FicWad

Later on that night, Jim is walking up the stairs with some groceries that he recently bought. He realizes that he will really have to not spend so much. Remember, back in when he lived with his parents, paying the rent wasn’t an issue because his parents said that he didn’t have to (“Clean up after yourself and buy your own food.”). But now that he’s living with Sid, he’ll be paying his half of the rent and utilities. Hey, his job in the car shop may pay well, but not so well that he can buy shit after shit. He makes a mental note to get himself on a stricter budget. Sid’s with him; he actually needed to buy some things for himself.

The two were about to head up to another flight of stairs when Sid hears loud old school rap music and a vacuum from the door nearest to them. He shakes his head and snorts. “Oh god.” He smirks at Jim. “I wanna introduce you to this guy Chris. He always does this when he fucking cleans up and when his girlfriend isn’t there.” Jim shrugs, thinking that it wouldn’t hurt. He’s only known Joey, Lorraine and Charlie since returning (Corey doesn’t count because that was over a decade ago). Hell, he hasn’t even met the club owner yet, because he was working night shifts.

Anyway, they two walk over when Sid stops and chuckles. Chris doesn’t even have the door completely closed. There’s the trash bag right next to the door. He’s probably moving stuff out of the way. Sid quietly opens the door and he and Jim immediately see the man known as Chris vacuuming the living room and rapping very badly to Chubb Rock’s “Treat ‘Em Right.” Jim simply blinks while Sid keeps himself from laughing. Eventually, Chris just happens to turn around, and as soon as he does, he lets out a high-pitched yelp at the visitors, who in turn jumps at his reaction. “OH MY GOD!” he shouts, jumping. Hey, it could’ve been a burglar. He reaches for the remote to pause the CD in his home audio, and he glares at Sid. “Couldn’t you fucking knock?!”

Sid grins. “You need to shut and unlock the door, or at least not have your music up so loud to the point where you can’t hear someone come in. We could’ve been burglars.” See? “Anyway, I see that you are home. I just wanted to introduce you to my new roommate,” Sid says, gesturing to Jim. “His name is James Root, but you can call him Jim. He came back from Florida because he got homesick. Jim, this is Chris Fehn.”

Jim simply smiles faintly. “Hi,” he says.

Chris smiles. “Oh, well hi, Jim! Welcome back to Des Moines, and welcome to the Riverside Apartments.” He moves over to shake Jim’s hand, and the latter returns the handshake. Chris turns to Sid and he moves over and whispers, “So, is Paul’s bed still in that room?”

Sid sighs. “I can’t get it out, so it stays. His dresser, too. Jim doesn’t mind.”

Chris looks up Jim, who is busy looking over his phone. He bites his lip and turns back to Sid. “Yeah, but did you tell him that the bed he’s sleeping in belongs to a de...” He bites his lip and sighs sadly. He can’t really say it. And why can you blame him? The death of a man once known as Paul was only months ago, and it is still fresh on everyone’s mind.

“I’ll tell him one day,” Sid whispers before he pulls away. He grins and speaks louder. “So, I guess we’ll leave you to clean up. What song was that?”

“ ‘Treat ‘Em Right’ by Chubb Rock. So has he met anyone else?” Chris asks, smiling. “You should introduce him to everyone.”

“He hasn’t met Mick and Craig yet over here. He met everyone except for Shawn that night at The Safari, and he’s actually an old friend of Corey.”

“Well, Mick’s back from wherever he was at.”

“All right. See ya.” Sid turns to Jim, then, and they head out, grabbing their groceries and walking back up the stairs.

“So, Craig’s the boyfriend?” Jim asks, smiling as they walk to the next flight of stairs the leads to their floor. “Because I saw a photo of you two together on the fridge.”

Sid grins, unable to hide the growing tint of red on his cheeks. “Yeah, he doesn’t really talk to people too much, but somehow I was able to get him to let me in. So he’s really a nice guy. He’s at work right now, but later I’ll get him to come by and meet you. He actually lives with Corey upstairs.” Jim blinks at that. “So, after we put the groceries up, we can meet Mick. He’s actually Joey’s roommate and they live a couple doors down from us.”

The tall man smiles as they find their door, and he leans again the wall, waiting for Sid to unlock it. “Sure thing,” he says.

_____

The man who owned the car shop is a severely nostalgic man. He was a teenager of the 1970s, the typical guy who saw Heart and Led Zeppelin live back in the day. His girlfriend at the time had a crush on Todd Rundgren, followed Karen Carpenter and listened to the dreamy and sunny pop songs from the first half of that decade. The man found out that the girl died a couple weeks ago of lung cancer, and now he’s playing all of the soft, dreamy pop music from that era. It’s been going on for days.

Jim hates that he’s going to be humming these songs for a while, because once he hears certain songs, they’ll never get out of his head. He’s laying on a car creeper, changing the oil in under the car while Todd Rundgren’s “Hello, It’s Me,” plays for the umpteenth time. He kind of wants to get out of here fast, but he doesn’t want to do a shitty job fixing the car, and he might lose his job. He really wishes he hadn’t lost his iPod. All the other guys still have theirs. Or at least a CD player.

A car rolls by in the parking lot, and the person who gets out of it is none other than Corey. He’s happy that he actually made the appointment for his oil change. He sighs and looks around. The shop is pretty busy, and six other people whose cars are still waiting to be looked at. Well perfect, good thing his appointment is at eleven in the morning, or he’d be late for work tonight. There’s a chance he’ll be late anyway. He calls out once, but no one can hear them because they still have on ear or headphones. So, the frustrate Corey marches to one car and he shouts, “HEY!”

Jim jumps and his head hits the underside of the car, and he swears, “Ow, /fuck/!” He reels out from under the car and glares at the person who shouted at him, but then blinks when it’s Corey. Corey blinks back at the tall man. He smiles faintly and dugs his hand into his pockets as Jim sits up.

“Oh, hey...sorry about that. All the other guys have on earplugs or something, and no one can hear me.”

Jim shrugs and looks over at the others, before glancing at Corey. “Our boss likes to play music sometimes and...well...”

“Ah.” Corey looks around, somewhat awkwardly. “Yeah, so I’m here for an eleven o’clock appointment, you know, for an oil change. You know anyone available to do that, or...?”

Jim answers, “Well, I have another person waiting on me, but...” he gets up and looks over at the other end of the garage. “Kevin over there just started working on the last car for the day, so you can go to him.”

Corey looks over at the man known as Kevin and sighs. “Too bad,” he shrugs. “I was kinda hoping that you could do it.” He turns back to Jim and asks, “So I just give him the keys and he’ll take the car when he’s ready?”

“Yeah.”

“All right then.” Corey goes over to talk to Kevin while Jim sighs, sits down on the car creeper, and reels under the car again. A couple minutes later, Corey returns to Jim and grins. “All right, he’s taking me, man. Thanks for pointing me out to him.”

Jim smiles a little, but he doesn’t reel back out. “No problem.” He can’t really say much else, not surprised at himself for being awkward around the guy he hasn’t spoken to for almost a decade. In fact, he’s surprised that he’s speaking to him at all. He glimpses at Corey’s feet (because that’s all he can see) before he completely gets back to work.

“Yeeeah...” Corey simply replies, looking around again. His feet are glued to the ground, and he doesn’t know if he should just go into the waiting room (they better have doughnuts), or say something, anything to Jim. His feet finally give way and he walks backwards slowly, his hands still in his pockets. “So, um...you know what? I’ll just go to the waiting room. The music’s getting on my nerves.”

Jim bites his lip as he sees the feet begin to walk out, knowing that they probably won’t speak to each other again for a while. Yeah, he knows that the guy and Craig are roommates and all, but that wouldn’t really help. Besides, he suddenly finds himself curious about what’s been going on with Corey since he left for Jacksonville. He’s sure that Corey too will want to know about his decade in the city and what he’s been up to, right? But he fears that the conversation will be just plain awkward, just like this one is right now. He doesn’t even realize that he had reeled out from under the car again, or that the following words just came out of his mouth. “Um, hey do you wanna do anything after I’m done?” When he finally does realize this, he hopes that the radio deejay didn’t hear him.

Well, Corey did, and he turns around, a little surprised that Jim asked that. He brightens up a little, and he replies, “Well, fuck, yeah! I don’t have anything else to do until the evening. I know this diner, and we can go out for cigarettes and coffee.” He pauses. “You still smoke, do you?”

“Yeah.”

“Sweet! We can do that.” Jim smiles as Corey walks closer and continues, “You know, I’m glad you asked me that, man. I mean, we seriously need to fucking catch up. Shit, I don’t even know where you’ve been!”

“I’ve been to Jacksonville.”

“That far, huh?” Corey nods. “Well, I better let you go and get back to work.” He glances at Kevin’s direction. “I just hope he gets done soon. You guys have doughnuts, do you? I didn’t get a chance to eat before I left.”

“I think we have plenty,” Jim answers, smiling faintly.

“Awesome, man.” Corey then walks backwards. “Well, I’ll let you get to you, I’ll see you whenever.” At that, he turns and walks to the waiting room.

“All right,” Jim simply replies before he gets back to work, feeling a bit anxious.

____

Hours later (and agonizingly so), around four in the afternoon, the two went out for, as said before, coffee and cigarettes at a diner that Corey drove to. Throughout the drive, the only thing that was spoken was Corey saying that he’s researching, because he’s been playing jazz music for that festival that Dan’s making him go to. It wasn’t until after they found a table and ordered their coffee that Corey takes out his pack of cigarettes and offer them to Jim.

Jim shakes his head. “I already have one,” he replies as he takes out his own. Corey grins and takes out a cigarette, putting it in his mouth and lighting it. Jim does the same, and he looks out at the window, feeling a little awkward again. Corey looks down, and he sighs. “So, car shop...”

Jim looks back at the radio deejay. “Um, yeah,” he simply replies, chuckling nervously. “I’ve known how to fix cars, and it pays okay, so it’s all right.”

Corey slowly nods. “So is that what you did in Jacksonville?”

“No, I...uh...I actually worked for this guy in a seafood restaurant, fished and brought fish in for the cooks, you know.” Corey raises both eyebrows and listens to Jim as he continues, “And I also played gigs at a local bar. It was great...” the tall man doesn’t say anymore, and Corey smiles.

“Well, that sounds nice. It’s awesome you were still doing music.”

“I used to just play in a band, but that fell through and I had to find something else,” Jim says, shrugging.

“You brought your guitar with you?” Jim shakes his head no, and Corey snorts. “Oh, man...you should’ve, dude! I miss hearing you play!” Jim kind of smiles at that comment, feeling warm inside.

“Yeah, well I wish I could go back and get it.”

“Well, why can’t you?”

Jim tries not to falter at what he answers, “I just don’t know if, um, I can bring it back.”

Corey nods slowly. “I see.” He then smiles. “Well, I still have mine!”

“You’re still doing music?”

“Nah...” It’s one of his biggest regrets. “There was no way I could do that after my son was born, and after the last band I was in broke up.” He frowns and looks down at the table, taking a drag off his cigarette. “I had to take jobs, and to have a man in his late twenties stop that and try to find an ordinary job,” he glances up at Jim, “it’s depressing.”

“I can imagine...”

“Yeah, things didn’t go too well for me, but hey,” he shrugs, “I’m okay with what I’m doing now.”

Jim smiles a little. “What are you doing now?”

“I’m a radio deejay at DROK. You’re living with Sid now, aren’t you? He’ll tell ya what channel it is.” Usually he loves shameless plugging himself. “Yep, I play metal and shit, and then I talk about shit. Had guests—even Kerry fucking King!”

Jim blinks at that, taking a drag of his cigarette. “Seriously?”

“It’s the best fucking job I’ve ever had after playing music.” His smile fades. “Although, my producer wants me to play shitty music now.”

Just then the waitress comes by with their cups of coffee and she smiles, “And here you are! You two have a nice day.” The two men thank her and she leaves.

Corey takes a sip of coffee and smiles as Jim does the same. “But yeah, it’s great, still. I think what I’d really like to do is have my own TV show dedicated to metal.”

Jim smiles and shakes his head. “You know what? You probably can do that.”

“I can!”

“So....you have a son? What’s his name?” Jim hopes that this question isn’t too personal.

Corey smiles gently. “Griffin.” He shakes his head, still smiling. “He’s just amazing. I finally got to be with my daughter, too. You remember her.”

Jim nods. “Yeah, I do...I’m glad for you, man.”

“Yeah...and...” Corey sighs, and looks at the window. “Met my father, finally.”

Jim is shocked at this news. “Oh my god, how?”

“My ex-wife found him, and...” Corey shakes his head, and one can’t tell if he’s smiling or not at this. “It was a good day.”

Jim grins at the radio deejay and replies, “That’s just wonderful, Corey. It really is.”

“Yeah. So what about your family?”

“My family is my family,” was all Jim can say to that. “I mean, I’ve had to live with my parents for months when I came back here and—”

“Wait,” Corey blinks, frowning, “you’ve been here this long and you didn’t tell me or come look for me?”

Jim chews the inside of his lip at Corey’s question. He looks down and sighs. “I needed time for myself,” he simply replies, and that kind of hurts the shorter man.

“Oh....” Corey sighs and takes a long drag of his cigarette, saying nothing for a while as he looks to the window. Jim mentally kicks himself for even mentioning that he’s been here since March, and now he thinks that this reunion is pretty much fucked now. Which is sad because it was going so well. He always hated hurting the guy, and each second that Corey says nothing, Jim feels even more awkward. But then Corey looks back at him. “I guess you needed time to settle down back here.”

Jim looks up at him. “Yeah...sorry.”

The other man smiles faintly. “Nah, it’s okay dude. I’m just...so many things in my life that I wanted to share with you, and then I keep forgetting that you’re somewhere else.” His smile fades, but he still stares at Jim with a curious expression on his face. “So, I’m glad you cut that hair of yours. Fuck, it used to be down your fucking back. Not like I hated it back then, but...”

Jim snorts. “I had to. Actually I over did it, but now I let it grow again.”

“Down to your shoulders. Dude, keep it like that, okay?”

“You cut yours as well.”

“Oh, pfft! I used to go bald.”

Jim smiles, raising an eyebrow at that. “Do I even wanna know what you looked like?”

“Oh fuck you,” Corey snorts, smoothing his short hair back. “It felt nice, at least. So you lived with your parents until recently, huh?”

Jim smiles and answers, “Yeah.”

“Sweet, is your mother sill hot?”

“What?”

“I mean your sister.”

“Oh, don’t even, man. She’s got issues. Her daughter, too.”

“Sorry to hear,” Corey replies as he sips his coffee.

“They’re all pretty nuts, actually.”

“So why are you still here then?” he asks, his eyes never leaving Jim’s.

“Because...well because I felt homesick.” Remember, Jim will never tell anyone that some crime family’s after him and others because their corrupt employer framed them. And Corey’s smart, so he can’t say that a tropical storm destroyed his house.

“Well, I’m glad you’re back,” Corey simply whispers, smiling. Jim smiles back, saying nothing. Corey tries to figure out what to say now. He doesn’t want to say, /Well, I gotta go to work, I don’t know when I’ll see you again, but whatever/, so he decides to spit it out, “I used to be a wedding singer before taking a job as a deejay.”

Jim slowly raises an eyebrow at that, looking at him skeptically. “...a wedding singer.”

“Yep,” Corey grins. And it is true, for a year and a half. “It was such a retarded job, but it involved me singing, so...” he shrugs. “What else could I do? It was the least...degrading job. Yeah, let’s just say that.”

Jim chuckles. “Wow, Corey...I just...wow.”

“Yep, I’d go up there, and I’d sing rock ballads to the couple, makes some jokes—now I couldn’t make any bad jokes because the kids are always here. We even had some Jewish weddings, it’s strange because the founder of the chapel was anti-Semitic.”

“How long have you been a wedding singer?”

“For a year and a half, until my divorce.”

“Oh.”

“Man, that day was just weird, you know? I think I had one two many drinks or something?” Corey muses. He then says, “Nah, it was more like eight. That punch got spiked like I dunno what. I was trying to get my mind out of Scarlett, the ex-wife. We’re okay now, by the way. Well, anyway, seriously, leave your personal life out of your work. It never ends well. For example...”

And Corey begins to tell Jim the story of what happens when a person lets their personal life into their job. Basically what had happened was Corey, drunk as a skunk, stumbled on the stage and slurred at everyone. I think every other word that came out of his mouth were words that kids obviously did not need to hear. Well, sadly the bride had five younger sisters (the oldest of them was fourteen) and various cousins from aged five to eleven.

And then as Corey performed “Love Stinks,” by J. Geils Band, he belittled the newlywed couple, telling the man that the woman would cheat on him like Scarlett did, and going so far as to tell the bride that the man’s dick is the smaller than his own. Corey can’t remember if he actually whipped it out.

The last thing he remembers is collapsing over the drummer and puking on him.

Jim simply blinks at Corey when he’s finished. It takes him a while before he can finally respond, “Wow.”

“So yeah. That was fun,” he pauses, “until I was told that I was fired and was once again without a job, /buuuuut/...”

Jim finally chuckles at him, and can you blame him? Corey hasn’t changed at all when one stops to think about it. “I don’t think I can ever pull that off.”

“Well, don’t.” Corey’s cellphone rings and he sighs, answering, “Hello?” Jim sips the last of his coffee as Corey frowns. “Oh what the hell?!” The radio deejay suddenly shouts. “I don’t have ti—I had plans!” He growls as he listens to the person on the other line. “You know what?” he begins in a low tone. “Fine, I’ll be there.” He hangs up and glances at Jim. He frowns but speaks in a somewhat optimistic tone, “Well, James. It looks like we’ll have to cut this reunion short.”

Jim nods. “It’s all right. It was nice talking to you again.”

Corey sips the last of his coffee and takes out his wallet. “Well, lemme pay for this, all right?”

“No, you don’t have to do that.”

Corey eyes Jim. “Nononono, man. Let me. I’m in a happy mood today.” He grins as he sets the cash on the table. “So, where do I take you?”

“You can just take me back at the apartment,” Jim replies, standing up.

Corey chuckles, standing up as well. Neither of them leaves their cigarettes behind. “Great. I was just going there anyway get what I need.” He pauses as he goes out to the car, waiting for the taller man. “Hey...um...we really should hang out again, you know?” He looks up at him with a hopeful expression on his face.

Jim shrugs. “Well, sure...I don’t mind hanging out.”

Corey then smiles gently as they both get inside his car. “Then come to my apartment on Friday at noon,” he whispers, making Jim nervous.

“Why?”

“Because of the jazz festival?” he raises an eyebrow.

Jim chuckles nervously. “Oh...that.”

“Yeah, because I don’t wanna be alone at that, and no one else wants to come. Will you be free around then?”

“I don’t know yet, but I’ll let you know.”

Corey smiles at the guy as he starts his car. “Remind me to give you my number when we get to the apartments, so you can call me.”

Jim smiles back. “Cool.”