When You're Around

The night was filled with drinking massive amounts of crazy concoctions of alcohol and fruit drink or ice cream. And by massive amounts I mean at least two bottles of tequila and Kailua were gone. So many drinks without eating in between could only led to colorfully cold vomit. Thankfully for me the vomit never came because I passed out wearing some dress Walt made but when I woke up I was only in my bra and underwear with a giant shaking my bed yelling earthquake. Instinctively I pulled the covered over my head and turned towards the middle of my bed ignoring the unknown pest in my room.

“Lou its time for you to wake up,” the voice says as a massive frame plopped on the bed next to me. I didn’t respond just kept my eyes closed. Then the person went under the covers and began lightly grazing my eye lashes.
“Its sleepy time,” I say grabbing the person’s wrist and pinned it to the bed lazily.
“You need to get up and entertain me,” he states.
“What?” I counter opening my eyes to see Kellan was the one bothering me.
“They practically pounced on each other now I must awkwardly wait for them to finish.”

Sure enough I heard the head board hitting against the wall of Belle’s room as well as muffled moans.
“You woke me up to hear that?”
“There’s nothing to do,” Kellan responds. I shook my head disapprovingly and grabbed the remote from my bedside then turned on the music.
“Enjoy the music and let it lull you to sleep,” I state as I snuggled into my blankets once again. It wasn’t long before I fell back asleep, my reasons for my drowsiness were pretty logical. I had an incredibly unhealthy sleep cycle. That was the problem with me, I spent nights up all night writing stories and completing deadlines after drinking far too many caffeinated drinks. Sleep was nice and I found myself keeping warm as well as comfortable; it was lovely until the sound of Rob’s voice broke my pleasant slumber.

“Lou,” Rob growls obviously irritated. A grunt next to me and a pair of muscular arms draped across me signified Kellan had gone to sleep. I got up immediately looking around in a confused manner the song “A Horse With No Name” was playing melodically on the speakers.
“Why is everyone bugging me when I am sleeping today?” I manage to ask rubbing the sleep from my eyes. My eyes adjusted and I saw Rob standing there fuming with Til right next to him looking naturally handsome as always.
“Did you sleep with him?” Rob demands.
“What’s the problem here?” Johnny inquires entering the room to see Rob looking pissed off.
“The problem is that your little sister turned into some groupie whore ever since she got into this town!”
“What are you talking about, Lou is too lazy to be a groupie,” Johnny states.
“This is true,” I add with a yawn.
“You better tell the truth Lou, before I do, I won’t stand here and let you ruin your life,” Rob rants.
“I’m mildly tempted to quote A Few Good Men,” I respond.
“You don’t take anything seriously.”
“Dude what’s your problem?” Johnny questions looking at the very crazed Rob. I looked at him long and hard, I hoped he wasn’t going to blow the top off of the whole short lived fling he and I had.
“Lou and I were together and now I find out she did a porno,” Rob finally says making me look at him.
“Well how else is a girl supposed to pay for a new transmission in her mustang?” I say sarcastically.
“Have you no shame, selling your body for money?” Rob questions incredulously.
“You fucked my little sister?” Johnny demands glaring at Rob fiercely with his fists clenched.
“On occasion,” he answers.

The little bastard told my brother of our fling then threw in some retarded bullshit lie. It was sort of like shooting a gun without any hearing protection and now there was a loud ringing in my ears. Everything seemed to play out in slow motion as Johnny’s fist collided with Rob’s nose then him leaving out of the room giving me a look of disgust. I got out of bed and went to my desk to grab the recent photo of Tatum Cummings the porn star that had some remarkable similarities to my facial structure. I also grabbed a small towel and went over to Rob who stared at me shocked that Johnny hit him. My music switched to Carole King’s song Its Too Late and it caused me to let out an ironic laugh as I put the towel to Rob’s bleeding nose.

“You are one dumb son of a bitch Rob, you really do need to get your facts straight, do you want to know who this lovely lady in the picture with me is?” I question holding up the picture. Rob’s eyes went wide.
“Meet Tatum Cummings, my porn star look alike, notice the differences? Maybe the blonde hair, blue eyes, fake breasts, and nearly 6 foot tall tan frame might help you out,” I continue.
“I-I thought-” he stutters but I cut him off.
“You thought wrong, you always have, you stupidity and insecurity was the reason we never lasted, don’t go blaming me for your martial problems when we’ve been over for nearly 2 years, now you go fix the problem you caused and for once own up to your fuck ups.”
Rob averted his attention looking ashamed and let out a sigh.

“So I fucked up,” he drawls on.
“Yeah I would say so, now seriously get the fuck to cleaning the mess, I’m pretty irritated with you at the moment and I consumed so much tequila last night that I swear my sweat glands are releasing tequila droplets as we speak,” I say placing my hand on his broken nose and straightened it with a loud crack making Rob moan in pain. I stood there like a parent and pointed to the door with one hand while the other rested on my hip. Rob bowed his head like a dog that just shit on the floor and left the room.

“Whoa Lou are you about to be gangbanged?” Walt questions coming in the room with a big smile.
“Nah,” I laugh pulling on a nearby gray jersey dress.
“Well I’ve gotta head to school so see ya later,” he says hugging me and lifting me in the air causing me to let out a squeak.
“Ah,” I squeak.
“You smell like tequila and a tropical vacation,” Walt comments with a laugh.
“I think my body is detoxifying the tequila through my sweat glands,” I reply to which Walt licked the inside of my forearm.
“This is fantastic; you’re like one of those frogs you can get high from except you get drunk,” Walt says excitedly.
“Oh how I love it when you compare me to toxic amphibians, it’s what every woman loves to hear from her gay counterpart,” I rebuttal sarcastically.
“Darling it is the highest of compliments, now I must take my leave, good seeing you Emmett, Hugo,” he says looking at Kellan and Til. I gave a little chuckle as Walt left the room and I grabbed a glass bottle of water from my desk to drink. Once I took a big gulp, I knew it was not water. It was vodka; I had a hard time swallowing the large amount of room temperature vodka but managed to do so while making a displeased face.
“Are you alright?” Til inquires obviously concerned with the facial expression I just made.
“Yeah, just not exactly the beverage I was hoping for,” I say with a cough.
“Vodka?” Kellan counters knowingly.
“Worse than regular vodka, lukewarm vodka, but hey it’ll kill any bacteria swarming about in my mouth,” I laugh.
“Is this a bad time?” Til asks somewhat awkwardly.
“Its alright, I’m sorry about all that, I’ll never fully understand the enigma that is my life, usually its very boring but when it gets crazy well then it likes to embody that insanity, small bursts of ridiculousness and absurdity that I will always have to sort out, damn it I’m rambling again,” I rant running a hand through my tangled hair. I felt a little embarrassed with the drama that had occurred especially with people I’ve only just met not too long ago present in the room.

“Lou why is Rob moping in the living room like you killed his puppy,” Belle inquires poking her head into my room.
“I’ll explain later,” I say to Belle then turned to Til, “Did you want to go somewhere?”
“That was the plan,” Til nods as I put on a pair of brown cowboy boots and oversized jersey fabric vest with a rustic straw fedora that had a brown ribbon around it.
“Fuck Rob told Johnny didn’t he?” Belle says looking at me.
“Most straight roads lead to cluster fucks eventually so it was bound to happen one of these days,” I shrug.
“To this day, you’re strangely sunny disposition never ceases to amaze me.”
“You call it sunny I call it rip current theory,” I smile.
“What’s that theory entail?” Kellan asks.
“Anyone will tell you to never swim against the rip current, you’ll over exert yourself and drown, just tread water and float on relaxing then go parallel to the shore eventually you’ll get back on course,” I inform diligently as I grabbed my purse and threw my phone in it as well as my script for later on.
“That’s a good code to live by,” Til comments.
“Keeps me out of too much trouble,” I smile at him.
“I’ll see you later then Lou, have fun,” Belle smiles mischievously at me.
“Will do darling,” I reply grabbing my keys, “Later beefcake.”
“Bye Lou,” Kellan smiles with his adorably dimpled face. Damn he was like an overgrown Gerber baby, except he was eye rape worthy. Fuck that sounded molester status. Til followed me out of the house and I kept my eyes focused on the prize avoiding Rob’s eyes at all costs. Once out of the house I turned to Til twirling my keys on my index finger.

“Mind if we take my car this time?” I ask.
“I don’t mind at all,” Til answers looking at my mustang coupe with obvious curiosity. We got into my car and I saw Til just taking it all in obviously entertained with the fact I kept most of it true to the era including the radio/cassette player and the shoe box sized holder on the ground that held all my cassette tapes.
“Yeah, I like to keep it original as you can see,” I chuckle whilst I started the vehicle making it rumble loudly, “Feel free to pick a tape any tape.”
“I’ve never seen any one use these in a long time,” Til chuckles as he picked up the box of cassettes.
“Someone’s got to, they still exist why let good music go to waste because the technology it’s stored on is out of date, that’s just terrible.”
“Very true.”
“Hey maybe if you pick out some good music, I’ll let you drive on the way back,” I comment with a smile as I drove out of the apartment complex.
“Sounds like a deal,” Til says.

I started driving through LA with no specific place in mind just somewhere low key and fun with good food. As my thoughts focused on the road ahead of me and where to go, my phone began ringing signifying that it was Martin.

“Hey Til you mind getting that for me its Martin, tell him I’m driving and I’ll call him later,” I say as I turned onto a familiar street.
“Alright,” he answers as he ruffled in my bag for my phone. On the third ring Till picked up and began talking to Martin telling him what I said to say. A few minutes passed and Til hung up.
“What’d he say?” I inquire.
“He said tomorrow you’ve got to pick out your new personal assistant,” Til replies.
“Personal assistant? Huh, I wasn’t aware I was getting one, damn, I must be off my game if I need one already,” I laugh.
“Maybe it’ll be good so you don’t stress yourself out and help remind you of things to do,” he counters sincerely.
“I don’t get anything done if I weren’t stressed out, it’s the procrastinator’s bread and butter.”
“You have a really interesting way of thinking,” Til states.
“I’ll hope that is a compliment,” I respond as I pulled into a parking spot.
“Don’t worry it is,” he smiles then looked around curiously, “so where are we?”
“Somewhere you won’t be bothered unless that is you were in some sort of novella,” I answer with a smile.
“I don’t think I have, what’s that?” Til replies.
“A Spanish soap opera,” I chuckle lightly.
“I haven’t gone the soap opera route in my career yet.”
“Good way to build up an intense fan base of women,” I state pointedly.
“I’ll try to remember that,” he smiles brilliantly looking at me with his lovely blue green eyes. Ugh perhaps going out alone with him again was a poor choice, he is too damn sexy for his own good. I must control this carnal need to make out with him for he is a co worker, just remember that Lou, Til is a co worker, no fucking around that’s a bad idea. Oh his eyes are pretty.