An Unexpected Love

“We’re sorry Ms. Williams but you just don’t have enough experience for this job. If you’d like I can keep your resume and tapes in a file and when you’ve gotten a few more years under your belt-give us a call.” The man on the other side of the desk said as he smiled at her and Avery held in her scream. She only smiled back, nodding her head as she stood up and extended her hand.

“Thank you so much Mr. Richardson for even considering me. I’ll let you keep the tapes and give you a call…” She said sweetly as Avery shook the hand being held out towards her and then she turned for the door. She rolled her eyes as she pushed open the door, but made sure that no one could see her.


This had been her one chance and of course everything had been shot in the face. Not enough experience? Well how the fuck was she supposed to get experience if no one would give her a God damn chance? Avery fumed as she rode down in the elevator, taping her heeled toe against the floor as she kept her arms crossed over her chest. She had gotten all dressed up-something she hated doing-to come out to this stupid meeting and nothing, nada zilch. Fuck that. The Paramount Lot was empty as Avery finally made it outside and Avery only sighed as she walked across the hot pavement towards her car.

She was pissed-more than pissed-because this had been the fifth meeting today and every single one of them had ended the same way. Thanks-but no thanks…call us when you aren’t such a rookie. No one appreciated her gifts, her talent and Avery was getting sick of it. Maybe it was time to move back home-get a big girl job at her mother’s art studio and then she could just forget her dreams of being a professional camerawoman/ successful Hollywood director.

It had been a week since her date with CC and while the two had kept in touch, Avery was keeping her distance. She didn’t know what the future held for her and right now it was looking pretty fucking bleak.

As she put her car on the freeway and turned the radio up as loud as it would go, Avery felt the tears come to her eyes. Her dream was dead, laying on the floor of that office and there was no use trying to revive it. As Avery drove, she noticed that her phone was blinking at her-a message. It was either from Brittany-who was currently riding a love struck Ashley Purdy wave-or it was from CC, who she hadn’t talked to since last night and their conversation hadn’t ended well. He had been trying to talk her in to going to Andy’s annual Halloween Bash with him and Avery was putting up one hell of a fight. She loved Halloween-best holiday ever-but going with CC said a lot.


“Hey Avery it’s Brittany! I was calling to see how the meetings went today and to tell you that I agreed for us to double with Ash and CC to the Halloween Bash this weekend! We’ll have to think up some costumes but Ashy and I were thinking of going as-“ The beep of the message cut her off and Avery was happy for that. She did not want to go to a Halloween party as part of a double date and she really wasn’t in the mood for any of this.

“Fuckin’-a Britt!” Avery shouted, smacking her hands against the steering wheel and Avery suddenly pulled off on the next exit. It was three exits too early, but Avery needed to calm down and so she knew the perfect place to go.


Soon enough Avery was parking her car in the lot behind the closest Pinkberry and she was rushing towards the building. No line-perfect and soon enough Avery was sitting outside with a smoothie on the table in front of her and notebook in her hands. She had to have a game plan-she had to think up something to do with her life. Home? An option, but a shitty one. Some shitty Sitcom Job to keep the apartment and her life here in LA? Another option, the better one but she hated Sitcom work. Then there was the thought that she and Britt had been throwing around-team up, go on the road to follow bands around and hope that one of them would pay well enough to survive.

Avery bit down on the pen in her hand-she and Britt needed to talk. Pretty soon BVB was going to go back out on the road and that would leave Brittany Ashley-less and that was a scary thought. The two of them had grown so close over the past week and a half and while usually it was weird, they kind worked. Ashley kept Brittany calm, grounded and sane-Brittany kept Ashley entertained and he seemed to be okay with keeping his hands to himself. The only problem was that it was moving really fast and Avery didn’t want to see Brittany get her heart broken again.

Suddenly Avery looked up, jumping as she noticed that someone had sat down across from her and she had to fight to keep the groan from escaping her lips.


“It’s kind of creepy seeing you sitting across from me…” Avery said, shielding her eyes with her hand as she looked across the table at the wide grin that was facing her. Those cheekbones, brown eyes and wide smile would make any girl weak in the knees, but all Avery wanted to do was run away…far away.

“Yeah, well I saw you pull up. I was in the music store next door and when I realized it was you sitting out here-thought I would come say hi.” CC smiled at her, his knit hat low on his head and Avery only groaned as she took a sip from her smoothie and closed her notebook.

“Well it’s been nice talking to you, but I’d really like to be by myself…wallowing in your sorrows isn’t nearly as satisfying when you have an audience.” Avery said, her tone sarcastic and CC could see that there was a lot of hurt behind her hazel eyes. Brittany had told him that Avery had some meetings today about possible jobs and by the looks of things…they didn’t go well.

“Wallowing is never fun…with or without the audience. Come on Avery…you can tell me what’s going on in that complicated mind of yours.” CC said as he reached out a hand and placed it on top of hers. Avery sighed, blowing her bangs out of her face and she only smiled softly as she looked up and met CC’s eyes.

“I’ve been looking in to getting a job with one of the movie companys-Paramount, Universal…even some smaller ones. Doing videos for magazines and private companies was fun for a while, but it doesn’t pay the bills and it’s doing nothing for my resume. So I thought I’d give it a shot and I found out today that I’m still not ready…twenty eight years old and I’m still not fucking ready…” Don’t cry. Don’t cry…don’t you dare fucking cry. CC only looked at her with kind eyes and that made Avery feel worse.

“Hey-I know what it’s like to struggle for your dreams Avery. Just go talk to Andy-he’s a pro at it. You’ll make it one day…who knows, maybe that day will come soon.” CC said as he squeezed her hand and Avery couldn’t help but smile. He knew how to make her feel better and yet Avery just couldn’t give in.

“Yeah well thanks for the pep talk coach.” Avery joked as she gathered her things and began to stand up. CC stood as well and together they headed off towards her car.


Avery let CC hold her hand and she would never say it out loud, but holding his hand felt nice. She had missed him-she would never admit it, but Avery had missed his smile and his joking nature. She had also missed kicking his ass at video games, but CC would never admit that she actually was better at video games than him. As they reached her car and Avery moved to open her door, she stopped as CC placed his hand over hers and she turned to face him. He was smiling down at her-those brown eyes making her shiver, even though it wasn’t that cold out.


“What do you think about coming over to my place…letting me cook you dinner and then maybe we play some video games…watch a movie…”CC said softly as he let a finger trail across her cheek and Avery only sighed. Not what she had in mind for her night-sleep, eat, sleep…repeat until morning.

“I think that might actually make my day less shitty. But-I want to go home first…change and all that.” Avery said as she smiled up at CC and saw the pure joy in his brown eyes. He had been begging her to come over all week and Avery had been able to come up with an excuse…until now.

“Mind if I come with? I want to make sure you don’t run away to Canada or anything…” CC joked and Avery only rolled her eyes as she opened her door, pressed the unlock button and nodded towards the passenger side door. He knew her so well and Avery couldn’t help but smirk as she opened her door and got in.

“I warn you-Hurricane Brittany has the house a right mess right now. She’s still trying to track down all of her things…” Avery smirked as she watched CC climb in, his long limbs barely fitting in to her car and soon enough they were off. She had turned down the radio slightly, but Avery couldn’t help but sing along to the song playing.

“Doesn’t matter-I’m only there to keep an eye on you…” CC said as he looked towards her and a smile graced his lips. Avery looked amazing siting there-the sun shining down on her, making her blonde hair look lighter and her skin was creamy and pale looking. He wanted to touch her-he had missed her this past week.

“What-don’t you trust me?” She joked as they got off the freeway and began to weave in and out of streets until finally they pulled up outside of Avery’s humble apartment building.


It wasn’t much-it was nothing like CC’s condo, but as Avery stopped the car, pulled out her keys and smiled towards him, CC didn’t care. This place just screamed Avery-it was old school, it had a history and it was more than just rough around the edges. The building was tall, the paint on the outside was peeling and CC could see the bars on the lower windows from where he stood. Avery gave him an ‘are you sure about this look’ and CC only smirked as he reached for her hand and let the small girl lead him on. They walked down the sidewalk, up some steps, through an old dilapidated lobby and got in to one of the scariest elevators CC had ever been in.

Fourth floor was their stop and as Avery led him through the doors and down the hall, CC couldn’t help but be reminded of his old days before BVB got big. He and Jinxx had shared an apartment-thank god those days were over with-and their building had looked similar to this one. Aging, peeling paint on the walls, smells coming from beneath neighbor doors, only vaguely hinting at what could be brewing in those kitchens and of course the noise. Walls so thin you could hear every word coming from behind them and it was like being home again. Thank god he didn’t live here, but CC said nothing as Avery finally stopped in front of a door that was adorned with a fall themed wreath.


“Well this is it…you’ve been warned.” Avery smirked as she pushed her keys in to the lock. Music could be heard blaring from behind the thin door and they both could hear Brittany singing along loudly. Avery only hoped her room mate was fully clothed-otherwise there would be a lot of explaining to do.

“I have.” CC said and he only smiled encouragingly as Avery sighed, pushed open the door and then immediately closed it again. She turned towards CC, smiling nervously and he could only imagine what she had seen.

“What’s wrong?” CC asked as he tried to get around Avery but she just stayed put. She had seen things-Ashley things and she knew now that she and Britt were going to have to come up with some sort of system.

“I-uh-Brittany has company…” Avery said as a blush crept across her cheeks and CC suddenly understood, but he didn’t care. He had seen enough of Ashley Purdy to no longer be shocked and he only chuckled as he pushed past Avery and opened the door.


Brittany and Ashley were on the couch-Ashley on top of the girl and their lips were all but super glued together. Avery and CC just stood in the doorway, watching the two bunnies go at it until finally they seemed to draw attention and Brittany suddenly jumped away from Ashley and the bassist only smirked and ran a hand through his hair.


“Uh-hey guys…” Brittany said and Avery only cleared her throat…well this was really awkward.

Notes