Tangled Web by Jade C. Jamison Read Free Book Online

of their manager, dropping the hellish reference. The
name still held the intent without alienating fans--that’s what
their manager had said, at any rate. Their first album was also
self-titled. The cover was a black background covered in flames,
overlaid with a picture of the five band members in various
“disinterested” rock poses, nothing atypical. “Hey, Katie. Do you
have any old yearbooks around here?”
    She paused. “Yeah, I think so. Hold on a
second.” She walked over to the hall closet and, just as her
neatnik-self had thought, her yearbooks were stacked behind
Monopoly and Life. She’d inherited the games and couldn’t bear to
part with them, but she never played them. And those were the kinds
of things Katie kept in her hall closet--neglected items she wanted
to keep. She hadn’t actually looked at her yearbooks in at least a
decade, but she knew where they were. She pulled them all out for
Johnny and had no interest in reading all the insipid comments
bound to be contained therein. She knew, for instance, that at
least one friend had written this:
    2 good
    + 2 be
    = 4 gotten.
    Like a lot of high school friends, though,
she had forgotten who had written it, and she wasn’t interested
enough to dig through the pages to find out. She was, however,
interested in looking at the pictures with Johnny.
    He stood up and sat on the couch. She sat
next to him. “Did you want to look at senior year?”
    He nodded, and she handed him the top book.
Then they started flipping through the pages. Katie wasn’t looking
anymore, though, because her memory was already taking her
back.
    * * *
    Spawn of Satan had started playing teen
birthday parties and had even played a bar or two (with written
parental permission, of course). The boys of the band were starting
to believe their press, and they were living the high life. Their
grades were slipping but hanging by a thread, and the principal had
lectured them more than once that, since he had given them their
opportunity, they shouldn’t disrespect him now by blowing off
school. In fact, if they didn’t get their act together, he said, he
wouldn’t let them play for prom. So they managed to keep their
grades high enough. Barely. They just might graduate.
    Johnny wasn’t full of himself. No, that
wasn’t what was getting under Katie’s skin as spring rolled around.
It was that he wasn’t around anymore. Even when they hung out, his
mind was elsewhere--in the clouds, in the music, in bed with
another girl. She knew he wasn’t fully tuned in when they were
spending time together anymore, even when he came over for dinner
once in a while. He just wasn’t there. Katie asked him once point
blank why he was acting distant, and he simply told her, “I have a
lot on my mind, Katie. I’ve got dreams. I’m plotting them in my
head.” So even though he wasn’t involved in their friendship for
the meantime as he should have been, she satisfied herself with his
answer, even though she didn’t feel fulfilled.
    But that left an opening for Riley, a guy
she never would have considered before. As grounded as Johnny was,
Riley was as conceited and cocky. He thought he was the greatest
thing to ever walk the earth, and he made sure everyone else knew
it. Most of his fan base (screaming teenage girls) believed it too
and their weak sighs and hopeful eyes fanned his flame. From his
Levi’s that were a little too tight to accentuate his bulge to the
disinterested cool chin nod he had perfected over the years, it was
obvious to Katie that Riley was his own biggest fan.
    Katie was attending a party where the band
was playing, and Johnny had not one or two but three adoring girls
surrounding him after they finished. He had his tongue in one of
their mouths before Katie could even congratulate him on a good
show. She should have been used to it, but it was unexpected. To
save face, she rubbed her eyes, ready to feign fatigue and go home,
where she would cry herself to sleep as she