Brittany and Jessica went to the same school before Jessica changed schools. Brittany seemed to be a nice and humble person as far as Jimmy could gather. She was also quiet or did not say very much when he was around. “How was the game?” Jessica asked.
“It was great, very close as well. I got sideline seats.”
“Wow, cool. But it was the Clippers so…”
“So what? They are a good team, and they won tonight which made it even better.”
Jessica rolled her eyes. One of Jessica’s songs came on in the shop. Jessica looked up and then said, “Hey, I’m making money now,” a bit too loud.
The cashier paused for a moment then suddenly realized who was sitting in the shop. The girl looked about the same age as Jimmy, 17. He could see that there was someone older in the back taking a nap or something. The cashier went to the back and got a pen and came back to the counter to grab a napkin. She rushed over to the table and enthusiastically asked, “Can you sign this for me?”
Jimmy knew that the only reason that Jessica would be in a small place like this is because she did not want anyone to recognize her. Jessica stalled by taking a sip from her drink. Jimmy looked at the cashier’s name tag and said, “Sure, I’d love to Taylor.” He grabbed the napkin and pen and wrote his signature on it. He handed it back to the girl with a smile on his face.
Taylor lingered around a little longer waiting for Jessica to act upon her request. “What? You don’t like my signature?” Taking the napkin and pen again Jimmy wrote his twitter name on it and said, “Follow me and I will follow you back.”
The girl waited a few more moments before taking Jimmy’s signature with her back behind the counter. Jessica started to laugh then went over to the counter and grabbed a napkin. With a pen in her hand Jessica signed the napkin and offered it to Taylor.
“Here, sorry for my friend back there, but keep his napkin, he could become famous.”
Taylor was in awe and started jumping up and down. “Would like a picture with me as well?” Taylor nodded her head unable to speak.
“Well, do you have a camera?” Jessica asked after a few moments of silence. Taylor rushed to the back and brought her phone back out with her. They took the picture and Jessica sat back down. Jessica looked happy, but I quickly changed to a worried or depressed look. Jimmy decided he should not hang around any longer and let the girls get on with their talking. “I better be leaving before my parents wonder where I am.”
Jessica grimaced. Oops, Jimmy thought, did I say the wrong thing? Well who knows what she thinks, she never tells me anything. Probably Britt knows a thing or two. Why doesn’t Jessica ever talk to me about anything? I mean we’ve known each other for a few years.
Jimmy wanted to ask Jessica when they would be writing new songs or if or when she would be doing another cover that she needed help with. He decided against it and just walked out.
Jimmy got home with just a few minutes to spare. When he entered the kitchen he found his mom there. She looked at her watch and said, “You’re late; I’m gonna have to punish you for that.”
“Really mom? Do you wanna know where I was?”
“No, no excuses. Because you were late you are grounded.”
Jimmy’s mom had him stumped. He looked at the clock and it was the exact time that he needed to be home by. “Mom, look at the clock, it says eleven thirty; and normally you let me stay out later anyway.”
“No, we agreed ten thirty. You need to start remembering things correctly son. Now, off to your room.”
Jimmy just stood there in the kitchen dumbfounded. He didn’t know what to say other than “Sorry.” He turned around and started to walk towards his room. His mom came up behind him and shouted, “April fools!”
“But it isn’t even April.”
“So, that doesn’t mean that I can’t do one now.”
“Well then name it something else. But you really had me there.”
“How was the game?”
“Oh it was great. It was tied at eighty-eight points and we were only two seconds left. So they inbounded it to Ch— the point guard and he threw it from half court. Then the buzzer sounded and the ball went in. It was really cool when everyone jumped up and said ‘Waaahhhh’.” His mom seemed to have no clue what he was talking about. “You had to be there to understand. Anyway, goodnight.”
“Goodnight, hon.”
Jimmy walked down the hall to what he called ‘his part of the house.’ His part had his bedroom and studio. The house had a main part which had two floors and then there was a hallway to the left after you entered which was Jimmy’s part of the house. As he was about to open his bedroom door he heard music coming from the studio. Well that is strange, Jimmy thought, I didn’t have any music playing when I left; and you should not be able to hear anything since I remember closing the door. I must be hearing things.
To his surprise the door was open and music was playing. It was not his music, but the voice sounded familiar.
“Seth, what are you doing in here?” Seth at the age of 15 liked to rap; and Jimmy had to admit that Seth was pretty good at it.
“Oh, I was just recording something while you were out. I figured that you didn’t need anything in here while you were at the game.” Fair enough, Jimmy thought.
“I just hope you haven’t messed around with anything. And why are you wearing my hat?” Jimmy had an extensive hat collection in his studio. It consisted of more than 50 different hats. They ranged from snapbacks to baseball caps. Jimmy didn’t care much when someone wore his hats but only if they asked to wear one.
“Because I want to. Plus, you have so many hats already.”
Jimmy was the kind of person who liked to keep the rules, break them once and you don’t get a freebee. It helps him make sure that they wouldn’t do the same thing again. At six feet Jimmy towered over his little brother who was sitting in a small chair.
“Put it back,” Jimmy hissed his blue eyes boring into his brother’s. Seth scrambled out of the chair almost falling over and immediately replaced that hat where he found it. Jimmy broke out in a brief smile then kindly said, “Next time you wanna wear one just ask. Now, can I hear what you did? It sounded really great before.”
“Yeah, it’s right there.” Seth, however, did not move toward the computer.
“What, you too afraid of coming close to me?”
“Nah, I was just gonna pull up another chair is all.”
As Seth approached Jimmy shouted, “Bah!”
“Ahh! Come on, not cool.”
“Sorry, I just had to,” Jimmy said while laughing.
THREE
Jessica Hall slowly crept up to her window trying not to make a sound. She grabbed the bottom of the window and tried to slide it up. It wouldn’t budge. At 2:00 in the morning it had been dark and cold for a while. Jessica had only a light sweater on her. Thinking that the window could have been frozen she tried a bit harder and made some noise. The window shade opened and much to Jessica’s surprise her dad stood on the other side.
Her father unlocked the window and let Jessica in. “Where have you been?!”
“I was just with a friend; we were hanging out.”
“A friend huh? Was it Caleb? Is that why you didn’t tell us where you were going? What did you do at his house?”
“No dad, it wasn’t Caleb. Plus how do you even know who he is?”
“I have seen you two kind of close to each other lately. I hope you didn’t—”
“We are just friends, dad, don’t worry. I won’t do anything stupid.” Jessica cut him off.
“Sure you won’t. You had your mother worried sick about where you were.”
“Well I’m not two anymore; I can figure out how to do things by myself.”
“I didn’t say you were. But, since you live in this house then you have to follow our rules.”
“I don’t have to follow anyone’s rules except for my own!” Jessica said with a raised voice and tried to push past her dad.
Grayson grabbed his daughter’s arm and said, “That is the first thing. You will talk respectfully to your mother and me.”
“Let go of me!” Jessica said and tried to brush her dad off.
He knew better than to have a struggle with his daughter. He let go and as he backed out of the doorway he said, “We’ll talk more about this tomorrow. Right now you are grounded. We’ll also talk more about those terms later.”
____________
Jimmy King could not get to sleep. He didn’t know what was keeping him up. All he could think of were song lyrics. He got up, went to his desk, and turned on a light. He took out a portfolio where he had all of his and Jessica’s songs. Most of them were not out yet or had been rejected by the record company.
He took out a fresh piece of paper and tried to gather his thoughts to put them into lyrics. As Jessica’s unofficial lyric writer, he did not get paid for it although Jessica had offered many times. Jimmy always included Jessica’s writing in all of the songs he wrote. This was only because he felt it was a bit wrong that Jessica handed in his work as hers.
Although Jimmy had written or played a part in most of the songs a few of them were only what Jessica wrote. Those songs were mainly about what Jessica was interested in: money, friends, and men. As he poured over song lyrics written by Jessica there was one that caught his attention. It was unlike the other songs she wrote.
Jimmy couldn’t help but wonder if this is how she felt. He checked that date on the paper. It was from two days ago. He felt compelled to do something about it. He reached for his
Desire of the Soul Page 2
