(3 in the morning)
I crawled into my comfortable empty bed after studying my room one last time. Clothes were still strewn about the floor in front of my dresser and mirror. My small vanity on the far wall was riddled with makeup products, magazines, hair-care products, and anything you may find in a girl's bathroom all with a thick dust that permanently clung to the air around it as a result of applying so much powdered makeup. I could write my name in the makeup dust on the vanity mirror.
My walls were striped with three different sized and colored stripes; one stripe, the second largest was a standard dark blue; the largest stripe was an aqua blue that was nearly teal; the thinnest stripe was white and it was used the separate the dark blue and the light blue. My carpet was very interestingly decorated; it was a cheetah-print shag fabric I had found at a local home improvement store. Besides the flashy colors that were probably more appropriate for a teenager, there were many feathers and many dream-catchers hanging from the walls. A large painting hung on the back of my door depicting a native of Ireland on a bluff leading a horse down to the green shores below, feathers in the horse's hair. Four feathers of different birds ranging from a Sparrow to a Hawk were tied to every poster of my bed and a dream catcher hung from the canopy.
Ever since I had learned about the Native-Americans in my American Literature class in Epsom, I had been fascinated. They were like Hippies, but they weren't fake and they lived a healthy lifestyle. Even the old guitar of mine (one I had picked up at a pawnshop, not the B.C. Rich Mockingbird Jimmy had gifted me) had a feather tied around the third fret. Feathers were everywhere, not unlike my posters. Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Who, Jimi Hendrix (with and without The Experience), The Doors, Black Sabbath, Dire Straits, The Yardbirds, Them, The Kinks, ELO, Fleetwood Mac, The Monkees, Mamas and Papas, Loggins and Messina, Elton John, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, (even though Robert had requested not to see his face every time he walked into my room, save the mirrors), and various other posters clung to every inch of my walls. For the sake of Robert-- and to spare myself from any further midnight heart attacks as a results of scaring myself--, I had put the Led Zeppelin poster over my overhead mirror. Sadly, it only covered a part of it, but this way Robert didn't have to see it and I could wake up without my own vivid green eyes staring back at me, ultimately scaring me every morning.
My bed itself was comfy, even if Jimmy had intentionally set it the exact color of Epsom's uniforms to hassle me. The bed was a pillow top with a comforter that became puffier the more air it got, the more it moved around. My pillows were heaps of Heaven and I instantly became drowsy at even the whiff of them; they smelt like me after a long day, a smell I would forever associate with being tired. I felt bad for taking everything I had for granted; back at my old apartment, I wasn't even allowed to paint the walls. That was probably why I went all out on the ones I had now, but it was high time I be grateful... that time being tomorrow.
I yawned and patted my outer thigh, checking that I had changed into my night gown. I had lost all previous memory of allowing Syd to sleep in the bed with me, so when my door opened at a quarter to four, my eyes shot open and I rolled to face my murderer. "Who is it?" I asked groggily.
"Sy- Sy- Syd," slurred a man so heavily intoxicated and high that he couldn't even make out his own name without staggering. He tripped into bed, landing on my legs. I hated drunks. I didn't mind when people got high or did any drugs (save Meth and Heroin of course), but with my own father being a terrible drunk, the very sight of a person staggering or slurring or falling was enough to enrage me to the point of breaking a bottle over their heads. That's not to say I didn't drink, of course; hypocritically? yes, but it was inevitable that I hate the likes of a Drunkard.
"You're pissed on the whiskey again, huh?" I asked rhetorically. He crawled toward my pillow and out faces were close together. I screwed up my face at the smell of alcohol on his breath.
"D-di-dijo do dah!?" he gurgled incoherently. "You know you want this, Princess... you know you do! You want it all, and a bag of chips too-- ha! ha! ha!"
"Good Lord," I groaned reproachfully. "LSD's wearing off, right?"
"Do-do- do you.... You want--"
"'This', I know! I want you to go sleep in a guest room. Or Bianca's room, at any rate. She's sleeping in Jimmy's, the lucky thing." I hadn't caught myself in time. My eyes widened at the last sentence and my heart sped; I was thankful only an unconscious man had heard me say that I was jealous of Bianca-- was I?
"See, they're sleeping together... What'd'you say we shag, eh?" he burped in my face and I whined before turned to face the other way. "They're sleeping together. Why don't we?" Syd pushed his way into my bed behind me and my eyes widened more, worried he would rape me or do something of which I was not strong enough to deflect.
"Syd, get out of my room. I want to sleep and I'm afraid you're going to--"
"To what? Have a good time? Why I- I think I might." Syd wrapped and arm around me and I swatted him away, only for his arm to tighten. I was surprised when I instinctively screamed.
"Help! Help! Jimmy! Robert! John! Bonzo! Bianca! Cheever! HELP!" I screamed, terrified. "Help!"
"Oh hush, you tease," Syd slurred. He clamoured over me, resting while half-on, half-off of me, his face near mine. I tried to punch him but he grabbed my wrists quickly; very quickly for an intoxicated man. I screamed for help again and he kissed me, dripping Jack Daniels and whatever else he had practically inhaled tonight all over my lips. "Now, Peach, Syd's gonna... gonna take you to a place you've never known--"
The door to my room opened and the light flipped on. I was hoping to God it was Jimmy, here to save the day, but it was Robert, woken from his slumbers by my blood-curdling screams of sheer terror. "What?" he muttered before fully understanding the scene playing out in front of him. He stomped over to the bed, grabbed Syd by the left pant leg and under his neck, and pulled him off of me with a strength only men with adrenalin rushes would know.
"Geroff me!" Syd snarled as Robert knelt over Syd, his fist raised. Jimmy entered the room with a white shirt and briefs on, Bianca close behind him in her pink night robe.
"What's going on?" Jimmy asked, his messy hair bouncing wildly as he glanced between me and the brawl between Robert and Syd on the floor. He rushed over to pull Robert out of the fight and Bianca ran to me, wrapping her arms around me as I sat up in bed.
"What happened, dear?" she asked soothingly. John and Bonzo barged into the room together in a trot; both were shocked at the sight of Jimmy holding back Robert and Syd on the floor in the fetal position with Bianca and I hugging in bed.
"What in the Hell?" Bonzo asked no one in particular. He looked at me. "Are you alright?"
"Fine!" I announced loud enough for everyone to hear. Jimmy turned his head to study me up and down, making sure it was the truth. He lingered on my raised knees before turning back to Syd. "Syd was trying to have sex--"
"He was trying to rape you, he was!" Robert roared, his eyes burning with hatred. "The drunken bastard, I could've killed him, I could have. I heard Jen screaming and I--"
"He told me he dropped Acid, too," Jimmy added, cutting Robert short. "That's why I was surprised when he said Jen would let him sleep with her." My heart sank as I realized the emotion in Jimmy's eyes just a few hours earlier that resembled jealousy was just worry.
"You're positive you're feeling okay?" Bianca asked me quietly while the boys discussed what to do with Syd, incapacitated on my carpet. "You could sleep with me in my room! Jimmy'll be fine being alone one night."
"No, I can sleep in here," I said, a suggest burst of excitement hitting me. This had to be the weirdest morning in all my life.
"You sure?"
"Of course," I replied. She gave a disappointed lip-pucker and kissed me on the cheek. "Thank you." I addressed the room, now. "Will you please all get out of my room so I may sleep?"
Eventually everyone left with Jimmy loitering at the door. "I'll be in bed soon, Bumblebee," he told Bianca. "I need to make sure everything is okay with all of my house-guests." Once everyone had left, Bonzo leading Syd down to the couch in the living room once he awoke, he closed the door and walked to my bed softly. I pouted and drew the blankets up to my neck as he settled down beside me. I scooted so he could lay next to me.
For the longest minute, neither of us said anything and neither of us moved. I could only see the slightest sliver of his forehead above the Zeppelin poster and I wanted so badly for him to break the tension, to talk to me, or even for him to touch me. Something that would break the tension that had mounted since Syd walked into my room.
"Led Zeppelin?" Jimmy asked as though he weren't in the band. I studied the poster of the four men standing in front of the Mothership, their symbols floating around. "I heard they're an interesting band."
I turned my body to lay on my right side, facing him. "I thought you said Syd was a good guy?"
"No one is as good as they are sober," Jimmy concluded, crossing his ankles and interlacing his fingers over his stomach. "You saw his peak of terribleness and Robert's tolerance for such bastard-like actions. He really cares about you, Robert does. Although you're five years older than him, he sees you as a little sister. Sometimes more. Do you have romantic feelings for Robert?"
"No. Do you?"
"Always," Jimmy laughed. "I apologise for the whole ordeal. I figured Barrett would be on his best behavior near a lady of your class, but-"
"'Lady of my class?' You're mad!" I gave a snort of laughter then was caught in a fit of giggles. I crawled closer to Jimmy and rested my head on his broad chest. "Will you give me guitar lessons?"
"Of course, name your day."
I nestled deeper into his chest. "Will you answer any question I have about you and Led Zeppelin?"
"Any time."
"Will you let me take exclusive pictures of you all and sell them?"
"Never."
"Will you spend the night with me?"
"I would love to." I got up and threw the covers from me, making my way around the bed and toward the door. I turned off the light and the moonlight outside illuminated my room in a fresh blue color. I settled back down onto Jimmy's chest and threw the covers over him. He smiled and rested his head atop mine.
"Jimmy?"
"Yes, Jen?"
"Do you regret letting me live here?"
"Not a day goes by that I do."
I smiled to myself. A few minutes of silent fell upon us and I knew I had to interrupt it one more time. "Jimmy?" I whispered again.
More irritatedly, Jimmy responded, his heart beating in my ears, "Yes?"
"Thank you. For letting me live here, for wasting your money on all my ideas, and for tonight. For everything. I owe you a lot."
"You owe me nothing.... Goodnight, Jenni."
"G'night, Jim."
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| My inspiration for this scene! :) |
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