How boring can this place be? I thought sighing as I watch a tall lanky blond guy ogle his screen. It had been two weeks since I had joined the Lone Gunman staff and nothing interesting has happened. The guys had just put out their paper for the month and were looking for another lead story for next months.
"How about we write about the dangerous affects of bubblegum pop on the younger generation." Frohike asked holding up a Britany Spears CD. I raised my eyebrows and pursed my lips.
"Why in the world do you have a Britany Spears CD? I queried grabbing the brightly coloured case out of his hand. He snatched it back quickly blushing slightly,
"I, uh, found it on the street." I heard Langly snicker from his computer.
"Sure, that's why I heard "Hit me baby one more time" at 3 o'clock in the morning."
"Shut up punk"
I turned around and tuned them out as I surveyed the dark warehouse setting. The hard lines and the electrical devises were a little hard to get used to at first but I was really beginning to warm up to the place. I turned back to the guys who were still arguing about god knows what and cleared my throat.
"We can argue about why Frohike has the CD or we can find a story to report, its up to you guys" I interrupted pointing at the scattered papers on the floor. They stopped for a moment as if they finally noticed my presence then continued to argue. Rolling my eyes I slid off the stool I was perched upon and made my way to the livingroom, if that's what you would call it. It was more a room with some mismatched furniture thrown into it.
Byers had gotten to the comfortable chair first so I sat on the couch and stared up at the ceiling.
"Something wrong?" He asked not looking up from his Time magazine.
"Just bored."
"Hmm, it has been a bit slow around here lately, but things are bound to pick up soon." He replied flipping through the pages. "I have an idea for the next headline, but I should run it by you guys first."
"If it's about pop music, Frohike is way ahead of you."
He looked at me puzzled by my statement.
"Nevermind."
"At any rate," He began "I was reading this article on the growing trends of school violence and out of control teenagers, I'm baffled at what is causing this growing trend."
"You and about 30 million other people. It's the MTV and the diet soda, its bound to make anyone go crazy."
"Maybe," He smiled lightly and put the magazine down. "Of course you don't watch MTV or drink diet soda now do you?"
"I'm special, it doesn't affect me."
He laughed and stood up stretching slightly. "Are we forgetting already what you did the first night here?"
I grinned remembering what had happened. "You guys brung that on yourself, besides, no damage done."
"My stomach has to disagree with you there."
"All is fair in love and war."
"To shay." He said dryly as he smoothed his pressed suit jacket out. "If you'll excuse me I'm going to go see what the guys are up to." As he walked away he ran his fingers through his short reddish brown hair and I noticed a dark welt on his hand. Confused by this my natural instinct was to get up and grab his hand.
"What the?" He yelped as I pulled on his hand to examine it closer.
"What's wrong with your hand?" I asked. Closer up it looked to be a large puss filled blister spread across the arch between his thumb and forefinger. He furrowed his brows and looked down.
"I…I don't know." He replied seeing the welt for the first time himself.
"It looks pretty nasty, let me go grab the first aid kit so I can put something on it." I put his hand down and walked to the kitchen, past Langly and Frohike whom were now listening to the CD.
"You guys are sick." I called to them over the loud pulsating music grabbing the first aid kit out of a cabinet. Langly leaned over and shut the music off with an annoyed grunt.
"Man that is some bad sounding music. Um, what are you doing Sarah?" He asked as I carried the kit past them.
"Nothing, Byers has a nasty looking abnormality on his hand and I want to check it out." I replied matter of factly. He shrugged obviously satisfied with the answer and went back to clicking away on his keyboard. I found Byers sitting holding his hand and looking at it.
"Staring at it isn't going to make it go away." I pulled out a cotton swab and bottle of alcohol. "Now sit still, this may sting just a wee bit." I swabbed the blister gently as Byers winced at the stinging.
"Told you." I picked up a band-aid and laded it over the wound. "There, now if it gets worse, let me know."
"Yes mother." He cracked. Putting back the materials into the bag I watched as Byers leaned over absentmindedly and scratched his ankle.
"Uh, Sarah…" He started as he lifted his pant leg to reveal another blister.
"Not another one!" I asked astonished. "Byers get up and take your jacket and shirt off." I demanded. He flushed slightly at my request. "Oh grow up." I chided poking him in the arm. He removed his jacket and shirt revealing blisters all over his chest and arms.
"Ew." I gagged. He looked at me anxiously then back to his chest.
"What the hell is all this?!"
I thought through all the rational explanations.
"Allergic reaction?" I picked up his clothing and put it over the chair.
"Come to the bathroom with me I need to look at your legs." I grabbed his hand and led him up to the bathroom and upon arrival demanding him to strip to his tighty whities. Looking very much embarrassed he dropped his pants and revealed more blisters covering his legs.
"This might be a serious problem dude…" I began.
"Um, am I interrupting anything?" Langly asked sticking his head into the doorway. Byers quickly picked up his pants and tried to cover himself the best he could.
"Oh please you ain't got nothing I don't." He scoffed.
"Langly, let me look at your arm." I said grabbing it before he had a chance to protest. Sure enough he also had similar blisters to Byers. I looked up at him and grinned.
"I'm gonna have to ask you to strip for me also."
He glanced over at Byers and shrugged. He was obviously freer on his body issues and in no time flat he stood in his boxers. He also was covered in the mysterious blisters and also had no explanation for it. I yelled for Frohike and Jimmy and they arrived on the scene, noticing Langly and Byers half-naked they stopped.
"Um, whatever kinky sex act you have guys have in mind, keep me out of it." Frohike said looking at them slightly amused.
"Hush and let me look at your arms." Sure enough, blisters. Something funky was happening.
"Strip" I demanded. I reviewed the situation at hand. All four of them had blisters and they didn't know where they came from, the question was, why didn't I have them? I pondered this looking closely at Langly's chest.
"Why don't you take a picture it would last longer." He grumbled.
"What have you all been exposed to in the past 24 hours that would cause this?" I pondered outloud. Sitting down on the metal toilet, but not before I put the seat cover down, that's another thing I wanted to talk to them about, I thought about this.
"Can I put my clothes back on? These guys are making me nervous." Jimmy spoke up scratching at the back of his neck. "Plus I wanna get back to my show on VH-1." I snapped out of my thoughts as soon as he said that, I stood up quickly and walked over to Jimmy.
"Say that again?" I demanded. He stepped back with a concerned look on his face.
"I…I'm missing my show…on VH-1."
"That's it!" I snapped my fingers and went over to Frohike. I looked down at him, as he was a bit shorter than me, and looked at him questionably. He furrowed his eyebrows and leaned back away from me.
"Frohike, how long have you have that Britany Spears CD?"
"About two days, I told you I found it on the street."
"Today, did all of you guys listen to it, or were in the range of hearing it?"
"Yes." They all responded quizzically. I thought back to the earlier conversation between Byers and me about MTV and the effects on teenagers. I was only joking but it was a theory.
"Do any of you watch MTV on a regular basis?"
"No."
"I watch VH-1." Jimmy said proudly.
I paced about the bathroom gathering my theory together, this was a dozy.
"The way I figure is, none of you listen to pop music or watch the MTV regularly, Langly you listen to hard rock, Byers you listen to classical, Frohike you listen to the oldies and Jimmy…you…"
"Listen to WKPX 104.5 today's best soft rock." He interrupted.
"Yah, that. I grew up watching MTV and was forced to listen to pop music by my younger sister, so that would make me immune to the effects of it. So if you exposed to this "bubble gum pop" especially this high amounts of bubblegum, it would most likely cause anyone not used to it to break out into hives!" I sighed, content with my explanation.
Byers thought it over to himself. "That actually would make sense. The violence in today's youth could be spawned by this, it makes sense."
I walked over to Frohike and smiled. "You know what we have to do know right?"
He cast his eyes down and sighed. "Fine, destroy the CD, anything to get rid of these blisters."
"How about we write about the dangerous affects of bubblegum pop on the younger generation." Frohike asked holding up a Britany Spears CD. I raised my eyebrows and pursed my lips.
"Why in the world do you have a Britany Spears CD? I queried grabbing the brightly coloured case out of his hand. He snatched it back quickly blushing slightly,
"I, uh, found it on the street." I heard Langly snicker from his computer.
"Sure, that's why I heard "Hit me baby one more time" at 3 o'clock in the morning."
"Shut up punk"
I turned around and tuned them out as I surveyed the dark warehouse setting. The hard lines and the electrical devises were a little hard to get used to at first but I was really beginning to warm up to the place. I turned back to the guys who were still arguing about god knows what and cleared my throat.
"We can argue about why Frohike has the CD or we can find a story to report, its up to you guys" I interrupted pointing at the scattered papers on the floor. They stopped for a moment as if they finally noticed my presence then continued to argue. Rolling my eyes I slid off the stool I was perched upon and made my way to the livingroom, if that's what you would call it. It was more a room with some mismatched furniture thrown into it.
Byers had gotten to the comfortable chair first so I sat on the couch and stared up at the ceiling.
"Something wrong?" He asked not looking up from his Time magazine.
"Just bored."
"Hmm, it has been a bit slow around here lately, but things are bound to pick up soon." He replied flipping through the pages. "I have an idea for the next headline, but I should run it by you guys first."
"If it's about pop music, Frohike is way ahead of you."
He looked at me puzzled by my statement.
"Nevermind."
"At any rate," He began "I was reading this article on the growing trends of school violence and out of control teenagers, I'm baffled at what is causing this growing trend."
"You and about 30 million other people. It's the MTV and the diet soda, its bound to make anyone go crazy."
"Maybe," He smiled lightly and put the magazine down. "Of course you don't watch MTV or drink diet soda now do you?"
"I'm special, it doesn't affect me."
He laughed and stood up stretching slightly. "Are we forgetting already what you did the first night here?"
I grinned remembering what had happened. "You guys brung that on yourself, besides, no damage done."
"My stomach has to disagree with you there."
"All is fair in love and war."
"To shay." He said dryly as he smoothed his pressed suit jacket out. "If you'll excuse me I'm going to go see what the guys are up to." As he walked away he ran his fingers through his short reddish brown hair and I noticed a dark welt on his hand. Confused by this my natural instinct was to get up and grab his hand.
"What the?" He yelped as I pulled on his hand to examine it closer.
"What's wrong with your hand?" I asked. Closer up it looked to be a large puss filled blister spread across the arch between his thumb and forefinger. He furrowed his brows and looked down.
"I…I don't know." He replied seeing the welt for the first time himself.
"It looks pretty nasty, let me go grab the first aid kit so I can put something on it." I put his hand down and walked to the kitchen, past Langly and Frohike whom were now listening to the CD.
"You guys are sick." I called to them over the loud pulsating music grabbing the first aid kit out of a cabinet. Langly leaned over and shut the music off with an annoyed grunt.
"Man that is some bad sounding music. Um, what are you doing Sarah?" He asked as I carried the kit past them.
"Nothing, Byers has a nasty looking abnormality on his hand and I want to check it out." I replied matter of factly. He shrugged obviously satisfied with the answer and went back to clicking away on his keyboard. I found Byers sitting holding his hand and looking at it.
"Staring at it isn't going to make it go away." I pulled out a cotton swab and bottle of alcohol. "Now sit still, this may sting just a wee bit." I swabbed the blister gently as Byers winced at the stinging.
"Told you." I picked up a band-aid and laded it over the wound. "There, now if it gets worse, let me know."
"Yes mother." He cracked. Putting back the materials into the bag I watched as Byers leaned over absentmindedly and scratched his ankle.
"Uh, Sarah…" He started as he lifted his pant leg to reveal another blister.
"Not another one!" I asked astonished. "Byers get up and take your jacket and shirt off." I demanded. He flushed slightly at my request. "Oh grow up." I chided poking him in the arm. He removed his jacket and shirt revealing blisters all over his chest and arms.
"Ew." I gagged. He looked at me anxiously then back to his chest.
"What the hell is all this?!"
I thought through all the rational explanations.
"Allergic reaction?" I picked up his clothing and put it over the chair.
"Come to the bathroom with me I need to look at your legs." I grabbed his hand and led him up to the bathroom and upon arrival demanding him to strip to his tighty whities. Looking very much embarrassed he dropped his pants and revealed more blisters covering his legs.
"This might be a serious problem dude…" I began.
"Um, am I interrupting anything?" Langly asked sticking his head into the doorway. Byers quickly picked up his pants and tried to cover himself the best he could.
"Oh please you ain't got nothing I don't." He scoffed.
"Langly, let me look at your arm." I said grabbing it before he had a chance to protest. Sure enough he also had similar blisters to Byers. I looked up at him and grinned.
"I'm gonna have to ask you to strip for me also."
He glanced over at Byers and shrugged. He was obviously freer on his body issues and in no time flat he stood in his boxers. He also was covered in the mysterious blisters and also had no explanation for it. I yelled for Frohike and Jimmy and they arrived on the scene, noticing Langly and Byers half-naked they stopped.
"Um, whatever kinky sex act you have guys have in mind, keep me out of it." Frohike said looking at them slightly amused.
"Hush and let me look at your arms." Sure enough, blisters. Something funky was happening.
"Strip" I demanded. I reviewed the situation at hand. All four of them had blisters and they didn't know where they came from, the question was, why didn't I have them? I pondered this looking closely at Langly's chest.
"Why don't you take a picture it would last longer." He grumbled.
"What have you all been exposed to in the past 24 hours that would cause this?" I pondered outloud. Sitting down on the metal toilet, but not before I put the seat cover down, that's another thing I wanted to talk to them about, I thought about this.
"Can I put my clothes back on? These guys are making me nervous." Jimmy spoke up scratching at the back of his neck. "Plus I wanna get back to my show on VH-1." I snapped out of my thoughts as soon as he said that, I stood up quickly and walked over to Jimmy.
"Say that again?" I demanded. He stepped back with a concerned look on his face.
"I…I'm missing my show…on VH-1."
"That's it!" I snapped my fingers and went over to Frohike. I looked down at him, as he was a bit shorter than me, and looked at him questionably. He furrowed his eyebrows and leaned back away from me.
"Frohike, how long have you have that Britany Spears CD?"
"About two days, I told you I found it on the street."
"Today, did all of you guys listen to it, or were in the range of hearing it?"
"Yes." They all responded quizzically. I thought back to the earlier conversation between Byers and me about MTV and the effects on teenagers. I was only joking but it was a theory.
"Do any of you watch MTV on a regular basis?"
"No."
"I watch VH-1." Jimmy said proudly.
I paced about the bathroom gathering my theory together, this was a dozy.
"The way I figure is, none of you listen to pop music or watch the MTV regularly, Langly you listen to hard rock, Byers you listen to classical, Frohike you listen to the oldies and Jimmy…you…"
"Listen to WKPX 104.5 today's best soft rock." He interrupted.
"Yah, that. I grew up watching MTV and was forced to listen to pop music by my younger sister, so that would make me immune to the effects of it. So if you exposed to this "bubble gum pop" especially this high amounts of bubblegum, it would most likely cause anyone not used to it to break out into hives!" I sighed, content with my explanation.
Byers thought it over to himself. "That actually would make sense. The violence in today's youth could be spawned by this, it makes sense."
I walked over to Frohike and smiled. "You know what we have to do know right?"
He cast his eyes down and sighed. "Fine, destroy the CD, anything to get rid of these blisters."