What up, fellas? Heehee, Garrett Hedlund has a gigantic tongue. I had to write a fic about him. Enjoy. Oh. And someone told me, "This fic doesn't make sense, Jack probably didn't go to college." I say sucks to your logic, girlie. For the purpose of this STORY (if I could put the word 'STORY' in bold, glowing, italic, underlined, strike-thru, highlighted lettering, I would) he's a college student. Musical scholarship or something, okay? AUTHOR'S PEROGATIVE! CRIPES! I hate exclamation points. Ahem.
"Come on, Lorna."
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"I'll give you something."
"You don't have anything. No."
"Pretty please?"
"No."
Such was the substance of mine and Jack Mercer's conversations as of late. Jack was putting together a band, and for some unfathomable reason (having nothing to do with the fact that his band was, to put it mildly, absolutely horrible) he couldn't find a bass player. He'd taken to following me around campus begging me, bribing me, threatening me with swift death to join his Battle of the Bands project. Today was no different. I had just come out of a killer presentation for my media class, was totally ready for a nap, and not really in the mood to be badgered about joining some ill-fated, sure-to-be-ridiculed band. But Jack was being persistent.
"Come on! We need some uh... womanly flair in the band. Oh, and how cool and popular will you be if you play bass for us?"
"Jack. That's so incredibly lame. I can't believe you just tried the popularity card. What is this, high school? Really, I expected better of you," I said rolling my eyes and pushing past him.
"Lor, you're the best bassist I know!" he pleaded, catching up and grabbing my shoulder bag, hoisting it over his shoulder, then grabbing my books as well.
"Yeah, meaning I'm too good to play with you guys!" I retorted jokingly, allowing him to carry my stuff.
"Lor... Lorie... Lorna..." Jack pouted his lower lip, "Look, I'm walking you to your dorm, I'm carrying your books, how good am I to you? Oh! And remember that time I did your laundry for you?"
"Jack, you were doing an entire load of your laundry and I threw in a pair of my gym shorts. That's hardly doing my laundry for me."
"Yes, but, I folded those shorts and brought them right to your door, did I not? And anyway, this is not about the laundry, it's about you and me and Russ and Tai rocking out this Friday."
"Tai? Good Lord, Jack, Tai can't keep a beat to save his life!"
"Yeah, but if he hits the drums hard enough, no one will even notice."
"I'm gonna look so stupid up there with the rest of you sucking, you know," I said quietly, with a small grin, wondering how long it would take him to notice that I had acquiesced to his cajoling.
"Please please please please Lorna, I'll--" he stopped short.
I smiled.
"YOU'RE IN?" he shouted.
"I guess I'm totally insane, but I'll do it," I said with a long, dramatic sigh.
"HELL YES!" he hollered, dropping my books and bag, leaning down and scooping me into a bone crushing hug.
"Jack! You're smashing my rib cage!" I gasped, kicking my feet as I had been totally lifted off the ground. This only prompted him to hug me even tighter. He planted a huge, wet kiss on my cheek before setting me down.
"Sorry I dropped your books," he said without the slightest hint of remorse in his tone, scooping them back up and shoving them into my arms, "Practice over at Russ's tonight, I'll swing by around 7 and we'll walk over together." He threw the strap to my bag over my head (nearly choking me) gave me one last quick hug, declared me a life-saver, then ran off in total jubilation.
As I traipsed back to my dorm, I felt decidedly rattled. Why in the world had I agreed to play with Jack and his stupid little band? Jack was pretty good, I'd heard him tinker around on the guitar, and he had a unique voice, but the rest of the guys? Russ "Three Chord" Carmichael and Tai Harris whose main motivation for playing the drums was that he got to hit things?
"Stupid, stupid Lorna," I scolded, dropping my books and bag next to my bed and falling back onto the comforter. I gratefully kicked my shoes off and was asleep almost instantly... not before the thought occurred to me that Jack was always able to talk me into doing things for him...
Reviews... please. I don't even care if they're nice. Thanks.