STILL BE FRIENDS (A G-Eazy Fan Fic)

CHAPTER 1, Morning Sips And Old Friend Trips

Gabriela's P.O.V.

​The early morning Los Angeles skies shined down on me as I hurriedly stepped out of my one bedroom studio apartment and began my usual 10 minute walk to work. I had a car, but being that I was a Bay Area native, I hated dealing with SoCal traffic, and my job was close enough to my building that I didn't mind the extra dose of exercise each morning. I recently got a job working as a studio intern at a major record label down here just outside of Hollywood and I've been absolutely loving it! It is definitely a loaded job with plenty of tasks and people to tend too, but I get the opportunity to meet and assist some really amazing artists, bands, and producers in the music industry every day. Just last week, I assisted Dua Lipa and her crew while they did some recording for her next album. Overall, it's been stressful but very fun and exciting. And after living here for a couple months, you start to get used to the fast pace culture of a place like LA.
​Stepping into the main entrance of the recording studio, I rushed through the lobby, and quickly entered my office at the end of the long hall on the right. Upon entering, I'm greeted by a stack of paperwork piled neatly on my otherwise cluttered desk and I set my things down. The space was small, but big enough for me to make it feel like home. Aside from my computer, telephone, printer, and other usual office related things being scattered across my desk, I had a framed photo of my boyfriend and I together at Christmas last year, as well as several more photos of my friends and family and I pinned to the wall on my right. Behind me was a much smaller table, slightly larger than the size of a typical nightstand that contained my mini coffee station and some snacks tucked away in the drawer underneath for those late nights at the office. Aside from that, the space was simple but cozy with matt beige walls and dark gray carpeted floors.
Turning on the lights, I took a seat and pulled out the handheld mirror I kept in the top drawer of my desk and sighed with relief as I glanced at my appearance. I had managed to leave my apartment in a haste without smudging my makeup, and my long wavy dark brown locks were tame and thankfully not in a frizzy frenzy. . Just as I went to start up my computer and began flipping through notes in my planner, a knock sounded at my door and I called for the person to enter.
​"Good morning Gabriella." I turned to face Jordan and smile. He was not only my boss, but one of my closest friends since I had arrived in LA. He was super chill and great to work with.
"Hey Jordan, how's it going today?"
​"Oh you know, busy as usual," he sighed with a grin. "We've got quite a few people coming in today for recording sessions so please make sure you see that everyone is in at the right times. Gina will be coming in a little later today to give you a hand during the afternoon, and two artists are dropping by for tours of the studio. Any questions?"
​"Nope, I made notes of everything ahead of time so I think I should be set. But thanks for telling me about the tours. Last I checked, we didn't have any scheduled." I replied and he nods.
"Of course. Honestly, it helps that you're such an efficient and organized worker. You're always so on top of it. And about the tours, they got scheduled last minute over the weekend so that's why they weren't in the system's calendar on Friday."
​"awe, I try," I said, blushing slightly at his complement. I loved my job and it was nice knowing that all my efforts and hard work didn't go unnoticed. "so who is it that's coming by for tours?"
​"We've got Demi Lovato coming in around 11, and G-Eazy at 1:30. Pretty exciting huh?" he asked as I stood up from my seat to get some coffee brewing in my single serve coffee maker.
​"Oh definitely," I smiled. I was a huge fan of Demi and her work. Getting to meet her was going to be a moment for sure. "what was the other name you mentioned? You lost me after you said Demi's name." I admitted, causing Jordan to roll his eyes and laugh.
​"I thought you might be thrilled about that. The other person coming in is G-Eazy. I'm sure you've heard of him. His music is fire!"
​"Why does that name sound so familiar?" I muttered more so to myself as I sprinkled sugar into my cup and gave it a stir before taking a thoughtful sip.
​"Gabs... Please tell me you know who G-Eazy is. He did No Limit with ASAP Rocky and Cardi, I Mean It with Remo, Me Myself And I with Bebe Rexha, you know... Young Gerald? Come on Gabby, he's from the Bay Area. I thought you'd know—
​"Hold up," I interrupted. I knew that name was familiar to me from somewhere. If he was talking about the same person I was thinking of, then we went to high school together and haven't spoken since he had left home to study music in Louisiana after we all graduated. It couldn't be him though, could it? By this point, it's been nearly a decade and a half since I've heard from him which I guess would make sense if he had gone off to make his dreams of becoming a rapper come true. We used to be best friends in high school though. "you aren't talking about Gerald Gillum G-Eazy from Oakland are you?" I asked, putting G's legal name in air quotes and watched Jordan's face twist into a stupid smirk.
​"Wow Gabs, you go from clueless to calling him by his birth name. What's up with that huh?"
​"No, it's not like that. I went to high school with Gerald, but I haven't spoken to him in years." I explained and he nods.
​"Wow, that's dope. I'm sure you two will catch up on lost time later today then if that's the case. I've only met him once before when I was working at another studio prior to getting this job, but he's a really cool dude." Setting my coffee down with a grimace, I nod my head and make my way over to the door.
​"Talk about a blast from the past." I laughed, Jordan following suit as I led us both to the office lounge in search of coffee creamer in the communal fridge.
​"Should be," Jordan agreed. "so, remind me why it is that you don't use the coffee maker in here again? You're always talking about how much you love lattes and cappuccinos but stick to using your regular old coffee maker in your office. This one makes everything. You could have cold brew at your fingertips if you wanted." He stated, aiming a finger at the high end coffee making machine our office paid thousands of dollars for. He was write, it made anything and everything you could wish to order from a coffee shop, yet I chose to use my own simple coffee maker in my office.
​"Because," I shrugged. Having a coffee maker in my office makes the space look, feel, and smell more like home. This one is nice and fancy and all, but I only use it when I've ran out of my own coffee." Seeming satisfied with my answer, Jordan nods and proceeds to take a water out of the fridge as I finished making my coffee taste more appealing and put the creamer back.
​"Well, I'll leave you to it Gabs. I've got a meeting in 5. Let me know how the tours go later." He said, shooting me a goofy grin before exiting the lounge and letting the door shut behind him.
​The first few hours of the day flew by in a blur, and getting the chance to show Demi Lovato our studio was a dream come true. After solidifying recording time with Demi and her manager as well as scheduling lunch for them at a nearby hotspot, I was finally on lunch for myself. However I could hardly eat as all I could think about was seeing G and giving him his tour of the studio. When Jordan told me that he'd be coming, all the memories of us in high school started flooding back to me in waves. Most of the memories were good ones, but there were a couple that did not make me feel so excited to see him, especially after so much time without communication. I honestly felt as though we had drifted apart for good. He was going to try and get his rapping dreams going, and I went from nursing school to a college drop out and getting into music business too.
You see, when Gerald Gillum and I were in high school together, we became best of friends almost immediately. The story is as cliché as any other. I had gotten lost in the huge hallways filled with hundreds of students all shoving and pushing to get to their classes on time, and in the midst of my panic, I had bumped into a skinny figure wearing a long black hoodie with their backpack slung off of one shoulder. He also seemed to be looking for his class and stopped to look at me when he noticed me.
​"Yo, you lost?" He had asked, pausing to glance down at my schedule that I was holding loosely in my hand.
​"uh, yeah kind of," I admitted nervously. "I'm looking for room 213. You wouldn't happen to know where that is, would you?"
​"Not a clue," he chuckled and shook his head. "but I think you and I are actually in the same class because I'm also looking for room 213. English with Mr. Unger right?" His demeanor managed to put me at ease for whatever reason, and his smile seemed inviting.
​"Yes, that's the one." I said, trying not to be awkward. I had never been good with boys, and my immediate thought when I had seen Gerald on that very first day was, "holy fuck!" He was very cute and I was definitely feeling some kind of way the longer I looked at him in that busy, hormone filled high school hallway.
​"Tell you what. We can look for it together," he suggested and stuck out his hand for me to shake. "my name is Gerald by the way."
​"sounds good to me. I'm Gabriella." I replied, and after getting lost for 15 minutes in to second period followed by being sent to the principal's office after high school security had stopped us because they thought we were plotting to skip together, we became best friends.
Until junior year when Gerald had gotten a girlfriend and I just so happened to realize that I had feelings for him after he had broke the news to me. Of course like any good friend, I pretended to be happy for him, even though on the inside I was breaking. They had only stayed together until just before summer that year, and Gerald and I went to both our Senior Boat and  Prom together as friends. We decided that relationships were not worth either of our time after I had also gotten my heart broken that summer, and agreed to stick by each other no matter what. Gerald had his bros that he loved to hang out with after school too, but most of his homies were also hellla chill with me so I rarely ever felt left out.
Things only got really awkward after prom night when we had got invited to an afterparty at one of our friends house, and everybody was drinking and playing stupid high schooler party games like truth or dare and seven minutes in heaven. Of course Gerald and I got picked to go into the closet together and make out for seven minutes. Secretly, I was doing somersaults inside but also freaking out at how tense the situation would probably be when we got in the closet alone. But when we had gotten inside our friend's tight and cluttered closet, Gerald made it very clear that we were not going to kiss, or rather... That he was not interested in making out with his best friend and that he didn't even get the point of the game.
​I had suggested that maybe kissing a little would make our story a bit more believable, even if it wasn't for the full 7 minutes, "You know, just enough to make our lips look a bit colored so they don't think we're lying." I had argued, but he shook his head.
​"Gabs, you seriously care about what other people think? Yeah we went to prom together tonight but that doesn't mean we have feelings for each other," He scoffed. "you're my best friend. I wouldn't put you through some stupid bullshit like kissing me for a bit just to make everybody outside of this closet happy. Let's just wait until the 7 minutes are over and leave. This party is kind of wack anyways, and I'm hungry. Wanna get pizza at Fat Slice after this?" And that was not only how I met my long lost best friend, but also how I found out that he was NOT attracted to me. And as I hinted at earlier, we sort of lost contact with one another shortly after graduation.
My worst fear was him remembering me but pretending he didn't. That would just make things even more awkward than they needed to be, and I had know idea what to think or how to even prepare. So, after wasting most of my lunch break worrying rather than eating, I decided that the best thing I could do was treat Gerald just like any other client and act professional. I had a job to do, and I was not about to jeopardize it over a friendly but messy past in my high school years.
As 1:30 quickly approached, I got my shit together as best I could and walked out to the lobby with a smile on my face. There, I found Jordan already chatting with two gentlemen, one clearly taller and more familiar to me than the other. Jordan took notice of my presence as I stopped a few feet away from them within his view and waited anxiously.
​"Gentlemen, allow me to introduce you both to my good friend and superstar intern who will be giving you your tour of the studio, Gabriella," Jordan turned to face me as he spoke, and when he said my name, I could see Gerald's lips curl into a hopeful smile as he and who I assumed was his manager stepped closer. "Gabriella, this is G-Eazy and his manager Matt Bauerschmidt."
​"It's very lovely to meet you both." I started, sticking a hand out to greet them and kept my gaze steady while Gerald very obviously stared me up and down.
"Likewise," Matt said, shaking my hand firmly and nodding. "this is my client and good friend Gerald. Thank you for having us." He added, waving a hand in Gerald's direction
"No need for the formal introduction bro. We know each other from back in the day." Gerald stated, chuckling softly and shook his head at Matt who raised a questioning brow at him.
"You do?" Matt asked, turning his attention from Gerald to me.
"Hell yeah, ain't that right Gabs?" Gerald quizzed, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and gave me a firm side hug. "how have you been? It's been years."
"Gerald," I answered sternly. I was trying to keep my composure and remain professional, but Gerald's buddy-buddy behavior was not making that an easy task. I was growing more and more annoyed by the second, not to mention overwhelmed. "I think it'd be best for all of us if we keep this professional if you don't mind." I shimmied my way out of his suffocating embrace and took a deep breath. Gerald shot me a confused look, shrugging without stepping away.
"oh come on Gabriella," he started, clearly not planning on giving up that easily. "we were homies in high school. Remember all the fun times we had? All the hang outs after school and on the weekends, the copying off of each other's homework, trips to the principal's office, sneaking off campus to smoke, all the parties we crashed." He went on and on until I held a hand up to stop him from going any further. He was seriously pushing the limits and this was exactly what I was worried about.
"Gerald, seriously... That's enough." I affirmed, watching as he put both hands up in surrender and took a few steps back.
"ight, it's cool. My bad."
"Thank you," I sighed, taking a few seconds to recompose myself. To be completely honest, I sort of felt bad, but I also didn't want him to get the wrong idea and get too comfortable after so many years. Obviously we're not going to be the same people we were back then, and even if we were, you can't just expect to pick up where you left off with someone after not speaking for literally more than a decade. For fucks sake, we're both in our 30s now. "so, shall we get on with the tour?" I continued, earning a subtle nod from the two and I led them down the production corridor at the other end of the lobby. Jordan took this as his cue to step back into his office, and shot me an apologetic grin before leaving me with my doom.

A/N.
Hello :-) welcome to my new story! My name is Abby, and I'm really excited to have you here for the journey of my first ever G-Eazy fan fiction. A little bit about me... I'm 20 years old, from San Francisco, California, and yes... I love G-Eazy lol. This is not my first fan fic, however it is the first one I've written in about 2 years. I decided to refresh my wattpad account and start over with a brand new story so here I am.
Please be sure to vote and comment. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this first chapter. So with that, be sure to stick around for chapter 2 coming very soon!
Abby XX