Face to FaceTime

Senna's POV

"Trust me," Jax announces. His eyes wide as he is sure that he has found the perfect solution to the problem.

I run my hand nervously through my hair. "I'm not so sure it will work."

He stands firm on his suggestion with a wiggle of his brow. "Well, you don't have any other options, Sen. Unlessss... you want to revisit the whole makeup and prosthetics idea?"

"No, thank you! It's bad enough having makeup on for our photoshoots and stuff without volunteering to put it on. Plus, it gives me pimples,'' I assert, trying to justify my resistance to his suggestion.

"My apologies, I forgot about your sensitive skin," he responds in jest. "You could just not do it at all...." he continues, like that is even an option.

"No, Jax. I need to see her."

He rolls his eyes. "So you've said, a hundred times...."

"Awww are you jealous?" I tease. It's probably not a good idea since he is giving me more solutions than I could think of on my own, but what are mates for, if not for teasing each other?

I watch his face and detect small flinch, but in true Jax form, he recovers quickly. "Whatever, Sen. This is your only option. You don't have to really smash it, just cover it with tape or something," he carries on, ignoring my comment.

I breathe in deep. "I guess you're right. I think I'll just do that," I answer, probably more in an effort to convince myself, than to convince him.

"What are you waiting for? Tape that shit up, and call her!"

"Well, I am not going to call her while you're in the room."

He eyes me curiously. "Why not?"

"Because it's weird," I answer simply.

Jax waves his hand dismissively in the air. "Whatever, Sen. Have fun with your non-girlfriend girlfriend. I'll be playing FIFA with Beckett, come find me when you're done." What is it with those two, I think as he walks towards the exit. I push the thought out of my mind as I push Jax out of the door.

Settling down on my hotel room bed, I place a piece of tape over the camera on my phone. Checking twice to make sure that it has distorted my image enough that I feel sure that Harri won't recognise me.

Pressing dial on the video call I suck in a deep breath. With each passing unanswered ring, I get more and more nervous that this won't work. What will I do if she recognises me? What will I say? What do I say if she does answer? What even am I doing?

As it continues to ring, my finger hovers over the end call button. I consider hanging up then but remember that my Dad always used to tell me, it is the things that scare us the most that give us the most satisfaction. Something about the reward being relative to the risk. He always knew the right thing to say. I let out the breath I had been holding and resolve to give it one more ring before I hang up.

Just as I am about to tap the little red button I hear the words, "Oh shiitake!"

"Harri? Are you there? Is everything ok?" I ask concerned.

A series of images flash on my screen before it goes pitch black. Her muffled reply echoes from the distance, "sorry SJ, I... I dropped my phone, it's fallen under my bed.  Oh, shiitake! Why am I so clumsy? Where is the stupid thing....how did it get all the way under there?" I can almost imagine her on her hands and knees patting around under her bed trying to find it.

"Shiitake?" I question with a laugh.

"Yeah, Jazz's influence. She doesn't like swearing, but she lovessss food."

"Well, shit!' I joke as I hear her voice come closer to the phone. I hold my breath as light starts to fill the screen.

"I hope I didn't smash my ... oh lucky!" I hear her mumble.

"Hey," she says simply as her face slowly comes into my view.

My breath hitches again. "Wow," I sigh quietly, unable to disguise my joy. "You are beautiful."

I watch as she looks down and to the left as she bashfully tucks a piece of black hair behind her ear, "You're just saying that."

"No, really. I'm not," I mutter under my breath,  embarrassed at my forwardness but unable to take my eyes off her hers. They're grey and blue with speckles of green and they're filled with an innocence that I haven't seen since I've been on tour.

She looks up again, squinting into the camera lens as if trying to focus. "I can't see you, your screen is all blurry."

I smile with relief and mentally high five Jax. For once it looks like his idea worked. "Yeah, sorry. You're not the only one who is clumsy. I dropped my phone and smashed the camera lens. I'm hoping to get it fixed when I am back home in a few weeks time."

"That's a shame, I was hoping to get a glimpse of that dimple I spied in your profile pic." A look of shock comes over her face as if she realises what she has just said. I watch as she turns bright red on the apples of her cheeks and facepalms herself muttering something inaudible about being an idiot.

"Err, Harri. You know I can see you, right?"

"Oh, Shiitake," she whispers as her pale skin turns an even brighter shade of red. "I forgot about the whole face video thing."

"You know that's the second time you've answered the phone with 'Oh Shit'? I'm starting to get a complex," I taunt.

Her eyes widen. "Oh my gosh, it really is. I'm so sorry. I'm totally awkward. I shouldn't even be allowed near the phone, or people for that matter."

"I've told you before, stop apologising. I was just joking," I tell her as I watch her chew mindlessly on her bottom lip. "So, Harri tell me how has your weekend been?"

She chuckles. This was accompanied by something I've come to expect from her laugh, a snort. I am thankful once again that she can't see me as I lean back against the elaborate headboard of my hotel bed and smile like an idiot.

"It was ok, nothing too exciting," she answers. "Jazz was over last night, we basically just watched YouTube and avoided my brother."

"Anything exciting on YouTube?" I quiz.

"Nah, not really. I promised Jazz that I would sit through a Gate Thirty Four marathon so that's what we did... for like four hours. I think she was hoping it would make me change my mind about them."

"And did it?" I enquire not so innocently.

A one-sided smile creeps across her face. "Yeah, it did actually... just don't tell Jazz that."

I laugh, "your secret is safe with me. So you were impressed then?"

"I was surprised. They have much more of a grungy sound than I thought and they look like they have a lot of fun on the tour."

"So you're a fan?" I prod, happy to hear her honest thoughts.

She bits her lip again, "yeah of their music."

"Not the band?"

"Sure, they're ok. A part of me thinks they'd be pretty cool to hang out with," she answers cooly.

"Uh oh, someone's starting to sound like a fangirl," I mock, my dimple on full blurry display as I struggle to contain my smile.

"No!" she defends quickly. "Not like that, I just meant they seem cool. Plus according to social media, Jax and Senna are dating so...."

I scoff uncontrollably. Oh, god. Not her too. 'You don't actually think that do you?" I ask flatly.

She looks back at me through her phone's camera lens."I guess not, but the videos are pretty convincing. Then again they also have video's dedicated to the girls they've dated so who really knows."

I'm caught off guard by her eyes again. "Yeah well from what I hear most of that's made up too," I say trying hard to remove as much emotion from my voice as possible.

"Enough about me SJ. I wanna know more about you. What have you been up too? You said you're coming home in a few weeks?

"Yeah, end of October. I'm looking forward to it, really miss my Mum and Peyton. Shame it's only for a few weeks though."

She doesn't interrupt me or laugh at me. She just smiles as I ramble on about being homesick. I watch the way her eyes turn upwards, in sync with her lips, and how she nervously touches her hair, patting down the loose bits.

"Where are you off to after that?" she asks softly.

"We're off too—" I pause after briefly forgetting who I was speaking with. "Well, I could tell you but then I'd...."

"I know. I know,  you'd have to kill me," she says finishing my sentence, with a heavy sigh.

"I promise I'd make it as painless as possible," I joke in an effort to cheer her up.

Her eyes squint with curiosity. "Oh yeah? And how do you propose doing that?"

"I could tickle you to death...."

She snorts. "To do that we'd actually have to meet, and you'd have to finally show me what you look like."

"I could wear a mask?" I counter.

"True. But we'd still have to meet."

"I have pretty good ninja skills, you wouldn't even know I was there until it was too late. It'd be like BAM! tickle attack!" I throw my right hand in the air as if mimicking an explosion.

"AH! I get now!" She exclaims, her excitement catching me off guard.

I raise my brow. "Get what?"

"You're not who you say you are! You, SJ have a secret identity!

CRAP! She knows. Entering panic mode in 3, 2–

She snorts with laughter cutting off my mind before I really start panicking. "You're really tickle assassin. Hired by a group of undercover operatives tasked with taking out the world's criminals through the torture of tickling."

Phew! I sigh, wiping off the beads of sweat which have suddenly formed on my top lip. "You got me, Harri. You got me." I admit, more in reference to the heart attack I almost had a moment ago rather than playing along with her joke.

She moves her index and middle fingers back and forth from her eyes to the camera implying that she will be watching me. Her expression is serious, save for the smirk and the mischievous look in her eye. The move catches me by surprise and can't help but laugh out loud.

"You know, you might have just solved my Halloween costume dilemma," I say in between my laughter.

"Oh, you're dressing up?" she questions.

"Of course! Aren't you?"

She tucks a loose strand of black hair behind her ear. "Yeah. Jazz and I are going to a fancy dress party, well it's more of a fundraiser than anything. It's for our school and it's held at the local hall. I don't really want to go but I promised Jazz."

"What are you going as?" I ask casually.

"Dunno yet. I was thinking The Queen of Hearts. You know from Alice in Wonderland? But Jazz says that Halloween costumes are meant to be sexy. Which isn't really my thing, so I don't really know. She's going as Sandy from Grease, leather pants and all."

"Oh, that's cool. I really don't know what I'll do this year. I had a pretty cool unicorn onesie last year."

"Now why doesn't that surprise me?" she questions rhetorically.

We talk for hours. The conversation flowing back and forth, only ending when both our phone batteries are flat. After the call ends, I text Jax a simple thumbs up and let my head fall flat against the pillow.