Right Here Waiting

Eliza woke up to bright sunlight. She wasn’t sure how she’d woken up until she flipped over and she heard her phone ring. Groaning, she realized that the person was going to keep calling until she woke up.

She placed the phone to her ear after pressing the green button. “What?”

“Oh, thank God you’re awake,” she heard Val say from the other end.

“What fucking time is it?”

“It’s like 7:45, but I need you to wake up. I need to come over earlier.”

She’d been asleep less than an hour. She groaned but sat up, something falling off of her head. She reached behind her and pulled Brian’s hat from the night before. She smiled before answering Val. “Uh, yeah… I still have that errand to run.”

“I know you do, and I’m sorry, but I’ve got to get out of this house. Brian came over at an insanely early hour and I honestly don’t want to know what they’re doing in there. Can I get ready at your house?”

Eliza’s smile fell, and her heart did this little squeeze thing at Val’s words. “Oh, well sure, I guess so. I’m like ten houses down from the guys. There’s a light blue Honda out front.”

“Thank you so much! I’ll be there in like twenty minutes. I’ve already showered, so you don’t need to worry about that.”

“Okay, I’ll see you then.”

She hung up with Val and groaned, falling back onto the bed. With major effort she pulled herself from her bed and showered. She pulled on a pair of jeans and a blue tank-top and made her way downstairs to clean up. When she went to the back deck, she saw the bench was put back in its place. Confused, she walked back to the kitchen and saw the coffee cups were cleaned and drying in the rack. The pillows were back on the couch in the living room. She went to go make a fresh pot of coffee, but found the filter and coffee grains were already set up. To the right of the coffee pot, a note read: You’re welcome. She smiled, and pressed the start button.

"Rough on the outside, soft on the inside; typical rock star," Eliza said out loud.

Val arrived a few minutes later and they went upstairs to finish getting ready. Eliza slipped on a loose fitting grey t-shirt and her boots. A light grey scarf was wrapped around her neck, and she threw her hair up messily into a bun. Val was dressed in a teal fitted top, matching high heels, light jeans, and a matching black feather necklace and earrings. Before they left, Eliza grabbed the Fedora from her bed and shoved it on her head. They made their way out the front door and headed for Val’s SUV.

“You don’t care if I smoke, do you?” Eliza asked.

“Not at all, as long as you tell me where you need to go on your errand,” Val said.

“Oh. I uh, I need to go to the hospital.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just need to visit someone.”

“Oh, okay. You want me to just drop you off up front?”

“You can park, and I’ll walk up.”

“Sure,” Val said, stealing a glance at Eliza.

Val knew they weren’t best friends and that Eliza wouldn’t tell her things immediately, but she’d earned the guys’ respect. Val sensed something about Eliza that was different from a lot of people she’d met in the past. Whereas people whom she’d gone to school with before had jumped all over her and the guys wanting attention, money, and fifteen minutes of fame, Eliza didn’t. She genuinely cared about the guys, it seemed. She had sat down and helped them with music the day before , she’d gone with Johnny because he’d needed a favor, not because he was in a famous band. In fact, she’d almost seemed mad that Johnny was in the band, but she got over it. Val watched as this girl connected with Brian instantly, something that Amber had still yet to do.

They pulled up to the hospital and Val found a spot up close. Eliza said she’d be back shortly, and hopped out of the car. She turned on the radio, flipping through the stations until something she recognized came on. Then, below her, a phone started ringing in the cup holder. Val looked down and recognized Eliza’s phone. Looking up, she saw Eliza wasn’t far from the car. She picked up the phone and read “lawyer.” across the screen. Quickly taking the key from the ignition, she jumped out of the car and followed Eliza.

Once she entered into the hospital, Val lost sight of Eliza until she saw Eliza talking to a nurse, and disappear into an elevator. She asked the nurse where Eliza was going, saying she was a friend and had her phone. The nurse told her to go to the sixth floor and the charge nurse would point her in the direction. Val thanked her and walked into the elevator, pressing the button for the sixth floor.

As she exited the elevator, she saw Eliza’s hair go into a room and she followed. She passed a sign on a wall that said “LONG-TERM CARE” and Val’s eyebrows drew together. Who could Eliza be visiting here? She made her way to the door she saw Eliza disappear through, and pushed it open slowly. The room wasn’t very well lit, and it was almost dark. As she came to the opening of the room, she saw Eliza sitting on the side of the bed next to a body.

“Eliza, what are…”

Eliza whipped her head around and saw Val standing there staring at her. Val’s eyes moved to the face of the body lying below Eliza and gasped. Her hand covered her mouth and her eyes got huge.

“Val, what the hell are you doing here?” Eliza gasped, standing up.

Val was almost on the edge of tears. From behind her hand, she managed to ask, “Eliza, is that your dad?”

Eliza looked from Val back down to her father’s motionless body. Her voice broke as she spoke. “Yeah, that’s him. He was in a car wreck two months ago. He was going to the airport to fly to Boston. I had an audition for this record company, playing guitar. I was almost done when my roommate Katie burst in giving me the news.”

Val looked from Eliza’s dad back to Eliza, saw how red Eliza’s eyes were and took pity on her. She looked like she hadn’t really let it sink in yet. Val didn’t know how Eliza was keeping it together; she’d already been through her mother’s death, and now her father could be next. She wasn’t 25 yet and she was about to lose both of her parents. Suddenly, Val had so much more respect for the girl standing in front of her. She wasn’t crying, but looked like she desperately needed to.

“Is that why you haven’t played guitar?” Val asked, still looking at her dad.

When she didn’t speak, Val glanced up and saw her nod.

“Oh, my God, Eliza,” Val said, rushing forward and hugging her. Eliza sobbed dryly on her shoulder. “It’s okay, honey.”

“No one but Katie knows he’s here,” Eliza said as she shook more.

“It’s okay, Eliza. You don’t have to explain, honey,” Val said, comforting Eliza.

“I don’t want him to die,” Eliza whispered. “Please don’t tell anyone about this.”

Val pulled back from the girl and looked at her. Silently, Eliza was pleading with her to not ask questions. She didn’t want to have people pity her more. Everywhere she went now in Huntington, people talked about it. People said how sorry they were for her, as if he’d already died. He wasn’t dead. Not yet, anyway. When her back was turned, she knew they were saying how awful it was that her mother had died and now her father was dying, too. Eliza hated being pitied and didn’t want it from her closest friends.

Val could tell this was important to her and smiled softly, smiling. “Okay.”

An hour later, after Eliza had calmed down and explained everything, she and Val made their way to the car. Eliza felt much better after finally getting it off of her chest. Val was very understanding in the whole situation, and constantly told her how brave she was being.

“You really haven’t played guitar since then?” Val asked, turning out of the hospital.

“I played once, the night of the party at the club. Well, it was that day, but Brian and Zacky heard me. Zacky went home and Brian came back over and he played while I sang. I just don’t feel right doing something that caused him to be like this,” Eliza said, scanning through the radio stations. She stopped on a rock station playing a Flyleaf song and started singing along.

Val listened to Eliza sing the song. The female singer was carrying a tune and suddenly switched to screaming. Eliza followed along, nailing the screaming. Val was impressed, considering she’d screamed before and knew what it took to switch from singing to screaming. More and more, she was becoming impressed with Eliza. Eliza could help the guys out in a way she couldn’t, with the production aspect, and even singing. Val could definitely use another girl around these boys; Amber was fine and all, but she didn’t even attempt to connect with all the guys. Eliza had a past with all of them except Johnny, and he was the one who brought her to the group. She worked well with them and they all had a connection with her.

“You should do that more often,” Val said, smiling sideways at Eliza.

“Scream? Absolutely not,” Eliza said, laughing.

"No, I meant singing, silly."

"Oh, singing. Duh, of course."

“You do know you can sing, right?”

“Yes, I know I can sing,” Eliza said.

“Well that’s one bridge we don’t have to cross,” Val laughed.

“What do you mean?”

“You know you can sing. That means we only have to work on getting you to play guitar.”

“Val, I don’t think—”

“You will play the guitar again,” Val said as they got out of the car at the mall.

“Whatever you say,” Eliza laughed, and they walked arm-in-arm through the doors.



Brian was asleep beside her. Amber looked around her room, trying to find something to do until he woke up. She’d tried waking him up but knew it was useless. She was bored, and wanted to do something. The clock beside her bed read 11 a.m. and she’d heard Valary leave way earlier. She’d rolled her eyes as she listened to Valary talk to, who she assumed was Eliza. Even thinking the name Eliza made Amber shudder. There was something off about that girl. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but the past couple of days have made Amber feel suspicious of this girl.

Suddenly, her phone rang. “James” read across the front of the screen, and she smiled, recognizing her cousin’s call.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Amber,” came the deep reply.

“James! What the hell are you doing?”

“I’m just on break at work, figured I hadn’t talked to you in a while and I wanted to see how you were.”

“I’m good,” Amber said as she got out of the bed and walked into the hallway. “You know, still in nowhere California. How is it back east?”

“It’s cold here. California is the reason I was calling, actually. I’m supposed to be coming out to California to see a friend. I can’t remember where, but I know it’s somewhere near L.A. I was hoping that maybe I could meet up with you and we could hang out while I’m out there.”

“That would be great! When do you come out?” Amber asked as she descended the steps and walked towards the kitchen.

“I’m riding out with a friend next month. It should be about the middle of March, I’m thinking.”

“How long are you going to be here?”

“I’m not really sure; maybe a couple of weeks or more.”

“I’m so excited to see you!”

Whatever James said was disturbed by a loud crash coming from the front of the apartment. Amber made her way through the kitchen and appeared in the hallway in time to hear Brian holler as he walked out the front door.

“Gotta go meet the guys; I’ll call you later!”

“James, hold on. BRIAN!” she hollered, but he was already out the door.



They had stopped at the Starbucks in the mall, and Eliza was adding sugar to her drink as Val talked to Matt on the phone.

“Okay, so the guys are ready whenever we are,” Val said as she hung up the phone.
“It’s not even two yet, and they want to drink?”

“It’s a ritual, Eliza,” Val said, smiling.

“So we’re really going bar-hopping?”

“Yeah, we are. We’ve done it for as long as I can remember.”

“Well, they can wait a few minutes, there’s one more store I want to go to,” Eliza said, pulling Val forward.



Brian and the guys had loaded up their cars and drove downtown. The first bar they had planned on going to was Johnny’s Bar. They always started here, as a tribute to the place they’d go when they were younger to think about their songs. Matt had told them Val was going to meet them there.

They all filed into the bar, immediately taking over the pool table area, and ordering drinks. Jimmy and Brian started up a game of eight ball, Johnny and Matt taking over another table. Zacky sat on a barstool nearby and watched.

“Hey why do you think it is that Eliza doesn’t play guitar when we know she’s so good?” Zacky wondered out loud.

“Maybe some shit went down and she doesn’t want to,” Matt said as he cued up for the shot.

“Maybe she thinks she sucks,” Jimmy said, leaning on his pool stick.

“Maybe we should ask Brian,” Johnny announced.

Everyone stopped and looked at Brian, leaned over the pool table to line up his shot. “Why are we asking me?” he said and shot the cue ball into the solid ball and sunk it.

“She gravitates toward you, dude,” Matt said.

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“It means she wants your dick, dude,” Jimmy said, signaling for his second drink.

“That’s not what the fuck I meant, asshole,” Matt said, rolling his eyes at Jimmy. He looked toward Brian and spoke again. “I mean when we were in the studio yesterday, she kept her eyes on you as she sang, she smiled more at the club when you were around.”

“Whatever, dude. That’s just because I spent more time with her than you guys. That doesn’t mean anything,” Brian said as he took a sip of his beer, watching Jimmy shoot.

“I still say she wants your dick. Think about it! Synyster Cheese. What a great couple name for you guys,” Jimmy said as he watched his ball sink into the pocket.

Everyone laughed and ribbed Brian.

“What did you tell Amber you were doing?” Johnny asked Brian.

“I didn’t tell her shit. She was on the phone when I ran out of the house. She’s called me like five times, but it’s a ritual, dude. She needs to understand that I need guy time. I wish she could be more like Val.”

“Yeah, but Val’s been with us since the beginning. She knows how we are,” Johnny pointed out.

Brian’s thoughts were suddenly brought to Eliza. She understood how the guys were. She’d gone to high school with them. His thoughts were interrupted as Matt shouted out.

“What if she goes on tour with us?”

“Who?” Johnny asked confused.

“Eliza. She could help Val out with merchandise and stuff.”

“I like it!” Jimmy exclaimed, raising his drink.

“Brian why don’t you ask her if she wants to?” Matt said after all the guys nodded their agreement. He was about to say something else when he suddenly smiled, looking behind them all.

Brian followed his gaze and saw Val walking towards them, Eliza right behind her. His eyes swept her simple look and he couldn’t help but think how she could literally pull off anything. Her bright pink hair was piled up in a messy bun behind her head, and he smiled as he recognized his Fedora on top of her head. Her eyelids were a smoky grey color that made her hazel eyes seem green. A loose fitting grey top was thrown over a light blue tank top, and boots were on her feet. Her bracelets were present again, and she was smiling.

She sat down on a barstool next to Zacky and smiled at the guys. When her gaze got to Brian’s, her smile got wider. Brian couldn’t help the smile from coming to his face, too. Val handed her a drink and he watched Eliza down half of her beer before putting the bottle down. He was impressed. Zacky had apparently been watching her and offered her his unopened beer. She laughed, and Brian was nudged by Jimmy, bringing him back to his game.

Hours later, they were still at Johnny’s Bar. They’d taken a vote and decided to stay in one place tonight. Brian and Matt were playing a game of pool while Johnny, Val, Eliza, Jimmy and Zacky sat in a booth, eating their dinner and talking. Eliza was squished between Jimmy and Zacky, and all four of them were focused on her.

“What’s it like to live in Boston?”

“The exact opposite of Huntington, really,” Eliza said, popping a fry in her mouth. “No one cares who you are, unless you’re famous. If you’re in their way, they will run you over. Everyone’s so fast-paced there, it’s ridiculous. It’s really freaking cold a lot of the time, too. Summer’s fine, I mean, but it’s definitely not like California.”

“Why Boston?” Zacky asked, curious.

“It was a new start. I applied to Berklee on a whim, and I ended up getting in.”

“I still don’t understand why there, though,” he said, taking a sip of his beer.

“I applied to Julliard and didn’t get in. To me, Berklee was the next best thing.”

Jimmy choked on his drink. “You applied to Julliard?”

Eliza smiled and looked at him. “Yes, I did apply to Julliard.”

“That’s impressive.”

“You majored in production, right?” Matt asked, leaning against his pool stick, listening to the conversation.

“Yes, I did. I can produce, compose, sing, and play music,” Eliza said smiling.

“So why come back to Huntington? I mean, weren’t you doing fine in Boston?” Johnny asked, curiously.

“I just needed to come back.”

“I don’t get why, though,” Johnny said again.

“Yeah, where’s your dad?” Zacky asked from beside her.

Eliza froze. She hadn’t been prepared for that question. She couldn’t tell them the truth. She didn’t want pity from anyone, especially these guys. She had to think of something quick. Everyone was looking at her and she didn’t know what to say.

“They’re doing karaoke, Liza. Why don’t you go sing something?” Val spoke up.

“Oh! I’ll sing if you do!” Johnny said enthusiastically.

“Sounds like fun,” Eliza said and smiled at Val. She crawled over Zacky to get out of the booth.

As she walked toward the stage with Johnny, she glanced back at Val, throwing her a thankful smile. Brian happened to catch it, and curious, looked back at Val. She could feel him looking at her and turned toward him. He raised an eyebrow and nodded toward Eliza. She just shrugged. Something was up.



Matt was heading to Val’s, so he rode with her. Brian opted to take Eliza home. They pulled into her driveway, and Brian helped her carry her shopping bags into her house. As he set the bags on her bed, he noticed a pink one and immediately weeded it out of the pile.

“You went to Victoria’s Secret?”

Eliza whirled around and saw Brian about to go into the bag and immediately snatched it from his fingers. “That is not for your eyes, sir.”

“Aw, come on! Why not?”

“You have a girlfriend and I don’t think she’d appreciate you going through another girl’s lingerie.”

“You bought lingerie? Fuck her. Please?”

“No, Brian,” Eliza said and threw the bag into her bathroom, pulling the door shut. She turned and studied Brian. “Why are you wearing boarding shorts?”

“I live on a beach, Eliza. Why aren’t you wearing a bathing suit?”

“I’m not going swimming right now.”

“Why not?”

“It’s almost two in the morning, Brian.”

“Sounds like a perfect time to me to go swimming. Get changed, I’ll meet you downstairs.”
Eliza was going to say something else, but Brian was already out the door and down the stairs. She shook her head but smiled at the thought of Brian acting like a kid.

“Hurry up!” she heard from down the stairs.

She immediately pulled her shirts from her body and reached for the two-piece bathing suit she’d thrown in the corner. She threw Brian’s Fedora on onto the bed and let her hair fall free from the hair tie.

She hadn’t fully unpacked all of her clothes from Boston, yet. She’d managed to find a few things on top of the bags she’d packed, but for the most part she was still living out of her bags. Katie was supposed to bring the rest of her things when she brought Eliza’s car in mid-March. Eliza couldn’t wait to see her. While she’d been packing, Katie had to work, and she couldn’t see her much. They’d talked a little since Eliza had gotten here, but it was nothing like the real thing.

She shimmied out of her jeans and underwear and pulled the bottoms on. She didn’t have anything to cover up with and didn’t feel like digging into her bags for something, so she reached in one of the bags to the new mini dress she’d bought that day and slipped it over her head, ripping off the price tag in the process. She slipped her feet into a random pair of sandals and made her way downstairs.

Coming into the kitchen, she saw Brian standing on the beach through the patio doors. He’d once again pulled the bench from the patio to the actual beach. She opened the door and kicked off her sandals before touching the sand. She came to a stop beside him and looked out over the ocean.

“There’s no place like Huntington,” Brian said quietly, taking a hit of his cigarette.

“Thanks, Dorothy. That was really deep.”

Brian glanced at Eliza sideways and saw her smiling. She was joking. He loved how her sense of humor was on a completely different level than his. She was extremely smart, always making smart funny remarks that he knew were really intelligent but the way she said them made them easy to understand. He loved how she could go from completely serious one minute to hilarious the next. Amber was always one extreme or the other. The best thing about Eliza was that most of the stuff she found hilarious, he did, too. With Amber, she found weird things to be funny that really weren't.

Brian reached in his pockets and handed Eliza’s pack of cigarettes to her. She smiled her thanks and lit one up, inhaling deeply.

“We go back to the studio tomorrow morning. We won’t be at home. Do you think you could come by there?”

“Yeah, I don’t see why not. It’s not like I have a job or anything,” Eliza said, smiling.

“Do you want one?”

“Well, I was considering being a hooker. Are you offering?” Eliza said, rolling her eyes.

“I’m trying to be serious, Liza.”

“Sorry,” Eliza said, smiling sheepishly. “Yes, in that case, I would like a job.”

“We go on tour in October. We could always use more merchandise people. I promise you’d have fun. You’d be on the bus with us, everything would be paid for, you could spend your days getting drunk with us and helping Val out.”

Eliza thought about it for a few minutes. “How long are you going on tour for?”

“This one is going to be a long time. Sure, we’ll get time off to come home, but we’re going to be gone for more than a year.”

Eliza’s eyes closed as his words sunk in; a year away from her dad who was still in a coma. Eliza wasn’t sure if he was going to survive or not and the thought of being away from him from that amount of time scared the hell out of her.

“I’ll have to think about it,” she said and threw her cigarette down.

They walked slowly toward the water and Eliza shrieked as the water hit her legs. “It’s freezing!”

“It’s February,” Brian said, laughing. “Come on, Eliza. Please go on tour with us?”

“I don’t know, you guys can probably be really smelly,” she said grinning evilly at him.

“Do I smell to you?”

“Like ass,” she said and threw her head back, laughing.

“That’s it,” Brian said and kicked water up, soaking her.

Eliza’s surprised face made him laugh, and she returned the favor. Before she realized what was happening, Brian was chasing her across the beach. They were laughing and shouting, Eliza trying to keep away from him and Brian trying to keep up. Eventually, Brian caught her from behind and lifted her up, her legs kicking. She laughed harder as he set her down, mentally aware of how nice his arms felt around her body. He didn’t let go of her even after her feet were back on the ground. Instead, he spun her around and started moving.

“What the hell are you doing, Brian?”

“Dance with me, Eliza.”

“There’s no music.”

Brian held up a finger, signaling for her to hold on for a moment and she watched as he pulled out his phone, fiddled for a few minutes, and then music blasted from the small speakers. She laughed as he placed it back in his pocket and moved back to her. She placed her right hand on his shoulder and her left in his hand. The swung around in circles for what felt like forever.

“We should do this every night,” Brian said suddenly.

“Dance?”

“No, come out to the beach. I know I haven’t been to sleep since yesterday morning, but being out here really helps me chill out, ya know?”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Eliza said, smiling.

“So we can do that, then?”

“What, come here every night?”

“Yeah.”

“Sure, if you want to,” Eliza said, and Brian’s smile lit up his face. “What about Amber?”

“What about her?”

“Don’t you stay with her, or doesn’t she stay with you?”

“She used to, sometimes. She hasn’t here lately. Usually she tells me she’s going to stay before she does.”

“I wonder why.”

“I’m not letting her, really. I just don’t want the relationship to get too old too quick, ya know?”

“Yeah, I understand,” Eliza said, and a small part of her got sad. She knew she was attracted to Brian, but hearing him talk about his relationship was a different thing. Why had she even brought Amber up in the first place?

“Can I touch it?” Brian said suddenly.

“What?”

“The piercing on your cheek,” Brian said, his eyes going from her eyes to her piercing.

“I don’t see why not,” Eliza said, confused.

“I just want to know what it feels like, really,” Brian said and his left hand left her waist.

They still moved in time with the song playing on his phone as Brian’s hand rose up to her face. His hand was warm as it cupped her cheek, his thumb brushing over her skin. Eliza’s eyes were drawn to his face, wondering why he wasn’t touching the piercing, and she saw him smiling, softly. His thumb moved slowly from her cheek to just below her eye, grazing over the two balls on the outside of her skin. He moved his thumb back and forth across the piercing. Eliza watched his eyes move from the silver metal back to her eyes and he smiled.

“Didn’t this hurt?”

“It wasn’t comfortable, but my industrial hurt worse,” Eliza said.

Brian’s hand fell back to her waist and they stood in a comfortable silence for a few minutes before he broke it again.

“Why don’t you ever wear your hair straight?”

“Normally I don’t have time to straighten it. I don’t unless I’m going out or something. I love my hair straight, but if I’m in a rush, I throw it up.”

“Well you had time the other night to straighten it. Why didn’t you then?”

“Because the way Johnny talked about it, I wanted to have my hair curly.”

“You should straighten it tomorrow.”

“What time are you going to the studio?”

“We’ll probably be there at like 7:30 or 8 in the morning.”

“Good Lord, that’s early,” Eliza said, looking horrified.

Brian chuckled. “Yeah, especially when I haven’t been to sleep in over twenty-four hours.”

“Are you kidding me? You haven’t slept in a day?”

“No, I haven’t. It’s not a big deal, though. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been without sleep. I’ll catch up on it eventually. Will you wear your hair straight tomorrow?”

“Is it that important to you?”

“Yes, if you don’t wear your hair straight tomorrow I’ll probably die.”

“Fine, I’ll wear it curly.”

Brian pulled away from her. “Come on, Liza, please?”

“Fine, I’ll straighten it.”

“You’re the best,” Brian said, and twirled her around again.

Eliza couldn’t remember the last time she had fun doing absolutely nothing. If she had to guess, she would say it would be sometime she and Katie had spent at the house. She caught herself smiling more and more when she was around Brian. If she didn’t keep a check on her heart, this situation could be dangerous…