Jaded25

Taylor continued to watch her intently as she spoke. "So anyway, Jimmy decided that he and my mom should go for a ride, so he could talk her into giving him the money without telling Daddy." she said. "Daddy would have blown a gasket, and bitched Jimmy out for not taking good enough care of me, since they let me go with him and I was still a minor. Jimmy promised my dad he wouldn't let me quit school or anything..." she trailed off, fiddling with the drawstring on the hood of her sweat jacket. "I did for a while, to work...." she shook her head hard. "I keep getting sidetracked, sorry." she mumbled. "It was raining that night, and Daddy and I kept watching the driveway, becuase it was starting to freeze. Jimmy learned pretty fast how to drive California style. Instead of Momma and Jimmy, the State Police pulled up. Jimmy was driving too fast and rolled his van, then hit a tree. The policeman said it happened so fast they proably didn't know what hit them." she sighed. "So I stayed here. I didn't care about record deals and shit like that, I just love to play and sing. And daddy needed me." she ended, her shoulders slumping as she let out another sigh. "I'm sorry, Jame." Taylor said, not wanting to say too much since he had a feeling there was more. "I'm okay. But there are days that daddy isn't, and there are days that I wish Jimmy was here, and there are days when I KNOW he's here and I wish he'd go the fuck away and stop messing with my head." she told him, burying her face in her hands. Taylor put his arm around her shoulders and hugged her to his side. "I think he may be pissed that you turned out cooler than he expected, and that you're not doing more with your music, Jame." Taylor said suddenly, not knowing where that came from himself. She looked at him incredulous. "What the hell are you talking about Taylor? You've seen us play what? Twice? And not even our own stuff. Jeez...." she grumbled and jumped down from the table, striding toward the water. "Jaimie.." he called to her and wiped his hands on his jeans. He joined her at the water's edge and gripped her shoulder. "I heard the song you wrote for him. I heard you play your OWN stuff LAST night. You and the other girls are great, barring Angel, and you could go alot farther than Tulsa or Oklahoma City." he stated.
"That's just it Tay. I DON'T. I could stay in Tulsa till the day I die and I would be a happy camper. Daddy needs me, I have a good job and I get to play on weekends. I don't need the hassle and I suck at the buisness end of things. Besides, it wouldn't mean shit without Jimmy anyway." she muttered the last, skipping a stone across the tiny lake. "Okay. I won't push. But I think you're wrong and I think Tami and Patti could take care of the buisness end until you get a good manager. Or let Jade manage you, she'd take GOOD care of you and you know it." he said. Jaimie smiled up at Taylor. "Thank you." she said sheilding her eyes from the sun. "Jade is the next best thing to blood kin. Maybe better, considering some blood kin we both know, but I DON'T WANT IT? Okay? The other girls know that I will not hold a grudge should a better deal come along for ANY of them. And I want to be done with this conversation now. Alright?" she waited for his answer.
"Okay." he answered and took her hand. "If Jimmy was alive today, he kick my ass six ways from Sunday.." she sighed and hurled another rock across the lake with her free hand. Taylor looked at her, surprised. He was pretty sure she hadn't realized she'd said that out loud.

"Ike, where ya been?" Zac asked when his brother finally came in. "Josh's. He looks like death. Why?" Ike asked. "I thought maybe you were busy consoling, Jade." Zac grinned. "What makes you think that?" Ike asked. "Oh nothing. Just the fact that your cell phone rings an awful lot late at night since she came to the movies with us, that she REFUSES to listen to Josh, even though his story would be bullshit anyway, and that I almost had to pitch a hankie at you, you were drooling so hard when he left." Zac teased. "She's a FRIEND." Ike defended himself. "Whatever. You and Tay...sheesh. I was born at night, but not last night.." he said. Ike had to laugh. "She was looking for Jaimie this morning. She said she hadn't heard from Josh-I asked-so I went over and brought him mom's soup and some flu medicine. Good enough?" Ike asked.
"Whatever. YOU like her. And josh is acting like a moron. If you steal her, he deserves it. And that's all I'm sayin'. Are we gonna go watch tomorrow night? I wanna see them play without that bitch singing lead.." Zac said. "Sure. Tay will want to go I'm sure. I dunno if Josh will make it though. Aren't you being a little harsh on Angel? She doesn't sing as well as Jame, or Tami, but I think it's cool of Jaimie to give her a shot." Ike said, the wheels in his head spinning quickly, as he mulled over Zac's comments. "Hah! The only shot Jaimie's gonna give that stupid chick is a shot to the ribs. Or the jaw. Damn I can't wait to see that. Something about that Barbie doll just makes my skin crawl." Zac told Ike. "Wanna go get some greasy fast food, before Mom tries to shove that healthy cardboard cereal in us?" he asked his brother. "There's a place right near where Jade and Patti work. Patti told me about it last night.." Zac wiggled his eyebrows. "It
seems they eat lunch there alot." "Do you wanna see Patti again Zac?" Ike asked chuckling. "Well, damn. Look who just got off the turnip truck...I'm hungry. Let's motor.." Zac grinned and grabbed his jacket.

Ike and Zac looked at each other and grinned when they saw Jade and Patti, sitting together in a booth, munching on french fries as they chatted. Ike was glad they'd gotten there when they did, judging from the amount of food left in front of them, they had plenty of time left on their lunch break. The brothers went inside and ordered their food, both trying not to grin and give themselves away.

"Holy shit!" Patti leaned toward Jade, and jerked her head in the direction of the counter. "He was actually listening, when I thought he was still checking out Jaimie's ass." Jade looked at her friend stunned. "What are you talking about, goober?" she asked and started to turn around, but Patti grabbed her arm. "DON'T turn around," she warned through gritted teeth. "Zac's trying to play it off, so we'll play their game." Patti said, keeping her voice low. "ZAC?" Jade gasped. "Pat what the..?" she started to ask, but stopped when Patti's face broke into a huge smile. "Ike's with him.." she said quietly and Jade closed her eyes. "Patti, DO NOT embarrass me.." Jade groaned. "Don't worry, Jade. That's Zac's job." Patti chuckled. "Shh..be cool. Here they come.." Patti sad quickly and munched on another french fry. "Hello ladies..." Zac said with a wide grin and set his overloaded tray on their table. "Yeah.." Patti grinned up at Zac, "Fancy meetin' you here." she told him sarcastically. Jade giggled. "Hi, Zac. Isaac." Jade immediately scooted over in the booth to make room for them. "Sit down with us and eat before that mountain of food you have there gets cold." she laughed.
"Hey now...I need my quota of protien and all that...I'm still growing, gotta put on more muscle.." he teased and flexed his bicep. Patti rolled her eyes. "Yeah... so they're in proportion with the size of your head, dork." she giggled. Zac stared at her a moment and then burst out laughing as Patti slid closer to the window, to make room for him in the booth. "No really. I was starving, but my mom is on some health kick. She keeps trying to feed us stuff that has the same consistency and taste of cardboard." he said. "Poor baby." Patti giggled again and turned back to her own lunch, happy that Zac wasn't so riveted on Jaimie that he couldn't see what else was in front of him. Patti liked Zac, and was sure they'd get to be at least really good friends, if not more. She thought she could deal with that. Zac was fun.