Right Here Waiting

“No, that sounds ridiculous,” Johnny said to Jimmy’s suggestion they add a banjo to one of the songs.

They were currently sitting in the basement of the guys’ house where they kept their instruments. Three couches lined the walls, and Jimmy’s drum set was against the other wall. Beer cans, paper, pens, guitar picks, and energy drink cans were lining the table. Johnny and Zack were on one couch, Matt was sprawled out on another with a pad and pen, and Eliza and Brian were on the remaining couch. Brian was leaning forward with his head resting on the top of his guitar. Eliza was lying with the top of her head facing Brian, her feet hanging over the side of the couch. Jimmy was sitting behind his drum set, fiddling with different drums. They’d been here for four hours, and only one song was well on its way. They’d stopped for lunch and then came back down for more brainstorming.

“It was an idea, shithead,” Jimmy said, throwing a paper ball at him.

“Why don’t you guys play what you’ve got so far?” Eliza asked from the other side of the room.

“You’ve heard what we’ve got so far,” Matt said, pulling himself to a sitting position.

“No, what was that song you played the other day?” Eliza asked, tilting her head back to look at Brian. It took him a minute to realize she was talking about him when no one spoke up, and he looked toward her.

“Oh, that was…well, we don’t have a name for it.”

“Play it.”

Brian picked up his guitar and started the song with Matt picking up the vocals. They’d only had the first verse so far. Eliza sat up during Brian’s playing and nodded her head along.

“Jimmy… what if you did something with it… Boom boom kat. Boom boom kat,” Eliza said, sitting up, tapping her hands on the table to show him what she was talking about.

Jimmy started playing it, and Brian joined in on guitar. Matt started singing.

“Johnny, why don’t you do a lower version of Brian’s part,” Eliza said. He picked up his bass and started in on it, the melody coming together.

“Dear God,” Zacky said, listening to the song coming together. Eliza was really good at this.

“That’s it!” Matt hollered suddenly, looking at Zacky.

Matt suddenly started writing, everyone mumbling excitedly about the song.

“How’d you do that?” Jimmy asked Eliza.

“I went to Berklee for music composition and production.”

“You can produce music?” Johnny asked, impressed.

“Well, I majored in it, yes. I’m okay at it, but I’m not a music producer.”

“You said composition, too,” Jimmy asked.

“Yes, I can compose any kind of music, really.”

“That’s fucking impressive,” Brian said. They all agreed.

Matt was about to ask Eliza another question when her phone started ringing from inside her purse.

“Shit, sorry guys. I’ve got to take this,” Eliza said, pulling her phone from her bag and looking at the screen. Before anyone could say anything, she was sprinting up the stairs.

“Well, we’re out of beer. I’m going for more,” Brian said, taking the last swig of his can. He took the steps two at a time to get to the kitchen.

Reaching for the box containing the cans, he heard a yell come from outside. Glancing out the window, he saw Eliza waving her hand around. He stopped his movements, trying to hear the conversation.

“I understand that, but what you don’t understand is it’s my choice! You don’t have any say in this,” She yelled into the phone. Brian could tell by the way her chest was rising and falling that she was breathing heavily. She was really mad. “No, I don’t care what you have to say. I am the power of attorney here. You don’t have that jurisdiction.”

Eliza stood there, physically shaking because of anger. Her father’s attorney had called to express his opinion on her father’s life. He wanted her to pull the plug, thinking there was nothing good that could come out of this. The doctor had said the same thing when she visited him this morning, yet contradicted himself when he said her father’s brain was decreasing in swelling.

The attorney was now laying into her, saying that her father wouldn’t have wanted this for himself. He would’ve rather had someone to pull the plug rather than watch him become a vegetable.

“Is that what he wrote? Did he express that in a signed official document?” Eliza asked.

“No, he didn’t but—”

“Well since it’s not documented, it’s my decision. If you don’t mind, I’d like you to back off this subject. I won’t do it until I’m good and fucking ready,” Eliza said, and hung up the phone.

No one was going to tell her that she should go ahead and let her father die. If there was progress, she was going to hold on as long as she could. She couldn’t let him go. All of her anger came back, and she found herself slamming her fist into the wooden fence around the deck. She didn’t feel any pain from the hit, and hit it again. She leaned against the fence, bringing her hands to her face and covering it. She tried to breathe deeply, but she was still angry. She heard the patio door open and looked up to see Brian standing there.

“You okay?” Brian asked tentatively.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Eliza said, waving her hand in front of her. That’s when she noticed all four of the knuckles on her right hand were busted open, bleeding.

“Shit, no you’re not,” Brian said, seeing them at the same time. He rushed forward and took her hand in both of his.

Eliza still couldn’t feel the pain and wouldn’t know they were busted if she hadn’t seen the blood. She was still so angry, and couldn’t focus on anything but that anger. How could her father’s lawyer be such an asshole? Suddenly, Brian pressed down on one of her knuckles.

“Ow, dammit,” She exclaimed, pulling her hand from his grasp. She definitely felt that.

“I’ve been talking to you for the past minute. I couldn’t get your attention.”

“You don’t have to be rough about it,” Eliza said, pulling her hand to her body.

“I didn’t. You jerked when I was trying to get a good look at it,” Brian said, confused.

“Oh, well…sorry. I didn’t mean to,” Eliza said and gave her hand back when Brian reached for it again.

“We need to get these cleaned up,” Brian said and walked back inside.

Eliza sat down on one of the chairs at the island in the center of the kitchen to wait on Brian to get the antiseptic. He appeared a few minutes later and sat down in the chair beside her.

"This might sting a bit," Brian said, looking at her as he opened the bottle.

"I won't make a sound."

“Wanna tell me what’s going on?” Brian asked as he took a cotton swab drenched in hydrogen peroxide to her knuckles. Eliza's eyebrows drew in, but she didn't flinch or make a sound.

“It’s just some miscommunication.”

“Sounded like a hell of a lot more than that,” Brian said, glancing up at her. She was looking at her knuckles.

“Just some things I’m trying to sort out.”

“Who are you the power of attorney for?” Brian asked.

“It’s not a big deal, Brian. I promise.”

Someone cleared their throat.

They both turned their gaze to the doorway where Amber and Val were standing. Eliza realized Brian wasn’t cleaning her knuckles anymore and was just holding her hand. She jerked it out of his grip and stood up.

“I had an accident and Brian was helping me clean up,” Eliza said, flashing her hand before scooting past Val and Amber and headed back down to the basement.

“Hey Bri,” Val said as she turned and followed Eliza downstairs.

He nodded his head, but kept his eyes on Amber. “I was just cleaning her cuts. She banged her hand up really bad.”

“It’s okay. I saw her hand, you don’t have to explain,” Amber said sweetly. She walked up to him and kissed him deeply. “I missed you.”

“I missed you, too.”

“How are you guys coming along down there?”

“Pretty good, actually. Eliza’s helped us a lot on a new song.”

“Oh, does that mean I get to hear it?” Amber asked, smiling. She never cared about hearing their music before.

“Uh, yeah, I guess you can. I don’t know how much we’ve got yet.”

“Well, let’s get back down there!” Amber said, clapping her hands. She turned and walked towards the basement.

Brian followed her before remembering he had come upstairs for beer. He jogged back to the fridge and grabbed the case and headed back downstairs. Eliza was leaning over Jimmy, her hair falling in waves over her shoulder as she watched his set.

“Can we just jam for a bit?” Zacky asked, picking up his guitar.

“Hell yeah,” Matt said.

Zacky started playing the opening chords for “The Freshman” by the Verve Pipe. Brian picked up his guitar and joined in. Val sat down beside Matt while Amber sat down, crossing her legs, beside Brian. She started examining her nails. Realizing there was no place for her to sit, Eliza moved to stand behind Jimmy. Eliza watched back and forth between Amber and Val, noticing the difference. Val was tapping her thigh in time with the music. Amber couldn’t even care less about it.

Matt started singing, his voice carrying out.

“Eliza, join in,” he said right before the bridge.

Eliza placed her hand on Jimmy’s back, singing the lines for the bridge. Once they reached the chorus, Matt joined in, harmonizing with her. Eliza watched for Val’s reaction, not wanting to cause drama, but she saw Val smiling brightly, nodding along.

Matt sang the second verse and Eliza continued singing the verse. Looking around the room, she saw everyone nodding along with the song except Amber. She was shooting Eliza a death glare, and Eliza tried to keep her eyes away from her as they finished the song.

“Hell yeah, that sounded amazing!” Val said, clapping. “Eliza you have an amazing voice!”

“You should hear her sing “Right Here”,” Brian said, drawing an accusatory look from Amber. Val saw she was about to say something and intervened.

“Why don’t you sing it for us?” Val said to Eliza.

“Yeah, let’s hear it,” Johnny said enthusiastically.

Eliza looked at Brian who smiled. He put his guitar back up to his body and started picking at the strings. Eliza moved back to lean against the wall. Jimmy even turned around on his stool to watch her. She took a deep breath and began.

Val’s smile grew as she continued to listen to Eliza’s voice. Val had screamed for the band a long time ago when they first started, and not a lot of females had sung with them since then. Val was pleasantly surprised as the song continued to hear Eliza’s voice was soft and higher pitched. Eliza looked around the room and saw every eye was on her, smiling, except for Amber. She was sitting there with her arms crossed. Eliza redirected her gaze to Val who looked like she was about to burst. Eliza couldn’t help but smile as the song finished.

“Holy shit!” Val yelled.

“That’s incredible,” Zacky said.

“What else can you sing, Cheese?” Jimmy asked.

“I thought today was supposed to be about helping you guys,” Eliza said, laughing.

“Yeah, until we found out you had pipes on you. What else can you sing?” Zacky asked.

“What can you play?” Eliza said, raising an eyebrow.

“You name it, I’ll play it,” Zacky challenged back.

Eliza was thinking until Zacky spoke up. “Nevermind. I’ve got the perfect song for you. Matt you know this. Eliza, let’s see if you can keep up.”

Eliza’s eyebrow lifted, wondering what he had up his sleeve.

“Oh! Fun time!” Jimmy said as he turned back to face his set. Brian picked up his guitar and Johnny picked up his bass.

“Is there something I’m missing?” Eliza asked.

“Matt, scoot over. Eliza, come sit over here,” Val said, moving so Eliza could have her spot.
She walked over and sat on the arm of the sofa, facing Matt and Val. She couldn’t miss the smile on all their faces, especially Val’s. Something was going on. Zacky started playing and Eliza immediately smiled, recognizing the song. Eliza had studied Amy Lee when her band had come out, and even though she was definitely no Amy Lee, she attempted her vocals. Pulling her back straight up, she placed a hand on her stomach, making sure she was using her diaphragm.

Matt started the song off, and Eliza joined in during the chorus. It was a bit difficult to get the pitch just right as she was trying to get used to Matt’s voice, but by the time her verse came around, she had it down.

The song ended and everyone cheered. Several of the guys decided they were hungry and moved upstairs. Brian and Amber went, too. Val, Matt, Johnny, and Eliza were left downstairs.

“What are you doing tomorrow?” Val asked Eliza, sitting down beside her.

“Uh, I have an errand to run in the morning, but after that I’m free. Why?”

“Well, I need a shopping partner. Amber’s getting boring. Plus, it’s Beach Day.”

“What is Beach Day?” Eliza asked. “Wait, don’t you live with Amber?”

“No, she stays at my house. She’s got her own place in L.A., but to be closer to the guys, she’s staying with me for a while. Trust me, it’s getting old. I’m tired of her clutter and shit on the floor,” Val leaned in to whisper to Eliza. “Beach Day is a day where we all go bar hopping. It’s a tradition!”

“Well, I don’t have anything planned except for my one errand. After that I’m free.”

“You want to meet up around eleven? We’ll get some lunch, go shopping and then meet up with these guys,” Val asked.

“Sounds great,” Eliza smiled, and stood up, slipping her shoes on to head home.



After she had eaten dinner, cleaned the house, and watched the Boston Bruins play, Eliza knew it was time to get ready for bed. She wasn’t tired, but she’d hoped that after a shower, she would be.

Brian couldn’t sleep. All of the other guys had passed out, and now he was lying in his bed, staring at the ceiling. He knew he wasn’t going to be falling asleep anytime soon, and before he could change his mind, he got out of bed. Throwing on a pair of basketball shorts, shoes, a t-shirt and a hoodie he checked his appearance in the mirror. His hair was all over the place, and in an effort to hide it, he shoved a Fedora onto the top of his head.

Eliza placed her iPod on shuffle and stepped under the water. She pulled her hair to the side and let the water flow over her shoulders, sighing in relief. A loud sound came from somewhere in the house and she froze, listening again. When she didn’t hear anything, she continued with her shower, reaching for her razor.

She was about to rinse out the shampoo in her hair when she heard the noise again. Freezing, she listened around her music.

“You listen to rap?”

She screamed and jumped, hitting her head on the side of the shower.

“Dammit!”

She opened the curtain enough to see who was there and she saw Brian, Fedora adorned, sitting on her counter.

“How the fuck did you get in?” she asked, shutting the curtain and rinsing out her hair.

“You left a window open.”

Eliza shut off the water. She mentally cursed herself and then realized her towel was hanging on the back of the door. She made a face, not wanting to ask Brian to get it, but she realized she’d have to. She pulled the curtain back enough to stick her head out, but he was already holding the towel close to her. She snatched it from him, shutting the curtain.

“Thank you,” she said.

“Anytime,” Brian said, and she could almost hear the smile on his face.

“What are you doing here?” she asked making sure the towel was secure around her. She ripped open the curtain and stepped out.

“You’ve got some black stuff...” Brian said, motioning towards her eyes. When he saw the look she gave him, he answered. “I couldn’t sleep and I went for a walk. Your lights were on and I figured you could keep me company.”

“So you broke into my house to hang out?” Eliza said, reaching for her other towel and wrapping her hair on top of her head.

“You didn’t answer the doorbell, and the back door was locked. I was afraid something was wrong.”

“So you broke into my house to make sure I wasn’t dead?”

“Yeah, something like that,” Brian said from the doorway. He moved so she could have access to the mirror. He watched as she pulled some wipes from a drawer and made sure she got underneath her eyes.

“Did you break something downstairs? I heard a crash,” She said as she took all of the black make-up off of her face.

“That was probably me falling through the window.”

Eliza couldn’t help but to laugh at the image of Brian climbing into a window and falling to the floor. She threw the make-up remover wipe away and reached for her lotion, sitting down on the toilet.

Brian sat down in the doorway of the bathroom and watched her. Eliza stopped in her process and looked at him. He was staring back at her.

“Are you going to leave?”

“Nope, I was going to stay here with you.”

“Why?”

“I’m interested.”

“In what?” Eliza asked, at a loss for words.

“What girl’s do behind the scenes,” Brian said, smiling toothily at Eliza. She laughed.

“Can’t you watch Amber?”

“No. She won’t let me, for some reason. The only thing I ever see her do is put on make-up.”
Eliza looked at Brian. He was adjusting himself as he sat Indian-style in the doorway of her bathroom door. For a second, she saw him as the sixteen year old who got pushed into her because of a fight. His hazel eyes had burned fire, but once she’d had her piece with the guy, his eyes melted and he’d looked at her differently. Before that fight, she’d seen him as a standoff-ish guy, not wanting to be approached. After the scuffle, he’d always said “Hi” to her in the halls, or smiled at her in passing. He seemed child-like after that. Now, sitting in her bathroom, he seemed to have the same kid-like qualities about him; wide-eyed and ready to have a laugh.

“Is there something on my face?” Brian asked when he realized she was staring.

“No, no, I was just thinking about high school,” Eliza said, blushing.

“Yeah, those were good times,” Brian said, leaning back on his hands, smiling widely at her. He followed her hands up her toned calves as she worked the lotion into her skin. He’d never found anything this simple to be so erotic…but watching Eliza, he found himself becoming uncomfortable.

She finished with her legs and brushed her teeth. Brian stood up in front of her. She placed her hands on her hips and looked at him. “I think it’s time for you to leave.”

His eyes got huge, not wanting to leave now. “Eliza, come on! Don’t make me leave! Everyone’s asleep at the house and I don’t have anything else to do. Please don’t kick me out, I promise—”

“Brian,” Eliza started, chuckling. She placed her hands on his chest, pushing him backwards toward the hallway. “I didn’t mean leave the house. I meant go downstairs so I can get dressed.”

“Oh. Well, in that case how about I go make us some coffee and I’ll meet you on the back porch?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Eliza said, backing into her room and shutting the door.

Brian smiled the whole way downstairs. He made it to the kitchen and had the pot of coffee brewing before she could get downstairs. He remembered her ordering coffee this morning, and he got the ingredients out: creamer and two sugars. He made his way to the back deck while the coffee finished. Suddenly, he had an idea. He grabbed the bench that was positioned near one of the deck walls and dragged it to the beach. Rushing back inside, he grabbed two pillows from the couch in the living room, as well as a blanket. Standing behind the bench, he looked over his handiwork and nodded in approval, before Eliza’s voice rung out from the house.

He took the steps two at a time and entered the kitchen just as she peeked into it. She smiled at him and walked towards the counter. She’d put on a small, at least in Brian’s opinion, pair of blue plaid pajama shorts, a blue tank top, and her Metallica hoodie hanging off her body. She had blue-rimmed glasses on her face and her red hair was still wet. Brian didn’t know she wore glasses. The sleeves were pushed up and for the first time, Brian saw her without bracelets. She didn’t have a single one on her wrist, which he noticed was slender and slightly less tan than the rest of her arm.

He watched as she poured sugar and creamer into a huge red mug and then the coffee on top of it. Brian stood beside her as he fixed his own coffee. He led the way outside as she grabbed her pack of cigarettes from the table. She set her coffee down on the table on the patio, but at Brian’s words, she looked up seeing the bench he’d carried out to the beach. She smiled and followed him out towards his set up. The sand was cold between her toes as she walked beside Brian. They sat down on the bench and looked out at the ocean.
Several cups of coffee and another pack of cigarettes later, Eliza was half-laid out on Brian, and they were laughing. He hadn’t let himself act this normal with a girl since before he met Amber and it felt good. She had taken his hat a few minutes ago and placed it on her head, posing for him. Eliza’s head was lying on his chest and his arm was around her waist, resting on her stomach. She had her legs propped up on the rail of the bench and she was laughing at something he’d said.

“No, seriously, he wanted me to rip the toenail off with pliers,” Brian said, and Eliza laughed harder.

“That’s so disgusting, Brian! I can’t believe you went along with that.”

“I was very, very drunk at the time. I won’t tell you the rest of the story, because it’s—”

“No! You’ve got to tell me, now!” Eliza said, tilting her head to look back at him.

“It’s really disgusting, though,” Brian said, smiling.

“I don’t care.”

“I ate it.”

“Oh my God, Brian that’s revolting!” Eliza said, scrunching up her nose. They laughed for a few minutes before dying down. They were quiet for a few minutes before Eliza spoke again, her arm rising up to point up. “I missed the stars.”

He followed her arm to her wrist where he saw a treble clef tattooed on her wrist. He reached up and pulled her wrist down to look at it. “I didn’t know you had a tattoo.”

She smiled at him. “I’ve got five tattoos and thirteen piercings.”

“Where the hell could you possibly fit thirteen piercings?”

Eliza laughed, but named them all, pointing to them. “I have my lip, my tongue, my anti-eyebrow, three holes in each lobe, my cartilage, my tragus, and my industrial.”

“What about the thirteenth one?”

“Belly button.”

“Tattoos?”

“I’ve got a heart design on my left foot, a guitar on my right foot, the treble clef on my wrist, a quote on my lower back and on my shoulders.”

“What do the quotes say?”

“My lower back is a design that says ‘Always and Never’ and a treble clef is the ‘and’ symbol. The one on my shoulders says ‘We’re all mad here’.”

“Alice in Wonderland? Really?”

“Yes. I love that book so much,” Eliza said, smiling.

“You need a death bat on you somewhere.”

“A death bat?”

“Our symbol, duh.”

“Well maybe I’ll just have to get one, then.”

“Where would you get it?”

“Maybe on my hip bone, I don’t know.”

Brian looked down at her and saw she was looking up. He tilted his head back and saw the dozens of thousands of twinkling lights above. He looked back down at her. “You can’t see the stars in Boston, huh?”

“Not really. There are certain spots where you can see a few, but never this many. There are too many city lights. It’s nice to be able to see them all.”

“Why’d you come back to Huntington?”

Eliza shifted her eyes to Brian’s face. He was looking up at the sky and his left hand was idly playing with a piece of her hair behind her head. She had always been a private person, except with Katie. Katie knew everything about her. After living with someone for five years, you know more about that person than you do yourself, sometimes. Eliza wasn’t sure she was ready to let anyone else in. She wasn’t ready for anyone else to know about her dad’s coma. She couldn’t take the pity she knew would follow. She already had a hard enough time with people out in public.

“Just felt like it.”

“Yet you didn’t drive your own car?”

“I didn’t have time. Katie’s bringing it sometime next month.”

“Where’s your dad?” Brian asked suddenly. Eliza had been dreading this moment. Everyone knew her dad lived in this house.

“He’s…He had to go away for a while,” Eliza said after a minute of thinking.

“So you’re like house-sitting?”

“Something like that,” Eliza mumbled, and sat up.

“Hey now, don’t leave. Come back here,” Brian said, looking at her. He reached for the back of her jacket to pull her back down, but she wouldn’t budge. “Did I say something?”

She had to come up with an excuse. Her coffee cup was empty, and she wasn’t uncomfortable. Suddenly she caught sight of the blanket Brian had brought out. She reached for it and spread it out over her legs. Once it was completely wrapped around her, she leaned back into Brian. His right hand snaked around her waist and rested on her stomach again.

“You didn’t say anything wrong. I was just cold,” Eliza lied, and smiled up at him.

“Okay, that’s good.”

They stayed outside all night, watching the sunrise. That’s when Brian noticed Eliza starting to yawn. The sun was barely above the horizon when he looked down to suggest they go inside and saw Eliza was already asleep. Her head was on his lower stomach, her head turned in toward his chest. Her left hand was above her head, holding onto a piece of his shirt, and her breathing was deep and even. Carefully, he got up and carried her into the house to her room. He laid her on top of her blankets and pulled the one wrapped around her closer. He stared down at her sleeping for a few minutes before he made his way downstairs to clean up what mess they’d made.

His phone made a noise while he was in the kitchen rinsing the cups out. He opened his phone and saw a message from Amber, saying she was awake and wanted him to come over. Since he knew he wasn’t going to sleep now, he figured he might as well head over there. Before he left, he stopped by Eliza’s room again, making sure she was okay. Her face was the only thing visible between the covers and his Fedora hat she was still wearing. His phone started ringing, and he silenced it before it could wake her up.

The screen read “Amber” and he knew she was becoming impatient. With one last glance at Eliza, he turned and walked downstairs and out the front door.