Stereo (27 page)

Celia chuckled.  “Okay you little whore.”

“Besides, how many girls can say they lost their virginity to a celebrity?” Shaun blushed suddenly, then covered her face with her hands. “That sounded horrible.”

“I’ve never been prouder,”  Celia stated, with a sharp nod.  “Just don’t give him the whole cookie right away.  A little bit at a time, just like I said.”

Shaun was becoming more and more dubious of Celia and her advice.  She’d been on her own with Adam for the better part of this arrangement and it hadn’t exactly failed her yet.  She was beginning to wonder whether she had given her friend too much credit.  After all, Adam did like Shaun, he’d told her as much himself, and she’d been the one to get him there… NOT her friend.  If she wanted to have sex with him
right now
then why the hell couldn’t she?

Celia suddenly sobered up.  “I’m sorry that I wasn’t around.  You know how protective I get over you.  It makes me a little nuts.”

“I know…”

“I hate being in arguments with you more than anything.  More than pap smears, more than tornadoes…”

“More than peach schnapps?”  Shaun asked, knowing Celia’s deep hatred for the sweet drink.

Celia’s face curled.  “Even more than that.”

Shaun blushed, again.  “It’s okay.  You were just being your usual pain in the ass self and so was I.  If we can’t be at our worst with each other then who can we be at our worst with?”

“Hmm.”  Celia grinned.  “I couldn’t have said it better myself.”

“Okay, so…. He’s beyond irritated with me.  How do I turn that around and make him adore me, again?”

“He never stopped adoring you.  In fact he clearly adores you more now than he ever has.  This is an easy fix.  Just make him feel like you need him.  Get stranded somewhere, slash a hole in your tire and call him for help, call him in the middle of the night and tell him you’re scared and need some company.  Whatever! Anything.  Just make him feel needed and he’ll come crawling back to you like the drooling puppy he is,” she said, with a wave of her hand and a snicker.

Shaun gaped at her friend.  “You’re a brilliant, beautiful monster.”

After she said those words the awful truth hit Shaun. She was slowly turning into a monster, too.  And it didn’t feel brilliant at all.

--

“I hate journalists,” Adam uttered the second the door to the Cadillac Escalade closed behind him, blocking out the large CBS tower he’d just walked out of, as well as all of the screaming fans that had been waiting outside for him after the interview.  He turned to look at Katie as the driver immediately sped away.  He’d spent the last half an hour signing autographs and taking pictures and was exhausted by the time he climbed in to the truck to be met with her face. 

“Blech, who doesn’t? What’s to like?” She cringed.  Since she could remember writers and journalists had been making up lies about Adam, twisting his words and all around being the scum sucking slugs that they were.  She was certainly not a fan, and neither was her brother.   She knew that he had no patience for journalists who went too far and, from the looks of it, this most recent one had been playing right on the edge by bringing up Shaun.

“It’s over now,” she said, reassuringly.  “Now we can go home, start the barbeque and have delicious food and cocktails with friends and fam.”

“Who’s having cocktails?” he asked, eyeing his baby sister incredulously.

Katie’s big blue eyes bore into him.  “Oh, please.  Come on.  Who are we kidding?  I drink.  We both know it.  The barbeque is at your house and I know you didn’t invite Dad.  What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

“You really think I would let you swallow a drop of liquor under my roof? You’re thirteen! What kind of degenerate do you take me for, baby?  Really?”  Adam was dumbfounded.

“You started drinking when you were, like, ten years old!”

“This isn’t about me.”

Katie rolled her eyes and looked away.  “Whatever, dude.”

“
Whatever dude
,” Adam mimicked, staring hard at the back of her head as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket.  She must have been out of her mind if she thought he was going to let her drink in his house. He kept his eyes on the back of her head as he dialed Janelle. 

“Hey,” he said once she answered.  “Where’s Shaun?”

“You can’t call her and ask her that yourself?”

Adam sighed deeply.  It was becoming clear that every woman he came in contact with today was determined to bust his balls.  “Will you give me a break, please? Give me a break.”

“You’re embarrassed about that tantrum you threw yesterday, huh?” Janelle asked.  “You should be.”

Adam prayed for patience.  “Where is she?”

“She’s at a shoot with Vogue.  It’s not a full spread but… whatever.”  Janelle sighed heavily on the other end of the line.  She wasn’t used to losing.  “We’ll get the fuckers next time.”

“Vogue?!”

“I know.  She’s gonna be huge.  And don’t show up there spewing any negative energy at her. This is an important shoot for her.”

“I’m not going to show up.  I was just wondering where she was.”

“And why’s that?”

Adam almost hung up on her.

“Look… I’ll set something up with the two of you later tonight.  I’ll have you appear at a party or something.”

“I can’t tonight.  I’m having that barbeque at the house, remember?”

“Even better.  It’ll look good for her to be seen at your house with your friends and family.”

Adam chuckled.  “Run that idea by her and report back to me with how she responds.”

“She’ll respond the way I
want
her to respond.  You know what…”

Adam groaned.  How did he always manage to turn what was supposed to be a five minute conversation into a twenty minute argument?

“I’m not sure why the two of you are so confused about just who is steering this ship, so let me clear it up for you right now.  I am the captain of this damn vessel, okay? Not you, and not Shaun.  Me!  What I say goes and if I say the two of you are having a beautiful family barbeque tonight then you are having a beautiful fucking family barbeque…
tonight.
Understood?”

Adam’s eyes were stuck at the top of his head in a permanent roll.  His skull was pounding.  “Is that all?”

“Yeah, that’s all.”

“Good talk.”  He hung up and immediately turned to Katie, who was no longer ignoring him.  She now watched him with an expression that was a toss between amused and concerned.

“She’s crazy,” Katie said.

“Fucking nuts,” he agreed.

“Does Shaun not want to come to the barbeque?”

Adam blinked.  He’d completely forgotten that Katie had been sitting next to him during the conversation and wanted to kick himself for running off at the mouth the way he had.  Katie didn’t know about the arrangement with Shaun, neither did his band mates, or anyone else in his life.  Adam planned to keep it that way. 

“We’re just taking things slow right now.  We don’t want to rush into anything.  We’re playing it cool.”

“We
or
she?”
Katie asked, specifically.

Adam faltered. “
We
.”

“I hate to break it to you, Brother, but you have been, like, the farthest thing from cool since the minute you stepped out with that girl. She has you wrapped, like, all the way around her finger. It’s super obvious to everyone.”

“We,” Adam reiterated, defensively. “
We
came to the agreement to take things slow…
together…
okay?”

“Sure.”  Katie shrugged.  “Well, I guess I wouldn’t mind meeting her.  You know, whenever she’s ready.”

Adam searched her eyes.  It was taking everything inside of him not to leap from that car to escape this conversation.

“I love her hair,” she added, her entire face lighting up.  “It’s
big.”

Adam recalled saying those exact words to Shaun the first time he laid eyes on her and struggled to remember a time when all she was to him was a head of big hair.  He couldn’t even comprehend it; she now possessed too large a space in his mind and his body for him to even begin to recall the person he was before he’d met her. If he’d only known then what he knew now Shaun’s big, luscious hair would have been the least of his worries.  He allowed Katie to lock her arm in his, staring ahead. 

“I’m sure you’ll meet her one day.  Soon.”

If Janelle had anything to do with it, maybe sooner than either of them imagined.

--

“Whoa, shit!” Adam leapt back from the grill when a huge flame of fire leapt from the red hot coals, aimed straight for his neck.  In the background he could hear Katie giggling wildly at his near death and reminded himself never to throw one of these things, again.  A Rihanna song blasted so loudly from the speakers situated next to his swimming pool, which was teeming with various friends and family of his and Katie’s, that he could almost feel it shaking the grass beneath his bare feet.  Friends and family were spread out all around his backyard, and inside of his mansion drinking, dancing, talking and all around having an amazing time creating new drunken memories at the barbeque.  Once the fire died down Adam looked over his shoulder at Katie, who was lying in a chair poolside soaking up the sun.

“You think that’s funny?  Me almost dying a fiery death?”

Katie could only giggle in response.

“All right, I’ll remember that.  Keep laughing.”  Adam turned away from her, twirling the spatula in his hand.

“Just don’t burn my hot dog, Wolfgang.”

“Haha,” he gave her a fake laugh as he fingered his ringing phone out of his pocket.  “Hello.”

“Hey, Adam… it’s Shaun.”

The spatula was immediately forgotten on the table next to the grill and Adam turned to the last person he would trust with an open flame, Noodle, and waved him over. “Hey… come watch the food.” 

He turned and made his way towards the doors of his backyard before he had the chance to witness Noodle burning his entire yard down. 

“Hi,” he said, with a hint of uncertainty, as he walked through his house, nodding to familiar faces. He began moving up the grand staircase in his foyer.  He was thrilled that she’d called but he had no idea what to say to her.  She hadn’t called him back since he’d left that embarrassing message on her phone.  When had he become such a chump?  He had some serious damage control to do with her, so he ‘d made a pact with himself that the next time he saw her he would completely keep his cool.  Pretend she was just any other chick.

“I’m sorry… Janelle called me and told me that you were having a family barbeque.  I would never bother you…”

Adam attempted to think of something cool and passé to say.  Something he would have said to some girl he didn’t give a shit about.  “You’re not bothering me.”

“I’m at this photo shoot for Vogue, which is pretty incredible, but…”

He stepped into his bedroom, the only quiet haven in the entire house, and closed the door behind him.  He held onto the handle tight, leaning against it. “But…”

“But they have me in this freezing cold pool. It’s freezing, Adam.  I’m wearing three bathrobes right as we speak and I can still feel every inch of every bone in my body because I’m so cold.  I’m not sure how I can feel something so succinctly and be completely numb all at the same time but somehow I’m pulling it off.”

“Okay. Get the hell out of there immediately.  You don’t have to put up with that.”

“I can’t just leave.  Janelle put her ass on the line to get me this job.”

“She’ll get over it.”

“Adam…”

“Babe… if you let them work you ‘til you drop they will.  You have to set limits with these people.  Walk away.”

“The director says he doesn’t have the shot, yet. He keeps enunciated the ‘the’.
The
shot,” she said, dramatically. “They’re bringing me tea and hot packs, so they’re not totally terrible.”

“Do you want to die of hypothermia today?”

“Of course not.”

“Then you need to tell them to fuck the fuck off.”

“No one tells Vogue to fuck the fuck off.” She laughed on the other end and Adam felt himself relaxing against the door behind him.  “Adam, I swear I didn’t call to get you all riled up.  I guess I just wanted to hear your voice.  I figured it might warm me up a little bit.”

Adam pressed his eyes closed as
his
entire being spun out of control with warmth at her words.  “And…?”

“And… it’s working.”

He ran his hands slowly down his face, feeling his zipper growing slowly tight with each word she said.  What he wouldn’t give to have her in his bedroom with him right at that moment so he could show her just how warm things could really get between them.

“I’ve been totally psychotic these last few days, Adam.”

“I haven’t exactly been easy on you.”