FicWad

When she’d finally finished getting dressed, brushing her teeth, washing her face, and waking up fully, Paulina made her way down to the kitchen to get something to eat. It was empty, which wasn’t surprising, as she was pretty much left to her own devices if she wasn’t leaving the house. Paulina hadn’t needed a chaperone around the house in months, and she preferred it that way. In a house with five men, it was nice to get to be alone.

Paulina opened the refrigerator and stared. She was still pretty groggy, and it took a few minutes to register how little there was in there. Just as she was figuring that a glass of orange juice would suffice, her stomach let loose an ear-rumbling growl. Paulina frowned, pouring the juice and taking a long drink.

“You have to eat actual food, you know,” said a voice, making Paulina jump, choke on the juice, and send a lot of it spilling to the floor. Somehow, it missed her white shirt completely and just splashed directly to the white marble.

“Don’t do that!” Paulina snapped, grabbing a towel off the counter and wiping up the spill. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“You’ll get over it. Why are you so late?” Bob crossed to the fridge and opened it, taking out eggs, milk, cheese, and assorted veggies.

“We had some trouble finding clothes. And I don’t want an omelet again. I had that yesterday.”

“Well what do you want, then? And what do you mean? You have more clothes than the five of us put together, spending like there’s no tomorrow.” Bob cracked two eggs into a small bowl, whisking them with a fork and adding in some milk.

“ Mikey couldn’t find the clothes Gerard had put out for me, and then the shorts didn’t fit, so he had to go find new ones. And it’s not like there’s much else to do here besides online shopping. I mean, you’ve got some crazy block on the computer for everything except online stores. And I’d rather have cereal.” Paulina had gotten a bowl and spoon out of their respective cupboards, grabbed the milk that Bob had taken out for the eggs, and sat down at the kitchen table, box of Honey Wheat Puftas in hand. Bob sighed and dumped the omelet he’d been making into the sink, joining the girl at the table.

“Fine, eat what you want. How could you have outgrown those shorts? How much bigger are you?”

“The ones I’m wearing now are size four, and the others were size two.” Paulina’s cheeks turned a bit red as she took a bite of her cereal. Sure, it was a little embarrassing that she’d gained weight.

“Well, you still look pretty tiny to me. You could stand to gain a bit more weight, in my opinion.

“Awesome,” Paulina said quietly and sarcastically, taking another bite.

“Well, hurry up and eat. You still have to practice before you go out.”

“I hate practicing,” Paulina answered, suddenly taking her own sweet time in finishing her breakfast. “I don’t see why I have to do it.”

“You don’t have to see why, you just have to do it,” Bob told her, grabbing the half-empty bowl of cereal and dumping the rest in the sink.

“Hey! I wasn’t finished.”

“You are now. Go practice,” Bob ordered, turning around and leaning against the counter. Paulina glared at him from the table, standing after a moment and walking out mumbling angrily. Her feet automatically carried her into the large room with nothing but stained-glass windows and a large piano sitting in the center. Seated at the bench was Frank, who was alternating between tapping the high C and D keys impatiently with his index and middle fingers.

“I’m here, I’m here,” Paulina said, knowing she was going to catch hell for being late the minute she sat down. Sure enough, the hand that was playing the notes balled up into a fist and rested in Frank’s laugh, plunging the cavernous room into silence.

“You’re inexcusably late,” he spat, not turning around.

“Then I guess I’ll just go,” Paulina said, stopping a few feet away from the piano bench.

“Sit,” he ordered, his voice bouncing off the walls and echoing many times over. Paulina took a breath and sat down on his right, bracing herself for whatever may be coming her way. “Explain.”

“Mikey had to find a larger size for me. I’ve…gained weight.” Paulina fiddled with her hands in her lap. She’d never been uncomfortable with her weight before, but…She’d been a size zero upon her abduction, and then she’d bumped up to size two, and now she was a four. It was almost humiliating, especially living in the environment to which she was now accustomed.

“Good,” Frank replied, opening the sheet music that was propped up on the piano and flicking through the pages until he landed on Ravel’s Bolero. “You need to gain weight. You’re deathly thin, and it’s not healthy.”

“I can’t believe we’re playing this again,” Paulina said, ignoring Frank’s last remarks. “I think it’s time we move on to something else.”

“Well, what you think doesn’t matter, l’amour. We’re going to learn this until I detect some smidgen of musical talent somewhere in your body.” Paulina sighed and placed her fingers to the keys, beginning to play, half out of the sheet music, and half out of memory.

After a while, Paulina let her eyelids flutter closed, and she let her memory of the song take hold. Every now and then, she’d open her eyes again, glance at the sheet music to make sure she was doing it right, and returned to her relaxed state. She ignored whatever mistakes she might have made; Frank, however, was not so forgiving. After a particularly long string of sour notes, in which Paulina’s eyes were squinting at the paper, trying to see what was going wrong, she felt an arm slide around her back and above her arm, resting atop her hand on the piano.

“No,” Frank said softly, leaning close to Paulina so their faces were almost touching. His eyelids hovered as he looked at their hands on the keys. “Look at the key-signature; it’s not natural, it’s flat. You’re not paying close enough attention to detail, l’amour.” Paulina nodded as Frank guided her hand to the right keys, his tattooed fingers falling onto the cold ivory with hers. The notes came out perfect this time.

“Okay,” Paulina said quietly, wishing he would take his hand away. It wasn’t exactly making her feel uncomfortable, but it…well, she wasn’t sure what it made her feel. Maybe that was what she didn’t like. Frank removed his hand from Paulina’s and dropped it absent-mindedly onto her lap, his fingers curling around her knee lightly. She took a deep breath and replayed the last few bars of the song, this time getting the notes perfect, even though she was distracted by Frank’s arm secured around her waist.

“Lovely,” he said. It was then that he must have realized where his arm was, and quickly pulled it back. He cleared his throat. “Well,” he said after a moment of silence. “Go on.”

The lesson went on for an hour. Paulina would play and play until Frank stopped her, and made her replay a page, or a single measure over and over until it was perfect. Finally, he stopped Paulina by touching her arm. He closed the lid over the keys and stood up, gripping Paulina’s arm and pulling her up as well.

“I was told that I was going out today,” Paulina said, following the tattooed man out of the large, empty hall.

“That’s correct,” Frank stated, not offering any addition information. Paulina waited; Frank liked to pause for dramatic effect. When he didn’t answer, however, and it seemed he was leading her to the front door with no further explanation.

“Oh, just tell me where I’m going and what I’m doing, already. Don’t make me beg,” Paulina sighed, leaning against the doorframe.

“Oh, you know I love it when you beg, honey,” Frank said, his eyes on the stairs where Ray was descending. “Well, since you asked so nicely, I’ll tell you. You’re getting two things today: a new dress, and a new haircut.”


Okay...So...Super-short, super-shitty, and...just super-sucky. I'm sorry. It's one of those chapters where I absolutely HAVE to get in this little transition between two events in the story. And I'm sorry for the wait. I got my wisdom teeth pulled, then rehearsals for A Chorus Line, the show I'm in, have started, and they're brutal. Plus, I've got a shitton of work AND I'm sick. Very sick. So I thought maybe the fates were trying to tell me that I should let this story go. But you know what I said? I said FUCK YOU, FATES! And I wrote this chapter, so the fates can suck it. Anywho...what do you guys think? Haircut...big deal, methinks. What do you think? A trim? A cut? A shave, perhaps? We'll see. And RAY'S BACK! Okay. So...go comment and subscribe, and I'll get my next chapter up as soon as possible. Stay tuned, kids. OverAndOutxx