Whiskey and Cigarettes

Monday, August 30, 2010

I lived my life pretty simply; if you want something, you fucking take it. I tend to take the somewhat easy route, work as hard as I fucking can, but cheat a little on the way. It's what got me through high school, what got me my first job, and what got me to be who I am today. I'm not looking to sit on top like most money hungry, but I am looking to sit in a comfortable position. School never came easy to me. I would say that I naturally was a B-C student. It took blood, sweat, and tears to get an A in any class. I preferred working. Someone just needed to show me what to do, and I was perfectly fucking fine working on my own.

With that sad, I didn't go to college after high school. I wasn't going to sit in a classroom for at least four more years. I got a job at a hospital near my house straight out of high school and had been working there until I moved. Although I liked my job and it paid very well, I was not planning on ever working at a hospital ever again.

So for the past week I had been living in LA, I've been living off of the money I had saved from my previous job. Knowing that it'd eventually run out, I finally had decided to sit down and apply for some jobs.

Lux was at the tattoo shop she was apprenticing at for another three hours. The boys never usually came over until about when she got home, and Rex works at a bar at night, so she was undoubtedly sleeping right now. I could have asked both of them if either of their jobs were hiring, but if I worked at a bar, I would just sit and drink the entire night, ignoring all the stupid drunks. I dealt with that enough as a child. And Lux's main job was actually stripping four nights a week. She didn't make any money apprenticing, she actually had to pay instead for that. I liked to be naked, but not in front of a bunch of old drooling men.

So I sat on the couch in the living room, Lux's laptop in hand and searched for jobs online I could apply to, as well as, places that were in walking distance from Lux's, now my, townhouse that I could stop by to apply to.

About a million job applications later, I lost count after twelve, the front door swung open, Danny and Ben walking inside with pizza and beer in their hands.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked, closing Lux's laptop. "And I thought the door was locked."

"We all have a key," Danny shrugged, setting the goods down on the coffee table.

"We brought you pizza and company, though!" Ben grinned, sitting directly next to me. I looked at the clock and there was still two hours before Lux came home. "We didn't have anything to do today, so we just came over."

"Cool," I nodded, taking a few slices out of the box. "I've just been trying to find a job, which is by far the worst thing anyone could ever go through."

Ben looked at me thoughtfully. "We have a friend who works at the rock radio station in town. He needs someone to help out with the late night show."

"That would be so awesome," I smiled. "Can you get me an interview or something?"

"Give him a call, Danny!"

Danny pulled out his cell phone. I stared at him as he talked to this guy I hoped to get to know very quickly. "Hey, Nyx! It's Danny. Are you still looking for someone to fill in at night?...Her name is Bay, she just moved here... Yeah." He paused for a second then looked at me. "Yeah, she definitely is...Alright, cool. Bye." Danny closed his phone and stuck it back in his front pocket. "He said come by so he can meet you."

"Can we go now?" I asked eagerly. To be honest, it was kind of my dream to work on a radio station, specifically a radio station where I could talk about sex constantly, because it was my favorite subject.

"Sure, we can take you," Ben agreed, grabbing his keys from the coffee table. Danny reluctantly got up from the couch, rolling his eyes as he did so. It was obvious this was not on his to do list tonight.

I didn't talk much with the boys during the drive over. I was always weird in cars, almost always in complete concentration of my thoughts. It was somewhat my thinking place. I hadn't really gotten to know the boys one on one during the first week I lived in LA. They were kind of always doing there thing during the day, but would come over around when Lux got off of work. I spent most days with Rex and had lunch with her, James, and Sam once during the week, but other than that Rex said they had a lot of stuff to work on with the band. During the night, all of us would hang out, drinking, movies, video gaming, smoking weed. They were all really great guys, I just hadn't made any personal connections with any of them.

The radio station was only a five minute drive away in downtown LA, on the eighth floor of a gray brick building. While we were standing in the elevator, all of a sudden I became very self-conscious of what I was wearing. I had a pair of dark blue skinny jeans on with an over sized The Used shirt on. My make up was most likely smeared from rubbing my eyes incessantly while looking for jobs to apply for, but there was no doubt in my mind that my hair looked fabulous like always. I was pretty conceited about my hair. I looked at what the boys were wearing, and their outfits were pretty similar. It wasn't usual attire you wear to an interview, but I was going to have to deal, and to my defense, it wasn't a normal interview.

Once we reached the floor, we met with a man who looked maybe ten years older than me. He was dressed in a pair of gray wash jeans, a black wife beater, green and black Vans, with a matching hat. I felt better about my attire, since his was pretty laid back as well. "Hey guys," he said, walking up to us. "I'm Nyx." He stuck out his hand in my direction, and I shook it as I introduced myself. "Let's go into the meeting room, because there's a show on right now."

The room was on our left, and he ushered the three of us into it. We sat at the closest end to a very long table. "So Bay, tell me a little bit about yourself." He crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back in the chair.

"Well," I could honestly say that I hated that he had asked me this question. "I'm twenty years old. I just moved here from North Carolina, before that I lived in Illinois. I'm the third child of four. I love animals, pretty much any kind. I have some issues with reptiles, but I could probably get used to them if I were around them. I've only had one job, which was working at a hospital for two years. I have nine tattoos and nineteen piercings. I really enjoy watching movies, reading, and writing. Most days, I'm kind of a home body, but I like meeting new people and stuff. Fuck, this sounds like an ad for eHarmony."

All the boys chuckled, before Nyx spoke up again. "Have you ever worked on the radio?"

"No."

"Okay, well, I think your voice is great for the radio, and to be honest, you would look fantastic on a billboard." I blushed at his second comment. "You'd be working the late night shift, which is 10:00PM to 6:00AM, and your costar is named Percy. He doesn't come in until 9:30, so he's not here yet, so I can't introduce you. This is a rock station, so you're mostly going to play rock and some metal. We mostly play alternative. And at night, the daytime rules don't really apply. You can pretty much say what you want. I wouldn't admit to any illegal activity that you currently can get shit for. If you tried like acid or whatever as a kid and want to tell the story, awesome. Also, you can cuss a little more, but we still have to bleep fuck and bitch mostly."

I nodded, taking in everything he was saying. This job sounded perfect. "This sounds amazing. I would love to have this job."

Nyx smiled, pushing some papers towards me. "Well then, let's have you sign these papers and you can start tomorrow."

I wanted to do a happy dance, but due to the fact that I hardly knew any of the three men in front of me, I decided to refrain from doing so.