A/N: To quote libertycaps666 from YouTube, My trust is in whiskey and weed and Pantera. Check out the song.
Chapter Eleven - Goddamn Electric
I woke up lazily, working out the tension in my body before bothering to open up my eyes. I felt like I did on many mornings: hungover from the night before. My head was pounding and my stomach ached, but I knew I could easily get through it. I just needed to grab the bottle of wine I'd stashed under the kitchen sink a few days before.
I finally opened my eyes and rolled over, but it wasn't my bedroom that I was in this morning. The walls were blue instead of the purple-gray I was used to, and there were no posters, no candles... It took a few seconds of observation to realize I'd never seen this bedroom before at all.
"Seth! Your woman is awake!" I heard a girl yelling from a different room, probably equally as unfamiliar as this one. Her words sent a wave of shock, fear and disappointment through me until my memory caught up with me. Seth had driven me here instead of home and had been a perfect gentlemen, letting me have his bed while he slept on the couch downstairs.
I had company all the time, and none of them would ever have once been able to talk me out of my nice warm bed.
The door to what I now knew was Seth's bedroom popped open, and he walked in all smiles and handsomeness.
"Good morning, beautiful," he said happily. He sat down on the edge of the bed and played with the ends of my hair as I put two fingers to each temple and tried to massage away the pulsating ache in my skull.
"Hangover?" he asked, already knowing the answer.
"I have to get home," I told him, my voice scratchy from last night. I smiled at him as I crawled out of his bed. "Did you have fun?"
"Yeah, it was a little different than what I'm used to," he said brightly. "But definitely awesome. I had no idea you would be into death metal."
I laughed as I pulled my shoes on. "Really? That's usually one of the first things people tend to notice about me. And they're not death metal"
He handed me my keys and we both started out of the room. "Well, when I met you you were playing something a whole lot different."
"I love all music, I guess, but I'm a little crazy so I need crazy music. I can play metal, too. I can play anything, actually."
I was smiling and leading the way down his stairs when someone cleared their throat. I turned my head and saw two women staring me down in a protective way. One was not much older than me, and so beautiful that it was harder to concentrate on the shorter, older figure that had to be Seth's mother.
Talk about fucking awkward.
"Um, Liz, this is my mom," Seth said as he gestured towards her. "And this is my sister, Leah," he said more nervously, waving his hand towards the beauty.
"Hi," I said quickly with a nod. I didn't like moments like this; I wanted the hell out of this wierd house.
"I'm going to drive Liz home," Seth said from behind while I plotted the quickest escape.
"You are?" I asked, spinning around. Seth just smiled, so I grabbed his hand and tugged for the door. "Nice to meet you guys!" I yelled over my shoulder as I bolted for the car. Seth could come over for a little while, but nobody but me was driving this car.
We both slid easily into our seats. "What was that about?" Seth asked, trying to hold back laughter.
"I don't have to deal with any walk of shame bullshit," I told him as I pulled into the street. "They looked like they were wondering who in the hell I was, and why in the fuck I happened to wake up in their house this lovely morning. I figured out was the best way to go on that one."
"They wouldn't judge you like that," he answered a bit defensively.
"It's not judgment. Just human nature. They both know how some girls are, girls that don't give a fuck and don't respect themselves enough. They have to make sure you don't end up with one of those girls." If only they knew just what type of girl I happened to be.
I pulled onto my dirt road, slowing down to take in the scenery and the coolness that settled in the shade here.
"Leah thinks every girl is one of those," he quipped. "She'll like you, though. It's impossible not to."
I parked at the house then and looked over at him, the feeling of his eyes on me making me nervous. He was staring happily, smiling wide with this contentment in his eyes that I couldn't understand. It was like he just kept realizing again every few minutes that the Earth is precious or something. I figured if I kept staring back that he would look away, but he just kept gazing on at me like my face was a map of the stars.
"Mazzaroth," I laughed.
"Huh?" he asked, snapping out of it. Finally.
"I just had a thought about a map of the stars and I remembered what it was called. Mazzaroth."
"The band you were friends with?" He was still stumped.
"That's where their name came from."
He got it then without further explanation, so I hopped out of the car and went for the house. I hadn't actually invited Seth, but I assumed he would follow me if he was hanging out here. He did, so I grabbed everything I'd need to make it through a morning and then joined him on the livingroom floor, emptying my arms of all the stuff.
Seth picked up the tomato juice, eyeing me questioningly.
"Get's rid of the hangover," I told him. "It's actually better if you drink some the night you get drunk," I laughed. I hated Klomatos, but it worked.
"Do you smoke?" I asked him while I popped the lid off my little stash box.
"Cigarette's make me cough," he said flippantly, smelling the tomato juice.
"I wasn't talking about a cigarette." I hit my bowl and blew my hit at him.
"You smoke pot?" he asked, surprised as a PTA Mom at a sex-shop. I wasn't sure if I should laugh at his attitude towards my lifestyle, or if I should hit him and tell him to open his damn eyes up to the world we lived in.
I chose to laugh, since I wasn't really into the violence thing. And I almost sort of liked how he was so innocent as to see something the matter in smoking some weed. I'd burst his bubble again some other day.
"Have you never done it before?" I ventured. I actually wouldn't have been surprised at this point if he said no.
"Once or twice," he lied and I busted out laughing again. Despite my previous thought, it still caught me off guard. This kid must have been so sheltered.
"How old are you, Seth?!"
"Twenty-four," he sniffed, looking almost ashamed. I felt bad for laughing at him.
"Don't be upset," I tried to tell him.
"It's fine - " he started to say, waving his hand at the subject.
"No, seriously. You should be proud of yourself. You're probably the first person I've hung out with in the past few years that isn't always on some type of drug," I told him honestly.
He stared at the bowl as I took another puff. "Seems like you and I are from two totally different worlds."
I nodded my head in response, because that was definitely the truth. "I kind of thought since you hung out with...." I actually could not remember that guy's name.
Big build, black hair, brown eyes, tan skin.... it was...
"Josh?" Seth saved me from my prolonged brain fart.
"Yeah, him. I thought you would be more used to being around this type of stuff. When I met him he knew all about music and psychedelics."
"Psyche - what?" he asked, earning an eye roll from me.
"Never mind," was all I could come up with. I wasn't even getting started trying to explain all that.
"I like music, though!" Seth said excitedly. His moods seemed to rub off easily on me, which was fun because he was always so enthusiastic about simple things.
I got to my feet quickly. "Follow me," I said with a smile. I'd been dying to show somebody all the new equipment I'd picked up. It just so happened that about ninety-eight percent of the people I knew that would give a shit were hundreds of miles away from me and my badass gear.
I led him down the stairs into the finished basement, pushing on lights as I passed. I'd had people come and make this house into perfection before I came to move in; both levels had been painted and installed with new flooring and lighting, all to my specifications. Every room had also been fully furnished in a very unique way. I thought it was a nice step from living with my mother.
"Is that you?" Seth asked. He was looking at a painting I'd done of myself about four months ago, one of the best pieces in my opinion. It always drew attention because I was technically naked, though you couldn't see anything private.
For the first time since I'd hung it on Ana's wall, I actually felt embarassed of the portrait. Everyone that noticed it before would make a joke or say something nice about my skills, but Seth was staring at it like it was either the most disgusting or the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen before, and it was most likely the former. He made me feel like I was low class or something.
I shuffled my feet into the next part of the basement, the reason I'd brought him down here in the first place. He showed up beside me again instantly, smiling like he normally did. I flipped on one last light, bringing all my shiny new toys to view.
"Wow!" Seth said, so joyed by things he didn't understand. "That's alot of instruments!"
"Yeah..." I contemplated trying to explain amps and P.A.'s and brand names to him and decided that it wasn't possible. I just wasn't made to be any type of teacher.
"Will you play me something?" His eyes were boring into mine and it was freaking me out. It was so hard to pull away - maybe because some part of me didn't feel like it wanted to. It was like a suicide Tuesday when you kept trying to move any part of you but your body refused. Except alot more intense.
I mentally smacked myself and whipped my head out of the grasp his gaze had on me. Why the hell did this guy make me so fucking nervous?!? I didn't even feel like myself when he was around. He was nothing like me, and I wasn't sure if we would ever understand eachother.
I threw a strap across my shoulders and flipped the power switches, trying to ignore the way Seth kept making me feel like I was wierd. To me, he was the wierd one. He was naive. And kindhearted. His spirit seemed young.
"What's that song?" he asked, reminding me he was still in the same room. My thoughts liked to carry me away sometimes.
I watched my fingers playing for another second. "Five Minutes Alone."
"Who is it by?"
"Pantera."
He nodded while his eyes stayed glued to my left hand, then my right, then my left. I started playing a different song as his eyes strayed to my face for just an instant before resuming their pace.
"Who's this one?" he asked again.
"Pantera," I laughed as he nodded again. I was beginning to notice this pattern between us where everything I told him that I assumed he understood, he actually had no clue about. "You've never heard of Pantera before, have you?"
"No," he answered hesitantly. He probably expected me to laugh again.
"Well Seth, your life is officially making me sad." I pulled my guitar strap off and walked over to my laptop. "You keep saying you want to learn about me, so this is a good start."
He strolled over and watched as I looked down my media list until I found all the Pantera.
"Why do they matter?" he asked skeptically.
"For an angry little kid growing up in the nineties, Pantera was like fuel on a fire," I laughed. "They were the most popular thrash band for a decade straight. Like an answer to alot of pissed off prayers."
'I'm Broken' started playing as Seth followed me back to my bean-bag chair pile.
"Now, please enlighten me. What is it that you like to do?"
"I work nights," he answered quickly. "Other than that I just sleep and hang out with my friends."
"What do you do with your friends?" I pushed further. I had no idea what he liked.
"We fix up cars, and in the summer we go cliff diving."
I waited for him to say more, but I guess that was all he would give me to go off of. Cars and jumping into water.
"What do you do for a living?" Maybe that would provide some insight.
"That's the fixing up stuff. I'm a mechanic."
I put my face into my hands. "There has to be more than that. What can you and I do if you want to hang out with me? What do we have in common?"
"I can play a little guitar," he said slyly. He walked back to my propped up B.C. Rich and put it around his shoulder. When he started playing, I instantly recognized the song.
"You said you'd never heard it before!" I accused.
"I just have to imitate the way you did it," he answered simply before putting the guitar back down.
"No way. Nobody could pick it up that fast." I was damn good at playing, and I had damn good teachers from the moment I picked up a guitar, and that riff had still taken me two days to get right. He'd just strummed it out perfectly.
"Seriously." He smiled," My eyes are quick."
"Okay." I figured I should test him out, so I picked my baby back up. I handed him my Les Paul and plugged him up. I thought of a song that he never in his life could have possibly heard and played it, just a little slower than normal.
"Try it," I told him.
And he actually did. And he actually got it right.
"That's crazy!" I played the same notes faster and went farther into the song. Seth waited for me to finish and copied my notes exactly, not even seeming to think about it.
This was impossible. I was witnessing a musical phenomenon.
I played the entire song, full speed without stopping. The second I was finished, Seth busted it back out on me, not skipping a single string.
I stared at him in awe for a few seconds. "That is the craziest thing I have ever seen!" I yelled stupidly. "That is not an easy song!"
"I liked it," he smiled. He started playing the beginning again. "Hey, you should give me lessons!" He looked like he might start jumping up and down if I didn't answer fast enough.
"Okay," I agreed. "Let's start now." I twisted a few pegs on his guitar, strumming chirds to test it out. "Now you're tuned the same as Dime was."
I hooked my laptop up to my P.A. and started playing along, Seth following me effortlessly. I started jamming out, singing along with a song well suited to my own life.
There is a part of me that's always sixteen
I've found the secret of eternal youth
Some get high on life or money, but there's an
Escape, drop out of the race!
To walk through the world by ones self, you can't
Be protected... your trust is in whiskey and weed
And Black Sabbath - It's Goddamn Electric
Don't waste your time, embrace it
And then you'll know yourself
The change in you is Goddamn Electric
The weight of the world has lifted and parted
My eyes roll blind to sights that distracted
Through tunnel-vision and dope-hair blinders
I'll cut a path and evoke my will!
To walk through the world by ones self, you can't
Be protected... your trust is in whiskey and weed
And Slayer - It's Goddamn Electric
Don't fake your life - inhale it.
And then you'll know yourself
The change in you is Goddamn Electric
Don't waste your time, embrace it
And then you'll know yourself
The change that is Goddamn Electric
Will focus the Mind's Eye...
One hand on the bottle, the other a shaking
Fist, rejuvinated, isolated, no pressure
From the outside, my sight's Goddamn Electric
And these eyes have seen a world
Goddamn Electric system...