All Grown Up

Chapter 10

Sam and Brian left the boys in Jimmy’s room and went to Brian’s room. “So, I read the book,” Brian said.

“Oh, I thought you might of,” Sam said as she sat down on the bed leaning backwards and looking at the ceiling.

“So, Jo had a son.” He sat down next to Sam on his side.

“No, that part isn’t true, she thought she was pregnant, hoped she was, but when she wasn’t it broke her down. Jason was the love of her life, but he died in a car crash and it killed her inside, she thought it was her fault. She blamed herself, he was driving to pick her up from work,” Sam looked at Brian who nodded.

“So, that’s when she wrote the book,” Brian said.

“She was listening to Seize the day when it happened, then she stopped Seizing the day and shut down, no one could talk to her, she and Jason had moved in together, they had a house, that she bought after he died, it’s still in Windsor under her name.” Sam turned to her side to look at Brian.

“Why does she keep the house?” Brian asked pushing a lock of hair out of her face.

“To remind her never to fall in love again,” Sam let out a sigh remembering how happy Jo had been.

“So what is she doing with Matt?”

“I don’t know, I think she’s letting herself fall for him,” Sam said.

“Is that a good thing?”

“I think so she needs this, she’s letting herself feel something else, besides regret, let’s just hope Matt doesn’t hurt her,” Sam snuggled closer to Brian.

“Let’s get some sleep tomorrow we have a lot of things to do,” Brian said as he pulled Sam more up the bed, then got the covers and covered themselves.

“But I still have my clothes on,” Sam said.

“That’s a good thing, don’t worry the time will come, when you’ll have nothing on.” Brian kissed her forehead. Sam let out a giggle and snuggled more into him.

Morning

Jo woke up with a start, she didn’t know where she was. An arm was wrapped around her waist, and she looked to the side. Matt’s face looked so peaceful, images from the night before made her blush. She had really let him into her heart. He grunted and turned to the other side.

Jo slipped out of bed wrapping the bed sheet around her, and covering Matt up, the air conditioner made the room cold. She didn’t want him to get cold. She went into the bathroom and looked at herself, the smile on her face disappeared. “I’m sorry,” she whispered to the ghost that had been following her for so long. “But it’s time for me to move on.”

She felt lighter a weight had been lifted off her shoulders, she stepped into the shower and let the hot water wash over her. She lathered her hair, and washed her body. A knock came on the door. “Are you ok?” Matt’s gruff voice made her shiver.
“Yes, I’ll be out in a minute,” she said as she washed the last of the soap off her, and turned off the water. Taking a big robe she wrapped herself in it and stepped out of the bathroom.

“Morning,” she smiled at Matt. He smiled back and slipped into the bathroom.

When he came out 10 minutes later, Jo was dressed and about to leave. “Where are you going?” He asked, he was only in a towel his chest made her lose her breath, his tattoo made her remember the night before.

“I’m going to meet up with Sam,” she didn’t give him an explanation. Something this morning made her wonder what had happened, he wasn’t affectionate, yes it’s morning, but he couldn’t keep his hands off her, or lips, or body. And now he didn’t even say good morning.

“Oh, ok. I’ll see you later then,” he didn’t even look at her as she left. Her chest tightened. She stepped out into the hall, the same time Sam did.

“Hey, Jo.” Sam walked towards her.

“Hey, babes.” Jo met her half way at the elevators. “Ready for some breakfast?”

“Yeah,” Sam said as Jo placed her arm through hers.

“Good, I’m starving.” That’s when Zacky stepped out of his room.

“Hey, wait up.” He yelled as Sam placed her arm in the elevator doors to stop it from closing. “I wanted to talk to you.”

The elevator doors closed and they were going down, “What about?” Sam asked.

“The book.” Zacky smiled.

“What book?” Jo asked curious.

“How to hold on,” Zacky said. Jo’s arm tightened around Sam’s and she gave her a look. “I was reading all last night, it’s awesome. Jo have you read it?”

The question made Jo relax he didn’t know. Which was a good thing. “Yeah a long time ago, I don’t remember most of it.” It was true she had not picked up the book ever since she got the first copy of it. Letting the editor go wild with it. And she had chosen to forget about it.

“It’s awesome, the guys and I were talking about it all last night.” Zacky stepped out of the elevator, looking excited.

“I thought you were drinking last night,” Sam said, as they followed the arrows to the dinning room.

“No, we stopped a little while after you left.” He opened the door to let the girls in. Looking around the room, at one table Johnny and Jimmy were sitting the books opened next to their plates. Zacky walked faster.

“Are you ok with this?” Sam whispered.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Jo smiled deciding it was time to face the past in one way or another.

“We can go, make up an excuse.” Sam stopped her a little ways.

“No, this is really ok.” Jo kept on walking and sat down.
The boys were deep in conversation ,”I think the Rev is the most important person in the book,” he said smugly.

“No man, it’s definitely Christian, I mean it’s her son.,” Johnny argued.

“Nah, I think it’s vengeance,” Zacky said, then he turned to Jo, “Who do you think is the most important person?”

Jo took a deep breath, “Hm, that’s hard everyone plays an important part. I mean you have Christian who is her past, then you have Shadow who is her, the Gates which is her consciousness, then Vengeance who is her motivation. And the Rev who is her regret. They’re all pretty important.” They all stared at her as she took a drink of water.

“I thought you didn’t remember much about it..” Zachy said thinking about this new information.

“Well, see the fact of the matter is I…”

She was interrupted by Matt coming and sitting down opposite of her. “Hey guys, what are we talking about?” Sam shot Jo a look, she understood how important those words would have been, it would have been an epic moment for her to admit that she had written the book.

“Oh, we’re talking about How to Hold on,” Jimmy said handing him the book.

“Oh, you guys have been reading it for a while, what’s it about?” Matt turned it over and read the description.

“Us,” Johnny said excited.

“What do you mean us?” Matt got interested.

“Well, it’s kinda like, this girl she tries to kill herself, then she goes to a state of something then…Sam can say it better, or Jo they went to school with the girl,” Jimmy said. They all turned to Jo and Sam.

“Well, it’s about a girl who goes to a place…since you haven’t read the book I can’t tell you everything about it. She meets Christian, Johnny Christ…” Johnny cut her off.

“Wait don’t say anymore, I’m re-reading it and I want to think of this stuff by myself. The coolest thing is that every chapter is based on one of our songs. I didn’t know we had this much impact on a person, let alone save them,” Jimmy nodded and went back to reading.

“That’s pretty cool, so who’s this person?” Matt asked.