Landslide (Original Series Prequel 2)

Time Makes You Bolder

***Angst ahead...as well as a bit of drug use and hot sex!***

Santa Monica, California
New Year's Eve
Sunday, December 31, 1972
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"Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, this is my brother, Jimmy Wachtel."

Waddy Wachtel stood in the middle of the bar area of Keith Olsen's converted basement with a scotch and soda in his hand, his older brother on one side and his new friends on the other. He had come late to the party because he'd had to stop in at Linda Ronstadt's, and his brother had beaten him to Keith's. Stevie and Lindsey shook hands with the man who looked nothing like Waddy, Lindsey having to move his own scotch to his left hand and wipe his right one across a denim hip first.

"Jimmy'a a photographer," Waddy explained. "Keith has a guy in mind to shoot you two for the album cover, but I thought maybe you'd hit it off with Jimmy better with Jimmy here..."

"Trying a little nepotism for 1973?" Stevie flashed a teasing smile at the two brothers before biting on the little straw that came with her gin and tonic as she swallowed what was left in her glass and all that remained was ice and lime. She couldn't help but giggle as the two brothers high-fived each other and smiled guiltily. She looked over at Lindsey then. He wasn't smiling.

"We should set something up," Lindsey said to Jimmy Wachtel. "I'm not too keen on that Lorrie guy Keith pushed on us."

"I have the most amazing look picked out for the picture," Stevie said. She held her empty glass out and looked through squinted eyes at it, then grimaced and shrugged. She turned back to the guys and said, "I spent more than I should have on it, but it's such a beautiful blouse and it will look so good on film with my hair and Lindsey's hair and the whole vibe..."

Lindsey put his arm around Stevie's waist and kissed her temple. He told the brothers, "Excuse us; Stevie's glass is empty and we can't have that on New Years!" And before Stevie could even stop to think of what was happening, Lindsey had yanked her the few feet over to the bar and told the bartender in his red bow tie, "Scotch and soda, gin and tonic extra limes." No please, no thank you, which was not like Lindsey at all.

"Lindsey, what the hell?" Stevie was confused, embarrassed, angry. She held herself in crossed arms. Don't cry. Do not cry. This is a party full of people who are all watching you two like hawls because you're nobody yet, and these people all have enough gas money to get home tonight without reworking their grocery budget tomorrow. Do not cry in front of them.

"This is not the Stevie Nicks Variety Hour," Lindsey said. "You're over there talking to the Wachtel brothers about your outfit for a photograph...now that image is in their heads! You don't hear yourself, Stevie. You're a beautiful girl...you talk to men like you're one of them but they see a pretty blonde girl, not one of the guys...and they're all looking at you like you're dessert and it's embarrassing to me!"

The tears came. She had tried so hard to hold them back, her thumb nail digging into her palm as she'd held a fist...but she felt the tears stinging her eyes. She said, "I was just trying to be friendly and social, Lindsey. You were the one who told me to do that! You told me we had to come to this party and act like we know what the hell we're talking about, so I am!" I mean, I actually DO know what I'm talking about, but I'm not splitting hairs.

"I never told you to flirt with Waddy's brother, Stevie, or with Waddy himself...That you've been doing a fine job of since we arrived in Los Angeles."

Their drinks were ready. Lindsey took them in his hand and gave Stevie her gin and tonic. He saw her sucking on the little red straw, tears running silently down her cheeks that he knew she was angry at herself for, and she suddenly looked to him like a little girl who'd been given a milkshake by her parents to stop her from crying on an outing in the park. She kept her eyes down as if she was concentrating on her drink, and Lindsey suddenly felt an awful pang of guilt. The song that was playing was "Precious And Few", one of the songs she'd sung along with all year in the car on their way to Sound City, her hair flying in the breeze coming in through the window...and he listened to it over the crowd of party guests as he watched her cry...