FicWad

The week went by pretty quickly and before I knew it, it was Saturday! I had stayed up really late the night before and so when I woke up, it was past noon already. Over the last few days, I had been confined to the apartment room. Now that I didn't have a job to go to, I had a lot of time on my hands. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to do in the apartment. Most of the time, I found myself sitting in front of the television or watching the clock, waiting for when James would come home. It seemed he came home later and later every night as Saturday had approached. There was something weird going on with him. He was almost being too nice to me. I mean, I knew James was a nice guy, but it was out of his character to act so nice to me.

I knew it was wrong of me to feel suspicious of James, but I still couldn't completely get rid of the feeling that something was wrong. The other weird thing was how he kept brushing me off. As the week progressed, he wanted less and less contact with me. Like yesterday when we were in bed, James had told me that he was really tired and wanted to go straight to bed. That maybe seem normal for a normal couple, but James and I were far from normal. We always had some sort of intimate session before bed. The day before that, James had stayed far away from me and hadn't held me when we went to sleep as usual. Instead, he slept far to the right side of the bed. That really bothered me. I didn't sleep nearly as well without James' arms around me.

Of course, even though James was pushing me away physically, he was being super nice to me. He would always be in a good mood around me and offer to do things for me. It was strange how all this was going on. I couldn't quite figure out what James' issue was, but I figured he would tell me what it was when the time came for it to be said. I had faith in James and trusted him completely.

Yawning, I stretched my arms and peered over at the clock. Remembering that there was the show at the Whiskey A Go Go tonight, I immediately leapt out of bed and hurried over to my bag to find something suitable to wear. My back was healing up really well and it didn't hurt hardly at all anymore. Rummaging through my bag, I selected a black sequined tank top and a short black skirt. I hoped that was the kind of thing you wore to a club. I guessed I would just have to take my chances and hope for the best.

Pulling the clothes out of the bag, I headed to the bathroom. I decided it would be a good idea to take a shower just to make myself look as good as possible. Once I was in the bathroom, I stripped down and stepped into the shower. I washed my long, dark hair with shampoo and then dumped a load of conditioner onto my hair as well in an attempt to calm my hair's normal frizzes. After that, I grabbed a bar of soap and washed my body all over with it until I swore that my skin sparkled. I was reluctant to get out of the shower after all this was finished. The water was so warm and felt good over my sore body. However, I knew I had stuff to do before the concert, so I reluctantly stepped outside and started to wrap a towel around me.

That was when I noticed that someone was already in the bathroom. I quickly covered myself up with the towel and raised an eyebrow at James. He was standing in the corner of the room, watching me. Kind of creeped out, I said, "Oh, hi James. Um...did you need something in here or something? You could've just taken it..."

"Not really," James laughed nervously, "Mind if I use the shower while you're in here? Lars insists that we all have to take showers before the show so we don't stink." I rolled my eyes and started towards the mirror. I pulled out some face moisturizer out of a drawer and started applying it to my face, "Of course I don't mind. Just don't mind me either. I just have to finish my hair and makeup and then I'll be good. Speaking of which, what time do you want to leave here?"

"I dunno," James said, obviously that thought hadn't occurred to him yet. "Whenever we're ready I guess." With that said, James quickly stripped down in the opposite corner of the room and stepped into the shower. I tried not to watch James too closely as I applied some mascara and lipstick before blow drying my hair and curling it. It was pretty hard not to watch James though. He looked so good standing there in the shower with his blonde locks dripping wet and with his body shining delectably.

Somehow I managed to finish getting ready without getting too distracted. It was a good thing too because as soon as James was out of the shower, he dressed and got ready in less than five minutes. Turning to me, he asked, "Are you ready to go? We'd better not keep Lars waiting. You know how he is about being on time."

I nodded and pulled on some black stilettos before following James out of the door. It was pretty obvious to all of us that Lars didn't like people being late to anything. If you weren't on time...well, you'd have to submit to Lars' wrath. James and I walked down to the lobby and out to the car in silence. Ron had left for the club earlier and was already gone so James and I had the car to ourselves.

On the car ride, we continued our silence. Finally, it was too much for me to bear. Without thinking, I burst out, "James, is something wrong? You're just not acting like yourself." James tightened his grip on the steering wheel, but didn't say anything. Wondering if maybe he hadn't heard me, I added, "Uh, James?"

Brow creasing, James replied almost a little too happily, "Oh no, of course nothing is wrong! Maybe I'm just worried about the show tonight or something." I shrugged and let it go although I really didn't think that the show tonight was really what was bugging James. James didn't get nervous for things like shows.

Finally, we reached the Whiskey A Go Go a few minutes later. James parked the car as close to the front of the club as he could and the two of us tumbled out. James quickly slipped through the door and I followed him. The club was a whirlwind of all kinds of sounds and sights. Rotating lights were placed all around the room and people seemed to be everywhere. Not really sure if I liked being so close to all these strangers, I huddled close to James. I tried to take his hand, but for some reason, he pulled it away. For some reason, that really hurt me. Something was obviously going on with James. I was going to have to talk to him about it after the show and force him to give me some answers. I just couldn't tell what was on his mind right now.

I followed James into a corner of the room where Lars, Dave, and Ron were already arranged. Lars was testing out the drum kit with narrowed eyebrows while Dave warmed up with his guitar. James immediately took his guitar out of its case and pulled it over his shoulder, "Hey Lars. Sorry if we're late. When do we start?"

"It's about time!" Lars exclaimed, looking over at James. "We start in fifteen minutes." Noticing me, he added, "Hey Olivia. Why don't you go sit over there somewhere? That way you won't be in the way of the band when we start playing." Lars had pointed to some empty tables off in the distance somewhere. I looked over at James for permission. James just shrugged and started warming up on his guitar. Something was definitely wrong with James. I mean seriously, what had happened to the overprotective James from a few nights ago who hadn't wanted me to come to the show at all?

Feeling the slightest bit put out, I wandered over to the empty table as I was told to do and sat down. It took the guys about ten minutes to get arranged before their show started. The first song they played was called "Whiplash". As soon as they started playing, everyone in the club seemed to freeze. Metallica played a different kind of music. It wasn't at all like the glam metal bands of the time. Metallica was more about playing fast and playing hard.

I immediately got wrapped up in the music and spent the whole show staring at James and admiring him. It was amazing how he was such a good guitarist and vocalist. He definitely played the biggest role in the band. I also noticed Dave glance over at me a few times during the show. When he caught my eye, I usually looked away. I guess I just still felt guilty looking him in the eye after I had treated him so badly. He had forgiven me, but I hadn't been able to forgive myself.

I was so enraptured in the music that the whole show went by in the blink of an eye for me. When the show was over, nobody from the audience really said anything. Nobody was catcalling or booing, but nobody was cheering or applauding earlier. Not sure what to make of their performance, the guys started packing up their equipment while another band took their place. I could see by the banner the new band was posting that this band was called "Motley Crue." They seemed to be as different from Metallica as possible with their teased up hairdos and the pounds on makeup that were plastered on their faces. I didn't usually go for makeup guys, but I had to admit the vocalist with the platinum blonde hair was pretty cute.

After the guys had packed up all their equipment, everyone dispersed throughout the club. Lars and James headed straight to the bar, Ron sank down with exhaustion on the nearest unoccupied chair, and Dave headed over towards me. A little feeling of apprehension ran down my back as Dave came closer and motioned to an empty chair at my table, saying, "Hey Olivia. How did you think we did? Mind if I sit here?" To be honest, I did kind of mind, but that would be rude if I said that.

"Nah, I don't mind," I lied, "I think you guys did a great job on the show. I don't know what the audience thought about it though." By now, Motley Crue had started playing and most of the people in the audience were clapping along or whooping excitedly. It was clear that Motley Crue was definitely getting a lot more attention with Metallica.

Dave sighed as he looked around the room and shrugged, "Well, maybe it just takes people a little while to warm up to our kind of music. We're not like the hair metal bands." Dave paused and looked furtively around the room before leaning in closer to me and whispering in my ear, "How have you and James been lately? He's been really irritably at band practice lately."

I followed Dave's gaze and my eyes fell on James...and a girl. The girl was tall and thin with curly blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and dark blood red lips. She was laughing with James as he drank his beer and was resting a hand on his arm as if the two of them were long lost friends or something. I immediately felt a stab of hurt, but tried to shove it to the back of my brain. After all, I had just been telling James how he needed to be less paranoid. I was a hypocrite if I started jumping to conclusions just because James happened to talk to a pretty blonde for a few minutes. Just because he was talking to her didn't mean they were good friends or anything.

"We've been...okay," I told Dave, still narrowing my gaze at James and the blonde. "He's been a little weird with me too lately." Dave raised an eyebrow and looked at me questioningly, "I know this is none of my business, but in what ways has he been weird towards you?" James had been acting up all week in several different ways. It was hard to just pick one of them to describe.

"Well," I started, "First of all, he was way too forgiving when I told him about you and me. Uh, no offense. Secondly, he was really affectionate for about two days after that. Once those two days were up though, he suddenly started acting super nice to me, but he didn't want to have anything to do with me. Um, physically I mean. I just don't get what his problem is. I miss having him close to me. It's like there's been some invisible barrier that's been put up between up, you know?"

"Yeah, I know," Dave agreed knowing, nodding his head. A lock of way blonde hair fell into one of his blue eyes as he leaned closer to me. After giving James and the blonde one more jealous gaze, I turned my full attention to Dave. And that was when he kissed me.