Not Without You (BOOK I)

AJR

||RYAN'S POV||

I got out of the hospital and went in my car to check the damage. Jack really fucked me up. My face still had some blood on it, I had a black eye that turned purple, my bottom lip was swollen, I had stitches on the side of my head, and of course, I had bandages on my nose.

"Never trust the popular guys," I whispered with a sigh. Then I remembered why this happened in the first place. My wallet. "DAMNIT!" I yelled. It's still at his apartment, I had to go back if I wanted to pay this stupid hospital bill. "Fuck the American healthcare system," I mumbled to myself and started my car and drove off to Mulberry Street.

"God I can't believe I'm doing this-" I went to knock on Jack's room door, but then it opened and I saw him. His smile quickly wiped away.

"Shit..." he whispered, looking at me.

"I need my wallet," I glared at him.

"Did you pay for the bill yet?" He asked quickly

"I need my damn wallet, Jack," I said, getting angrier.

"Let me pay-" I cut him off by pushing past him and looking around, then I quickly spotted it on the kitchen sink and went over and picked it up.

"Ryan, let me pay," Jack looked at me.

"I don't need shit from you," I mumbled as I looked in my wallet, all of my money, my fucking credit card, was gone. "JACK! WHERE'S MY MONEY!"

"I don't know! Someone must've taken it!"

"THIS IS ALL I HAD! I DON'T EVEN HAVE A JOB YET! I NEEDED THAT MONEY!" I started tearing up.

"Then let me pay! I can get you all of your money back! I can fix all of this, just please let me do something to try and pay you back," he said quickly.

"HOW! How the fuck are you gonna pay me back, you probably blew all your money on that party last night," I was about to cry, I could feel my throat going sore.

"I make easy money performing at gigs, you know that, I have one tonight at a small club, maybe if you bring your keyboard we can get double the money," he said calmly.

"I have a bass," a guy came out from the hallway.

"Who the fuck are you-"

"That's Adam, he's just here to help me clean up," Jack answered.

"I-I can help... I know how to play bass..." he said quietly.

"Yes! That's perfect," Jack smiled at him.

"Fine, where is it," I rolled my eyes.

"Holy shit, The Bitter End?" Adam said.

"Damn, only 2 days in and you already know the city so well," Jack teased Adam.

"I went here once with a few friends, I'm not completely new," Adam rolled his eyes.

"Can we just go, I lose a braincell every second I hang out with you two," I glared at the ground.

"Ok, Mr. Emo," Jack said as he started walking away.

"Don't fucking tease me, that's what got us here in the first place," I wanted to yell but I was too damn tired. Adam came up and walked between me and Jack, I almost thanked him out loud.

"Hey, if this thing goes well, would you guys wanna go out for dinner afterwards?" Jack asked.

"I'm not going on a date with you," I joked.

"Hey, he's just trying to be nice," Adam said quietly as he looked at me.

"Ok... yeah, if we even have the money," I sighed.

"I know a great Asian place downtown if you guys like ramen," Jack's face lit up.

"Yes! I love ramen!" Adam said excitedly.

"Yeah, that sounds good," I smiled a bit.

"Ok, so, the songs we're playing tonight are I Like It by Icona Pop and Charli, Pompeii by Bastille, Moves Like Jaggar by Maroon 5, Pretty Fly by The Offspri-"

"The Offspring? What are you, 30?" I interrupted Jack.

"The Offspring is an iconic rock band from the 1990's, we're playing one of their songs," he looked at me.

"We might as well play Beastie Boys," I rolled my eyes. He smiled and snapped.

"Great, I'll add Fight For Your Right to the setlist," he smiled.

"No! I was joki-"

"Hey, you guys don't have a stage name, you kind of need one," an employee approached us. We all looked at each other.

"AJR," Adam blurted out. Jack and I looked at him. "AJR, that's our band name," he assured us.

"Ok, great," the employee went back to what he was doing.

"What the hell was that," Jack said quickly.

"I had already been thinking about it earlier, AJR has a nice ring to it, plus, it stands for our names, Adam, Jack, and Ryan," Adam slightly smiled.

"Wait, yeah, I kind of like that, it sounds cool," I smiled.

"It's cool, I guess," Jack mumbled as he tuned the strings on his electric guitar.

"Do either of you know percussion?" Adam asked.

"Nope," I shook my head.

"I do," Jack smiled and looked up from his guitar.

"Are you sure you can play acoustic, electric, and percussion at the same time?" I asked him.

"Pf, yeah, duh, it's not gonna be that hard," he shrugged. 

"Holy shit that was exhausting-" Jack gasped for air as he crashed on the couch.

"Told ya," I rolled my eyes.

"That was amazing, I wanna do this again with you guys," Adam smiled.

"Yeah, it was actually really fun, what do you think, Ry?" Jack looked at me.

"Sure, I guess," I shrugged.

"Alright! Let's get everything packed up and go get dinner, I am fucking starving," Jack sighed loudly.