Right Here Waiting

February faded into March with ease.

A routine formed for Eliza. Every morning, she would wake up and go with Val to the hospital, while Brian went home. They’d meet up at the studio, spend hours working on songs, and at night, Brian would walk to Eliza’s house and they would talk about any and everything, except Eliza’s dad. Sure, Brian had brought it up, but every time Eliza would evade the question and switch the topic. Amber was still a factor, but she ignored Eliza if they were in the same room, and if she knew about Brian going to Eliza’s house, she didn’t say anything.

Eliza was sitting on the couch with Zacky going over a few chords when her phone chirped, saying she had a new message. Katie had text her asking the name of the studio she was at. Eliza replied, and set the phone down. A few minutes later, it chirped again, and she read the text from Katie again. She set her phone down and watched Zacky picking at the strings, every once in a while getting him to try a different note.

“I pictured something a little more fancier when you said you were working with a band, Liz.”

Eliza’s head jerked up, and as Johnny moved to tell Katie she couldn’t be there, Eliza screamed. She jumped up, and the guys and Val all stopped to watch Eliza and Katie embrace. They watched as the two girls hugged and laughed and talked excitedly at the same time.

“Liza?” Brian said, and she turned around. He’d never seen her smile so big.

“Oh! Duh, of course! I completely forgot!” Eliza said and turned back to Katie, taking her hand and pulling her forward. “Katie, this is Brian, Matt, Zacky, Johnny, Val, and Jimmy. Guys, this is Katie.”

Everyone mumbled hellos to each other and Katie went back to talking to Eliza. Matt finished in the booth and Zacky went in to lay down the tracks he and Eliza had just worked on. Eliza was in the middle of telling Katie a story when she realized Katie wasn’t paying attention. She turned around to see what Katie was staring at and realized it was Zacky in the booth. A smile came to her face as she watched her best friend watch Zacky. An idea struck her.

Hours later, the guys’ house was full of people. They’d decided to throw a party for everyone they knew to welcome Katie to the West coast. Katie, who’d lived in Delaware her entire life until she moved to Boston, had never been west of the Mississippi River. In typical California rocker style, they had told her to get dressed for a party. The house was packed to the gills and the beer and alcohol were flowing freely.

Katie and Val had immediately hit it off, making it so much easier for Eliza to hang out with both of them. They had spent the rest of the day in Eliza’s bedroom dressing for the party. Val was wearing a pair of shorts that came to mid-thigh, a black sports bra with a teal tank top over that, and a white tank top with an anchor on the front. Her earrings and necklace matched her shirt. Eliza was wearing a khaki green tank top with a jean skirt. Her wedges had brown leather straps, and her left wrist was full of her bracelets. Her red hair was wavy down her back and she had a brown Fedora on her head. She had a brown ribbon necklace with a gold coin dangling down wrapped around her neck. Katie, not used to the heat in California, had packed her cold-weather clothes. Thankfully, Val had brought extra clothes over, and tossed a black, red, and teal dress at her. She slipped it over her head and twirled in place. Eliza handed a pair of teal sandals to her and she slipped them on. Together, they looked at themselves before dissolving into a fit of giggles.

“Are you sure I shouldn’t put on a cami?” Eliza asked, pressing her boobs to each other and letting them go.

“I think it looks fine,” Katie said, twisting and turning in the mirror.

“I feel like my boobs are about to fly out,” Eliza said, tilting her head to the side and letting her boobs fly apart.

“Come on, we’re gonna be late!” Val said and she left the room. “Eliza you look dumb playing with your boobs!”

They made their way down the street toward the guys’ house. Music was blaring loudly when they were two houses away. As they entered the door, hollers came out from a few of the guys who were in the living room. The girls immediately said their hellos to Johnny, Jimmy and Matt. Jimmy and Johnny left to go get drinks and Eliza took Val’s purse and headed upstairs with her own. Matt had said she could put them in his room and she headed in that direction. She set their bags down on the side of the bed, and pulled the door closed behind her.

“Eliza?”

She whirled around and came face-to-face with Brian.

“Hey, guy,” she said, smiling.

Brian was wearing a pair of dark, fitted jeans and an almost too small black shirt with some design on it. His eyes were lined with black eyeliner, and his hair was tamed under a bandana and a new Fedora, since she hadn’t given his back. His face was clean shaven except for the hair on the bottom of his chin and his toothy smile was in place as he hugged her.

“It’s about time you guys got here,” he said and leaned back against the wall, looking her up and down. He couldn’t help his eyes being drawn to her chest that was about to pop out of her green top.

“Nice hat,” Eliza said with a cheeky smile.

“Yeah, guess it’s alright for a new one. I’ve got to break it in somehow since someone won’t give my other one back.”

“It looks better on me,” Eliza said and shrugged, still smiling.

They were interrupted by Jimmy coming upstairs.

“You guys, you’re missing the party!” he yelled and shimmied his hips at them. Looking at Eliza, he smiled bigger. “Cheese, you said you were going to do shots with me!”

Eliza shrugged at Brian and let Jimmy pull her toward the steps. Brian kept his eyes on her, the way her leg muscles flexed while wearing the wedged heels, her tan thighs and moving hips. He shook himself out of his thoughts as Amber joined him. He’d been waiting for her to use the bathroom.

“Ready to go?” she asked and kissed his cheek.

“Yeah,” he said, keeping his eyes in front of him.

“Oh, I forgot my phone,” Amber said, stopping. “I’ll meet you downstairs, okay?”

“Sure,” Brian said and kissed her cheek before heading downstairs to find Jimmy and Eliza.
Amber went back into Brian’s room to grab her phone, and as she passed Matt’s room, she heard a sound coming from in there. She opened the door and recognized a cell phone ringing. Finding the phone in a purse, she realized it was Eliza’s purse. The name on the phone said “Unltd Industries” and Amber realized it was Unlimited Industries that signed bands. She answered the call.

“Miss Grey? Hi, my name is Jennifer Donnelly, and I’m not sure if you remember the interview you had with us before, but I want to first offer my deepest apologies and hope that everything is alright.”

“Yes, it is,” Amber said cautiously.

“That’s good to hear. The reason I’m calling is because we found great interest in you and were hoping you could come in for another audition.”

“When?”

“In two weeks, March 23rd.”

“Well, I’m in California now. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to…”

“That’s perfectly fine, Miss Grey. We have an office in Los Angeles that would be more than happy to accommodate your audition.”

“Then I’ll be there,” Amber smiled, maliciously a plan already forming in her head. “What time?”

“Eleven in the morning.”

“I’ll be there.”



Eliza woke up the next morning with a splitting headache. She groaned and rolled over before she realized Katie was next to her. Katie woke up at the same time. She sat up immediately and stretched.

“Now, that’s what I expected it to be like in California,” she said with a small smile.
Eliza envied Katie in the fact she never got hangovers. She could drink her ass off, puke, keep drinking, and still not have a headache the next morning. Eliza had seen it time and time again and still wasn’t sure how she did it.

Eliza just grunted and rolled back over, pulling the covers back over her head. She heard Katie chuckle and move from the bed. A few minutes later, she heard a throat clear and threw the blankets from her face. Katie was standing in front of her with a cup of coffee and a handful of two aspirin. Eliza struggled to sit up and took the pills and cup from her friend.

“Everyone seemed nice,” Katie said sitting down near Eliza’s legs.

“Yeah, for the most part they are.”

“That Amber girl didn’t have much to say.”

“She wouldn’t since there are now three against one,” Eliza said, swallowing another sip of coffee.

“Aren’t you supposed to be at the studio now?”

“What time is it?” Eliza asked, looking around.

“Almost noon.”

“Shit! Yes, I am!” Eliza said and set her coffee cup down on the bedside table, rushing from the bed to the bathroom.



“You’re from Delaware?” Zacky asked Katie as she sat beside him, watching him pick at his guitar.

Eliza and Val had left her at the studio while they went to get coffee and lunch for the guys. Katie had volunteered to stay, wanting to get to know the guys better. Honestly, since the night before, she’d wanted to get to know Zacky. He’d brought her a drink and started talking to her. They spent most of the night together and Katie couldn’t help but admit to herself how adorable he was.

“Born and raised.”

“So how did you end up at Berklee?”

“I play piano. I applied at Julliard and they didn’t accept me, so I went to Berklee. My parents had a field day, but when I got a scholarship, they really couldn’t say anything.”

“Sounds just like Eliza,” Zacky said, grinning.

“We were roommates our first year. We caused all kind of havoc down there. They almost kicked us out of school except we were top in our class.”

“Now that sounds just like her.”

“She cause a lot of trouble out here?”

“Not a whole lot, but her fair share. Have you heard about the cheese story?”

Katie laughed and shook her head. “No, I haven’t heard that one.”

“Hey Jimmy!” Zacky hollered toward the booth. Jimmy turned from the control panel to face him. “Katie doesn’t know about cheese.”

Jimmy laughed before he stood up and walked over to them. He sat down on the empty couch to their left and picked up his drum pad. “Eliza used to be a fuckin’ badass.”

“She’s still a badass. She staged a Flash Mob of music in the middle of study hall.”

“What?” Johnny asked, perking up.

Matt left the booth and hearing that statement, he walked over to the couches, joined a minute later by Brian. They were all looking at Katie.

“Yeah, you know how like flash mobs dance or whatever? Well, during study hall one day, she had her guitar on her, and she started playing and everyone got involved with it. It was nuts. We all started playing ‘Free Bird’ and the librarian went ape shit. Eliza was sent to the Dean’s office and was almost suspended until she reminded him that Berklee was a music school and he shouldn’t harsh the mellow when it came to music.”

“That’s sick,” Matt said, smiling.

“I wanna know what you meant about cheese, though,” Katie said, looking to Jimmy.

Jimmy told her the story of senior year, and Katie laughed, saying she could just imagine it. They traded stories for a few minutes before Brian’s mind wandered.

“Hey, maybe you could tell us something.”

“What’s that?” Katie asked, looking to him.

“Why doesn’t she play guitar anymore? You said she started that flash mob thing with her guitar. Zacky and I heard her once, but she’s refused to play since then. She used to play all the time, right?”

The smile faded from Katie’s face. “She had an audition with Unlimited Industries a few months back.”

“Shit, that’s fucking impressive,” Matt said. “They’re a great company.”

“They obviously thought she was worth it, too. She was in her second audition. She hasn’t played since then.”

“Why, though?” Brian pressed.

“’Cause of what happened to her dad,” Katie said, seeming confused. “You guys don’t know?”

All the guys looked at each other before shaking their heads. Katie was surprised. Then she realized Eliza might have not wanted them to know. A look of realization passed over her features and Brian picked up on it.

“What happened?”

“It’s not my place to say.”

“Come on, Katie. We just want to know. We want to help her,” Zacky said.

“She was at her second audition,” Katie started, picking up a guitar pick and running it through her fingers. She kept her eyes on it as she spoke. “She was doing incredibly well from what I could tell. This guy Ryan from one of our classes was helping her out on a few songs that required a second guitar. She was auditioning pretty much for a record deal. They’d had flyers up and I’d found one and told her she should audition. When he came out, he said all the executives were smiling and nodding. I was outside in the waiting room when her phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number, but I saw the area code and realized it was from Huntington. Her dad was supposed to come in for her audition; he really pushed her to do it, too. So I answered, thinking it was him or something, saying he wasn’t going to make it or he’d missed his flight or something.

“So I answered, but it was someone asking for her. So I pretended to be her, knowing she wouldn’t care. It was the hospital from here, asking for her. They told me the information and I rushed into the audition, not caring about the outcome. Her dad was in a car wreck on the way to the airport. He wasn’t coming.”

“We would’ve known if he died, though,” Jimmy said, confused.

Katie raised tear-filled eyes to him and smiled meagerly. “He’s not dead. He’s in a coma. She hasn’t picked up her guitar or touched a piano since, as far as I know.”

They all sat there, speechless. No one had pictured that scenario coming. Brian knew her dad wasn’t around, but he didn’t realize he was in the hospital. Suddenly, that day she went to the hospital made so much more sense to him.

Unfortunately at that exact moment, Eliza and Val walked through the doors, smiling, arms full of bags and drinks. Eliza’s smile faded as she noticed the guys’ faces as they all looked at her. She looked at each one of them and saw what she’d been dreading to see: pity. Setting the food down on the table, she looked at Katie who was crying and she realized what they’d been told. Before anyone could say anything, she mustered all of her courage and walked with her head high from the studio and into her car. Brian immediately stood up and followed her back outside.

“What the hell just happened?” Val asked, confused.

“I thought they knew,” Katie said, standing up. “I didn’t know she hadn’t told them!”

Val closed her eyes, realizing what had happened. “She didn’t want to be pitied.”

Brian walked back in at that point, and reached on the table for his keys. “She left.”

No one said anything as they watched him walk out of the studio, too.

He drove around for almost an hour trying to find her. She wasn’t at her house, at Johnny’s Bar, or at the park. Finally, it hit him and he made his way to the hospital. He found her car there and went inside. He asked the nurse at the directory desk where he would be and she told him.

Opening the door to her dad’s room slowly, Brian entered the dimly lit room. Eliza was sitting in a chair with her back to him, holding her dad’s hand. Brian had never seen someone dead or in a coma and it was a shock. Mr. Grey looked like himself, but somehow not. He wasn’t moving; it was almost like he was just sleeping, but he knew better. He didn’t know what to say and just stood there.

“I can take a lot,” Eliza said, suddenly. She startled Brian. “I can take girls calling me a slut, when in reality I’ve only slept with two guys. I can take singing in front of a million people. I can take criticism. I can take bitchiness, and I can handle my own fights. Hell, I can even take death. The one thing I can’t take, however… is pity.”

Brian listened quietly, hearing her choke on her voice. If he didn’t know any better, he would say Eliza was crying, but he knew she didn’t cry. “Is that why you didn’t tell us?”

“Yes. I didn’t want pity, especially from you guys. I get enough from the people I see in public. I couldn’t handle it from you all.”

“I don’t pity you, Eliza.”

She stood up slowly and turned to face him. There were tears in her eyes, but none of them fell. “It’s my fault he’s like this.”

“No, it’s not, Eliza. It’s –”

“If I hadn’t taken that stupid audition, he wouldn’t have been in the car to go to the airport. If I hadn’t insisted that he be there for it, he wouldn’t be laying in this fucking bed right now, Brian. How can you say it’s not my fucking fault?”

Brian listened as she screamed. He’d been so used to the calm Eliza, and this one was different. He couldn’t blame her, though. As much as he made fun of his parents, he couldn’t imagine a life without them. They were such a big part of his life. It was one of the connections he’d felt with Eliza. His dad had taught him how to play guitar, too.

“Do you remember that bake sale and car wash freshman year?” Brian asked suddenly. Eliza nodded and he continued. “I remember your mom was in charge of the booth, while your dad was over the car washing part. We’d been there for like four hours and I was starving. I stole a brownie and your mom caught me. I thought I was gonna be in so much fucking trouble. All day I’d heard people talk about the brownies that your mom made and how fucking amazing they were and I just really wanted one.”

Eliza watched as he walked forward to sit on the shelf by the window. She turned the chair around to face him and listen.

“So I snatched one when she wasn’t looking. She caught me, though,” He added with a sheepish grin. “She saw it and realized I hadn’t paid for it. I walked back to the booth with her, thinking she was gonna have me expelled somehow, when she handed me another one on a napkin. She told me to enjoy it.”

Eliza smiled at the thought of her mom. “She couldn’t have gotten anyone in trouble if she had wanted to.”

“That’s not why I’m telling you this,” Brian said. He looked back at her dad and smiled softly. “That was the reason I went to that memorial service at the school. I felt I had to thank her one more time. I was sitting in the auditorium though, and all I could think about was you. I watched you stand up and give your speech without shedding a tear. I’d heard from your friends that you hadn’t cried, and even your dad mentioned that you hadn’t cried. The whole time I couldn’t take my eyes off of you, thinking I’d never seen someone so fucking brave in my entire life.”

Fresh tears sprang to Eliza’s eyes, but they didn’t spill over. She remembered how she didn’t cry then; she couldn’t cry, just like she couldn’t cry now. Her dad had told her that her mom wouldn’t have wanted her to cry, just like he didn’t want her to cry and she hadn’t. She didn’t know this about Brian, though.

“I still think that. Katie told us about your dad. I know she wasn’t supposed to, but we really pressed her to do it. Well, it was mostly me, but I just wanted to know what was going on. You wouldn’t tell me, and I just wanted to know. You don’t play guitar anymore, and I know you’re amazing at it. What I’m getting at, though, is I don’t know why you would think I would pity someone who I think is the bravest person I’ve ever met. You can’t pity a brave person; you look up to them.”

Eliza sat there, completely speechless after Brian’s story. She didn’t know he felt that way and couldn’t believe he was telling her this. Slowly, she stood up and walked to him, hugging him. She felt his arms curl around behind her and she leaned into him.

“Thank you.”



That night, Brian lay in his bed with his guitar, strumming some chords. He hadn’t thought of anything else except Eliza and the hospital. Without realizing it, he started to play “Right Here” thinking about her singing it. Slowly, he set his guitar down and bowed his head, closing his eyes.

“Dear God… I know I’m not the first person you expected to be doing this, but I’ve just got to ask you to help Eliza. Let her know everything’s going to be okay. Please help her dad. I don’t want Mr. Grey to die. The only thing I ask of you is to hold her when I’m not around. She needs her dad; don’t let her lose him.”

Brian opened his eyes and thought about what he said. Suddenly, he knew what to do and got up from his bed, making his way to his desk. He found a notebook and flipped to an empty page, found a pen, and started writing.



The next day, Eliza woke up to her doorbell going off. Trying to not wake Katie up, she made her way downstairs and found Val outside her door, three cups of coffee and a huge duffel bag in her hands.

“I figured a girl day would be great right about now,” she said, walking past Eliza and up the stairs. Walking into Eliza’s room, she saw Katie sitting up in her bed. “What do you say? Girl’s day?”

“Oh, yum, coffee!” Katie said, noticing the cups in Val’s hands. Val handed her one of the cups, and passed Eliza her own cup. “Val’s right, Liz. A girl’s day sounds fabulous to me. Plus, your hair is starting to fade.”

“Liz?” Val asked, sipping her own cup.

“I figured she needed a fresh start when she got to Boston. Everyone at home calls me Kate, or Katelyn, so when she told me her name was Elizabeth but everyone calls her Eliza, I figured it would be time for a change. She chose Katie. Not very original, I know, but it’s our thing.”

“I thought we needed to go to the studio, though?” Eliza asked, confused.

“I tried. They told me that no girls were allowed there today. Apparently they’re writing some super-secret song and don’t want use there.”

“That’s rude,” Katie said.

“Well, let’s do this,” Eliza said and the other two girls stood up.

Some hours later, Eliza’s hair was bright pink once again, and the black was re-dyed to midnight. Val’s hair went from black to an almost white-blond, and Katie had vehemently refused to dye her hair any color. They had gone to get their nails done, with the exception of Eliza who hated acrylic nails. She did allow herself to get a pedicure. They all went to the hospital together, and then went to lunch.

Now, they were currently in Eliza’s living room watching television. Katie was sprawled out on the floor, Val was sitting on one side of the couch and Eliza was on her back, her head hanging off the couch and her feet over the back of it.

“He is so hot,” Katie said as they watched the television.

“When I see him all I think about is that movie with Melissa Joan Hart. The one with the Britney Spears song as the name,” Val said, eating a chip from the bag at her side.

“That movie was freaking great,” Eliza said. “He needs to do something with his hair, though.”

“That’s the best part of him!” Katie cried, looking at her, horrified.

The doorbell rang and Eliza lifted her head to look at it. She put her head back down and her eyes returned to “The Devil Wears Prada”. A few seconds later, it rang again. Eliza groaned and slid herself right-side-up to answer it.

Pulling the door open, she received a huge shock. “David?”

“Hey, Liza,” the guy said.