Lonny woke up to a bright light shining through his eyelids, the morning sun glaring through the window and onto his face.
Groaning, the guitarist rolled over and pulled his pillow over his face to block the unwanted light source. He wasn't what you would call a morning person.
He tried to go back to sleep but to no avail so with a huff he tossed the pillow aside and sat up, glaring at the curtains he left open the night before before he finally got up and stumbled into the kitchen for some much needed caffeine.
Lonny grabbed the coffee grounds and a filter, putting it into the percolator and filled it up wit water before he turned it on, listening to it bunnle to life as he walked into the living room and sat on the couch to check his emails to see if he'd had any responses for roommate applications.
The guitarist's eyes widened when he saw how many he had received, he scrolled through what seemed like a never ending list of people wanting to move in with him. People really were desperate to get a roommate in this town.
He skimmed a few and pinned them to look at later, since they appeared to be good options upon first glance and would check back on them later when he was more awake.
The coffee maker buzzed and Lonny stood up to pour himself a cup, he hoped he would make the right decision, but right now he needed to get ready to go into the studio to track for some sort of commercial jingle.
It wasn't exactly the type of thing he wanted to do and it wasn't creatively fulfilling, but it was a paycheck and that was more than enough for the guitarist.
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"Annie!" A voice squealed.
Andy felt a weight on his chest and opened his eyes to see Lennon sitting on top of him with a bright smile on his chubby little face and Jinxx standing over them with an identical smile.
"Hi bud!" Andy rasped, his voice sounding especially gravelly do to having just woke up.
Lennon flopped down and buried his face in the model's chest, babbling incessantly as he tugged at Andy's T-shirt.
Jinxx laughed and pulled the child off of the younger man, sitting him on his hip and bounced him gently.
"Thought you might be more agreeable if he woke you up instead of me or Jake." He teased, stepping back to give the model room to stand up and then walked into the kitchen, sitting the baby into the high chair and walked over to the refrigerator to get his breakfast.
"Morning kid, coffee's in the pot." Jake said with as smile, waving a spatula at Andy as he waited for the pancakes to cook.
"Morning." Andy greeted, dropping a kiss to the top of Lennon's head as he passed by and went over to the cupboard over the sink to get a mug and poured himself a cup of coffee.
He leaned up against the counter and watched as his temporary roommate made breakfast. He's known Jake for a long time, nowhere near as long as he's known Jinxx, but still, they've been friends for nearly all of his adult life.
Jake was a sound engineer and Jinxx worked for the Los Angeles symphony, they had met when a musician Jake was working with decided he needed an entire symphony for a song and they had to talk him down to a few select musicians, Jinxx included. The moment the two met, they were instantly best friends.
"So how's apartment hunting going?" Jinxx asked as he poured some cheerios into a small bowl with a sliced banana and some strawberries for Lennon to eat.
"I've emailed a few potential places, right now I'm just waiting for one of them to get back to me." Andy replied, smiling gratefully at Jake as he handed him a plate of pancakes and moved to sit at the table with Jinxx and Lennon.
"Knock knock!" A voice called as the front door opened and closed.
Andy grinned and glanced up to see his girlfriend Olivia walk into the kitchen, she was wearing a hoodie that Andy had left at her place and some leggings, her shoulder length, chesnut brown hair was pulled back into a low ponytail.
Olivia was an actress and model that Andy had met at a runway two months ago and had quickly hit it off.
"Hi baby." Andy said with a smile, reaching out to grab her hand and pull her to sit on his lap, offering her a bite of his pancakes.
She laughed as she ate the food offered to her and wrapped an arm around his shoulder.
"Hi honey." Olivia greeted, kissing Andy gently and playfully licked the maple syrup off of his lips before she pulled away.
"You want some breakfast, Liv?" Jake asked as he poured more batter onto the hot pan.
"Sure, thank you, Jake." Olivia said with a smile before she leaned over to coo at Lennon, gently booping the tip of his nose and giggled when he squealed in delight at the action.
Andy leaned over and kissed her shoulder softly, chuckling as Lennon made grabby hands at his girlfriend, desperately wanting her to pick him up.
"Lib!" He giggled, nearly knocking his cerial off of his highchair as he wiggled around, his face covered in banana.
"Lennon!" She said in an excited voice, holding up a strawberry for him to take.
"How are you, Olivia." Jinxx asked, wiping Lennon's face clean.
"I'm good, Jinxx. How are you?" She asked, leaning back into Andy's chest.
Jake sat two plates in front of Jinxx and Olivia and got a plate for himself and sat down on the other side of the highchair, tickling Lennon gently as he took a bite of pancakes.
"I'm great." Jinxx said with a smile as he cut into his food.
"I'll be on set most of the day, but do you want to go out for dinner?" Olivia asked, turning to look at Andy as she lifted her fork up and pushed it into her mouth delicately.
"Sounds good, babe. How about that Japanese place on fifth street?" Andy suggested, making a face at Lennon to draw a laugh from him.
"Oooh yes! I've been craving sushi." She agreed, kissing him on the cheek before she turned back around to continue eating and chat with Jake about the album he was working on.
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"Alright can we do one more take but up the octave." The producer asked through the intercom.
Lonny had been in that small both with his guitar for at least six hours, playing and replaying the same ninety second snippet for some car commercial that they would probably cut down for time.
"Yeah of course!" Lonny said with a smile, looking over the sheet music given to him and took a pencil to cross out the key signature and replace it with the new one so he knew what he would be playing.
They played through it again and finally the producer smiled and nodded to the engineer next to him and pressed the comm button so Lonny could hear him.
"Alright I think that's all we'll need, thanks so much Lenny." He said with a smile as he stood up.
The guitarist fought the urge to correct the man on his name and stepped out of the booth, sliding his guitar back into its case and stood there expectantly.
The producer looked at him for a moment before it dawned on him. "Oh right, your check! Here you go, earned every last penny of that, let me tell you." He said as he handed the piece of paper to Lonny.
Lonny examined the check a smiled slightly at the amount he was being payed.
"Thank you, I'm glad I could help out." He said and with that, he left.
The guitarist walked down the street towards his car and pulled out his phone to text CC.
'Hey man, just got done at the studio, I should be at the shelter in 15.' He messaged as he stood in front of his car.
He sat his phone on the roof of his vehicle and pulled his keys out of his pocket, hitting the unlock button on his key fob and pulled the back seat door open to sit his guitar in then grabbed his phone and slid into the driver's seat, pulling out onto the street and drove south towards the animal shelter.
When he stopped at a red light, he glanced through the ten applications he had narrowed down to on his phone, after a moment the light changed and he sat the device down and continued to drive, he would ask CC for advice over lunch.
Lonny pulled up in front of animal shelter CC ran and sent him a quick text to let him know he was there and waited patiently for him. Lonny smiled when he saw the older man step out the door and look around the small parking lot until he spotted the guitarist and waved dramatically at him before walking over.
"What's up, man!" CC said as he climbed into the passenger seat and slid a seat belt on as Lonny pulled out.
"Not much, sorry that I was late, that guy wanted me to do every variation of that jingle that he could think of." Lonny explained as he looked for the street that lead to the Mexican restaurant they had decided to go to.
"It's fine, I get it." CC waved him off.
"How was your day though?" The guitarist asked as he stopped at a crosswalk.
"It was great! We got a very pregnant great dane in and she should be due in a few weeks, right now we're calling her pasta cause she's a little underweight so her legs look like noodles." CC laughed.
"Are the puppies gonna be her spaghettios?" Lonny asked with a chuckle as he pulled into the restaurant parking lot and got out.
CC cackled. "Oh my God, we have call them that now!"
They went into the restaurant and seated themselves, looking through the menu as they waited for a waiter to take their order.
"Any luck finding a roommate." The drummer asked as he flipped through the menu.
"Too much luck, honestly. I have it narrowed down to ten, I was hoping you could give me some advice about which one I should go with though." Lonny said, smiling at the waitress when she approached them and took their orders.
"Of course, dude! Lemme see them." CC said, holding his hand out to take Lonny's phone from him.
Lonny watched as the older man looked through each application carefully, humming and nodding to himself once and a while before he looked up at the guitarist and smiled.
"I think these three are probably your best options so pick from one of them." CC said, sliding the phone across the table and pointing out the ones he thought would be a good fit for him.
Lonny looked at the first one; a dancer named Raquel Anderson, no pets, didn't drink or smoke, she seemed like a perfect candidate until he saw she wouldn't be able to pay her half of rent until the following month, that was a no go, next.
Andy Biersack, a model, no pets, smokes, but only vape and would smoke outside if needed and could pay his half of rent immediately.
Tyler Pent, an actor, one cat, smokes and wouldn't be able to pay rent until the following month.
Lonny looked through them for a long time, picking at his food mindlessly, it was clear who was the best choice in this.
"This Biersack guy seems promising, I might email him." Lonny said, (pronouncing it Berzack) sitting his phone down to eat his food undistracted.
CC nodded and smiled. "Yeah I think so too, he's the only one wh was willing to go ahead and chip in for this months rent and he didn't have any pets plus vapes don't leave any sort of odor or staining so most apartment buildings allow it." He agreed, taking a bite of his taco.
"I'll email him when I get home." Lonny said decisively.
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Andy followed the waiter through the crowded restaurant to the table he had reserved for himself and his girlfriend for the evening, thanking the man as he sat down then went ahead and ordered some drinks for both of them.
Olivia loved this restaurant quite a bit, Andy had never been before they had gotten together, but he quickly grew to love it as well.
Andy waited a bit before he glanced up and saw the woman walk towards him, wearing a short leather skirt and a white blouse, she looked stunning.
"You look beautiful." Andy breathed as he stood up, giving her a soft kiss before they both sat down at the table together.
"Thank you, you don't look too bad yourself." Olivia teased, taking his hand and twining their fingers together as she glanced over the menu.
"How did filming go?" Andy inquired, running his thumb over her knuckles gently.
"It went really well. Have you found an apartment yet?" She asked looking up from the menu to smile at her boyfriend.
"Maybe, I haven't checked to see if any of the places emailed me back yet, but I'll probably get an answer eventually." Andy shrugged, lifting her hand up to kiss the back of it.
"I don't see why you can't just stay with me." She said with a sigh.
"Baby, I just don't think we're ready for that, besides. When we move in together, I want it to be because we want to, not out of necessity." The model said honestly, he and Olivia had agreed when they started dating to be really open with communication and be honest with each other.
Olivia huffed and rolled her eyes playfully.
"Why do you have to be emotionally intelligent and all that shit?" She asked, smiling when Andy laughed.
"Hey, you chose me, deal with it." Andy joked back, leaning across the table to kiss her sweetly.
"Why don't you go ahead and check your emails while we wait for the food." The actress suggested, sipping on her white wine.
"You really want me to check emails while we're on a date?" He asked incredulously.
"Why not? Besides, if there's good news, we can celebrate when we go back to my place." Olivia said, biting her lip and smiling suggestively at the last part.
Andy raised an eyebrow and smirked before he pulled his phone out. "Please be good news, please be good news, please be good news." Andy chanted under his breath, making Olivia laugh brightly at his ridiculous behavior.
Andy clicked on his emails and paused when he saw a message from one of the people he had reached out to, he opened it and read it carefully before he looked at his girlfriend with a bright smile.
"Well I guess we're celebrating because I now have a roommate!" He said excitedly.
Olivia cheered and stood up to move around the table and hug her boyfriend tightly.
"That's amazing, babe!" When will you be moving in?" She asked as she broke away and sat back down.
"I don't know, I'll have to see when Jake and Jinxx can help, but probably sometime this week." Andy said with a shrug.
"Well I won't be on set Saturday or Sunday so if you want to do it then, I will help you guys move." She offered, grabbing his hand and held it.
"They'll probably be free on those days so sure." Andy agreed, lifting her hand up to kiss it again.
"You know... I did buy some lingerie yesterday, maybe I can show them to you later, if you'd like." Olivia suggested with a grin.
Andy groaned and nodded, drawing a laugh from the actress."I would most definitely like that." He said with a grin.
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"So I heard from a big mouthed bird with an affinity for bandanas that you found a roommate?" Beaux said as he walked into Lonny's apartment unannounced.
"I regret giving you a key and yes I did, he's gonna be moving in Saturday, but I'll be in the studio so I won't be able to help him out." Lonny said, looking up from his guitar as the drummer grabbed some whit claws from the refrigerator and sat down next to him.
Beaux handed him the can and opened his own, taking a drink of it before he sat it down onto the coffee table, careful not to sit it on any of the sheet music scattered across the surface.
"So what's his name? CC didn't say." Beaux asked as he leaned back against the couch.
"Something Berzack... Andy? Andy, yeah! Andy Berzack, I think he's model." Lonny replied, wracking his brain to remember the name.
The drummer's smile suddenly fell from his face and he stared at Lonny. "Do you mean Biersack?" He asked slowly.
"I don't know, that might be how he pronounces it, why?" Lonny asked in confusion at the sudden change in the older man's mood.
"I know him- ok well I don't know him personally- but he dated a friend of mine a few years back. He fucked him over hard, he's a fucking asshole." Beaux grumbled, his anger towards this man obvious in the way he spoke about him, not even his word choice, it was his tone, his body language; Beaux hated this guy and the guitarist was now regretting his choice of roommate.
"What do you mean fucked him over?" Lonny asked.
"He broke up with Mike out of nowhere and kicked him out of their apartment without any warning, even threw his stuff into the hall, then he sent his brother after him and that psycho beat the shit out of Mike! They're fucking crazy and fucking horrible." The drummer said, he and Michael weren't friends when he and Andy dated, but he told all about the aftermath of that relationship and he decided he hated the guy.
"That's horrible! Fuck, he's the only one whose gonna pay the first month of rent, that's why I went with him. I can't tell him to fuck off when rent is due in a week." Lonny grumbled, he didn't want to live with this guy. If Beaux of all people didn't like him, than there was no way Lonny would.
"Just because you live with him, doesn't mean you have to be friends and I won't cause any unnecessary drama, I'll be civil." Beaux promised, he didn't want anything to do with this mother fucker, but he would keep the peace for Lonny's sake.
Lonny pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed in frustration. He had no choice, he had to live with this guy at least for a while, so he'd just have to deal with him.
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Andy sat in the front seat of Jinxx's car, watching as buildings passed them quickly as he drove up the street towards the apartment he would be living in for the foreseeable future.
He was a bit nervous, the last time he lived with someone that he wasn't dating was when he was still living with Jinxx and that was years ago. This Lonny guy seemed nice enough over email so he hoped they would get along.
Since most of his things were staying in the storage unit, they didn't bother with a moving van and settled for Jinxx and his own car, Olivia and Jake were in Andy's challenger.
"Where's the fucking... ah! There it is!" Jinxx said to himself as he spotted the building and pulled around to the entrance to the underground parking garage, Olivia followed close behind.
The two got out of Jinxx's SUV and started pulling boxes out of the backseat and back end, waving Liv and Jake down to park next to them before the carried the boxes to the elevator and pressed the button that lead to the floor his apartment was on.
Andy had stopped by the building the day before to get the key from the landlord to make things easier.
The elevator doors opened and they stepped out, scanning the doors as they passed them, in search of Andy's new apartment, before they found it. The model pulled out the key and unlocked the door, pushing it open and stepped aside to let the others inside before he entered it as well.
It was a nice place, a bit messy, but still beautiful and spacious.
"I found your room, so Jake and I can go ahead and set up the bed frame while you and Liv can cart boxes up here." Jinxx instructed as he walked back into the living room, sitting the boxes he had been carrying down onto the floor.
"Sounds good to me." Andy said and with that they all got to work.
Jake and Jinxx made quick work of the bed frame and then moved on to the other furniture, including a desk and chair, a dresser and a bookshelf. Olivia and Andy were able to get all the boxes inside and began unpacking, leaving the bedroom stuff aside until Jake and Jinxx were finished with ther room.
Olivia focused on the kitchen and bathroom items while Andy unpacked the living room things and then later would take care of the bedroom. He was apprehensive to put too many things in the living room, while it was his apartment too, Lonny lived there first so he didn't want to do too much until he asked the other man about it.
"If this is him, he's cute." Olivia said, pointing at a young man in a photograph sitting on the shelf. It was a family of four, an older couple and two adult children based on their similar features.
Andy slipped up behind the woman and wrapped his arms around her waist, kissing her the side of her head as he examined the photo.
"Should I be jealous if it is?" He asked jokingly.
Olivia scoffed and shook her head. "Should I? He's your type." She said with a giggle.
"He is not, now help me take this shit in the bedroom, the guys are finished with the furniture." Andy said with and eyeroll, picking her up off the ground, drawing a yelp and a laugh from her as he carried her into the other room.
He sat her down in the doorway and opened one of the boxes, pulling out a stack of hangers for the actress to take and hang his clothes in the closet.
Jinxx and Jake took care of his books and collectables, lining them up on the bookshelf.
"What's this?" Liv asked as she held up an old box.
Andy paused. "Just put it on the top shelf in the closet pleas, don't drop it." He said, not answering her question.
Olivia glanced at Jinxx and Jake in confusion and while Jake seemed to be just as puzzled, The violinist merely shook his head to indicate she not question it.
The actress shrugged and did so before she went back to her boyfriend's clothes.
Finally they were finished and they took a seat on the couch, sighing as they looked around.
"So you guys want to come over for dinner to celebrate?" Jake's asked.
Andy thought about it and shrugged, the bedroom had a lock so he could lock the room while he was gone in case his new roommate got back before he did.
It wasn't that Andy didn't trust Lonny...actually no, that was exactly what it was, but to be fair, he didn't know him yet, so you couldn't exactly blame him.
"Any excuse not to cook is always great for me, so yes." The model joked.
Jake, Jinxx and Olivia stepped out the door and Andy grabbed the key from the door frame of his room and locked it shut before he did the same to the front door and left the apartment.
So far things were going well, he hoped it would continue that way once he met his new roommate.
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