What The Fork?

Chapter 3

*2/16/21 I did some minor grammatical corrections.*

*Last Time*

"I guess I'll help you guys with stuff around here. Maybe I'll try to get the wand to work. Magic would come in handy cleaning this place up." Roz looked around. She saw trash, broken shit, and burnt cockroaches everywhere.

Nikki watched Roz as she looked around. He thought that she might be a little too tame. With a wicked glint in his eye he asked, "What about when we party? Are you gonna be joining in?"

Roz wasn't sure how to answer Nikki. She could hold her liquor and has gotten pretty damned drunk quite a few times. All of those times were with her mom though, and she had no idea how to party like the guys. She wasn't even sure that she wanted to know how. She sighed as she responded, "Well I'll join in and drink some and have fun, but nothing other than alcohol for me. I like to have fun without drugs."

Vince scoffed, "How can you have fun without drugs? I didn't even think that was possible."

Roz looked down, trying to blink away the beginnings of tears, as she picked at the edge of her skirt. She sounded sad as she said, "The subject of drugs is a really sensitive issue for me. I had to help raise my baby cousin because her mom overdosed with her in the house and then less than a year later, her dad died in a drunk driving accident."

Tommy gave Roz a one-armed hug, "That sucks Roz. How old was your cousin when she came to live with you?"

Roz smiled as she thought of her baby cousin, "Hope was just a year and a half old and I was 10. She's the only thing that I left behind in 2020 that I'll actually miss." Roz snickered when she thought of how Hope, after seeing her poster of The Dirt, wanted to have her hair done like Tommy's pretty and wavy brown hair. Hope had platinum blonde hair that you refused to dye. This meant that when you tried to at least do his hair style, she came out with hair that looked more like Vince's. Roz looked between Tommy and Vince and burst into uncontrollable, hysterical laughter.

Nikki raised an eyebrow at her as she clung to Tommy's shoulder and doubled over cackling. "What on Earth? Are you sure you don't do drugs?," Nikki questioned Roz.

Roz was laughing so hard by then that she was practically wheezing. All that could be heard of her answer was "HAHA... Hope's hair ... hehe ... Tommy ... hahee ... was Vince's!" At this point she fell to the floor with tears pouring down her face.

Mick looked amused and said, "Lady teen is cracked in the head."

The boys started to talk about the song that they were going to practice first. Once they had decided, Tommy realized that he couldn't hear Roz laughing anymore. He looked down to see that Roz had curled up on her side and was crying silently. Tommy was worried and crouched down on the floor by her. "Rozzy? Are you ok sweetie?" he asked softly. When Tommy laid his hand on her shoulder, she broke down sobbing loudly and hyperventilating. "Guys, Roz is not ok. What should we do?"

Nikki scrunched his nose and cocked his head to the side as he studied her for a moment. "Here Tommy let me." He crouched down and picked Roz up bridal style. "Hey Roz, babe, can you hear me?" When she heard Nikki call her babe, she turned her face to look at him but didn't reply. "Do you want one of us to sit with you? Or do you want to just sit on the couch while we practice?"

Roz looked away and took a deep breath before she said one word, "Couch."

After Nikki sat her down on the couch, Tommy came up to her. He brushed the tears from her face and whispered, "Rozzy you can talk to us when you want. Let us know if you need anything though." She looked into his eyes and nodded. Tommy surprised her then by kissing her forehead before sitting behind his drums.

They started practicing and Roz got lost in her racing thoughts. *How the hell am I going to be able to handle not seeing Hope grow up? I need to find out if the time turner is actually going to work again. I need to know if I'll ever be able to see her again. Also, what is up with Nikki being sweet again? I thought he hated me. I gotta admit though, being in his arms felt amazing. I don't even know what to think about Tommy kissing my forehead.* As her thoughts quieted, she started to focus on the music. She realized that the boys were playing "Live Wire". Roz smiled and when the Crüe started playing "On with the Show", she started singing along softly. By the end of the song she had closed her eyes. She opened them again when she noticed that they had stopped playing. Roz smiled, "It was great hearing you guys play up close."

Tommy got up and sat next to her. "Soooo Rozzy, I noticed that you were singing." He said cheekily as he wrapped his arm around her. "Are you feeling better?"

"Yea I am. Thank you for helping guys." She said as she snuggled into Tommy's side.

"Did you want to talk about it?" Tommy asked before he kissed the top of her head.

Roz looked between all the guys and noticed Nikki was frowning while looking at her and Tommy. *What is up with Nikki? He almost looks jealous, but he can't be ... right?* Roz shook herself out of her thoughts, "Sorry Tommy, not right now. To be honest, I'm pretty hungry."

Tommy beamed, "We could go to the diner and get pancakes!"

Roz laughed, "Let me guess, blueberry?"

Tommy looked at her confusedly, "How do you know that those are my favorite?"

Roz winked at him, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Nikki grumbled and interrupted before Tommy could respond, "Come on, let's go. You two can flirt later." With that he walked out the door.

Vince and Mick followed Nikki out of the door. Tommy stood and took Roz's hand to help her up. She looked up at him and asked, "Is it just me, or is Nikki acting weird?"

Tommy thought for a moment before responding, "He has seemed kind of off since you got here last night. Just ignore it. Let's go get the pancakes! You still have to tell me how you know about the pancakes."

Roz stuck her tongue out and said, "No I do not Thomas. Future stuff is very wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey."

Tommy pouted and Roz followed him out of the apartment.