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When I entered the apartment, I heard noises from the kitchen. That immediately told me that the guys were home. Dropping my purse in the corner of the room, I decided to go to the kitchen and see what the guys were up to. When I got there, I was surprised to see Ron there, but no James. For some reason, my heart fell a little at this. As much as I was trying to convince myself that I hated James, it was apparent that I still wanted him around.

Still blaming this whole mess on Ron, I asked a little coldly, "Where's James?" I supposed it was kind of rude of me not even to say hello to Ron, but I was too upset at him to be nice. I knew deep inside that this wasn't really Ron's fault, but if Ron didn't exist, this never would have happened and James would still be paying his usual amount of attention to me.

Ron stopped in the middle of making a sandwich and turned around to look at me. Despite my cold greeting, he smiled and me and said in a friendly tone, "Hi Olivia. James is Lars' house still. The two were writing some song lyrics and James wanted to finish the songs they were working on. He should be home soon. In the meantime, want me to make you a sandwich?"

Ron was being so nice to me that I found it impossible to still be cold with him. Dropping down my wall of jealousy, I gave him a small smile and said, "Thanks, but no thanks. I'm not very hungry. I'm actually pretty tired. I think I'll just call it a night and go to bed." Ron nodded and went back to making his sandwich.

As I wandered to the bathroom to get ready for bed, a sudden anger started to burn inside me. I was getting more and more fed up with James. First, he got into a stupid argument about me because he got us lost and then he flirted with the receptionist. Secondly, he went inviting people to share our apartment without asking me what I thought about it. And thirdly, he was starting to go overboard with the whole band thing. It was like all that mattered to him was the band. I was like invisible to him now or something. I could probably be standing right in front of his face and he wouldn't even notice me.

I ripped off my clothes and replaced them with a cheetah patterned nightie. It had blue lace around the edges and looked pretty sexy, but that wasn't the reason why I was wearing it. I was only wearing it because none of my other nighties were clean. I supposed I should probably take off my makeup, but I was too tired to do that. Instead, I left it on and hurried towards the bed. It looked so comfy and inviting. I wasted absolutely no time in running over and diving into its plushness.

The bed was very soft and relaxing, but try as I might, I couldn't really fall asleep. I wasn't sure why thought. It wasn't like I had anything bothering me. Well...okay, that was a lie. The whole thing with James was really starting to get to me, but it wasn't like I could really do anything about that. It was probably best just to let that go at this point and get some sleep.

Just as I was thinking all this through, the door to the bedroom creaked open. I opened my right eye to see who had entered. Two silhouettes stood in the doorway whispering. Those two people were obviously Ron and James. I supposed they were whispering because they figured I was sleeping and didn't want to disturb me. And truth me told, I didn't feel like being disturbed right now anyways. I was in a bad mood and would probably end up punching something or someone if I was disturbed.

Silently, James slipped into the bed next to me while Ron plopped down on the couch. It only took a few minutes before I heard snoring from the other side of the room. It certainly didn't take Ron very long to fall asleep. As soon as Ron was asleep, I felt James move closer to me on the bed. I ignored that and hoped he was just shifting in his sleep. Unfortunately, that was not the case. A minute later, I heard a soft voice in my ear, "Olivia?"

Not wanting James to think I was still awake, I quickly snapped my eyes shut and tried to make my breathing regular. Sadly, James did not fall for my stunt. His voice came again in my ear, "Olive, I know you're awake. I saw you had your eyes open only a minute ago." Damn. So he did know I was up. Regardless, I still didn't want to talk to him right now though. Keeping my eyes shut, I decided just to ignore him. The hand on my shoulder tightened and I was suddenly flipped from my side to my back.

Jerking my eyes upward, I saw James looking down at me with a concerned expression. Kind of mad that he had flipped me over on my back like that, I resentfully sat up in bed and glared at him, "What do you want? Can't you just leave me alone? Wasn't it pretty obvious that I was trying to sleep?"

James looked taken aback by my cold words. He moved into a sitting position on the bed as well and tried to take my hands into his. I just jerked them away from him, not wanting his comforting touch right now. James, seeming even more bewildered, asked, "What's wrong, Olive? You're not acting normal. Did I do something?"

Looking over his shoulder at Ron, I felt another rush of hatred run through my body. I hissed at James, "I'm not going to talk about it while he's in there." I pointed over at Ron. He was still snoring loudly and there was drool running down one side of his face. He looked like a little boy when he was sleeping. James followed my finger and looked over at Ron. Finally seeming to see what part of the problem was, he grabbed my hand and jerked me out of the bed.

"Come on, let's go into the living room," James whispered to me. Not having the strength or breath to try to resist him, I followed James through the bedroom door and out into the living room. James softly closed the bedroom door behind us as not to disturb Ron, and then took a seat on the couch. He pointed towards the adjacent cushion in a gesture for me to sit too. Knowing that my legs were too tired to keep standing, I reluctantly moved to sit next to him on the couch.

Once we were sitting side by side, James looked me in the eye and stated, "Now you're going to explain to me what you're mad about. I obviously really pissed you off somehow." I was a little surprised that James didn't already know why I was so upset. I mean, he had been the one who had been ignored me all day after all!

"Well," I started out in as calm of a voice as I could, "I'm kind of upset about how you just invited Ron to stay here with us without asking me first. I thought we were doing this together." James looked rather shocked by my confession. Apparently, it had never occurred to him to have asked me if I minded whether or not Ron stayed with us. I guess James had a lot more to learn about me than he had thought. But again, I supposed I still had a lot to learn about James too.

"I didn't know that you minded Ron staying with us," James told me, suddenly looking worried. "I thought you'd be happy that he was going to pay part of the bill so we could have more spending money and stuff. I'm sorry about not asking you though." James apparently still didn't understand why I didn't want Ron staying with us. I decided that I'd better explain the real reason to him.

"It is nice that Ron is paying part of the bills and stuff," I admitted, "But...I feel kind of lonely when he's here. You pretty much forget all about me when he's around. You two are always eating together or practicing for the band together. Sometimes it feels like you've forgotten that I exist. Of course, I don't mind being left out. It's just...not the way I had thought things would be." That was kind of a lie. I did indeed mind being left out, but I didn't want to sound too selfish by saying that aloud.

From James' expression, it had apparently never crossed his mind that he might be leaving me out. Anxiously, James took my hands into his and looked right up into my eyes with that expression that always made my heart melt before him. In a kind voice, he said, "I didn't know I was making you feel left out, Olivia. I didn't really have any opportunities to talk to you today since you left early in the bus this morning though, so it wasn't like I was ignoring you today. I suppose I did probably pay most attention to Ron last night though. I guess I was just getting a little too involved in the band thing. I'd never forget about you though. You didn't honestly believe that I would, did you? You're one of the most important things to me."

James was always so good at sweet talking me after we had a fight. I already found that I was no longer nearly as upset at him as I had been earlier. Actually, I was starting to realize that maybe some of this was my fault. James was right; I had been the one who had stormed out of the apartment early this morning and had spent all day avoiding him. I was probably more to blame in this situation than James was. My thoughts returned slowly back to his question from earlier. Did I believe he would ever forget me? Deep inside, I knew he wouldn't. We were too close and bonded too tightly together for that to happen.

"I suppose I didn't honestly think you'd forget me," I admitted to James. Then, knowing I should probably apologize for accusing him of ignoring me, I added, "I'm sorry about this. It was really more of my fault than yours. I guess I've just been kind of paranoid about you leaving me and I've been a little more stressed out than usual. Life is so different now. I was used to a regular routine back in Downey, but here, there's so much to get used to!"

"Yeah, I know," James agreed understandingly. He had been holding my hand in his palm and had now flipped it over so he could rub my palm. "I've been more stressed out too lately, but I'm just trying not to let it get to me. I was kind of relieved to know that we were going to be able to pay the rent and stuff though. Wait a sec...is your job stressing you out? If it is, I'm sure we could find you a different job. I still have no idea why Lars had to find you a job in a strip club of all places!"

Not wanting James to worry about me, which he was obviously doing at the moment, I quickly shook my head, "Nah, there's nothing wrong with my job. I honestly don't mind it at all. Like I said earlier, Marty is always there and he's always looking out for me. He's a really sweet guy. He did say that he had to leave on vacation in a few weeks though and that his cousin was going to take over his job for a week. I hope he's just as nice as Marty is."

A line of worry creased James' brow. Deep in though, he said earnestly, "Well, make sure you call me if something goes wrong, okay? Call me even if there isn't something wrong just so I know what Marty's cousin is like. I'll worry about you if you don't." I resisted rolling my eyes. James obviously hadn't thought about the fact that I couldn't call him since he didn't have a cell phone.

"Uh, James?" I asked, "You don't have a cell phone. How am I suppose to call you from work if you don't have a phone?" James blushed and looked a little embarrassed. He thought for another moment and said, "I'll get Lars' phone number for you. I'll be at his house during band practice, so if you call his phone number, you can reach me there. Okay?"

I nodded. It was really clear to me now that James hadn't forgotten about me. On the contrary, he seemed overprotective and really worried about me. Wanting to change the topic of conversation to something other than me, I asked, "I heard you found a lead guitarist for your band. What do you think of him?"

The crease between James' brow immediately disappeared and he was back to his smiling, happy self, "Oh, you mean Dave Mustaine? He's okay. Well, he's more than okay I guess. Dave's a really great guitarist. I'm hoping we'll be really good friends in the future. Personally, I like Lars better than Dave, but I think I can manage to get along with both of them."

I was surprised to hear that James liked Lars better than Dave. I liked Dave slightly better than Lars although I wasn't attracted to either of them all that much. Oh well, James could be free to make friends with whoever he wanted. It wasn't any of my concern unless he was making out with a chick behind my back.

James gave a big yawn and looked over at me with drooping eyelids, "Wanna go back to bed now? I'm kinda tired. I'm sure you are too. I think undergoing all this stress makes us more tired." I paused on the couch, thinking. I did want to go back to bed, but on the other hand, Ron was still in there. I didn't really like going to bed with James in the same room as Ron.

Deciding just to speak my mind, I commented, "Uh...it's not very private in the bedroom...wanna just stay out here on the couch tonight?"