True to You

Creating Bonds

1999

"Hey, where's Elli?" Jimmy asked as he closed his fingers around the beer Brian was reaching for. Awesome, Brian had found someone to buy them beers.

"Elli?" Brian raised that infuriating eyebrow. He snagged another beer not even commenting on the one Jimmy had snatched out from under him.

Ooops. "Yot. Elli-yot," Jimmy covered clumsily. No one needed to know the strange little agreement he and Elliot had come to regarding their names. After all it was highly unlikely that any of his friends would ever call him James so it was only fair that he made sure that none of them ever called her Elli.

"Dude, sometimes I wonder if you're even existing in the same dimension as the rest of us." Brian shook his head.

"It's kind of true man, pretty sure sometimes I'm operating on a higher plane." Jimmy gave him a grin. Messing with his friends' heads was his way of showing them he loved them.

"I don't doubt it. Why do you care where Elliot is anyway? Personally I am loving the fact that she has made friends with Val and Michelle and might fuck off out of my face for a bit." Brian took a long sip of beer and Jimmy resisted the urge to punch his best friend. Jimmy may have had the height advantage and whilst he was wily he wasn't sure he could best Brian if they threw down.

Jimmy cocked his head, "Why do you hate on Elliot anyway? Seriously man, you can't still be holding a grudge about the gay thing? Or that she told me about it? That story was gold, you can't expect her to keep it a secret."

Brian kicked a bottle cap across the garage floor. Matt had borrowed his dad's car to go pick up Zacky so he and Jimmy were alone. "Nah man, I'm not that much of a pussy. I don't hate her but I wish that my friends weren't rolling around making fools out of themselves around her."

Jimmy tossed his own bottle cap in the air and then batted it in Brian's direction. "Dude, you need to chill out. We're not all making fools of ourselves around her." They weren't. Well, maybe Jimmy had made a fool of himself a time or two but that was pretty much standard operating procedure for him. He made a fool of himself in front of everyone, it was all part of his charm. Okay so some were more charmed than others but so far he'd found it to be a winning formula. Elli, definitely seemed to fall into the charmed category.

"Yeah?" Brian smirked. "What was she wearing yesterday?"

"A Soundgarden t-shirt and a pair of shorts," Jimmy replied without thinking. As if he could forget her legs in those short, shorts.

"See, you remember. In my book that's making a fool of yourself over her." Brian pointed out.

No it wasn't. But how would Brian know if he'd been taking notice of what she was wearing anyway? Had he been taking notice? "How do you know what she was wearing? That's just creepy dude, checking out your cousin out like that."

Brian snorted and held up a finger, "First of all she's not my cousin. Secondly it was pretty hard not to notice with the way all you idiots were checking out her ass in those shorts. I haven't got a fucking clue about the t-shirt but Soundgarden sounds about right. She's from Seattle after all. She should just open a Starbucks or something."

Brian was right, Jimmy'd seen her in several different Alice in Chains t-shirts as well as the Soundgarden one. As for the bit about everyone checking out her ass? Well that just wasn't true. "Matt wasn't checking out her ass, he was busy checking out Val's ass."

Brian rolled his eyes, "And you douches wonder why I won't join your band? You're all too busy checking out chicks to think seriously about music. Don't get me wrong I loooove chicks but you got to play it cool man. It's not like these girls are going to be around in two years, so why spend time you could be making music chasing tail? Make the music good enough - or shit, just look cool holding a guitar - and the tail will chase you." Brian gave Jimmy a confident smirk. Of course he did, he wasn't relying on the secret ingredients in Axe to lure girls into his sex web. Chicks followed him home. Hell, half the chicks strolling up and down Matt's street weren't actually going anywhere, they were just trying to catch a glimpse of Brian or Matt. Fuck half the time they didn't even lurk out on the street. While Brian had been busy the day before glaring at his friends for checking out his cousin, Val's twin Michelle had been busy checking him out. Jimmy didn't bother pointing that out, Brian would already know. He had a well-developed sixth sense when it came to feminine attention.