FicWad

I stared at Kirk blankly for a few minutes, not quite getting it. What did he mean that he and James had joined a band? They were already in a band with Metallica obviously. Were they joking or something? If they were joking, it wasn't exactly a funny joke. Trying to clear up my confusion, I asked Kirk, "You joined a band? You mean that you're playing in Metallica and another band now too?"

Kirk, who was tapping his foot impatiently on the floor for James to hurry up, glanced over at me and explained, "Yeah, it's just temporary though. The band is called 'The Spastic Children'. We just jam together for fun and write songs on impulse. James and I have a lot of fun there. It's cool because I get to play the bass guitar for a change and James just loves playing the drums."

Ah, so that explained why Kirk had been messing around with Cliff's bass earlier. I still wasn't quite sure about this Spastic Children band though. I had never heard of it before and something about it seemed kind of strange. Nonetheless, if Kirk and James had fun there then I guess it was good that they had joined the band. Still, I wondered what the point of the band was if Kirk and James were only joining the band temporarily. Wouldn't they eventually want to decided between either Metallica or The Spastic Children? If so, why even bother joining a band for a month or so if you knew you were going to quit it?

I voiced this question aloud just as James came out of the bathroom with his hair neatly combed and his face washed, "So what exactly is the point of this band? Are you for sure going to quit it? I mean, you're definitely staying with Metallica, right?" At the last question, Lars jerked his head up and glared menacingly at Kirk and James, "Yes, of course they're still staying with Metallica!" Then looking a little bit nervous, Lars added, "Right?"

Kirk nodded vigorously, "Of course! Like I've told you before, Lars, this is just temporary." I sighed and crossed my arms across my chest. The problem with such a big group of guys living in such a small confinement meant that some people ended up getting ignored. In this situation, my questions were the ones that kept getting ignored since Lars had interrupted.

"Um, excuse me, but is anyone going to tell me what the point in joining this temporary band is?" I asked a little sullenly, hoping Kirk or James would finally answer my question. Luckily, Kirk finally turned his attention away from Lars and looked over at me, "The point of the band is just to have some fun really. We can make up whatever songs we want, do whatever we want, and just party and hang out. It's just a lot of guys getting together, hanging out, and composing some music."

James gave me a cheesy smile and added, "Actually, I think the main point of the band is to see how drunk you can get and still play your instrument. Right Kirk?" Kirk blushed and then shrugged, "Yeah, I guess that kinda sums it up." Okay, now I definitely wasn't feeling all that happy about James and Kirk joining The Spastic Children. The guys really didn't need to be doing any extra drinking. I was already concerned that they were drinking way too much. I did have to admit that Kirk would probably be responsible, but I didn't like the idea of him accidentally fucking himself up. James, on the other hand, could not be trusted to be responsible. You never knew what James was going to do. He was as unpredictable as the weather. If he got mad, he would impulsively try to take revenge on someone or something. Drinking didn't help his short temper at all.

Hoping that the guys were going to be careful and responsible, I sighed and waved goodbye to them, calling loudly after them, "Bye guys. Be careful, okay? Make sure you don't get too drunk or anything." Kirk nodded solemnly, but James just laughed. Damn.



The rest of the day was pretty boring. There's not a whole lot you can do when you're confined to bed. I chit chatted with the remaining guys for a bit, but after a while, it became clear that Lars wanted me to shut up so he could concentrate on the work he was doing with the Ride the Lightning album. Lars didn't actually tell me to shut up, but you can always tell what Lars is thinking because he's very expressive when he wants something or when something's irritating him.

So after a while, I kept quiet and just watched Lars work. Cliff played a few tunes on Kirk's guitar, but got bored after a while as well and returned to whatever novel he was currently reading. As it started to turn dark outside, I found myself worrying about James and Kirk. Shouldn't they be back by now? I hoped they hadn't passed out drunk somewhere.

Deciding to ask Cliff about this, I asked, "Shouldn't James and Kirk be back by now? They left hours ago and it's dark outside. I'm kind of worried about them." Instead of Cliff answering my question, Lars looked towards the window and answered, "Yeah, they should be back any minute. Speaking of it being dark outside, I'm getting pretty tired. What do you say we all call it a night? I finished the editing on Creeping Death, so we'll have James look at it tomorrow."

Cliff set down the novel he was reading, stretched his arms, and yawned widely, "Yeah, we might as well head to bed. I'm pretty tired even though I did nothing at all today. God, I feel so lazy. Anyways, I guess I'll sleep on the couch. Are you sharing the bed with Kirk like usual?" As Lars nodded, I couldn't help but feel sorry for Kirk. We all knew by now that Lars always hogged all the blankets and took up most of the bed. I would share my bed with Kirk, but I obviously couldn't do that with James around.

I watched as the guys got ready for bed and then turned out the lights. I lay on my back, but made no effort to try and fall asleep. I kept the door that separated the two bedrooms open just a crack so I could notice when James and Kirk came home. I couldn't help but worry about them. I kept imagining James passed out somewhere. It was not a pretty sight.

Just when I was starting to think that the guys would never come home, the door popped open silently and a little sliver of light entered the dark bedroom as two figures slipped inside. I could see by the curly dark head and tangled blonde head that the two intruders were definitely James and Kirk. Thank god that they had made it home alright!

I wanted to call out to them to see how they were, but thought better of it. After all, if I called out, that would definitely wake Cliff and Lars up. Well, not exactly. Cliff would sleep through it, but Lars would definitely wake up and reprimand me grumpily. Everyone knew that Lars didn't like to be woken up in the middle of the night by anyone or anything.

Kirk and James crept into the bathroom and I heard the sound of running water for a few minutes before the guys exited the bathroom and returned to the bedroom once more. Kirk took one look at Lars spread out on the bed and shook his head, whispering, "That guy really has no idea how to share the bed, does he?"

James gave a silent laugh and clapped Kirk on the back before he turned and headed towards my bedroom. Quietly, James pushed the door separating the two bedrooms open and slunk inside. Unfortunately, he forgot to shut the bedroom door. So much for us having any privacy. James pushed a strand of blonde hair out of his eyes and looked around the room until his eyes fell on me lying on my back. Walking over to the bed, James leaned over me and asked carefully, "Olivia? Are you up?"

"Well duh," I replied a little irritably. "I wasn't about to fall asleep until you came home. What the hell were you doing anyways? You've been gone for so long that I figured that you died or something." That was obviously a bit of an exaggeration, but I did want to let James know that I was nervous about him and didn't want him gone so long next time. Ignoring my question, James crossed the room and flicked a little lamp on. The pitch black room was suddenly lit up slightly so that I could see the features of James' face once more. He honestly didn't look that good. His eyes were a little glazed over, his cheeks were red, and I noticed he wasn't walking in a straight line. All of those things were signs of drunkenness.

"So," I said when James sat on the bed next to me, "What did you do with the Spastic Children all day?" James moved in a cross-legged position and tried to focus on me with his glazed eyes, "Um...we wrote some songs." Okay, that didn't sound too bad. I did wish James would elaborate though. He was either too drunk or tired to talk right now, but I hadn't gotten to talk to him all day and was determined to make him talk to me for at least a few more minutes before bed.

"That's cool, I guess," I responded. Trying to come up with another question for him, I finally asked, "What were the songs called?" James scrunched his face up and tried to remember. I didn't know how he could've forgotten the names of the songs already. I mean, he had composed them less then twelve hours ago!

"Let's see," James said, "Fred wrote 'Pus is Great', 'I Like Farts', and I wrote 'Cunt.'" I was obviously not too happy about James participating in a band with names of songs like those. Seriously, who names a song "Pus is Great"? Nobody in their right mind obviously. It was clear to me at this point that the main point of this band was just to get drunk like James had said earlier.

"You're really stoned, James," I sighed, deciding to let him know what was on my mind. James stuck out his lip in a pout and shook his head so violently that he almost fell off the bed in doing so and I had to grab his arm to steady him, "No, I'm not drunk! I'm just fine. I actually didn't drink all that much. I only had three bottles of beer and some vodka. That's not that much."

"Uh...WHAT?" I asked in shock. Three bottles of beer and vodka was a hell of a lot to drink whether James realized that or not. I decided that James did not realize that. Looking at him nervously, I said, "You're gonna have a really bad hangover tomorrow. Maybe you should get some sleep now and see if you can sleep it off."

"But I wanna talk to you," James protested, giving me that puppy-eyed look which was sort of ruined by his unfocused gaze. Wanting to get close to James despite his drunkenness, I slid closer to him on the bed and started running my fingers up and down his leg. Kissing his throat, I said, "I wanna talk to you too, but I don't want to do it when you're drunk. If you want to talk to me, do it sometime when you're not drunk. Maybe tomorrow you just want to stay at the hotel?"

I crossed my fingers behind my back as I waited for James' response. I didn't want him going back to the Spastic Children anytime soon. Unfortunately, James shook his head, "Nah, I already said I'd go to band practice. Besides, Cliff says that he's going to go with Kirk and me tomorrow anyways." What the hell? So first James and Kirk had to join and now Cliff was joining too. Lars was apparently the only one with any sense in the group! I never thought that I would say that, but right now, I was really considering it.