FicWad

James' bad mood was kind of contagious because now I was feeling pretty grumpy and irritable as well. I wanted to catch him alone somewhere so I could explain to him that there was nothing between Dave and me, but I couldn't find a chance to do that since James was constantly avoiding my eye. What a bastard! Not sure what else to do, I decided to go into the kitchen and start baking the cake. I didn't really want to sit at the table with a bunch of guys drinking beer.

I entered the kitchen and started taking things out of the cupboards to bake my cake. Once all the ingredients were out, I started pouring them into the only wooden bowl we had managed to buy. Even with Ron living with us, money was still tight and we couldn't buy nearly all the things we wanted to buy. Until the band became popular and started making money, we were going to have to learn to live on a tight budget. That was okay though. As long as I kept my job, we'd be able to pay the bills.

While I mixed the ingredients together, I listened into the guys' conversation coming from the living room. Right now, Lars was talking. His voice hinted at someone who liked to take control and it was pretty obvious that Lars was the leader here. I listened in more carefully as he said, "Okay guys, I had two ideas for our band's name. I came up with Metallica or Metal Mania. They're nothing amazing, but they're simple and easy to say. What one do you guys like better?"

"Metallica," James and Dave coursed together while Ron said, "Metal Mania." Lars laughed and tapped his chin as if deep in thought. Finally, he said, "You know, I think I like the sound of Metallica better than Metal Mania too. It's a little more original. Sorry, Ron, but you're outvoted. We can now refer to ourselves as 'Metallica' instead of 'the band.' Now, about getting our album created..." I zoned out Lars' voice as he started blabbing on and on about how to get the album produced. To be honest, I didn't know much about how to get an album produced and I didn't really care how it happened. I would let the guys figure all that crap out on their on. In the meantime, I had a cake to bake.

A few minutes later when I dumped the cake in the oven, James popped into the kitchen and headed straight towards the fridge. Curious to see what he needed, I followed silently behind him and asked, "Is there something else you want for dinner? Did we run out of pizza or something? I'm baking a cake though, so you guys shouldn't go hungry."

James retreated from the fridge with his arms full of more beer bottles. I immediately narrowed my eyes at him and gave him a suspicious look. There had been at least twelve beer bottles on the table earlier. Was it possible that the band members had somehow managed to go through all twelve bottles already? That was not a good sign. Some people were certainly going to end up getting drunk tonight if they didn't stop drinking. I was really dead set against drinking. After all, an alcohol addiction had been what had turned my mom psycho and had been the cause of her death. I wouldn't want that same fate for anyone.

I opened my mouth to tell James my thoughts, but he cut me off before I could even get a word in, "Please not now, Olivia! I'm not forcing you to drink so you shouldn't be forcing me not to drink. Just stay out of this right now, okay?" James' tone of voice was not at all nice. It sounded hard, cold, and distant. I couldn't help but think that part of this was going on because of the situation with Dave and me. Unfortunately, there wasn't much I could do about that unless I could get James alone somewhere.

Seizing my opportunity, I quickly changed my demeanor and asked, "Hey James, can we...uh...go somewhere private for a moment?" James looked at me like I had lost my mind and shook his head, "Uh, not right now. We have guests, remember?" Trying not to show my frustration, I turned back to my cake as James exited the room with all the beer bottles clutched in his arms.

After about a half hour passed, my cake was finally done. A delicious warm chocolate aroma floated around the kitchen and wafted into the living room. I popped the cake onto a plate and walked into the living room with it, deciding to join the guys at the table for a little while. At this point, they were obviously not talking about the band anymore. Instead, they were all laughing like maniacs with big, goofy grins on their faces. I also noticed that there were several empty beer bottles on the table and under the table.

"Hey guys," I greeted them, taking a seat between James and Dave. "Want some cake?" All the guys cheered in reply and took big slices of my cake. Lars got chocolate all over his lip and looked so funny that it was almost painful not to burst out laughing at the sight of him. Dave literally inhaled his piece of cake and licked his fingers when he was done, "God, that was really good, Olivia. Can we have some more?" I shook my head, looking at the small sliver of cake left. I was determined to save it for tomorrow. Dave pouted a bit, put didn't protest too much at my decision.

Once everyone was done with the cake, we all sat around the table just relaxing. Lars sighed happily and leaned back in his chair. In a matter of fact voice, he stated, "This is one of the best nights I've had in a long time." Everyone nodded in agreement. A smirk crossed Dave's face as he added, "It would be a perfect night if only we had some girls around."

"There's one girl here," Lars pointed out wryly, gesturing to me. Wondering what the hell Dave was up to, I gave him a rather suspicious look and didn't say anything. I could see James looking between the two of us with a frown crossing his face. He obviously didn't like the way Dave was looking at me. And to be honest, I didn't like it much either. He was looking at me way too closely. His eyes seemed to be glued to my chest and it wasn't hard to imagine what he was thinking. From Dave's slurred words in his previous sentence, I could tell he was also pretty drunk right now.

All of the sudden, Dave randomly threw an arm around my shoulder and yanked me close to him. My heart pounded nervously against my rib cage as I found myself thrust right in front of Dave's face. I was too shocked to say anything, so I just ended up staring at him with wide eyes. Dave yanked me closer to him in an attempt to kiss me, but before he had a chance to, someone grabbed my shoulders and pulled me backwards. I felt nails digging into the skin on my shoulders as I was yanked away from Dave and sent tumbling right back into my chair.

I wasn't surprised when I looked behind me to find James giving Dave a murderous look. Dave, however, didn't seem to notice the severity of the situation. Either that, or he was too drunk to really process anything. With that same drunken smile on his face, he turned to James and slurred, "What's the big deal, man? I can't kiss a girl in front of you?"

"Not that girl," James said, never taking his eyes off Dave. There was a slight pain coming from my shoulders. I looked over to see that James had dug his nails so far into me that there were little blood droplets trickling down my shoulder blades. Great. Dave and James continued to stare at each other for a long, tense moment. Finally, Lars changed the subject, "So...what do you guys think about meeting for band practice a little earlier tomorrow morning?"

Deciding that this was a situation I didn't want to be in, I quietly excused myself and hurried into the bedroom to get ready for bed. While I stripped and changed into a midnight blue nightie with black lace around the edges, I could hear the guys continuing to talk and laugh together from the kitchen. I was rather surprised to hear Dave's jokes get dirtier and dirtier as time went on. He was normally a very sweet guy when he was sober, but when he was drunk...well...watch out!

Flopping down in bed, I tried to think about what I was going to have to say to Dave and James tomorrow. Dave obviously needed to know that I was already taken. He had confirmed my hypothesis that he was interested in me as a girlfriend when he had tried to kiss me earlier. Since I obviously couldn't go hooking up with Dave right now, I had better tell him that I wasn't interested in being his girlfriend before things got too far along. I just hoped that this information wouldn't ruin my relationship with Dave. I really liked having him around as a friend. Losing Dave as a friend would definitely hit me hard.

James also needed to know that there wasn't anything going on between me and Dave. He obviously thought there was going something on from the way he had been acting towards me tonight. There was always something bothering James when he acted so distant and cold with me. All this talking was going to have to wait until tomorrow though. Right now, I was so tired that I could've probably could've fallen asleep standing if I had tried it.

Closing my eyes, I felt myself drift into sleep easily. However, my sleep couldn't have lasted more than twenty minutes. In what seemed like no time at all, I felt rough hands jerk me over so I was lying on my back. My eyelids immediately flipped open and I was wide awake from the disturbance. James was leaning over me with a furious expression on his, "What the hell is going on, Olivia? What's gone on between you and Dave? There's obviously something there. Tell me what it is!"

Looking into James' eyes, I felt a stab of fear. He looked more angry than I had ever seen him before. I was just going to have to be patient and try to keep calm to prevent him from doing anything too rash. Taking a deep breath, I explained, "James, nothing is going on. Just listen to me a moment before you say anything else." James had looked like he was about to say something, but when I said this, he closed his mouth grudgingly and waited for me to speak.

Once I was positive that James was going to be quiet, I went on, "Dave asked me out in the hallway earlier today. You know, when you and Ron opened the door? I never told him my response so that might be why he made some moves on me tonight. But seriously James, do you honestly think I'm interested in Dave? I would've thought you would've known me better than this. Of course I would never cheat on you with some other guy. I only want love from you."

James was quiet for a moment and I could see the anger slowly leaving his face. After a minute or two, he took a deep breath and said, "How should I have known that you weren't interested in Dave? For all I know, you could like him a lot better than me. Maybe you think he's better looking or maybe you think that he'd fuck you better-"

"James, just shut up, will you?" I cut off his sentence, starting to get annoyed. Now that James had heard the the whole story, there was really no point in discussing this further. I had told him I wasn't interested in Dave. We seriously didn't need to spend our whole night going over reasons why I might like Dave better than James. That was just plain stupid and pointless. James was just being paranoid at this point. Or maybe he was just really drunk.

James fell silent at my words and stared at me in surprise. I rarely used such a commanding tone with him, but tonight, I just couldn't take any more of his crap. If he wanted to believe that I liked Dave better, then fine. He could believe what he wanted. But right now, I needed to go to sleep. I was worn out from a long day at work and from arguing with him and trying to decide how to politely reject Dave tomorrow.

Hoping James was going to continue to stay silent, I flipped back over onto my stomach and closed my eyes again. If I was lucky, maybe I would manage to get some peace and quiet before the night was over.