Without You (James Franco Fanfiction)

Chapter V

James’ POV

It had been no more than a week since Seth’s birthday party, and I had been busy teaching classes at UCLA. Whenever I was teaching, my mind didn’t wander far from helping my students achieve the best grades they possibly could. There are professors at UCLA who I know don’t take me seriously enough to consider me as ‘one of them’ but I never let that get to me. I’m aware that in the eyes of  many people, I’m just a famous guy trying to bite off more than he can chew but that isn’t the case for me. Trying new things, taking creative risks and what not makes me feel like I’m not wasting my time on this Earth.

Plus, I get a lot out of teaching and not just from passing on my knowledge to my students and watching the way they build upon that knowledge. Even though being a professor means I do the teaching, there isn’t one day that I’ve ever come home and not learnt something new from my students. They teach me as much as I teach them.

The weather today was glorious – a typical, sunny Californian day, but there was something to it I couldn’t quite describe that gave it just that little bit more which added to my already wonderful mood.  Today was my day off, and surprisingly enough, I was glad I didn’t have any commitments. Of course, I was still going to find a way to occupy myself somehow. With a handful of books under my arm, I went to grab a coffee from Starbucks. As I was standing in line for my order to be made, I couldn’t help but notice the rather fashionable looking man standing in front of me.

Just by staring at his back, taking in the unique craftsmanship of his outfit which showcased his long legs, he looked like he belonged on menswear catwalk. There was a strikingly familiar vibe about him, from his clothing style to his bone structure and even his shoulder length blonde hair but it wasn’t until he turned around that I realized who he was. It only took me a split second to work out his name. Before I could strike up a conversation with him, my name was called out by young girl who took my order.

The barista who served me, a young trainee named Emily kept profusely apologizing for the long wait no matter how many times I reassured her that I wasn’t in a hurry today. When she finally relaxed, she told me that it was a pleasure to have served me – so I decided to lean over the counter and give her a hug. Like I said, I was in a glorious mood.

Until I stepped outside.  

“Thanks Matt,” Scarlett smiles, accepting the coffee with her free hand whilst she hung up her mobile phone with the other. Oddly enough, up until just today, our torrid little reunion didn’t cross my mind once since it happened. Standing back and doing my best to keep out of their line of sight, I watched as they both took a sip from their coffee only to exchange a repulsed glance between each other.

“So bitter,” Matt shuddered, swapping his cup for Scarlett’s. “Your taste in coffee mirrors your personality,” He added on, which made me laugh quietly for a brief moment. Watching them exchange some friendly banter, I felt a sense of loneliness washed over me because I realized I didn’t have that. At least, not anymore.

In the past year or so, I’d been working so much that seeing my friends wasn’t something that occurred often. Even with Seth being my best-friend, the most I’d seen of him in a while was when we were filming This Is The End. In fact, the last time I ever frequently saw my friends (who I don’t work with) was when Scarlett and I were together.

Matt sings and plays guitar in their indie four piece band, Lunar Palms*.  For whatever reason I couldn’t recall, Seth and I would always joke around and call them punks even though their genre is entirely the opposite. We were probably drunk the night we came up with that idea, but it stuck ever since.

Matt was probably the only person who straight away accepted me as Scarlett’s boyfriend. We became really good friends in that time having both sharing the same artistic mind and sense of humour. As for the rest of them, well…

It took a while for Dana to warm up to me, and Zach straight up decided he hated my guts. I have no idea what his issue was with me but he hated me even when we first met. At first, I always thought it was because he had a thing for Scarlett, and I know falsely accusing him of something he didn’t do was wrong but before that he just didn’t like me. Nevertheless, I really missed having my friends around me, even Scarlett’s friends – and that includes Zach.

“So what did old mate want?” Matt asks, sitting beside her on the bench.

“He wanted to know if we were available to go have dinner with him tonight,” Scarlett shrugs. Turning around, I wanted to make my way back to the hotel as quickly as possible before they noticed me eavesdropping on their conversation. It didn’t take me long to work out who the ‘old mate’ was, considering I’d gotten that same phone call earlier today…

 “I can’t, I’m sorry man,” I repeated over the phone to Seth who wasn’t buying my apology. Even when were’ on the phone to each other the guy knows when I’m not being sincere.

“I know it’s your day off,” He protested. I could practically visualise him rolling his eyes at me. Sighing, I gave in, “Alright, I’ll be there.”

“Knew I’d win you over,” He says, whilst chucking his iconic Seth Rogen chuckle. That chuckle is the most contagious thing since yawning because it didn’t take long for me to start chuckling myself, until we were both laughing our asses off like maniacs for no apparent reason. Seth and I are weird like that.

“Right, so just to be clear, who is going to be there?” I asked.

“I think you know who else I’m inviting,” Seth laughed, “Come on, she’s not that bad to be around.”

“Oh, but she is.”

“Well you probably weren’t thinking that when you were screwing her in my guest bedroom,” Seth replied.

“Who told you that?!” I shouted. How the hell did he know about that?

Seth fell unusually quiet for a few seconds, “Well, no one actually I was making a joke…”

Cringing, I palmed my face with my hand as I sat back on the sofa, letting Seth laugh at me for a good minute or so.

“Just as well Lauren had me throw those sheets away,” He cackled, “ See you tonight!”

“Yeah, you too brother,” I sighed as I hung up the phone.
 
I need coffee.

 ~*~

*Shoutout to my friends for letting me use their band name