I slept! I woke up! I feel better. Life is relatively good. I also wrote...something. Beginning - I think..Mike/Brad angst, maybe. We'll see.

*********************
Mike lights a cigarette and leans against the car. The PR rep stares curiously at him, ‘I didn’t know you smoked.’

He shrugs. Replies loosely, ’They belong to Chester.’ As if that explains everything. The girl seems to accept the answer, though. Nods her head in apparent understanding : Ah yes, you’re just helping him to finish them. Not as if you’re a smoker, nossir.

Or maybe she’s just trying to make polite conversation in an awkward situation. It isn’t often you have to stand in front of a police station waiting for someone to be released on bail ;*He’s* used to it by now. Of course, the previous times this happened he didn’t have PR reps or managers or spin doctors of any kind to help him bail his ass out of jail. Last time he had to withdraw the last money that he had in the bank, his emergency money, and all he got in return was a shiner for his troubles. He smiles vaguely at her, receives a nervous grin in return. He thinks she’s new, but he can’t be sure. Their faces all blend together after a while.

It all blends together after a while. Everything’s changed now. Money’s not a problem anymore, obviously. Other things…are. The press for one. . He inhales the cigarette, feels it burn down his throat. It's been too long since he’d had a smoke. He should stop quitting.

Bob comes out first, followed closely by Brad. Head down, hands tucked into his pockets. His defensive, ‘fuck you all’ posture. Wonderful. Mike stubs the cigarette out, pushes himself off the car. Jerks the passenger seat door open when they’re close enough. ‘In. Now ,’he snaps. Brad bristles, looks as if he wants to argue with that order for a second, then seems to change his mind. He gets in the car, long legs automatically presses up on the dashboard. Stares straight ahead, face fixed and drawn. Mike barely manages not to slam the door shut. Turns to Bob.

‘So?’

‘Well, I bailed him out. Some fracas at a downtown pub. Don’t worry about it. Just take him home, will you?’

‘What do you mean don’t worry about it? Of course I’m going to fucking worry about it. What else –‘

Bob interrupts him smoothly,’I’m taking care of everything, Mike. Like I said, you just take care of Brad and we’ll talk about it tomorrow.’

He lays a placating hand on Mike’s arm. Mike shrugs it off. ‘Do me a favor, would you, Bob? Don’t fucking *handle* me. Of course I’ll take care of Brad, I always do. You say you’re gonna take care of it, fine. You make this go away, or I swear…’ Mike trails off as he realizes that there’s absolutely no point to his little diatribe. Except for him to blow up at somebody.

To his credit, Bob’s expression doesn’t change one bit from the professionally concerned one he’d been wearing. ‘Take him home, Mike.’ he says gently. No doubt he’s used to tirades from spoilt rock stars.

‘Yeah, okay…but what about the media?’

Small smile,’You’re not that famous, so I don’t think the mainstream media will care about it. Anyway, musicians get busted everyday. No big deal.’

‘Bet it’ll be a big deal if they find out *which* pub he got arrested at,’he mutters. He glances down at Brad, still staring resolutely out the windscreen.

‘Like I said, I’ll –‘

‘Take care of everything. Yeah, yeah..’ He rubs his face wearily. Let them handle everything, why not? He smiles a distracted goodbye to the rep, allows Bob to walk him over to the driver’s seat. Brad says nothing, doesn’t even acknowledge his presence as he fires up the ignition and pulls out of the lot. Mike watches Bob and the rep fade away in the rearview mirror.

*Tomorrow*

Yeah, fuck. Tomorrow he’d deal with everything else. For now though, he has to deal with Brad. ‘So, you wanna –‘

‘No.’ Cuts him off curtly. Mike glances over at him, slumped down in the seat like a recalcitrant teenager.

He tries again. ‘Brad..’

‘Look, I’m not in the fucking mood for your shit right now. Just…shut up for once in your goddamned life.’ Explodes at him ; a marionette puppet coming to life suddenly. He shakes his head irately and turns to look resolutely out of the window.

Okay…so much for that, then.

He needs another cigarette. He fumbles in his shirt pocked for the pack he stole from Chester. He’s down to the last one. Probably should stop by a drugstore on his way back. Has a feeling that he’s not going to be making another attempt to quit for at least a while. Rolls down the window after he lights up. Right hand on the wheel, left casually resting on the door holding the cigarette ; best friend by his side. Just like the good old days. High school days, yeah. He remembers those.

Brad reaches for the dashboard, starts fumbling with the radio. Channel surfs until he finds some obscure alternative station, cranks it out loud.

Mike winces, but tries to tolerate the noise. For about one minute. Then he can’t take it anymore. Flips the damned thing off. The silence lasts for about as long as it takes for Brad to stubbornly switch it on again, increase the volume to an even louder level.

******************************
Mike/Brad. Pretty picture. Obsessed with Brad for some reason. Aw heck, obsessed with all of them.

I write. The same story, over and over again. *bangs head against desk repeatedly* Wherever - whenever - whatever. Yes. Originality is a lovely word. I should get some. Sleep deprived self pity is strangely comforting at 3am in the morning. I should go to bed now.

So envy.nu is finally up again. Do I care? Nope. What webpage update?

Exhausted...drowning...assignment over...finally...sigh...exam next friday. Also, must remember to not spend all day trying to think up a reasonable way to pair up any member of Linkin Park with any member of Nsync(even if they were together at the 2001 MTV awards). There comes a point where the slash you want is really 'just cause' you went...ooooh pretty..

Annnd...my friend just won tickets to the 2002 MTV Asia Music TV awards..which he of course is all gloaty over, because he's an asshole..and he got tickets to the mosh pit. I'm so glad that LP isn't going to be there, or I'd be ready to kill. As it is...bah.

Crazy ass chat yesterday. ICQ wouldn't work, so we tried yahoo messenger, and that worked after we tried for half a frelling hour, only we couldn't make the room private, so we kept getting people coming in and boy but are there weird people out there. Not that we're all that sane to begin with, but still.

I'm working on converting Andrea to the joys of Linkin Park slash. She's a one fandom kinda gal, or actually a one person kinda gal - she loves Callum Keith Rennie.Buuutt..she says Chester reminds her a little of CKR, which I think is kind of promising. She still refuses to be influenced by Eminem though, even though I sent her pictures. How can she say he's not cute?! He's waay cute!

Alicia has been poisoning my mind. It's bad. I'm starting to squee..Evil boyband slash! Evil!! I will not fall. She mentioned a Jola fic - and how sad is it that I've never read a Jola fic and yet I know what a Jola is? Help me.

I'm rereading Restraint, because it rocks so much!! ::happy sigh:: I love Em slash..he may not be talking to me ,but at least he's talking to others, and that's always good. And yes, i do intend to update my blogger every 5 minutes.

I'm so in love with my god-cousins. And this is odd for me, because i don't like children. I mean, i really really don't like them. They make too much noise and i have no idea how to talk to them. These children though, I love. They're amazing. Intelligent and funny and exactly like little adults so you don't have to talk down to them. Ezekiel(8) is loud and brash and teetering on the edge of obnoxious (and i just realized w/o ms word my spelling so sucks. oh well), Natasha(7) is this lovely ray of sunshine and sweetness and Joshua, Joshua when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, thought about it for about 30 sec and then went 'President'. Which i think is a reasonable ambition to have. President Joshua. Yeah, has a nice ring to it. I haven't seen Natalie yet, so...maybe when i go on vacation again.

And i keep finding Alicia even if i just type in blogger slash. Hee...::stalk:: ::stalk:: I stalk when i get bored. Beware. God..this blogger thing is addictive isn't it? I did it, then i stopped...and now i'm doing it again.

God i'm bored. Trolling livejournals and blogger, just for the heck of it. Typing in 'Blogger slash' and 'livejournal slash' in google just to see what it comes up with. Yeah..i'm *that* bored. Kill me now.

Envy.nu sucks. it won't let me get in to add my blogger in. Just when i finally figure it out, too. Knowing my laziness, it'll take another ten months for me to feel like updating again. Sigh.

Way, way tired. Got electrocuted by my pc. Stupid pc. Stupid me. Saw electricity spark and well, oh well...small deal. Then..pfft..i'm done and gone with. Sigh. I'm still alive, obviously(duh). Just...a little loopy i guess.

So i'm trying to figure this blogger thing out. Hating that i'm a technoidiot and have no idea how to make anything work. A five year old could figure it out better than me. Sigh.

test!wooork....