Don't Leave Me, Babe

Lord, You Can Take Me Now

The security man opens the door, revealing a flight of stairs. I follow him down, then through more hallways. Damn, this place is bigger than it looks!

I hear a loud burst of laughter coming from a room, and the security man opens the door to that room. He ushers me inside before closing the door behind him. He wants no part of this.

The room is blue, the floors are some type of hardwood, and there is a couch, a separate dressing room, and a TV. Like a rec room of sorts. Its empty, I hear all the noise coming from the dressing room. So I sit on the couch and watch the baseball game that was left on TV.

The dressing room door flung open and the four sexiest men in music entered the very room where I was sitting in. Robert had ditched his concert attire for a sweater and bell-bottoms, as had Bonzo. Jonesy wore a blue button-down and black bell-bottoms. Jimmy was still in his flowing, white shirt. I noticed a tiny bead of sweat on his forehead. Lord, take me now.

Robert saw me and grinned. "Well hello there, darling."

I shivered when he took my hand and kissed it. He called me darling. Darling.

"Uh, hi. Nice to meet you, I'm Erin," I said in a shaky voice. I looked past Robert at Jimmy, whose face was as red as a beet.

Bonzo sat on my left side and grinned at me. I could tell he was on something. Jonesy shook my hand and sat on a chair by the muted television, and Jimmy stood awkwardly by the door. I kind of wanted to touch his hair. Kind of.

Robert sat on my right and smiled. "Did you enjoy the show?"

"Oh, I did, it was fantastic! Best concert I have ever been to." I wasn't lying. The Beatles were kick-ass but I couldn't even hear the music over all the crying.

"Well, thanks! We saw you taking photos, and we were kind of wondering if you might want to take a job with us. You know, as an official photographer of sorts."

Yes. Yes. Yesyesyesyes a million times yes.

A thought went through my brain. My dad. He certainly wouldn't allow me to go. He would lock me in a room without music for months before he let me go. He would force me to live in the loneliness that is my life. But I didn't want that anymore. I didn't want to be lonely. I hated it with a passion. I wanted companionship, friendship, love. I wanted someone to talk to, to tell my secrets too. Someone to trust. The thought of leaving my family for this was at the forefront of my mind right now. I wanted this.

"I'd love too! Just one question though..." I started. I needed to know that this wasnt a prank, that this was for real, before I said yes.

"Why are you choosing me?"

Robert smiled. "Well, since you didn't get caught for illegally taking photos at a Led Zeppelin concert, we figure that's got to be a good sign. And besides, our other photographer quit because his wife is having a baby."

Robert leaned his head into his hand, his elbow against the couch. John was still staring at me, clearly high right now, Jonesy tapped his foot on the floor, bored as hell. And Jimmy stood there, by the door, eyes boring into my skull. I stared back at him, and it felt as though I saw into his soul. But as quickly as his dark eyes met mine, they looked the other way. Leaving me wondering, wanting to see more.

"So...." Robert broke me away from my thoughts.

"Okay, I'm in! When do I start?"

**********

I was introduced to Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin's manager, and he seemed to like me. Well, his fake expression said he liked me. I wonder how he really thought.

Peter said someone was here for an interview, and I knew it was my dad. I told Robert I had to go, that I had things to take care of before we left tomorrow. Robert led me out the back, he said he didnt want to be mobbed by groupies, no matter how appealing the thought was.

"Thank you so much, for this opportunity. I seriously never thought I would get this chance." I said as we walked towards the parking lot.

"No problem at all, we're happy to have you aboard."

"Y'know, I've never made four friends in one night, much less one friend in eighteen years. You guys seem really cool."

"We have our moments."

"My life has just always been so lonely. No friends, just my parents and my brother. My dad hates my guts. I just went every day, school, work, sleep, I never met anyone who gave two shits about me. No one cared that I was all alone-"

Before I could say anymore, I felt Robert put his warm arm around me, sensing the sadness in my voice. I looked up at him, into his eyes, and smiled. He smiled back, not needing words to explain that he was there for me. And the feeling in my heart was unexplainable, but I think you can guess what it is. I felt happy with Robert. I knew him for maybe an hour, but I felt safe with him. That's all I really wanted.

We got to my car and Robert opened to door for me, then said goodnight. Zeppelin was leaving for the east coast tomorrow at 10, so I had to meet them at the airport by then. I was going to be there, too.

I drove Dad and myself home, and he immediately went into his study to type up his article. I went to my mom in the kitchen, and she asked me how it went.

"Mom, it was amazing, you won't believe what happened!" I excitedly told her everything, and I swear, her face lit up when I told her about Zeppelin offering me a job.

"You said yes, right?"

"Hell yeah! I'm not missing this chance. I am getting out of here."

Mom hugged me. "You can do great things, you just need to get away from San Fran. I'm proud of you, Erin."

We stood there talking for awhile, before Mom said to develop my photos and start packing. I had a dark room in a walk-in closet in the guest room. My dad made me pay rent to use it. $30 a month, and he said if I didn't pay, my stuff would be thrown out in the hall.

After I developed my pictures, I started packing. I knew my mom would save my stuff, she was like that. So I packed only what I needed, clothes, bathroom stuff, a bunch of photo collections, my sketch pad, and two dozen different pencils. I looked at my painting and covered it up. It was pretty big, so I couldn't take it as much as I wanted to. So I took a picture of it.

I popped Zeppelin III onto my vinyl player and laid back in bed. I heard faint voices downstairs, loud, yelling voices. My parents were fighting, probably about my leaving tomorrow. I turned up the music louder, and set my alarm for five, deciding on not saying goodbye before I left.

Erin is leaving tomorrow!!! What do you guys think so far? Comments make me feel warm and fuzzy :3