party last night?” He asked.
“Why do you care?” Jessica scowled.
“Dang, can’t a man ask a question without getting a hostile reply? You still mad at me?”
“No, it was OK.”
“Just OK? It wasn’t fun or anything?”
“Ok it was fun but…”
“But you don’t remember much,” Jimmy finished her sentence.
Jessica was bewildered not knowing how he knew all of this stuff about last night.
“How is the hangover today?” He asked.
“How do you know about all of this stuff? Were you there?”
“Nope, I just know.”
“Stalker.”
“No, you don’t think I know who Amy is?”
“What does she look like?”
“Dirty blonde hair, green eyes, about 5’4, and slim. Would you like to know which school she went to? Her teachers in middle school?”
“I swear Jimmy, you are such a creep. Anyway, I’m not sure I wanna come over anymore today.”
“Look, we were in the same classes in middle school. And we were pretty close as well. I spoke to her this morning and she told me about last night. I asked how you were to see if you would be of any help this morning and she told me all about it.”
“I still don’t believe you. I’ll see you later,” Jessica said then hung up.
Right on time Jessica pulled up on the sidewalk next to Jimmy’s house in her pink Camaro. It was the first thing she bought with the money after signing the contract. It had a black interior and she recently fitted it with dark tinted windows. Her parents suggested that she should get bulletproof windows, but Jessica didn’t think it was needed and she didn’t want to pay for them. Her parents eventually paid for them. Jessica thought that it was a waste of money.
____________
Jimmy opened the door and saw the lovely sight of Jessica Hall. Her long, wavy, hair cascaded down her head. Her smile was like nothing Jimmy had ever seen before. Her brown eyes had a twinkle in them that no other girl had. She was one of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen. To top it off she was also a celebrity. But Jimmy didn’t think much of that when he thought about her.
She invaded his thoughts every moment of the day and Jimmy could not help but wonder what she thought of him. He always played it cool around her and tried to not give away that he was interested in her. Part of the reason was because she was always giving him mixed signals and he didn’t know what she truly felt about him. Sometimes she was—more often than not—hostile towards him and other times she seemed interested in something more than friends. The other part was—”
“Can I come in or should we stare at each other for a few more seconds?” Jessica asked halting Jimmy’s thoughts.
Jimmy had no problem looking at Jessica, but he knew it wasn’t the right time or place. “Um, right, come in. Want a drink?”
“Ice tea? I really want to hear that music of yours though.”
“Well it’s not done yet, that is why you are here. I need your finely tuned ears and your knowledge.”
“My knowledge? You are the expert here, like I would know anything you don’t know.”
“Fine then, I need your opinion.”
They both took their drinks into the studio and Jimmy turned on the red light hanging on the door to indicate that they were recording and to not disturb. He played the song for her and she seemed to be speechless. Either that was good or bad, but Jimmy could not tell which one. “I can tell that you either hated it or loved it; which one?”
“Let me ask you this first: is this song aimed at girls? Because it sure seems like a love song towards girls.”
“Well, it is a song about love, but I guess different people interpret it differently.”
“So who or what is it about?”
“Do you really want to know?”
“Um, yeah of course,” she said. Jimmy looked at her then simply pointed in the air.
“Oh, it’s about Him,” Jessica said.
“Yeah, or His love. But did you like it?”
“Yeah, it was really touching.”
“Really? I guess that’s good. So, anything I should do better or change?”
“Yeah, that part that you sing ‘He loved you all along’ is flat compared to the rest; it should be a little higher.”
“Higher? That is like the highest I can go.” Jimmy tried to sing it like she wanted, but it came out all wrong and Jessica burst out in laughter. Then he challenged her. “You try it then.” It came out perfect and just what he was trying to get to. “You want to be featured in this song?” he asked.
“What, just to sing that part? You know that we sound different. No one is going to want a sudden change of voice in the middle of the song.”
“No, I mean you sing other parts of the song as well, or maybe just the chorus and stuff.”
“That will be fun, have you already written my part?”
“Ha, no. So we will have to work on it. Are you free for a few hours so that we can do it today?”
“Yeah, but I have a meeting at four.”
“Well that gives us a few hours then. What would you like for lunch? I can order some pizza or sandwiches or …?” Jimmy already knew what she was going to say. She loved pizza; it was definitely one of her favorite foods.
“Pizza, Jim.”
“Jim? You never called me that before,” he said; then dialed what he guessed was her favorite pizzeria.
“Oh, Jim.” She said playfully.
“Rawr.” He said and then both of them laughed. He got up and grabbed a random cap and threw it at her head. It floated perfectly on to her head and she jumped when it hit her. He donned one and settled in for another long day of recording.
SEVEN
“Did people like your new song?” Jessica asked Jimmy over the phone. It had been almost a week since they last recorded.
“Yeah, thanks to you being in it and tweeting it I have almost two million views and like twenty-thousand more subscribers. I have mainly positive reviews so I guessed that people really liked it. You should look at some of the reviews.”
“Cool. Need any help with other songs?”
“Nope, not now at least.”
Jessica was sad. She really wanted to see Jimmy. He was a small light in her darkening world. Neither fame nor money could take her out of the hole she was in. It was like a big part of her heart was gone and left a gaping hole. The only things that seemed to fill the void were Jimmy and getting drunk. It was the only way to get rid of it.
“But a few of my friends and I are going to the beach. Want to come and bring a few friends along?” Jimmy continued. Jessica was excited to come, but did not want to sound too desperate.
“I’ll check my schedule, I may be available. What time are you going?”
“Like right now. Should I wait to ride down together or will you go by yourself?”
Jessica checked her schedule and to her surprise she had an appointment in less than one hour. “Sure, I can meet you, at your house?”
“Sounds good, now will it actually be a few minutes or will it take more than that?”
“You underestimate my time management ability,” Jessica said.
“Mhm, just be ready.”
Jessica made a quick call and was able to move the meeting to the next day. Excitedly, she got dressed to go to the beach and hopped on her bike.
____________
Just as Jimmy pulled up in front of Jessica’s house she got out of the gate. Instead of Jessica coming to him he decided to take the initiative and pick her up at her house. When she came out of the gate her hair was flying in the wind. She was wearing a white T-shirt with a black logo on it and the sleeves just covered her shoulders. She wore short shorts which exposed much of her tan, olive colored legs. Hanging off her feet were pink flip flops.
Jimmy looked her up and down then back up. He wasn’t sure if their eyes had met because she was sporting dark sunglasses. He wav
ed and she held up a hand in acknowledgement. As she did this she wobbled and almost fell off her bike. She had been biking for years and Jimmy knew she could also bike with no hands. When she came to a stop near Jimmy, he said, “I need you to breathe into this.” Then pretended to pull out a breathalyzer.
“No need Officer; I haven’t had a drink today.”
“Oh yeah? Then how come you wobbled with one hand on the bike when you can easily do it with no hands?”
“It is because I was going too slowly. If I had gone faster I would have been able to hold it.”
Jimmy wasn’t so sure; she was going fast enough that it wouldn’t be very hard to balance. He let it go and they biked down to the beach side by side, but not saying anything. “What’s in the bag?” he asked.
“Towel and stuff. You know, the usual.”
“I hate it when people are so specific that you just can’t take in all of the words they say,” Jimmy said sarcastically. “Did you invite anyone?” He continued.
“I guess I should really cut down on my words. And no, you didn’t give me any time. You are always rushing me.”
“I am not. How are you?” He asked with more concern.
“OK today. But nothing fun was going to happen today so nothing to wake up to. I just lay in my bed for like the whole morning.”
“Wow. That is the most you have ever told me about yourself. Are you OK?”
They parked their bikes near one of the barriers and before Jessica could reply, Jimmy hollered to his friends. They waved back and Jimmy made his way towards them with Jessica right on his tail.
____________
The only person Jessica did not recognize of Jimmy’s friends was one who introduced himself as Mark. He wore a cute smile on his face. His blue eyes met hers and his warm smile