Remembering Sunday

"Stephie my one true love!" my co-worker and friend Rob yelled as he waltzed in my office.

"Good morning Rob. Have a seat and explain the favor you need," I said not even looking up from the Bring Me the Horizon interview I was typing up.

Rob put on a shocked face and put his right hand over his heart, "Stephie I am appalled that you would even think I would come in here just to ask a favor!"

I looked up at him and started counting on my fingers, "Number one: We both know I can't be your one true love because A: you're gay. B: you're married. And C: you're gay. Number two: you only call me your true love when you want me to do something for you. And last but not least, number three: tonight is your fifth anniversary with Luke and you're scheduled to do an interview. So by my calculation, you want me to do the interview for you so that you can spend time with lover boy. So tell me, which band is it?"

His eyes grew wide as I made all of my assessments, "All Time Low."

This time, my eyes grew wide. "Wait, what was that?"

"All Time Low. I was supposed to go to their concert, write a review about it and then interview them using the questions our readers sent in, along with the questions our staff has for them."

I sat there staring at him for a few seconds, "No."

"What? Why?" Rob whined.

"Because, that is the only band I told Miranda I would never interview, and I won't," I told him.

"But Stephie, you're the best interviewer we have. Please?" he insisted.

I stood up from my chair and put my hands on my desk. "Look, I have a legitimate reason why I don't want to interview them, and it's too painful to tell. So please go ask Miranda to get someone else to do it besides me."

He looked at me with understanding written all over his face, "I'm sorry Steph, I didn't know."

I sighed and sat back down, "It's ok, no one knows except a handful of people."

He got up from his chair and started towards the door. "Ok, I'm off to talk to Miranda about getting someone else. Maybe Stacy can do it."

"Maybe," I said as he walked out of my office.

I looked back at my computer and started working on the BMTH interview again. It took me thirty minutes to finish it, so I went back over it to see if I made any mistakes. Before I could finish the first line, my phone started serenading me with "The Ballad of Big Poppa and Diamond Girl" by: Cobra Starship, alerting me to the fact that the person singing was texting me.

I opened my phone and was greeted with:

Lunch NOW!!!!....... Well at 12:30.

I looked at the clock, which read 9:50. I laughed and texted him back.

Sure! Meet at Tony's?

I set my phone down as soon as the message sent. I began reading the interview again, and I had no sooner read two words when my phone was singing to me again.

Duh! Where else would we meet?

I laughed and texted him that I would be there and went back to the interview.

I had just finished going over the interview when Miranda walked into my office.

"Stephie, I know that All Time Low is the only band you refuse to interview, but I really need you to do this for me," she told me before I could say anything.

"But why do I have to do it? Why can't Stacy or Chloe do it?" I asked.

"Stacy isn't here today, her son is sick, and Chloe, well, you know she'd probably try to sleep with the guys," Miranda told me.

"Then let her!" I yelled, "I can't do the interview! I'll quit if I have to do it!"

Miranda stood there for a second then smirked at me. "We both know you love your job too much to quit. Now look, it's just one interview, and also the main reason I want you to do it is because you're our best interviewer and writer. You may only be eighteen, but you're the best we've ever had. So would you please do this for me? We really need it."

I sighed. "Fine. I don't really want to, but I'll do it."

"Thank you," she said smiling.

She walked out of my office, and I slammed my head on my desk.

Fuck my life...

~*~

I left work at noon, because with traffic, it would take me half an hour to get to Tony's Italian Restaurant. I got there at 12:25 and was seated at mine and Gabe's usual table.

While I was waiting for him, because I knew he was going to be late... as usual, I started thinking about how we got to the point of being best friends.

I had just arrived for my first day of work, two days after I arrived in L.A. Miranda met me at the door to the building, looking frantic.

"Stephanie, I know this is your first day, and I know you don't know how to do what you need to do, but the girl that was supposed to interview Cobra Starship just quit on me. Could you please do this for me?" she begged.

"Sure," I said smiling, "Do you have questions I need to ask them or do you just want me to wing it?"

She seemed to relax a bit, "The girl was supposed to come up with questions, but she didn't. How good are you just winging it?"

"I can do my best. I can also ask them to bear with me and hope that they are patient people and won't judge me too harshly," I told her.

"Well if you can do well, I'm giving you a very big raise. So just do your best," she told me.

I smiled at her, "No problem."

She led the way to the room Cobra was waiting. They all smiled as we entered the room.

"Ok, this is Stephanie, she's going to be interviewing you today. Have fun and good luck," She left the room quickly and left me alone with them.

I took a deep breath and smiled at all of them, "Hi guys... Umm... If you could just bear with me, this is actually my first five minutes on the job."

They all laughed and it put me at ease.

"No problem. You seem like the type of girl who will actually know what she's doing. And don't worry, the first time I went on stage, I actually forgot the words for three of our songs," Gabe said as he got up and put his arm around me.

I laughed, "Can I use that for this interview or is it strictly off the record?"

Vicky laughed and smiled up at me, "See you're a natural. So sit down and ask us some questions woman!"

I smiled as Gabe led me to my seat and then plopped down on my lap. Vicky gave him a look that said 'down boy.'

"But Vicky, she's my new best friend!" Gabe whined while clutching on to me.

"Now!" Vicky demanded.

"Fine..." Gabe pouted as he got off of my lap and sat down on the couch in between Ryland and Nate.

They all looked at me, waiting for me to start asking questions.

"So, tell me a little bit about what you miss back home. What does being on the road constantly do to your ties with family, friends, significant others?"

They all answered every question I came up with. They even joked around with me a lot.

When we were done with the interview, all of us were pretty bummed it was over.

"I don't want to leave you!" Gabe yelled as he clung to my leg.

We all laughed at his childish antics.

"I don't want you to leave either, but you have to go to the photo shoot so we can have a cover for this issue," I told him.

"Come with me!" Gabe demanded said.

"I can't. I have to type this up and get it to Miranda," I told him.

He got off of the floor, and thankfully, let go of my leg.

"Ok, since you can't go with us to the shoot, you can go to LAX with us tonight. Phone," Gabe said and held out his hand.

I handed him the sidekick that AP had purchased for me to keep all work related numbers in. Gabe quickly punched in his number and called his phone.

"There, now I can call you with the details for tonight," he said.

I smiled, "Sounds good, but will they let a seventeen year old in?"

Every one of their eyes bulged.

"You're only seventeen?" Nate asked.

I nodded.

"Wow, I would have thought you were at least twenty," Ryland said.

"Nope. I got this job before I even graduated high school. I only graduated three days ago and moved out here the day after I graduated," I told them.

"No wonder you got the job though, you were great," Gabe said.

I blushed lightly, "Thanks."

"No problem. And don't fret about getting in tonight, we can manage to get you in no problem," he said.

I smiled at his persistence to get me to go with them. "Ok, but if I can't get in, you have to dress in drag for your next show, and you have to stay like that for the whole set."

"Deal!" Gabe exclaimed.

The rest of us laughed. We all said our goodbyes and headed to our respected places.

I went into Miranda's office and handed her the written copy so she could go over it.

She sat there for a few minutes reading it. She looked up at me and smiled, "You know, for seventeen, your writing and interviewing skills are like that of someone who has been doing this their whole life."

My eyes widened, "Really?"

She nodded, "I think you are our best writer, despite your age. You're a natural kid, and they seem to love you."

I was speechless. My mind didn't even seem to want to work.

Miranda got up from her chair and walked over to me and put her hand on my shoulder. "You're going to go far in this company, but I think today you've had enough excitement. Why don't you go home and study up on the packet I gave you so you can get the gist of the protocol in this company."

I nodded and left the office. When I arrived home, I fell asleep and was awoken about three hours later to my phone ringing.

"Hello?" I asked as I answered the phone.

"Hello my Diamond Girl! How are you this fine evening?" Gabe asked.

I chuckled, "I'm good Gabe. I like the nickname."

"I do too! I might put it in a song. Not too sure yet." he babbled on.

"If you do, I would so totally put it as my ringtone," I joked.

I heard him chuckle, "I'll hold you to it!"

We continued our conversation for a few minutes, when I heard Vicky in the background yelling at Gabe to get to the point.

"Oh yeah! We're going to LAX at 7:30, and we're going to pick you up!" he said very excitedly.

"Okie dokie!" I said.

"Good! Well, we'll be seeing you in two hours! Bye!"

"Peace," I said as I hung up the phone.

I got ready and they picked me up at 7:45. The rest you could say is history, because starting from that night on, Gabe and I were tighter than his pants, and I became really good friends with the rest of the band too.

I looked at my watch and it read 1:15. I sighed and glared at the door. And who do I see strolling in like he owns the place?

"Gabriel Eduardo Saporta!" I yelled as I stood up from my seat. "You invite me for lunch and then show up almost and hour late!"

He stopped dead in his tracks, " But Stephie, I always have to show up late. I'm Gabe fucking Saporta."

I sighed, "Yeah yeah. Sit your ass down so we can eat."

He did as he was told and the waiter came over and took our order. We didn't even have to look at the menus. We ordered the same thing every time. When the waiter left the table, we just sat there not saying anything.

"So...." Gabe started, "how's your uncle?"

"Which one?" I asked.

"The one that hunts," he said.

"Oh, Dick Cheney shot him in the face yesterday, so he's dead," I told him with a straight face.

He stared at me for a second, "Seriously?"

I smiled, "No!"

He laughed, "You know, I never know with you. You're like the queen of tricking people."

"I know!" I exclaimed.

We both laughed for a minute and the laughter faded.

"So how's work? Who's the next big band you get to interview?" he asked.

My smile faded quickly, "Ugh! You just reminded me about tonight. I'm not looking forward to it at all."

"What? What's going on tonight?" he asked semi worriedly.

I sighed, "Tonight I have to go to a concert and then interview the headlining band."

The worried look vanished from his face, and in it's place came an amused smile, "That's not bad! You've done it plenty of times."

I put my face in my hands, "You don't understand, I love doing those interviews and watching the shows. It's just this band I don't want to interview!"

"Which band is it?" he asked.

I sighed, "It's All Time Low."

The amused smile was gone in a flash from Gabe's shocked face, "Holy shit! Did you tell Miranda that you can't do the interview?"

I nodded, "I even threatened to quit if I had to do the interview, but she wouldn't hear it."

"Do you think you should tell her the reason why you can't?" he asked.

I shook my head, "I'd still have to do the interview, no matter the reason."

He shook his head, "I never knew Miranda could be such a heartless bitch."

I raised my eyebrow, "If she can get a story, she'd sacrifice anyone and anything, no matter what."

His eyes widened, "Wow."

"Mmhmm."

"Well look at it this way, they wouldn't even recognize you. Your hair is back to your natural hair color, lightened only by the sun. You've lost quite a bit of weight, but you're still short. Since Jack is tall, they might think Jack's sister would have shot up while they were gone," he reasoned.

I laughed a little bit, "Yeah they would never guess that Jack got all of the tall genes. Why would they expect him to have a five foot nothing sister?"

He chuckled, "They wouldn't."

While we were laughing, our waiter came and handed us our food. but before we even took a bite, Gabe grabbed my hands and stared into my eyes.

"Stephie.... I have something to tell you..." This is going to be either very serious, or really stupid, "I have to break up with you." I’m going to go with stupid on this one.

I pulled my hands away from his, "Why?"

He looked down into his lap, "I found someone else."

I put on a shocked face, "Well what about the children? They need their mother!"

"I'm not even sure if I'm their mother anymore! Little Shaniqua looks nothing like me, and Little Orpheus looks like he's my age!"

It was then I couldn't keep up the act and I busted out laughing. Gabe soon joined in and we were sitting there for a few minutes just laughing. When we calmed down enough to eat, Gabe looked at me.

"I'm serious though, I have found someone," he told me.

"That's good," I said.

She's probably a big slut and is only after his money...

Gabe continued to talk about his whore girlfriend while we ate, and I just tuned him out, only adding "hmms," "yeahs," nos," and "ahs" when needed.

He kept talking about her the whole time we were eating. Only when it was time to go did he shut up.

"Well, I better get back to the office before Miranda decides to have me spend months with those devils," I said as we were walking to our cars.

"Don't worry about it Steph. You'll be fine. How about this, if everyone is intact at the end of the night, I'll take you to get a tattoo on Saturday. How's that sound?"

I screamed and jumped on him, hugging him tightly.

"I'll take that as a yes," he said chuckling lightly and hugging me back.

I laughed and let go of him.

"Well chica, I would offer to go with you to the concert, but I have to be in San Diego tonight," Gabe told me.

"It's ok, I now have incentive to not kill anyone, so they're safe.... for now," I said.

"Good. Now I must leave you," Gabe said smiling.

"Ok, I'll see you Saturday," I said.

"Okie dokie! Bye Diamond Girl!" he yelled as he got into his car.

"Peace Big Poppa," I returned, getting into my own car.

We both pulled out of the parking lot and went our separate ways, him on the highway to San Diego, and me on the way back to AP.