'Oh--! I...'

'Um...'

Ari's mind is flooding with questions and anxiety and thoughts and feelings and hormones. He shouldn't be doing this, he can't do this, not right now and only months after he just broke up with his boyfriend!... and he just met her right now and he's miserable and probably just bait and she's probably just teasing him...

Ari stares at her. 'I..' He doesn't answer.

"It's fine, no need to answer." Violet leaned in to kiss him.

'I--!'

Ari tenses up and initially tries to back out of it, but then they make contact, and Ari's mind freezes.

He feels stuck in the moment for minutes, his brain awashed with feelings and memories. His autistic mind has no idea how to process what's going on; are his feelings that are developing just now even real or are they fake and is he just crazy and needs to get out and live on a farm for the rest of his life or --

As they briefly kiss, the door opens and a man walks in. Blue shirt and a black tie, jeans, dress shoes. The man stands bewildered for a moment, before shouting angrily in a thick stereotypical New York accent --

"I-- Ari, what the fuck are you doing?! We've been searching the entire god damn place for you, and you're fucking making out with her? I--"

"If you're not out in five minutes I'm going to fucking ream your ass. Shit man." The man leaves the room as quickly as he entered, slamming the door.

Violet breaks the kiss and puts her hand gently on his chest "Maybe you should go, I'll be waiting on the other side, mate."

'I-- that just happened, I..'

'A-a-alright...' Ari mumbles, nodding and sliding off the couch.

'I probably should go. I probably should... eat... and stuff--' Ari chuckles to himself.

"You go do that." Violet says with a smile, laying on the couch.

'I...'

'Yeah. I--'

Ari thinks what to say. He doesn't know. Instead, he says nothing, and rushes out of the backstage room, leaving the door ajar. Shouts can be heard, but as the door shuts, they eventually fade.

The first thing Ari says to himself when he wakes up in his New York hotel is 'Fuck, that was a disaster.' And it really was. Him and his backing band nearly fell apart at more than one point -- whenever he met out to meet the couple fans that were left a little kid asked him why he sounded so bad and why "she" sounded better, which really hurt his self esteem and he had to say, 'Well, it is what it is, we'll do better next time', and laugh it off, while inside it really stung and all of his motivation was destroyed...

And "she"... whatever that was, it was a fluke. Ari still doesn't know how to feel about that.

Ari rolled out of bed lazily. His hotel room that he had been provided was fine enough. Nothing fancy, he hated more extravegant things, just a bed and a small kitchen, bathroom, and a balcony... a balcony which led to an extravegant view of Trump Tower, a couple of blocks down. He sighed, going into the bathroom and taking a shower.

After some ten minutes he left, sighing fatiguedly, and sat on the bed as he thought. These were his days to really "recover", since it usually took a day or two for him to process all of the sounds and actions and all of the fatigue and strain that his body received during the concert and whatnot... the choreography was taxxing, after all. And after that they had a couple days break; they would only fly out to Toronto the day before the concert. So he had a couple of days to layover in New York in the meantime.

Ari had never been to New York, so this was new. Maybe he'd visit Strawberry Fields -- well John Lennon was a pretty bad person so maybe not -- or go to the Statue of Liberty, or potentially the World Trade Center, or Empire State Building... the world was his oyster! He was on his own in this big ass city.

Ari wonders where Violet went after he left. Maybe she went back to her home in the Upper East Side. Maybe he could walk there and pay her a little visit... so many decisions. Maybe he should eat breakfast first. Or recover from the overdose on advil he had experienced after taking twelve. He really needs to stop taking so many of those. But the chronic pain!

Ari wanders onto the balcony. Despite being on the twentieth or so floor he can still see and hear the mass of fans that have presumably crowded the hotel since he collapsed on the bed some three hours ago (he went to sleep fairly late, and he usually only slept around that long -- if he slept any longer, the nightmares happened). The morning sun still lingers in the sky. It's actually fairly pretty. Beats humid-ass Georgia.

Ari hums to himself as he leans on the balcony, just letting himself exist for a minute.

Violet was in her apartment, still thinking about Ari the night before. She wanted him. But did he want her? She wasn't sure if he even reciprocated her feelings after she (kinda) forced herself on him by kissing him. And good thing she got his number that night, but then she wasn't sure if she should make a call, she just got done arguing with her manager and crying. She wanted out of this hell that was the touring rockstar's life, and she always swore to herself "Just one more album and you'll be done." but then she finds herself dragged back into the clutches of the music industry. So, Violet decided to call Ari without a care.

As Ari continued to lean on the balcony, he suddenly heard a call come from the bedroom. He turned, and wondered who it was. Probably his manager about to yell at him for how shit they had performed last night. Ari sighed.

He really didn't want to take it, but he probably should. He walked over and took the call.

'Yeah...?' Ari asked, groggily.

"Hey, it's me, Violet, from the other night." Violet smiled as she heard his voice through the speaker, eve if he couldn't see it.

'Oh.. Violet. Um, good morning...'

Ari groaned groggily. Ari's voice seems a lot better this time -- smoother, somewhat reminiscent of his singing voice, just dark. Figures, since he just woke up. 'Um, well... hi! Uh, how are you...?' He timidly asked.

"I was, uh, thinking about you..." Violet mumbled as she twirled the telephone cord between her fingers. "When I kissed you."

Ari timidly asked, 'Uh... yeah? How do you, um... feel about it? It was... an interesting experience. My first time with a girl, you know...'

"Oh, I am surprised I'm your first. I figured with the way you look, you'd be pulling tons of lasses in tow by now." Violet said jokingly. "But you are a good kisser, I must admit. And to be honest, I haven't kissed a lad like you in a very long time."

'Well... you should see all the shit groupies and girls send to me...' Ari chuckled to himself as he sat back on the bed. 'Well, um, thanks for... that complement--' Chuckling some more. A slight blush. '..You haven't? What's different about me...?'

"Well, for one, you wouldn't look like a lad who'd cheat on me like my last one did," Violet chuckled. "And you have a great personality and at least you look like you shower unlike my last one."

'Oh. No. No, yeah I... would never cheat, I--I have a great personality?..' Ari thought of his timid personality as just annoying. Constantly asked annoying questions and didn't realize the obvious. He doesn't know how to feel about that. 'Uh--thanks I guess. And yeah I shower. Sometimes it's hard to get motivation to get out of bed to shower, but um... I managed. I guess.' Ari awkardly chuckled to himself.

'What did you do after last night..? I can't even remember all that much honestly...'

"I just went home, my shack." Violet said as she shrugged.

'Your... your shack? You live in a shack? That's...'
'Do you wanna come to my hotel?... if it's a literal shack then it might be better than that...' Ari says, genuinly feeling a little bad that he's staying in a fairly nice hotel and she's staying in her "shack". Maybe that was a rude comment. Hopefully not. Hopefully she doesn't hear what he didn't say.