Don't Write Me {Private} a Love Song

She watched him leave sadly and sighed, getting up to work on the banner. Once she had it out, she realized she had no inspiration at the moment and grumbled, putting it up. She got dressed, pulling on jeans and a t-shirt. She left her hair down and pulled her coat on, slipping on her shoes before she trudged outside, trying to cheer herself up. But how to go about doing so? Looking around, she saw nothing that could do the job. Not even the sunrise or the colors it made in the sky or the square. She began walking, going where her feet would take her. Though she wasn't in the mood to pay attention to where she was going. Not the smartest of ideas in a new country.

Alex found herself in a courtyard with a fountain in the middle of it, without any clue how she'd gotten there. At the moment, she didn't care. She sat down on the edge of the fountain, looking down at the water. Half of her was from here, somewhere. The other half was back home, hoping she had a good time and didn't come home with a half-Italian baby.

:Edit:

She sighed and decided to try to follow her footsteps back, using somewhat-good Italian to find her way back to the marketplace. There was a fountain there, too. It was beautiful - she could see a rainbow in the spurting water. She walked up to it and gazed at it for a bit, watching the water come out the spouts, then where the running water hit the water in the bowl, making bubbles. She let her mind wander away from Russel and her new-found feelings for him as the bubbles popped and were replaced with more bubbles. She wondered what it would look like to look up at the spouting water from underneath. Surely, it would be beautiful and surreal. She looked back up at the spurting water curiously, the spark of inspiration back in her eyes. She studied it for a few minutes, memorizing it, before she walked back to the bus and pulled back out her art supplies, working on painting his banner.

Alex kept her mind on the fountain as she worked on his banner, using the booth's table in the bus as her workstation. She turned the radio on and listened to whatever was playing as the worked. She painted the background first, making it look like running water from the fountain. Then she painted him, trying not to think too much about the person she was painting, and then the words. She finally finished after a few hours and let it sit to dry, going to take a shower.

She did notice him come on the bus at some point in time, but chose to keep her mind on her work and ignore him. She placed the sign on the bathroom door, as was routine at this point, and took her shower. When she was done, she dressed and went to go dry her hair and see if the painting was dry. Nope, still wet. Pulling out her iPod and on her shoes, she went to go hang the smaller posters. The banner would be done by the time the show was supposed to start.

[Ohh, what a fun game! x.x XD]

Alex finished putting up the posters and went to check the banner. Finally, it was dry enough to hang. She rolled it up carefully and carried it to the stage. Having nothing else to do, she helped hang it, being very wary - she didn't trust the ladder she was standing on.

Alex carefully, successfully, hung the banner and slowly came down, freezing and clinging to the ladder whenever she felt like it was tipping. She grumbled, mumbling curses to the ladder as she made her way down, then jumped to the ground when she was close enough. "Got it," she grinned to herself, and sighed, looking up to make sure she had it strait. It looked strait enough. Not like anyone was gonna be looking up there, anyway. She took the ladder down and moved it backstage, out of the way somewhere, and dusted off her hands.

Turning around to put her headphones back on, she looked up to see someone in the shadows. Startled, she jumped and shrieked slightly, pulling her headphones away from her head, as if it would help her see who it was.

She relaxed, if only a little, and pulled her headphones up around her neck. "You scared the crap out of me," she sighed with a chuckle, trying to act like everything was perfectly fine between them. "Do you like them? I found a fountain today and liked the way the water looked when it was running. I'm not sure if I quite got it for the background, but the main attraction is you, right," she gave him a grin. "As long as I got that down, I'm good, I guess."

She blushed shyly, thinking of a way to say how she felt without actually saying how she felt. "Originally, my main attraction was Italy. But I haven't seen much of it. I've been focused on... something else." Maybe he'd get the hint then? She was horrible with expressing these embarrassing emotions.

She looked back up at him to see if he meant it, but he was walking away. She stood there a moment, processing what he'd said. So he did write it for her? Not Jen? She was right... Why didn't he say so in the first place? She chased after him. "Wait," she said and looked down once she had his attention. "I... uhm... I... Thank you," she finally said, her face red.

"Glad to see you haven't grown a big head," she teased with an innocent smile. "'Cause that would be just awful."

She looked up at him and nodded. "You have earned it," she agreed quietly. "You, Mom, and my family are pretty much the only one's I've shown off to. I don't like too much attention. Otherwise, I'd enter my paintings in the art fairs back home. But a little bit of praise is always nice," she agreed.