Sunday, October 11, 2009

So Naive: FT IFC Entry

Fast Times at Barrington High Inspired Fiction Contest
Name of story: So Naive
Penname: chloe
FTABH Song Inspiration: Every Burden Has a Version
Fiction or Fan Fiction: Fan Fiction?
Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I don’t own The Academy Is… or anything else in this story.

well it took me long enough to post this. sorry! I wrote it over the summer, and after reading it for the first time since then, i don't think it is very good. haha oh well.



Hearing the heavy traffic fly by me had been a relief. It was so much better than the shouting and hitting and crying I constantly heard at home. But now it was quiet. And dark. The occasional truck that drove by continued on with out even slowing down. Apparently my thumbs up and I were invisible to the people driving by.
Yesterday was it. I was done. I packed up my things and left in a hurry, although I had no idea where I was going. My dad, who was far from sober at the time, didn’t even attempt to stop me. My mom left when I was little, and my brother died last year in a car crash. No one wanted me to stay at home; I didn’t want to stay. I longed to get out of the small town of Millvale, PA. The only thing I would miss about that place was Mr. Smalls Funhouse. It’s thanks to that old church-turned-venue that I’ve lasted this long in that town. I got to grow up and experience the music scene because of that place. I learned to play piano, guitar, and drums in that place. I met local unheard of bands in that venue, and, when I was lucky enough, I met slightly more famous musicians. That place was more of a home than my own house was.
Yet here I am walking west on the PA Turnpike towards the Ohio border with a guitar case filled with clothes, a set of drum sticks and $57.55. My ancient car that hadn’t been driven in over a year broke down about 30 minutes after I left my house. I slept in it last night, and began walking towards my destination, although I had no idea what that even was. I saw the first pair of headlights in several minutes shine ahead of me into the darkness. I waited for the car to pass, but it never did, so I turned around and saw a white van parked behind me on the side of the highway. Shit, I thought, these were the types of vans that creepy rapist people drive. Or carpenters. They drive those vans, too.
An extremely tall, skinny guy got out of the driver’s side. I stopped in my tracks, my thumb still in the air signaling for a ride. I was frozen, not sure whether to be scared or relieved.
“You need a lift?” said a soft voice.
“Uh,” I said, not sure whether to accept the ride. “Yeah. Who are you?”
“Bill. I saw you walking along the road. Aren’t you a little young to be hitch hiking?”
Creep much?
“Yeah, I asked who you were,” I said, deciding not to ride with this guy unless he sounded legitimately normal.
“Bill Beckett. I’m heading home with my band to Chicago, you need a lift somewhere?” Oh, a musician, it was all ok then.
“Yes.” I was oh so thankful.
“Where are you headed?” he asked.
“I don’t really know. I just have to get past the PA border, then you can drop me off wherever you want.”
He shrugged and motioned for me to get in the passenger door.
The van smelled like Ferbreze, pizza, and stale smoke. There were 5 other guys in the van, all of them asleep except a guy in the back watching a DVD on his laptop.
“Who are they?” I asked.
“The rest of the band. Is there a guitar in that case?”
“No.”
“Oh. Well do you play guitar?”
“Yeah.” No need to tell this guy my life story.
He nodded, started the van and began to drive.
My cell phone, whose battery was nearly drained, rang loudly. I looked at the called ID and sighed. I swore to myself this would be the last time I’d ever talk to this guy.
“Hello?”
“Where are you.” It wasn’t a question, rather more of a statement.
“Dad, I left. Please don’t call me.”
“You’re not even 18 yet. I could get you in trouble for so many things. You stole my goddamn car.”
“I bought the car. It’s mine. Before yesterday it hasn’t even been driven in over a year.” My voice was uncharacteristically monotone as I struggled to hold back tears.
“Alexis Molly Greene, I could call the cops on you.”
“First, that’s not even my middle name, but good try. And second, you don’t even know where I am. If you call the cops on me, I’ll just tell them everything you’ve ever done to me and you’ll get thrown in jail so fast you won’t know what hit you.”
I shut my phone and took a deep breath. I sat up and glanced sideways, realizing Bill had just heard everything I said. I turned around to see the other guys awake staring at me.
“Uh guys, this is Alexis,” said Bill. “She needed a ride...so yeah.”
I was still mortified. “Sorry,” I mumbled.
“It’s no problem,” muttered Bill. “Introduce yourselves.”
“Mike”
“Tom”
“Jack. I’m not in the band, just tagging along.”
“Adam T. Siska”
“Butcher”
I raised an eyebrow at that last one.
“Yeah, that’s what they call me,” said the skinny, shirtless, tattooed guy in the back.
“So who even are you?” asked the guy named Tom.
“Alexis.”
“But like who are you? Where are you from? Why are you riding with us? Why were you so upset on the phone?”
I just shrugged and didn’t answer. Instead I closed my eyes and wished for sleep to take over. Eventually it came.
I opened my eyes and panicked. A face was peering into mine. Two dark eyes blinked and a smile stretched across the face.
“We’re stopping for food.”
I looked at my surroundings. A Denny’s and a BP gas station.
“Are we outside of Pennsylvania?” I asked quietly.
“Yeah, we’re in central Ohio somewhere. A few hours from Chicago.”
I nodded, got my guitar case, and climbed out of the car. I turned my head to see where exactly I was. Shrugging my shoulders slightly, I began walking toward the road and said, “Thanks for the ride.”
“Wait!”
I stopped and turned around. William was standing there with his hands in his front jeans pockets.
“Where are you going? It’s like 5 a.m. and we’re not in Chicago yet.”
I cocked an eyebrow and asked, “So?”
“So?” he asked. “So, I’m not going to let a sixteen year old girl walk alone on a highway in the middle of Ohio. At least come to Chicago with us and let me help you find a place to stay.”
“First of all, I just turned 18 yesterday afternoon. Second, I don’t need a pity party. I’m used to being on my own. I like it better on my own.”
“Well happy birthday, and I’m not going to let you go until we get to Chicago. I’ll use force if necessary.”
I knew he was joking, but the reference to physically forcing me to do anything made me automatically shut him out.
He noticed my change in demeanor and said, “I was only kidding. I wouldn’t ever actually hurt you.”
I nodded and walked back to the van, setting my case down and getting out money. Without looking Bill’s way, I went inside to Denny’s and sat down in a booth with the rest of the guys…Bad idea. They all began asking me questions:
“Who are you?”
“Where are you from?”
“Why are you hitch hiking?”
“Why were you upset on the phone?”
“What did your dad do to you?”
I looked at them all, unsure of what to do. They all looked back at me intently, expecting me to answer each question in great detail. The silence lasted for a full thirty seconds before Bill came and sat down with us.
“Why is everyone looking at Alexis?” he asked.
They all repeated their questions, only this time they were directed at William.
He shrugged and said, “I don’t know anymore about her than you do.”
He looked at me, apparently expecting me to explain to them, complete strangers, why I was in this current situation.
I shrugged again and looked down, fidgeting with my napkin. I looked back up and saw they were still staring at me. I might as well get this over with.

The Four Things - Chapter 4

A/N – Yes, I actually updated this story. For the longest time I couldn’t think of what to write next. I had no ideas at all. Then the other night in the middle of the night, this entire chapter came to me and I just had to post it asap. Thanks for sticking with me everyone. I really appreciate it!

Chapter 4

William looked at the clock. It was 2:13 on Thursday and he was waiting for Micaela to show up. His stomach flipped and he couldn’t stand the anxiety of waiting for her any longer. He hadn’t seen her since she shot down his proposal to go out when he got out of the hospital, and he wished that he wouldn’t have to see her at all during the rest of his stay. At 2:14, Mica walked in.

“Sorry,” her cheeks were flushed and she was holding a notepad and a folder, “I got caught up in care conference. They wouldn’t let me go until just a minute ago.”

“That’s okay,” William could barely look her in the eye.

“Okay Will, are you excited to be getting out of here?” She was acting like nothing had happened between them and he couldn’t stand it. It seemed so easy for her to ignore everything.

“Sure,” he answered.

“I heard your leg is pretty much completely healed, and your arm and hand are following close behind that. You’ve talked to Rich, your Physical Therapist about continuing treatment at home, right?”

William nodded.

“Great! So I’ve gone ahead and thought of a couple activities that you did before you accident and you can do again now that you’re almost completely healed, but they would be in group settings so that your progress would still be monitored.”

“But most of my activities were solo or just with my friends.”

“And you can still do those activities, but we’re adding some therapeutic sessions. For instance, a lot of local universities that have Music Therapy majors are always looking for people like you. You’re in a band, you can play a few instruments and teach them some stuff about music, but at the same time, you’re providing yourself as an example. Students will work with you and assess your progress and learn how to work with patients outside of a clinical setting.”

“Well that doesn’t sound too bad. As long as there aren’t any crazy fans.”

“I don’t know if there’s a way to guarantee that, but its benefits far outweigh its drawbacks. You’ll be getting therapy basically just by having a jam session with some college kids.” She handed William the folder and he opened it to find packets of information and brochures for different activities and recreation centers. “While I’m in this room with you, I want you to chose at least one other option, besides the music therapy program, that looks good to you and that you’d be willing to pursue once you left here. We can discuss it and maybe even get you in contact with someone from the program.”

William searched for a while spending a lot of time mulling over the different options and finally choosing one, “This looks fun,” he held up a brochure for the Chicago Park District and it showed a number of activities that they offered from sports to visual arts and social groups. “I would do the sports, of course,” he clarified to Mica as if he were almost mortified to think that she would believe he would do anything other then that.

“That’s good. Sports will help build the strength back up in your arm and leg, and they have a great variety there.” She told him the website and they logged onto it and explored it together, and William made a promise to contact them about program availability when he got out.

They were laughing and joking around and having a good time looking at the funny pictures of people when William sprung another surprise question on her, “Mica, why don’t you want to go out with me?”

She looked shocked and her jaw fell open. She didn’t know what to tell him so she decided to go with the truth, “William, I can’t date you because you’re my patient. I know everything about you – all of your medical history. I wouldn’t feel right knowing that information about you in a social setting.”

“Oh,” Will sighed. He was relieved that it wasn’t him, but merely the fact that he was her patient. His mind started working a mile a minute trying to work out a way to get her to ignore her own personal hang-ups enough to give him a chance.

Micaela looked at her watch, “I should probably go. I’m supposed to meet with Dorit for some one-to-one arts and crafts. I’ll check back with you tomorrow morning to see if you have any questions and to say goodbye.”

“Alright, see you then,” William managed to get out. He wasn’t really paying attention to anything except the wheels turning in his head that were trying to figure out a way to convince her to go on a date.

*****

Micaela entered Dorit’s room to find her hunched over an old photo album. “Hey Dorit. What have you got there?” she asked.

The elderly woman turned toward her and patted the chair next to her with a heavily wrinkled and veined hand, “Adam said he wanted to see pictures of me when I was young. I told him I would find them and have them for later today when he visits me, but I started looking through and I lost track of time. So many memories…” she trailed off as she focused in on one of the pictures.

Mica noticed the state of the old photo album and it saddened her. She could tell it was very old because half of the pages were ripping out and most of the plastic was torn off or yellow with age. An idea occurred to her, “Dorit, I just had an idea for an arts and crafts project.”

“Yeah?” Dorit asked without looking up.

“Why don’t we make you a new photo album. I have some new albums upstairs and I could grab one and we could start working on it right now.”

Dorit looked skeptical, “I don’t want it to look like one of those themed things. What are they calling them? Scrapbooks? I just want a plain photo album.”

“That’s fine, but in order for it to be arts and crafts we have to do something arty to it, like decorate the cover.”

“That will be fine. As long as I can put my pictures in it first; that’s what really matters.”

“Yeah, of course Dorit,” Mica said standing up, “I’ll go get an album now. I’ll be right back.” Mica ran upstairs and grabbed an album from a shelf in the arts and crafts closet, along with some fabric paints, stencils, ribbons, glue-on gems, glue and scissors, and headed back to Dorit’s room. “Ready?”

“Ready,” Dorit confirmed.

The two woman sat at Dorit’s little table working together to transfer all of the pictures from the old photo album to the new. It was taking an extremely long time, as Dorit felt the need to tell the story behind each picture, but Micaela didn’t mind. In fact, hearing people’s life stories was one of the great things about working with the elderly.

Dorit flipped the page and pulled one of the pictures out without looking at it first. When she did look down, her eyes became sad and the corners of her mouth turned down in a frown, “This was a sad time for me,” she whispered.

Mica tried to get a look at the picture, but Dorit was holding it to her heart with her eyes closed, “What happened?”

“Oh, it was just so upsetting. My best friend…killed by her own husband.” She sat for a moment, seeming to contemplate the story, choosing her words carefully before continuing. “She was very troubled. Her husband was such a kind man, but he was never home. He had to work long hours to support them, but even his double shifts wouldn’t make him enough money to pay the rent and pay for groceries. It caused her so much strife. She wanted to work, but he was too proud and wouldn’t let her. I offered her money, because even though I didn’t have a lot, I had a little extra, but she wouldn’t take it. She wanted to earn her money in a decent way, and asked the landlord if he needed any work done. He ended up raping her. I was the only one she told, and I kept it inside. I should’ve told someone else, the police, or my husband, or even hers, but I promised her I wouldn’t tell anyone, and I was young and stupid and believed that a promise was never to be broken. One night her husband must’ve walked in on it happening, because all we knew was the his wife and the landlord were found dead with no clothes on, and he put a bullet through his brain only a few moments later. I heard the shots. I called the police,” a tear dropped down Dorit’s face, “No one would’ve ever expected sweet Walter to do such a thing. They were so in love…”

“You said his name was Walter?” The name rang a bell to Mica and the story seemed oddly familiar.

“Yes. It was Spring of 1931. His name was Walter Brennan and she was Mary Brennan.” Dorit dropped the picture onto the table to reveal two couples laughing and playing cards. One was obviously Dorit, and her husband had his arm around her. As Micaela focused in on the other couple, she lost her breath completely. Across from Dorit and her husband, sporting 1930’s fashion and hair styles, sat a black and white spitting image of Micaela. The man next to her with his arm around her was a man who looked exactly like William.

The Four Things - Chapter 3

A/N - Thanks so much for all the reviews guys. See how fast I updated - Thanks in part to all your great reviews (and also because I'm procrastinating on EVERYTHING).

Chapter 3


“Seriously Dude? Seriously? You’re seriously going to go to a club where they’re knitting?”

Will nodded, “Seriously Sisky. It’s my therapy so if you want to be a douchebag about it then maybe you should go home.”

“I would rather have broken limbs forever then go to knitting group. Do you even know how to knit?”

“I’m learning,” William pointed to a sunny spot near the windows where some of the other patients were already gathered. Sisky pushed his wheelchair up to the group, spotting a balding, somewhat overweight man, and a bunch of older and middle aged women. “Pull me up over there,” Will gestured to a younger woman with auburn hair sitting by herself in a seat by the windows. A folder and a bunch of papers were scattered all over a little table in front of her. A yellow lumpy thing lay off to the side and Sisky realized that it was her abandoned knitting project.

“I see why you are to this group now,” Sisky looked up at the pale freckled woman with her large green eyes and wavy hair. She was beautiful in that natural, earthy, no-make sort of way. “Is she the reason you broke up with Jamie?”

“No, I told you; Jamie initiated our break up, not me.”

“Yeah, but was she the reason?” Sisky taunted.

William glared at him, “I actually kinda miss Jamie and it’s only been a few hours. How do you miss someone who made it their life’s mission to make you miserable?”

“Maybe it’s like that thing where the girl who’s taken hostage falls for the guy who kidnapped her,” Sisky laughed as he pulled the wheelchair up next to Micaela and then pulled a chair up next to Will and sat down.

“Whatcha doin’?” Will asked Micaela.

“Paperwork,” she didn’t even look up at him, “George can help you if you need any help.”

“Oh,” Will’s face fell. He looked up at George and saw him helping someone else, “He’s busy.”

“Well he’ll be done shortly and then he can help you.”

“But I don’t like it when he does it. I only like it your way,” Will whined and Sisky shook his head suppressing laughter at what an ass his friend was making out of himself.

Micaela looked up at him and sighed, “Okay where’s your needles?” He held them up, still with the pout on his face. “Where’s your yarn?” he held up a tangled skein of dark blue, now his pout turning into a goofy smile. “I’ll help you cast on, but then you’re on your own.” She went to work showing him how to knit while Sisky sat next to them, totally spacing out.

“Young man,” an elderly voice addressed him and he looked up to see an older woman standing over him. Well, not that much over him, as she was only about 2 inches taller then he was while she was standing up and he was sitting down. “Hold this for me while I sit in my chair,” She handed him a skein of baby pink yarn and then pulled the chair up behind her. “What are you here for?” she asked him bluntly.

“Oh, I’m not a patient. I’m just visiting my friend Bill.”

She smiled, “Ah, William. He’s a bit odd that boy. He goes to all the women’s groups just because he’s got the hots for Mica.”

Sisky laughed, “Yeah, he’s a weirdo. Why are you here?”

“I’m here so that they can teach me about how to have a healthy lifestyle.” He looked at her confused. “My insurance company is forcing me to spend extra time hear because this was my third minor heart attack, but I’ll be one hundred next month and I’m still walking, so I must be doing something right.”

“What does a heart attack feel like?” Sisky asked and then immediately regretting it. Why would he make this woman relive such a horrible time in her life.

“It felt damn good.” She laughed at Sisky’s surprised face, “I was having sex.”

His eyes widened even more, “well was it worth it?”

“Oh yeah. It was, what do you youngin’s say? Hot?” Sisky nodded and laughed. “I would do it again in a heartbeat,” she howled with laughter at Sisky’s mortified face, “Forgive the pun. Of course Ray feels just awful about it, but he can’t help it that he’s an Italian Stallion.”

“Is Ray your husband?”

“No. My husband died over thirty years ago, and I spent a good ten years mourning his death and then I realized that I had to get back out there and enjoy my life. It’s what he would’ve wanted. And I’m lucky because Ray’s a younger man.”

“Oh yeah?” Sisky was amused by the woman’s demeanor.

“Yeah he’s eighty. That mean’s I was 19 when he was born, but that’s okay. The younger the better. In fact, you’re pretty cute,” she laughed again at the semi-horrified look on Sisky’s face, “I meant it in a different way then you think. I meant that you’re cute like my great grandson. I’m Dorit by the way.”

She held out her hand and he took it. She gave it a good firm shake, “I’m Adam,” he smiled. He couldn’t help but admire her spunk.

*****

2 weeks later

“You’re improving,” Micaela sat down on the edge of William’s bed, while he sat across from her in the chair, “I talked to your doctor, your social worker, and your physical therapist this morning and they said you should be ready to leave by the end of the week.”

“That’s great,” William looked at her and his expression showed that he thought it was anything but great.

“It is great. You’ll be healed before you know it. You can get back to work with your music, and maybe next fall you’ll be back into touring again with your band. You’ve made great progress since you were here and the doctor said that it’s probably because of all of the Recreation Therapy you’ve been doing. You’ve been attending two to three groups per day, afterall.”

“Sure,” Will said, immediately regretting going to all of those groups. He didn’t want to leave. He was finally able to see what he truly wanted and it wasn’t to leave the facility, it was to spend as much time with Mica as possible.

“So I want to set up a meeting with you toward the end of the week where we can discuss activities that you can keep doing when you get out of the facility so that you can keep getting better and better.”

“Okay,” he looked down at his hands.

“How about Thursday afternoon? If you leave on Friday afternoon, that will give you plenty of time to ask me some questions if you think of them after our meeting.”

“Whatever you want,” he swept his hair out of his face with his good hand.

“Okay, Thursday at two then.” She got off of the bed and headed to the door.

“Micaela wait!” Will shouted panicked.

“What is it William?”

“Do you think maybe you could go out with me sometime?”

She looked down at her hands embarrassed, “No, I’m sorry William. I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because I can’t date my patients. We have a patient-therapist relationship and it needs to stay that way.”

“No it doesn’t. You’re not my psychiatrist. There are no rules in Recreation Therapy that say you can’t date me when I leave here.”

“You’re right. There’s not, but I wouldn’t feel right about it. It’s a personal policy.”

Will couldn’t look her in the eyes, “Oh. Well okay then.” He felt totally embarrassed.

“I’m going to go now William, but I’ll see you later,” she turned and left the room, leaving him there alone and thinking about how foolish he’d been to even ask her.

“Hey!” Sisky entered the room cheerily with Mike close behind him.

“You guys said you’d be here at two. It’s almost three now!” Will said aggravated. He really didn’t care about what time his friends came, he was just angry about Mica not accepting his invite.

“What the hell are you, the time nazi?” Mike glared at him.

“We took a detour coming here. I took Mike to go see Dorit,” Sisky said with a huge smile on his face, “Doesn’t she totally rock for an old woman?”

“Yeah, she was the shit!” Mike gave Sisky a high five and Will rolled his eyes. Sisky had been to visit almost every day for the past two weeks, but he always spent more time hanging out with Dorit then with Will.

“Mica said she wouldn’t go out with me,” Will slumped in his chair.

“So that’s why you’re all bitter and worried about the time,” Sisky sat next to him and patted his shoulder, “it’s not really a surprise though.”

“What the hell? Of course it is! She spends every day with me!”

“Only because you choose to go to her groups and because you’re her patient. She doesn’t have a choice, she has to spend time with you and pretend like she likes you, even if she hates your guts.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, man.” Will exhaled a huge sigh and looked up at the clock, counting the minutes until his friends would leave him in peace.

*****

“Will asked me out today,” Micaela said to Paige as they sat at the little diner that they went to after work sometimes.

“Will who?” Paige looked up curiously and accidentally dribbled ketchup from her fries down her chin.

“Will Becket. My patient.”

“Oo, the hot rock star one? You said yes, right?”

“No, you know my policy on that,” Micaela pushed her fries around with her fork. Suddenly they weren’t looking that appetizing.

“Yeah, but you can make an exception for him. I mean, you told me yourself that you thought he was hot,” Paige wiped the ketchup off of her chin with a napkin, but a glob of it dropped off of the napkin and onto her khaki’s, “dammit!” she muttered under her breath.

“No. You know I can’t break my own rules. How bad would it be if I broke rules that I came up with myself?”

“You’re such a freak. Anyone else would jump on that chance. I would,” Paige tried to pretend like the piece of salad hadn’t just fallen off of her fork right before she put the bite in her mouth, and Micaela ignored her and continued pushing her fries around her plate, lost in her own thoughts.

The Four Things - Chapter 2

A/N - Finally I'm getting a chance to update this. Of course I have about a billion other things I should be doing, but that's always what happens, right. Thanks for you reviews guys!

Chapter 2

Walter practically skipped up the steps to the tiny third floor apartment. He couldn’t wait to get home and see his wife. She was what kept him going every second of every day, and he loved her with all of his heart. He unlocked the door and headed inside, smelling the dinner that she had saved for him keeping warm in the oven, but wanting to say hello to her before he ate. He couldn’t wait to surprise her. The boss had let him out of work early with pay, as a bit of a holiday bonus. He looked all around the sitting room, dining room and kitchen and couldn’t find her, realizing at last that she must be in the bedroom. He grinned, hoping that maybe he would catch her in the act of changing into her nightgown, and that would make an already great night even better.

As he turned the doorknob of their bedroom, he swore he heard a masculine grunting noise. Knowing he must have been hearing things, and excited to surprise her, he swung the door open quickly, revealing, to his horror, his lovely wife in the arms of their fat old landlord.

Anger and hurt swelled inside him. Here he was, working double shifts almost every day and night so that he could put food on the table and a roof over their heads, and she had the nerve to cheat on him with this scum. Suddenly nausea overcame him, and he couldn’t bring himself to look at his wife. Instead he ran over to the bed and pulled the man off of her, and then swiftly turned to his side of the bed and grabbed the gun that lay beneath the mattress. His wife was looking at him now, pleading with him, but he couldn’t stand the sight of her. He took his first shot, hitting the landlord and he could her a cold laugh escape his lips. Then the second shot, hitting his wife in the neck. She gazed intently into his eyes during the last seconds of her life and he could barely hear her whispering the words, “I love you.” Then she was gone.

As he watched the life sink away from her, the anger was replaced with such an incredible sadness. What had he done? He had just murdered the only thing in his life that was good. Hot tears stained his bright red face as he pulled the old man off of her and to the floor, and lay down beside his wife. Her blood soaked the bed, and covered most of the pillow, but he pulled her close to him. “I love you Mary,” he cried into her hair as he raised the gun up and wrapped his lips around the gun.

*****

“Will, get up!” light filled his eyes as he was shaken awake, “I said get the fuck up!”

“Alright, alright,” Will sat up in the bed and looked at the blond girl in front of him, “Thanks for the lovely wake up call.”

“You’re welcome,” she sneered and raised an eyebrow into a bitchy expression and William rolled his eyes, deciding to blow off her behavior.

“I had that dream again. The one where…”

“Where you kill some whore and a fat guy and then kill yourself?” she interrupted him, “What else is new? And don’t think I don’t see you rolling your eyes at me,” she added after he did it again.

“Well maybe if you didn’t act so pleasant,” he pointed out sarcastically, “Why did you even come here Jamie?”

“That’s a really great question, William, and the answer is: I don’t fucking know. It’s not like you’re any fun to be around anymore. We used to have so much fun.”

“Well I’m so sorry that my injury puts a damper on your fun.”

“You should be. Not only do we not do anything fun anymore, but then I have to pass up fun things to come see you. I was invited to go shopping with Kim an d Lindsay, but I had to come to visit you.”

“Well boo fucking hoo to you. Aren’t I so privileged?”

They sat there in silence as the seconds passed, and then the minutes. Finally William spoke, “What happened to us?”

“I don’t know,” Jamie answered quietly, all of the sarcasm and bitchiness out of her voice, “We used to be so great.”

“We really were. And now we’re so… not great.”

“Can I be blunt?” Jamie asked, looking at him with big blue, heavily made up eyes.

“What’s ever stopped you in the past?”

She blew off the remark, “Listen Will, I don’t want to hurt you, but honestly I’ve been falling out of love with you for quite some time, and now that you’re in here it’s becoming harder and harder to pretend like I want this relationship to work.”

William took a deep breath, realizing suddenly that he felt the same way and he had for a while, “I know what you mean. It’s like I was so used to being with you that I didn’t question it, but now that you say that I know that I feel the same way.”

A slight smile flickered across her lips, “I’m glad we’re on the same page. So now we’re…?”

“Broken up? Yeah, I think its best,” he felt the sudden urge to grab her hand, and when he did they both laughed a little nervously.

There was a knock on the door and Micaela poked her head in, “Will, are you ready for the cooking group?” She noticed Jamie sitting on his bed, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you had company. Well you can just catch the next cooking group.”

“Actually I was just leaving,” Jamie said, pointing to the purse that was already hanging from her shoulder.

“Okay, I’ll just wait in the hall then,” Micaela closed the door behind her as she left the room.

“That was Mary… I mean Micaela. She’s my wi…I mean, my Recreation Therapist. Why did I just say that?”

“Were you about to say she’s you’re wife?”

“Yeah, but I don’t know why, it just slipped out.” His cheeks were red and he bit his bottom lip nervously.

To his surprise Jamie laughed, “Wow, it seems as though you’ve seen us as being broken up for quite some time now.”

“Jamie, it’s not like that,” he felt guilty and he didn’t know why. He had nothing to feel guilty about.

“No, it’s okay,” she touched his cheek gently, “I’ll see you around William. Have fun at your cooking group.” She left the room and spotted Micaela waiting a few feet down the hall, “Your husband’s waiting for you in there,” she smirked and pointed to the door before walking down the hallway.

Confused, Micaela decided to shrug off the comment as she entered the room. “Did you have a nice visit?”

“Yeah it was great,” he smiled up at her, “We broke up.”

*****

“I think Rock Star has a crush on you,” George laughed at Micaela as he walked into the Therapeutic Recreation office that afternoon. He and some of the other therapists had taken to calling William “Rock Star”, much to Micaela’s disapproval. They often did that, calling the patients names such as “Bald Dude” or “Freckled Girl” to avoid feeling close to their patients and being disappointed if they didn’t get better. Micaela liked to take a person-centered approach and took a very deep interest in all of her patients, feeling excited for them when they finally go to leave the facility, and feeling low with them when they didn’t do well. It was why she was one of the most popular therapists: people felt like they could connect with her.

“His name is William, and no he doesn’t.”

“He goes to all of your activities.”

“So does Mrs. Huff.”

“Mrs. Huff is an 82 year old woman who cooked, knit, did arts and crafts, had kids, kept a garden and watched jeopardy all of her adult life. It’s normal for her to want to go to cooking class, Sassy Stitchers, Arts and Crafts, Intergenerational Group, Garden Club and Trivia groups. It’s not normal for him. Normal guys don’t do all of those things.”

“That’s not true. That’s such a stereotype and you know it.”

“I’ll prove it to you. Come with me,” he pulled her out into the corridor and down the hall to William’s room, knocking before entering it, but leaving Micaela in the hall to listen, out of sight.

“Hey Will, just to let you know that I’m going to be running an impromptu knitting group this afternoon. You wanna come man?”

Will looked at him skeptically and made a face, “I don’t think so. Some of my friends are visiting later and I don’t think I’ll be able to make it.”

“Alright, see you later,” George turned and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him. “See?” he asked Micaela.

“His friends are coming, so of course he doesn’t want to come.”

George rolled his eyes. “Okay, watch this;” he opened the door back up and peeked his head in, “Oh, I forgot to tell you, Micaela’s going to be sitting in the group this afternoon with us.”

“What time did you say it was?”

“3:30.”

“I’ll see you at 3:30 then.”

George shut the door and turned to Micaela, an “I told you so” look in his eyes.

“I can’t believe you!”

“I’m sorry, it’s not my fault he likes you.”

“No, I can’t believe you just signed me up to do another group this afternoon. I have to do assessments! I don’t have time to run knitting.”

“Relax and just sit in on the group. I’ll run it and all you have to do is show up. You can sit in the corner and do your notes if you want.”

If looks could kill, George would’ve dropped dead right there.

The Four Things - Chapter One

Everyone who originally read this story: I'm going to post it exactly how it was on the site without making any corrections or anything. I'll probably be updating this story pretty soon, since I reread it and had a million other ideas.

~A

A/N – This story is called The Four Things, it’s about William (gee, who woulda guessed?) Beckett and the usual disclaimer applies. I don’t know William Beckett or any other TAI guys. This story is totally fictional. Also be warned that it has very mature themes (I feel like a movie reviewer).

Thanks for reading and reviewing (if you choose to do so – please do). You guys are always awesome that way.

Chapter One

Here he was again like the night before and the night before that, fingers clinging to her bare skin, and hot, disgusting breath spilling out of his mouth and onto her neck as he panted with excitement. She had tried fighting him off, but it was a useless fight. And then there was the matter of the rent. They hadn’t been able to afford it for the past two months, and this was the only way of repaying him even though she was disgusted. She was disgusted with him and with herself for not fighting him harder. Fear clung to her every thought as she remembered that it was almost time for Walter to come home from work. Working the late shifts in the factory brought him home at almost dawn, and brought in barely any pay.

“Hey,” she breathed, trying to push the heavier man off of her, “You need to leave, my husband will be home soon, and if he finds you here, I don’t even know what will happen.”

“Shut up, bitch,” he pushed her back down onto the mattress and held her down with a group of fat, sweaty fingers.

She shut her eyes, trying to shut what was happening to her out of her mind. It wasn’t working. He was still on top of her and she was still paying the rent with the moves that her hips made, although she actually moved as little as possible during the nightly acts, it was his forceful hands that moved her hips for her.

She tried to think of how it all started and it came to her in flashes with each movement the landlord made. A few months ago when the rent check was short and there was no money in their account, the landlord had come with an eviction notice when her husband was at work. Panicked and not thinking straight, she offered him “whatever she could do to help”, not realizing that it was sexual payment that the sick man had in store for her, and instead thinking that he would probably only want her to do some cleaning around his house, and possibly some cooking and laundry when he called for her the next night. Instead, he took her into his bed and painfully raped her. That night, she cried herself to sleep with her husband lying next to her, feeling too dirty and too ashamed to tell anyone about what had happened. After all, who would believe a woman in a man’s world, which was what it was in 1931? They would blame her and say that she was “asking for it” or at least that’s what she thought in her twisted head.

In between the silence that gripped the night, and the heavy breathing escaping her landlord’s lips, a clicking sound brought her back to the present: the key turned in the lock of the front door and the entrance to the little third floor apartment slammed shut, signifying Walter’s return home from work. She tried with all her might to push the heavy man off of her but failed. He didn’t seem to care if he was caught at all. The only thing that mattered for him was if he came.

The bedroom door opened and in stepped Walter, his long brown hair shimmering in the moonlight that seeped lazily through the open window, and his pale skin seeming to glow white. He took in the sight in front of him with a mixture of anger, betrayal, and surprise: his wife in bed with another man. Always known as a soft, gentle man, and never as harsh or violent, Walter tried to examine the situation without judgment, but the anger got the best of him before he could properly do that. He ran to the bed and pulled the fat man off of his wife, realizing with horror that it was the landlord from the first floor. The landlord with the smirk on his face. Walter wanted nothing more then to wipe that sickening smile off of the man’s lips and at the same time remembered his rifle under the mattress on his side of the bed. He reached in and pulled out the small gun and watched with a sick sense of glee as the man’s face went into a horrific state. “Walter, no!” he could hear his wife scream out to him in the back of his mind, “Put the gun away, honey.” He let out a callous laugh as he thought about the situation: his wife was trying to stop him from killing her lover. He laughed louder as he pulled the trigger and the bullet ripped through the fat man’s heart. Then he turned to his wife, giving her one last angry look before pulling the trigger again.

*****

Micaela woke from her nightmare in a cold sweat. It had been the same thing for over a week now. Every night she dreamt that she was some housewife in the 1930’s who was cheating on her husband with the landlord so that she could pay the rent. And just as her husband discovered her with the landlord and was about to kill her, she woke up panting and sweating. She looked over at her clock and noticed that her alarm was set to go off in a half hour anyway, and decided to get up rather then risk having the dream again.

*****

“You know that dream I told you about? Well I had it again last night,” Micaela said to her best friend Paige as she grabbed a seat in the lunch room putting her tray down in front of her.

“The one with the psycho serial killing husband?” Paige asked, taking a bite into her club sandwich and trying to pretend like she didn’t drop lettuce out of her mouth as she spoke. She had never really been a very coordinated eater, often joking about not having good hand to mouth coordination.

Micaela nodded, “Yeah, it’s really freaking me out, because the same thing happens in it every time.”

“You know they say that you’ll always wake up before you die in a dream, and if you die in the dream, then you’ll die in real life,” Paige picked up a piece of bacon that had fallen out of the bread and onto the plate, and shoved it in her mouth quickly.

“Thanks Paige. That’s an encouraging thought.”

“So what are you ladies talking about?” George, a mutual friend of theirs sat down next to Micaela.

“Death by dream,” Paige answered him, “Mica’s been having a dream that she’s about to get murdered by a jealous husband.”

“Really?” George’s head snapped around to Micaela, “You know they say if you die during a dream that you die in real life. I don’t know how they would prove that because it’s not like anyone’s lived to be like, ‘yeah I was just dreaming about dying when I died’, but it’s some food for thought.”

“Yeah, thanks George. I knew that already,” Micaela sighed popping a French fry into her mouth. She finished her lunch quickly and then headed up to her office to check her email, which was something that she did every day right after lunch, to check for any new admissions. Today the little envelope flashed in the bottom of her screen and she clicked on it, bringing up the new census, and sure enough she had an admission. She looked at her watch, checking to see if she had enough time to do the assessment on her patient, and deciding that she did, she grabbed the paperwork and headed down the hall to his room.

As she walked into room 314 and looked at the tall man sitting in a wheelchair, an immediate surge of recognition hit her. She knew him from somewhere, but she couldn’t place it. “Hi, I’m Micaela,” she said, holding her hand out to him, “I’ll be your Recreation Therapist while you’re here at Maguill Rehab.”

He shook her hand, “My Recreation what?” he asked uncertainly, a response that Micaela was used to.

“Recreation Therapist. That means I’ll be working with you to get better, but instead of doing different exercises and ADL’s, uh activities of daily living,” she specified what ADLs were after seeing the confused look on his face, “like what Physical and Occupational Therapy will be doing, we’re going to have fun and do stuff that you like to do, and attach goals to those things so that you can get better.”

“That sounds pretty cool,” he nodded, “I’m William.”

“Nice to meet you, William. Do you mind if I do a quick assessment about your likes and dislikes?”

He shrugged, “Go for it.”

“Okay, we’ll start off with your diagnoses. I could check your medical chart, but I’m sure you can probably tell me what’s wrong.”

“Yeah, I was in a car crash. My left leg and left arm are both broken in multiple spots. That’s why I’m in this dumb chair. You can’t use crutches when your arm is broken too. And to make it worse, my body is taking super long to recover and my doctor’s worried that if I don’t get help soon, I’ll loose abilities in my hand and foot forever. Hence the rehabilitation. Basically, the whole thing really blows.”

Micaela nodded and took down the notes on the assessment sheet. She asked him some background questions about his occupation, lifestyle, relationships, and religion and found out that he was a musician with lots of close family and friends and a girlfriend who he proudly showed her a picture of (“This is my Jamie. Isn’t she gorgeous?” a huge smile plastered across his face). Now it was time for the fun questions, “So what do you like to do Will?”

“I love music. Playing it, listening to it, writing it. Everything about it,” a serene smile flickered across his face as he said this and she could sense how much music really meant to him.

“Do you play instruments?”

“Yeah, lots of them, but most often I play piano and guitar.”

“Well that’s great; both of those will be good activities to help with getting the motor skills perfected in your hands again.” They continued the assessment and Micaela learned all about William’s interest and helped him develop treatment goals and set up times for therapy sessions. Lastly she posted a calendar on his bulletin board. “This is our activity calendar. I’ve circled the sessions that you should attend based on your goals, but basically you can attend any group that interests you.”

“And what groups do you run?” he looked at her with a smirk that stretched to his eyes.

“Mine are the groups highlighted in orange.”

“Well I guess I’ll see you this afternoon at…” he looked at the calendar, “The Sassy Stitchers? What are the Sassy Stitchers.”

“A knitting and crocheting group that’s mostly just girls sitting around gossiping.”

“Well, maybe I’ll see you then.”

Micaela smiled to herself, not daring to laugh out loud, cause what if William really got off on knitting or crocheting? Making fun of patient’s hobbies was a huge no-no in her business. She said goodbye to Will and headed out the door, meeting a tall blonde who she recognized as Jamie, Will’s girlfriend, from the picture he showed her earlier.

Monday, August 3, 2009

William Solves Differential Equations

A/N: Hey Everyone! This is another part in the "Donuts and Tomato Soup" series about Alexis and William. It goes along with thexxrevolutionx's story "I'm Not In Love" and is connected to a phone conversations Alexis and William have in Chapter 8. Remember, this story is fictional and none of the characters belong to me. Real people belong to themselves and the rest of the characters belong to thexxrevolutionx. Please review if you read.

Much love,
heavyheart21

William Solves Differential Equations

“William?” I sat up in our bed and felt for his sleeping figure, but he wasn’t there. I shook my hair out of the loose ponytail it was in and climbed out of our bunk. The bus was surprisingly quiet considering that curtains on all the guy’s bunks were pulled open, and none of them were there. I was usually one of the first to wake in the morning, so I didn’t quite understand what was going on. “William?” I called out through the bus, but I received no answer.

I made my way to the front of the empty bus, and suddenly I could hear a ton of noise outside. I don’t know how I didn’t notice it before, but someone was blasting music. At first I could make it out, but as I reached for the handle on the door I heard that it was that song that Jesse Bradford’s character wrote for Kirsten Dunst’s character in Bring It On - that “You’re Just What I Need” song. Only half of the lyrics were missing and were filled in with someone singing “dah dah dah’s” instead. Weird. As I opened the door the song changed again. This time it was “Banana Phone” by Raffi.

I looked around and it seemed that everyone on the tour had organized a huge barbeque. There were what seemed like hundreds of people there. I wondered how long I could have been asleep for them to organize this. It must be late in the day. No one would have a barbeque in the morning. But usually during the day everyone was busy and no one had time for things like barbeques. I finally spotted Sisky and decided to ask him what was going on.

“Hey Sisky,” I tapped him on the shoulder, “What’s going on? Who organized this whole thing?”

He turned to face me, but I realized it wasn’t Sisky at all. It was Victoria Asher, but for some reason she was wearing a Sisky wig. “I’M NOT SISKY!” she shouted at me, “EVERYONE KEEPS CALLING ME THAT, BECAUSE OF MY COOL NEW HAIRCUT!” She stalked off through the crowd, leaving me staring after her, more confused then ever.

I turned around again and Andy was standing a few feet away from me. I walked up to him and hugged him, “Thank God I found you. What the hell is going on here?”

“Shh. Don’t interrupt the song, Alexis,” he scolded me. “This is my favorite song.” At that moment, a banana appeared in his hand and he shoved it in his mouth, “Banana!” he shouted and ran in the other direction.

What the hell?

I had to find William, and I couldn’t stand being out in this mess of a party anymore. I ran up to Michael who had just, it seemed, appeared out of thin air, “Chiz, have you seen William?”

He didn’t say anything, but turned and pointed epically to another bus that was a few feet away. I ran over to the bus and flung open the door without even extending the courtesy of knocking to it’s owners. What I found inside was horrific.

The tiny bus was filled with about forty girls. All of them scantily clad, and some were even topless. Some had written on their stomach’s in body paint, “William’s hips don’t lie”. Others had written other key phrases on themselves such as, “The Future Mrs. William Beckett”. I had to fight the urge to gag. Who were these fangirls? Then I spotted him. Sitting in the middle of the large couch, with a blonde perched on each leg, was William, a huge smile plastered on his face.

Rage flared up inside me, and I stomped up the steps of the bus. “WILLIAM EUGENE BECKETT!” I yelled at him, “WHAT IN GOD’S NAME ARE YOU DOING?”

He stared up at me blankly, “what do you mean, Alexis? I’m just hanging out with these people!”

THESE PEOPLE?!” I screeched, “William have you looked at them? You’re surrounded by groupie whores!”

“No they aren’t,” he smiled, “They’re just really nice and invited me to hang out with them on this rad bus. I have no idea who any of them are.”

“Why would you hang out with people if you didn’t know who they were?”

“They needed me to teach them about differential equations,” He answered simply, as if that were something he knew anything about.

“Don’t give me these lame excuses, William,” I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes, because I knew he was lying, and he was cheating on me with all of these girls. I couldn’t remember back to learning about differential equations in math class. How could William?

“It’s not a lame excuse,” he said, and rose from the couch dropping the two blondes onto the floor. This gave me a mild satisfaction at least. He turned to face me, and suddenly he resembled my high school algebra teacher Mr. McCarthy, as he opened up his mouth to explain differential equations to me and the rest of the girls. Once he reached the end of his spiel, he turned to me and said, “Alexis, remember to see me after class today. You haven’t shown up to my class in six years and that is just not acceptable.”

Suddenly I woke from my incredible nightmare, gasping for breath, and covered in a thin layer of balmy sweat. What the hell was that? And where the hell was William? He wasn’t in bed next to me, and I couldn’t hear anyone else in the bus either. I climbed out of the bunk and walked to the front of the bus. Everyone was gone. This was beginning to resemble my nightmare and I didn’t like it. But instead of heading for the door, I reached for my cell phone and held down the speed dial for William’s number.

“Hello?” he answered.

“William? Where are you? Are you okay?” My voice was really loud. Louder then I intended it to be. I was practically screaming.

“Yes, I’m okay. I’m eating breakfast at some little diner.”

“Why didn’t you tell me where you were going?” I demanded.

“Sorry, I didn’t want to wake you.”

“William, do you know who you’re with right now? Like, the people who are at the diner with you?” I asked. I didn’t know why I was asking, but the dream had made me extra paranoid.

“Yes, I know the people I’m with,” he sounded clueless.

“Are you lying to me?” I asked, suspicious of the tone in his voice.

“No, I wouldn’t lie to you,” he answered, and then added, “Why would I go out with a huge bunch of people I don’t know?”

“I don’t know. I’ll talk to you about it later.”

“Okay. I’ll talk to you later.”

Why did he always have to repeat everything I said? I sighed and rolled my eyes, “I love you,” I stated. And I did. Probably too much for my own good.

“Love you too. Bye.”

“Bye, Sweetie.” I hung up the phone and opened the cabinet in search of some cereal.

*****

“You dreamed about me hanging out with a bunch of topless chicks?” William asked, after I had described my dream to him later.

“Yes,” I resigned, embarrassed that I had taken the dream so seriously earlier.

“Aw man! Why can’t I have dreams like that?” he smiled, obviously thinking about dreams filled with topless girls.

“It was really a nightmare, honey. I mean, imagine if you had a dream about walking onto a bus and finding me hanging out there with a bunch of topless girls.”

The statement didn’t have quite the effect I was going for. He smiled even more widely, “SWEET! That would be awesome! Especially if they were sitting in your lap like they were sitting in mine in your dream. Oh, except you would have to have your shirt off too,” he thought about it for a second, “And it would be even hotter if you were making out with one of the girls.”

I rolled my eyes, guys and their lesbian fantasies. “That’s not what I meant,” I said shortly, “okay, try this: imagine dreaming about walking into a bus and finding me with a bunch of really hot guys with their shirts off.”

He made a face, “Ew. Why would I want to dream about that? That would be like you cheating on me! And there would be all those half-naked dudes. I don’t want them in my dreams.”

“Exactly! See? It was a nightmare for me.”

He looked puzzled, “But there were naked girls...” Obviously he was still not getting the concept that I didn’t want to dream about naked girls.

I shook my head, “Whatever. Moving on. How was breakfast?”

“It was fine,” was all he offered.

“Hey Alexis,” Andy got my attention. He’d been sitting in the room through my conversation with William, “What do you think about Jamie?”

“I really like her!” I gushed, “I think she’s super nice and fun to hang out with, Andy. I think you’re really lucky to find a girl like her, who’s smart and witty and friendly.”

“Really?” William asked, aghast.

“Thanks!” Andy said at exactly the same time.

“Not that she’s not lucky to find you too,” I added. I didn’t want him to think I was putting him down, because I wasn’t. I just wanted him to know what a unique girl he’d found, “And why all the surprise from you?” I asked William.

He looked deep in though for a moment, like he was trying to figure out how to put something, “I don’t know. Everyone just seems so obsessed with her. I don’t see what’s so special about her. Like, here, why do you like her?” he asked me as if he were going to take my words and use them as an example.

“Well we went shopping that one time. It was so much fun. And she’s just really nice and fun to party with.”

“But you only hung out with her once, so how would you even know? Yeah, you’ve talked to her, but other then shopping with her, when was the last time you spent some quality time with her?”

I thought about it, “Well, I guess we haven’t spent much time together, but that doesn’t mean I can’t like her.”

William looked doubtful, “Well, I guess. I’m not saying that you have to hate her, but I’m just wondering why everything thinks she’s so wonderful. It’s like she can do no wrong, no matter what she does or how she treats people.”

I just stared at him. This man who a minute ago had been wondering how a dream filled with half-naked women wasn’t a turn-on to me was now spouting all of these well thought-out notions. The way his brain worked was amazing to me, and all I could think to do was kiss him.

He interrupted the kiss a minute later, “Did you say that I turned into your math teacher in your dream?”

“No, I said you resembled him, but you were still you.”

“And I ordered you to see me after class?”

I nodded.

“That’s kinda kinky,” he smiled, “I was pretty lucky in your dream. First all those chicks. Then a school-girl fantasy was about to play out. A guy can‘t get much luckier then that.”

I pursed my lips as Andy howled with laughter and excused himself from the room. That would definitely be the last time I told William about one of my dreams.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Reckless Decadence - Chapter 2

A/N - Thank you to KAZ and Chloe for reading/reviewing on the other website. You guys are awesome. I'm going to try to update again within the next 2 days, but I can't make any definite promises.

Chapter 2

"Lies are wide and black and blue
They hide inside those big brown eyes"
Lies - The Pierces

“YOU HAD SEX WITH HIM?!” Harriet screeched into the phone.

“No. We didn’t have sex. We did other things, but we didn’t have sex.”

“But what about his girlfriend? What’s her name? Fallon?”

The guilt churned Bryn’s stomach and she felt a wave of nausea hit her, “I don’t know. I guess we just drank too much. I don’t really think it was a conscious decision to cheat on his girlfriend. It just kinda happened.”

By this point Mary had completely stopped pretending to organize the papers in front of her and was blatantly staring at Bryn with her mouth gaping open. Bryn glared at her and whispered into the phone, “Harriet, I’ve got to go. I’m at work now, and people are listening to my conversation and judging me. I’ll call you when I get home tonight.”

“Alright. You’d better call me though. I’m dying to know what’s going to happen between you two.”

Bryn hung up the phone and stole a glance at Mary. The woman was sneering at her. She decided just to brush her off and head back to the reference section to finish her work.

*****

William walked into the small apartment he shared with his girlfriend Fallon, to find her sitting on the couch leafing through the pages of a magazine. She looked up and smiled her bright smile at him, and overwhelming guilt ripped through his stomach. “Hi honey,” he kissed her gently on the lips, “Sorry I didn’t come home last night.”

“It’s okay,” Fallon was so surprisingly cool about this kind of stuff, that it made him feel even more guilty, “I figured you were drunk and stayed somewhere. I’d rather have you sleep at someone else’s house then stumble around the city on your own in the middle of the night.”

‘Why is she so good to me?’ William mentally berated himself. ‘Why can’t she be like normal women and just get pissed? It would be so much easier if she would just yell at me.’

“Did you have a good time, though?” she asked.

“Yeah. It was alright,” he lied. He didn’t want to let on that he’d had an amazing time. She might start to ask questions.

“Who all was there?”

“Just Bryn and a friend of hers. Harriet, I think,” the lies kept pouring out. Of course he knew Harriet’s name, but the less interested he seemed in the night, the less suspicious Fallon would be.

“Oh, that must have been fun! How is Bryn doing these days?” Fallon and Bryn had had met on numerous occasions and had always gotten along well, but they had never really developed a friendship. So why was Fallon so curious about her now?

“I don’t know. I guess she’s okay. You know…” He walked into the kitchen to grab a glass of water.

“What was she wearing?” Fallon called from the living room, “She always wears the best clothes.”

‘A black tunic dress just long enough to cover everything that should be covered, with a hot pink belt and pink and black extremely-high heels,’ he said to himself, but instead of saying this aloud, poked his head around the corner to the living room and raised an eyebrow, “Honey, really? How do you expect me to remember that sort of thing? I’m a guy.”

“You have no idea what she was wearing?” Fallon asked skeptically.

“It was some black thing, with some kind of pink thing,” he motioned toward his waist as he said the word “pink thing” and shrugged.

“Okay, okay. I get it. You don’t notice that stuff,” Fallon laughed.

William walked back into the kitchen, opened the cabinet over the sink and pulled out a bottle of aspirin. He opened the bottle extracted three pills and swallowed them. He knew that if he didn’t, he’d have one hell of a stress headache by the end of this day.

*****

“Well, what’s the deal with you guys then?” Harriet asked over the phone late the next afternoon. Bryn had accidentally fallen asleep as soon as she’d gotten home from the library the day before, and this was the first chance she was getting to talk to Harriet since their cut-off conversation the day before.

“What do you mean?” Bryn asked innocently.

“You know what I mean.”

“We were drunk, Harriet. Things happen when people drink too much. It’s not the end of the world.”

“So he’s not telling Fallon?”

“No. And why should he? It’s not like there’s any feelings there. It was a drunken mistake, and we both know it. I like Fallon a lot, and I don’t think there’s any need to hurt her over this one dumb little incident that didn’t mean anything.”

“You can’t possibly tell me that it meant nothing to you, Bryn. I know you used to like him.”

“That was a long time ago,” Bryn thought back to when she and Bill had first met at her first job. She walked into her first day of work at The Gap, and was told to report to Bill for training. Back then she’d had a huge crush on him that she’d disguised, knowing he had a girlfriend, and not wanting to be that crazy girl who crushed on a guy who obviously wasn’t interested in her. Besides, they had become close friends in the few months that they worked there, and often hung out after shifts, and even outside of work. Bill was a good friend and she didn’t want to lose his friendship by confessing that she had a huge crush on him. Eventually he’d left The Gap to record his CD, and they kept in contact, and still remained friends, but after not seeing him every day, her feelings began to fade. Now she just considered him a friend. An extremely good-looking friend, but nothing more.

“But this didn’t bring back any of those old feelings?” Harriet asked.

As she was about to answer, Bryn’s computer emitted a bloop noise, and she looked down at it. Her GMail messenger away message read, “Bored. What’s everyone up to tonight?” and a new message blinked from screen name billbeckett:

“No definite plans, but was thinking about heading out to a local bar near my house. You’re welcome to come if you want.”

“Harriet, can I call you back later?” Bryn asked.

“Sure, but why?”

“Bill just IM’d me about hanging out tonight. I want to see what’s going on and then I’ll call you back later.”

“Seriously? You are so not over him.”

“Shut up. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Whatever, loser,” Harriet hung up her line and Bryn closed her phone and set it down on her bed next to her.

Into the computer she typed, “which bar?

“Conrads. It’s right around the corner from my place.”

“Who’s all going?”

“No one yet. Just me. And possibly you?”

“Can we go somewhere in between? I don’t want to drive a half hour. Especially after drinking.”

“I don’t want to drive either. Why don’t you park here. We’ll walk to the bar and you can crash on the couch at my place.”

‘Oh my God, what is he thinking?’ she screamed inside her head, ‘I can’t go over there if Fallon is there!’Where is Fallon? Isn’t she coming?” she wrote.

“No. She has to get up early in the morning to go to work. Why?”

“So she’s home?”

“Yeah, why?”

“This sounds weird, but I feel awkward going there when she’s home.”

It took a very long minute for him to respond, “Oh… yeah. I can understand that.”

“So lets meet somewhere in between?”

“I don’t want to drive.”

An exasperated sigh escaped Bryn’s lips, “Then why don’t you come here. Same deal. You can sleep on the couch if you’re too tired/drunk to drive.

“I don’t know if that’s such a great idea.”

“Well do you have any others?”

“No. I guess that’s what I’ll do. I’ll stop by at around nine?”

“Sounds good.”

“K. See you then!”

Bryn snapped her computer shut, let out another deep sigh, closed her eyes, and lay back on her bed. This was just getting interesting.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Reckless Decadence - Chapter 1

Author’s Note:
Hello all! This story is called Reckless Decadence after a lyric in The Pink Spider’s song “Modern Swinger”. This story is in no way really related to that song, but I felt that that one particular lyric summed it up quite nicely, especially after realizing that my first choice (The Hardest Thing to Swallow… from Seed) sounded like a bad porn flick, and my second choice (All My Good Intentions… from Rumored Nights) was el lame-o. This is going to be a really long story, and the chapters are probably going to be pretty short, but there will be many of them. It will be written in third person, but with the POV of multiple character’s expressed throughout (unlike, say, Down and Out, which 95% of the time only followed Julia). It is a William fic (if you didn’t know that was coming, either you’re a noob or you’re really silly.)

The nature of this story is going to be somewhat controversial, but please keep an open mind when reading it. I don’t want to give too much away, but to explain a little further, this isn’t a slash or anything like that. I just don’t want anyone to be angry about the main female character’s role in the story. You’ll see why once you start it.

Usual disclaimer applies: I do not know/own TAI or any of the members of the band (I almost wrote character there. I don’t own TAI’s character’s either), or anything/anyone else with a name you recognize. The situations expressed in this story are all fictional. However, Bryn, Harriet, Mary, Fallon, etc, are all my characters.

If you read the story, I would greatly appreciate if you review!

Love,
Heavyheart21 (resorting to old sn for the mere purpose of not wanting people I know to know I write fan fiction. Lol)

Chapter 1

“You gotta help me out
It's all a blur last night”
Waking Up In Vegas – Katy Perry


Join our hands and come along, the day’s about to dawn. You feel it coming on and on, the hours upon you now, it won’t be long. You feel it coming…”, Bryn’s cell phone alarm woke her out of a dead sleep, and it took her a minute, in her darkened surroundings, to remember where she was. Harriet’s apartment didn’t have windows in the living room, and Bryn couldn’t remember where the nearest light was, so she felt her way around the edge of the futon mattress until she found her phone, which was still blasting the Phantom Planet song. It wasn’t until he groaned loudly and covered his face with his pillow that Bryn even remembered that William was sleeping next to her. And in an instant, clouded memories from the night before flashed before her eyes.

“Oh my God,” she moaned, “What did we do?”

“I told you you were going to regret it,” Bill’s muffled voice came from under the pillow.

“You did? I don’t remember that,” Bryn racked her brain.

“It was the last thing I said to you before we fell asleep.”

“I don’t remember that. I remember the other stuff, but not that.”

“Why are we up right now?” he pulled the pillow off of his face, “It’s pitch black outside.”

“You can’t see outside from the living room. There are no windows,” Bryn pointed out to him, “But we’re up because I have to go to work.”

“Oh good, I’m going back to sleep now,” he rolled over.

“No, you can’t. You have to get up too,” Bryn nudged him. She was still laying on her back, too deliriously tired to move.

“Why? I don’t have to work.”

“Yeah, but Harriet’s roommate doesn’t know you, and you only met Harriet last night. You have to leave with me.”

Another muffled groan erupted from the pillow next to her, and in one fluid moment he sat up. “Hand me my boxers?”

*****

Despite the early hour, the sun was bright and the air was already hot, and Bryn knew that it was going to be a typical sweltering July day. “Can we just never talk about this again, and pretend it never happened?” She asked; an awkward beginning of their walk to the train station.

William stared at her for a moment, before nodding his head, “Yeah, of course. Nothing ever happened.”

“Soooo….” Bryn used the filler to stall for time as she thought of something to talk about next. “What are your plans for the rest of the summer?”

“We have a small tour in a few weeks. Fallon may join us if she can get some time off work. It should be pretty fun.”

“Yeah… sounds like fun,” she couldn’t believe how easily he brought his girlfriend’s name into the conversation considering the events of the night before, but figured that maybe he was just excellent at pretending.

William talked about the tour, and Bryn half-listened as they walked the ten minute walk to the station, and upon finally arriving they turned awkwardly to each other.

“Which train?” William asked.

“Hmm?” Bryn still wasn’t completely paying attention, but brought her attention back around to him, “Oh, purple line.”

“I’m red.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah…” he exhaled loudly.

“So, I’ll see you soon, I guess,” she half-smiled.

“Yeah. Bye,” he made a move to hug her - their usual goodbye - but she backed away, and stuck out her hand for him to shake.

He laughed as he shook it, “this isn’t going to be awkward forever, you know.”

She smiled at him, but her insides were screaming, HOW DO YOU KNOW?!

*****

On the train, Bryn was busy trying to put the pieces together. They had started off at Angels and Kings to see a band that she didn’t really care about in the first place, and she remembered later, dancing in a club-like setting at a different building. What she didn’t have any recollection of was how they had gotten there, and then how they had gotten from the club to Harriet’s place, and why William had stayed. He could have easily taken a cab home.

Nearby, another passenger’s phone started ringing with T.I. and Rhianna’s “Live Your Life”, and another flashback popped into Bryn’s head. Dancing, no, not dancing, grinding with Bill at the club to this song. And he had, what? He had kissed her neck? She wasn’t sure if the memory was real or if her mind was playing tricks on her, so she took out her phone and sent a text to Harriet: Call me at work ASAP!

*****

“You’re late,” Bryn’s coworker Mary glared at her as she rushed into the main door of the library in a flurry.

“I took the train. The train was late, therefore I am late. Sorry,” Bryn offered the half-assed apology, not really feeling apologetic at all. Mary was only twenty-two, but had the demeanor of a grouchy ninety-seven year old cat lady.

“You can make up for it during your lunch hour.”

Bryn turned around, putting her purse in a lockable drawer, and rolled her eyes. Mary wasn’t even her boss, but she knew that if she didn’t take the fifteen minutes out of her lunch hour, then Mary would actually turn around and tell her boss, “whatever,” she muttered under her breath.

“Also, the reference section needs to be reorganized. You can do it since you’ve neglected to for the past three weeks.”

Bryn wanted to tell Mary all about what else she would reorganize if she kept giving her orders, but instead stalked off to the reference section to start her work.

A little over an hour passed, and Bryn had barely made any progress in the section. It really was a mess. So when Mary walked up and stood at the end of the long aisle to inform her of a personal phone call at the front desk, Bryn was happy for the break.

She knew where the phone was located at the front desk, but Mary accompanied her anyway, most likely so that she could eaves drop on the conversation Bryn was about to have.

“We aren’t supposed to get personal phone calls, so keep it short,” Mary barked at her as she handed her the phone receiver.

“Hello, Bryn speaking,” she greeted her caller, and glanced over at Mary, who had averted her eyes, but had busied herself with sorting through a stack of papers.

“It’s Harriet.”

Bryn could tell she had just woken up by the huskiness of her voice. “Hey. I hate to have to ask you this, but what exactly happened last night? I don’t remember much of anything past Angels and Kings.” She could feel Mary’s gaze shift to her as she spoke.

“Oh. My. God. Girl, you were so drunk!” Harriet laughed, “Bill was too. You guys were all over each other the entire night, well at least after we got to Visions. You guys were dancing all up on each other and everything. He was even kissing your neck!” She paused to laugh again, “You guys were so fucked up. It was hilarious.”

Bryn groaned, “How did we get back to your place?”

“We walked. You guys held hands. It was very cute. Bill originally said he was walking us home so that the two of us weren’t walking around the city by ourselves at night, trying to make himself seem gentlemanly, I’m sure. But when we got to my house he said he was too drunk to get home by himself - which was true - so I told him to sleep on the futon, and I told you to sleep in my bed with me.”

“But I woke up in the futon.”

“Yeah. You refused to get into my bed. You told me you didn’t want to wake me up in the morning while you were getting ready for work, but I know that you really just wanted to get with Bill.”

“I did not sleep there so that I could ‘get’ with him!” Bryn tried to protest unconvincingly. She knew that that was precisely the reason why she’d wanted to sleep on the futon too.

“How the fuck do you know why you did anything? You don’t even remember!”

“Not true I remember one part pretty vividly.”

“Oh, really?” Harriet asked, “And what exactly do you remember?”

“The getting with him part,” Bryn mumbled and turned away from Mary as she said it, but she could feel her co-worker’s judgmental gaze burning into her back anyway.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

William and the Case of the Little Curly Hairs

A/N – This goes with Chapter 7 of Danielle’s story I’m Not In Love, and explains why Alexis was crying. I was debating on whether I wanted to go for the drama or for the humorous, and the humorous won out of course. There’s no flashback in this, even though that’s kinda become the norm with these little segments. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Normal disclaimer applies.

William and the Case of the Little Curly Hairs

I stood over the sink and rung out the rag that I had just used to scrub the bathroom floor. It was spotless now, and it smelled clean. I took a deep breath in and the chemical smell of Comet wafted lightly through the air, completely superior to the urine and vomit smell that it replaced.

I stepped into the bunk area, inspecting the job I had done to make sure everything was clean. I had folded everyone’s clothes that had littered the floor and had placed them on their beds so that they could put them away, and then I had even made their beds. It was so tiring living with a bunch of guys who really didn’t care about how clean their bus was, and I smiled as I walked up to the front of the bus to make myself some tea.

“Finally,” I said to myself as I inspected the common area for anything I’d missed as I headed over to the cabinet for a mug, “clean at last!”

“Who are you talking to?” Adam asked. He had just walked into the bus followed by the other guys.

“Myself,” I said, a little embarrassed, “I just cleaned.”

“Mmm,” Michael said nodding. He was the only one to even acknowledge that I had said anything.

“I need to change,” Mike said, walking to the bunk area. I watched as he looked quizzically at his made bed and the folded clothes, and then gasped as he picked up the pieces of clothing one by one, unfolding them, deciding that he didn’t want to wear them, and then throwing them on the floor.

“Mmmm-Mike,” I stuttered, pretty pissed at this point, “I just folded those.”

He looked up at me, smiled and said, “Thanks Alexis,” as he walked past me to the door, obviously heading out to get more clothes.

“But…” I stammered pointing at the pile of clothes on the floor next to his bunk, but he was already out the door. I took a deep breath and turned to William, trying to forget what had just happened, “How did the signing go?”

“There were a lot of people there. They all seemed to be fans of the band too!” he smiled thinking about how many fans he had just encountered and I didn’t question his logic. Of course everyone there was a fan of the band. Why would they be at the signing if they weren’t? I let it go. “I’m going to take a shower. I feel pretty gross.” He kissed my forehead before grabbing his towel and heading to the bathroom.

“Hey, are you making tea?” Tony asked me as I finally got the chance to grab my mug out of the cabinet.

“Yeah, do you want some?” I asked, reaching for an extra tea bag for him.

“Sure!” I placed the extra tea bag in a mug, filled them both with water, and stuck them in the microwave. When the time was up, I pulled them out and handed him his mug. He placed it on the counter and reached for the honey, squeezing some into the cup and then dribbling some of the honey onto the countertop before closing it and putting it back.

“Tony!” I exclaimed. He was already half way to the couch.

“What?” he turned back around.

“You dripped honey on the counter,” I pointed.

“Oops!” he scrunched his lips together and shrugged before turning back around and sitting on the couch. I glared at him as I wet a new rag and wiped the spot clean.

Frustrated, I knew that Andy and Michael had headed to the back of the bus and I decided to head back there to get away from the craziness in the front. “Hey Alexis,” Michael said as I opened to flimsy door. They were watching a movie and eating Cheetos. “Come watch the movie with us,” he patted the spot next to him on the couch, “it’s about this dog who gets lost but he learns how to talk so that he can find his way home. It sounds like a real winner.”

I disagreed with his idea of a winning movie, but decided not to voice my opinion and join them anyway. How bad could it possibly be? I watched the screen as a family gave up their search for the lost dog and pulled their car away from their camp site. “That’s bullshit!” Andy yelled at the screen, “what the fuck kind of people would just leave their dog behind on vacation?” I looked at him as he reached into the bag of Cheetos, stuffed some in his mouth, and then wiped his cheesy fingers on the sofa cushion. Scowling, I got up from my seat. I needed to take a walk and get out of this bus.

As I walked back into the bunk area, I noticed that Mike was back. He was standing with his shirt off in the middle of his pile of clothes, “Alexis, have you seen my red shirt?”

“No, Mike,” I gritted my teeth.

“Are you sure you didn’t give it to someone else when you were folding our clothes?” he reached over to Adam’s bunk and started rifling through the pile of clothes, accidentally dumping them on the floor, and when realizing that the shirt wasn’t in Sisky pile, started to search through Michael’s without picking Sisky’s clothes up.

“WHAT THE FUCK!?” The phrase started out as a low growl in my throat and then graduated into a high-pitched scream that resonating the entire length of the bus.

The bathroom door opened and William pulled me inside and closed the door again. He was wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around his lower half. “What’s the matter, Lexi?” he kissed my neck as he spoke the words and I smiled, feeling the frustration leave my body.

“It’s just that I cleaned all day today, and everything was perfect and it’s already a mess.”

“You cleaned today?” he asked, looking at me in wonder.

“Yes, I said it earlier when you guys first came on the bus,” I pointed out.

“Oh yeah, I remember something about that. I didn’t know that you really cleaned. I thought that was like a metaphor.”

I looked at him confused, “What? What could that possibly be a metaphor for?”

He shrugged, “Does it matter?” he kissed my neck again making me swoon and have to steady myself against the door.

“No, I guess not,” I muttered, pressing my lips against his.

He turned us around, most likely so that he could lift me onto the sink, when I felt my rubber flip flop splash against the wet floor. I broke the kiss and looked down at the floor for the first time since entering the bathroom. A huge puddle extended out of the shower and across the bathroom floor. My eyes wandered up to the shower stall and I gasped in disgust, “William, you’re hair is all over the side of the shower stall. I just cleaned this.”

“That’s not all my hair,” he protested, “My hair is the long, straight brown ones, not the short and curly ones.”

“I just washed this,” I said through clenched teeth, “It’s all yours.”

“Impossible,” he griped.

I raised one eyebrow and looked down at the part of his body that was covered in the towel, hoping to make my point, before pointing between the shower stall and the puddle on the floor, “clean this up,” I practically barked at him on my way out the door.

As I passed through the kitchenette on my way out the door, I took in the sight of Jack sitting at the little table eating a sandwich, the makings still left on the counter. I shook my head as I quickened my pace and propelled myself out the door. I couldn’t stop the tears of frustration as they welled up in my eyes, and I sat down on the bed of green grass and covered my face with my hands, trying to get myself under control.

After a little while I heard Tony, Jack and Mike leave the bus together, “What’s up with her?” Tony whispered obviously talking about me.

“I don’t know. Girls are weird. They just cry like that sometimes,” Mike whispered in response as they walked away.

A moment later the door to the bus opened again and William stepped out, wearing actual clothes this time, “I cleaned up the bathroom,” he smiled, reaching his hand out to me. I took it and let him pull me to my feet, “Including my hair, and that other person’s hair.” For some reason, this made me cry harder, and Will pulled me into a tight hug, “Shh,” he cooed, “It’s okay. We’ll find out who that hair belongs to, I promise.”

“Alexis, what’s wrong?” A woman’s voice asked and I looked up to see Jamie.

“Nothing,” I said, rubbing my eyes and wishing I wasn’t crying. Now that I was outside of the bus, the entire thing seemed stupid, “Everything is fine.”

“Are you sure?” she asked, and I nodded before she walked into the bus.

“That’s my girl,” Will whispered as my tears stopped completely, and he pushed a strand of hair behind my ear. “I hate to see you cry, especially over something as stupid as not know whose hair is on the bathroom wall.”

I laughed and shook my head, briefly wondering how he made it through life so cluelessly. “Come on,” I kissed him lightly, “let’s go to bed early tonight.” I pulled him inside with a smirk, glad to have all my frustration about the cleaning over with… just in time to see Sisky spill his tea all over the floor.

The Great Sea of Arizona (Alexis story #3)

This is part three of a spin-off of thexxrevolutionx's story I'm Not In Love. This is written in the POV of Alexis, who in the story is William's gf, and each section is based on a scene in I'm Not In Love. Usual disclaimer applies. I do not know or own any of these characters. Not even Alexis. She belongs to Danielle. Enjoy!

The Great Sea of Arizona

The heat of the morning pressing down on my skin caused me to wake. The sheet and thin blanket felt as if they weighed a hundred pounds and held in a thousand degrees of heat. I stretched, and kicked them off of my body to cool down. As I opened my eyes, I noticed that William wasn’t lying next to me. Usually I was the first to wake, as he usually woke me up with his kicking or talking. I wondered where he could possibly be, and climbed out of the bunk to find him.

I walked to the front of the bus to see Jamie and Andy exchanging goodbyes, but Will was nowhere to be found, “Have you guys seen William?” I yawned.

“You’ve misplaced our front man?” Andy asked, confusing me.

It wasn’t like I’d lost him somewhere along the way, he’d lost himself. I was just about to point that out to Andy before it dawned on me that he was joking. I really was tired. “I guess I have,” I laughed, “he’s never up this early and the bunk is empty.”

“I haven’t seen him, sorry,” Jamie said, waving goodbye and heading out of the bus. Something must’ve caught her off guard because she left the door open and I heard William’s voice saying good morning and asking her to join him. Join him where?

They continued their conversation for a moment and I stopped paying attention, at least the mystery of where he was had been solved. Then I heard him mention the word ‘ocean’ and it caught my attention again.

“Uh, Bill, what are you talking about?” Jamie asked him.

“The ocean. You know… the ocean.” I couldn’t take listening to him anymore. We were in Arizona for crying out loud. Granted, he probably didn’t know that, but what was he thinking?

I walked down the stairs and stood outside of the door to the bus. Will was sitting in a lawn chair with another chair set up next to him. He was wearing an old pair of shorts and aviator glasses, and no shirt. I could smell the sunscreen radiating off of him. “Will, did I just hear you saying that we’re near the ocean? We’re in Arizona, there is no ocean here.”

“But…” he frowned and pointed to the black parking lot that surrounded us. I knew that he was thinking he saw the ocean from the heat waves that radiated off of the surface, but his illogical thinking and my first-thing-in-the-morning bad mood mixed with the unbearable heat to make me more annoyed.

“No, William. No.”

Jamie started walking away and Will stared after her for a second before turning back to me, “How do you know it’s not the ocean, Alexis?”

I rolled my eyes, “Because there is no ocean in Arizona, Will. It’s a landlocked state, and it’s a dessert. How would there be an ocean here? Look around you William,” I gestured across the parking lot, “There’s no sand! There’s no waves! Why can’t you just actually think about things for once?”

“What is that supposed to mean?” he stood and faced me.

“It means why do you always have to say the most idiotic things? If you took a second to think things out, you would know that half of what you think is happening, is really something else.”

“Are you calling me stupid?” he questioned, suddenly looking even more hurt, and a little angry.

I really didn’t want to hurt his feelings, I just wanted him to wake up, “No, I didn’t say that,” I reached out and grabbed his arm.

“Well that’s what it sounds like to me,” he retorted pulling away. A crowd was starting to gather around us. Members of other bands had exited their buses and were being drawn in to our conversation by our raised voices.

“Come on,” I took his arm again, “Let’s go back on the bus,” I led the way up the stairs and Will pulled the door closed behind us. The first thing I noticed was that all of the guys were now up, and sitting around the little dining table. From the looks on their faces, they had overheard our conversation outside.

“I think I’m supposed to meet up with Gabe this morning,” Mike rose from his seat, obviously trying to avoid being in the middle of our argument.

“I think I’m supposed to go with you?” Sisky gripped for an excuse to leave as well.

“Me too!” Michael tagged along behind them.

“Awkward,” Andy sang under his breath as he took up the rear of the line of guys exiting the bus.

William sat down on the sofa, and I sat down next to him, taking his hand. “Sometimes I feel like you don’t have any faith in me,” he whispered, his eyes studying the sofa cushion so that he didn’t have to look at me.

Suddenly I felt awful and I needed to rectify the situation, “William, of course I don’t feel that way. Of course I have faith in you,” I ran my fingers up and down his arm and he shivered, “I think the world of you. You’re an amazing musician and you write beautiful songs, you have a wonderful, loving personality. I love you. Of course I have faith in you,” I kissed his cheek softly.

“Sometimes I think you think I’m dumb, and then you get angry at me,” he said softly, sounding almost like a little boy.

I frowned, “I don’t think you’re dumb. I think you’re very smart,” I kissed his cheek again, “Just sometimes you’re very naïve and I worry about you.”

“You worry about me?” he turned to me and a hint of a smile danced on the corners of his lips.

I nodded, “Because I love you.”

“I love you too,” he smiled wide this time, but I still felt uneasy and awful about what I’d said to him earlier.

“I’m so sorry about what I said a few minutes ago. I was just feeling grumpy.”

His smile widened even more, “Well I’m sorry for thinking we were near the ocean. I really didn’t know we were in Arizona, and those heat waves are just so convincing.”

“I know, Sweetie,” I kissed his nose, and he pulled me onto his lap.

“I love you, Lexi,” he whispered as his fingers brushed against the spaghetti strap of my pajama shirt causing it to fall down off my shoulder, “Sexy Lexi,” he used his nickname for me as he leaned in to kiss me.

The kiss soon turned into a heated make out session. We were lying on the sofa and I was straddling his hips, when the movement of his hand on my neck caused a little popping sound and the chain necklace that I was wearing slipped off. “Oh shoot,” I broke the kiss, “my necklace just broke.”

“Your necklace came off your neck,” William said almost at the same time.

I looked at his chest and the place next to him on the sofa. The necklace wasn’t there, “I really need to find it. It’s really special to me.”

“It’s your special necklace,” Will agreed, “From your grandma.”

I nodded.

She lay on her bed, homemade quilt pulled up to her neck. She was in her own home, but it felt like an alien land with all of the machinery that sat around her bed. I sat next to her holding her hand. I was the only family here. My mother was gallivanting in Europe with her latest boyfriend and couldn’t be reached. She had no idea of the condition her mother was in. My older sister was attending college in Florida and she couldn’t possibly pay to fly up to Illinois on a student income. I was the only one here to take care of my grandmother in her sickened state, and that involved cooking, housework, helping her take her meds, and sleeping in the chair next to her bed every night for the past week. Even though she insisted, I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her alone even if my room was just down the hall. I wanted to be with her as much as possible.

“’An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger…’” I was reading to her from one of our favorite books, Pride and Prejudice, but she interrupted one of my favorite Mr. Bennett parts.

“Alexis, I have something for you,” her hoarse voice was almost a whisper, “It’s in the top drawer of my nightstand.”

I looked at her curiously and place the book down on the side of her bed, reaching over to the nightstand. I pulled open the drawer and looked at the inside contents: a bookmark, a pair of tweezers, a nail clipper, a tube of Tangee lipstick, a magnifying mirror, and a little white jewelry box. I held up the jewelry box, thinking that she probably wasn’t about to hand over her used lipstick or old tweezers. She nodded and I proceeded to open the box. Inside was her antique sapphire necklace that she’d received as a gift from my grandfather on their one year wedding anniversary. She used to wear it with everything. I took the necklace in, it had a delicate gold chain and the sapphire was the brightest blue, with a decorated gold setting. I knew it was her favorite piece of jewelry, and the thought of it brought tears to my eyes, “I can’t accept this, grandma,” I choked.

“Yes you can. I want to give it to you,” her voice was stern even in all its frailty.

“But it’s your favorite,” I protested, knowing clearly what it meant that she was giving me her favorite piece of jewelry. She knew that she didn’t have much time left.

“It’s yours now. I want you to have it. Besides, who else would I give it to? You’re the only other September birthday I know.”

I gave in and nodded, silent tears streaming down my face.

“Try it on,” she suggested, and I did as I was told. It was the perfect length and she smiled as much as she could through her pain, “You’re beautiful. It’s about time that necklace made it back to someone young and beautiful.”

“Grandma – “ I didn’t really know what I wanted to say, but I knew that I didn’t want her to die, and I knew that it was inevitable.

“I know, Alexis. I love you.”

I kissed her cheek and then her forehead, “I love you too.”

“Now continue reading the story. I love this part with Mr. Bennet and Lizzie,” she demanded.

“Okay,” I sniffled before picking up the book again and continuing to read, “"An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do…’”

“Will sit up for a sec,” I demanded. I was still straddling him, but he sat up and I searched the cushions behind him to no avail, “I don’t know where the hell it is.”

“Maybe on the floor?” Will leaned over, putting one hand on the floor and searched around for it. I stuck my hands in between the couch cushions, thinking that maybe it had fallen in between them somehow. As I ran my hand from the front of the sofa to the back, I shifted myself so that my leg wrapped around Will’s torso to steady myself, and leaned back away from him a bit. At the same time, he decided to search further away on the floor and leaned into me as I leaned away.

Suddenly the door burst open and Michael ran up the steps. Taking in the sight in front of him he chuckled to himself before averting his eyes and proceeding to the back area of the bus.

“We’re just looking for my necklace,” I said.

“Is that what they’re calling it these days?” he asked still laughing. Apparently he’d found what he was looking for and had exited the bus before I could say anything else.

“I think he thought we were getting it on,” Will said looking very proud of himself. He, no doubt, was hoping that’s what Michael was thinking.

I rolled my eyes, boys.

“I found it,” he pulled it from the floor, “I don’t know how it got all the way down here though. Oh, look, the chain is broken.”

He was right. As I took the necklace from his hand I saw that the chain had split about two inches from the clasp. I was so disappointed. It was the original chain, “Aw, shit. I’m not going to be able to fix this.” I felt the tears of frustration and remorse building in my eyes.

“It’s okay,” William wiped a tear from my cheek with his thumb, “When we get back home we can get a new chain for it.”

“I know,” I sniffled, “It’s just not going to be the same without the original chain. Maybe I’ll do something else with the sapphire. I guess that’s the most important part anyway.”

Will nodded looking momentarily distracted, “Well sure, whatever you want to do. You should keep it somewhere safe though. This tour is crazy, and you don’t want anything to happen to it. I can hold onto it if you want,” he suggested.

“Okay,” I handed it to him and he went to the back of the bunk to put it with his stuff. When he came back he was smiling.

“Where did we leave off?” he joined me again on the couch.