When You're Around

After a lovely meal with the men whilst we got to know one another talking like old friends I headed home excited for what was to come. Quentin already started writing the screen play and wanted me to help modify it to make sure it stays true to the story. I didn’t doubt his abilities to make it even better than my amateur story. Not that I was putting myself down or anything it was just he was more experienced and often wrote masterpieces, well according to my standards anyways.

When I got home I informed Belle of the fantastic news even if she may have been passed out in her bed sleeping peacefully. I didn’t give a fuck I jumped onto her sleeping frame shaking her as I told her what happened. The woman looked like she was about to kill me.

“You are completely unhinged,” Belle states giving me her angry pirate look that she often used when I’ve done something ridiculous.
“Fine I’ll take my chirpy behavior and channel it elsewhere,” I say in a sing song voice as I hopped off the bed and out her room. I channeled my cheerful behavior by baking a three layer chocolate cake with a thick fudge layer between the layers. My plans were to create a Frankenstein cake and I carved into the tall cake to contour the likes of the shape of Doctor Frankenstein’s Monster.

All around cream cheese frosting I had used yellow and blue food dye to make a lovely shade of putrid green. It looked amazing being that I spent time using the cake decorating tools to make droopy eye lids out of left over green cream cheese frosting that I had darkened with more dye. To get the detail of the frown and wrinkles on a real life Frankenstein I used a toothpick to dip in the darkened green frosting and made the spots that way then did the same but dipped it in red to create the fresh cut on the right side of his forehead. For his hair I used a dark chocolate that almost looked black and slicked it on messily for realistic effect.

You see I loved baking cakes; it was something I really enjoyed doing and each time I made one the better I would get at decorating. I was quite enthused when my mom bought me the frosting dispenser to decorate the cakes with for my birthday that’s how much of a baking nerd that I was. After a few hours of diligent work I was finished and placed it in the refrigerator for later so the frosting would not melt any further then cleaned up my mess.

It was a rather awesome looking cake and I was quite proud of it but I had no clue how the hell I was going to bring myself to cut it. Perhaps Quentin would be so kind as to do it for me since he was going to come over the next day to discuss the script in further description as well as gather the music and movies that I tended to watch while writing the story. When I was washing the baking pans Belle had come out of her comatose and was dipping her hand into the frosting tubs scrapping what was left out of the plastic containers. I myself was stuffed with frosting and cake bits.

“There’s a plate of pieces you can eat that I had cut off the cake on the table,” I state.
“Mmm I love cake bits,” Belle smiles as she took the remainder tubs of frosting to the table and began frosting the pieces of cake then popping them in her mouth.
“I see you went to the grocery store,” I comment.
“Yeah it was a pain in the ass but then it got real good near the end when an attractive guy helped me out,” she grins with chocolate pieces stuck in her teeth.
“Do tell,” I chuckle. She nodded and I listened to her venture to the grocery store that turned to her getting a date with a highly attractive green eyed man that paid for our groceries. I had to think about the name a bit when she told me it was Jackson. It seemed a little familiar but I shrugged it off not remembering a damn thing at the moment and just congratulated her on the upcoming date with mystery boy.
The night persisted and I spent that time catching up with Belle whilst listening to what she had for new songs. It was how we did things, and I’d make little suggestions with the lyrics to help her in the right direction. We were very close like that and I was so very happy she was finally getting the notability that she deserved because she was very talented. For so long her and I traveled all over the place so she could play in dingy clubs whilst I helped promote her. Although we were different, we treated each other as if we were the sisters neither of us had. We had quite the dynamic and without Belle I probably would have never sent in any of my stories to a publisher.

I went to bed nearing four in the morning and passed out sprawled across my unmade bed. When I woke it was nearing one in the afternoon and I got up then showered quickly because Quentin was due to arrive at quarter to three. Slipping into some dark-wash straight leg jeans and a black t-shirt then some worn looking black cowboy boots with wing-like designs along the sides of them I was fully dressed. Doing my hair and makeup in the usual fashion neutral shimmers with bronzer then wild waves for my hair I heard the knock at my front door.

Quentin had arrived a little early but it had not bothered me one bit being that I was already presentable to visitors. Within the next hour and a half I created a care package of films and music for Quentin to listen to. It was awesome because I had a new person to introduce to strange bands and movies. Then I proceeded to tell Quentin of my cake baking fetishes whilst Belle boasted about the monster cake I had created the night before.

“Its so epic looking Quentin, the woman is a baking artist,” Belle says animatedly.
“I have to see this cake,” Quentin states.
“Alright sit there I’ll bring it out,” I instruct with a laugh. I went to the kitchen and got the cake from the refrigerator then started walking back to the dining area.
“Its alive,” I say dramatically once I was turning the corner and Quentin’s eyes lit up like a kid at Christmas.
“That is by far the coolest cake I’ve seen!” he enthuses as I set it on the table.
“Too bad most of her creations are too tall to cut properly,” Belle comments with a chuckle.
“Psh maybe I just like big pieces of cake,” I argue with a smile.
“Do you mind if I take a picture of it on my phone,” Quentin asks.
“By all means sir,” I say formally doing a little hand wave of approval.
“Is this dinner?” Belle inquires excitedly.
“Mhmm, would you like some Mr. Tarantino?” I question.
“How could I pass this cake up,” he counters with a large smile. And with that I got out the plates as well as a knife to cut the massive cake for us to eat. Whilst we ate we exchanged stories but as Belle was telling a story there was a knock at the front door so I agreed to answer it so Belle could finish telling her story to Quentin. My mind was buzzing with thoughts as I went to the front door and opened it. I was quite literally tackled to the ground.
“UHH!” groaned the person. My eyes grew wide as I pushed their grotesque face away from mine that tried to nip at me and struggled to get out of their gripped. I opted to bring my free leg up fast and kick them in the back of the head then brought my fist in one swift motion to clock them on the jaw. Pushing them off me, I got up quickly and grabbed the nearest weapon which happened to be a baseball bat. I was about ready to have an asthma attack. Then I heard the laughter.
“Fuck Lou that really hurt!” the person made to look like a zombie growls from the ground.
“Oh my God that was the best thing I’ve ever witnessed,” my older brother Johnny says coming into the house with some of my other friends while laughing hysterically.
“I’m going to fucking kill you Johnny!” I exclaim.
“What are you the Bear Jew?” Johnny retorts with a laugh looking to my friends to laugh more and I karate chopped him in the neck causing him to gasp for breath.
“Fucking asshole,” I snarl as I kneed him in the balls. My heart felt as though it was going to explode and I was beyond pissed off. They had scared the living shit out of me.
“Holy shit, is that Quentin Tarantino?” Joey one of my friends questions. I turned around to see Quentin who had a surprised look on his face as he looked at the person clutching their head dressed like a zombie then Johnny who was clutching his throat and balls.
“Quentin meet my asshole brother Johnny and some other assholes,” I breathe out trying to get my heart rate back to normal.
“Fuck Lou my face is swollen,” the person I now recognized his voice. It was my brother’s best friend Rob.
“I could care less, fuck face, what’d you expect me to do Robert?” I snap looking at him sternly.
“Dude you’re fucking Quentin Tarantino!” Joey says excitedly.
“Jesus Joey don’t cream your panties,” I retort giving him an annoyed look.
“Lou got you some Captain Morgan’s and a tub of cookies and cream ice cream,” Ian says holding up two bags. Ian was the tallest and lankiest of the group.
“I knew I liked you the best for a reason Ian,” I respond with a soft smile.
“Hey I bought that shit shouldn’t I get credit?” Johnny says finally recovering.
“No,” I state curtly.
“I’m Johnny, Lou’s older brother,” he says introducing himself to Quentin by holding his hand out to shake Quentin’s.
“Quentin,” Quentin replies shaking his hand firmly.
“Uh Lou where do I put the booze and ice cream?” Ian questions.
“Oh right come on this way,” I say snapping my gaze from the exchange occurring between my brother and Quentin. I lead Ian to the kitchen and took the ice cream then put it in the freezer. Grabbing a zip-lock bag I put some ice in it then wrapped it in a dish cloth and then grabbed a glass of water while I walked back into the living room with Ian close behind me. Wordlessly I handed the ice pack to Robert who sat on the arm chair and I sat down on the couch.
“So why are you in town Johnny?” I question.
“Robert here got divorced from Katie and we decided to visit my dear lovely little sister in California,” Johnny answers and I nearly choked on my water. I didn’t know Rob and Katie got divorced, I knew for a fact that was bad news and the fact they were here meant they wanted to crash at my house.
“Who had this idea to come visit me?” I inquire.
“Actually Rob, he’s never been to California and was thinking of moving here, so I thought to myself, who do I know in California?” Johnny replies with a smile.
“You should have called me ahead of time at least,” I mutter.
“What fun is that? When we got to scare you senseless,” he says with a laugh.
“That’s fine you guys can stay here,” I say with a devious smirk.
“Great, we have to go get our bags from the car,” Johnny announces seemingly pleased with himself. Joey, Rob and Johnny all walked out of the house to go grab their bags. Ian stayed assessing my expression.
“Let it be clear the zombie thing was not my idea and I repeatedly told them not to do it, please don’t punish me,” Ian says looking at me.
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” I reply taking a drink of my water.
“Oh and Mr. Tarantino your movies are freaking awesome,” Ian states turning to Quentin.
“Thanks, call me Quentin,” Quentin replies with a light chuckle.
“Quentin this is my good friend Ian,” I introduce the pair. Ian was flustered with Quentin’s presence and was more in awe that he was actually there.
“Good to meet you, I saw one of you were video taping that little incident mind sending it to Lou so that she can send to me?” he asks.
“You guys video taped that?” I inquire embarrassed.
“Joey did, I’ll have him send it to your phone Lou,” Ian admits.
“It was pretty impressive stuff Lou, don’t be embarrassed,” Quentin smiles reassuringly.
“Yeah well Robert was lucky I didn’t do some serious damage to him,” I mutter. The guys came back into the house and Quentin had to get going. Problem I had with this arrangement was that Rob was an ex-boyfriend more or less, and my brother still didn’t know about the thing I had going with Rob. I just hoped he would leave me alone and not make things difficult during their stay.