You're My Favourite Sound

I was in a considerable less amount of pain as I reached the apartment, thanks to the aspirin Frank had given me. As I stepped up to the front door, I could hear the phone ringing on the other side of it, so I quickly dug into my purse for the keys.

"Shit, come on," I murmured under my breath as I rumaged through, before grabbing the three silver keys I had on the silver ring, but they made a crash as the metal hit the floor after slipping from my fingers. "Fucking things!"

I continued to curse as I finally managed to get through the door, push it closed behind me, run down the hall, drop my purse on the sofa in the living room, and lastly, pick up the annoyingly ringing phone. "Hello?" I called almost breathlessly.

"Hey gorgeous, been running the marathon again?"

"No, just getting ready for the Olympics," I answered Joshi's sarcasm.

"Ah, of course," he replied. "So Frank got you home okay then?"

"I just got in," I said, walking with the cordless phone to the bedroom to kick off my heels, "I stayed at his last night."

"Oh, cool... Wait, nothing happened, did it?"

I tutted, "Dude!"

"Alright, alright, just checking... 'cause sometimes things happen, I mean, when you have that much alcohol in your system you tend to do stupid things, very very stupid things that you don't mean, you know? It's just a spur of the moment stupid thing that just happens out of your control, you know? I mean-"

"Okay, let me just stop you there," I cut in, going to the kitchen to grab something to eat. "Nothing happened, so don't go giving me the lecture, okay?"

"I'm not talking about you and Frank..." His voice was suddenly quiet.

"Uh oh, has Joshi been bad?" I smirked as I opened the refridgerator.

"It's not good," he sighed.

"Aw, has Joshi been a bad boy?" I continued, highly amused, "Has he been naughty?"

"This is serious, October-"

"Does he need mommy to bend him over and give him a-"

"October, come on! It's not funny!"

I chuckled and scanned the shelves of the fridge in front of me. "Sorry. So come on, what have you done? Spill the beans."

He sighed into my ear and it sounded extremely disgruntled. "I-I..." he stuttered hesitantly, and then it was silent.

"Joshi?" I called. I got nothing in reply and slowly frowned. "Joshi, come on, what is it?" It continued to stay silent as I picked up a glass jar of pasta sauce. Man, it really must be serious.

But then a small voice finally spoke up on the other end, "Hazel and I slept together last night."

SMASH!

The jar was now on the floor in pieces, pasta sauce everywhere.

"October? October, what was that? Are you okay?" I heard Joshi's cries in my ear, but it didn't register with me that I should answer them. "Hey, are you there? What's going on?"

My mind remained blank and I couldn't remember what my focus was on... And then... I burst into laughter.

Joshi sighed as he waited for my fit to subside, and when it gradually did, I asked, "Does this mean you're bi?"

"No, no! We were drunk a-and stupid, it was a one time thing. I don't know what to do, October, I don't even know how she's feeling about this. We just woke up and it was so awkward, I mean, Hazel and I have never in our lives had an awkward situation between us. Ever."

"Okay, okay, listen," I started, breathing normally again as I noted that he was now panicking, "Where are you now?"

"At work, we couldn't even talk about it this morning, I had to go."

"So you left Hazel at home?"

"Yeah," he answered.

"Okay, well I have to shower and... clean up pasta sauce," I added, glancing down at the floor, "But then I'll go over and talk to her, alright?"

"Okay," Joshi breathed, "Okay, thanks."

Around an hour later, I found myself parking a couple blocks away from Joshi and Hazel's place because their parking lot was full. So I made my way down the street towards their building, feeling much more refreshed now in a pair of comfy black pants with my yellow hoodie and Converse. My hair was tied back with a few shorter strands falling in my face and my make up was light.

I was dazed in my own thoughts for a while, drowning out the noises of traffic and people's voices clustered together, but one voice suddenly got my attention as they called out my name. I realised it was coming from ahead of me and looked up to spot Jamia stepping up towards me with that nice smile of hers.

"Hey!" I smiled back, stopping in the middle of the sidewalk with her. A man tutted loudly as he had to stop suddenly behind me to walk around us, but the two of us just looked at each other and sniggered.

"How are you doing? Are you okay?" she asked.

I had had both these questions asked to me I don't know how many times since the Derek incident, and it was starting to bug me, but I'd let her off as we hadn't seen each other since it happened.

"I'm good, coping," I nodded with the same smile I gave everyone else. "What are you up to? Frank told me you were staying with an old friend or something..."

"Yeah, they live around here," she grinned, tucking her black hair behind one ear, "We knew each other at school. Very old friends."

"Aw, that's cool. So Frank didn't go as it's strictly school friends only, huh?" I said with a smirk.

"No, he was invited," replied Jamia as her face dropped a little, "He just wanted to spend a couple days to himself... He's been pretty distant recently, since we came to LA..." I noticed her sudden change of mood, and frowned.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Have you ever felt like someone was looking through you?" she said then.

"Like, X-Ray vision?" I questioned, utterly lost in the conversation.

"No, like, like they aren't looking at you, they're looking past you, like you aren't even there," Jamia added. I arched an eyebrow, trying to put her statements together and understand what she was talking about. "You know what, it doesn't matter," she said finally, exhaling loudly with a shake of the head.

"No, hey," I pressed further. "Come on, you can talk to me."

"I just," Jamia began, "I feel like sometimes Frank doesn't really notice me anymore. Like, like I'm not even there, like I'm invisible."

My left foot took half a step back and my eyebrows were now both raised. This wasn't at all what I was expecting to hear from her.

"Jamia, I'm sure he didn't mean to make you feel that way," I said softly. "He just, he just zones out, that's all."

"Really? Has he not said anything to you?"

I shook my head. "Nothing I can think of. You know, I really dont think he'd tell me anyway," I added with a light chuckle.

"I figured he would," she shrugged, "You know him more than I do. And I probably shouldn't even tell you this, but I'm pretty much totally intimidated by you."

A small, sharp puff of air escaped my lips. "What? Me?"

"Are you kidding? Frank is so crazy about you, and I really wanted you to like me, and I really feel like I've done something wrong."

"You haven't done anything wrong as far as I'm concerned," I told her honestly. "Infact, I'm pretty sure he's just trying to adjust to the Prozac, it can affect people in different ways-"

"Prozac?" Jamia cut me off.

I stopped and stood there with my mouth open a little, stunned. Had Frank told anyone about his medication?

I sighed, "I think you two really need to talk."

She sighed, too, "He's keeping secrets from me..."

"Jamia, listen, I need to be somewhere, but when you get home, just talk to him and get everything off your chest, okay? I think that would be best right now."

She nodded, "Yeah, I guess. Thanks, October."

"No problem," I half smiled and started on my way again, "I'll see you."

"See you soon, okay?" she called behind me.

"Of course," I replied over my shoulder.

When I finally got to the apartment, Hazel answered the door with a joint in her hand, telling me she needed to make sleeping with Joshi fade away for a while. I didn't complain, and we both went out on the balcony with the lukewarm late January sun beaming its rays down on us. The two of us were laying on a blanket, opposite ways, with our right cheeks almost touching, and sharing a joint between us.

"Who jumped who?"

"I don't remember."

"Was it good?"

"... I don't remember."

"Is there anything you do remember?"

Hazel took a long drag and kept the smoke inside her lungs longer than I would have, before exhaling heavily and passing the joint to me. "I remember cocktails... and laughing... I remember a cab, and laughing some more... We fell on the couch... We were kissing, and laughing... I don't remember..."

"You did it on the couch? Man, that must have been squashy-"

Hazel groaned, "Can we not get into details, please."

I laughed out smoke. "So what are you gonna do?"

"I don't know," the redhead whined. "I mean, what does this mean? This means nothing, doesn't it?"

"Totally," I agreed. "Like Joshi told me, you were drunk, you were stupid, and it was a one time thing. So you can put this little 'one time thing' behind you and move on, right?"

"Yes, totally. We don't really need to talk about it, we can just put it behind us, forget it, move on." I nodded and she sighed. "Right, sorted. Now I have some news."

"You discovered a new position?"

She opened her mouth to say what the news was, but laughed instead as my comment registered with her brain. I laughed, too. "I got a call from work," Hazel began, and took another deep drag. "I'm being transfered to a shop in Hollywood whose in the need of immediate help."

I scrunched up my face, "Hollywood?"

"Yeah, I know, but Kat needs help and my boss recommended me."

"Oh, cool. Wait, Kat? Not as in Kat Von D?" I saw Hazel's lips curve upwards enormously in the corner of my eye and I sat up. "You're being transfered to LA Ink?" I gasped.

"Only for a couple months," she grinned up at me.

"You whore!" I gushed, causing her to laugh.

"Hey, I might even introduce you to her, you know, when we're not busy working together and all."

I hit her arm and she just stuck her tongue out at me, so I jacked the joint and kept it for myself.