Chapter 11

Monday crept around quickly to dawn a new week of school. The rain had finally dried up and the sun shone bright, changing the entire atmosphere of San Demas.

Link made his way up to the school with the other students. They all seemed very disappointed with the fact that the weekend was over, and Link couldn't exactly blame them. He himself would have rather not been there.

"You did what?" Mido exasperated in first period.

"Oh come off it Mido, it's not that big a deal," Link retorted, assuring himself more than Mido.

"You made out with your best friend's sister… I think that calls for a little concern."

"I guess. Do you suppose it would be dangerous to think about the idea of dating her?" Link asked in confidence.

"Well Link, when you shoved your tongue down her throat, I think you already threw caution to the wind," Mido smarted off.

Link rolled his eyes and glared at Mido. He wasn't sure what to do, and the way he had been feeling lately, he didn't even care. For some reason, getting the crap kicked out of him seemed to have knocked some sense out of him as well. He knew that in the messed up situation he was in, he should be shitting his pants, but he really didn't care.

The first two classes blew by slowly as usual to bring lunch around again. Then, Link started to worry. He had to be with Zelda and Serj in the same room now. Facing Zelda seemed to be a lot more difficult for him than Serj though.

"Just act like nothing happened dude," Mido advised.

"What? Was that advice I just heard? Not a smartass comment? Wow Mido, you must be really getting into this," Link snapped.

"Do you want my help or not?"

"I want your help, yes, but I don't really want you stating the obvious," Link said icily.

Mido's eyebrows furled a bit. Link ignored him and just stood in the lunch line with his arms crossed over his tight black Steve Vai shirt. Mido noticed that Link seemed to recover very quickly, as the stitch on his head was no longer whelping red and his black eye was nearly gone.

"Hey guys."

Link and Mido turned to see Serj, who looked as though he had just been hit by a metaphorical truck. His eyes were a little worn and his face was dark and dismal. Link laughed to himself inside his head.

"What's up?" Serj asked when he noticed that neither Mido nor Link hadn't replied.

"The usual," Link replied quickly and shortly.

"No, really, what's going on? Is there something wrong?"

"Why no, not at all. It's not like any of us made out with your sister or anything," Mido stated and received a very cold glare from Link.

"Is there something I don't know about?" Serj interrogated, his eyes narrowing a bit.

"No, there's really nothing. What about you? You look like you're warn out man," Link recovered in a subject change.

"Don't worry about it, I'm fine."

Link frowned a little at Serj's disposition. When he noticed Zelda turn the corner with Malon, she seemed to have the some disposition. He quickly turned to avoid eye contact with her though. He bit his lip a bit when she started to head over there.

"Hey guys… hey Link," she greeted.

"Hi," Link replied as naturally as possible.

He wasted no time in grabbing his crappy food from the cafeteria and headed for his table. He hated being that eager to get away from Zelda, but it was rather awkward with Serj around. But what had happened to the two of them? It looked as though something had happened. Something bad…

Not wanting to press the matters though, Link sat down at his table and slumped down into the seat. He was worn out already, and it was barely the second week of school! God would this be a year.

Though Kafei, Mido, and Serj chattered as usual, Link couldn't hear them. His mind was swimming with thoughts already about the whole situation with Zelda and new ideas on his guitar. It seemed that the musical dreams overshadowed those of his dilemma with Serj, which he was rather happy about.

School seemed to wiz by with Link's mid flowing constantly. By the end of the day, he had about four pages in his binder filled with assorted music crap he was eager to test out. They were scheduled for a gig in just over 2 weeks, and Link wanted a little something fresh for their loyal fans. Having a new member in the band and all, he thought it would be pretty cool to release a fresh new song.

Link grinned to himself as he pulled open the back door of his Camaro. He quickly shut the door after tossing his backpack into the seat and opened the door to the driver's seat. He was rather surprised when he looked up to see Zelda though.

"Oh, aren't you going home with Serj?" he asked in alarm.

"Naa, Malon is going to take me over to her house," Zelda replied.

"Oh, I see…"

"Look, Link… I realize we should probably talk about what happened the other night," she began.

"Yeah, sure," Link replied, even though he really didn't want to talk about it.

"I understand if you can't… you know… be with me, with my brother and all. But still in the end, I kind of do have a bit of a thing for you. So, the door's always open, but I can understand if you don't want to," she explained in her little innocent voice.

Link smiled warmly at her. She was pretty cute after all, and the scent that loomed around her was rather intoxicating. He leaned forward a bit and lightly kissed her.

"We'll just see how things play out," he stated before getting into his car and driving off.

Zelda watched him as he drove off down the road with a faint smile on her face. She then turned, her wavy golden hairy shimmering in the warm summer light. Malon sat in her car waiting for Zelda, a little irritated for that fact. She gave Zelda a rather flustered frown when she entered the passenger side.

"Were you ever planning on telling me about Link?" the red head interrogated.

"What are you talking about?" Zelda lied.

"Do you think I'm blind!"

"Oh… you saw us?"

"YES! What the hell Zelda? That's your brother's best friend," Malon grieved in her frantic little tone.

"Well hey, I can't help the fact that I have feeling's for him!" Zelda retorted.

"Does he have feelings for you?"

"I, I think so…"

"Girlfriend, I'll support you as much as possible, but you know… if you don't even know how he feels about you, don't you think that this is stupid junior high crap? Seriously Zelda, you need to take this whole thing a little more seriously. This is a big thing," Malon finished.

Zelda knew the girl was right. This could really screw some things up, and bad at that. And was Malon right? Was Link just using her? No, he couldn't be. They were just silly thoughts of a silly girl.

Zelda smiled when Malon turned on the radio; the Beast and the Harlot flowed from the speakers. Her reminded her of Link….

The guitar strings warped and screamed emotions as Link bent and flicked his way about the fret board. His new ideas were coming together nicely, much better than he had first expected. He had already been playing for two hours before he even realized what time it was.

"Shit!" he muttered to himself and grabbed his shoes.

Quickly stuffing his guitar into its case and slipping on his black leather jacket, he charged out the door and dashed down the stairs to his car. He was supposed to be at the warehouse to practice as it was already! Cursing and mumbling under his breath, he peeled out of the parking lot down the long stretch of paved road.

Meanwhile, the band waited for him patiently. Mido rubbed his chin lightly in thought. "I need to shave…" Serj and Kafei were messing around with their instruments with the volume all the way down so that they could only hear themselves.

"Is he ever late?" Serj asked suddenly.

"Sometimes. The only reason he's ever late is because he's actually doing something important and the time slips from him though. He doesn't fiddle fuck around like some people," Kafei explained with a quick flare at Mido.

"Hey man! I hadn't been laid in three months… Three months!" Mido retorted in an attempt to make an excuse for being over an hour late one time.

The door to the warehouse opened and in brought Link, his guitar and a mound of jumbled papers in his hands.

"Sorry I'm late guys. Lost track of the time while I was working on some new riffs."

Kafei shot Serj the old I-told-you-so look while Link sat the guitar case down on a nearby chair. Quickly popping the top off the case, he pulled out the metallic copper beauty from its resting place and threw the strap over his shoulder.

After plugging his git-fiddle into the P.A. system and the effects box, he excitedly began to show the other three guys what he had been coming up with over the past few hours. Mido and Kafei were thrilled, but Serj seemed a little stand-offish and almost confused.

Mido and Kafei quickly fit into a good bass and drum part in order to support Link's guitar, but again Serj seemed uninterested. He began to follow what Link was doing however after he was shot a few angry frowns.

The three laid down a solid groove for Link to begin building his solo off of. Link was finding it a little difficult to drop a solid lead on top of what the other three were doing however. Serj had no life to him. The music was dead. Link picked up on this and stopped, causing the other three to lose the riff.

"Is there something going on with you Serj? You've been out of it all day and even your guitar playing is lifeless. What's up?" Link questioned.

"Look guys, I'm sorry. Today marks the day my mom passed away. I know I never told you but she was killed a few years ago in an accident. I don't think I can do this tonight," Serj explained, a hint of sorrow in his eyes.

Link nodded. Zelda had told him all about it already, but Mido and Kafei were shocked. Link called it a night and packed up his gear to head home. The only reason he was irritated was because he rarely came up with music THAT good. It was the best he had ever conjured in his mind.

But on the other hand, he knew how hard that Serj had to be taking the blow. Link didn't always feel wonderful when the day of his family's death would creep around the corner. In the end, he himself had a lot to think about as well, with the whole Zelda issue.

Should he just come right out and tell Serj? No, that would be stupid at best. He would need to see how Serj would react to it first. Manipulate him in a way… These thoughts spinning in his head, he departed from the band and headed home as the sun set down. Smiling, he put Always With Me, Always With You in his CD player.