Time Is Nothing (John Frusciante)

Chapter 24

"Anthony, what are you doing?" Cecilia laughed as she sat herself down on now her and John's living room sofa and took a sip of her recently opened bottle of wine while inspecting her friend with both interest and amusement.

"Playing guitar, of course," he answered and grinned, looking more than confident in his guitar playing abilities.

"Are you, though?" Cecilia questioned while letting out a sound that was a mixture of a snort and a giggle, but Anthony wouldn't let himself be bothered.

"This is a really cool rhythm, John is going to love this," he insisted and suddenly called for his bandmate, "Hey John, check out this rhythm that I made up!"

Seeing John appear from the other room he once again affirmed, "It's a cool rhythm, watch," and let his fingers slide over the strings of one of John's acoustic guitars, more chaotically than systematically.

"Yeah, right. Sounds great," John only looked at him and let out a sarcastic laugh before disappearing into the other room again.

"What? It was a cool rhythm," the tone of Anthony's voice expressed disappointment before he turned his attention to Cecilia, "Really? You're drinking that straight from the bottle?"

"We're out of glasses," she shrugged and placed her bottle on the tiny living room table right in front of her, "I mean I had a glass, but someone stole it and now we're completely out and I have to settle for this."

"What can I say, joys of the lady of the house," Anthony chuckled and stood from the couch he was sitting on, "I'll go get myself another bottle of beer. No glasses needed!"

"How thoughtful of you," Cecilia laughed at Tony's comment and reached for the bottle she had been previously drinking from while watching him disappear into the kitchen and observing the people roaming around her and John's house.

It was a late Saturday night and John and Cecilia had finally decided to throw a somewhat of a housewarming party for their friends in order to show off their new love nest. People were chatting, having drinks, looking around the house, the guys even jammed and made some music at some point and Cecilia enjoyed capturing every moment with her camera. The house itself wasn't too packed — only both John and Cecilia's closest friends, nobody superabundant. The only one still missing was Jessica, though. Anthony had mumbled something about her having a late practice with her cheerleading squad, but that was all he said about her absence. All in all, he didn't seem too bothered by not having his girlfriend by his side.

The relationship between Cecilia and Jessica had grown quite strange recently. Ever since Cecilia announced to Jessica that she would be moving out of her apartment and moving in with John, the interaction between the two had become more and more distant. You would expect your best friend to be super excited about you moving into a huge ass house with your boyfriend and for her to be the first person standing at your door to check it out, but that had not been the case. Every time Cecilia had invited her best friend over or even proposed to have lunch together or whatever else, Jessica always had excuses and reasons why she couldn't attend. Cecilia tried not to take it personally, but after a while she couldn't help but to start wondering if she had done or said something that had upset her. So yet again, the bigger was the disappointment when Anthony had shown up alone this evening, promising that Jessica would join them after her practice.

"Hey, Tony uhmm.. Did she say a specific time when she would be coming or..?" Cecilia soon inquired from Anthony after the clock had already hit midnight and still.. no sight of Jessica.

"Not really," he shook his head in a careless manner and continued chatting with a guy Cecilia didn't exactly know, but had seen around the band before.