there for six long months. She wished she knew him back then. She probably would’ve brought him food every day.

“I had no idea, Jim. But it sounds hilarious.”

“Hilarious? Hilarious?! No one had idea I lived there. Shit, I only washed my clothes twice while I was there.”

“Alright that’s disgusting…” Elaine commented as she sat up on her bed, deciding to explain what she meant earlier. “What I meant is that I don’t remember what America feels like anymore. I left for Moscow when I was fourteen and I came back home only four times over the years. Maybe five. I just miss home, you know.”

The girl bit her lip as she didn’t receive any joke from Jimmy. “You there?”

“Yeah, I was listening.” He reassured her.

“So yeah. That’s it. They say home is where the heart is so I guess my home is pretty much everywhere and nowhere.”

She frowned as she heard some weird noises coming from her phone and Jimmy’s voice in the distance. He lied, he wasn’t listening.

“Yeah, thanks for the offer but we’re not interested, alright? So stop calling me!”

Elaine stared at her phone as Jimmy hung up, confused about what had just happened. She sighed, feeling a little down that he ended the phone call so quickly when she was telling something that has been on her mind for a couple of months now but that she’s never had the guts to tell anyone.

She headed to the kitchen and found Olivia making dinner.

“Already done with your call with the drummer?”

“I guess. He hung up.”

“What a dick.”

Elaine chuckled, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge. She took a sip of the cold water and leaned back against the counter.

“He was probably busy but anyway, I don’t care.”

She lied.

Of course she cared. It was weird how she and Jimmy got so close in just a couple of months when they didn’t even see each other, especially considering that Elaine found it hard to open up to anyone. It took over a year to Olivia and Elaine to become friends, the blonde always putting her career in front of anything else. Only recently she started to appreciate her life as a friend more and wondered how her life would be if she wasn’t a ballerina.

Sorry, Leana came home. Had to hung up. Talk to you tomorrow.

Elaine bit her bottom lip and slid her phone into her back pocket. She didn’t know why she was so upset that Jimmy’s girlfriend interrupted her daily phone call with him, but she was, even if she perfectly knew that she had no reason to be upset.

“So, what’s for dinner?”

Ø

Jimmy was carefully listening to Elaine’s words. He moved out when he was 16, but he stayed in Huntington Beach, so somehow close to his family and friends, while she moved to another country, where she had to learn a new language and her family was far away from her. There’s no way he could compare the two things. They didn’t have a normal life, right, but it was different.

He was about to open his mouth to ask her what she missed the most about America, when he saw Leana open the main door.

Shit, he thought.

He wasn’t sure why he was hiding his phone calls and texts with Elaine from his girlfriend, there was nothing to hide, it’s not like he was cheating on her, but he couldn’t help it.

“Yeah, thanks for the offer but we’re not interested, alright? So stop calling me!” He said, trying to come up with something.

Leana rolled her eyes and sat on his lap, so he quickly hung up and threw his phone to the other side of the couch.

“You’re home.”

“I am, finally.” Leana said before pecking his lips. “Did you miss me?”

“Lots.”

“Good, because I missed you, too. A lot.” She whispered as she slid her hands under his shirt.

Jimmy raised an eyebrow at her actions, a smirk appearing on his face. If sex was what brought them together, it was something that happened less frequently now and while he had no idea why, he didn’t necessarily complain. He was busy working on the new album, after all. And spending his free time with the guys or at the phone with Elaine. Shit, he felt like one of those geeks from middle school, or a teenager who was having a first crush.

Pushing his thoughts aside, the drummer decided to focus on the beautiful girl that was sitting in lap and clearly wanted more than just sit there.

“Want me to show me how much I missed you?” She asked, leaving kisses down his neck.

“Sure thing. I was waiting for it.”

“I bought something for you so let’s say you follow me in about five minutes?”

Jimmy smiled and kissed her lips. “Five minutes. No more.”

He watched her leave and smirked before quickly grabbing his phone. He thought, or maybe hoped he would find a text from Elaine asking him what happened, but she didn’t send him anything. He wasn’t surprised, though. He hung up on her like an asshole. He wondered what he should text her, but he decided to be honest and tell her the truth. Which wasn’t a bad thing to do, right?

Sorry, Leana came home. Had to hung up. Talk to you tomorrow.

Sighing heavily, Jimmy locked his phone and left it on the coffee table before heading upstairs to his bedroom. The moment he walked into his room, though, he noticed how Leana was wearing a pink babydoll and he realized that, that night would be very long.

Notes

Hi everyone! As you may have noticed (or not) I posted two other stories in the last few days, but I didn't want you to keep waiting for an update for this story, so here it is. I hope you enjoy!

Thank you again for the comments! I love reading what you guys think about what's going on and what might happens next. I'm not going away too much, but I'll say that maybe someone got it right ;)

I'll update again later this week, promise <3