Dreams.

Cassandra's PoV

"You know," I start, looking at Andy as he reaches me after walking back from performing and talking to some people. "You actually aren't that bad at singing."

"I'm going to go ahead and assume that was a compliment." He says.

"It was Andy. Don't worry." I laugh.

"I'm not worrying." He tells me.

"Sure you aren't." I smile as Tyler walks over to us.

"I was wondering when the two of you would meet. You have a lot in common." Tyler says.

"Do we?" I ask.

"You do." He says. "So did you have fun?" He asks the both of us.

"Don't I always?" Andy contorts.

"You do bring the life to the party." Tyler says. Almost sounding sarcastic. "How about you Cassandra? You have fun?"

"It was different. I'll say that." I admit.

"But that wasn't the question." Andy states. "He asked if you had fun."

"I guess you could say I had fun." I smile remembering the feeling I had when I was on the stage.

"And that smile proves it." Tyler says and turns towards Andy. "She has to be back by 4. Her shift starts at 10. Take care of her." He looks back at my and looks slightly amused before he walks away.

"What was that about?" I ask turning towards the tall guy next to me.

"He was telling me when you had to be back here." Andy explains.

"Why would he tell y-" I cut myself off, realizing Andy's intentions. "How'd he know that you wanted to take me out? And how'd you both assume I'd say yes?"

"You take a while to catch onto things don't you?" Andy laughs. "And I've known Tyler since I got out here. Every newbie meets him. He just associates himself with the good ones though, but that's not the point. Knowing Tyler for so long is a good thing and bad thing. Good because he can be really helpful. He gets this." Andy says gesturing all around us. The kids with the instruments and the loud music playing. "And the other part, the sometimes bad part, is that he basically can read your mind after a while. So be careful." He sighs.

"Okay. So my last question. What made the two of you think that I'd actually go out?" I ask.

"Well, you're still new. You probably haven't seen LA at its best, and you're a teenager. What teenager doesn't want to go out?" He challenges.

"Yeah, well you have a point." I say. "I just have to change."

"You look fine. You don't need to change." He complains.

"I know I look fine. I just don't want to go out in a skirt. I hate them as it is, besides, it'll be freezing."

"Fine. You have 5 minutes." He says.

I rush away and up the stairs and grab an old band t-shirt and ripped skinny jeans, checking in the mirror to see if I was presentable. Brushing my fingers through my hair a few times I go back down stairs and back over to Andy to see him talking to the guy who he had performed with, Chris, I think that was his name. If I was wrong, whatever, I didn't exactly care.

"Back in three minutes. That's good." Andy says when I reach them.

"A Motley Crue t-shirt too." His friend points out causing Andy to smile.

"The girl has a good taste in music. Cassandra meet my guitarist at the moment Chris Hollywood. Chris meet Cassandra Harris, up and coming artist." Andy introduces.

"Nice to meet you." Chris smiles. "I would stick around and hang out with you guys, but my girlfriend will kill me if she finds out I didn't come straight home after the performance." He explains.

"Understandable." I say.

"I'll see you whenever." He tells me. "Andy text me." He leaves quickly. Looking a little freaked out.

"And then there were two." Andy says after a minute causing me to laugh.

"So what are we doing exactly?" I ask.

"I dunno. I was just going to walk around. Maybe point some stuff out until we find something to do." He says.

"What about the sights. They exist right? They aren't just in movies?"

Andy laughs loudly causing people to look at us.

"They actually exist. And we can if you want. It's maybe a 15 minute walk though."

"That's fine." I shrug. "I've always wanted to see Hollywood. It's just one of those things. I've always wanted to be a rock star and LA was always my goal."

"And here you are." He smiles.

"And here I am."

-an hour later.-

"So now you've seen a bunch of rock stars hand prints. How do you feel?" Andy asks.

"Like my hand and foot prints will be there one day." I say causing him to chuckle.

"You and I both Cass. You and I both."

Neither of us said anything for a while after that. We just kind of just walked making our way to Sunset.

"What made you get into music?" Andy asks randomly after a minute.

"Not sure really. My dad would always play records and cassettes as I was growing up. I mean, music types from psychedelic rock to the pop on the top forty charts. As I got older, maybe eight or nine I began to understand the lyric better. I started paying attention to what the songs were saying. I got interested. My dad was in a band growing up, and he had a bunch of instruments in the basement. So I picked up a guitar and it just went on from there. I started writing lyrics of these emotions I had, but could never understand or talk about to my parents. But it was just something I loved. But if you asked me back then if I thought I would be walking on Sunset Boulevard with some guy I met a little over an hour or two ago, staying with some random guy, and preforming, I'd tell you no way, because even though I pictured myself on stage one day, singing and just having fun, I never pictured myself here, I never saw it coming true. But now I'm here..." I trail off, knowing that he understood what I was saying.

"It all seems so easy now doesn't it?" He sighs, I nod as he continues. "But we have to be careful ya know. I mean right now things are going great. But if we lose that picture of what we have going for us..." He pauses. "See that group of kids over there?" He points toward a group of 6 or 7 teenagers around our age all in a circle trying to keep warm. "They were like us at one point in time. Then they lost themselves. Now they're just a bunch of runaways, starving, living on the street, and probably addicted to drugs. We don't want to become like them. We can't. Not if we want to make it. We can't lose ourselves in this fucking place." He had gotten more aggressive as he spoke.

"You're the second person to give me that talk." I admit.

"Well it's true." He says quickly changing the subject. "You hungry?"

"Um, I guess, I don't have any money on me though." I say, cursing mentally for forgetting that I would probably need money.

"Well neither do I, but that's okay because I have a friend who owns a restaurant that just happens to be across the street, she'll feed us for free."

"You know a lot of people don't you?" I joke.

"You have to to survive around here. Don't worry. If you hang around me you'll get to know most of the regulars around here." He assures me as he opens the door for me to enter.

"Well look who it is." A female voice says. "Andy baby, I haven't seen you in ages." An older woman who looks stuck in the 70's walks over to us. "Who's this?"

"This is Cassandra Harris. She's new to town. Cassandra this is Heather Willow, she's like the kid's around here adoptive mother."

"You got that right!" Heather says. "You need anything, place to say, something to wear, something to eat. Hell, you need money, you come to me. Got that?" She asks.

"Yeah, it's nice to meet you Heather." I say politely.

"Aw, honey, Call me Momma H, everyone does, Heather just makes me seem old." She shivers as she says the word old, making Andy laugh.

"You're only going to be 45. You aren't that old." He says causing Momma H to smack him.

"Hush up would you." She glares. "Now, what can I do for you two?"

"We were just walking around, and Andy decided we should get food and brought us here." I explain.

"Alright then, JOEY!!! Make my two babies the special would ya?" She yells to the back.

"Sure thing Ma!" A male voice yells back.

"Now we have some catching up to do." She smiles and takes mine and Andy's hands, leading us to a booth and starts to go on about some random topic.

"So, Cassandra, what made you want to come out here? I mean I know Hollywood is famous for people who want to get into music or movies, and I can tell from the shirt that you're into music. But you still seem young." She says..

"I dropped out of high school." I shrug, "It took some convincing of my parents, but when they made me promise to call them and let them pay my rent each month they allowed it. It was mostly my mom against the idea anyway."

"Yeah, and you aren't even living in the apartment they're paying for." Andy points out.

"Yeah, but it's better than starving. I just hope my mom doesn't find out. She'd flip shit. My dad would be all 'Good for you kid, finding a way to survive.' But my mom, she get's a little protective." I explain.

"I can't blame her. A young beautiful girl like you, coming to live in this big city all alone. I'd be worried too if I were her. But if she gives you any trouble about anything going on just tell her to call me. I'll assure her you're in good hands. I had to do it with little ol' Andy's mum didn't I?" Momma H laughs.

"Yeah, my mom flipped out a bit." Andy says. "But you have Tyler, me, Momma H, hell Chris talked to you for less than a minute and wasn't a total dick, so he likes you.And you're bound to meet more people."

"Hun, from moving out here, you're growing a whole new family." Momma H says with a smile. "And we join it, we're never gonna let go."