FicWad

I was about to ask James what the hell that was all about when the band, Trauma, stopped playing and bowed to the crowd. The audience applauded loudly and cheers filled up the room and reverberated off the sides of the wall. Apparently, Trauma had been more of a hit than Metallica had been.

Excitedly, Lars grabbed James' hand and said, "Come on, let's go see if we can get ourselves a new bassist!" James still looked awkward from Brianna's assault, but he stood up nevertheless. Looking over his shoulder at me, he said hastily, "You can just wait for us here, Olive. We'll be back in a few minutes and I'll explain everything then."

Not having a choice but to sit and wait, I watched as Lars and James made their way to the crowd and over to the red-headed bassist. I was still too far away to really see what he looked like and it was impossible to hear anything they said. Instead, my eyes flickered over to where Brianna was talking with an attractive blonde guy who looked to be about in his early twenties. By the way Brianna was fluttering her eyelashes at him, it was pretty clear that she was flirting.

Just wanting to forget about Brianna, I closed my eyes and rested my head on the table while Lars and James talked to the bassist. I was feeling kind of tired and worn out, so it wasn't really a surprise when I grew sleepy and started to fall asleep. Unfortunately, James and Lars had no intention of letting me sleep. Just when I started to drift off, they bounded back over to our table and yelled over to me, "We're ready to go when you are."

Grumbling at the disturbance, I yawned and stood up. Stretching my hands over my head, I followed James and Lars to the door of the club and outside. I was too tired to listen to what they were saying, so their words sounded just like a constant hum in my ears. Lars had to ride in our truck with us back to his house since Dave had taken Lars' car earlier. The three of us jumped into the truck and headed back home. Trying to get myself to wake up, I looked over at Lars and James and asked, "What happened with the red-head? Does he want to be part of the band or not?" From James' smile, I could already tell the answer.

"He's our new bassist," Lars replied a-matter-of-factly. I could see a smile started to form around the edges of his mouth. Honestly, I was surprised that this guy had decided to just drop everything he had going for him in Trauma to join a little band like Metallica that hadn't really had any publicity or success yet. As if reading my thoughts, Lars added, "Cliff thought that Trauma was getting too commercialized, so that's why he decided to join our band. Believe me, one day he'll thank us for the offer."

"Cliff," I said, testing the name out on my tongue. "So is that the new guy's name?" Lars nodded while James sped up through a red lightly. James' driving skills hadn't really improved at all even after coming to Los Angeles. As James took a corner at a flying speed, he corrected, "The new guy goes by Cliff, but his really name is Clifford Burton. He's a really nice guy. You'll really like him."

Deciding to trust James on that one, I nodded and lapsed into silence. I just hoped that I wasn't going to end up liking Cliff as much as Dave. The sexual tension between Dave and me seemed to expand more and more with everytime we say each other. It was clear to me that from the look in Dave's eyes, he would really just like to strip my clothes off and lay me down in bed.

A few minutes later, we reached Lars' house and dropped him off. Lars waved goodbye to the two of us, looking pretty excited. I could tell that James was excited as well from his happy demeanor as we drove off to our apartment. It was apparent that James and Lars were both expecting Cliff to really help the band. I just hoped Cliff was all the expected him to be.

I was so immersed with my thoughts of Cliff that I completely forgot about the assault with Brianna earlier. James probably was happy for that, but it was a subject that was going to have to be addressed sooner or later. Usually, sooner was better than later.

~ ~ ~ ~

Once we had arrived in our apartment, James said he had a few phone calls to make. Guessing that was a hint for me to leave him alone for a bit, I shuffled through the kitchen and into the bedroom with a heavy heart. It seemed sad not to see Ron's stuff all over the place like usual. There wasn't even a trace of Ron left anywhere in the entire house. If you hadn't known that he had been our roommate, you would probably never have guessed there had been another guy living with us.

Rather bored, I paced around the bedroom and looked for something to do. Suddenly realizing that I was kind of cold, I decided that taking a bath might be nice. Heading into the bathroom, I turned the water on in the tub before stripping down and letting my hair loose. I brushed it out of my face and then popped into our bath tub.

We were lucky because this bath tub was really quite nice. It was pretty big and filled up with nice, warm water. Exhaling deeply with pleasure, I closed my eyes and tried to relax. Unfortunately, as soon as I did that, thoughts of Brianna filled up my mind again. Damn. How come I just could never be rid of worry? It always seemed like there was something new to worry about.

Just as I was thinking this, there was a knock on the bathroom door and James stepped in. He looked over my crumpled clothes on the bathroom floor before his eyes rested on me sitting in the tub. Smiling, he said, "Can I talk to you for a minute?" I thought that was kind of a stupid question. Of course he could talk to me. He could talk to me for as long as he wanted to.

Deciding to play coy, I gave him a sexy smile and replied, "Sure you can, but only if you take a bath with me." James laughed and stripped off his shirt, "That's a pretty good offer actually." I watched lustily as James tossed his shirt with my pile of clothes, undid his pants, and then climbed into the tub next to me. Mm, he looked way too damn gorgeous stripped down like that. I leaned against his body and gazed up at him like a star-crossed lover would before saying, "This is nice. So, what was it you were going to tell me?"

James brushed my hair off of one side of my face and then wrapped an arm around my shoulder. After a long moment, he finally spoke, "I kind of have something to explain to you." Totally distracted by being naked in the tub with my boyfriend, I couldn't remember anything that James had to explain to me. Giving me a nervous look, James rubbed my shoulder with his hand and started, "You remember that girl from the club earlier? You know, Brianna?"

Oh yes, I most certainly remembered Brianna. I didn't really want to talk about her right now, but if James wanted to talk about her, then I guessed I was going to have to listen. After I nodded, James went on, "The reason I pulled you under the table like that was because I didn't want to talk to her. I should've explained that to you earlier."

"Yeah, I figured that's why you pulled me under the table. I'm not complaining about that or anything though," I said, remembering how James and I had had a quick make out session under the table. Suddenly, I realized that the reason James had disappeared earlier when we first entered the club was Brianna as well. Wanting to confirm my suspicions, I looked up at James and asked, "You were trying to avoid Brianna when we first reached the club too, weren't you? That's why you disappeared somewhere."

"Um hm," James nodded still stroking my shoulder lightly with his fingertips. When James didn't go on, I assumed he wanted me to ask the next question. Not really sure if I wanted the answer to the question, I sighed and asked, "So who is Brianna and how did she know you? She was certainly making her move on you, that's for sure."

James stopped rubbing my shoulder for a moment and a guilty expression appeared on his face. Looking over at him to see what was wrong, I noticed a smudge of Brianna's pink lipstick was still on James' cheek. Not wanting any of that girl on my James, I brushed James' cheek off with my wet palm to make the lipstick mark go away.

Finally, James replied to my earlier question, "Um...Brianna was the dancer I told you about a little while ago." Suddenly, everything fell into place. Brianna was the girl James had slept with the night I had slept with Dave. No wonder she had been trying to invite James over for the night. She obviously wanted to have sex with him again.

Not really sure what to say or how to react to this news, I just said, "I see." James had obviously been hoping for a little bit more of a response than two words, because he searched my face nervously with his honest, hazel eyes as if he was trying to detect an emotion of some sort from me. When I didn't say anything, he asked, "Are you mad?"

Was I mad? Not really. I could see that Brianna wasn't really James' type. Sure, she was sexy and pretty, but she didn't have the personality that James looked for in girls. Being able to be completely honest, I met James' eyes and shook my head, "No, I'm not mad. You told me about Brianna earlier. It's not like you were keeping her a secret from me."

James sighed with relief and rested his head on my shoulder, breathing in my scent as he kissed my neck. As we sat together in the nice, warm water, another thought went through my head. I remembered asking James about working at the Whiskey for a new job. He had completely brushed off the idea as soon as it was out of my mouth. Was that because of Brianna too?

Deciding to voice this question aloud, I asked James, "Did you not want me working at the Whiskey because I might run into Brianna or something?" James lifted his lips from my neck for a second as he nodded and explained, "Yeah, that was mainly the reason. I was being truthful when I said I didn't like you working at clubs though."

With that said, James went back to sucking on the sides of my neck. As much as I just wanted to relax and enjoy my time with James right now, I felt like we had to discuss another matter. Now that Ron wasn't here to help us pay the rent, how were we going to survive? We were obviously going to need to find a way to make money somehow or the other. The only person who could make money was me since James was working with the band all the time. I was clearly going to have to find another job sooner or later.

"Hey James?" I asked, about to ask him about the job thing. James brought his lips away from my neck and traced a finger along my chest before cupping one of my breasts in his hand, "Did I ever tell you that you have a really nice chest?" The comment was pretty fun and made me giggle. I kissed James' throat and laughed, "You're funny. Compared to Brianna, I have a really flat chest. But anyways, what do you think about me going out to find a job after this? I mean, we're gonna need to find a way to pay the bills here. With Ron gone, we have absolutely no source of income."

"No," James said automatically, without a second thought. That was kind of strange. I mean, I could see why James wouldn't want me working, but we didn't really have a choice about it. Raising an eyebrow at him, I echoed his words, "No? Why not? I'm gonna have to find a job sooner or later if we want to stay in this apartment."

James shook his head and said, "No, you're not going to go looking for a job here because we're moving to the San Fransisco Bay area."