Wanted

All around her, flashes were going off, yelling and there was music in the background. In front of her, Marcus was yelling, and she tried to do as she was told. She turned one way, turned the other, batter her eyes, looked down, smiled, and made an angry face. She placed her back against the shorter girl’s and she smirked towards the camera. Once the director liked it, they moved on to a different pose. They were barely twenty minutes into the shoot and she was already ready to be done with it.

Upon arriving back in New York, Eliza had immediately picked up with the band. They held the auditions for the new drummer like they were supposed to before she’d left for the UK. They’d watched drummer after drummer after gross guy for hours until a small, petite girl with black and white hair and brown eyes walked in, teeth shining and drumsticks in hand. She and Eliza had hit it off immediately. There was something about Wiki that intrigued her and made her feel like an older sister.

Wiki, her real name Wynona, had introduced herself by her nickname. She said she felt like an old woman who should be singing Country music or an actress stealing clothes, and claimed her nickname came from the fact that she could give someone information on the most useless of topics. Eliza had almost fallen over from laughing at the girl, who smiled back broadly. Eliza had just about told her she was hired before the girl had taken a seat behind the drum set, but then she did.

Wiki was all over the place in the most beautiful way. She immediately took off in one of the best drum riffs Eliza had ever heard. About two minutes into it, Wiki dropped one of her sticks. Eliza had seen people do this before, become embarrassed, apologize, and ask if they could start over. Wiki emitted a sound that reminded Eliza of Pee-Wee Herman, bent over, grabbed her stick, and smiled at the group in front of her. She’d maintained a bass drum and snare line with her right hand, taking advantage of the mishap.

“My bad,” she said, and continued to play.

She was almost as crazy as Jimmy was, and Eliza couldn’t stop smiling. As soon as Wiki had stopped her thrashing, Eliza had immediately stood up, made eye contact with Dominic and Hunter, and welcomed Wiki to the band. Excited, Wiki immediately jumped up, knocking a symbol down.

“My bad,” she’d said again, and she continued jumping.

She had this weird little grin, that reminded Eliza of a little kid, and as she glanced to her right, she saw that grin now. They were at some building doing a shoot that Chris, their new manager, had signed them up for. He wanted to go ahead and get as much publicity done as possible before the CD came out.

In the two months she’d been back in New York, they’d come up with more songs, and since most of the tracks were laid out already, they used some of the older songs. There were a couple they wrote new with Wiki, but because the CD had been so close to coming out before their hiatus, and the drama that ensued, they used mostly older music.

The current photo shoot was for Wiki and Eliza, specifically, wanting to get a couple shots of just the girls. Chris had gotten them a sponsorship with Sinful Clothing, a part of Affliction, and they were using Eliza and Wiki as models. They were given free clothes in return for the shoot, and it helped them reach a new audience for their music.

Eliza was exhausted; she wanted to go home, enjoy her glass of Jack Daniels, wait for Annisa to come over with Japanese food, and become a vegetable in front of the television. When Annisa and Wiki left, she was going to Skype with Katie and Val, and maybe even…

She shook her head as the photographer scolded her. She apologized and got back into her character, moving and interacting with Wiki. Another few snaps of the camera and they were done. Eliza couldn’t have been more excited. She immediately thanked the photographer, and moved to the wardrobe room where she changed back into her clothes.

Stepping out of the dress, she pulled on her black legging, socks, bra, and over-sized sweater. She spent the next ten minutes refastening her bracelets to her wrist. She grabbed her purse and the flat-billed fitted hat from beside it, slipping it over her curls, so it was facing sideways on her head. She clipped her sunglasses to the front of her sweater and moved towards the other dressing room to wait on Wiki.

“Did you know it’s supposed to be a horrible winter?” Wiki asked as they made their way down the street.

Eliza smiled at the off-handed comment. She’d gotten used to Wiki’s “Did you know?” questions over a month ago. That’s how she started almost every sentence of hers, and at first it had made Eliza angry, but then she got used to it.

“Is it?” she asked, and pulled out her phone.

She had one new text message and tried to keep her facial expression composed as she read it and replied.

“Yep,” Wiki said, looking up at the sky that looked dark and threatening. “It looks like It’s gonna snow now, but it’s not. I can’t wait for the snow.”

“I fucking hate snow,” Eliza said, peering up at the sky, willing it not to snow.

“Why?” Wiki gasped, as if Eliza had told her she hated chocolate or something.

“I’m from California, Wik. We don’t have snow in my neck of the woods. We have warm weather and barely any rain.”

“Oh, yeah,” Wiki said, scrunching her face and making her gum-chewing more pronounced. “I forget yer from the west coast.”

Eliza laughed as they approached the Starbucks closest to them. They pulled open the door and stepped inside the warm shop. When it was their turn, they both ordered, Eliza a hot chocolate and Wiki a Venti Latte. They waited for their cups and then walked back out of the shop.

“You comin’ over to the house tonight?” Eliza asked, sipping her drink carefully.

“Uh, duh,” Wiki said, making an ‘obviously’ face and then smiling at Eliza. “We’ve got a few more things to go over, anyway.”

“Very true,” Eliza said, nodding. “Annisa is coming over, we’re ordering Japanese, and I think I’m going to be Skyping with Val and Katie later.”

“Sounds like a party to me,” Wiki said. “Did you know Japanese is my favorite food? Right behind Italian, of course.”

“We’re gonna go out tomorrow night, Wiki, I promise,” Eliza said, shaking her head at the younger girl.

They’d spent so much time working on the album and new music and helping Wiki learn the older songs that they really hadn’t had a chance to go out and have fun. They planned a night out with Dominic, Annisa, Hunter, his girlfriend, and a few other people. Tonight, however, Eliza had other plans.

Once they got to her apartment, Eliza immediately threw her things down and headed for her bed. Wiki followed her and made herself comfortable on Eliza’s bed, Eliza’s laptop in front of her. Annisa showed up a few minutes later, food in hand.



“I don’t even know why you’re thinking about it, Eliza,” Val said, examining her fingernails.

Katie sat beside her, staring at the screen. Eliza could tell they were at Katie and Zacky’s house, on the bed. They’d been talking for almost twenty minutes when the ever-popular subject of Brian had come up. Eliza had made the mistake of suggesting that she should text him, and the girls had adamantly opposed.

“We love him, don’t get us wrong,” Val said. “We just think it would be better if you guys didn’t talk for a while.”

“You two are a little toxic,” Katie said, echoing what Val had said.

Eliza had just shrugged them off, knowing they couldn’t understand.

“I’m thinking that I abruptly stopped talking to the guy I’ve been in love with for the past two years. Don’t get me wrong,” she said, stubbing out her cigarette and sitting back in her office chair. “I know all of this was my decision, but maybe I made the wrong one.”

“You’d make the wrong choice if you went back to talking to him now,” Val said, looking at her. “You’re not giving it enough time, Eliza. If you want it to make an impression, and find out how this is really going to work, you’ve got to give it more than two months.”

“Guys, I don’t think you understand.”

“You’re horny, I get it,” Katie said, throwing up her hands.

Eliza laughed, but she didn’t deny it.

“Dude, just go fuck someone else,” Val said.

“Alright, Val,” Eliza said, narrowing her eyes. “How about you and Matt take a break for a while? When you get horny, you go fuck someone else.”

“Point taken,” Val said, grimacing.

“I’ve been with three guys in my life,” Eliza said, laughing. She heard Wiki’s astonished cry in the background, but she ignored the drummer. “It’s not as easy as ‘Hey, let’s go bang’ for me.”

“I understand, but Eliza you took this break because you didn’t know if you could be with him or not. It’s only been two months, and while I realize a decision could be made in two months, you haven’t gotten out there to see other people or anything. You don’t know if you’d fall for someone else or not.”

“For someone who’s dating one of his best friends, you sure don’t want to see me and him together,” Eliza said, looking at Katie. She flicked her eyes to Val. “You either.”

“Ultimately, we do want you with Brian. Hell, it hurt to watch him after you left, but we also want what’s best for you and for your happiness. If you can be happy without Brian, then we’ll back you a hundred percent,” Katie said, leaning forward. “However, if you can’t find anyone else, and you want to give Brian his third chance, then we’ll back you with that, too.”

Eliza blew out her puffed cheeks, and looked at the corner of her computer. It was almost eleven and she felt exhausted. She rubbed her hands over her face and readjusted her hair on top of her head.

“Eliza! You’re six shots behind, bitch!” Annisa yelled from the downstairs.

Eliza whipped her head around and smiled. She looked back at her best friends and smiled.

“You go and get wasted,” Katie said with a knowing smile. “We’ll talk tomorrow, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Eliza said, smiling. “Just let me know when. I miss you guys.”

“Miss you, too,” both girls said at the same time. “Love you.”

“Love you guys, too,” Eliza said, and pressed the red button on the screen, ending the call.

She spun around in her chair and sighed. Pulling up her socks, she reached for her phone and checked it. She had one new message.

“Will you be awake around 1? I want to talk to you.”

Eliza smiled and replied a quick “yes” before putting her phone down. She stood up, pulled the rubber hair-tie from her bun and shook the curls out. She pulled her shorts down a bit and moved down the steps and into living room where Wiki was now hollering for her.

They had three shot glasses filled with brown liquid sitting on the coffee table when she walked in. She rolled her eyes and groaned, but with prodding, she took all three shots in a row. She made a gagging noise and laughed at herself. They poured three more shots, and Eliza downed those, feeling the familiar bubbling in her stomach, signaling she was about to get drunk.



Wiki and Annisa left a few minutes after midnight and Eliza was silly drunk. She was lying on her back, the television muted, and music coming from her iPod docking station. She was playing with the strings on her sleeveless sweatshirt that she’d gotten at the photo shoot when she heard the noise. Tilting her head up, her vision was upside down but she was able to see the black bar across her computer screen, signaling she was receiving a call on Skype.

Smiling, she rolled her body over and wobbled her way to the rolling chair. She clicked “Answer With Video” as her chair kept rolling. Laughter greeted her, and she smiled in return.

“Are you drunk?”

“Absolutely,” Eliza said, nodding. She could feel her bun bobbling on top of her head, which made her laugh even more.

“You look fucking great.”

“Thanks,” she said and stood up. Doing a twirl, she showed off the skin-tight shorts that were riding up her thighs and the sleeveless dark grey hoodie with “Sinful” written on it.

“Did you get that today?”

“Yeah, at the shoot,” she replied, sitting back down. She pulled her hair free from the hair tie, shook out the curls. She pulled the hood of her jacket up over her head and smiled.

“You look beautiful.”

Blushing, she looked down, but the smile was eminent. She put her fist over her mouth and pulled her legs up to her chest. She rested her chin on her knees and looked at the computer. A couple of sounds came through, and her eyebrows drew together. A very loud curse and yell emanated from her speakers and she could see the reaction of frustration.

“I miss you, Eliza.”

She watched him set his guitar down on its stand and he turned around. He took a swig of his beer and smiled at her.

“I miss you too, Brian.”