West Coast-- A Jesse Rutherford Fanfiction

mama

Song inspiration: West Coast by The Neighbourhood

                I pull on a pair of boxers and an old t-shirt I found on the ground. I dragged myself into my bathroom and splashed cold water on my face. I still felt groggy. I brush my teeth, and take a quick shower before getting to work on my hair. Even my hair is black and white, half is a dark brown, and half is bleached blonde. It takes me a while to get enough mousse for it to stay up, but it looks good. Dashing back to my room, I pull out a plain white dress shirt and a skinny black tie, paired with black jeans and sneakers. I look myself over in the mirror, and roll up my sleeves to avoid covering my entire tattoo collection.

“Jess?” Mom calls out.

I freeze and take a deep breath. “Yeah, I know Ma, I gotta go.” On second thought, I roll my sleeves back down. I’ll roll them back up once I leave. I leap down the stairs towards the kitchen.

“For the most important show of your career to date, you’re moving awfully slow Jesse James.” I tense up at the mention of it. I struggle to appear natural as I grab a bowl of leftover pasta from the refrigerator.

“Mom, I told you, I just go by Jesse Rutherford now.” I say, trying to keep my voice from shaking with nerves.

“Jesse Rutherford” she repeated in a mocking tone. I shoot her a warning glance. “I’m sorry Jess, you know I don’t mean anything. I’m just so proud of you, how far you’ve come. I mean, you literally just graduated a couple of years ago. You aren’t even old enough to drink at half the venues you play at, by the way you’d better not be drinking I swear I’ll pull you out of this band so fast—“

“No, Mom of course not. You know that” I say, chuckling at how fast her mood could change. I pull her in for a hug.

                “Yeah, I know.” She pauses for a moment. “I also know you can’t stay my little boy forever.” She sniffles, and I pull her closer. We sit there like that for a while, just enjoying a moment that we don’t have very often. She eventually pulls away and sighs. “Well, you’ve got places to be don’t you?” There’s a hint of sadness in her eyes, but it’s eventually replaced by the gleam of pride radiating on her face.

“Oh yeah, see you later!” I grab my keys and head for the driveway. I hop in my car, let the top down, and speed off to Topper’s. As I’m driving, my mind starts to wander. What would happen if you just drove away? Away from Newbury Park, away from the band, everything. No producers, no party, no show, hell, you don't even have to do music anymore! You could choose any profession Jesse! I approach a fork in the road and stop there. Looking at each road I think about each option. One road will take me down a few streets, and eventually onto the highway. Then I can drive into Nevada, or really anywhere. The other road will take me straight into Thousand Oaks, at the heart of Oak Park. I hear angry honks behind me and instinctively, I take the more familiar road. Well that’s it, Jesse. No turning back now.