Chapter 1: First encounters with the clueless nerd

Landon Pierce's POV

"Hold it." The sexy red-head in the tight black suit imperiously raised her ivory hand and turned away. She flipped her phone open and whispered to it in a foreign language.

French?

Spanish?

German?

I looked at my other band mates. As usual blond-haired and gray-eyed Ace, our part-time vocalist and full-time womanizer, was salivating. He hasn't changed much, the bastard. Still willing to hump anything that wears a skirt. Though, I'm not saying the sassy woman who wants to get this top-floor mansion away from us is an "anything".

Fluffy long hair in fiery red.

At least a D-cup.

Thin waist.

Mile long legs.

Thick, lips in a dark, dark red.

She's screaming Mary Jane Watson meets Black Widow meets Cat Woman. I sighed and turned towards our manager, Cris. "Maybe we should just get another place?"

A woman scoffed behind me. Sandra. The wife of used-to-be girlfriend snatcher, Eric, the bassist. "I've already brought in our stuff! Just because some bimbo comes in here, demanding our place doesn't mean we'll just roll over! And the nursery is already…"

I stopped listening. God, she's so annoying. Where is her husband, anyway? I rolled my eyes. Whatever, former groupie… Your husband must be off humping somebody's girlfriend.

"Our main problem is we already signed a contract and they already signed a contract. For the same place. There will be some unnecessary legal issues that we can't afford to have", Cris mused loud enough for us to hear.

I always knew this was a mistake. Why am I here anyway? Because I love the band that Ace, Eric, Vance and I created? Bullshit. I left it once already. And I was supposed to be happy with the band I created by myself. But yeah, it too crashed and burned later on. Ace went on to have a solo career after that fiasco of him fucking Vance's and Eric's "girlfriend". His career fizzled faster than you could say one hit wonder. Eric left the band nine months after he forgot to put on a condom one drunken night. Only Vance remained to continue Semantic Sin, and it never got any better. I used to enjoy how everyone dissed the band on youtube after I left. Served the little prick right. So why am I here, waiting to see if we get to stay in the mega-Penthouse of Sinclair Golden Building? It wasn't god-awful, mind you. Everything was still bare but it's spacious without being prissy and it had quite the personality. I'm not one to discriminate floor tiles and wallpaper but I could safely say the place was sweet. It had eight rooms that could pass as middle-class homes, and this big receiving hall where we're currently discussing the shit.

Back to the question. Why am I here? I don't know. Maybe because I've gotten sick of the starving artist act? Yeah, yeah. No pride and all that. I left the band to rot then I come running back. God. I don't know the reason myself, okay? Maybe because I suddenly heard that all three of them had decided to push back their differences (bury the hatchet, so to speak)? And two of them had come busting through my beside-the-subway wreck of a pretend home?

"Ok."

I snapped out of it, realizing that Ms. Leggy McRedhead had come back from her je ne sais quoi chat.

"I'll agree with letting you guys stay but I keep those two rooms over", she said, pointing to the bigger units of the penthouse floor.

"What! Those are the best units!" The rest of us cringed from Sandra's screech.

Maybe I came back just to see Eric getting tortured by his banshee of a wife.

"Yes, exactly. That's why we're getting them. Either you accept that or leave the premises."

"Maybe we should just leave the premises and have the management fix the mess." I jumped at the familiar, cold voice. Kelly. Eric's sister. The Goddess of Pain. Don't ask me why.

She's still the same, I see. Tank top showing off her cleavage, skinny jeans showing off her butt. Long, straight, blonde hair. Scowling face. I looked away upon noticing that I had clenched my jaw.

Like I said. Don't ask.

Cris coughed. Yeah, his cousin is the manager of the building. We sort of got the deal 'coz of his cousin. Since S.S. is starting from scratch, we don't have that much moolah. The living together shindig is supposed to be our publicity stunt to wake up the used-to-be fans.

"Yes. That will work too. By the end of the day, though. I could guarantee that Mr. Gomez would be out of a job." Redhead raised an eyebrow while looking at Cris.

Damn.

I sure as hell don't want to be neighbours with her. I smell evil bitch.

But Leandro Gomez is a nice guy. Big fan. And Cris's cousin. I sigh.

"Fine. We agree to your proposal", I say with a bored voice. "You'll just be taking one of the eight rooms anyway. Just as long as you don't mess with us and you guarantee that you're not some groupie."

It'd be a problem for a recuperating band that got wrecked because of some girls if Redhead turned out to be some rich, wacko groupie. As much as possible, I'd rather that all of us concentrated on the music.

The woman just smirked and made her way towards the elevator. What the hell was that supposed to mean?! The moment the elevator doors closed, Ace gave a whoop of laughter.

"Hell yeah! Hot bombshell neighbooooor!!!"

We ignored him and took off to check out the whole place.

"Yeah. So you fine now? With all of this?"

I stared at Eric, wondering why he was so pushy in talking to me. Our friendship's done and over with already. We're just sticking for the music and the money. In my opinion, this is just some plastic shit I'm not willing to deal with.

"Wait, what is that?" He stopped.

Our torrid kisses

Kiss the sweet December goodbye…

That's our song.

"That's our song." Eric mumbled.

Yeah. Three years ago. Our heyday. Everybody worshipped us.

I'm goin' crazy

Crazy…

I'm goin' crazy

And you just don't care

God, you never cared

I winced remembering the reason behind that song. I wrote it by the way.

"Hey, it's coming from Redhead's room over there."

I blink. What?! Shit. She's a groupie then? A corporate bitch in her thirties is a Semantic Sin groupie?! Wow. Never thought that our target market was THAT big.

"Hey, come on!" Eric called.

I would've ignored him and yelled "Fuck you!" but I suddenly saw this old lady coming out of Red's room and…Yeah. Had to help her out. She was carrying a jumbo box, man. Geez, I never thought that bitchy Redhead had the heart to use senile slaves.

"Oh, thank you!" The old woman said with a grateful smile.

The box was fucking empty. The speakers inside the room still blared the song Frozen Goodbyes and I couldn't help but peek inside.

"Is Re— I mean, is the owner inside?" Eric inquired, peeking through the door himself.

Huh. Also interested, eh, Eric? Suddenly the door swung wide open.

"Nana, you really don't need to do this anymore. I can fi—"

She stopped and stared at us.

The first thing I noted was the huge glasses. They were hiding the pretty, crystal blue eyes. So light blue. And huge. Very pretty face. The next thing I noticed was the height. 5'2'' or something. She looked like a short high school student. One of those innocent and virginal types the jocks always played on.

A high school student who clearly doesn't follow trends and shit. I raise an eyebrow at the sweatpants and oversized shirt combo. Though yeah, the oversized-ness of the shirt and youthfulness of her face did not fool my expert male eyes. She's got a woman's body under those ill-fitting clothes. A damn good one too. She flashed a dazzlingly cute smile. I suddenly felt like melting. Seriously. My legs turned to jelly for a second.

"You guys must be my neighbours!" she excitedly gushed. Oh god. A groupie. I knew it!

"You're our new neighbor? Not Red..." Eric asked, quite stunned.

"You must be talking about Miss Anderson. She's the secretary." The old woman said. The girl just stood there smiling a Colgate-worthy, bimbo-ish smile. Ugh. What a mess.

But wait a minute…

"You were listening to Semantic Sin…" Eric said, looking puzzled himself.

Right. Eric noticed it too.

She should've shrieked 'OMG! OMG! OMG! AAAAAH! *faint*' Or just jumped me and Eric at the first instance. The girl cocked her head to one side, puzzled.

"Who?"

Ouch.

"The song…The one playing in your room…Now…"

She blinked then, as if a lightbulb suddenly flashed in her head…

"Ah! The song! Right…right. Pragma…what?"

"The song's Frozen Goodbyes by Semantic Sin." I said.

I immediately regretted the disappointment that tainted my tone as I said it. Maybe we weren't that well known? She nodded her head slowly. She doesn't know us. Or does she? I've met a few girls who tried to pull that act off. Pretend to be ignorant of our fame just so they could get in, gain our trust and be comfy with us. Then we find out that they're die hard fans with huge secret shrines in their closets. I discreetly tried to tug Eric away. He doesn't move. I look up and groan inwardly. He had that amused, stupefied grin on his face. The one he usually has when he's seen interesting meat. My head's spinning. We really don't need a girl in the scene right now.

"I'm Eric Jones", he smoothly said while offering a hand.

Oh for the love of God. Jesus, Eric! You're fucking married! And she looks like a middle schooler! And she might be just pulling that "I'm not a groupie" groupie trick. The girl politely smiled and shook his hand. Or rather, clamped on it briefly. She released his hand quickly and handed her hand to me. I gulped and took it.

We don't need a girl. We don't need a girl. We don't need a girl. We FUCKING don't need a girl!

"Landon. Landon Pierce", I said, my voice hoarse. Again, she clamped on my hand for nothing more than a second and released it.

She gave another dazzling smile. "I'm Elise." I blinked. I thought I saw some sparkles around her face. Elise. No family name. I stared at her and took in more of her features. Oval face, milky-white, flawless skin. Her hair was wavy and black. And perfect even if by boy standards, it looked hobo-messy. Her hair shimmered and moved like the sea.

I should write that down.

Her hair shimmered and moved like the sea.

The old woman Elise called Nana cleared her throat. "Elise is underage and here to study on her own."

On her own.

On her own.

Oh Lord.

She definitely said on her own.

"Again, she is underage and—"

Elise laughed and slapped Nana's arm. "Huwag kayong mag-alala. Mukha naman silang mabait." Eric and I blinked. Alien language. Nana growled in response and said, "Ay! Tsk! Mga lalake yan!"

Nana turned to us and said, "We have lots to fix. The contract said she won't bother you boys, so I suggest you give us the same courtesy and stay away from her."

With that, and a creepy smile that screamed "Goodbye now!" she went in and slammed the door in our faces.

That was my first encounter with Elise, the cute nerdy girl living on the same floor as us.

"Damn it." I adjust the plastic bags carrying the take out Thai aka dinner. It turns out nobody in the gang knew how to cook. And the microwaves weren't coming until tomorrow.

And then there's the fact that I suck at rock-paper-scissors.

I hate L.A.

I shivered as a gust of night wind found its way through my rain-soaked sweater. Jesus. Why can't we just order the food?!

I struggle to press the down button for the elevator. Stupid six plastic bags of Thai goodness. Argh!

Thank God, nobody seems to be using the beautiful thing. It opened immediately.

And now here's the challenge. I've got to take out this passkey from the back of my jeans pocket so the elevator will go straight up to the top floor. Take note that I have six overloaded plastic bags full of food and bottles of wine.

"Shit!" I cursed.

Then I heard a soft, familiar "bling!"

Someone was going to the top floor too.

I look up.

It was her again.

Elise.

She had on a yellow raincoat and purple rain boots. And she was nibbling a fingernail. Like a little girl lost in thought.

A lump forms in my throat and my mouth suddenly feels dry.

Yeah, I know! It's stupid. I'm acting like I'm back to 12 years ago. When I was still a virgin being fondled by the village skank.

I'm not a loser. I know how to handle girls. Damn, I could even compete with Ace if it came to that. I just don't have the energy to flick away after I use. If you get my drift…

Yet, here's a 5'2'' chick standing next to my 6'1'' frame. Her weird get-up next to my rock-star-on-the-run-from-the-paparazzi attire.

Here I am close to fainting, swooning or both and she's acting like I don't exist.

I opened my mouth to… I don't know. What do I say? I just feel like I must say something.

The door opened. I glanced up.

It's not the top floor yet.

"Hey! Landon!"

Shit.

Ace. What was he doing on the 20th floor?

As expected, his eyes were immediately on the still unreactive girl.

"Uh, yeah. Hey." I cleared my throat.

Maybe she's ignoring me. We did have Red sign a contract forbidding any sort of nuisance on her part. Ace was still staring at her, up and down with a smirk. I wanted to punch his face. The door opened again. Top floor. Loud whoops met us. And Ace raised his arms thinking the gang was rejoicing because of him. Douche. I kept my eyes on Elise as she walked out of the elevator, like in a trance.

"Hey! Elise!" I heard Eric yell.

She stopped.

"Elise!" Eric ran over to her. "Hey, you okay?"

Elise looked blankly at him for a few seconds.

"Oh! Oh…" She closed her eyes for a few seconds, then opened them again. She gave a small laugh.

"I'm sorry. I was just thinking about the implications of having a statically balanced shaft as opposed to it being dynamically—"

She must have noticed the bizarre look on Eric's face because she winced and said "Hi" forcefully. Eric scratched his head and reddened.

"Oy! All the food are soaked!"

I snapped my head towards Ace. He was right. The rain must've gotten in. I groaned.

"Ah, shit. And I was hoping to invite Elise to come eat with us!" Eric whined.

"I thought you guys wanted her out of the way?!" Sandra said snidely.

Oooh… Jealousy. God, she's just a kid. Talk about insecure.

"I didn't!" Ace said with a laugh. "Only Landon did."

"Hey, you expected the Redhead. Lay off her. She's underage." Eric retorted.

"Didn't stop you before!" Ace countered heatedly.

I heard Kelly curse. Cris stood up just in case a fight pushed through. Sandra was off yelling how inappropriate it was to be talking about "shafts" to a married man. I rolled my eyes. Vance hasn't arrived and we're already in this mess now. I remembered Elise and I noticed she was gone already. The scream fest continued for like half an hour and I just ignored them. I went towards the huge floor-to-ceiling windows and just swallowed in the blurry night lights below and the raging downpour. I'll have to get dinner again. Maybe I should wait until the rain stopped. Or maybe, I fucking try to order food! I don't get why they're so against that! The elevator pinged again and opened.

Everybody shut up.

A fifty-year old woman in a maid outfit and with an uppity air entered, pushing a cart. The unmistakeable smell of steak and soup and I dunno, something yummy smelling, wafted in the receiving hall.

"Is Mademoiselle Aldridge here?" She inquired in a nasal voice.

Aldridge.

Is she looking for Elise?

"Elise Aldridge", I whispered, trying the name out on my tongue.

"Oh, good. My food is here."

Elise was back. Her rain gear was gone and replaced by a very long night gown and gigantic, furry bunny slippers. I was immediately reminded of Wendy from Peter Pan. Only her hair didn't have blue ribbons. She had it in a messy bun that sat atop her head. I bit my lower lip. You just can't help but smile at that. Her face was flushed like she had just gotten out of a shower. God, were they really arguing for that long? I full on blushed as she waddled towards the lady in the maid outfit and greeted her with a kind, toothy smile. The maid even relaxed and smiled back. Even I couldn't help but be relaxed and smile.

"Mademoiselle, your food is here."

"Yes, yes. This way." She held on to the handlebars of the cart, offering to push it for the maid but the maid shyly and gently swatted her off. Someone's stomach growled and I think the earth shook. So I guess it was Ace's stomach.

"Oops", he said.

Elise stopped and looked at us. She took in every one of us. (I looked away when she stared at me.) She eyed the plastic bags full of rain water and Thai food boxes. She whispered something to the maid's ear before they went off to her room.

"Oh God! This is delicious! Better than sex!" Sandra moaned.

"What?!" Ace gasped.

"Yes, Ace. Better than fucking you." Sandra said with a laugh.

Eric clucked his tongue.

"Hey, baby. Don't get jealous." Sandra said patting her husband's face.

I snorted. Sandra was the quintessential groupie who had sex with all the band members. Except with me, of course. Even I had standards.

"So you think she's a rabid fan, eh?" Kelly said while sipping red wine.

The maid, whose name was Greta, had returned a while back with a larger cart full of amazing food like steaks, roasted chicken, beef stew, cream of mushroom soup, burgers, carbonara and a ridiculous assortment of pastries. And three bottles of amazing wine.

"Possibly. What kind of person would donate this much to us?" Ace said.

"Maybe she's just a nice person", I supplied, annoyed at what Ace said. I hate it when he acts like he's God of Women or something. Disgusting prick.

"She is nice", Cris suddenly said. "Leandro told me that the Redhead yesterday wanted to fucking kick him out immediately. Apparently the little girl was the one who stopped her."

"Yeah. Because she wanted to room up with rockstars!" Sandra said matter-of-factly, her face already a bit red.

Cris snorted. "Not everyone's a slutty groupie." Sandra glared at him and I chuckled. "She didn't know about us. She just knew that Leandro was in big trouble and proposed a compromise."

"Maybe she wants to fuck Leandro."

"Leandro's fifty years old."

"It's not impossible."

"She's a teenager!"

"Still not impossible."

"How can you guys stomach it? Talking shit about somebody who fed you?" I yelled. I blew out some air. Jeez.

At least they shut up.

"Yeah, we should thank her", Kelly said, standing up. I saw guilty looks on everyone's faces.

I froze when I heard the familiar screech of the cart wheels..

Elise. She turned and saw me. Shit. She smiled that dazzling smile again and she was looking at me. Be still, you stupid heart, you. I sighed with relief when she took off her earphones. Whew. I thought she heard us.

"Good evening!" She brightly said. She left the cart and turned back from whence she came.

"W-wait!" I yelled.

Shit. Now what?

"Hm?" She said, puzzled.

My tongue suddenly had the audacity to be paralysed. Help.

"We want to thank you", Kelly filled in for me.

"Ah. It's nothing." She waved the thank you off with a smile.

"Hey! Don't go! We want to get to know our uh…neighbour", Sandra brightly said.

She shuffled her feet. "Uhm… Miss Anderson sort of told me to…uhm…She said you guys wanted me…"

"Forget about the contract. Landon was just the one who said that you need to stay away", Ace said jerking a thumb at me. I glared at him.

"As a joke", I find myself saying defensively. Liar.

"Oh."

Silence.

She smiled unabashedly. "Hi. Um…I'm Elise."

"Right. Um… I'm Sandra. This one here's my sister-in-law Kelly. My husband Eric. He told me you already met. This one's Ace. Stay away from him. Cris. He's addicted to money. Then Landon. He's suicidal. Haha. Kidding."

Trust Sandra to rat everything off faster than you could say "groupie".

She nodded while mouthing our names. Much like ticking numbers off your fingers. If she's really pretending not to know us, she's doing an Oscar-worthy performance.

"You like Semantic Sin?" Kelly innocently asked.

She blinked. "Who?"

They gasped and murmured.

"I'm sorry…I'm sort of…", Elise blushed.

"The band you were listening to when we first met", I said helpfully.

"Oh! Yeah. That band. Uhm…I'm gonna be straight with you guys…" She gulped.

Everyone leaned in and nodded, encouraging her to say what we had already expected.

"Uhm…I really don't know that band." She said with a sigh.

Everyone slumped back in their seats and groaned.

"She's pulling the act."

"No I think she's telling the truth."

"A girl her age--"

"Um!" She said loudly. "I don't want to be a…uh…what do you call that…uhm…a poser? It was just some song a friend of mine burned on a cd as a goodbye gift."

"Frozen goodbyes", I said, finally linking the loose ends. Though, I'm suspicious as to what kind of friend would think of my song as a fitting goodbye gift.

The lyrics had some pretty much R-rated metaphors in it.

R-Rated as in loaded with sexual metaphors.

She didn't seem to be the kind of kid who'd get herself in the kind of situation my song alluded to. But then again...

"I hope I didn't…offend or…or disappoint you. I haven't really heard about…M-Magnetic…uhm, Sim?"

She winced.

Kelly burst into laughter. Cris followed suit. And then everyone else were clutching their stomachs. I just smiled at her.

She held on to her nightgown and smiled shyly. "I'm sorry…", she whispered.

"There's nothing to be sorry about, honey. Welcome to the club." Kelly raised her glass.

"Yeah. You passed the test, babe!" Ace said, winking at her.

Elise stared at us with her huge eyes, puzzled at the reaction of everybody but still smiling.

Ah, she's too cute.

Author's Note:

Thank you for reading.

Review/Fave/Alert if you think this is worth continuing. I'm not really a serious writer. I prefer reading your works here on fp. Still, I would appreciate it if you pointed out mistakes and such. Just be nice about it. :D

Some notes:

Elise said: Huwag kayong mag-alala. Mukha naman silang mabait.

It means: Don't you worry. They look kind (or nice).

Nana replied: Ay! Tsk! Mga lalake yan!

It means: Ah! Tsk! They're boys!

Elise's Nana is a Filipina and she's taken care of her since she was a baby, so she sort of learned to speak Nana's native language.

Damn. I wanted a humorous first chapter but I guess I'm still shaking the brooding mood off. Anyways, I chose Landon because he's the most observant of them all. I hope you got a good picture of the situation through his POV!