Chapter Six- The Curse of Curves

I've got the gift of one-liners
And you've got the curse of curves.
Cute Is What We Aim For, "The Curse of Curves"

SPOV

"Anyone up for heading back to my place?" I looked up at the sound of Eric's voice. Moving back around my car, I rejoined the others.

"Sure, but we gotta get this shit back to my place and the van back to Ms. Olivia," Bill replied as he shrugged out of his leather jacket.

"Right. So how about you and Pam take the jacket and clothes back to your house, and I'll go with Sookie back to my house. Sookie," he looked at me, "give me a ride?" He was leering a little bit, and I rolled my eyes and nodded.

The highlight of driving with Eric took place before we even hit the road. I had to bite my tongue to stop from cackling as he tried to contort his six and a half foot frame into the tiny passenger seat in my Sentra. Bill barely fit, and he just grazed six feet.

"Comfy?" I couldn't help but ask. Eric looked over at me- he was almost kissing his knees- and raised an eyebrow. I nodded sheepishly and put the car in gear.

The ride to Eric's house was silent, interestingly enough. He still had full use of his arms, and he used them to mess with the radio. Once we got on the highway out past Port Orange, I was in need of directions from my cramped companion.

"It's the second exit," Eric told me, and it was another silent fifteen minutes until I was pulling off the exit into Edgewater. "Turn left at the stoplight," he continued. The stoplight? Which stoplight? I was about to voice my questions out loud, but then I got a good look around. I saw the stoplight; it was the only one on the whole stretch of road. Ladies and Gentlemen, we have now entered B.F.E.

Bum Fuck Edgewater.

I had to make a quick turn down Eric's "driveway," a narrow dirt path that wound down through a cluster of trees. If you didn't know that it was there, you'd drive right past it. The driveway led up to a garage, a garage that was attached to a pretty sizable, rustic-looking house. "You can pull into the garage," Eric offered, producing a key ring from his pocket.

"Thanks." I offered him a smile as he pressed a button on the key chain door opener. It was a kind of weird, silent impasse we were in, and it was a far cry from where we were at Crave. I pulled into the garage, which I noticed had little in it. There were a few drum heads propped up against one wall, along with a box of sticks. In the far corner, there was a trash can, a recycling bin full of plastic orange juice cartons, and a washer/dryer combination.

After getting out of my car, Eric led through a door that was next to the washing machine, pressing the door close button over my head. "Home sweet home," he remarked as he pulled the door closed behind us. He reached over me again, over my shoulder this time, and flipped a light switch, illuminating the hallway we were standing in.

"Um, where's your bathroom," I questioned. Eric slid past me quickly, his cotton-covered chest coming in contact with my bare shoulder. He took a couple steps down the hall before tapping his hand on the wall next to another door. I murmured my thanks and ducked under his arm and into the bathroom.

I heard his footsteps travel further up the hall as I studied my reflection in the mirror. After wiping off some escaping mascara from under my eyes, I pulled my hair back into a high ponytail; Florida heat is just not conducive to long hair.

After exiting the bathroom, I continued my way down the hall we'd come in to. There were a few people scattered around already, but none of my bandmates. I could hear some music going and the intermittent sound of a blender whirring.

"Hey!" I heard someone call out. Looking ahead, I saw a girl who was a little bit shorter than me, with curly shoulder-length brown hair and glasses. She was wearing skinny jeans and black stiletto boots, with a flowy red tank top on that was covered in sequins. I didn't know her, but it didn't appear that she knew me either. "Did you just come from the bathroom? Wait, that sounds creepy…I mean, can you point me in its direction?"

I laughed and nodded. "It's just back that way, the only open door," I responded, pointing to where I came from.

"Thanks!" she called out as she passed me.

Continuing down the hall, I found my way into Eric's massive living room. There were various couches strewn about, including pieces from a very fancy-looking set. A pool table sat off in one corner, and the entire back wall was covered by a massive entertainment center. To the left was a long counter, and past that was an equally impressive kitchen. As it turned out, Eric was the one currently manning the blender. I walked over and hopped up on the counter next to him.

"What's in the blender?" I asked.

"Punch," he replied easily, pressing the stop button on the machine.

"Thanks for that, Captain Cryptic. Can we be a little more specific?"

"If I told you, I'd have to kill you. Just try some." He produced a plastic cup and poured some of the drink into it before handing it to me. I took a sip, my eyes never leaving Eric's.

I took awhile to answer due to the smooth burn of the alcohol going down my throat. "Pretty good. I'm a little worried because you won't tell me what's in it, but it's good." Eric smiled triumphantly and moved to stand in between my legs.

"Trust me, Stackhouse. It's not going to kill you." No, but you standing so close might. I ignored him and took another sip of my drink.

I looked past Eric and smiled as I saw the brunette that I directed to the bathroom earlier. "Thanks for the direction, I'm Liz by the way." Eric moved back to the blender as we shook hands and I introduced myself.

"So how did you find out about the party?" I asked. "I didn't have any clue it was going to be such a production tonight."

She smiled back as she pushed a curly lock of hair behind her ear. "Well, my boyfriend and I were driving back to New York from Fort Lauderdale, and my friend told me about your show," she pointed to a redhead in a floral dress who was talking to Pam. She waved back at us when she realized she was spotted. "Sydney got a text from Pam about the party, so we tagged along." Liz smiled at her boyfriend, who had just secured two more cups from Eric.

Two hours later and we were all smashed. I was currently sitting on one of the couches, with my head on Pam's lap, after Liz and I suffered our one and only loss at Beer Pong. It was someone's brilliant idea to play it with Eric's punch instead of beer. Liz and company had bowed out about half an hour ago, with the redhead as their D.D.

"How am I gonna get home, Pammy?" I slurred as I looked up at her. Pam never drank; I wasn't sure why.

"Well I could drive you, but Bill was already crashing here, so I figured I would as well. But you can go talk to Eric," she suggested. I looked over at Bill who was sleeping on a couch across the room.

"Eric? Why would I want to talk to him? And where is he anyway?" I sat up quickly before going right back in Pam's lap.

"I don't know, it was just a suggestion. Anyway, I'm going to sleep. Night, Sookie." She lifted my head off her lap and set it back down before disappearing down the hallway that led to the garage. I snuggled down into the couch and went to sleep myself.

EPOV

I'd popped into my room shortly after the Beer Pong tournament had started. Well, Punch Pong. Normally, I would've played myself, but I was really anxious to look at the video we'd shot at the club. I was almost completely finished editing the first video when there was a small knock on the door. At first I wasn't even sure it was a knock or a drunken wanderer, but a couple moments later Sookie had plunked herself down on the spare rolling chair in the room. A very drunk Sookie. She spun around in the chair and pushed herself over, right next to me.

"Whaaaatcha lookin' at?" she drawled, hints of her Louisiana accent peeking out.

"Our music videos. Don't you wanna go lay down? You can use any of the rooms, you know."

She looked at me like I was crazy. "I already slept, silly. And then I woke up, and everyone else was still asleep, but then I remembered that Pam said I should go talk to you. So here I am!" She spread her arms out in front of her before bursting into a fit of giggles.

"Pam said you should talk to me?" I knew logical thought was probably out of Sookie's reach at the moment, but that part of her explanation struck me as odd.

"She said I should talk about sleeping with you." My jaw dropped and Sookie giggled again. "No, not sleeping with you." Her brow furrowed and she hiccupped. "Talk with you, about sleeping?"

"O…kay…" It got really quiet after that, so I turned back to my computer to continue working. Several minutes later, just as I'd thought that Sookie had fallen back asleep in the rolling chair, I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"Eric, do you think we're gonna be famous?"

"I don't know, Sookie. I'd like to think so. I hope so." I looked over at her and smiled before going back to the screen.

"Yeah, me too." I put a couple of different angled shots together before she spoke again. "Eric?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for letting me in the band," she sighed. "I know you didn't want to, but thanks." She put her head on my shoulder.

"I…I…" I really didn't know what to say to that. While it was true that I didn't want to at first, and she still drove me crazy about eighty percent of the time, I was starting to enjoy having Sookie around. And maybe for more than the obvious reasons. I looked down at Sookie and noticed that she'd already fallen back asleep.

I picked her up as gently as I could and walked her over to the couch, setting her down. I dug around in one of the hall closets for a minute to get Sookie a blanket before digging around in my desk to find a set of earbuds. After plugging them in, I looked back at Sookie, who was out like a light, with one arm above her head, and the other with her hand in a fist tucked under her chin. Her lips were slightly parted and some of her hair had fallen out of her ponytail. I smiled to myself before going back to the computer to finish our contest entry videos.

One hour later, Sookie was still asleep, and I was labeling the disc that contained our songs and our videos. I slipped it into a jewel case and set it on top of the bubble envelope it was going to be mailed in, because we were having some sort of ceremonial CD sendoff tomorrow. Hopefully this would be our big break.

*peeks out from behind laptop* Well, this has certainly been a long time coming, but there it is. I'm back. I just want to go on the record stating that I will not abandon any of my stories, and no matter how long it takes me to complete them, I will complete them. As far as this story goes, we're finally about to get to the "interesting" stuff, and it's the stuff that I'm looking the most forward to.

A couple of notes on this chapter:
* The cameo appearance made in this chapter by Lubadub (Liz) is -now- a VERY belated birthday gift. In fact, if I'd waited a few months longer to finish this chapter, it'd almost be her birthday again. Wow. Shame on me.
* Eric's house, like Bill's house, is based on the house of someone I know. And yes, it really is that far out in the middle of nowhere. And there was only one streetlight.
* I have no clue why I included a bunch of empty OJ containers in Eric's garage. Maybe he's fighting scurvy really, really hard. Yeah, let's go with that.
* I also have no clue what's actually in Eric's mystery punch. I do know that it's definitely red in color, though why I know that, I don't know. While I was writing, I kinda imagined a really alcoholic, frozen sangria type of thing.

Also, the next chapter is already underway, and there will be a bit of a time jump, as we are fast forwarding to the results of the Nickelback contest. Hmm, I wonder who wins… ;)