“You’re right, man-she is near a beach. She’s actually posted up in a beachfront property and she was entirely enraged when she knew I was in her rented beach house!” I cheerily announce to her keeper via phone.
He sighs. “Thanks for checking on her since you were up that way!” He covers the mic of his cell and alerts the other four that she’s in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. "Thanks so much, AJ!”
“No biggie.”
“I have to go to rehearsal,” he informs me.
“Yeah, bye.” He hangs up and I drop my silent phone into the center console. I pull up to the grocery store and get out, ensuring I place my phone into the side pocket of my camo carpenter shorts. I enter the store and begin shopping, my cell ringing a few minutes later with the caller ID reading ‘UNAVAILABLE’. If it’s a solicitation, it’s on. “Hello?”
“A-AJ?” the female voice on the other end of the line greets, clearly having been crying.
“No, it’s the damn kid from ‘Pet Semetary’,” I quip.
“Asshole.”
“Jazz?”
“No, Jessica Biel.”
“Thought you were mad at me?” I say, grabbing a couple packs of hot dogs (natural casing) and a few boxes of burger patties before moving on to the hamburg, chicken and pork.
“I need someone’s opinion who’s been in my place before and you’re the only one that came to mind.”
I key in on the sound of the ocean slapping the rocks and her soft sobbing. “Gee, thanks.”
“I asked you about it during ‘Millennium’,” she reminds me of the discussion we had on the bus months ago.
“Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. What do you mean specifically?”
She tells me everything and I hear her out. “So what do I do?”
“Avoid Nick unless you run into him or work with us. The same things you’ve been doing, So, other than that, I dunno,” I tell her as I put my items on the belt to be rung up and get out of there. "I'll see you in an hour or so."
"It'll only be about 1:30, you'll be 2 hours early."
"I'm going to drop off the food with your cousin and then I'm going to find you to talk."
"Oh. Thanks. I'm on the rocks at the far side of the beach from my place."
"See you soon, kid."
"Yeah." With that, she hangs up and the line goes dead, my phone blinking 'Call Ended 27:19'.
"Hmm, almost half an hour," I mutter to myself, the cashier greeting me a second later and I nod in response.
My cell beeps, signaling a text message and I pray it's Andi because Justin is up my ass about her. It's from Nick, making me curious enough to open it and knowing it can be about anything at all. 'AJ, Andi feels like Jazz means more and is ready to up and leave, might even consider seeing me again.'
Damn, that's a bombshell and a half. Would Jazz give a shit or not about those two dating? She made it clear she didn't like Willa, but she said it's Nick's life and choices. I swipe my credit card and dart to my black Corvette, rushing to drop off the food. I have to let Jazz know before she hears it from someone else. I call her cell and she picks up, only to hang up. Whatever, I'll be there soon enough. I text her, 'Have news about Nick' and shove my phone into my pocket as I jump into the driver's seat and speed off to her beach front place. I pull up, kill the engine and walk through the sliding glass doors on the side. Darren sees me and greets me warmly. "I have to find something at my place, no time to chat," I say, cutting him off due to the fact that I'm not going to listen to him. I help put the food away and rush off to where she indicated. After a ten minute jog to the other end of the beach, I see her sitting with her knees pulled to her chest and her arms holding them in place as her head rests on the top of her knees. I clamber up the rocks and sit next to her, holding one of my knees to my body. "I have news for you," I start.
"I know, I got the text," she tells me, holding up her cell that she had colored with a turquoise Sharpie while on the Millennium tour with us.
"Nick isn't with Willa, but-"
"Might be dating Andi again?" she interrupts.
"Yeah," I answer slowly.
"Good for them, as long as they're happy."
"Have you spoken to your man lately?"
"Right after I hung up on you, he called the second I answered your call."
"How long did you two talk?"
"Ten minutes before he said he'd be here tonight."
"Why?" I must admit that her boyfriend saying that strikes me as odd, but then again I'm also used to her dating Nick.
"He's worried and wants time with me," she tells me, staring out over the water.
Her phone rings and she answers it. "What? I'll see what I can do. I'll tell AJ to call Nick to relay that to her. Yup, ok. Yeah, bye." She quickly hangs up and bumps my shoulder with her body. "Call Nick and ask him to call Andi to let her know that James and them want her and I there for their concert at Madison Square Garden, moral support from two of their 'biggest fans' or so they claim," she tells me, doing finger quotes. "Honestly, I think they get their rocks off when Andi and I are at each other's throats. They want us there on the 24th and 25th."
"What?" I say, laughing. Sometimes she says the most fucked up shit. My guess is Andi hasn't said much to the five of them in a few days or so.
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