AN: You know, I said I wouldn't do this and here it is. This is a companion piece to "Across the Universe" but it can also stand alone.
Disclaimer: wow, now I'm under pressure to make this funny. Umm..lets see.....
I own nothing but my ideas(and the chick). But I'd give my left leg to own Jess-not that he would want me with one leg..but that wouldn't matter because I'd already own him and he'd do what I want. So there! But do I really want to own a Jess that doesn't want me? Hmm, I have to think about this. Excuse me.....
**Special thanks to J.C. for giving me encouragement and to Avid for being so sweet and not telling me to piss off.**
There's Your Trouble
"If we choose to remain ourselves, full of potential, then we can take whatever happens and redeem it by openness, courage, and the willingness to move on."
-Madeleine L'Engle
Jess sat outside "Dante's Inferno." Staring at the screen in front of him, he silently cursed technology. He'd been there for hours, and still couldn't figure out what the hell was wrong with this piece of junk. He was about ready to throw it into the nearby ocean when he heard a voice behind him.
"You're doing it wrong"
"Excuse me?" Jess said still staring at the computer screen.
"You're excused"
Jess exhaled, and snapped his head up, annoyed at the intrusion. There stood a tall blond wearing a green bikini top and short denim cut off's.
"Yeah, well, I didn't ask you alright." Jess said rudely
"I know." she chirped "I'm just offering some friendly advice."
"Well why don't you just keep it to yourself."
"Ok" She replied cheerfully again. Then after a moment, "but you're doing it wrong"
"Good."
Jess once again focused on the screen in front of him, and tried to ignore the fact that someone was standing over him. As he, unsuccessfully, attempted to rectify the unknown problem, he heard small amused snorts coming from behind him.
After a few minutes, Jess finally snapped.
"What the hell is your problem?!"
"Me? Oh, I don't have a problem." She replied, "You on the other hand are gonna have one if you don't figure out how to fix that, which by the looks of it, doesn't seem likely."
"Oh, think you can do a better job?" Jess retorted, annoyed
"Infinity." She replied, "I thought you'd never ask"
She leaned over and started to type knowingly and efficiently. Her perky, full bikini clad breasts inches from his nose, while her blond, apple-sented hair softly caressed Jess's face.
Jess coughed loudly and rudely. She rolled her eyes, and taking one hand off the keyboard, swept her long blond tresses to the other side.
"Sorry" Jess said snidely, "just all those chemicals. Its not good for my allergies."
Not taking her eyes off the screen, she replied.
"I don't know why my hair should be a problem, especially since there is so much product in your's, that you very well may be single handedly responsible for the continued deterioration of the ozone layer"
"Ooh, big words for a beach bunny" Jess cooed sarcastically. "At least I don't go around shoving my hair in people's faces."
She laughed amused, "Man, if you get this cranky with the real thing, I can't wait to see how you deal with the majority of the people in L.A."
"Yeah? And what exactly is the majority?"
She looked back at Jess and gave him a quick once over.
"Posers"
Turning her attention back to the screen she said,
"Done. You had a bug in your system, I flushed it out and installed a firewall so it won't happen again. I also set a virus scan in motion, but that's just precautionary, it'll turn up clean. When that's done, just restart. It should be running fine now."
She paused for a few long moments.
"You're welcome" She said, in mock politeness.
She straightened up and picked up her bag which lay next to her feet.
"A little piece of advice? Black doesn't really work at the beach. If you ask me..."
"I didn't" Jess interrupted snidely
She looked him over for a moment before continuing,
"Yeah, you don't really strike me as the type to ask for help. Typical man, never asks for directions. Too bad too, cause by the looks of it, you need it."
With that, she turned and walked away. Jess rolled his eyes and snorted, waving her off.
Unbeknownst to Jess, Jimmy had been observing this exchange with amusement.
"So who's the girl?" he asked coming up to Jess.
Jess looked up. "What? Oh, I have no idea. She just came up and started bothering me." he said, restarting the computer.
"I didn't mean her"
Jess shot Jimmy a confused look
"There are only three reasons a guy doesn't pant after a girl like that" Jimmy stated nodding his head, referring to the departed blond. "a. they're gay. b. they're dead. or c. they're pining for someone else. So which is it? And remember I don't judge."
Jess sighed. "Rory."
Jimmy looked at Jess, perplexed.
"So it's a and c?"
Shooting Jimmy an annoyed look, Jess stood up,
"I'll see you later"
As Jimmy watched him walk away, he said aloud to himself
"I'm not even gonna ask."
As Jess walked, he pulled his jacket tighter around his body. With the hot sun blaring down on him, he didn't need it. But it was late October and normally he's be feeling the sharp, cold, biting winds of the approaching winter. 'This isn't New York, or Connecticut for that matter,' he reminded himself for the hundredth time. But it didn't seem to make a difference. His body refused to listen to common sense and he wondered if he'd ever get used to life on the west coast. Jess shrugged and continued to stroll along the boardwalk, concentrating on the sound his boots made as they hit the wood beneath his feet.
He was almost knocked down when a blond whirl on roller blades cut him off.
"Hey watch it!" he cried to the fast departing figure.
"Sorry" she called back.
The voice sounded vaguely familiar. Squinting his eyes as she stopped at a nearby vendor, he recognized who it was and groaned. He should probably thank her, he thought to himself. She did fix the computer after all. And as much as he didn't want to deal with her, he didn't relish the thought of being indebted to some annoying stranger.
She didn't seem to hear him approach as the vendor handed her a cold water bottle.
"Here, lemmie get that" Jess said, handing the vendor two crumpled dollar bills from his pocket.
The girl turned in surprise.
"Thanks" she said, a little too loudly.
"No problem. Yeah, so I wanted to thank you for..."
She shook her head for a second as she removed one of the headphones from her left ear.
"I'm sorry, what were you saying?"
Jess sighed. "I was saying that I really appreciate...what the hell is that?" Jess said referring to the blaring sound emanating from the ear piece.
"'Subtronik', you like it?"
"What is it?"
She looked at him as if he were a child, "Its called music"
"That's not music, that's noise."
"Its industrial techno."
"That's not music" Jess resolutely stated again. "Music is written, it comes from people. This shit comes from machines. Its all synthesized, artificial. There's no heart, there's no soul, no substance"
"And what do you listen to?" she asked snidely, "The Backstreet Boys? N'Sync? 'Cause you know, nothing tugs at the heart strings more then a bunch of men singing like woman."
Jess allowed himself a moment of genuine amusement before sobering up and remembering that he was trying to prove a point.
"No, I listen to actual music. The Ramones, The Clash, David Bowie, Sex Pistols. You know, songs with coherent lyrics, and actual instruments being played."
"Ahh, you're one of those" she said knowingly.
"One of what?"
"One of those who live in the past. Rejecting anything new and different simply because it is new and different."
"That's crap" Jess stated defiantly, "I like newer stuff"
"Like what?"
Jess thought for a moment. "Coldplay, The Strokes.."
"The Stroaks are The Monkeys on coke"
Jess raised his eyebrows and considered the statement. He allowed a small laugh to escape his lips as she continued to speak.
"And I like some of that stuff. I'll throw on a little Hendrix sometimes. Between you and me, I own a Joni Michelle album. Can't deal with Bowie though. After seeing "Labyrinth" I'm a little traumatized." They both smiled. "I'm not putting down that stuff." She continued, "but music has evolved. And I'm not saying to discount it, I'm just saying that there is a new sound emerging."
"Sound? Yes. Music, no."
"Come on," she scoffed. "You don't think that's exactly what the Sinatra generation thought of The Beatles? Or what the Beatles generation thinks of Nine Inch Nails? I mean, I'm sure when you turn up your stuff, mommy and daddy tell you to 'shut that noise off'."
Jess momentarily allowed his mind to wander and he found himself in a tiny apartment cluttered with clothes, and books as Joey Ramone played loudly on a nearby stereo. The memory should have made him smile, but it materialized as a scowl. That seemed to happen a lot. He was never sure why.
"Nine Inch Nails?" Jess smirked, "That's the best you could do?"
"A little too savage for your delicate tastes?" She joked good naturedly
Jess smiled "No, maybe a little too mainstream though."
"Oh my god" She exclaimed, "You're so totally one of those guys."
"One of what guys?"
"One of those....god, you as such a snob."
"I'm a snob?"
"Yes."
"How so?"
"Because, you think you're too good for mainstream music."
"Hey, its not my fault that the listening public has no taste. We're living in a society where the quality of music doesn't even matter anymore. All you need is an arrest record or a big rack and suddenly, you're in the top 10."
"Have both, and you'll rule the free world"
"No, for that you need a low IQ, a rich daddy and misproportioned ears"
They caught each others eyes and smiled.
"But I'm serious" Jess said, breaking contact, "once music is popularized, it gets diluted and starts to suck. Case in point..."
"Metalica" They said in unison.
"So you agree? Popularity kills music." Jess said, satisfied that they found a common point.
"No, I agree that Metalica's early stuff was better then the more recent, but don't blame that on hype and press. Give the credit where credit is due-to the band. They made the music. Its their responsibility if the music sucks."
"Yeah" Jess refuted, "but they were great until they became mainstream. It was the pressure of..."
"Society? The fans? Their mothers? Who cares?! If they allowed any outward sources to affect their vision, then they're to blame anyway."
"Popularity kills music." Jess stated resolutely, "Hey, it killed Kurt Cobain."
"No, Kurt Cobain killed himself. God, I'm so sick of this 'blaming society' crap. 'Ooh, mommy didn't hug me; and daddy didn't play catch with me in the backyard.' Get over yourself. I mean, its completely adolescent and juvenile to blame everyone else and their mothers for the shit in your life. We are all responsible for the direction that our careers, our art, our lives, take us."
"Yeah, but sometimes the choices are made for you."
"By who?" She scoffed, "God?"
"Managers, lawyers, parents, judges, police...."
"No, I don't buy that. You always have a choice. More often then not, it's a choice between bad and worse, but you always have a choice. 'I am the master of my fate, I am the caption..'"
"'...Of my soul.' Yeah, spare me the sound bites." Jess scoffed "When artists first start out, they're making music for themselves. Then when they get popular, they're coerced into feeding the mind of the collective consciousness, which, as I have previously stated, sucks!"
"Oh, so we're all just one hive mind right?"
"With a few exceptions, yes."
"Well sorry to break it to you, Ender, but you're not exactly an original yourself. I'll bet you have a picture of James Dean right next to your mirror so that you'll have direct comparison when doing your hair. Without 'old Jimmy' I doubt you'd even have a personality."
Jess was taken aback "Excuse me?"
"Its almost 85 degrees outside. You're wearing a black leather jacket, on the beach."
"So?"
"So look around you. Do you see anyone else dressed like that?"
Jess looked right at her and gave a self satisfied smile, "Which only goes to further refute your point. I'm not like everyone else."
She laughed "Jesus, I've seen hundreds of people like you. Its ironic really. People so terrified of conformity, that they become a cliche."
"Oh yeah, and you're one to talk." Jess bit back, "you look like everyone else around here."
"Maybe. But I'm not trying to be original. I'm not trying to conform either. I don't care what people think, I do what I want to."
"So do I."
"No you don't." Her voice became surprisingly sympathetic. "Don't tell me you're wearing that jacket because you're cold."
Jess faltered for only a split second, before dryly responding "Oh, and you know me so well."
"Its not just me" the girl replied gently, "if you opened you eyes for, like, a second, you'd see that you're not fooling anybody. Something's controlling you, whether you admit it or not, but its there."
Jess, not having any response, looked her in the eyes, hoping to stare her down. But once he did so, he found himself trapped. Looking away, meant giving in and admitting defeat. But the longer she held his gaze, the harder the truth was to ignore.
She seemed to sense this, and, in an act of mercy, broke the eye contact and the stillness.
"Hey, I was just trying to make a point."
Jess managed to make a decent recovery, "Which would be?" His reply was surprisingly harsh, even to him. But she ignored the tone and continued
"Know the past, respect the past, be grateful to that past, but don't let it prevent you from appreciating anything new. You can't dismiss something just because its not exactly like what came before."
Opening her CD player, she took out the disc and put it in a jewel casing from her bag.
"Here." She said, as she handed it to him.
"What's this?"
"It's a mix."
"You're giving this to me?" Jess asked skepticly.
"Yeah, I download stuff off the net and burn it on CD's, so its no big."
Jess smirked, "Music pirate huh? You know, they say people like you are What's wrong with the industry."
"Hey, I didn't create the technology, I just benefit from it." She gave a sly smile, "Besides, I'm cheap."
"You know, this isn't really my kind of music."
"I know." She said smiling, "But give it a shot and keep an open mind. You might just surprise yourself."
Before Jess could respond, she had already replaced the now soundless head phone, and had skated off. Jess looked around, but she was nowhere to be found. The only proof of her existence was the CD that he held in his hand. He shook his head, and put in the cargo pocket of his jeans.
As he turned to walk back to the hot dog stand, he looked up, and found himself in front of a used book store that he had been looking for. He furrowed his eyebrows, almost sure that it wasn't there a minute ago. As he approached the window, he saw a familiar book laying in one of the bins. Tracing the title of the Dickens classic, he sighed. Wiping away some sweat from his forehead with his arm, he put the book back into the bin.
'This jacket really is too heavy' he thought to himself.
As he removed the constricting leather, he felt the light caress of the sun on his naked arms. He heard footsteps and laugher and the waves rolling into the shore. Throwing his jacket over his arm, he approached the railing of the boardwalk and looked up at the water. He took a deep breath and inhaled the salty sea air. Jess felt the corners of his mouth turn upward, resulting in a genuine smile.
Maybe he really could get used to seeing the universe from this point of view.