FicWad

James and I wandered down the apartment stairs slowly and entered the lobby. I was glad James was walking slow since I couldn't walk too fast without getting a spasm of pain from either my back or legs. As soon as we stepped into the lobby, I noticed that the red-headed receptionist that looked a lot like Kitty was sitting at the desk in the middle of the room. When she saw James, her face lit up and she waved at him excitedly. I grimaced and poked James in the ribs.

James looked over at me questioningly and raised an eyebrow. I stood on my tip toes and whispered into his ears, "See that receptionist? She's the one I told you about last night. You know, the one you said that you didn't remember. Do you remember her now?" James took a swift look over at the red-head who was still smiling at him like Christmas had come early this year.

Without acknowledging her greeting, James turned his gaze back to me and nodded, "Yeah, I remember her now. But like I've said probably a million fucking times before, I don't like her." The receptionist turned away from James looking rather disappointed. I couldn't help but feel a little happier. I was still pretty paranoid about James liking other girls.

As the two of us stepped outside and headed towards James' red truck, we caught sight of a familiar figure standing by the truck. James squinted and then called out to the figure, "Oh hey, Ron. What's up? Do you need a ride?" Ron looked up from where he was pacing back and forth next to the truck. He looked upset about something or another. Nodding, he acknowledged the fact that he did need a ride. James unlocked the car doors and pointed towards the back seat, "Alright then, you can sit in the back."

Ron gave James a grateful look and climbed into the back seat while James and I climbed into the front seats. James started the car and immediately turned his country music radio station on. I frowned and sighed, "That was something I didn't miss. Can't we just listen to a normal station like normal people?"

"This is a normal station for normal people," James replied pleasantly, making no attempt to change the radio station. Deciding that I could deal with the shitty country music for James' sake, I turned my attention on Ron instead. I thought it was strange how Ron had been pacing back and forth next to our car. It was like he was putting off something.

"Hey Ron," I yelled loudly so that my voice would reach the back seat of the car, "What were you doing in front of the car? You looked like you were trying to decide something." There was no answer from Ron. Wondering if maybe he hadn't heard me or something, I swiveled around in my seat to see what Ron was doing. His cheeks were flushed and he shrugged instead of answering my question. It came to me just then that Ron had been deciding whether or not to attend band practice.

That was strange. Since when had Ron not wanted to attend band practice? Ron had always been just as enthusiastic about the band as James had been. Suddenly, I remembered the argument I had heard between him and Dave last night. Figuring that had something to do with all of this, I called to Ron, "Hey, what were you and Dave arguing about last night?"

"Oh that," Ron said flatly. I could tell by his voice that it was obviously something he did not want to talk about. Unfortunate for him though because I was determined to talk about it. I turned my neck slightly so I could see Ron's expression. He was white-faced and was yawning. He still looked pretty sickly. I wondered if what he had was more than a cold. Finally, Ron continued on with his sentence, "Dave doesn't think I practice enough. He says I'm useless to the band. I'm just a 'follower'."

"Huh," I replied. If Dave had really said that, well, it was pretty mean of him. Ron practiced his bass with James every night. It certainly wasn't like Ron hadn't been practicing or anything like that. If anything, Dave was the one who was slacking off. Dave did seem to like to order the others around a little bit though. He had brought way more equipment and cash to Metallica than any other member, so I guess that made him feel like he was the leader or something like that.

"I'm sorry Dave said that to you, Ron. It's not at all true. Dave was probably just upset about something," I commented, knowing exactly what Dave had been upset about. I didn't really want to discuss my problems with Dave right now though, so I didn't bother going into details about that. As we rounded the corner into Lars' neighborhood, I added, "Are you still sick, Ron? You look really pale and tired. Maybe you should take some days off of band practice."

"God, no!" Ron shot back with a look of horror. "That would just give Dave even more reason to bitch about me. I definitely won't be doing that. I'm not really sick though. I'm just tired. That's all." Ron did look pretty tired. His eyes were glazed and a bit unfocused. Personally, I still thought he was sick, but I wasn't about to argue with him over that.

"Why are you so tired?" I asked. "Maybe you should go to bed earlier or something so you can get some more sleep." To my surprise, Ron snorted at my suggestion and shook his head, "Um, I don't think so. Going to sleep earlier is pretty much impossible with you around." Completely taken off guard by that comment, I looked over at Ron with a hurt expression. I couldn't tell if he was teasing me or not. After all, why should I influence Ron's sleeping schedule? Was he mad that I had kicked him out of the bedroom and onto the couch or something? Because really, that wasn't unfair of me.

"Wait, why are you saying that I keep you up? It's not like I'm wandering around the living room where you're sleeping all night or anything," I said a-matter-of-factly. "If you're mad because I wanted you sleeping in the living room-" Ron cut off my sentence and shook his head, "No, I'm not mad about that. I'm fine with sleeping on the couch. You just keep me up with all your noises."

James had pulled into Lars' driveway by now and had parked the car. Still not getting what the hell Ron was talking about, I gave him a blank look and said, "Huh?" Ron looked at me pathetically and said, "You know, you make a lot of noises when you're in bed with James and stuff, right? I mean, I can hear you moaning and whimpering from way out in the living room."

I blushed furiously at that. I had had no idea that I made that much noise during sex. It wasn't exactly something I had control over. Turning tomato red, I stared at my feet and said, "Hey, I can't help that! If it bothers you...turn on some music or something!" Ron shook his head and smiled at me, "Nah, I like listening to you. It's kind of funny."

"Yeah," James spoke for the first time since we had entered the car, "It's nice to have a girlfriend who talks back to you." Oh god, I felt like I could die of embarrassment! James wasn't exactly helping the situation out either. I kicked him hard on the ankle and said in a flustered voice, "Why are we all sitting in the car discussing my sex life? Shouldn't we be going inside so you guys can start band practice or whatever? We're already late as it is."

"I could talk about your sex all day," James said, giving me a nasty smirk as he unlocked the car doors and we all hoped outside. I rolled my eyes at James. There was a boyish charm to him still. Even though he was seventeen, he wasn't quite a man physically or mentally. That was fine with me though. James was perfect just as he was even if he could embarrass the hell out of me sometimes. James took my hand as we headed towards Lars' front door. James seemed to have a need for physical contact lately. I still wasn't sure what had triggered that, but I certainly wasn't complaining!

As we reached the door, I suddenly remembered to be nervous again. I would be seeing Dave in only a few minutes! I stopped short where I was standing and froze. James stopped too and gave me a confused look. His confusion quickly turned into comprehension though when he saw the apprehension written all over my face. While Ron tapped on the front door, James placed his hands comfortingly on my shoulders and said, "It's going to be okay, alright? You're a strong girl. You can get through this."

Pretending to believe James' words about me, I nodded and started walking towards the door again. Unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't believe what James had just said about me. To be honest, I found myself to be just about anything but strong. I was actually pretty weak. I was so weak that I had succumbed to overdosing on painkillers and to my own sex needs with Dave.

There was not more time to think about that though because at that moment, the door popped open and Lars stuck his head out, "It's about time you guys showed up! I was starting to think you got lost in bed this morning." Ron leaned out of the doorway farther and saw me for the first time. His eyebrows shot up with surprise, but he gave me a friendly smile anyways, "Oh hey, Olivia! I didn't see you there. It's about time James took you to band practice. Come on in guys."

Taking a deep breath, I stepped into Lars' house nervously and started to remove my boots. Lars had already wandered into the house and was calling out, "Hey Dave, guess what? We have a visitor! James and Ron brought Olivia with them to witness the band practice! Cool, huh? She can give us opinions on the songs we're going to play next week."

I was slightly taken aback by the "next week" comment. What did that mean? I kicked off my boots and turned to James with a raised eyebrow. James gave me a nervous look and whispered in my ear, "I'll tell you about that later, okay?" Something told me that whatever James wanted to tell me wasn't going to be good, but now was not the time to do it. Lars had already alerted Dave to my presence so it was about time I got my nerve up, went into the living room, and faced Dave like I should have done before.

I slowly trailed behind James and Ron as they headed into the living room. My steps were slow and my heart was heavy as I approached the living room. I stopped right before I entered it and took a long, calming breath. James, who was already in the living room, peered back behind him to see what I was doing. Seeing my look of terror, he gave me a sympathizing smile. I was in such a bad mood that I couldn't even find the will to smile back at him. Instead, I felt my mouth forming a thin line.

Abruptly, I took a stiff step forward and headed into the living room. At first, I didn't dare look at Dave. I just kept my eyes on the ground and sat down next to James on an old, battered couch. There was a long silence in the room. It was as if someone was waiting for me to say something. I knew I should say something, but I wasn't really sure what that something was suppose to be.

Finally breaking the silence, Lars cleared his throat and said, "Well, it's good to have everyone here on this Saturday. Like I said, we need to pick out our best songs for next Saturday, so let's do a rehearsal kind of thing today, okay? Let's start with 'Am I Evil' and 'Phantom Lord' since those are the two pieces we've been working on the longest."

James pulled his guitar over his shoulder, Ron dug his bass out of its case, and Lars went over and sat at the drums. I was still looking at the ground, so I couldn't see what Dave was doing. Something just felt wrong about this situation. It was as if everyone could feel the tension between me and Dave. God, I really needed to talk to him alone.

Before I could change my mind, I finally looked up into Dave's muted blue eyes and said, "Um, Dave, can you come into the kitchen with me for a few minutes? We need to talk."