Vote Then Read: Volume I

by Carly Phillips

  She started to ask me a question but was overtaken by coughing. Damn, Mom was right. She was sick.

  “I’m sorry. I’m having a bit of trouble with a cough lately.”

  “My mother sent some tea for you. She thought it might help you feel better,” I said as I pulled it out of my bag and handed it to her.

  “Thank her for me please. It was very sweet of her to think of me. I’ll definitely give it a try.”

  I think she thought that’s why I was there, and for a second I considered leaving and dropping the whole idea. I was about to say goodbye when I heard Mom’s voice echo in my head reminding me that I needed to see this through to the end. She was right. I’d never have any chance of fixing things with Wrath if I didn’t.

  “I’ll definitely pass on your thanks. Before I go though, I was hoping to talk to you and your husband about your foster kids.”

  She gave me a hard look and I thought for a moment she would say no, instead she backed up giving me room to enter. I followed her into a small living room. It looked like they spent a lot of time there, very cozy and lived in.

  “Jack?” She yelled for her husband, which started her coughing again. He came running in with a glass of water and it seemed to calm her. He helped her settle into a chair and then realized I was there.

  “Can I help you, young lady?”

  “Yes, I’m sorry. My name is Teresa Duncan. I went to school with your foster kids and I was hoping I could talk to you about them.”

  “I’m not sure this is the best time, as you can see my wife isn’t feeling well.”

  “Jack, please. I’m fine. Besides, you remember Teresa, she’s Sunshine Duncan’s daughter. She had that crush on Chris in high school.”

  Oh my God. I prayed the floor would open up and suck me in. Could I have been any more embarrassed? I doubt it. Jack laughed and gave me a second look.

  “Oh…she’s the one, huh?”

  I shook my head. I knew my cheeks had to be bright pink because all of a sudden I was over heated. “Umm, I’m sorry. Maybe this is a bad idea.”

  “Nonsense. What did you want to talk to us about?”

  I sat down and pulled out copies of the article and my tablet. “This might take a little while. I hope you’ll hear me out. First, I want to say you’re right, I’ve had a crush on Wrath err Chris since the first time I saw him. It’s led me down a path of stupid decisions and I’m doing all I can to make up for it now,” I said as I handed them the articles.

  Sally looked at hers and then smiled at me. “You’re Sapphire aren’t you?”

  “What?”

  “Sally, what are you talking about? Are you feeling okay? She just told us her name was Teresa.”

  “Yes, yes I’m fine. Sapphire is the girl Chris called about. The one who got his underwear in a twist.”

  Oh my God. He called her about me? Was that good or bad? Was there hope? I’d been so afraid to hope for any happy ending for us. I’d been telling myself getting the story in Rolling Stone would be happy ending enough.

  “Ahh, I thought he said he didn’t know who she was.”

  “Exactly. Obviously, we didn’t raise very observant sons.” They chuckled at what could only be some kind of an inside joke. At least they weren’t tossing me out on my ass, but now what?

  They were still chuckling and I figured it was up to me to move this along. “I’m hoping the article I’ve written will get published in Rolling Stone Magazine. It’s initially why I went undercover on the tour.”

  “Really? Doesn’t seem to me like a reputable magazine would send a young girl along on tour as a groupie,” Jack exclaimed. Sally nodded in agreement, but I have a feeling she already knew most of this story.

  “Well, I thought it was for them. I was stupid and believed the unbelievable. I guess I was so excited at the prospect of writing for them and being close to Wrath err Chris again I jumped at the chance and didn’t investigate the source.”

  Sally was nodding but Jack looked perplexed. “What exactly are you saying?”

  “I went undercover and pretended to be a groupie to get up close and personal with Wrath. Joe, their manager, figured it out and sent me home. But I’d done it all with the best of intentions. I never thought it would hurt anyone.”

  “I don’t think even you believed that dear. I think you knew all along you were going to be hurt.”

  I nodded. She was very perceptive. No wonder she was such a great foster parent. She started coughing again and Joe went to get her some tea.

  “Are you here to ask for forgiveness because I don’t think we’re the ones who can give it to you? You’ll need to go to the kids.”

  “I know, but actually I’m hoping you’ll help me fill in some of the holes in my story. I promise it will only benefit them. I can even bring it back for you to check before I try to get it published.”

  Jack came in with tea for all of us. They were such a cute couple. I could only hope I’d have their kind of relationship someday.

  “That won’t be necessary. Of course we’ll help you.”

  “Thank you so much.”

  Sally smiled at me. She looked like she wanted to say something but changed her mind.

  I sat with them for almost two hours as I asked and they answered everything they could. I learned a whole lot about all of them but especially what Wrath’s childhood was like once he got to the Sherman’s. He’d had a huge abandonment complex and it had taken them over a year to get him to do anything more than answer direct questions. I’d guessed right too, they never found out anything about his father.

  They shared cute stories about the boys, not as many about the girls since they didn’t come until high school. They all had a tough time adjusting but not anyone so much as Rage. They spoke about him the least, saying it was his story to share when he chose. When I looked at my notes later, there wasn’t really anything they’d shared on any of the kid’s lives before they’d moved in—only the very bare basics, like where and when they were born and when they came to live with them.

  “Thank you so much for all of your help. I’ll let you know what happens. I hope you feel better soon. If my mom’s tea helps please let us know and we’ll bring some more.”

  “Thank you, dear. I’m sure I’ll be fine. Jack, could you show Teresa out.”

  He kissed her cheek and led me to the front door. “She’s sicker than she’s letting on. We’re waiting for the test results. I do appreciate the tea but I’m not sure it will help much.”

  “I’m so sorry.” I hugged him. I got into the car and sat for a moment. How sad. I hoped they’d be able to fix whatever was wrong with her. She was such a sweet woman. I wondered if Wrath knew she was sick. I wished they’d find some reason to come home and see her soon.

  24

  Wrath…

  We were on the fucking west coast now. We’d made it all across the freakin’ country. We’d never been anywhere outside of the east coast before this tour. It was only the fucking beginning too. We’d be performing in Seattle, San Francisco Los Angeles, and Phoenix. Somehow we’d worked a few days free in our freakin’ schedule—a fucking miracle if you ask me. So what did we decide to do? Go to fucking Las Vegas.

  Here we are in the middle of Sin City and I was bored to death. It was cool and all, the lights, the hotels, the crazy people on Fremont Street, but really unless you wanted to gamble or go to shows it was just boring. I didn’t want to fucking do either, so I stayed in my room most of the time.

  I called Sally to see how she was doing but she wasn’t home. Jack said she was doing better but I wasn’t convinced.

  “Hey, dipshit.”

  “What, fuckhead?”

  “C’mon out with us. We’re all going to the aquarium at the Mandalay Bay and getting dinner.”

  “Who is all?”

  “Me, Cyn, Flame, Michelle, Fury, Rage, and Terrance of course.”

  “Michelle’s here?” Again the fucking green-eyed monster tried to take over. Why
shouldn’t they have someone just because I don’t? I never wanted someone anyway. Fuckin’ Blue. I hadn’t made any headway with Joe. He wouldn’t say a word about her. How the fuck was I going to find her?

  “Well? You coming, asswipe?”

  “I don’t fucking feel like it.”

  “Fuck it. Like I care? Be downstairs in ten or we’re going to break down your door and fuckin’ drag you with us.”

  Fuck me running. I guess they weren’t going leave me alone. It’s all I wanted. Let me have my pity party for once, I didn’t need anyone else.

  Rage saw me first. “You look like fuckin’ shit, bro. You need to get laid or something.”

  “Shut the fuck up, asshole.”

  “Well at least you sound fuckin’ normal,” Rage answered with a laugh. “It’ll be okay, bro. She’ll come crawling back, you’ll see. She was fuckin' into you.”

  “I doubt it but who the fuck knows, besides who says I want her back.”

  Chaos came over in time to hear me. “You’re so fucking full of shit you’re brown, asswipe. Who are you trying to fool? Because we’re not fucking buying it.”

  “Maybe, but you’re the one who kept calling her a skank.”

  “Who’s a skank?” Turning I saw Michelle with Flame.

  Gritting my teeth I didn’t want to talk about it, but it seemed like it was going to be the fucking main topic of conversation. “A groupie I was doing for a couple of weeks.”

  “What happened to her?”

  I sighed. This sucked and was exactly why I didn’t want to fucking go with them. “Flame, tell your girl so I don’t have to or I might break something.”

  “No problem, bro. Fuckin’ take it easy will ya?” He pulled her over to the side, and with their heads together he must have explained the clusterfuck that had been Blue. Looking at them it made me want to fucking puke, they looked like they were fucking made to fit together.

  Finally the limo arrived and took us from the Cosmopolitan down to the Mandalay Bay. I have to fuckin’ admit, considering it was inside a hotel it was a pretty cool aquarium. The fucking sharks were my favorite. I wonder if I could come back in another life as a shark and fuckin’ eat everyone I didn’t like. Sounded like a plan to me.

  We went to dinner at the Bellagio Hotel buffet, talk about a shit ton of freakin’ food. Holy fuckin’ shit. Blue would have loved it. She never ate a lot just picked, so it would have been perfect for her. She could have grabbed little bits of anything and been happy. As I stood there mooning over my fuckin’ blue haired siren, Joe smacked me on the shoulder.

  “Great to see you out, Chris. It’s about time you start socializing again. You can’t stay cooped up in a hotel room except for the shows. It’s not going to work.”

  “Why the fuck not? There are plenty of rockers who don’t go out.”

  “Really? Well, not the ones I manage. So snap out of it.”

  “I wish it was that fuckin’ easy.”

  “I thought you were through with her?”

  “I should be but I can’t get her out of my fuckin’ head. I swear it’s like she cast a fuckin’ spell on me.”

  Joe shook his head. “Let me see what I can do, but you may not like what you find out.”

  “How the fuck would it be any different from now?”

  “I guess not much, but you have to promise you’ll stop hibernating in your room, or I swear I’ll put Terrance on you.”

  “Shit, fine. I’ll stop.”

  “Good. Now go eat. This is supposed to be the best buffet in Vegas.”

  In bed for the night, I wondered if Joe would tell me who she was and when. Would she want to see me? Maybe she was off fuckin’ other rockers already. I was probably just being a stupid prick. When I finally fell into a restless sleep I dreamed about blue haired mermaids pulling me under the water.

  Sapphire/Teresa…

  It was done, finally. I wanted to do the happy dance around my room but I didn’t think Mom was awake yet. I’d stayed awake most of the night working on it again. I had rewritten it so many times I could probably recite the damn thing. I couldn’t help it though, it needed to be perfect. I wrote and revised and wrote some more, edited, and back and forth for almost two weeks. I knew if I didn’t just stop now I’d never stop. I’d never be one hundred percent happy with it, and so much hinged on it. Everything counted on today, I’d find out in a few hours if all of this had been for nothing. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to being nervous, and even nervous was an understatement.

  Going downstairs to make coffee I was surprised to see Mom already up and waiting for me at the kitchen table with the coffee pot and two mugs. She had a strange expression on her face and my already queasy tummy turned over.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m worried about you. You’re either crying or writing furiously on that article. It’s not healthy for you.”

  Whew at least it wasn’t something huge. With her it could have been just about anything, she might have seen a chicken on TV she thought needed rescuing and we’d have had to go get it. I loved her—but she really was a hippie born in the wrong time.

  “I’m okay, no worries,” I replied while filling up the empty mug and adding half and half and two spoons full of sugar.

  “Easy for you to say. I’m worried if I leave you alone tomorrow you’ll walk down the street and drop dead. I’m sorry but you need more of a life than this.”

  I didn’t want to deal with this now, I wanted to have some coffee, take a shower, and get ready for the meeting Mom had arranged for me at Rolling Stone. I learned a long time ago when she got something stuck in her head there was no budging her until I agreed to whatever she wanted. As always I just gave in and agreed to whatever was pissing her off at the moment.

  “Okay, I’ll do my best, and I promise to do better than I am now. Deal?”

  “Deal.”

  Mom dropped me at the New Jersey Transit station and we waited for the train. She wished me luck and gave me a piece of amber telling me it would help me in my endeavors, I took it and hugged her. I knew I’d need all the help I could get. She’d already used some of her ‘old’ connections to get me an appointment with one of the editors, I couldn’t believe it when she told me. I should have known though, all of our lives when things were needed stuff just happened. When I was little I used to think it was magic but Mom just had a way of making things work out. I hoped this would be one of those times.

  25

  Sapphire/Teresa…

  Everything had gone smoothly so far. I arrived at the offices of Rolling Stone half an hour before my scheduled appointment with Mr. Lowery. I knew he was some kind of editor but that’s all Mom told me, so when I was led to his office I was excited to see he was the print editor.

  I’d been impressed with all the activity throughout the floor, it looked like a sea of cubes and they were all filled. It was a hotbed of information and I’d craved the experience, it’s why I had embarked on this stupid thing to begin with, or at least part of the reason.

  “Here we are,” the receptionist said. She’d led me through the maze of cubes, people, and offices to reach my destination.

  “Thank you.” I took a deep breath, rubbed my hand against my slacks and walked through the door that would make or break my future.

  “Ms. Duncan?”

  “Yes, thank you for agreeing to see me, Mr. Lowery.”

  He smiled. It was one of those smiles that put you instantly at ease. I was so grateful he wasn’t some obnoxious New York City executive—but then again he worked for Rolling Stone. It was too cool for stuffy executives.

  “Please sit down. Sunshine tells me you’ve been working on a piece you think will work for our magazine. She also mentioned you’d recently graduated from Syracuse.”

  I nodded; not sure he actually needed an answer. I reached into my case and took out the print version of my story on Raining Chaos. It was long, probably too long for a magazine but I’d wanted to cover ev
erything. “It’s been a dream of mine to work for your magazine for as long as I can remember. I don’t know how much my mother shared but needless to say I went about it the wrong way.”

  “Yes, she did mention you were in a bit of a mess.”

  “Oh hell yeah.” Shit. You cursed, seriously? T, could you be any more stupid. “Sorry.”

  “No problem. We say a lot worse around here on a regular basis.”

  Thank God.

  “Do you have the article with you?”

  Looking down I realized I was still clutching it in my hand like my life depended on it. “Yes.” I handed it to him and sat back in the chair as he read it. He was fast too, but then he was an editor.

  “I don’t know what I was expecting but certainly not this level of work. You’ve covered all the bases and written an excellent article. I think we can find a place for it in our next issue.”

  “Really!?!” I did my best not to shriek, jump up and down, and do a back flip. This was more than I’d expected.

  “Yes, really. I think we may even have a place for you.”

  Now I knew my mother had some powerful connections but I never in a million years expected this, would I be able to pull it off? Could I be good enough to write for them?

  “Before you decide it was your mother who got you the job, let me dissuade you from that train of thought. You’re very talented. I think you have a real knack for this and I’m willing to take a chance on you. You’ll be a junior writer. You may not have anything published for a while other than fillers, but you’ll be learning from some of the best in the field.”

  I was speechless. You know how you hear people say they’re speechless and you think, nah, how the hell could anyone be knocked speechless, well I can say without a doubt it can happen. It took a few minutes for me to regain the power of speech, all the while staring at him wondering if this was some kind of joke. Would people be jumping out with cameras and yelling gotcha?