Phone Calls From a Rock Star by J. L. Paul Read Free Book Online

hoping they wouldn’t
understand what my last question meant, and focused on Jake’s
answer.
    He chuckled. “Not a whole lot, really. Maybe
I’ll take you with me some day.”
    “ I wouldn’t fit in,” I
sighed.
    “ Sure you would, angel,” he
said. “Listen to me real quick. I’m going to go take a nap in a
second but I want you to hear me out. Don’t let this guy use you to
make the other chick jealous. You deserve better than that. Do you
got me, Iz?”
    “ Yes, Jake,” I said with a
grin. “I got ya.”
    “ I mean it,” he
threatened.
    “ I know. Go take a nap.
Break a leg tonight and all that other stuff.”
    He barked out a short laugh. “I’ll talk to
you later. Take care of yourself.”
    I ended the call, stupid smile still on my
face, but it fell faster than a sprinter at the pistol shot when I
turned to find the flabbergasted faces of Annie and Cammy. They
rose from the other bed in perfect unison and continued to gape at
me.
    “ Who was that?” Cammy
asked.
    Such a simple question with a not so simple
answer. I bit my lip. “My friend, Jake.”
    “ Who is Jake?” Cammy
continued.
    “ My friend.” Okay, not the
snappiest of answers but I was under pressure.
    Annie folded her arms over her chest in a
matronly manner. “Um hmm and where did you meet your friend
Jake?”
    “ What’s his last name?”
Cammy asked.
    I was so busted. I did want to tell them
about my adventure with Jake but I was afraid they wouldn’t believe
me - I still didn’t think Seth totally believed me. But, they were
my best friends and something this big was not the sort of thing I
could keep from them. I took a deep breath. “I met him at the
concert. Well, after the concert, actually.”
    “ His last name?” Cammy
persisted.
    I chanced a quick glance at Annie whose eyes
were narrowed and trained on my face. “Johnson,” I whispered.
    Cammy cocked her head. “Jake Johnson? That’s
so funny! I can’t believe you met a Jake Johnson at a Controlled
Environment concert when Jake Johnson is the name of the lead
singer.”
    Annie’s arms fell same time as her jaw. She
gawked at me like a goldfish that had jumped out of its bowl and
landed on the carpet. “Jake Johnson?”
    I nodded quickly, gnawing frantically on my
bottom lip. I hoped I had enough lip balm to repair the damage.
    “ The Jake Johnson?” Annie gasped.
    I nodded again. Annie screeched and I
winced, covering my ears. Cammy’s eyes finally grew as the
realization hit her. “Oh! So it wasn’t a different Jake Johnson? It
was the Jake Johnson from Controlled Environment?”
    I nodded for the third time. Cammy’s shrieks
joined Annie’s as they each grabbed one of my arms and yanked me in
a sitting position on Cammy’s bed. They pelted me with questions so
quickly I couldn’t answer them. I finally had to hold up my hands
to end the inquisition. “Okay, stop! I’ll tell you what happened if
you’ll shut up, please!”
    They both zipped their lips and waited,
bodies tense and eyes nearly leaping from their sockets. I sucked
in a breath and told them the entire story. Their eyes turned from
excited and surprised to a glaring anger by the time I
finished.
    “ Why didn’t you tell us
this immediately?” Cammy asked.
    “ You just got here,” I
defended, jabbing a finger in her direction. She couldn’t fault me
there.
    “ But I was here yesterday,”
Annie said. Okay, so she could fault me. But really, I wasn’t sure
I wanted anyone to know. I mean, I did, but I didn’t. What if it
got out? Was that night something Jake wanted on the entertainment
websites? In gossip magazines? I didn’t think so.
    “ I wasn’t sure if you’d
believe me,” I admitted in a soft voice. “It’s a really strange
story.”
    “ Of course we believe you,
you idiot,” Cammy beamed. She squeezed my hand. “Wow. I can’t
believe you actually know Jake Johnson!” Her eyes grew and sparkled. “Wait
until everyone hears!”
    “ No!” I shot to my