Without You (James Franco Fanfiction)

Chapter VIII

(A/N): Due to a number of asks on tumblr a certain character is back by popular demand to stir things up! Also if you follow this story on there as well as here, make sure to hit my ask box and give me some feedback! I personallydon’t really like this chapter but I needed to get it out of the way.

Scarlett’s POV

Between the conversation Dana and I had in the restaurant and the band’s departure day for Australia, I’d ended up avoiding James. It wasn’t because I’d let Dana’s words get to me, instead it was because I wanted to make new friends.

Plus, it’s not like avoiding him is an easy task. Avoiding James Franco is a lot like searching for a needle in a haystack: It’s pretty much impossible to do. The guy manages to be everywhere and be involved in everything so it’s hard to not to see or hear his name being mentioned, and on top of that the guy never fails to catch me whilst I’m in a place where I can’t pretend I never saw him.

Whenever James stopped by, I wasn’t going to be rude to him and tell him to go away…much to Dana and everyone else’s disappointment. There are a lot of things that have changed about James. They can’t see it, but I can and I know he’s different now. He’s refined. Mature. He is genuinely trying to be nice to me and I not going to throw that back into his face.

I decided to broaden my friendship circle by socialising with more of Seth and Lauren’s friends. Since I frequent the States more often in comparison with to the rest of my band, I figured I might as well find some more people to hang out with.

Lauren took me out to brunches every few days with her girlfriends and whenever Seth wasn’t busy we’d just chill out together with Jay Baruchel, who was quickly becoming a good friend of mine.

Sharing a joint with Seth, and Jay, the three of us were kicked back in Seth’s entertainment room which, to my stoned state of mind, felt like an amusement park (minus the wild roller coasters and other insane rides) rolled up into the space of a room which put almost half of my house to shame.

I felt slightly bad for not joining Lauren on a ladies night with the girls at a club downtown LA, but I didn’t necessarily feel up to it. I love spending time with Lauren and her friends are nothing short of amazing but clubbing didn’t necessarily appeal to me.

Most times, my idea of a good night is one spent in rather than out, smoking weed with a bunch of close mates. The whole clubbing experience only ever seems complete if you’re one who drinks alcohol, and since I was always the one who didn’t at the end of the night I felt no different than I would have if I hadn’t left.

“Hey Scarlett, you’re a musician,” Jay said as he stood up and disappeared behind the couch. Leaping back over, he places a ukulele in my lap, “Why don’t you play us something?”

Since I was high, the ukulele in my hand felt more like marshmallows. Nevertheless, I attempted to strum some chords before the ringing of a mobile phone caused Seth to exit the room. I placed the ukulele down on the table and stared across at Jay, who was focused on rolling a cross joint when an idea came to my mind.

I pulled out my phone and checked the time, smiling when I realized it was nowhere near as late as I thought it was.