I Wanna Get Well

“Remember, be careful and if anything gets physical call me and I’ll be right over,” Parker reminded me as he pulled his car to a stop. I rolled my eyes. I would feel happy that he was being so protective of me because he cared if I hadn’t already heard this speech from him five times.

“Shut up already, bro. I’ll be fine. He won’t do anything,” I sighed, unbuckling my seatbelt and pushing my door open. I gave him a smile and small wave. “See you after work.”

“Okay. I’ll call in case I get behind,” Parker informed me. I nodded before climbing out of the car and shutting the door. I gave one last wave before starting off down the street and Parker took off towards his office. I had asked him to drop me off twenty minutes before ten – the time Matt and I agreed I would start work – about two blocks down from Johnny’s home. I needed to clear my thoughts before I had my first day of cleaning up his mess of a home. No one said that’s what my first day would be filled with but I knew it just by the small amount of the home I had seen Friday. Like Parker had said, I was OCD for the most part and that meant the place had to be clean before I could even think about future chores.

It was actually a bit crazy to think of all I had managed to do this weekend, I mused to myself as I placed in my headphones and shuffled the music on my phone. Yeah, as a “congratulations on getting a new job”, Parker had bought me and iPhone 4. I wanted to strangle him but I was happy to have a good phone again. Besides, I didn’t have to lug around a phone and music player since Parker had helped me download bands I remembered, didn’t quite remember, and new ones all together to my iPhone. And I couldn’t lie, the headphones he got me were amazing.

Over the weekend I had also been forced to go shopping by the same annoying brother. He had gone through the few clothes I had and was not happy about how little there really was. He had bought me all these things and as ‘comfort’ he had informed me I could just pay him back in payments. It didn’t help my worries at all since with how much he spent on me would take forever to pay back. But I still couldn’t lie; it was nice to have new clothes. The ones I had were old and felt too tight to me. Parker had bought more – which he claimed fit fine – but he had also bought more baggy things to make me happy.

But besides things that involved my brother spending money on me I had quit my job at the diner and enrolled into some driving classes this weekend. I had to get verified to know I could drive again. Parker reminded me it was just like riding a bike; you never forgot but sometimes you needed a crash course as a reminder. And quitting the diner was actually a breath of fresh air. My boss had been understanding of me needing to quit and was happy for me. She knew I was moments away from killing all the customers inside from my stress and anxiety. She even promised me some discounts whenever I came back in.

I had also taken it upon myself to do a little research on Parker’s boss, Matt, and Johnny. I had found out they were in a band, with their other member, a guitarist named Brian. They were in a band called Avenged Sevenfold and had just suffered terribly. In December their drummer, Jimmy, had passed away suddenly right before they were going to record a new studio album. From what I could gather everyone was still pretty beat up about it and it was shown the most by Johnny’s state and the fact that Brian had disappeared from the group for the past two weeks. That last little bit of information came from Parker instead of the internet, though.

Before I knew it I was walking up Johnny’s front steps. I sighed, unplugging my headphones and winding them up before placing them in my pocket. I raised a fist and hesitated a moment. It was silly to think I wasn’t terrified of this job. Well, not the job exactly, just the person I was supposed to take care of. Even though he was short – which was Parker’s way to “comfort” my worries – he was still intimidating as hell with his muscles and dark attitude. I told Parker it wouldn’t get physical but that was more of just my hopeful thinking. I mean, he wouldn’t try to lash out at a girl, right?

I finally took a deep breath and rasped my knuckles on the wooden door. After a few moments of no sound on the other side I tried again. When I got no reply still I pulled out my phone. Matt had been pretty sure this would happen so he had given me his cell number to call in case it did. I dialed the number - only one of four numbers - and waited patiently for him to answer. When he did he sounded out of breath as if he had run to the phone. “Hello?”

“Oh, sorry. I wasn’t interrupting anything, was I?”

Matt’s velvety laugh was my reply. I couldn’t help it, he had a wonderful voice. It was especially shown on their band’s music. “No, you actually have perfect timing. I had just gotten back from my run. I guess Johnny didn’t answer?”

“No, he didn’t,” I replied, leaning back to try to peek into one of the second story’s windows. All I saw were black curtains pulled shut to cancel out any of the morning sun.

“There’s a key underneath the mailbox. Just pushed it to the side on its nail up top,” Matt explained. I followed his instructions to find a small hole in the brick behind the mailbox. I reached in two fingers to come intact with metal. I pulled out the key and shook my head, using it to unlock the door before I placed it back. I twisted the knob and the door swung open before me. I thanked Matt and he chuckled. “No problem. Just call me if Johnny gives you any attitude and I can come over to straighten him out.”

“Will do. Thanks again.” With that we gave out farewells and hung up. I slipped my phone into my back pocket as I stepped over the threshold. I shut the door behind me, locked it, and then listen to the sounds of the house. Or lack of. It was dead silent as if the house was empty. I frowned and headed upstairs to where I figured Johnny’s room was located. I opened the first door on the left to see a bathroom. Next to that was an empty bedroom. I could only assume the guestroom. Across from that was only one door. I rolled my eyes, mentally scolding myself for being so dumb. Of course the master bedroom would be the bigger room.

I pushed opened the door silently to see the same black curtains I had seen outside. They were pretty thick since I couldn’t see anything that the light from behind me didn’t touch. And to be honest, there wasn’t much it did touch. All I could see were clothes and different kinds of trash covering the floor so heavily I couldn’t tell what color the carpet was. I cringed and tried to locate a bed in the darkness. I found a king sized bed with what I guess was a human mass in it. I guess Johnny was still asleep. Instead of trying to wake him I simply shut the door and walked away. I had too much to clean as it was without his mess of a bedroom.

I decided to start with cleaning the entertainment room. But I needed trash bags. Lots of trash bags. I went into the messy kitchen and tried to ignore it as much as I could as I searched for the bags I needed. After a few minutes I finally found a package full of them under the sink. I placed them on the counter before getting out my phone and plugging in my headphones again, placing them into my ears. Once my music began to play I trudged over to the entertainment room again. Thirty minutes and three full bags of trash later, the room was actually clean minus the clothes piled in a corner. I was going to gather up all of the clothes before dealing with the washer.

I repeated this process with the living room and the dining room, both messy in their own ways. An hour and twenty minutes I already needed to take out six bags of trash. And I still hadn’t started the laundry! Once all the bags were out of the curb I went into the laundry room to grab an empty basket. By the time I had tossed all the clothes I found in it was over the rim. I cringed, holding it from my body as I headed back to the smaller room next to the kitchen. I quickly started the load, some clothes not fitting in the wash. But that was fine; I still had upstairs to clean. Once I cleaned the basic gist of upstairs I would run back through the other rooms to deal with the chemical cleaning.

As I stepped into the kitchen to begin on that, I saw Johnny sitting at the counter with a mug of coffee in hand. Deep purple bags were under his eyes and his messy hair was just as greasy as it was yesterday. Today, however, he was only dressed in boxers. I blushed lightly, looking away from him and pulling a bag out of the box which sat on the counter. “Good morning.”

“How long have you been here?” Johnny grumbled. I rolled my eyes. Definitely not a morning person I could tell.

“Since ten o’clock,” I replied with a small shrug. I began to toss in the empty cigarette packs, emptied the two ash trays, and tossed in beer bottles. This was a common pattern. Those were the first things to be tossed out in each room, taking away most of the cleaning needed to be done. This guy was either going to die from his lungs or liver failing soon.

“You really have no life,” Johnny remarked.

“No I do. I just have a job too.”

“I have a job.”

“Which you’re not currently doing,” I spoke, planning to end the conversation. He was really beginning to bug me. Here I was cleaning up his mess and he was going to be a dick to me? This guy needed a reality check.

“And yet I’m still getting paid for it,” Johnny pointed out with a smug smile. I turned to him with my nose wrinkled as if I smelt something unpleasant.

“Well at least I grasp the idea of a fucking shower. You reek.” Johnny opened his mouth to say something, but changed his mind and let his mouth fall shut. It was silent until I finished picking up the garbage from the floor. I checked the clock to see it was about noon. Time sure does fly when I had to clean other people’s stuff. “I’m going to clean your room now.”

“What if I don’t want you to?” Johnny demanded as I left the room, my handy-dandy trash bags in hand.

“Too bad. It’s terrible in there and I need to gather your laundry anyways,” I replied simply. I could hear Johnny grumble to himself as I headed up the stairs. I pushed open the door before flicking on the light switch. I almost wanted to vomit. There was so much stuff scattered across the large room I couldn’t even begin to name everything to you. I sighed, turning up the volume on my music. “Momma didn’t raise no quitters.”

One hour – you heard right, sixty minutes – later and I finally finished picking up all the garbage and tossing all the laundry in the hamper that was downstairs and the larger one I had found in the closet. I found out the floor was beige and the walls were a dark red. I huffed, dropping down next to the six bags I had collected full of garbage. How was it even possible to have this much trash in one room? This guy was worse than a fucking teenaged boy!

I sighed and forced myself to my feet. I was heating up and felt like sleeping for the next three days. But of course I had a job to do. I’m just happy to know that after today it won’t be quite as hard. I grabbed the smaller laundry hamper and headed back downstairs. I peeked into the living and entertainment room as I passed to see it as I had left it and to see no Johnny. I headed into the laundry room, tossing the clothes from the washer into the dryer before replacing them with the new load. Once that was complete I headed back to Johnny’s room, grabbing half the bags and leaving to set them by the rest. Soon all the bags were outside and it was time for chemical cleaning.

Once I finished the whole bottom floor – vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, dusting, scrubbing down tables and counters – I saw Johnny again. He had wondered up from a set of stairs that I hadn’t noticed past the laundry room. I sighed, figuring I had yet another room to clean. Johnny noticed and rolled his eyes. “No, you don’t have to clean the basement. That’s the only clean room here.”

“Thank God,” I murmured to myself but Johnny had heard, glaring at me. “Seriously? Can you please take a shower? I’ll make you a meal for lunch in return if you do.”

Johnny studied me for a moment before sighing. “Fine. Hot dogs and mac and cheese.”

“Deal.” I smiled to myself, shaking my head when his back was to me. Like a child. I headed into the kitchen, filling up water before placing two dogs in the pot. I brought another pot and began to boil separate water as I pulled down the mac and cheese box. I walked into the laundry room to toss the dry clothes into the hamper and switch clothes out again. I tended to the food while humming along to the music that was still playing in my ears. I had finished cooking the food and serving him a plate long before he finally wandered in clothed in a Pantera shirt and black jeans. He found me sitting on a bar stool at a large section of empty counter, folding the two loads of dry clothes.

“It’s…clean,” Johnny said slowly, looking around the room. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him. When he showered he was actually pretty attractive. His hair was actually pretty long but combed to the side, like if it were a Mohawk. When he looked at me I blushed, shrugging my shoulders.

“Weird how that can happen, huh?” I folded yet another pair of boxers. After the first three I didn’t feel very flustered with them anymore. Johnny wasn’t used to it though. He blushed, settling on a barstool perpendicular from me to eat his food. He paused, looking towards me.

“Aren’t you going to eat?”

I looked at him confused. I looked back at the water bottle I had taken which was only a fourth of the way gone. I felt bad enough for taking that, why would I take food? Besides, I had a Poptart this morning before I left for work. I felt like enough crap for having that. “No, I’m not really hungry.”

“You’ve been working since ten this morning and have been around chemicals. You need to eat,” Johnny scolded. I rolled my eyes, placing the clothes in the large hamper.

“Looks who suddenly cares,” I murmured darkly.

“Well sorry for me having a fucking conscious. I’ll make sure I don’t anymore,” Johnny snapped back. I trudged my way upstairs with his laundry basket resting on my hip. I don’t need people nagging me.