FicWad

James was in too much pain to know what Lars' solution to our problem was. Still biting his lip, he grimaced and then turned towards Lars questioningly, "Huh? I don't get it. What's the solution to the problem? I can only see one solution to the problem." James turned a murderous look at Dave and pointed his finger directly at him, "I say that Dave gets fired."

Everyone turned towards Dave to see what his reaction to this news would be. Dave stopped suddenly and his face went white. It was apparent that Dave had never considered getting fired from the band before until this moment in time. James finally stopped grimacing and gave Dave an amused smile, glad to see him looking panicked. I noticed there was a little drop of blood on James' lower lip. He must have bitten his lip so hard that he had been able to draw blood.

"No, Dave's not getting fired," Lars said firmly, causing Dave to smile and James to scowl. "My solution to the problem has to do with Olivia. Remember how I told you just to leave her home earlier?" James looked guilty and didn't bother replying to the question. Lars, however, got right up in James' face and demanded, "Don't you remember, James?"

"Okay, okay!" James said irritably. For a moment, I thought he might be on the verge of punching Lars. However, at the last minute, he held back and said instead, "Yes, I remember." Lars smiled happily and continued on, "Good. Anyways, Olivia will be staying home from band practice from now on. I don't care what it takes; you're just gonna have to keep her home."

James immediately opened his mouth to come up with some excuses, but Lars stopped him before he got anywhere, saying, "No excuses, James. She's staying home. Besides, if you really care about her, you'll want her to stay home as well. I'm not trying to cause more problems or anything, but from what I saw earlier, it looked like Dave was trying to rape her or something. If you want to keep her safe, you'll leave her home. It's the best for everyone, don't you agree?"

James hesitated and took a long look at my shaken body with my wild eyes and trembling lip. Finally, he nodded and said, "I guess so." Lars nodded, obviously thinking that he had finally wrapped this situation up. Hoping to get us out of here before any more damage was done, he turned to the three of us standing on the driveway and made some more quick orders, "James, take Olivia home and do whatever you have to do with her before Wednesday's band practice. Dave, I don't want to see you around until Wednesday. In the mean time, I expect you not to get drunk. I want you completely sober for the band practice on Wednesday. If you're not, then James is right; I might have to consider firing you. So, does everyone know what they need to do?"

To be honest, even in my distressed state, I was getting a little fed up with Lars. I could tell he was very passionate about the band and stuff. That could be fine, but Lars was really going overboard. He made it seem like the band was the only thing that matter. I doubted he would have cared if Dave had raped me or not if it hadn't influenced the band. Not able to keep my sudden anger to myself, I said rather impulsively, "Can we stop talking like I'm an object or something? I'm not James' property."

Lars looked surprised at my sudden outburst, but nodded his head respectfully to my request, "Okay, that's fine. Sorry, Olivia." I couldn't tell if Lars' apology was genuine or not, but it was all I was going to get so I might as well make the best of it. James and Dave eyed each other for one last long movement, as if they were debating whether or not to start fighting again.

"Ah hem!" Lars cleared his throat angrily, obviously getting fed up as well. "I told you guys to scram. Get the fuck out of here before I end up firing both of you from the band!" That was enough to get James and Dave moving. Dave shrugged his shoulders at Lars and popped into his Ford before pulling out of the driveway and hitting the road. James looked back at Dave's car for a long moment before unlocking the doors to our red truck and sliding inside. I jumped into the passenger seat of the truck and James immediately hit the gas pedal and we shot around the corner of the neighborhood and onto the high way.

As James drove along, I noticed his knuckles were white as he grasped the wheel, his eyes were narrowed angrily, his cheeks were a bright angry red, and his blonde bangs were stuck to his forehead with sweat. Something obviously wasn't right with him. Trying to keep my voice calm and practical, I decided to figure out just what it was that was bothering James so much. Raising my voice, I asked, "Hey James? Are you okay? You don't look very good."

We went flying through a red light and then James turned to me, "I'm okay. Are you okay?" James looked over me nervously, eyes resting on all the wrong parts of my body. Shrugging my shoulders, I replied, "I'm as okay as you could expect me to be. Seriously though, what's up? You look like you're going to go into a fit of seizures or something."

Taking a corner at an alarm speed, James said angrily, "I'm just really pissed off at Dave, I guess. He had no right to do that to you. To think he almost raped you right under my nose makes me feel so guilty." Oh, so James was apparently blaming himself for the situation for Dave. Little did he know that I had indirectly been the source of the so-called rape or whatever you wanted to call it.

"James," I said calmly, "None of this is your fault. Besides, Dave didn't hurt me. It's gonna be okay. Please calm down a bit and slow down the car before we get a ticket." James gave a quick glance up at the dashboard to see what speed we were traveling at. We were going seventy miles per hour in a thirty miles per hour zone. We were definitely going to get into trouble for all this sooner or later if we didn't watch out. I prayed to god that a policeman wasn't nearby.

James, however, had a much different opinion about the speed. He just shrugged his shoulders at it and said carelessly, "Eh, we're not gonna get caught. Don't worry about it. I just can't get over what Dave tried to do to you though. I mean, I never really liked Dave all that much, but I never expected this from him! I just hate anyone touching your body like that..." James trailed off.

I was starting to feel guilty for not being able to stop Dave earlier. Maybe if I had tried hard enough, I could've been able to escape from him and James wouldn't be acting so crazy like this. But in reality, it wasn't going to do me much good to sit and worry about the past now. I just needed to focus on getting James calmed down.

Luckily, we reached the house a few minutes later and our crazy ride home came to a halt. Breathing a sigh of relief, I hastily jumped down from the car and walked up to the front door. James followed me with the keys in his hand and unlocked the door. The two of us stepped inside into our clean, new house and remembered to shut the door behind us this time.

As we walked through the hallway, I shot a sideways glance out of the corner of my eye at James to see how he was doing. He still looked upset and had a wild fire raging in his eyes. Wondering what James was going to do now, I followed him to the kitchen before I realized he was going to the refridgerator. Knowing James, he was probably going to down a couple of beers which wasn't going to do his mood any good. I had to think of something to keep James away from alcohol...and I hate to do it fast!

Just as James opened the door to the fridge, I quickly called out, "James?" James paused and propped the door open with his knee as he turned to look at me, "Yeah?" Trying to invent something quickly, my brain spun. Stammering over my next few words, I said, "Will you...uh...come into the bedroom with me for a sec? I want to talk to you."

Beer forgotten, James let the refridgerator door fall closed and nodded, "Yeah, sure." The two of us walked quietly into the bedroom while I tried to think or something I could say to James. We stepped through the bedroom doorway and both collapsed onto the bed together. Flopping onto his back, James let out a sigh and then turned to me, "What did you want to say?"

I had had an excuse in mind two seconds earlier, put looking at James lying on his back next to me made those former thoughts disappear. I mean seriously, how could you expect me to concentrate when I had the hottest boyfriend lying next to me on the bed? Moving other on the bed to lie down closer to him, I said, "Mm, I just wanted to say I love you."

That raging fire in James' eyes was gone now and he looked much more relaxed. Flipping to his side, he wrapped a protective arm around me and said, "I love you too, Olive. I'll make sure nothing ever happens to you. I'm so sorry about Dave. I'll make sure it never ever happens again. And if it does...god, I'll kill him."

Seeing that crazy look fill James' eyes again, I shook my head vigorously and stated, "Uh, no you won't. You won't touch Dave at all. If there is another problem with Dave, Lars will fire him from the band. I don't want you getting into any more physical fights, okay? You make me worry about you. You're probably a lot more hurt right now than I am."

Looking James over, I could see that his right eyes was starting to turn purple from Dave's punch. Stroking the side of his face gently, I jumped up from the bed and said, "I'll be right now." James watched me go without asking any questions. I hurried to the kitchen and grabbed a plastic bag and a bunch of ice cubes. After dumping the ice cubes in the bag, I sealed it shut and returned to James. When I returned to the bedroom, James was still lying on his side like before, looking as sexy and irresistible as ever.

I held out the pack of ice cubes to James and said a-matter-of-factly, "Put this on your eye. It'll keep the swelling down. I think you're gonna have a black eye nonetheless, but this should get rid of some of the pain anyways." Looking miffed, James took the bag from me and dumped it onto his eye suspiciously. A few minutes later, his face lit up.

"Hey Olivia!" James called excitedly, smiling at me with his usual carefree smile, "This actually works! I can't feel any pain anymore." I nodded and resisted laughing. It was clear James had doubted my ice pack method. I replied to his question, "Well, imagine that! The ice pack isn't just for looks, it's actually meant to do something!"

James laughed and pulled me close, "I love having you around, Olive. I dunno what I'd do without you sometimes." I let James snuggle me closer and I wrapped my arms around his waist, "Yeah, I dunno what I'd do without you either."