Three's a Crowd

Chptr Two ☆ The Terrible Twos

"Eddie?" Raul exclaimed, clearly confused but not wanting to create a problem where there wasn't one. He'd come up here on his own, after all.

Suzy's hands froze, blue eyes studying his peeved expression. He's a cutie in real life, too, she thought.

"What the hell is taking so long?" Eddie bitched, his back clearly purposefully turned to the musicians on the left side of the room.

Ooh, he's also a petty one, Suzy smirked, choosing to turn her attention back to a slightly worried Steven, brows furrowed and lip sticking out.

"Hey, Stevie. The picture." She whispered, attempting to ignore the surrounding commotion.

The curly headed man turned his attention back to her, his grin enveloping his face once again. She quickly snapped the picture, anxious Steven would get distracted again.

She heard Raul shuffle off of his desk as she whispered for Steven to return to his seat, the blond doing so with a pull of a cartoonish wince.

"Well, we've been talking about what recording under Misery Records has to offer each of you, as well as getting some pictures of each of you. You're welcome to have your picture taken now and be on your way if you don't care for the little details." Raul spoke, trying to be accommodating and clearly picking his words carefully so as not to upset the already irritated guitarist.

The pair of entrepreneurs already knew of Eddie and David's rocky relationship, rumor has it the two never got along from the start. But the music they made together... man, was it harmonious. How could two men who hated each other so much come together and make something so good?

Suzy finally turned to face the commotion, seeing a slightly flushed Eddie with an subtly clenched jaw, a paper cup crushed in his fist.

"Ho, there, little lady. You can have a go after me. Blonds first, right?" David cheesed, rising up from his black foldable chair and making his way towards Suzy. He shot his bandmate a taunting grin, showing his eyes with a swift swipe of his sunglasses up to his forehead, and his hand cluttered with a folded pamphlet and an empty carton of smokes.

The brunette could easily see why Eddie didn't like David. He came off a bit as one of those spoiled and sheltered rich kids, a real WASP. Still, less like other nepos, she found him quite friendly and fun. It also helped that he actually had talent, and not just money and charm. The world would be thankful that he'd chosen music and hadn't gone down the yuppie route; both Wall Street and Silicone Valley could do fine without another young, blond hothead.

Raul stumbled over his words, attempting to interject but throwing in the towel once David had taken his seat on the stool. His shades pushed his soft flaxen hair back as would a headband, accentuating his chiseled and slightly sunburned face.

"Oh, photographer! I'm ready for my closeup!" He hollered at an unnecessary volume, flashing a surprisingly innocent and charismatic beam.

Suzy offered him an amused smile that just barely reached her eyes, crouching down to be level with the camera before quickly taking the picture.

She could hear Eddie muttering about something just behind her, Raul whispering back in a vain attempt to remedy the situation. The rest of the men chattered amongst themselves, Steven and Eric doing so especially loudly, seeming to get along peachy.

The pleather of David's biker jacket squeaked with his unmethodical movements as he stumbled off of the stool, shooting a proud raise of his dark eyebrows at the scowling Van Halen by the doorway.

"Alright Eddie, go ahead." Raul started, although he was completely ignored as Eddie was already stomping his way towards Suzy, his eyes locked on hers and his hand digging in the pocket of his jeans.

With his intense focus, it looked as if he couldn't even hear anything beyond the deafening ring of his red-hot rage.

"Call me and tell me whatever it is I need to know. Lord knows I can't count on that buffoon." He spat, pointing his thumb back at David with just a bit more bass and venom seeping through the last word.

Eddie's calloused hand slapped a tattered business card into Suzy's unsuspecting palm, one that looked like it'd been through hell and back and showed signs of age where it'd been repeatedly folded and unfolded over the course of who knows how many weeks.

It'd probably been through the wash, too.

Before the woman could even respond, he spun 'round on his heels to point a glare at his pompous blond bandmate, then marching before the camera and crouching down in front of the stool rather than sitting, almost as if he was scared to catch something from it.

Suzy took the hint and squeezed the camera trigger, unable to help noticing the unabashedly furious look tangled in Eddie's brow, accompanied with what could've been passed off as an Elvis lip-curl if it weren't for the murder in his eyes.

He'd surly be the only one not smiling in his headshot, she thought.

With the flash of the bulb the man was up, miscellaneous jewelry and buttons on his apparel jingling and clacking as he stormed out of the door without another word, brown hair flowing with the vigor of his steps.

The air in the room which had previously thinned and heated up began to cool and thicken with the loss of Eddie's noxious presence. The rest of the boys quickly came and sat for their pictures, none of them really kicking up too much of a fuss except a slightly grumpy Paul Stanley who had to be bribed by his bandmates to smile. He seemed a bit hungover, so Suzy gave him a pass.

Out of all the beauty shots, it was those of Eric Carr and Rick Allen that stuck out. Eric for his almost naïve and curious allure, and Rick for his boyishly giddy enthusiasm. At the end of it all came time for Suzy and Raul to take their picture together, the latter of the two reminding the former as she began to search the drawers for the lens cover.

"Oh! That's right!" She perked up, slightly embarrassed and wondering if her now certainly ruddy cheeks were peaking through her makeup.

"I'll take the picture for you!" Offered a cheery Eric, at the same time as Rick voiced a friendly, "I can lend a hand."

A slouching Axl shifted his aviators on his face, a dry chuckle coughing past his lips.

"You only got one to lend!" He joked, luckily receiving entertained laughter instead of shock or offense from the easygoing drummer.

Suzy tried to ignore his comment, indulging in a small snarl to herself once her back was turned, then telling both of her volunteers to make their way over.

Raul was already in the stool, still reeling off of a timid giggle at the ginger singer's off-color quip. Eric carefully followed Raul's verbal instructions on how to widen the frame of the shot, Rick patiently fiddling with the camera's trigger.
Suzy carefully took a seat on Raul's knee, looking back to check with him that he was comfortable.

"Alright, on three Rick's gonna do it!" Eric called, Rick's lips curling in a pleased smirk at Eric having remembered his name. "Ready?"

The two managers nodded in agreement, Raul striking a playful pose with his fist under his chin and Suzy doing a faux-flirtatious bite of her finger as Eric over-dramatically counted down.

"Go!" He shouted, the following seconds a bit anticlimactic after Rick squeezed the trigger and nothing came of it but a flash of the camera's bulb.

The group all laughed it off, happy to go home, with all of the more talkative of the band members following in Eddie's footsteps and handing Suzy their numbers on the way out. Raul sighed with a gentle close of the door as the last of them filed into the elevator, looking at Suzy with a knowing twinkle in his eye.

"This motley crew is gonna be a handful."

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