Wanted

“BACON, BACON, BACON!”

“Jimmy, shut up or I’m going to ruin it.”

“IT’S BACON!”

“You’ve been watching too much television.”

“I LOVE YOU, I LOVE BACON!”

“SHUT UP!” four voices came from the living room.

Eliza laughed and looked over her shoulder at the group in the living room. Jimmy and Katie were sitting at the island with her in the kitchen, but the others were watching Johnny and Matt play Xbox. He’d brought it with him, claiming he needed it, and immediately set it up in Eliza’s living room. Her eyes connected with Brian’s momentarily and he winked at her. Eliza’s smiled widened a bit before turning back to the stove where the bacon was almost done.

She took the meat out of the pan and took it off the burner before bringing up another one to make eggs. Katie came around to help her out, picking up a griddle and setting it up to make pancakes. Jimmy took the bacon pan and washed it out before setting it in the dishwasher and making his way back to the island to sit down.

Katie brought up some conversation, and Eliza talked idly, but she didn’t really pay attention. Jimmy and Eliza had gotten in around four in the morning, and apparently Jimmy hadn’t slept because he woke her up at seven. All the guys trickled in around nine, and she was cooking breakfast for everyone now. It was almost reminiscent of the times she cooked back in California…almost.

She heard curses from the living room, and glancing in she saw Johnny smiling and Matt looking frustrated. She turned back to the eggs, taking them out and putting them on a plate so she could make more. Feeding six guys and four girls was exhausting, but she was glad they were there. Wiki and Val were on the computer in her makeshift office, and Brian, Zacky, Johnny, Thomas, and Matt were playing or watching the game.

She finished the second batch of eggs and announced breakfast was ready. As expected, everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and came in. She wasn’t that hungry, and hung back to drink her coffee. By the time Johnny got his plate, there was no more bacon. He didn’t say anything but Eliza saw him.

A plate appeared in front of his face and he smiled.

“I set your bacon to the side because I know you like yours a little more burnt,” Eliza said.

“You really are the best.”

After breakfast and after Matt lost a few more times, he decided he’d had enough of Call of Duty and set the controller down.

“It’s fucking bullshit!” he hollered.

“Hey, Matt?” Eliza said.

“What?”

“Why don’t you sing ‘Falling Away from Me’ for us?”

The entire group laughed, remembering Matt’s difficulty with the song on stage with Korn.

“HAHA – go fuck yourself,” he said with his middle finger in the air.

“I’m just saying, I knew the lyrics when I was thirteen.”

“Yeah, well, you can still go fuck yourself.”

Eliza suggested they play ‘Just Dance’ and she sat on the couch, laughing to the point of tears. Watching a huge Matt in his “Fuck your Morals” shirt and a spastic Jimmy dance to “Jin Go Lo Ba” was probably the best thing she’d ever seen. She was beyond glad she had Jimmy’s camera to catch it on tape.

Later on, Katie caught Eliza texting with a smile on her face. Katie glanced around to see Brian sitting in a chair with his arms crossed over his chest. She glanced back at Eliza to see she’d finished sending the text. Inconspicuously, she glanced back at Brian and watched him for a few seconds. He didn’t move, nor did he take out his phone. She glanced back at Eliza to see her pick her phone back up, a smile on her face. A frown settled on Katie’s face as she wondered who Eliza was texting.



The next morning, Eliza lay awake in bed. She held her phone above her head, reading the text messages from Brian. She’d known Katie was watching her, which she told Brian to not text back for a while. She'd tried to convince Brian to come over, but even when she explained that Jimmy knew, he still said no.

Suddenly, there was a knock on her door.

“Yeah?”

Jimmy stuck his head in. “I wanna show you something.”

She groaned, but threw back her covers and crawled out of bed. She pulled her shorts a little more down her legs and scratched her head. Her hair was thrown into a bun and she grabbed her glasses on the way out of the door. He led her to the studio she’d built in the third room and sat her down in one of the rolling chairs. He sat down in the other and started messing with the computer.

“What’re you showing me?”

“I wrote some new songs for the next album,” he said, still looking at the computer. “I want you to check them out. We also got a few more bits of some of the songs I played for you last week done.”

“You guys were busy, then.”

Jimmy nodded. Eliza crossed her knees up to her chest and pulled herself closer to the table as Jimmy started the first song. “Save Me” was just a drum song with a bit of guitar, but from what Eliza heard, it sounded amazing. “Natural Born Killer” was almost complete, he said, but he needed to work out a few things.

“So, I started writing this song,” Jimmy said as he started playing another song. “It’s fucking eleven minutes and Gates hates it, but it’s a fucking masterpiece.”

“If it’s anything like ‘A Little Piece of Heaven’, it’s going to be great,” Eliza said, smiling.

“It’s better,” he said with a smile and started the song. “Gates hates it because there’s so many stop-and-start parts for it, which is really his fault, since he writes so many of his solos, but I did a little bit of this.”

Eliza nodded along with it as she listened to most of the whole thing.

“What are you guys calling this album?”

“Well, we’ve been toying with a few things, but probably ‘Nightmare’ for the song.”

“Do you have that?”

“Fuck yeah, I do,” Jimmy said before clicking the mouse a few times.

The song started off slow, with bells playing, and quickly turned into a head-nodding song. Eliza smiled thirty seconds into the song as she heard the familiar rock sound.

When the song ended, he clicked on another song, but didn’t play it immediately.

“Okay, so this song is like…really emotional, just to let you know.”

“Am I going to cry?” Eliza asked, warily.

“You might.”

She rolled her eyes towards Jimmy. “What’s it called?”

“Well, it’s not completely finished, but this is ‘Death’,” he said before pressing play on the track.

A melodic tune with a dark undertone hit her instantly, soon followed in with drums. She closed her eyes as she moved her head along with the song. She found herself tapping the piano part with her fingers onto the desk in front of her until the melody changed and a few stanzas were different, before going back to the same tune. Jimmy’s voice rang out, somewhat sad but deep. She let his voice wash over her singing the verses and choruses, an ode to someone.

“I love it when you write songs,” she whispered during a piano breakdown.

He smiled at her, with her eyes still closed, completely enveloped into the music.

The song ended and Eliza opened her eyes. “Play it again, Jim.”

The corner of his mouth lifted a bit and he pressed play again. Eliza got up and pulled her keyboard closer to her and cut it on.

This is what he loved about Eliza; how she could easily get into any kind of music and see much more than normal people would. Not only that, but she would find small ways to help the song, which is why he brought these tracks with him.

“What key are you in?” she asked.

He showed her and wasn’t surprised at all when she picked up the piano tune within seconds. She had him pause during the first verse, and showed him a way to bring the melody up an octave, working in with the words. She pushed her chair out of the way and let him play it, loving the way it sounded.

Glancing up, Jimmy saw Eliza’s eyes closed again and he continued playing.

“Let it burn, under my skin, let it burn,” Eliza sang perfectly.

He listened to her voice get slightly fuller and louder at the end of the last word, and yet again it was perfect. She added in a bit of fluff during one of the verses, pretty much summing up his entire song.

“Jimmy?”

He didn’t look up from the piano, but she knew he was listening.

“Are you okay?”

Jimmy leaned back in his chair and Eliza lit a cigarette waiting on him. He didn’t pretend to not know what she was talking about.

“I think I’m gonna be,” he said only.

She cocked her head to the side to look at him as he went back to playing the piano. She immediately started singing.

They messed around in the studio for a while longer before Eliza decided she was hungry. She needed to rest more for the release party that night, and she knew the perfect way to get that rest.

“Hey, Jim?”

“Yeah?”

“How about I make us breakfast?”

“Sweet,” he said, standing up from the chair.

“I’ve got a surprise for you, too.”

“What’s that?”

As they walked out of the studio and passed Eliza’s room, she reached in and grabbed something off of the dresser beside the door. She held it behind her back.

“You’ve got to guess!”

“Really, Cheese? Just tell me what it is.”

She pulled the DVD case from behind her back and watched as Jimmy’s eyes lit up with recognition.

“You bought ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ for me!?”

“Actually, considering you already have it and I realized I didn’t, I bought it for myself, but we are going to watch this bitch.”

“This is why you’re my favorite,” Jimmy said, throwing his arm around her shoulders.