Phone Calls from a Rock Star

by JL Paul

  “Sorry, Lance,” I said, bringing my body back under control. “I wasn’t laughing at you, I swear. I just can’t understand how stupid she can be. If you were my boyfriend, I wouldn’t risk losing you to meet the Queen of England, let alone a rock star. I wish I could understand what she was thinking.”

  There went my mouth, and I was helpless to stop it. I bit my lip and peered up at him. He was looking at me as though I was a newly discovered species of bacteria. Then suddenly, his face lit up, and he laughed along with me, the sound beautiful music to my ears. He threw an arm over my shoulders, and we started walking again, my heart beating twice for each step.

  When we reached the girls’ dorm, he paused to smile. “Thanks so much, Bella.”

  “Shouldn’t I be thanking you? You walked me to my dorm, remember?” I thought he might be a little confused.

  “I mean for cheering me up. It felt good to laugh.”

  The heat returned to my cheeks. “Oh, that. Sure. No problem.”

  Then he leaned over and kissed me! Okay so it was just a little peck on the cheek but still!

  “Night, Bella,” he whispered as he turned and headed for the boys’ dorm. My hand drifted to my cheek as I watched him walk away, still in a slight state of shock. Finally, I fished out my key card and shoved it in the slot with trembling hands. I ran to my room and whipped my cell phone out of my pocket. I searched for Jake’s number and pressed send. He didn’t answer but that didn’t deter me in the least. I can ramble better than most on voice mail.

  “Jake! Oh my goodness! Guess what…”

  Chapter Four

  “Get up, woman!”

  Cracking open an eye, I glanced at my alarm clock. Ugh. 8:43 AM. Who wakes up at 8:43 AM on a Saturday?

  “Come on, Bella,” Camryn Sullivan wheedled, tugging the pillow from beneath my head. “I just got here and I need you to help me get organized.”

  “I feel so used,” I muttered as I attempted to pull my blankets over my head. But Cammy, having known me for years, yanked them off my body. She was far too sneaky for her own good. “I’m up, okay? How much coffee have you had, anyway?”

  She shrugged sheepishly, a guilty smile playing on her lips. I groaned. A hyper Cammy was a force to be reckoned with, for sure. “Get dressed.”

  I stretched, yawning widely, and grabbed some clothes. As I headed to the bathroom, I snatched Annie’s pillow and smacked her in the head. “If I have to get up and help Miss Happy Hyperness, so do you.”

  Annie merely flipped over and buried her head under her blankets. Why hadn’t I thought of that? I sighed and raised a brow at Cammy. She giggled and pushed me to the shower so she could work on Annie.

  ***

  “No, Annie. Alphabetize them by title, not author,” I insisted. “She doesn’t know who wrote half of these books and when she looks for one, she’ll look for it by title.”

  Annie snorted very unladylike and dropped an armful of books on Cammy’s bed. “Why do we even bother? She’ll have them in a mess before the semester is over.”

  “Hey!” Cammy protested, flipping her deep brown hair over her shoulder before folding her arms over her chest. Her brown eyes narrowed at us and I had to hold in my laughter. Cammy couldn’t look menacing if she tried. “I will not!”

  “Sure you will,” I said absently as I picked up the books Annie dropped. I studied the titles and placed them carefully on the shelf in alphabetical order – by title, of course. “Where’s your roommate, anyway?”

  “Oh! I didn’t tell you,” Annie declared. She grinned evilly, the books temporarily forgotten, and I sensed a long bout of gossip coming. “Danielle’s not coming back.”

  “That’s what they told me in the office this morning,” Cammy said. Her neat brow furrowed in confusion. “I don’t know why, though.”

  “I do,” Annie said in a singsong voice as she dropped on Danielle’s bed. “I found out last night.”

  She didn’t elaborate so I turned to her, my hands full of books. “Well, Miss Gossip Queen?”

  Her grin widened as she scooted up the bed, obviously enjoying her moment. Cammy stomped her foot in impatience. “Tell us!”

  “Okay,” Annie laughed. “I found out last night that she miraculously recovered from her serious case of shyness over the summer. She met a few guys, fooled around and presto! Danielle is headed straight to motherhood.”

  Cammy gasped, her hands covering her mouth. “No!”

  “Yep,” Annie said as she tucked her arms under her head. She trained her eyes on me. “I would have told you last night, Bella, but you left the party early. Again.”

  Shrugging, I turned back to the bookshelf, hiding my own evil grin. “Yeah, well, I got bored. But I did have an escort back to the dorm.”

  “Who?” Cammy asked in a suspicious tone.

  “Just Lance,” I said as nonchalantly as possible. I was immediately accosted by both of them, and I spilled the books to the floor. They pounded on my back, making me stumble, while their excited voices rose and fell in shrieks.

  “You’re kidding?” Cammy asked. “What did he say? Did he ask you out?”

  “You should have heard him talking about her last night,” Annie said. “He was asking me all kinds of questions when I told him she went to the Controlled Environment concert.”

  “He was only interested because Krysti was there,” I said, plummeting from Heaven straight back to Earth. Disappointment dripped from my voice. “He asked me about that.”

  “No, I think he likes you,” Annie said as she began picking up the books in a frenzy. “Let’s hurry up and finish so we can go to the Student Center. He’s probably hanging out there.”

  She jammed books haphazardly on the shelves despite my protests until I yanked them out of her hands and began placing them in proper order. I’m a neat freak, yes, I know. But I truly believe that everything belongs in a certain place. It makes life that much easier. “They don’t go there, Annie.”

  “Oh, what does it matter?” Annie argued. “The quicker we get this done the quicker we can get out of here.”

  My phone, which was sitting on what used to be Danielle’s desk, rang. I was too busy arguing with Annie to notice. Cammy wasn’t.

  “Hello?” she whispered warily.

  “You are such a control freak, Bella!” Annie declared.

  “Iz? I don’t know an Iz. Are you sure you have the right number?” Cammy asked.

  I dived at Cammy, jerking my phone from her hand, and gasped. “Jake! Hey! How are you?”

  He laughed loudly. “You’re a control freak, Iz? I never would have guessed.”

  “Shut up,” I mumbled. “What are you doing up so early?”

  “We just settled into our hotel and I got your messages. All four of them.”

  I jutted my lower lip out in a pout. “Can I help it if your voice mail cuts off so quickly?”

  “Four messages, Iz?” he asked, a little dumbfounded. Obviously he wasn’t used to my rambling yet.

  “I had a lot to tell you,” I defended.

  “You could have just said you had a lot to tell me. I would have called you back.”

  “Yeah, well, where’s the fun in that?” I muttered in a petulant tone.

  His chuckles made goose bumps break out on my flesh. “You’re something else, Iz.”

  My cheeks heated and I was grateful he couldn’t see it. “Sure. Don’t forget it, either.” I smiled, happy to hear his voice. “Where are you, anyway?”

  Annie and Cammy sat on the vacant bed and watched me with curious eyes. Annie still held a couple books in her hand but I wasn’t quite sure she’d realized it. Cammy’s brows were crinkled as she concentrated on every word I uttered. I flashed a weak smile and walked to the window, turning my back on the both of them.

  “Canada,” Jake said.

  “Canada? Seriously?”

  “Yes, Iz, seriously.”

  “Wow,” I said, awed. “Did you see any mooses, meeses, whatever?”


  He laughed again, and I got entirely too much joy out of the sound. It was something in which I could certainly become addicted. “Moose and no, haven’t seen any yet. Of course I don’t think they’re big fans of ours anyway.” He took a second to take a deep breath. “So, this guy walked you back to your dorm, huh?”

  I chattered happily, telling him every little detail as my friends listened intently. Their eyes were wide, and I knew as soon as I hung up the phone, they’d accost me again. But I’d worry about that later. When I finished with my tale, I heard him crack open a beverage can. I didn’t know much about Jake and I hoped he wasn’t a stereotypical rock star who did drugs and drank excessively.

  “What are you doing?” I asked lightly.

  “Just lying on the bed, drinking a soda. What did you think I was doing?”

  I didn’t want to say. “Um, I really don’t know. What does one do when one is on the road?”

  A thump behind my back reminded me I wasn’t alone. Oops. I smiled weakly over my shoulder, 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 feet, startling them both with my shout. “I don’t want anyone to know. I don’t want people bugging me about meeting Jake.”

  “Want to keep him to yourself, huh?” Annie grinned. Sure, it was selfish but I did want to keep him to myself. He was my friend. No one else was there that magical night. Jake and I had bonded in a way I didn’t think I ever could with anyone else. I didn’t know a whole lot about him but I felt like I knew him. No, I didn’t want to share.

  “I just don’t want anyone to know right now.”

  They both nodded. “You know we won’t,” Annie vowed.

  Cammy’s eyes grew serious. “I can’t believe he kissed you!”

  ***

  I dropped my backpack on the table with a loud thump. Cammy and Annie eyed me fretfully as I plopped in a chair and hid my face in my arms. It was only the first Wednesday of the school year, and already I had a ton of homework. Most of it was Calculus, which was definitely not my strongest subject.

  “What’s the problem, Bella?” Cammy asked. I peeked at her and grimaced as she chewed on something unidentifiable. Not like I wanted to identify it. Gross.

  “I hate school,” I mumbled, hiding my eyes again.

  “But it’s only the first week,” Annie said. I peered at her, preparing to give her a menacing one-eyed glare, but the food on her tray caught my attention. Roast beef sandwiches, salad, fruit. Yay. No junk food today.

  I sighed one of my infamous Drama Club sighs and heaved my body from my chair. I stumbled to the food line and piled my tray with various things. When I returned, I plunked my tray on the table and picked up my fork.

  “I can’t wait for this weekend. I’m leaving campus and eating all things greasy and yummy.”

  “You’re going to have a heart attack before you turn twenty-five,” Cammy chastised as she took a dainty bite of her salad. I stuck my tongue out at her just as Lance and Dean placed their trays on the other side of the table.

  “How’s the first week going, girls?” Lance asked. He smiled, flashing beautifully perfect teeth. My mind turned to mush.

  “Great,” Annie said as she kicked me under the table.

  “Ow,” I cried. Glaring, I fought the temptation to throw my apple at her head. “What was that for?”

  Lance turned his smile on me, and I forgot that I wanted to injure my best friend. “Did you get that Calculus assignment done yet?”

  I was fortunate enough to have Lance in my Government and Calculus classes. “It was just assigned about ten minutes ago,” I blurted. Annie’s toe struck my shin again. I opened my mouth to chastise her, but the firm look in her eyes stopped me. “But I’ll get to it tonight.”

  Chuckling, Lance and I discussed the assignment until Krysti’s shrill laughter distracted him. I glanced over my shoulder and spotted her giggling and flirting with Kevin Albertson. I honestly didn’t know what she could possibly see in him. He was cute, true, but he was also severely lacking in the brains department.
/>   “So, Lance,” Annie said, bringing his attention back to our table. “Are you going to the Fall Festival?”

  He frowned and the grooves in his forehead deepened. “Not sure. I probably will.”

  “Who are you taking to the dance?” Cammy innocently asked. I nearly took a page from Annie’s book and kicked Cammy under the table - Lance just broke up with his girlfriend, after all. Instead, I took a bite out of my sandwich.

  “Maybe I’ll take Bella, here,” Lance said with a grin.

  I choked. It wasn’t pretty. I could actually feel my face turn purple. Lance rushed around the table and whacked me on the back as I managed to swallow the food constricting my airway. I attempted a weak smile as I took the juice he offered and sipped it slowly.

  “Are you okay?” His dark eyes were laced with concern. I only nodded, not trusting my mouth. “Good. So, how about it? Do you want to go to the dance with me?”

  Did he even have to ask? Well, okay, I guess he did. I mean, I don’t think he could read my mind. Oh, imagine if he could! He’d run, screaming, as fast as he was able. Annie nudged me and halted my internal rambling. “Um, sure. I’d like that.”

  My idiotic friends were positively glowing. I would have hit them if I hadn’t been positively glowing myself.

  “Great,” he said as he gave me a wink. My heart pounded in my chest, and I prayed he couldn’t hear it. “I’ll talk to you later. I need to get to class.”

  He stood, tray in hand, and smiled once more before sauntering off to the garbage cans, Dean trailing him.

  “I told you he was interested,” Annie said proudly.

  “Oh, Bella, you’re going to need a smashing new outfit,” Cammy stated.

  “This is it, Bella. This is going to be your year,” Annie proclaimed.

  What did I just get myself into?

  Chapter Five

  Groaning, I dropped my shopping bags and fell to my bed. Shopping with Cammy and Annie was plain murder. They did have more of an eye for fashion that was for sure, but I was far more comfortable in an old pair of jeans and a t-shirt.