eastside

chapter eight

It was the day Eddie had been waiting for, the day Piper finally got to see them perform. He knew she was excited since she loved his voice, having asked for him to sing at any chance she got. She'd even ask him to sing along with silly radio jingles just so that she could hear it, which he didn't mind doing because he thought it was cute. He was excited too but nervous which was usual for him but the nerves he felt today were something entirely different. He knew Piper would be watching and the last thing he wanted to do was fuck up..

While walking hand in hand down the flights of stairs in her apartment building, little did Eddie know that she was just as nervous as he was.. In just a short walk, she would be meeting the rest of his friends and bandmates.. She had no idea if they knew about her at this point, being that the last time she saw any of them was when she was cowering behind Eddie. She began to wonder if he had mentioned her at all or if he ever actually explained to them what happened on that day.

Walking down to the last landing, Eddie hurried ahead and opened the lobby door for her, holding it wide with a cheesy smile across his face. She loved when he smiled like that, his eyes lit up so brightly. She waited outside the door for him as it clicked shut behind them when he grabbed ahold of her hand once again. He quickly realized that she was nervous just by the way she pulled at his jacket, bringing it closer around her..

Eddie raised their hands up from between them and placed a soft kiss to the back of her palm. "Hey.." He spoke, getting her attention and causing her to look up. He pulled her towards him as they walked and slung an arm over her shoulder. "You don't have to be nervous, they're great guys." Piper reached up and grabbed his hand as it dangled off her shoulder, entwining their fingers together. She knew that they had to be decent in order for Eddie to like them, but she was awfully shy around new people, whether they were good or not.

Continuing down the path towards the parking lot, she spotted two guys leaning up against a white van while two were sitting on the side of Eddies truck. They were all talking amongst themselves, the two on the truck bed idling swinging their feet as their legs hung over the side. The two at the van started roughhousing as the pair got closer, causing Eddie to start laughing as he unwrapped his arm from Pipers shoulder and ran to join in.

There were pretend punches and kicks being thrown that looked like something straight out of a WWF match as they all laughed and fought. The one in the cowboy hat on the truck looked up and saw Piper as she approached a few seconds behind Eddie and politely waved to her.

"So you're the girl Eddie won't shut up about." Piper felt her face heat up as he spoke and shyly tucked her hair behind her ear. Him speaking caused the rest of the guys to stop fighting and look up to see who he was referring to.

Eddie smiled at her as a series of greetings and names came flying from their mouths, all of them talking over each other at once. "Hey, you guys shut up so I can introduce myself, jesus.." Cowboy jumped down from the back of the truck, holding on to his hat as he did and held out his hand toward Piper. "I'm Stone.. This is Dave." He said pointing over his shoulder to the guy that was still on the truck beside him, causing him to wave. "That's Mike and Jeff beating the shit out of each other and of course, you know Eddie.. very well from what I've gathered.." Piper felt small under all of their gazes as she shook his hand, until Eddie came up and put Stone into a headlock, knocking his hat to the ground in the process.

Piper chuckled and took a step back as the two fought playfully. "Alright, alright I can take a hint." Stone said laughing as Eddie let go and picked his hat up, plopping it back on his head crookedly. "Seriously though, he never stops talking about you." He said as he repositioned the fashion statement on his head.

What's with these guys and hats..

"Yeah, it's always Piper this, Piper that, sorry I missed practice, I was too busy swapping spit with Piper." Mike added in a fake deep voice to mock Eddie. He was the one to feel his face burn this time as Piper glanced at him, shyly smiling from ear to ear.