FicWad

I returned to doing the dishes, but kept an eye on the guy at the counter. There was something very odd about him. I couldn't decide if I liked him or not. He had long blonde hair that was about the same length as James' hair. He had blue eyes, but they weren't nearly as blue as James'. The thing that was odd about him was his smile. It was almost creepy. Okay, now I was seriously being paranoid. James had freaked me out too much earlier with his whole lecture about not dressing like a whore and attracting dangerous guys. I needed to relax and just ignore the guy at the counter if he was bothering me.

But was he bothering me? Not really. On the contrary, I kept finding myself looking over at him for no good reason. He caught my eye a few times and smiled that odd smile at me. It was almost a lopsided smile. It was strange, but obviously the only way he could smile I assumed. Blushing at getting caught staring, I looked away and returned to my dishes.

As soon as the clock struck eight, I quickly said goodbye to Marty and headed towards the door. I was tired and wanted to get home to James. But even before I had taken two steps, a hand closed around my upper forearm. Nervously, I spun around to find that strange blonde-haired guy standing before me. I had known he had been looking at me earlier, but I hadn't considered the fact that he might actually come after me. So what was I suppose to do now?

"Hey," the guy greeted me with that odd smile. "Care to stick around for a bit? I'll buy you a drink." Still very conscious of his firm grip on my forearm, I shook my head and tried to pull away from him, "Um...thanks for the offer, but no thanks. I've gotta get home. Besides, I have someone waiting to pick me up."

"Oh," the guy's face fell. "So...who's picking you up?" I didn't see how any of this was any of this stranger's business, but to keep him happy, I decided to just answer the damn question. In as calm of a voice as I could muster, I replied, "It's just my friend. He works until seven and then he comes to pick me up at eight since I don't have a car of my own."

The blonde guy nodded his head slowly and then questioned me further, "That makes sense although you could just ride the bus. So tell me, what does your friend do for work?" I gritted my teeth together and tried to stay calm. What was this, like the Spanish Inquisition or something? I supposed the guy's questions weren't really hurting me, but I really was in a hurry to get out of her tonight. Staying around and chit chatting hadn't been part of my plan. Besides, the guy still had that firm grip on my arm.

"He doesn't exactly work," I said honestly, "My friend is working on starting a band with a couple of other guys." Crossing my fingers, I hoped that he would just accept this and let me go without asking any more questions. What I didn't expect was the big grin on his face and the flashing of excitement in his eyes.

"Wait, your friend is starting a band? I've always wanted to join a band! I've got my own equipment and everything. So tell me, how can I contact this band? I'd love to join it," the guy gushed excitedly. Figuring by now that this guy was harmless and that there was no need for me to be so worried around him, I relaxed slightly.

"Uh, I think they're running an ad in the paper about the band. The guy who started the band is Lars Ulrich, he's the drummer. I'm sure you can find his ad in the newspaper if you look hard enough," I directed him. Looking ecstatic, the guy dropped his grip on my arm and smiled widely at me, "Great! Thanks so much for telling me about this. I can't believe I haven't seen Lars' ad before. Anyways, nice meeting you, but I'm off to find a newspaper!"

With that, the guy turned and hurried through the crowd. I was left staring after him with mixed feelings. The guy was obviously strange, but I guess he was kind of nice in his own sense. Besides, he had seemed to be honestly interested in me. He wasn't the kind of guy who looked at a woman for her body. I pushed the guy to the back of my head and headed out of the club. James' red truck was parked in the handicap parking spot, and I could hear his loud country music from the minute I stepped outside.

I clamored into the truck and buckled my seat belt, "Hey, what's up with the loud music? I have to scream for you to hear me." James gave me a quizzical expression and yelled back, "Huh?" I turned the radio off and rolled my eyes as James pulled out of the parking lot, "I asked why the music was so damn loud. Are you trying to make me deaf or something?"

"Not exactly," James laughed. "Hey, you're late!" James' eyes narrowed as he looked at the clock. Shit. I hadn't thought I had spent too much time talking to the blonde guy in the club, but apparently I had actually ended up spending a good fifteen minutes chatting with him. Not having an excuse, I tried to change the subject, "Why were you parked in the handicap parking place?"

Unfortunately, the changing of the subject did not distract James one bit. He waved me question aside and murmured, "I dunno...I felt like it I guess. You're avoiding my question though. Tell me what you were doing in there." I tried to think up an excuse, but nothing came to mind. I was a really bad liar. Resentfully, I decided to just go with the truth, "Um, there was a guy there who was talking to me. And before you get all worked up, he wasn't even interested in me. He just wanted to know about the band. He said he was interested in joining a band and wanted to know how he could contact Lars."

James opened his mouth and then closed it. He looked like he was angry, but then his expression softened, "Oh. So what did you tell him?" I shrugged, "I just told him to check the newspaper. That's how you found out about Lars' band. Speaking of which, how'd band practice go today? Did you meet Ron?"

By this time, we had already pulled up at our apartment. James parked the car and opened his car door, "It went pretty well. We obviously need a lead guitarist before we can do anything major, but we're coming along pretty well. Oh, guess what?" Not even waiting for me to guess, James continued, "Lars says I'll be a good vocalist for the band. Weird, huh?"

I took his hand as we walked into the apartment and shook my head, "It's not all that weird. I've always thought you'd be a good singer. Now you have to sing something for me soon. What's Ron like?" James and I entered the apartment and took the stairs instead of the elevator. I supposed it was good exercise for both of us since we had been sitting around all day.

"Ron's really nice," James replied. "That reminds me...I have something to tell you." The way James said the last sentence made me think that he had some bad news for me. We reached our apartment room and I stretched out a hand to open the door. To my surprise, James swatted my hand away and said, "Um, I'm going to tell you out here, okay?"

Not seeing why it made a difference whether he told me his news inside or outside of the room, I shrugged and waited for him to say something. James didn't look into my eyes as he said, "You know how we're kind of struggling to pay the rent and stuff? Well, Ron needs a place to stay too. I told him the three of us could share the apartment. He'll pay half the rent even. Isn't that good news?" That was anything but good news to me.

The idea of sharing our room with some strange guy made me incredibly nervous. I certainly didn't like the idea of another guy in my bedroom in the middle of the night. Plus, I was never going to get any alone time with James now. My heart sank and I tried not to look as disappointed as I felt. It must've shown though, because James put a hand on my shoulder and said, "Hey, it's not that bad! What are you worried about? Ron is a very responsible guy if that's what you're worried about. He won't hurt you."

"Yeah..." I said weakly, not even bothering to try to explain all my complaints to James. He had already invited Ron to stay with us. What was done was done and there was nothing I could do to change it. I might as well just suck it all up and try to make the best of it. Figuring I might as well get this all over with, I opened the door to the apartment and stepped into the living room. There was a guy sitting on the couch reading a magazine. He had curly brown hair and matching brown eyes. When he saw James and me, he stood up and hurried towards us, "Hi James! Is this the girl you were telling me about?"

"Yeah, this is Olivia," James said, pointing towards me. The guy standing before me, who I presumed to be Ron, stretched out a hand to be and smiled, "Nice to meet you, Olivia. Thanks so much for sharing your apartment with me! I don't think I would've been able to afford to stay anywhere else." I nodded stiffly and shook his hand. If it were up to be, Ron would definitely not be sharing the hotel with us. I liked my space and privacy. Ron seemed like an okay guy, but still!

"You want something to eat?" James asked, heading for the refrigerator. Ron shook his head, "Nah, I already ate, thanks anyways." A couple of minutes ago, I had been starving. I had only eaten a little salad for lunch. But now, my appetite had completely disappeared. So when James asked me if I wanted to eat anything, I just shook my head. James shrugged his shoulders at me, grabbed two beers from the refrigerator and hurried back to the living room where Ron was waiting for him.

"Wanna practice guitar together?" Ron asked hopefully. James nodded just as eagerly, and before I knew it, the two of them were both jamming on their guitars. Usually, I would've been happy to sit around and listen to them, but tonight, I found the noise irritating. Wanting silence, I snuck into the bedroom and crawled under the covers still fully clothed.

I spent the next few hours lying there in bed, trying to drown out the sound of James and Ron playing guitar. I could instantly tell that I was not going to like having Ron around. Now that Ron was here, he and James were obviously going to spend all their free time together. They'd probably always be practicing for their band or doing other guy stuff. I was starting to think James had already forgotten about me. He hadn't said a single word to me since we had stepped into the apartment.

Feeling kind of put out and miserable, I rolled over onto my belly and tried to fall asleep. The guitar playing kept me from doing that though. Finally, after what seemed like hours, it finally stopped. The sound of Ron and James laughing floated to my ears instead. I heard the bathroom door click and assumed they were getting ready for bed.

I glanced over to the right of the bed I was laying on. There was a couch that had blankets and pillows spread out messily all over it. Apparently, that was where Ron would be sleeping. Great. So I didn't even get any privacy while I was sleeping. This whole situation was really turning into a big mess. Maybe I should've stayed in Downey after all.