“Leaving on a jet plane...to the people who will keep me sane...”
He laughed at his made up lyrics, and promptly tossed his guitar to the side before lying back on his bed, arms crossed above his head.
He didn’t know how people coped with days where they had no plans at all; to him, it was boring. He liked having an hour maybe, or a few here and there, but a whole day and night with nothing to do was something alien to him. He wasn’t used to this type of life, and honestly, he had no idea what to do with his time. After lying for a few minutes thinking, he decided to get off the bed and out of the room, hoping Tom would provide more entertainment than staring at four walls. As he grabbed his wallet and his phone and shoved them into his jeans pocket, he thought about the food he would get at home tomorrow and his stomach rumbled hungrily. He walked to the next room along on his left and knocked on the door.
Before Tom answered the door, Jason heard his voice inside, and when he came to the door to let him in, he saw he was on the phone. Not wanting to disturb Tom’s conversation, Jason smiled and stepped in ahead of him, sitting himself in the chair by the bed. It only took him a minute to realise Tom was talking to his fiancée, Carmen. It dawned on Jason how excited Tom must be to get home tomorrow to see Carmen and his baby, Lydia. Lydia was walking and talking a little now. She still only had a few select words, but she was turning into more of a little person every day, and it was amazing to watch. Jason himself was looking forward to seeing her, being her godfather.
After a few more minutes of talking, Tom hung up the phone and smiled at Jason.
“Lydia’s having a nap so I didn’t get to talk to her, but Carmen said she’s been telling her daddy’s home tomorrow.” At that, Tom beamed the biggest smile and Jason, who couldn’t help but smile back, could tell how much he wanted to see her.
“That’s awesome man. I’m gonna come see her once I’m settled in at home.”
“J, I can’t wait. Feels like a lifetime.”
“Tell me about it. I’m salivating thinking about the food already.”
Tom chuckled, and sprayed some deodorant on himself as he spoke.
“You wanna grab some food?”
“Yeah I’m starving.”
“Whatd’you wanna do tonight?”
Jason thought for a minute and decided as long as he got out of the hotel, he was up for anything.
“You decide, as long as I get out of here. I’m getting cabin fever.”
“Really? You’re letting me decide?”
“Don’t make me regret it.”
Dee
It was Friday, and while the rest of the world was hoping to finish work soon and go out for the night, Dee was on mom duty. Though she hated working at the club sometimes, she was glad she got to spend the daytime with her son. She got to pick him up from school, spend time with him afterwards, and put him to bed before she went to work. That’s something that a lot of moms couldn’t say they get to do. Working a 9-5 they barely saw their kids. The teachers had them at school, someone else had them at after-school club or a friend’s house and their moms barely got time to feed them or bathe them before it was time for bed. Tushaun was only two, so though he wasn’t old enough for school, he went to a pre-school as Dee thought it was healthy for him to spend time with other kids. He went for half a day so by 12 noon he was ready to be picked up.
Just before 12, she arrived at the school and pressed the buzzer for the receptionist to let her in the building. The staff all knew her by now, and so they’d say hi and make small talk with her until Tushaun was ready to be let out by the teaching staff. Sometimes, Dee liked to watch through the classroom window just to see him interacting with the other kids. She loved seeing him play and be happy, and wished his father could see what an amazing little boy he was growing up to be. Although frankly, she was in two minds about him seeing Trey because she hated the thought of her sweet little boy being corrupted. She didn’t want Trey to take away any of Tushaun’s sweetness or innocence. Today, Dee watched through the window for a few minutes. She saw Tushaun playing with another little boy with a fire truck and she smiled as she watched him making the truck noises and flying it over the other kid’s head.
“Fire trucks don’t fly, baby,” she commented, as she smiled contently.
The receptionist sitting behind the desk to her right laughed. “He’ll figure it out,” she replied.
After a few minutes, she saw Miss Lowsley, the mid-thirties pre-school teacher helping Tushaun into his jacket and taking him by the hand. As she walked him to the door where Dee stood, he spotted his mom through the glass and immediately started to toddle faster to the door. Upon the door being opened by Miss Lowsley, Dee exclaimed “Hey, baby!” as Tushaun flung his arms up in the air and Dee swooped him up. She kissed his forehead and smiled at the pre-school teacher, who was watching them with a smile on her face.
“Bye Tushaun, have a good day!” she said, and he waved his little hand at her before turning back to his mom.
He was wearing jeans and a Detroit Pistons jersey which was covered with a jacket. He also wore a children’s backpack and had the latest Nike airs on his feet. Considering how warm the day had turned out, Dee put him down on the floor and knelt in front of him to help take off his jacket.
“It’s too warm for a jacket today,” she told him as she unhooked the backpack from him and then took off his jacket. She stuffed the jacket into his backpack before fishing in the bottom for a juice box she knew she’d packed this morning. She put the backpack back on him and then pierced the juice box with the straw before handing it to Tushaun.
Tushaun automatically held out his free hand for his mom to take, and sipped on his juice box with the other hand. When he’d had a few sips he looked up at Dee.
“Where going?” he asked in broken English.
“We going to the park before we go home.” Dee explained, and Tushaun smiled enthusiastically.
“And then nana’s gonna make us some dinner, that sound good?” she asked.
“Yay!” he cheered, almost dropping his juice box in the process and Dee laughed.
“Come on clumsy ass, don’t make a mess.” She joked, as she picked him up off the ground, deciding they’d get there a lot quicker if she carried him.
It was a short walk from the pre-school to the nearest park and she preferred this one to the one nearer her house. There were more kids and fewer bums that hung out here so the chances of finding a needle or two were a lot less. Still, she had to watch him like a hawk to make sure he didn’t go anywhere but the jungle gyms and swings designed to be played on. Tushaun was a happy kid, and though he was only young, he played well with other kids, even if he didn’t know them. He was a little gentleman too. She watched as he let two little girls go before him on the slide even though he got there first. Part of her wondered whether it was because he wanted to check them out first as they went down, but then she laughed realising how ridiculous it sounded. As she relaxed on the bench watching him, she took her phone out of her pocket and checked it for the time. As she pressed the home screen button, she saw she had a text and it only took her brain a second to register the name ‘Trey.’
Before she even opened the text, her heart started to pound.
‘I wanna see Tushaun, can i have him dis weekend plz? x ’
First off, she was surprised he had put the word please at the end of that sentence. She was also surprised he’d offered to have his son on a weekend, when it was prime partying time. Honestly, the fact she got the text at all surprised her because lately he’d been seeing less and less of his son, and she wondered if he’d eventually cut off contact altogether. She looked up from her phone to see Tushaun running around the jungle gym having the time of his life and sighed. She wondered if it would be easier to just cut off all contact, but she knew it wasn’t her decision. She couldn’t not let them see each other, it wasn’t fair to Tushaun. He had every right to know his dad whether she liked it or not, so after a few
minutes of deliberation, she typed out a reply.
‘Sure. Call me later to arrange time.’
After her text sent, she actually checked the time as she originally planned before putting her phone back in her pocket. Still keeping her eye on Tushaun, she reached into her bag and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, taking one from the box and resting it between her lips. As she lit it, she inhaled it deep and sat back against the bench, knowing she could relax for a few minutes before it was time to get Tushaun home. ‘Home’ she thought, thinking of the reality of that situation. When she and Trey had split up, they were living together. When he then moved out and left her and the baby in the house, she had hoped to stay living there with her son. She hoped she could provide for him on her own, but the reality was her low paying job couldn’t cover everything she needed for herself and a baby. She found herself having to choose between paying rent and buying food. Buying diapers or buying electric. It was clear to everyone she wasn’t coping well so her mother had done all she could do, she invited them to come and live back at home.
Dee had grown up with her mother in one room, her brother in another, and Dee and her sister in the third and last room. Adding a baby to that mix wasn’t easy on space, so they had set up a crib in her mother’s room, and the two women temporarily swapped rooms, her mother moving in with Dee’s sister. It was simply too much for her mother to be bunking with a crying baby when she had three jobs to attend. As Tushaun progressed to a ‘big boy’ bed, the bed was put in her mother’s room too. Now he was a little older, her mother was back in the room with Tushaun, and she loved having the company. Dee felt like a failure that she couldn’t provide for her son on her own the way she’d planned to, but she’d had no choice but to move back in with her family, and she was glad for the extra support. After finishing her cigarette, she went and got Tushaun from the play area and told him it was time to go. Her mother had made them dinner in between two jobs and she wasn’t about to be late for it. She knew even at 22 not to mess with her mother.
Chapter 7 – Famous
Jason
Jason was surprised, to say the least, that they had ended up back at the spot where they started all those weeks ago. They’d gone out pretty early because, even though the both of them wanted to have a good night, they didn’t think a late, heavy night before their flight tomorrow was a good idea, so they settled for a meal and then headed to a few bars early on. It was now around 10pm and just before Jason and Tom were ushered into the club by the security, Jason took a look up at the neon sign above the door, squinting from the brightness. Club X, really? He thought. Personally, he’d thought it was a bit of a dive last time he’d came in here but then he remembered going home with her, and he smiled for a second. He wasn’t expecting her to be in here tonight though; he figured two nights would be too much of a coincidence.
As they headed inside the club, his attention turned to the main stage where there was a buxom blonde twirling around the pole in her underwear. Tom gave him a look and he laughed aloud. He felt relaxed, especially knowing she wasn’t here for any awkward small talk and that he was headed home for a while tomorrow; it was a good feeling. As if to mirror the same behaviour the weeks previous, the extra security on the door walked into the club and led them to a private booth separated from the rest of the club by a rope, which he lifted for the two of them to step through. On the table once again was an array of beverages set out for them, though Jason expected they wouldn’t be getting through them tonight. Nevertheless, he took a cold beer out of an ice bucket, opened it and took a large swig. He winced slightly at the coldness of it, licking his lips afterwards to warm them.
“I can’t believe you brought us back here,” said Jason, as he sat forward to hear Tom over the pulsating music.
“What’s wrong with here?” Tom smirked, popping open his own bottle and swigging it in the same manner.
“Nothing, but...”
“You’re scared you’re gonna see your woman.” Tom said, poking fun at him.
Jason lifted one eyebrow at him, trying to appear angry, though he knew he didn’t pull it off too well. His face was too soft, and he ended up looking more intrigued than pissed off.
“I’m not scared I’m gonna see ‘my woman’, I just think it’s a little bit of a dive,” he retorted.
While Tom had been teasing his best friend, his eyes had been elsewhere - drawn to the stage where one dancer had been replaced by another.
Jason, though, was clueless, and Tom could hardly contain a smirk as he waited for the realisation to dawn.
Tom nodded at Jason, glanced at the stage and then back to Jason.
“So, if you saw her, you’re not gonna get all nervous like you’re back in high school?” he joked.
“What?”
Jason followed Tom’s gaze toward the stage and saw the familiar curls that fell down the dancer’s back, the gold hoop earrings that poked through them, and that body that he couldn’t forget. In that moment, he really did feel fifteen years old again. He was almost sure he blushed, something he didn’t do very often, if ever, and he was suddenly very aware that Tom was watching him.
Before he had time to think of anything to say, Tom roared with laughter on the other side of the booth.
“Dude, you got it bad”
“Shut up man,” Jason protested. “I just don’t want that awkward moment if we bump into each other.”
“Please! You’re dying to bump into her.” Tom laughed again and this time Jason laughed along with him.
“She’s just so damn hot” Jason finally said, as he swigged on his beer and watched her move. She wasn’t particularly tall, in fact, she was pretty short, but her legs seemed to go on for days, especially in the tiny mini skirt she had on. As she gripped onto the pole with her legs and turned upside down, her breasts pushed up in her bra, and he wondered how they managed to stay contained. For someone of quite small stature, she had curves and bumps in all the right places.
“You should go say hi, tell her you’ve got champagne at your hotel.” Tom laughed again at his own comment, and Jason wished he was closer so he could smack him. He knew he’d come to regret telling Tom the finer details of that first night. Nevertheless, he was now thinking of ways he could approach and talk to Dee without the mention of champagne.
After Dee had left the stage, Jason and Tom sat talking for a while. They reminisced about the last time they were home. Though it was only months ago, it felt like years. Tom was missing his little girl, and was excited to spend some time with her, while Jason couldn’t wait to taste his grandmother’s home cooking. He was almost salivating at the mention of her homemade cobbler. Still, Jason was excited to return once the album was released and get straight to work. He knew the promotion was hard work but the things came after that were the reason he was in this business; the shows, the tour, the fans.
He truly did love what he did, even if it did mean hardly seeing his family. The men sat for another hour or so chatting about home before Tom suggested getting back to the hotel to get some sleep. Jason agreed it was probably a good idea and got up to use the bathroom before they left. As he approached the bar in front of the toilets, he saw her, sitting on a bar stool, texting on her phone. He wondered if he should approach her, at least say hi, but as she wasn’t even looking in his direction, he reluctantly walked on by to use the bathroom first.
His mind worked in overdrive as he did his business, wondering whether he should approach her, wondering whether he should at least make small talk, or maybe get her number, but the more he thought about it, the more he felt like a fool. He slept with this girl once and suddenly he was acting like she was his one true love, he needed to chill. Nevertheless, as he left the bathroom and spotted her putting on a coat, his body ignored his mind and before he knew it, he was walking over to her. Halfway through his walk, she looked up from zipping up her coat and her eyes caught his. Her chocolate brown irises met his stare for longer than they needed to, before s
he looked down at the floor and then back up to him again. Was she embarrassed?
“Hey. Dee, right?” he managed, as he stopped in front of her. He was trying to play it cool, but of course he knew what her name was.
“Yeah” she said, as she smiled awkwardly. “Jason,” she replied, more a statement than a question.
He nodded.
“How’ve you been?” he asked, like they were old friends reunited.
“Yeah, I’m good. You?”
“Yeah, great. You finished your shift?” he gestured to her coat, making the connection.
“Yeah, I’m finished early tonight.”
“This is early?”
“Trust me. This is early.” She said matter-of-factly as she picked up her bag from the chair and put it over her shoulder.
“Do you need walking to your car?” he asked politely, noticing she was on her own and about to leave the club. He knew there wasn’t any parking at the club so assumed she would be a little way away.
“Oh, I don’t drive. I walk.” She said, as she pulled her hair from out of her coat.
“Do you live far?” he questioned.
“Takes me about twenty minutes”
“On your own?” he asked, wondering if she would really do that at this time of night alone.
“Yeah, it’s cool” she said, like she was trying to reassure him.
“That doesn’t sound too safe” he stated. “Let me walk you.”
“No, for real, it’s cool.” She said once again.
“Please, I’d feel a lot better.” He said. “I’ll just walk you close by if you prefer.”
Dee
Some girls might be a little freaked if someone they had slept with once had offered to walk them home, but this guy was genuine, she knew it. He was far too polite and what not to suddenly turn into a serial killer or something. Plus, even if he was a little dodgy, she knew how to handle herself, thought Dee. He’d be the one in trouble if he did try anything. She did wonder what his friend must have thought when he ditched him for the second night in the same club.
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