Stockholm Syndrome

Chapter 2: The Band

I was awoken the next day by the sound of an acoustic guitar and Tom's voice. I rubbed my eyes and looked at my phone which said 3 in the afternoon. Fuck, I didn't plan on sleeping that long. In any case, I went to the bathroom and then changed into another pair of clothes that I had stuffed into my bag. I came out of the bathroom and followed the sound of the music until I found Tom in the guitar room, sitting on a couch, strumming his guitar ever so swiftly. When he saw me he stopped and smiled, patting the seat next to him.

"Did I wake you?" He said. I lied and shook my head 'no'.

"It sounded good," was all I could say.

"Thanks. How'd you sleep?"

"Good, thanks," I said, running my fingers through my hair.

About three hours later we found ourselves sitting at the table, devouring a pizza that he ordered. Tom burped obnoxiously and then smiled at me. I couldn't help but smile back as the butterflies swooped in. Stop it; he's a married man now. My conscience screamed at me.

"Tom, I don't know what I'm supposed to do," I blatantly spurted out of my mouth, "I feel kind of bad for leaving like that, but I don't know..."

"You're an adult. They can manage," He said.

"You have a point. I just don't know where to go from here. I was fired a couple of days ago for showing up late to work too many times. I'm so lost right now." I said, tearing up. I wiped the tears away with the back of my hand.

"Come on, Raleigh, don't cry. You'll be alright." He reassuringly said, sitting next to me and putting his arm around my shoulders. I laid my head on his strong shoulder and closed my eyes. He rubbed my back for a while.

Then the door opened and Jen walked into the kitchen where we were seated at. Tom bolted upright and said, "Hey honey! This is Raleigh. Raleigh, Jen."

I stood up from the table and stuck out my hand which Jen took. She smiled a little bit and said, "Yes, Tom's talked about you before. Pleasure."

"Same to you, too." Tom talked about me? What the hell could he have said about me? Tom and Jen excused themselves to the other room while I sat on my phone and looked at random stuff on it. I could faintly hear them arguing, but I only caught bits and pieces of it.

"She needed help.......couldn't leave her in the rain all alone." Tom said.

"She's a big girl....she can handle herself. I want her gone." Jen said. Jeez I felt welcome. A door slammed and Tom walked through into the kitchen with a defeated look on his face. "I'm sorry you had to hear that."

"Man I didn't know I'd be such a burden to her. What's her deal?"

"She didn't know you'd be staying so late. I won't ask you to leave though. She can live with it." Tom remarked. "Hey, I know something you could do to make some money. How about being the band's personal assistant? I'll pay you like 300 a week."

"Okay, and what would my duties be?"

"Hm... you know, the usual stuff. Taking care of media, helping us with promotions and ads and stuff, fetching us Sombrero's and coffee when needed..." Tom replied.

"Alright. When do I start?"

"Now." He replied, and then the doorbell rang. Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker walked through the door.

I had known Mark since he and Tom had met, but I didn't know Travis that well because he had just joined Blink in 1999. It was 2001. I had briefly spoken to him once or twice here and there, and he was well spoken and quietly reserved. Personally, I liked the guy; he could beat the fuck out of the drums.

"Hey Tom," Mark said, walking into the kitchen, "your yard is flooded du- Raleigh!" He said, surprised.

"Hey Mark, Travis," I said, nodding at them. Mark came over and hugged me while Travis gave me a handshake.

"What are you doing here?" Mark said. I looked at Tom, who took one for me.

"Long story Mark. Really long story," Tom said, "She's alright though," He rubbed my head. I didn't want his hands off of me.

There was an awkward silence before Tom said, "Let's go practice guys. I've been working on some riffs and things of that nature. Come on Raleigh, I'll let you watch but you can't tell anyone what's going on with the Blink-182." He switched into some weird accent at the end of that statement. I giggled for the first time in forever, and followed them into what Tom called the 'guitar room.'

As I sat on the couch by the window, I started to think about how I hadn't completely broken down yet. There were times that I had wanted to just shrivel up and die. So much shit had been going on since I had graduated from high school that had kept me from going where I wanted to go in life. I was pretty much confined to do my job, well now my former job, and come home to angry parents. Just thinking about it made me cringe. However, I was growing older, and I realized that I couldn't let my family ruin my chances of being successful. I needed to get out for good.

"Damn Tom, that's sick," Mark said, high fiving Tom. Travis sat quietly on the other chair with his drum sticks, rapidly tapping on his knees. I snapped out of my haze and when I came back into it, Tom was strumming and singing, "la da da da, la la la la, du du du duh."

I steadily moved my head along with the rhythm and melted while hearing Tom's voice. It wasn't that good, and to be frank it never was, but there was always something about it that I enjoyed hearing. When we were younger he used to sit on the floor in my room and play his guitar for me. Not songs, but just riffs he had been working on. Some got used for Blink's earlier stuff like their Flyswatter demo, but some others didn't. I knew this next album was going to sound completely different than TOPAJ because of the way the guys were meshing together. I could hear some more maturity in the way their lyrics were coming out.

That night, I went home and was greeted by my unhappy father. Tom had done me the honors of driving me home, and he sat in his silver BMW outside of my house to make sure I walked in safely. Anything after that was out of his jurisdiction.

"Where were you?" Dad unhappily said

"Does it matter? I'm an adult." I replied. He raised his hand and I winced.