Stone and Eddie (a Pearl Jam-ish fanfiction)

Chapter fourteen

Stone Gossard

"Guys", I whisper urgently. "Be nice to Eddie when you meet him in a minute. Especially you, Mike."

He puts his hands up in surprise. "What did I ever do?!"

"You can just sometimes be-"

"Rude", Jeff interrupts.

"Yeah", I agree. "But you can be too, Jeff." Mike huffs and is about to say something snarky when Eddie walks down the steps into the studio. He scratches his eyebrow nervously and looks up at all of us.

"Hey. What's up, Eddie?" Jeff says loudly as he goes up and smacks him on the back.

"Hey Jeff." I decide I should probably break the awkward silence that occurs after that so I introduce everyone.

"Eddie, this is Mike, that's Dave, you already know Jeff." Mike just merely nods in Eddie's direction then goes back to picking at his acoustic guitar (probably a good thing since if he's playing he can't say something rude to Eddie) and Dave waves once to him.

"So", I say walking over to Eddie so only he can hear me. "What song should we start with?"

"I have this one I think is going to be called 'Alive' that is kind of personal but I'd like to maybe start with it."

"Yeah", I respond softly. "Whatever you want to do." I go over to the others now and say, "Mike, you had a guitar part kind of figured out, right?"

"Yeah", he says and starts picking frantically at the strings. "It's in D major and timing is six-eight if you guys want to join in." First Dave joins in since drums are the easiest, then Jeff, and after going through some chords that I think would work in my head I try them out and they seem to go pretty well. Now all that's left is Eddie.

I sneak a little peek over at him. He's looking through the pages in his notebook and apparently he finds what he's looking for because he looks at it for a few moments and starts singing. His deep voice fills the tiny room and though it was quiet and unsure at first, it's echoing distinctly throughout the entire place. We somehow wrap up the song and though it needs a lot of work we get up and high five each other.

"Holy shit, Eddie", Jeff says, and Eddie's eyes turn a little fearful for a second, but then Jeff adds, "You really can sing, huh?"

He smiles, relieved. "Nah, I don't think it's that great", he says shyly.

"Are you kidding?!" Dave shouts. "That was fucking amazing!" Mike nods his head along with the others. Now Eddie turns to me.

I give his hand a light squeeze before saying, "I wouldn't lie to you, and when I tell you it was amazing I'm telling the truth." I smile at him and a grin creeps into his face, enhancing all his features even more.

"Well", he says, still with that smile. "I have five more songs with lyrics written." We all cheer and Mike starts us off again.

~*~

"Baby", I say an hour later in the car. "That was amazing. Why don't you sing more?"

"Like I said earlier, I'm not that good."

"Yes you are. Your voice is the most amazing voice I've ever heard." He shakes his head stubbornly. I just sigh in defeat.

"Sorry Stone", he says a few minutes later. "You're trying to tell me I'm good at something and I'm being a complete bitch about it."

"Yeah, you kinda are." Oops. I didn't mean to say it like that. I glance over at him and he dips his head down in shame. "Eddie, I- I didn't mean it like-"

"Yeah you did, Stone. It's fine, I don't blame you for hating me."

"I don't hate you."

"It's fine, I get why you hate me. You don't have to deny it."

"Eddie, I say, "I don't. Hate. You."

"Well I don't believe you, and I also don't blame you." Great, now I'm just ruining his self esteem even more. I try to reach for his hand but he jerks it away, making tears almost escape from my eyes. When we get home I read for a while just to calm myself down, it's the one thing that always seems to help. When I look up I realize I've been reading for two hours. Where does the time go?

So I decide to get up off my ass and try to talk to Eddie. When I get up and knock on his door, though, there's no answer. I knock once more, but again there's no answer. So I try the handle but it's locked. Damn it Eddie.

"Eddie, can we talk?" I say to the door. No answer. "Please?" When nothing happens I just go into my room, lay down in my bed and try to sleep without him by my side.

When Eddie comes out of his room the next morning he looks like he had a little too much beer and not enough sleep. "Good morning", I tell him but he just keeps his eyes fixed on the cereal he's pouring. "Eddie, can we talk?"

"About what?" He mumbles so quietly I can barely hear him.

"Yesterday. I'm sorry. But I don't hate you and you know that. I love you. I'll always love you."

For the first time since yesterday in the car he looks me directly in the eye, his bloodshot eyes evaluating my expression. "You mean that?" He asks.

"Would I lie about that?" He shrugs. Well that's great that he thinks I would lie to him.

"Sorry Stone. You don't deserve for me to be mad at you. You're way too cute and nice for that", he says, a smirk creeping onto his face. I have to smile too. His smile is contagious.

Author note: Sorry it was so short:( I'll try to write longer chapters