After The Ending (John Frusciante)

Chapter 14

"So, knight in shining armour," Flea chuckled for a second, "How did it work out with that girl of yours?"

"Girl of mine?" John raised his eyebrows, exhaling the smoke of his cigarette, "Oh, you mean Amaya?"

"Mhmh," Flea nodded, "I didn't hear from you for two days. You didn't even care for your gear."

"She stayed over, we hung out," John shrugged, "I hadn't seen her in a while."

"So, what's the story with you two? You said you knew her from before."

"She used to live next door to me," John explained, then laughed lightly, "She used to let me crash in her room back when I used to sneak out to the Chilis' gigs."

"That's all?" Flea smirked, "I saw the way you looked at her.. And the way she looked at you."

"Yeah, she's uhm..," John mumbled, "I care about her. That's all.."

"I see," Flea knowingly nodded as he slid his eyes over his young band mate, an amused look soon forming on his face as he realized that his friend seemed to be caught in his first serious case of lovesick.

"What?" John questioned as he felt Flea's suspicious gaze on him, the bassist then only shrugging in response.

"Nothing," he answered after a moment, then proposed, "Let's get back inside, yeah? The record isn't going to record itself."

"Right," John agreed, tagging in Flea's tail as they made their way back into the studio, done with their tiny cigarette break and the attempt to catch a few breaths of fresh air.

The sessions for "Mother's Milk" were getting longer and more tiring day after day and John could swear that he could feel the pressures mounting up on him even in his sleep. It was his first record with his idols and it had to be perfect, but the results had been anything but that so far – he just wasn't feeling it.

How the hell should he present his opinions after only being in the band for a few months? Sure, he had no problems playing the songs and absolutely killing it while recording, but butting heads with the producer was becoming more and more exhausting every day. Everything had to be bigger. Everything had to be louder. Everything had to be heavier. Everything had to be the opposite of what he wanted, but whatever.

He could let it slide just this one time.

The important thing was that he was finally getting to record with the band he loved and nothing could be better than that. The differences at the studio were only minor hiccups along the road he was willing to take without any hesitation.

And besides, the sessions at the studio were not the only thing in his mind anymore. His thoughts and his attention were suddenly a lot more occupied with a certain someone, a certain someone he wasn't able to get out of his mind no matter what he did or how hard he tried.

And to be completely honest, he didn't mind one bit.

He loved the fact that his face was always smiling whenever he thought about Amaya and he loved the fact that he didn't have to suppress those smiles anymore. And of course, he also loved the way her voice sounded on the phone, just as sweet as he remembered from back when she was in Japan, and the way she always giggled before saying goodbye and ending the phone call because it was time to go to bed.

Well, there had only been a couple of late phone calls considering that only a week had passed since the whole incident at the club and the fact that they hadn't managed to find time for hanging out quite just yet, but that was going to change tonight and John had a hard time containing his excitement. He and Amaya had agreed to meet up for a walk after he was done with recording and even if John later cursed himself for inviting her to presumably the most boring activity for a date (it was a date, right?), he figured that it was better than nothing. His days were always busy and he just didn't know what other activity would be okay to offer her after 10PM.