FicWad

As we climbed into Lars' van, he gave us a dirty look and said directly to James, "Do you really need to bring Olivia along? Maybe she could help get your stuff unpacked in the house since you just moved in." I looked at Lars in shock and felt rather taken aback by his sudden coldness towards me. He hadn't directly been mean to me before, but this comment made me feel pretty unwanted and unwelcome. I wondered what had changed his view towards me all of the sudden.

"Huh?" James asked, looking up at Lars with confusion while he fumbled with his seat belt. Still feeling pretty put out, I tried not to let the hurt show in my voice as I said, "Geez, Lars, you really make me feel really welcome here, you know that?" I finished buckling up my seat belt, grabbed James' and did his for him since he was having trouble with it still, and then glared at Lars.

Lars put up his hands in surrender and then started backing out of the driveway with me still in the car. As we turned out onto the highway, Lars said, "It's not that I don't want you around, Olivia. You're a very nice girl and I can see why James likes you to some extent. Regardless of all that though, when we're in band, we need to focus on the band. I can't have you or James distracting each other or other band members. That's why I thought it might be better if you stayed home."

Ah, that made sense now. Lars hadn't really been attacking me, he had just been thinking about what was best for the band as always. Lars' motto was probably something like, "Nothing else matters besides the band!", or something like that. Not really sure what to say to Lars' previous sentence, I decided to just stay quiet, hold my tongue, and be grateful that I was going to Cliff's.

James, however, did not hold his tongue. Instead, he glowered through the mirror at Lars and said, "Olivia doesn't distract me or anyone else. All she does is sit quietly in the corner while we do our thing. It's not like she's yelling or causing a ruckus or anything like that." James reached over across the empty seat and gave my hand a squeeze.

"Of course you would say that," Lars said knowingly as we pulled into the driveway of a medium-sized gray house. "That doesn't mean it's true though. Well, sorta. Olivia doesn't cause physical distractions, but you and Dave always end up staring at her during practice and end up not paying attention to what we're suppose to be doing."

Lars parked the car and unlocked the door. Grumbling under his breath, James slipped out of the car and followed Lars to the white door of the gray house. I followed them at a distance, still thinking about what Lars had said about me. Was I really that much of a distraction to the guys? I certainly hadn't thought so.

Lars rapped three times on the door in a business-like manner before stepping aside and waiting for someone to answer the door. A few minutes later, the door popped open and two figures greeted us. The first one with the wavy blonde hair and faded blue eyes was very familiar; Dave. The second was obviously Cliff. Cliff looked much different now than when I had seen him perform onstage with Trauma. He had a mop of wavy auburn hair that fell down his shoulders and he his eyes were so dark brown that they were almost black. Cliff was very tall and very skinny. He practically towered over Lars and made me feel like a midget. Cliff was wearing an old flannel shirt and a pair of jeans, which somehow made him look even slimmer.

When Cliff saw James and Lars, he smiled for the first time. His smile changed his whole look. It was a big smile that lit up his eyes and showed off his perfectly white teeth. For some reason, I found myself blushing at Cliff's smile even though he wasn't even looking at me. Stepping back from the doorway, Cliff waved us in, saying, "Hey guys. We're setting up in the living room. You can join us there. Just take a left when you get to the end of the hallway there."

There three of us stepped into Cliff's house and looked around curiously. I was peering at the posters that had been taped on the walls when I felt someone link their arm through mine. Turning with surprise, I found Dave smiling widely next to me. Taking my hand, Dave exclaimed, "Hey Olivia! It's so good to see you. So how are you liking San Fransisco so far?"

James looked over his shoulder when he heard Dave talking to me. As a matter of fact, he unconsciously stopped walking and caused Dave and me to halt behind him. From at the end of the hallway, Lars looked back at us from over his shoulder and gave us a meaningful look. Maybe Lars was right about me distracting Dave and James.

Even from a distance, I could still smell alcohol on Dave's breath. I suppose that that wasn't really that unexpected, but I really hoped he wasn't as drunk as last time. I still wasn't sure if I had really forgiven him for kicking Ron out of the band. Still, he did look pretty irresistible when he was smiling so happily at me with his big blue eyes.

Once all of us had entered the living room, Cliff motioned to some seats around the room for us to take if we wanted them. I sat down on a couch that was made for two people, hoping that James would sit next to me. James caught my eye and was about to come sit by me, but at the last minute, Lars caught his arm and steered him onto a different chair instead. It was clear that Lars thought that James would be too much of a distraction if the two of us ended up sitting together. So instead of sitting next to James as I had planned, I ended up sitting next to Dave. Dave looked ecstatic to be sitting next to me and he spontaneously clasped my hand in his and rubbed it together against his palms. Even if Dave was drunk, his affection for me was the same.

James gave Dave a murderous look from across the room, obviously wishing he could be sitting in Dave's place instead. Trying to get rid of the tension in the room, Lars coughed loudly and said, "So guys, what should we do first? I have the music written out for our songs right here. Cliff, do you want to take a look at this and see if you can play any of this stuff?"

Dave passed the music over to Cliff, who started scrutinizing it carefully. His heavy eyebrows narrowed as he looked over everything. Finally, he looked back up at Lars and said, "I can play any of this. Should we just try out a song and see how I do? I mean, we've gotta figure out what I can do sooner or later, right?" Everyone nodded and took out their instruments. Dave reluctantly left my side to go stand in the center of the room with the rest of the band. I was glad that he had released my hand. His touch had been making me jumpy and kind of nervous. Plus it had made James look like he was going to come flying off the hook at anytime.

After the count of three, the guys started playing one of their first songs called "Phantom Lord." To my surprise and delight, I noticed that Cliff came in right on time and didn't miss a single beat. As much as I had liked Ron as a friend, I had to admit that Cliff was a much more talented bassist. You could almost see the passion in Cliff's eyes as he head-banged along to the song with his shiny, auburn hair flopping all over the place. He was really fun just to watch.

When the song ended, Lars applauded loudly an looked impressed. That's really saying something because Lars rarely looked impressed. James and Dave were staring at Cliff as if he was their long lost father. It was clear to me that Dave wouldn't be able to bully Cliff around, which was obviously a good thing. I just hoped he wouldn't turn his bullying side to James or Lars.

"Bravo Cliff!" Lars exclaimed excitedly, getting up from his drum set to go clap Cliff on the back. Cliff blushed ever so slightly, but didn't really show any emotion. James, obviously wanting to say something, quickly burst out, "Hey Cliff, remember that solo you played that night when you played for Trauma at the Whiskey? Can you play that for us now?"

Cliff shrugged nonchalantly, "Sure, I don't see why not." Everyone went back to their seats and the focus of the attention fell onto Cliff. James had tried to snag the seat next to me, but to his chagrin, Dave had snagged it first. Their animosity was quickly forgotten once Cliff started playing though. By James' and Lars' expressions, you could tell they were beyond impressed with Cliff. I just prayed that Cliff wouldn't ditch out on the band. He had become an essential part of Metallica within five minutes.

When Cliff finished his solo, everyone applauded again. Lars, unable to contain his excitement, stood up and hurried over to where Cliff was standing. Shaking Cliff's hand he said, "Welcome to the band, Cliff! We're gonna work great together. Thanks for inviting us all over here. Are you busy now or do you think we could have a band practice since we're all the way over here?" It was clear by the light shining in Lars' eyes that he was all set to have a band practice right here and now.

Looking uncomfortable, Cliff shifted and said, "I'm going fishing with some friends in a few minutes, actually. I just thought I'd invite you guys over so you could make sure you wanted me as part of the band. We have practice on Wednesday thought, right?" Lars nodded, looking slightly disappointed, "Yeah, we have band practice then. Well, have fun fishing, Cliff! We'll see you on Wednesday!" Cliff nodded and flashed us that brilliant smile before setting his bass down and heading out of the room.

Lars and James exchanged grins and headed towards the living room. Dave and I stood up and started to follow them. Before we actually reached the door though, Dave grabbed my shoulder and pulled me to a halt. Having no idea what he wanted, I stopped and turned to him questioningly. Dave loosened his grip on my shoulder a little bit and brought me over to the opposite end of the room.

"Um, Dave?" I asked suspiciously. "What are we doing?" Dave was silent for a moment as we reached the other side of the room and stood face to face against the wall. The stench of alcohol hit my nostrils even more strongly than before since I was standing so close to Dave. The scent was too strong for me and I found myself scrunching my nose up.

"I wanna talk to you," Dave said finally. I waited for him to speak, but he didn't say a thing. Instead, his eyes traveled down my body and rested on the curves of my breasts and hips. Starting to feel a bit self-conscious, I laughed nervously and said, "So...are you gonna talk to me or not? You just said you wanted to."

Dave nodded absentmindedly. He looked like he was in a dream-like state with blurry eyes and a dreamy smile on his face. Without warning, he suddenly pushed me against the wall. Having no idea what was going on, I raised an eyebrow at him. Dave rested his hands on my shoulders and started to run them down my body, "Remember that night just a little while ago when we kissed at the Whiskey? Well, I've really been thinking about that a lot lately."

Kissing Dave at the Whiskey? What was he talking about? I hadn't kissed Dave at the Whiskey...or had I? Suddenly, a flashback image shot into my mind. James had been off flirting with Brianna and being the jealous bitch that I was, I had somehow ended up kissing Dave. I would've kept kissing him and probably would've gotten caught by James if Ron hadn't caught us and told us to stop. God, I missed Ron. He seemed to be the only one with common sense around here.

"So..." I started still feeling a little awkward and unsure of what to do or say, "Why do you keep thinking about kissing me at the Whiskey?" Dave gave me that same drunken smile and leaned towards me. Brushing a strand of hair behind my hear, he answered simply, "Because I want to do it again." With that said, Dave pressed his body against mine and kissed me hard on the lips.