by Shandi Boyes
“I will pay it” he offers as he moves past Cormack and stands in front of Emily. My gaze turns towards Nick who has his eyebrows pulled together, clearly surprised by his brother offer.
“You can’t do that” Emily replies queasily.
“Yes I can, consider it a loan” he states as he hands Emily a handkerchief and helps her to stand on her feet.
“Once Noah is back on his feet, you can pay me back” he states while staring into Emily eyes.
Oh hell no, who the fuck does Isaac think he is trying to move in on Emily while Noah lies unconscious in a hospital bed. I quickly replace Isaac’s hold on Emily’s hand and gently pull her over closer to me. I narrow my eyes at Isaac, clearing giving him the indication to fuck off. Noah might not to be able to protect Emily right now, but I can.
Emily and Noah’s band mates all huddle together at one end of the corridor to discuss Isaac’s offer, while Isaac and I stand at the other end.
“You stay the fuck away from Emily” I say the instant Emily is out of earshot.
“What are you talking about?” Isaac rebuts as his eyes turn back to look at Emily.
“I heard what you said. You didn’t say they could pay you back, you said she could pay you back. She is never going to pay you back the way you are hoping” I whisper harshly while clenching my fists.
“I am not here for her, yet. I am here for you” he responds as his gaze moves from looking at Emily to look at me. I narrow my eyes and can feel my jaw ticking over his statement.
“The fight has finally been organised. You get the rematch you have been requesting against the ‘Constrictor’ two weeks from Saturday” Isaac advises excitedly while slowly waggling his eyebrows. I can see the money signs flashing in his eyes.
“Nope, not happening” I retort quickly. Isaac’s eyebrows pull together tightly, causing a little V to form in the middle of his forehead.
“I promised Noah I wouldn’t leave his side and I am going to keep my promise” I advise without any hesitation.
“This is the chance you have been waiting months for Jacob. It is one fucking night; I am sure he can survive one fucking night without you by his side” he rebuts angrily. Emily must have noticed our heated conversation as her gaze lifts from the bands huddle pack and looks over towards Isaac and I, before she offers me a small smile.
“I fucking said no” I whisper harshly as I move in closer to Isaac. “You don’t own me anymore, remember?” I inform while staring directly into his grey eyes. I then barge past Isaac and walk back into Noah’s room.
“You never made a promise you couldn’t keep and I am going to do the exact same thing” I inform Noah, who eyes are rapidly moving under his eyelids.
The band decided to accept Isaac’s offer. I personally think they have made the wrong decision, but I am not part of the band and have no influence in the decisions they decide to make in regards to their group. When my stomach loudly growls announcing that I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast, I realise that it also means Emily would have also not eaten anything since then. I have noticed the last few days Emily operates the same as Noah does in a crisis, she goes into flight mode. She is present and functioning, but she isn’t really here.
“I’ll be back in a minute Em” I advise. She lifts her eyes from staring at Noah and slowly nods her head.
As I make my way to the vending machines located in the corridor, I spot Jenni walking towards me. She looks exhausted, but she offers me a small smile as she closes the distance between us.
“Hey Jen” I greet as I slide a note into the vending machine and push the button for a ham and cheese sandwich.
“Hey Jacob. How is everyone doing today?” she questions softly.
“Same as they have been the last few days. Noah is giving it a good fight and Emily is coping the best she can” I reply while bending down and grabbing the sandwich out of the vending machine.
“And you?” she questions sadly. My eyes flick to look at Jenni’s sad blue eyes.
“I’m getting there” I respond quietly. I don’t have any other choice than to try and keep everything together. Me losing the plot isn’t going to help anyone right now. Jenni gently squeezes my arm, before she starts digging into her handbag.
“I got them to do an urgent order. It cost double the amount, but I thought today being Noah’s birthday would be a great time for you to give it to him” she advises as she hands me a black suede pouch.
When I open the pouch, the guitar pendant I had searched for online perfectly matches the one in front of me. They even shaped it into the same design as Noah’s guitar.
“It’s perfect. Thank you so much for this” I reply thankfully. I could have never imagined that piece of splintered wood Ryan gave me the day after Noah’s accident could have ever turned into this.
“Don’t give me any credit Jacob. You found the design and the manufacturer to create it. I just took him the piece of the guitar you wanted included” she responds as her eyes look down at the sandwich.
“Did you want me to grab you some real food?” she questions, while she screws up her nose.
“Thanks, but this is for Emily” I reply.
“Oh. She can’t eat ham being pregnant” Jenni replies. When I look at her confused, her eyes dart around to look at anything other than my eyes. Once I finally gain her gaze, she huffs in annoyance.
“I have been her friend for years Jacob. I just know. But the fact she got all dizzy yesterday and then Nick told me she was sick in the waste bin earlier today kind of gave it away” she informs.
“She doesn’t want anyone to know as she wants to tell Noah first” I advise
“I won’t tell anyone, I promise. I haven’t even told Nick” she interrupts as she crosses her heart. Jenni and Emily have a friendship like Noah and I, so I think I can trust her when she says that she won’t break her promise to Emily.
“Alright” I reply as I throw the ham and cheese sandwich in the bin, before digging my wallet back out of my pocket.
“Tomato and cheese?” I question Jenni, she looks up at me and nods her head while smiling.
Jenni decided not to visit Noah while she was here, as she said she didn’t want to take any credit for helping me to organise the guitar pendant for Noah. I tried to tell her that I wouldn’t have been able to get it done without her help, but she was adamant that she only wanted it to be a gift from Emily and I.
When I walked back into Noah’s room, Emily’s tired gaze turned up to face me as I walked over and handed her the sandwich.
“Thank you Jacob” she replies softly, while I make my way over to Noah’s bed.
“Now don’t start crying on me, but I got you a gift for your birthday. It’s a wooden guitar pendant shaped like your J-45 guitar. I know you’re not a necklace type of wearing guy, but this necklace is pretty cool. The strap is woven out of leather and guitar strings, it looks fucking kick ass. You will just have to take my word for it until you wake up. It has Emily’s name on it, right across the back” I whisper softly to Noah, before I gently place it around his neck.
“There you go mate. You now have Emily right next to your heart” I advise as I pull away from him.
“Happy Birthday Noah”
Chapter 42
Lola
“Excuse me have you finished with that?” I question a gentleman that had just lowered down a newspaper and sat it on the table top at the café I was eating brunch at.
“Sure” he responds as he commences handing the newspaper to me, before he slowly pulls it back from my grasp.
“You can have it, if I can get your number” he says while he smiles brightly. This guy is cute, if you like your guys in a business suit. But the last thing I need in my life right now is more complications. The only guy I currently have any interest in is Bob, my battery operated boyfriend.
“I’m sorry, but I am married” I reply gently. His gaze flicks down to my ring finger. “It’s getting resized. I only got married la
st week, you should have seen the wedding, oh it was…” I gush.
“Congratulations” he interrupts as he hands me the newspaper, before standing and walking out of the café.
“Sucker” I mumble under my breath before I quickly open the newspaper to the gossip section I had just seen him flick past.
I knew it, just before he turned the page I spotted Noah’s name mentioned under a small article. I roam my eyes over the document. The article is about the ‘O’Reilly Brothers’ concert series coming to an end at Los Angeles this weekend. But it was the very last chapter than caught my attention.
“Rise Up will still be noticeably absent from the concert tour due to their lead singer Noah Taylor’s current admittance at the Hills Hope Rehabilitation Centre for drug and alcohol counselling” I read from the paper. I have to read it another three times before it fully sinks in. They are reporting that Noah is in a rehab centre for drug and alcohol issues. Huh?
I grab my cell phone out of my purse and put Noah’s name into the search engine. The first thing that pops up is the same story about him being in rehab. It was only once I started to scroll past several pages does a story of a marriage licence being issued in Noah’s name slowly starts to come out from beneath the rubble. When I see the reporters name and contact details at the bottom of the page, I quickly dial in the number and nervously lift the phone to my ear.
“Star News, this is Tracy Peters” greets a friendly female voice into the phone.
“Hi, my name is…oh, I don’t want to mention my name. I just read a story that was published in the star newspaper this morning on Noah Taylor” I stumble nervously.
“I am glad to hear you enjoyed my story, but as you can probably understand I am extremely busy. Thank you for contacting me, have a nice day” she responds as she disconnects the call.
My mouth opens wide in shock, before I angrily redial her number again.
“Star news….”
“Don’t hang up on me again” I interrupt sternly, causing a few eyes around the café to turn towards me.
“The story you published is wrong. I didn’t enjoy the story as it is nothing but manufactured lies” I spit angrily down the phone.
“Look, I appreciate that die-hard fans like yourself get upset when it is reported that the stars they idolise aren’t as perfect as they like to assume, but I stand by my story” she replies confidently.
“I am not a die-hard fan. I know Noah personally and he is not in rehab right now” I respond crossly.
“We have been told by numerous reliable sources in Noah’s own management team that he is currently in rehab. So why would I believe anything that comes out of the mouth of some random groupie?” she rebuts venomously.
“I would prefer to be a groupie than ending up looking like a fool like you will when you find out that Noah is currently fighting for his life in an intensive care unit” I yell angrily before disconnecting the call.
I let out a long and frustrated growl as several eyes around the café turn to face me. “What” I yell angrily causing them to quickly look elsewhere. When a little old lady looks over at me with sympathy in her eyes, my rage soon starts to dissipate. “I’m sorry” I mumble quietly before I grab my coat from the back of the chair and walk out of the cafe.
The past six weeks have been some of the worst weeks of my life. I have been to visit Noah a couple of times, but anytime I enter the room Jacob soon makes an excuse to leave. If anyone should be making excuses to leave the room, it should be me. I am not the one that had my private life splashed all over Facebook for everyone to see. In the past year and a half Jacob has been the only man I have slept with. I knew we never said we were exclusive, but I didn’t feel the need to go out on the prowl when Jacob was giving me exactly what I needed. I thought he understood our arrangement, but obviously I was wrong.
My visits to Noah started to slow down the past few weeks. Emily would normally sit on the chair next Noah but hardly spoke a word to me. And everyone else appears to hate me, even though I can’t work out what I did wrong. My only saving grace these past few weeks has been Hank. When I originally tried to pay him the one hundred dollars I had left in my account he refused to accept it. I ended up slipping it under his office room door when I left after a workout one afternoon. I still attend my boxing class with him every Tuesday afternoon, except now he is my sole coach. I also just hang out with him during the day for something to do. How pathetic is my life starting to become that I find it more entertaining hanging out in a smelly old gym with a middle aged guy, than with my friends at a bar.
“How is my pretty lady today?” Hank greets kindly as I enter the gym. “Still not sleeping I see” he continues when he notices the black bags under my eyes.
“I am good, how are you?” I reply as I hand him a bag full of donuts and a hot coffee I had purchased at the café for him.
“I’m great now” he replies excitedly while he digs into the bag and lifts out a sugar coated donut. When he takes a large bite and moans in appreciation, I can’t help but giggle.
“There’s the sound I have been missing” Hank informs. He isn’t the only one. I haven’t heard Emily’s giggle or Jacob’s chuckle in weeks. You don’t realise how much you miss certain things until they aren’t around anymore.
“Shall I start without you?” I question as I cock my eyebrow. Hank has white sugar all over his lips and is just about to devour his second donut. He nods his head as he takes a large bite from the donut, nearly eating the whole thing in one bite.
After my workout, I walk out of the locker room while drying my hair and head straight towards Hank’s office.
“Did you want to come and visit Noah with me today?” I question. Hank hasn’t visited Noah since the day he was admitted and I normally ask him the same question every week.
“Not today” he replies quietly. My eyebrow pulls together as I move near his desk to sit on the top of it.
“Why don’t you ever go and visit him?” I question gently. Hank’s dark eyes look up from the paperwork in front of him and stares directly at mine. He then releases a deep breath as he stands from the chair he was sitting on and moves in front of me.
“Do you know why I started this Gym Lola?” he asks quietly. I keep my gaze firmly planted on his as I shake my head.
“My son Derrick was a huge boxing fan from when he was a little whipper snapper. He used to watch old replays of Mohammed Ali fighting and would constantly tell me how one day he was going to grow up and become the next heavy weight champion of the world” he advises while smiling.
“I opened the gym as I wanted him to achieve any dreams he thought was possible. I am not biased, that boy of mine had pure talent. Just like Jacob does. He soon climbed up the rankings too and I knew just from watching him fight that one day his dream would become his reality. Then poof, it was all taken away from him” Hank states sullenly as his eye start to fill with tears.
“What happened?” I whisper, trying to encourage him to continue with his story.
“When Derrick and I exited an arena after a fight we heard the sound of popping, causing us both to drop to the ground for cover. We grew up in the hood and we knew what the sound meant. One of Derrick’s competitors took his defeat too harshly and he gunned Derrick down as we left the arena.”
“I’m so sorry” I interrupt, as I cover my shocked gasp with my hand.
“Derrick tried to hold on, but his injuries were too significant that a week later his Mom decided to turn off his life support machine. I wanted her to give him more of a chance than that, but she believed she was doing what Derrick would have wanted. My marriage wasn’t strong enough to survive losing Derrick, that I ended up moving into the gym a few months after his death. Then as the years went on, I slowly watched as both Derricks and my dreams faded into the distance. I was in the process of closing down the gym when I stumbled upon Jacob. Just from looking at him, I could see so many similarities between Derrick and him. And as they say,
the rest is history” says Hank, amazing me with how strong he is to be able to share his story so calmly. Now I understand why he is hesitant to visit Noah.
“Now that I have shared, maybe you might be willing to share as well? What happened between you and Jacob?” he questions seriously as his eyes seek my gaze.
Chapter 43
Jacob
“That will be $8.95” advises the café attendant. I hand over a ten-dollar bill as my gaze flicks to the television screen playing in the background. It is on mute, but I can’t miss the headline flashing down the bottom of the screen.
