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chapter six
" R-E-S-P-E-C-T,
find out what
it means to me,
R-E-S-P-E-C-T,
take care of T-C-B. "
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NOW PLAYING: "RESPECT" by ARETHA FRANKLIN (1967)

________

THE FIRST THING that Rory does when they make it to Los Angeles is fling herself out of the van and roll onto the ground.

"The sky — it is spinning," she groans, staring at the swirling azure above her framed by the palm trees lining the street. "Is the sky spinning for all of you?"

It turns out that she gets carsick after a while. Especially after driving over two thousand miles in a station wagon that hardly works and being crammed inside with five other people, stopping only to play a gig at a bar on the way, run into gas stations for bathroom breaks, and pull over into rest stops for a couple hours of sleep.

Graham takes her hands and heaves her back onto her feet, wrapping an arm around her shoulders to help her stay upright. "Rory, you can't lie in the middle of the sidewalk. People are staring."

"My legs are — what is that stuff — the stuff that jiggles — Jell-O!"

"Okay." Graham does not sound very concerned about her legs turning into gelatinous food. "It's only a little further."

Billy leads the group toward a rust-colored apartment building with a dazzling, window-covered exterior. Camila glances at the residence list before pressing a button to ring the buzzer. She rubs Billy's shoulders supportively to help ease the tension in them.

"Oh, there he is," Billy says, standing up a little straighter.

A man with shaggy brown hair, a handlebar mustache, and a cigarette dangling out of his mouth answers the door. Rory notices that he is not wearing a shirt or pants under his beige robe. Thankfully, though, he does have underwear on.

Rod Reyes — the famous tour manager who had been at the show with the Winters and had advised the group to come out to L.A. in the first place. Rory had missed his meeting with Graham and Billy because she was stuck outside.

"Rod, hey. Uh, it's, uh, Billy Dunne and the, uh... The Dunne Brothers. We met at The Staircase in Pittsburgh, you know? You said I could call."

Rod inhales a deep breath. "But you didn't call. You're just..." he waves a hand, "here."

He turns his head away to blow out a puff of smoke behind him. Rory is grateful that he hadn't done it in their faces.

Billy appears taken aback. However, he's quick to recover, asking, "Could we have, uh, ten minutes of your time?"

Rod heaves a sigh before pushing the door wider to let them inside and starting to walk off. Billy turns around, giving the group an excited grin and a fist pump.

He leads them to an empty pool area lined with white chairs. He sits on one with a green-patterned towel draped across its back, and the others file around him in an arc, some sitting on the chairs surrounding him and others standing. Rory slightly sways on her feet, causing Warren to place both hands on her shoulders so she doesn't topple backwards into the pool.

"Obviously, we're gonna need gigs," Billy says, starting off the bits they had rehearsed a trillion times on the drive over.

"Yeah," Eddie agrees, "on the Strip, if possible."

Warren adds, drumming his thumbs on Rory's shoulders, "The Whiskey, The Troubadour..."

"Yeah, and a place to stay," Camila says with a friendly smile.

Billy nods. "I mean, we pooled our savings together, but it's not much."

"We're probably gonna need some... money," Warren says.

"I mean, just to get us off the ground, you know?" Graham quickly adds so they don't sound like gold diggers.

"And, uh, Teddy Price to produce us," Billy says. "That's — that's... uh... that's really important."

Rod gives him a pleasant smile that reveals surprisingly straight teeth. "Sure, man. Anything else?"

The group mumbles something about them being all they've got. Rory is sure that she used to know many words in two languages, but she can't seem to form anything with her mouth right now. She settles on rapidly shaking her head.

Rod's grin drops. "Are you a bunch of fucking idiots?"

Camila's own smile freezes on her face.

"Do you really think that's how this works? You show up in town and someone hands you a key to the city? A sit-down with Teddy Price?"

"You said..." Billy stammers, trying to regain his bearings, "when we were back in Pittsburgh, you said..."

"I'm a tour manager," Rod tells him, "not a band manager. So, unless you guys are planning a world tour in the near future, I don't think I'm your guy, man."

"We're not asking for handouts. We'll work our asses off, man."

Rod holds out the hand with the cigarette still poised between two fingers. "Listen to me. You seem like nice people, and... if you're the band I'm thinking of... your set was kinda tight. So, what I'm gonna do is, I'll make a call — one call — to my guy over at Filthy's."

"Filthy's?" Eddie asks. "Is that a club?"

"It's more of a bar than a rock club, but it's on the Strip." As soon as he finishes that sentence, the band chimes in with their thanks. "And that's all I can do."

"Right on!" Warren exclaims. When he speaks, he slightly rattles Rory's shoulders a bit, causing her to sway again.

Rod points at her curiously. "She on acid?"

"It was a long drive," Eddie explains.

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RORY: Then I threw up in the bushes once we got back in front of the building. But they got a gig!

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She practically hangs over the half-wall, groaning, while Graham rambles on a pay phone.

"So I mean, uh, you know, the thing is, I mean, all of us, we're uh... we're really impressed. Um, you know, not just me, and, uh, maybe now is a good time to... you know, for a... change of scenery, or a..."

"He is not convincing," Rory mumbles miserably.

"No, he's not," Warren agrees from beside her, laughing when Billy snatches the phone out of his brother's hand before he butchers things.

Turns out, Graham wants the blonde keyboardist from the Winters to join the band. Rory has never once spoken to her but she already agrees. She and Camila are still far outnumbered; they could use another girl in the group.

"Karen, this is Billy Dunne," he says, pushing Graham back when he tries to protest. "Hi. Look, uh, how would you like to be in the band?" After a pause, he chuckles. "It's okay. Uh, well, I was just saying the, uh... The Dunne Brothers would love to have you join our band. No, actually, in L.A. We have some gigs lined up on the Strip. We're renting a house."

"In Laurel Canyon," Graham whispers frantically. "Tell her it's in Laurel Canyon."

All of the others violently shush him and push him back so he's no longer hanging off of Billy's shoulder.

"So, what do you say, Karen?" Billy asks. "You wanna be in the best band in the world?"

Rory buries her head in her arms. "My mouth tastes disgusting."

"There's a drugstore next door," Warren says. "I'll buy you some gum. Come on."

He pulls Rory back onto her feet and tells the others, "Be right back," before practically steering her out of the building and into the blinding sunlight. They don't have a lot of money left after combining their funds to rent their house, but he purchases a pack of spearmint gum for her and cigarettes for himself.

Then comes their house. Graham had wanted to emphasize to Karen that it is in Laurel Canyon, but that's pretty much where the good parts end.

First, there are not enough bedrooms for all of them. Billy and Camila are set to share by default, but it still doesn't free up enough for the four others who remain. They decide to settle things the adult way— flipping a coin. Graham wins the first room against Eddie. Eddie wins the second against Rory. Then Warren ends up taking the last one, only to last ten minutes before declaring that it's haunted and he's sleeping anywhere else he can find.

Second, there comes the discount because an old lady had died in the house last week. Camila does some investigating and discovers that she had passed in the room that is now Rory's. Warren points at her and yells, "I TOLD YOU!" before glancing apprehensively at the closed door as if her ghost will appear at any second.

Rory does not believe in ghosts or dark spirits, but she does place Abuelo's cross on the wall just in case.

Third, living with four boys is. Well. It's a nightmare at first.

She thought she would be okay because she has a brother. She's familiar with dealing with someone always leaving the toilet seat up and somehow trailing the scent of boy wherever he goes. But not even Mateo's most disgusting habits could've prepared her for this living situation. The guys make Mateo look like the pinnacle of cleanliness and good hygiene.

She makes it two whole days before she snaps.

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GRAHAM: Rory kept us all in line, for sure. We had a couple days of freedom before she lost it. I think Eddie using a dirty pot to boil water for his pasta is what finally did it for her.

EDDIE: I had never eaten so much fruit in my entire life.

WARREN: She really took on the role of an immigrant mom— always bringing us sliced-up pineapples or peaches or mangoes or whatever. And she gave us the stink eye whenever one of us left a mess behind. I think she actually hit Eddie with la chancla once after he left a huge mess.

GRAHAM: Soon we realized that giving us fruit was how she showed love.

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Rory is busy making sure her belongings take up exactly half of the bedroom before Karen arrives. She'd been notified that the keyboardist had agreed to join the band with only several hours to prepare to share a room with her and the ghost of the old lady.

She almost doesn't hear the side door open above the cacophony of noise coming from the living room. The record player blares "I'm Your Captain" by Grand Funk Railroad, the lyrics and instrumentals occasionally interrupted by indistinct shouting and mysterious clanging. Rory had to close her door earlier just so she could think.

She opens it to reveal chaos.

Honestly, she isn't sure where to look first. Warren is standing on the back of the sofa in tall boots, striped pants, a puffy white shirt, a black vest, and a belt to cinch the shirt at his waist. He fights off an ambush from Eddie and Graham with a fire poker in one hand and his drumsticks in the other. Eddie wears a long, lacy dress and a pearl necklace while Graham is... only in his underwear.

They stop once they notice Karen standing in the doorway. Graham quickly puts his hands down to cover himself while Eddie attempts to casually recline on one of the cushioned chairs.

Warren turns toward her, awkwardly clearing his throat. "Ahoy."

Karen gives them an incredulous expression before moving on to check out the rest of the house.

Rory, who had been covering her mouth with her hand, finally releases a hoot of laughter that makes the boys' heads whip around to look at her.

"Avast ye wee lass!" Warren yells, jabbing the fire poker in her general direction. "Ye shall walk the plank for ye laughter!"

"Are those my earrings?" she asks upon noticing the familiar golden hoops dangling from his earlobes.

He points at Graham. "He found them!"

"I am not surprised," Rory says, crossing her arms over her chest. "Graham is always snooping through my things."

Graham's arms open wide in indignation. "I DID NOT SNOOP!"

"Mmm-hmm," Rory hums sarcastically before retreating back into her bedroom to find her camera. "I need to capture this moment forever, thank you."

After snapping the photo and smothering down her residual laughter, she searches through the house to find Karen. The blonde girl is wandering with a bag slung over one shoulder while she examines the state of their rental home. Though Rory has been trying to tidy up after the boys, they create messes faster than she can clean them, so it's been a constant battle.

"Sorry about that," Rory says, causing Karen's head to snap up. "You know... boys. I would say it's not always like that, but then I'd be lying." She skips a handshake and goes straight into giving Karen a hug. "I'm Rory. Thank God you agreed to join the band— we are in desperate need of more sense in this place."

She takes Karen's hand and begins guiding her back toward their room. "I hope you don't mind that we are sharing a room. And that the decorations are ugly, but none of the boys wanted it."

"Is it haunted?" Karen questions, appearing slightly taken aback by Rory's quick progression to hugs and hand-holding.

"Only by horrendous, horrendous taste," Camila's voice says from the other side of the room. It has two doors — one leading to the living room and another that connects it to the other part of the house — so people are constantly walking through it. Overall, it's not a great design choice. Plus, the antique wallpaper is... something.

Okay, the room is an eyesore, and both girls might hardly fit on the full-sized mattress, but Rory can curl up into a ball and make more room for Karen if she needs to. Or she can sleep on the floor— she doesn't mind.

Now that they have a new member, the band has to adjust their practices to add in a keyboardist. And, to Rory's joy, they'll finally be playing their own songs.

"I have so many ideas," Rory tells Billy as he bumbles through the back house one morning. He's half-awake, his long hair messy and a hand scrubbing over his tired face, but she's been wide awake since six in the morning and it shows in the way she practically buzzes next to him as he searches for something edible in the refrigerator. "Even some that I haven't shown Graham yet. We can look through them today if you want—"

"Look, Rory." Billy grabs a carton of milk and begins drinking from it like some sort of heathen before he wipes his top lip and sighs. "I appreciate your excitement, but I'm not sure if your stuff is really... our style."

"You haven't even looked at it," she argues, following him around the tiny kitchen as he begins to use that same carton to pour himself a bowl of off-brand cereal. "I told you — I have been analyzing songs from other rock bands. These songs are not for me, they're for you."

"I've heard my brother playing some of them in his room. And, to be honest, your lyrics are too fluffy for us."

"Fluffy," Rory repeats blankly.

"Fluffy."

She stares at him, reminded of that night of the wedding where they'd had this same exact argument a year and a half ago. Things have not changed; he's still not listening to her. And she can feel frustration bubbling in her chest at being so easily dismissed, rising up in her throat and blocking it with congestion, forcing her to swallow thickly before she screams in anger.

Eddie comes shuffling into the room a moment later. He rubs his exhausted eyes and greets them with an incoherent grunt before taking out a piece of bread and shoving the entire slice in his mouth. Then, he speaks with his mouth full, asking, "Wha' we talkin' 'bou'?"

Rory continues to glare at the back of Billy's head. The kitchen was not built for so many people to be in it at once, and she is not in the mood to see whatever disgusting eating habits the boys will practice today, so she decides to seethe one last sentence.

"Just because my songs are not your style doesn't mean they aren't good."

Then she turns on her heel and leaves.

It's an adjustment period as the weeks pass by without much luck gaining better gigs or getting noticed by a label. Rory attends every show at Filthy McNasty's bar that she can, but due to the job she gets at a grocery store just to make ends meet, there are a few she has to skip.

At the gigs she does attend, she and Camila seize the table right in front of the stage, mouthing along to the lyrics of The Dunne Brothers's first few original songs. Rory is relieved— she loves "Suzie Q", but if she had to hear it one more time, she may have exploded.

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BILLY: Those eight, nine months in McNasty's, sure, hardly anyone ever saw us play, but that was where we really fell in love as a band, you know? Only problem was, we didn't get paid. Like, at all.

GRAHAM: There was one time we found a bunch of dollar bills in the tip jar but it turned out that Rory had just put them in there because she felt bad that it was empty.

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"Thank you," Billy says into the microphone after a round of polite applause from the small audience in the bar. "This one's a new song we just finished up last night. It's called 'Heartstopper'."

Warren taps his sticks together for a countdown. Then Graham's guitar explodes with sound, a strong, wild beat that makes Rory immediately start dancing in her seat. She must have been at work when they'd rehearsed this one because she doesn't remember it.

Billy leans in to the mic to begin the first verse. After a while, things start to sound familiar.

"Skin so sweet
And those long, long legs
How could I resist such a treat?"

Rory's smile fades from her face. Her body goes still, staring up at the lead singer as realization dawns on her.

"When she's around
I feel it kickin' in
The blood leaves my veins
And I can't hear a sound
I could drop dead if she'd just say when
Oh, the girl's a real heartstopper."

Those are Rory's lyrics.

Billy is singing Rory's lyrics.

She hadn't written the whole song — mostly she had just been brainstorming out loud while sitting on the back patio last week. Graham was out, so she was by herself, talking aloud to make sure the words sounded right. And Billy ... he must have overheard.

"Your lyrics are too fluffy for us," her ass.

The band is on their usual post-show high after the performance, heading back to the house for an afterparty since most of the members can't legally drink. The law doesn't stop Warren from cracking open a bottle of beer practically as soon as he steps through the doorway. He and Eddie clink their drinks together before flopping down on the sofa. Karen and Camila are laughing. Billy ruffles Graham's hair affectionately.

The sound of Rory slamming the front door shut makes all of that stop.

All heads turn to her, shooting her looks that are half-inquisitive, half-alarmed at the thunderous expression on her face. She has never gotten this upset around them. She has been irritated, sure. Frustrated, definitely. But full of so much white-hot rage that she can feel it boiling at the edge of her skin? Not at all.

"You stole my lyrics," she says while staring directly at Billy, not bothering to sugarcoat her words.

"What?" Warren asks. He wears an uneasy smile on his face as he glances between her and their lead vocalist, his eyebrows pinched.

"'Heartstopper' sounded very familiar." Rory takes a few more steps into the house, hoping that the movements will force Billy to actually look at her, but he doesn't.

He scratches his chin while he stares at the wall instead. "Look, Rory—"

"You have dismissed me for years!" she exclaims. Her eyes are full of tears now, and Díos, the last thing she wants to do right now is cry, but the others have no idea what it's like to have been shoved away so much like she has, even before she met the band. "I have been trying to make you give me the time of day since the beginning. Since day one. And what did you tell me a month ago? That my songs weren't your style? That my lyrics are too — too fluffy? And then you steal them to finish your song without any credit?"

The other band members are also staring at Billy now. Their expressions reveal that they had no idea about the stolen song, which makes sense because she hadn't shown it to Graham or talked about it with anyone else. Only Billy had heard it, and he wasn't even supposed to.

"You could have asked," Rory says, fighting to keep the tremors out of her voice. "I would have been happy — so, so happy — to show you the whole song. Because you are my family, Billy, and I thought that meant we would be honest with each other. But I get it. You just wanted all of the glory."

She storms out of the room with no idea where her feet are taking her. Soon she's in the sunroom in the back of the house, then the kitchen, and then out the side door, landing in the backyard that smells like wet laundry despite the arid climate.

The storm door swings shut behind her, echoing through the property. Rory finally stops when she's in the middle of the cracked pavement that almost entirely fills their so-called "yard." It's coated in a thin layer of dirt, but she doesn't care. She plops down with her knees drawn to her chest and quietly rages with her head in her hands.

Someone walks out as well. When the door is open for those few seconds, she hears distant shouting. Rory squeezes her eyes shut, silently begging for it not to be Billy coming to apologize because she really does not want to listen to him right now, but her muscles relax once she recognizes the familiar scent of Graham's cologne as he sits down beside her.

"Hey," he says.

Rory gives a vague grunt in reply, still hiding her face.

Another person sits on her other side. She feels the cool leather of Karen's jacket against her arm and is surprised that she'd come outside, too.

"They're all giving him an earful," Karen informs her. "None of us knew. If we did, I —"

"I know," Rory interrupts, no longer able to control how shaky her voice is. "I know he would not have told you."

"'Heartstopper' is a great song," Graham says as he knocks his knee into Rory's. "I told Billy that the first time I heard it. And I knew something about it was different, but I couldn't tell what."

"I didn't write the whole thing," Rory says. "He just took some lines."

"Don't go back on anything you said in there." Graham's voice is adamant. "Don't take back a single word. Billy needed to hear it. Even if he'd only taken one line — even one phrase — he would've deserved to be torn a new asshole."

Rory finds herself chuckling in spite of the anger and hurt still clashing around within her. She leans her head on his shoulder and sighs, holding onto Karen's knee on her opposite side.

"You know what I think?" Graham asks. Rory hums as a cue for him to continue. "I think Billy feels threatened by you."

"Threatened," she repeats incredulously. "By me."

"I think he's well aware of how amazing you are at songwriting and worries that, if you help, you'll outshine him. And you know how he is."

"Always has to be the best in the room," Karen supplies. It speaks volumes that she's only been with them for a handful of weeks and already knows that.

Graham nods. "What's amazing about you is that you can switch up your style for whatever song you're trying to write. I mean, you've shown me lyrical ballads, hard rock stuff, Latin, folk, and so many more things over the years. Songs about romance and sunshine but also war and heartbreak. The lines from 'Heartstopper' may as well have been written by a horny college dude, not a seventeen-year-old girl."

Rory's heart squeezes with love for her best friend. She remembers their first lesson on songwriting back on that October afternoon in '68, where she'd told him about how everyone has their own signature and, no matter what kind of song they write, they'll always have traces of them in it. Graham has heard so many of her songs by now that he'd picked up on the bits of Rory in 'Heartstopper' without even realizing it. That's why the lyrics had stood out to him.

"The rest of the song involves the girl leaving him because she thinks he only values her for her body," she says, "but the instrumentals would be so upbeat that you wouldn't even realize it unless you slowed down and absorbed the lyrics. She is a heartstopper because she breaks his heart."

Graham smiles and wraps an arm around her shoulders. "Of course she is. That's a better ending."

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BILLY: I know I'm ahead of myself, but I just wanted to say it now — when we recorded our first album, there is one song none of us wrote. "Heartstopper" was all Rory.

_______

a/n:

rory definitely took this picture and you cannot convince me otherwise. especially since the expressions on their faces are the EXACT ones they would make at her.

also it's the way that i manifested this... sebastian and rachel will be in the movie y2k together...,,..,, literally what the hell and fuck. WHO in hollywood is following me ???

also the way you guys were all like "stop making me like billy!!!" and i knew that this chapter was coming all along LMFAO. he has his good moments but also ones where i (and rory) want to smash one of warren's drums over his head. ✨the duality of man✨

— kristyn

( word count: 4.4k )