Hollywood Hills and Suburban Thrills

We, Sisky and I, walked onto the bus and I was welcomed by several people I did not know.

The three of them were sprawled on the couch, watching television, but the moment the door swung shut, they're attention was on us. I looked down at my shoes uncomfortably.

"Guys, this is Dani Taylor, the girl William has been swooning over for the last couple days," I stared intently down at my shoes to keep the strangers from seeing me blush, "Dani," I sighed silently and looked up at Sisky who was gesturing to one of the three guys, one of the two that were at the diner that day. "This is Mike Carden, Michael Chislett, and Jack the camera guy."

Once the introductions were over with, Sisky sat down at the table and dug into a bag of chips that was there. The Butcher and Gabe had disappeared into the back of the bus, and that left me to stand awkwardly by the door as the bus' motor growled beneath my feet and the wheels began to carry us away from my neighborhood.

Michael Chislett (or at least that's what I thought I remembered his name being) looked at me with wondering eyes. "You can sit down, Dani," he says in a friendly voice. "none of us are going to bite."

"Speak for yourself," Gabe says as he reappeared from the back of the bus and he snapped his teeth at me at what was probably supposed to be a seductive move. I, however, found it amusing instead.

I sat down at the table across from Sisky and watched as the bus merged onto the high and picked up speed. I didn't know how long I had sat there, watching the scenery fly by my window, but Butcher plopped down beside me and abruptly looked at me.

"Can I help you?" I ask politely.

"Yeah, go wake up William." He says with a wide grin and I quirked an eyebrow at him. "He said he wanted to sleep for a while since someone kept him up all last night."

I grumbled my objection that it was William that had kept me awake and decided to comply with Butcher's request. I slithered out of the booth and walked to the back of the bus.

Then, I was in a hallway like area that had four bunks; two on each wall. And at the end of this hallway was a closed door. I pressed the button and the door slid open mechanically and silently and there, in front of me, was William, fast asleep in a huge, white bed.

I stifled a grin when I saw him—his long appendages hanging off the edges of the mattress and his hair disheveled and sticking up at strange directions. But then I noticed just how peaceful he looked while he slept; the way his back rose and fell as he breathed and the way his hair fell into his eyes.

Then I realized just how creepy I was being and I continued with the objective at hand—waking him up.

I walked to the edge of the bed that he was facing and shook his arm gently.

"William…" I whisper as I jostled him, but he didn't wake. "William Beckett…" His eye lids twitched but didn't open. Instead, he drew a deep breath and hugged his blanket closer. I rolled my eyes and this time, jumped onto the bed beside him. "BILLIAM!"

He jumped awake, his eyes wide and looking around until they met mine. Then, to my surprise, the grew wider. "Dani?" he asks in disbelief.

I was confused now. "Yeah, who else?"

He looked dumbfounded—like someone who had just won the million dollar lottery. Then, in the blink of an eye, he was walking toward the front of the bus.

"Guys, why is Dani here?" he hollers as he walked, his legs wobbling from having just woken up.

"She's spending the day with us at Warped." Butcher answer monotonously, flipping a page in the book he was reading.

"But…" William trailed off, still puzzled. "When did you guys come up with this?"

That got me thinking. "I thought this was your idea, Will." I state, but when he shook his head at me, my eyes snapped to Sisky and Butcher, who were now both forcedly avoiding eye contact with William and me. "Guys?"

"What?" Sisky asks innocently, looking at me for a millisecond before returning his gaze out the window. But as I continued to stare daggers into him, I could see him breaking down, and finally he groaned. "Fine! William never told us to bring you along, but he was being emo this morning when he got back to the bus and we didn't want that to affect how we perform today."

"So we decided to bring you along, and obviously it's not like you were forced into it. You could've just as easily told us no and we would've been on our way."

I nodded reasonably and William ran a hand over his face.

"You guys kidnapped Dani?"

"No. Her mom knows where she is," as Gabe said this, Will's eyes bulged. "she just doesn't know what exactly it is that she's doing." And his eyes returned to normal size, but he still seemed ill at ease.

"William, if you don't want me here, I'll leave."

"No, no that's not it," he says quickly, turning around to look at me, and I could've sworn from the corner of my eye I saw Sisky and Butcher exchange a knowing look. "But what if your mom finds out where you are?" he whispers just loud enough for me to hear.

My corners of my lips twitched upward ever so slightly and I felt the urge to touch his face—his concern negating his good features—but I refused and instead stuffed my hands in the pockets of my jeans.

"Let me worry about that, ok?"

He blew out a breath of clear frustration. Obviously he wanted to worry about me for some reason, but when I sharpened my eyes at him, he nodded reluctantly and walked toward the back of the bus. But before he reached the back bedroom once again, he turned to call me name and when I faced him, he waved one hand, signaling me to follow.

Catcalls and whistles erupted in the front of the bus and the blood in my face started to flow faster as I followed behind Will. Once we were in the back bedroom slash lounge room, he closed the door with a flick of the switch and then proceeded to dive onto the mattress and reach for something underneath it.

"I want to show you what we've been working on since you obviously having been following much," he says as he groped around beneath the mattress but finally, he pulled out a tattered notebook, its pages falling out and with Post-Its showing between them. He sat up against the wall of the bus and opened the notebook as I slid onto the mattress beside him and looked down at what he had to show me. "So we've been writing songs for a new album for the last couple of months and we're almost ready to record, but first we have to find a picture for the album cover."

I nodded, only half listening as my eye scanned the page which was filled with lyrics. "So pick a picture," I say blatantly, pausing in my reading to look up at him. "surely it can't be that hard."

"Actually, it is." He turned a few pages and landed on one that bared many scribbles and doodles of all shapes and sizes. It was an almost disturbing image, that piece of paper. "The album is going to be called Fast Times At Barrington High, but all we've got for ideas for the cover is this."

And let me be the first and foremost to say that what they had was not much—and it wasn't great, either.

"So, you're asking for my help?" I clarify, taking the notebook from him gently and placing it in my lap.

"If you would be so kind," he replies with a smile. I nodded and grabbed a pen from the bedside table and started to draw random things on a blank page in the book, but nothing was coming to mind.

I started with a plain old high school, trying to collaborate the name of the album with the art work, but that didn't seem as good on paper as it did in my head, so I crossed it on.
Ten minutes later, I found myself drawing bleachers, huge bright stadium lights, and a microphone stand in the middle, but that came out looking ridiculous, so I placed a large black 'x' over that as well.

It had been well over twenty minutes and I was still having one hell of a brain-fart. Ideas were running in and out of my head quickly with just enough time for me to deliberate whether or not they were even worthy of being in this notebook.

As I thought of a better idea after my fourth or fifth failure, I passed the time by drawing a bench. After that, I lined the bench with people—teenage girls and boys like dateless students at school dances. But nothing seemed to be sparking in my mind, so I continued with said drawing, adding detail to the people sitting on the bench, until Will returned after he had departed to get something to drink for both of us.

"Any luck?" he asks as he hands he a can of soda.

I shook my head as I gazed down at my mindless doodle. "No such luck." I answer. He pouted, sitting down beside me on the bed and taking the notebook.

"Let me have a look," he gazed down at the page has he sipped his soda quietly. I watched for his reaction, expecting one of disappointment or maybe even anger at my inability to help. But instead, something twinkled in his eye when he looked at my picture of people on the bench.

"I like this…" he trailed off, pointing a long and thin finger to said picture. "It gives me an idea."

I shrugged, thinking he was just patronizing me to make me feel a little better. "Glad I could help." I say lamely, sliding down the wall until I was flat on my back. My eyes were heavy for having only gotten a few hours of sleep that previous night, and from the deep rings beneath William's eyes, I could only bet that he was just as tired as I was.

I yawned and he looked at me. "Sleepy?" he guess correctly, smiling adorably down at me as I nodded. "Go to sleep then. I'll wake you up when we get there."

"I can't just fall asleep, Slim," I say condescendingly and he looked at me, amused. "my mind isn't that simple."

"I bet I can get you to go to sleep." He challenges, sliding down the wall as well to meet me at eye level.

"Try it," I say, "I dare you."

He smirked and laced one hand in mine as he scooted his face closer to mine. And then, he started to sing…

"Today is gunna be the day that they're gunna throw it back to you. By now you should've somehow realized what you gotta do. I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now…"

It wasn't only the interesting choice song that had me speechless. It was also the way he was looking at me, his deep brown eyes boring into mine with such intensity that I thought I would spontaneously combust at any given moment.

"Backbeat the word is on the street that the fire in your heart is out. I'm sure you've heard it all before but you never really had a doubt. I don't believe that anybody feels the way I do about you now…"

My eyelids were becoming heavier as his soothing voice flowed into my head, numbing out any buzzing worries and fighting off any impending thoughts. Never had I felt so tranquil while still conscious.

"And all the roads we have to walk are winding. And all the lights that lead us there are blinding. There are many things that I would like to say to you but I don't know how…"

"Because maybe you're gunna be the one who saves me. And after all, you're my wonderwall…"

My eyes were closed now and I could feel my subconscious state-of-ease taking over. But before I was completely out, I could feel William's hand start to slip out of mine, so I tightened my hold.

"Don't leave," I mumbled, but I couldn't promise I said it out loud or not. Either way, William's hand moved back into place against mine, and a soft laugh and heart-stopping laugh sounded in front of my face, a hot breath blown out with it.

"If you insist, love." He replies, and I felt the mattress tremble beneath me as he situated himself beside me and I allowed my dreariness to take me under, and the last thing I heard was William yawning plainly beside me.