"Friends"

"Friends" Chapter 1

2004

"You look great as usual, girl!" I turned Tina around in the makeup chair and looked at her one last time to make sure she looked good.
"Thank you, again for doing my eyebrows... If it weren't for you I would look like a middle-aged greek man, so thank you." She put on her glasses and smiled at me.
"Its my job!" I clapped my hands and closed my make-up kit. "Alright! Now I gotta go find Jimmy..." I picked up the box and began to walk out of her dressing room.
"Hey," I heard Tina's soft voice say. I turned around. "You know what tonight is, right?" She looked at me with sympathy in her eyes. I smiled at her and nodded.

I walked down the hallway that I had walked down thousands of times to find the man-boy, who I'd done make-up for thousands of times. I got to the door that said "JIMMY FALLON" and knocked.
"Hey, Jim. It's me!" I heard some footsteps and the door opened. The same face who I'd looked at so many times was red and looked sad.
"Come in..." Jimmy pulled me into the dressing room and closed the door immediately.
"What's wrong?" I set my heavy kit down and turned around to face him. He looked down at me with tears in his eyes. "Jimmy..." I reached my arms out and hugged him. He collapsed into me and I could hear him crying and trying to catch his breath. I rubbed his back and squeezed him tight. I let go of him and held him in front of me. "Hey, look at me." He brought his head up and his brown eyes made contact with mine.

Of course I was sad too. I mean it was Jimmy's last SNL. It was the last time I'd ever get to sit him down and style his goofy looking hair and try and tell him to be still while he was telling me ridiculous jokes. I was here for his first SNL and now I'm here for his last.
I tried not to loose it as I looked in to his sad eyes. "Smile." I poked at his stomach and smiled back at him. He let out a little chuckle and wrapped his arms around me again.
"Thank you." I heard him whisper.
"Okay!" I let go of him and pulled him over to the chair. "Sit!"
He plopped down into the chair and wiped the tears away from his cheeks.
I stood in front of him and looked at what I was working with.

His hair had changed over the years and right now it looked its best.
I grabbed some gel out of my kit and began styling his hair. He looked up at me and I glanced down at him.
"So, what's on Weekend Update this time?" I put my focus back on his hair.
"Umm... Just silly stuff.." I looked down at him.
"Okay, like what? Come on, Jimmy! Talk to me."
"Well, I get to punch Tina... Then she gets to punch me..." I let out a little giggle and his eyes shot up to me. A smile spread across his face. "Then Horatio comes out and does this thing.... It's actually awful but he always makes me laugh." I smiled at him and put the jar of gel away.
He looks good. I go to grab powder and a brush.
"Oh, I forgot to ask, how did that date go on Friday?" I began to put on the powder and he closed his eyes.
"It was actually....... Awful." I pulled the brush away from his face.
"What? I really thought she sounded cool! When we went to lunch you couldn't stop gushing over her, remember?" I applied the last bit of powder.
"Well, that was before she told me she hated kids." I put the compact away and grabbed the blush.
"Damn... Sorry, Jim." I put the blush on both sides of his face and just looked at him to see what else he needed. Really, he didn't need any of this stuff, he was cute the way he was but on TV, every feature has to be enhanced.
"Maybe you should go out with Denise... I know you've met her before and you didn't really like her but she's my best friend, besides you, and she's had a crush on you since foreve-"
"Can we just not talk about dating?" He cut me off. "I'm sorry... I just want to talk to you about where we are right now." He stood up off the chair and grabbed my arm. We walked over to the couch that took up half of his dressing room. He pulled me down on the couch.
He looked down at his hands. "I can't believe this is it." I looked up at him. "My dream came true and now its over..."
"Why are you looking at it like that?" I put my hand on his forearm.
"What other way can I look at it? Its over! I'm done!" He ran his hand through his perfectly styled hair and it was a mess now.
I've known Jimmy since day 1 of SNL and he has always been the happiest person I've ever met and that's one of the reasons why I love him so much.
I've never ever seen him act this way.
"Jimmy do you have any idea what going on right now?" He looked over at me, clueless. "Tonight is your last SNL and you are the most talented person I know, and I'm not saying that because you're my best friend, I'm saying it because it's true." A small smile appeared on his face. "Sure, tonight is the end of an era for you but think about it! It's all just the beginning! You're filming Taxi AND Fever Pitch next month! You have so many things to look forward too."
"I know, I know.... It just makes me sad that I wont be able to come to work every day and see all of you... I mean, what am I going to do on Saturday nights now?" I laughed and so did he.
"So many memories have been made here...." He looked around the room.
"I met my best friend here..." He smiled at me and I blushed.
"Oh, stop it..." I said in my best goofy voice.
"I'm serious, I honestly don't know what I would have done if I hadn't met you... We've had so many fun sleepovers!!!" He spoke like a crazy teenage-girl. I laughed because he's just so ridiculous. "But really... Thank you for always being here for me and my head..." He pointed to his face and messed up hair.
"No problem, its my job! Now! Its almost time. So," I fixed his hair a little bit. "Lets go... I'll walk ya." He smiled and we walked out into the hallway.
As we walked to the set, like we always do, I kept thinking about everything we have done together and how he is such a big part of my life.
We got to the studio doors and Jimmy opened the door for me. "M'Lady," he said in a British accent.
"Why thank you, handsome fellow!" I attempted to say in an accent too. He giggled at my disastrous attempt and followed me backstage.
"Oh by the way!" I slowed down so he could catch up to me. "My mom called me and told me to tell you that my dad fixed the chair..." He laughed and scratched his jaw line.
"I feel so bad, still!"
"It's fine! Don't worry about it... She also told me to visit soon and bring you... You up for it?" We stopped walking and stood backstage behind one of the sets.
"Are you kidding? Of course! Can we go tomorrow?" I looked at him in disbelief.
"Tomorrow? Jim, are you serious?" I hit him on his arm.
"Yeah... I will need to get this off my mind." He pointed to the set and I could tell he was getting sad again.
What Jimmy wants, Jimmy gets... At least from me
"Lets do it. I'll call mom and let her know..."
A cameraman walked up to Jimmy and whispered something in his ear. He nodded at the guy and turned to me.
"Okay. I gotta go over there... Come with me." He grabbed my hand and intertwined his fingers with mine. His sweaty palm made me smile.
We speed-walked over to his cue mark and I waited with him until he had to go on.
"ONE MINUTE" was called over the intercom and Jimmy squeezed my hand tighter.
I held onto his hand with my other hand and stroked his thumb to try and get him to calm down.
"30 SECONDS" I let go of his hand and pulled his head down to me.
"Just have fun, kid." I whispered into his ear.
I walked away from him and I heard him call out to me, "I'm still your favorite cast member, right?!" I turned around and he had a huge grin spread across his face.
"ALWAYS!"

I walked back into his dressing room, sat on the couch and listened to his young raspy voice fill the room. Ever since they installed these live speakers in the dressing rooms, I go here and listen to every show.

I reminisced about when I brought Jimmy over to my parents house over the summer. He was really nervous and wanted to impress my dad so he did his "Troll Doll" routine. Mid way through he stood up on my dads favorite chair and it completely broke.
I remember him falling onto the floor and he looked so shocked and embarrassed.
He looked up to my dad and my dad reached down and helped him up.
I laughed at how scared he looked when my dad patted his back and said, "Smile, kid. You're good. Don't sweat it."
He didn't need to sweat it because my dad adored him already.
I sat and listened to the whole show and when it was over, I sat there and waited for him to return.
After the "Goodbye" music ended I began to hear lots of voices in the hallways and eventually heard Jimmy's. He walked into the room and I stood up to greet him.
He had beads of sweat running down his forehead, as usual.
"Never fail to disappoint, Fallon." I gave him a high-five and he looked so happy.
"What now? Wanna go to the cast party?" He thought about it for a second and then rubbed his eyes.
"Nah... Can we just go to Bens Pizza? On Thompson?" I could tell he just wanted to leave.
"Sure... Its on me."
I helped him get everything out of his dressing room and he put most of the things into a cardboard box. He pulled out his navy Saturday Night Live sweatshirt with his name printed on the back.
"Here," he threw it to me. "Take it."
He knew how much I always loved that sweatshirt, it was worn out but it was all him.
"Thanks... you sure?"
He nodded his head.
I pulled it on over my head and it was ginormous on me. I fixed my hair and held the sleeves up to my nose. It smelt like Jim.
"Lets go, V." He opened the door and walked out of his dressing room for the last time.

He held the cardboard box in his hands and I wrapped my arms around his bicep as we walked down the hallway together for the last time.