FicWad

After I slipped the photo album into my bag, I stood up and stared around my room for one last time. It was hard to say goodbye to the one room that had been my refuge for so long. I tried to imprint the room in my memory so I would never forget it. Biting my lip, I finally turned to James. James wasn't looking at me though. He was looking suspiciously at my bag. I gave him a funny look. Why was he looking at my bag like that?

"Hey Olivia," James called, moving closer to the bag, "Can I see what you packed?" I shrugged. There was no reason for James not to look in my bag. James quickly opened it up and began ruffling through my stuff. He pulled out a few of my shirts and dumped them on the bed. After that, he dug deeper in it. I blushed when he picked up my bra. I was starting to wish I hadn't allowed him to look through my bag.

"So...um...what exactly are you looking for in there?" I asked James. James quickly tossed my items back into the bag and shrugged, "Nothing. It just doesn't seem like you're packing very much stuff. But again, that should be enough for now." I looked at my feet and didn't say anything. Everything I owned except the black sweater was in that small bag. I didn't have very many possessions from my childhood. My mother had taken anything of mine that had any value to it and had sold it for money for food and booze. The few things I had were a few shirts, sweatshirts, jeans, my hairbrush, and some makeup.

"Ready to go?" James asked. I wasn't really ready to go, but I didn't think I was ever going to be ready to leave really. Now was probably as good of a time as any other. Nodding, I swung my black bag over my shoulder and followed James down the stairs in silence. The atmosphere was full of sadness and depression as we stepped outside of the house and moved towards James' car. I blinked back tears as I glanced at my house one last time.

The weather outside wasn't really helping my mood much. It was dark and raining outside. Water droplets splatted on my head and started soaking me. I was oblivious to them though while I stood looking at the home I would never see again. A few seconds later, I felt a gentle hand on my shoulder and heard James' kind voice in my ear, "Come on, Olivia. Let's go before you get soaked." Knowing that he was right, I ripped my gaze away from the little shack and headed towards the passenger seat to James' car. I hoisted myself up into it and quickly buckled myself in, shivering from the cold.

As if worried that I would change my mind about going to Los Angeles with him, James hurriedly started up the car and it was only seconds before we were on the road. Once the house was out of view, I took a closer look at James' truck. It was an ancient thing. The seats were beaten up and scratched and we seemed to get jostled around a lot. Maybe that was just because of the way James was driving though. Still feeling cold, I tried to adjust the heat level. Nothing happened though.

Not sure how to work the heat, I turned to James and asked, "So how do I turn the heat up? I'm really cold." James looked over to where I was attempting to adjust the heat and bit his lip. Finally, he replied, "Uh, I think I might have forgotten to mention to you that the heater doesn't work. We'll get it fixed once we get to LA, but for now, just hang tight, okay?"

I made a face, but didn't say anything. There wasn't really any point in complaining if there was nothing we could do about the heater. Trying to lighten up the atmosphere, James turned on the radio. Loud country music came blasting out. I frowned and asked, "Isn't there something else we can listen to? I don't like country much."

James raised an eyebrow at me and shook his head, "Not really unless you like listening to classical piano music." The only thing I liked less than country was classical. Too bad we didn't have a rock station or something like that. Our little trip certainly wasn't starting out so well. First, it's raining out. Secondly, the heater doesn't work so I'm going to be stuck shivering for the whole journey. And thirdly, now I'm stuck listening to this country music crap.

James and I rode in silence for a long time. He was squinted through the rain as we traveled through cities, and I just kind of minded my own business. I was too tired to do or say much anyway. I hadn't slept very well last night. My thoughts had been focused on the journey ahead of us. I couldn't help but worry about how we were going to survive.

After a while, I noticed James was starting to get pretty disgruntled. He kept cursing under his breath and squinting at all the signs around us. At first, I didn't say anything. We had been driving for a really long time by now and I didn't want to cause an argument. But after the fifth obscenity, I had to say something. Trying to word my sentence carefully, I asked, "So...are we getting close to the apartment or wherever we're staying?"

"Huh?" James asked distractedly, looking at the map he was holding in one hand. "No, we're not there yet." I nodded and looked closely at the map. From what I could tell, we weren't even close to the hotel. As a matter of fact, I couldn't even find where we were on the map. This certainly wasn't a good sign. From what I could tell, we were lost.

"Uh...James?" I asked cautiously. He gave no reply. Nervously, I added, "Are we lost?" Still no reply. Sighing, I added, "We are lost. Why don't we-" James cut me off abruptly, "Shut up for one fucking moment, will you? We're not lost. I'm just...trying to figure out where we are." Basically, that was him admitting that we were lost.

"Why don't you let me see the map or drive?" I suggested, figuring I would be better at directions than he was. James let out a loud sigh and shrugged his shoulders as he pulled over to the side of the room, "Fine! Just fucking fine. You're just going to get us into more shit than we're already in. You've never even been out of Downey before. How the fuck are you going to get us to Los Angeles?" I flinched at James' words. I didn't think I had heard him use so many curse words before. It was now becoming pretty apparent to me that James had a short temper.

Without saying anything to his previous sentences, I got out of the car and changed places with him soundlessly. Before I started the car back up, I looked the map over to figure out where we were. I could tell instantly that we were going the opposite direction than the direction we were suppose to be traveling in. I resisted rolling my eyes as I turned the car around and started backtracking. We were traveling through the city now and there were cars surrounding us everywhere.

James was partially right; I hadn't driven in a big city before. I was a careful driver though and it wasn't to much of an issue for me to maneuver through the traffic lights and get us to our desired location. As a matter of fact, it was much easier to reach our apartment than I had thought it would be. It only took us an hour to reach our apartment once I had started driving.

When I set eyes on the apartment, I felt a little rush of excitement pulse through me. The apartment we were staying at was called The Orsini. It was tall and looked like it had just been built. I quickly drove through the entrance and parked in the closest parking spot to the doorway so we wouldn't have to walk too far. I didn't really want to get wet.

Once we were parked, I peered over at James. His face was expressionless, but I could tell he was still upset about something or the other because his hands were clenched in fists. Deciding it was best not to say anything to him, I exited the car door and hurried around to the trunk to retrieve my bag. James followed me silently and grabbed his black suitcase while I held my bag tightly in my arms. We continued to walk in silence as we slipped through the large oaken doors and into the apartment's lobby.

James hurried over to the woman at the reception guest. She was a really pretty woman with auburn hair and green eyes. I didn't pay much attention to what the woman and James were saying until I noticed something I didn't like. The woman was looking at James with something that looked like intense attraction. She was looking over his body with eyes full of interest. I edged closer to where they were standing to try to hear what they were saying.

"Here's your key, Mr. Hetfield. I hope you find your room to be what you expected it to be. I will tell you that the view out the window is quite beautiful. It over looks a little lake. It's really pretty," the woman told James, still looking at him with that lusty expression. To my disgust, James smiled back at her and replied, "It may be pretty, but I'm sure it's not as pretty as you."

That comment seemed like a slap in the face to me. Since when had James started flirting with other women? I supposed he might be angry at me for taking charge of the trip earlier, but honestly, who knew were we would be right now if James had kept driving? We certainly wouldn't be at the apartment right now, that was for sure.

James signed his name on some card the woman had given him to show that we had checked into our room. When he was done signing and was handing the pen back to the woman, I noticed she wrapped her hand over his as she took the pen from him. James smiled seductively and her and rubbed her fingers gently with his. Now completely disgusted and humiliated, I turned away from the two and tried to keep my anger under control. Seriously, who did James think he was to do this to me?

It was only then that I realized that the woman at the desk looked remarkably like Kitty. That thought didn't make me feel any better. Finally, James grabbed our room card from the woman and headed towards the elevator without looking at me. I followed him into the elevator and watched him stonily as he pressed the button for the seventh floor.

Once the elevator stopped at our selected floor, James hurried out, trailing his black suitcase behind him. Feeling angry, upset, and confused, I followed him until we reached our room. James slipped the key through the door and stepped inside our new home. For a moment, I forgot about James' attitude problem when I stepped into the room.

It was pretty damn nice. The wood floor was shiny and cleaned to perfection, there was a nice table sitting in the middle of the kitchen, and there was a small TV and dark green couch adjacent to it. My feet spontaneously led me to the bathroom and bedroom. The bathroom was small, but it would do. The bedroom on the other hand, was quite large. There was a big, king-sized bed in the middle of it that seemed to be calling out to me.

Resisting the urge to flop onto the bed, I placed my little bag in one of the corners of the room before heading back to the living room. I needed to be away from James for a bit. Turning on the television, I flicked through the channels in an attempt to find something to watch. But after a few minutes, I realized I didn't really want to watch TV. Uncalled for tears started forming in my eyes as I huddled on the edge of the couch. Everything about this trip was going wrong so far except for the nice room. The worst part was that the guy I loved more than anything else in the world was intentionally ignoring me and was showing interest in some other woman. I didn't know James well enough to know what this meant. Was he losing interest in me? Had he stopped loving me? Only time would tell.