Chp 71 : No Doubt?

Today's chapter and the last of this week, I dunno if it's a bit cringe, I'm still trying hard to write a romance scene, hope it's not a fail.

Happy Reading and Happy Weekend!!

~~~

In early November, few weeks after the founding of Vanaheim Records.

At one of the fast-food chain restaurants called Dairy Queen, a girl who was no older than 17 was working part-time here.

She got a cheerful attitude and sunny appearance that made everyone who was just walking near her felt happy and comfortable.

"Gwen, can you help me to take this order for table number 4? These old bones seem to be having a disagreement with me. Be careful, the guy who orders this food is weird." Said an African-American woman in her 40s, who wore the same uniform as her.

"I will Sue, what's this guy order anyway?"

"5 chili Hotdogs, 3 bacon burgers, salad, and orange squash."

"Wow, that's a lot, let me took care of it." She nodded, took the food, and went to table number 4.

She found it weird after she saw a man on table 4 was sitting alone, but ordering this kind amount of food.

He wore a bucket hat, black sunglasses, and a Hawaiian shirt and shorts... in the winter? Although the winter was not too cold on the west coast, still, it was weird.

She took a deep breath and brave herself to approach the weird guy.

"Excuse me, but this is your food, thank you." Gwen put the foods on his table and hurriedly tried to escape from his sight, but her steps were halted by his words.

"Thank you, Gwen." She was surprised that he called her by her name.

She checked her uniform to see if she was wearing a name tag, and... she didn't wear any.

She was confused at the person who knew her name but he seemed familiar like she had met him before.

Seeing her cute confused face, he decided to give her a hint about who he was. "It's me, Ed."

"Ed? Ed who? Eduardo?" She blurted out a made-up name which made him chuckled at her.

Then he started to sing a verse from 'Dancing in the Moonlight' and let himself became the center of attention at this fast-food restaurant.

Everyone was looking at him as if he was crazy, but he did have a good voice. The manager who heard a commotion went out of his office and found someone was making trouble again.

Her pupils shrank, she knew who this person is because well, she got a little crush on him.

He always teased her every time he got time to do so in the homecoming party, and he looks pretty cool and reciprocated her advances, unlike that asshole Tony.

She always gave Tony a sign but he always disregarded her. She even forgot about what she was seeing in Tony that made her had a crush on him, but from the moment at homecoming party, she got a new crush.

She even wondered when he would call her but who knows that he would come today to meet her directly.

"Oh my God, Ed, the one from Hollywood High School, it has been a long time wasn't it?" She shrieked.

Before she could talk with him for longer, someone called her.

"Gwen, I need you to deliver this food for table 6, and flirt with him after your shift ends." The manager was a bit mad at the ruckus Al had created, and even flirted with his beloved employee.

She looked at her manager, then at him. She gave him a sorry look then said, "Oh I'm sorry Ed, I got a job to do."

"It's fine, Gwen, good luck!" Al said.

She turned her back on him but felt a bit down. She expected him to tease her like he used to do, or even asked her for a date.

Al didn't disappoint her and called her name before she could walk away.

"Gwen! Do you have time, maybe after your job?"

She bit her lips that made her look somewhat enchanting. Suddenly he felt a desire to taste those soft and delicate yet dangerously seductive hot lips of her but he snapped out and dismissed his thought immediately.

He didn't know when but he sounded more and more like a creep when he was near beautiful girls these days. Maybe it's a sign of puberty, for God's sake, why his old memories didn't suppress his teenage's desire.

'Uh, that was not a memory supposed to do Al,' Someone's voice was vibrated deep inside his soul, which of course Al couldn't hear it.

In her nervousness, she tried so hard to find the right words to reply while she was blushing like a 4th grader who was talking to her crush. "Uhm, I ended my shift at 4, do you need something after my shift ended."

Al smiled, "Okay, its a date then, I'll pick you up at 4.15, do you have a ride?" Her face was painted in surprise by his straightforwardness.

She furiously shook her head at his question, but before she could speak, her manager screamed at her again.

Giving him an apologetic smile, she turned around and leaving him alone to consume the delicacy he longed for since he came to this fast-food restaurant.

Everyone in the restaurant was fascinated but yet felt odd at how this boy courting that young lady.

The Hawaiian shirted dude, singing a song, and able to steal the heart of the primadonna of Dairy Queen.

Some customers recorded this trick into their minds to try it one day, while some of the boys who had a crush on her could only bite their fingers

~~~

Gwen left the restaurant using a back door entrance where the Dairy Queen employee usually come and go.

Gone was her Dairy Queen uniform and changed into a low-cut, crop top white sleeveless shirt, with a black cardigan covering her body, and boot cut jeans.

She has been always had a good taste in fashion even lasted in her future.

She looked at her watch on her wrist and saw that time was showing 3.45 PM, 30 minutes before Ed would come and picked her up.

She took something from her bag and light it up. The smoke was spreading in every direction, she took a puff and exhaled it, letting the smoke dispersed out to the sky.

Then a delighted expression appeared on her face.

"That was quite a sight." Suddenly, she heard a voice on her left.

She cocked her head to where the voice was coming from and saw Ed leaning at the dumpster, watching her in amusement.

He didn't wear those weird outfits from before. Now he is wearing thick glasses and a bandana, a red leather biker jacket with a snake emblem on his left chest, and jeans.

She seemed to see those outfits before, from one of the movies she watched but she forgot which ones.

She quickly put off the fire and threw it away behind her.

He chuckled at her, and step by step coming in her direction. Gwen became nervous all of sudden. No one in her family knew she was smoking.

Al let his face got close to her and sniffed in her direction. Seeing his face was close to her made her blushed.

"Hmm, is it weed? Didn't know you had it in you? Well, supposed it did easier to find here."

She was surprised that he knew she was smoking weed.

She awkwardly smiled at him and tried to shift their conversation, "Ed, have you been waiting long? I didn't know you would come from there."

He shrugged, "I wanted to surprise you, but surprisingly it was me who was surprised by you. Didn't know that you had such a wild side in you."

"W-wild?"

Didn't want to waste any more time, he directly told her where he would take her on this date.

"Hey, do you like roller skating?"

"I never tried it, but I think it will be fun... I guess?"

He gave out his hand which Gwen gladly took and guide her to where his ride was.

She was quite fascinated when she was brought in front of a motorbike, a big one all of that and she knew this model was.

"BMW R80RT, damn Gwen, you just hit a jackpot..." She unconsciously blurted out. Realized she was saying it out loud, she cursed at her big mouth.

Al smiled in surprise, surprised by two things, first how she knew what the ride was, and second, those lines as he was familiar with.

"You knew this bike? and most important is you have read Spider-man!?"

She shyly smiled at him, "Yeah, this is my brother's dream ride, he always told me when he got rich, this will be the first thing he buys."

She turned to him and grinned, "And I started to read Spider-man, Ed, they were 'amazing', too bad Gwen died." Then her face started to turn gloomy.

He gave her a helmet and started turning up the engine. The loud engine sound vibrated to the surrounding neighborhood.

She hopped on and they left the Dairy Queen compound until what was left was just a dot.

When they arrived at the roller skate rink called World on Wheels, the place was crowded with teens who wanted to spend their Saturday night.

The roller disco was the icon of the 80s, originated from disco trend in 70s and roller skating in the beginning 80s, combined it and you got this masterpiece.

Gwen smiled brightly, she never went to roller disco before, her friends always said that it was so fun to be here. But her part-time job and band business brought her no time to visit this with her girlfriends.

Her daydream was woken up by Al, who just came over from the roller skate rental desk, and gave her a pair of lime-colored shoes, he did too.

She smiled wryly at his weird sense of color choices, she thought that Ed needs a lesson for choosing an outfit from her now, she shrugged and took the shoes from him.

She got a hard time wearing those shoes for the first time, Al realized it and came to her.

"Here let me put it for you,"

He bends over grabbed her left foot with his warm hands, her body jerked by his sudden move, and her foot shuddered by his touch.

She held her breath and her heart spiked up while he was wearing the roller skate shoes to her just like a prince wearing cinderella her glass shoes.

He did it again with her other foot and after he released his hands from her foot, she gazed at him with stars on her eyes.

Suddenly his call snapped her back to reality and he took her to the wide skating rink, bathed in a colorful disco light.

She had a little trouble with just standing up but Al put his hand on her waist, balancing out so she didn't fell out and embarrassed herself.

The music playlist turned into fast tempo song and everyone started rolling out faster than they used to.

Both of them slid in their roller skate together, with him being closer to her to protect her from any harm that other skaters would do.

They had so much fun, with Al teaching her to roll on herself. He held both of her hands, while he was walking backward, she followed his direction.

Unable to keep her balance, she slipped and crashed into Al until both of them fell to the ground, where everyone was laughing at them both.

Al and Gwen just smiled and raised their body from the ground. Both of them enjoyed their moment basked in disco music and air hitting their faces when they traveled around the parquet floor of the roller skating rink.

The songs turned to mellowed songs and the hall suddenly filled with couples and the other group was knocked off the rink.

Al felt tired being skating for almost an hour so he asked Gwen to call the day off, but she didn't answer him.

She planted her feet to the ground and started to put her hands to his waist where she started to wrapped her arms around him tightly just like the other couples did.

He saw the longing after he looked into her eyes and realized the situation was beyond what he expected.

He sighed, "Gwen, I need to be truthful to you, about why I'm asking you out for the date. I didn't t mean to complicate things, nor take this relationship further to become your boyfriend."

Still had Gwen hugging him and hiding her face on his chest, he continued, "No, It's not like I don't like you or anything, you are a beautiful girl, only a stupid person would reject you, well I'm that stupid person."

He blabbered, unable to find the right words for telling her his true intention for taking her to date, so he shut his mouth immediately.

She remained silent after his hurtful confession, both of them did.

Decided to break the ice, he said to her, "I saw your performance in Roxy theater a few weeks ago."

Her head jerked in surprise, turning her face which had a mark from tears, looking up into his face.

She put her face again on his chest, hearing his calm heartbeat, "Really!? Thank you so much for your support, Ed."

He felt Gwen was grinning from ear to ear, "Yeah you are amazing, the song was also good."

"My brother wrote it, it's amazing right?"

"Really? Your brother is talented."

'Maybe taking her brother in was also a good choice.' He thought.

"But unfortunately, the band is not."

She frowned, she didn't like where the conversation will be going, "What do you mean?"

"Remember when I said that I knew a record label? I recommended your band, but we only want you and your peers to join."

"What the fuck was that supposed to mean, Ed! Get to the point damn it!"

"We can contract your band, 'No Doubt' but the singer must be you. You can ask your 4 friends from before and..."

Before he could finish his words, she pushed him out until he fell. She left him alone on the roller skate rink and Al chased after her.

Outside of the World on Wheels, Al got into her way and tried to talk some sense to her. She became mad and started to curse him.

"The fuck Ed, what do you want? I thought you were asking me out because you like me, but you said you don't and now you want me to betray the band!?"

"Not betray them, but split up with them." That raged her more than before.

"Those you told was bad is my brother and his friend you asshole!"

She began teared up, "I-I want to rest Ed, thank you for inviting me."

'Oh no, she misunderstood something.' He thought

"Gwen! let me ride you home." He went to where his motorcycle was and started the bike.

"I can walk by myself!"

She turned deaf to any voice that let out from his mouth.

This place was far from anywhere and no taxis nor public transportation passed, so after she walks for a few minutes, she felt tired and sat at the corner of the street.

He stopped in front of her and got off his bike.

"Sorry Gwen, I didn't mean to hurt you, but you had so much potential but if you didn't agree, it's okay."

She became curious, and asked, "Why my brother must out from the band?"

"No, let me finish, your brother was good, he made that song right? What I meant was also to include your brother there, but I prefer the singer is you, and the rest of the band members on homecoming party."

"Then, is my brother's friend that bad?"

"Truth or lie?"

"Truth."

"Your brother's friend sucks."

"Pfft," she thought she would hear polite words from him, but hearing his bluntness was kind of funny for her.

She realized what he said all the time was genuine, although she still had little resentment when he said he asked her for a date to let her got a contract by the record label, not because he liked her.

"Second, your brother and his friend had an age gap with you. if we contract all of you, there will be disparities. you and your friend will be suppressed by them and they busy fight with each other because of disagreement, and you'll be the victim."

He continued, "Band members fought with each other, you are like what, 8 members, 9 including you. if there will be one trigger who thinks who's better than who, cold war could happen."

"You are a talented woman Gwen, and cute too." She snickered at his last words.

"Your talent will be wasted if you joined your brother's friend, trust me on this."

Thousands of scripts flashed inside her mind, whether she should accept his offer or not.

"Give me a week, I'll tell my brother and my friend about it."

He nodded, "Hop in, I'll take you home."

She sighed, she was too tired to argue and let her pride get into her head, "Thank you, I enjoyed this, although I still hate you."

He just smiled at her and ride along the way. Soon she started to ask him some questions... more like an interrogation question.

"Did you have a girlfriend Ed?"

"No, I've never planned to have one so far."

"Are you gay?"

"No, still straight."

"Do you think..."

"Are you..."

"Am I..."

After interrogating him on their way back, Gwen soon realized she still had a chance with him.

~~~

After telling her brother everything, her brother, Eric Stefani fully support her to contract with the record label called Vanaheim Records.

So, She decided to quit the band, with guitarist Tom Dumont, bassist Tony Kanal, and drummer Adrian Young.

Al also extended his invitation to her brother but he refused, saying that he just made the band with his friend for fun and his dream was to become an animator.

So he gave him contact information about Alfheim Animation to at least giving him a place where he could grow his talent in the future.

They parted their ways happily, except for his brother's friend who became mad and cut the connection with the Stefanis.

Al took them to his newly formed record labels, Vanaheim Records where also located in Playa Vista. With at least $7 million, he redecorated a small studio, complete with all the equipment, and modern facilities to record the songs.

He let them meet the CEO of Vanaheim Records, Sylvia Massy, and having a nice conversation with her.

Then, from this moment, No Doubt embarked their path as the first contracted band under the banner of Vanaheim Records.

"Oh before I forget, my real name is Alphonse, Alphonse Edward Brandt, the owner of this record label, from now on, just call me Al." He smiled.

Gwen and the others were flabbergasted, it turned out the one named Ed, all along was someone famous.

Gwen's face flushed red, this is her idol! She really likes his performance in the Live Aid Concert, she screamed hard like a K-POP fanatics, even the sound-proof studio was unable to contain it.

To Be Continued...

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Produced by:

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Emmanuel Sawoka (Striker)

Directed by:

Jarvis