All Grown Up

Chapter 16

Top Of The World

Two weeks later

Jo hugged Sam and then turned to Brian, “You better take good care of her, or I will have to come back and kick your ass,” Jo said hugging him.

“I will, I swear,” he said lifting up three fingers.

“I just wish you wouldn’t go by yourself,” Sam said as Brian wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

“Dude, I know how to drive,” Jo said, as she pushed her bag up her shoulder.

Zacky came out of the Avenged Sevenfold bus, carrying a bunch of bags. “What’s all this?” Jo asked.

“Food,” Zacky said.

“But I can get food on the way,” Jo said as she hugged him, she was going to miss him the most.

“I know, but still this is so when you forget to eat and you have no where to stop,” he said putting the bags in the back seat of the car.

“Nothing will go bad?” Jo asked, remembering what had gone bad, a bologna sandwich and the only person who ate them was Jimmy. He had apologized over and over again, until Jo smacked him. Then they were even according to Johnny who wouldn’t stop bringing it up.

The boys had talked about the book, and agreed to do the voice overs. Matt still didn’t know who Jo was and how she was connected to the book, in fact they had no seen each other since that night. “No nothing I promise,” Jimmy said coming out of the bus.

“Alright,” Jo hugged him too, then it was Johnny.

“Hey don’t I get some loving?” He asked as he picked Jo up. Jo let out a laugh. This had become her family in a week, more of a family then she had known was possible to have.

“Alright I have to go,” Jo looked at her cell phone. She looked up and scanned the area.

“He’s on the bus,” Zacky said and Jo nodded, she threw her purse in the car and went towards the bus, no matter how things have ended she needed to say good bye to him. She stepped on the bus, he was at his laptop listening to music, he looked up and pulled his head phones off.

“I’m leaving,” Jo said. It felt so awkward. He stood up.

“Ok,” there was nothing either of them could say.

“Be safe, and make sure the guys don’t do to many wild things to Sam,” Jo laughed but he didn’t he looked sad. And she felt sad, they could have had something good.

She went into his arms, and he wrapped them around her, Jo pulled away from him. She hadn’t cried about anything, she had made herself believe that this was the way things were supposed to happen. “I’ll be seeing you,” Jo said as she pulled away and started getting off the bus.

“Bye,” Matt said as she stepped down the stairs. The hot air his her in the face, this was closure this was her moving on.

“Ok guys,” Jo said coming back to the crowd. “I’ll see you when I see you.” She got into the car, and started the engine.

“Text me every hour,” Zacky said and Sam hit him in the back of the head, “I mean every half an hour.” Sam nodded in agreement. Jo let out a laugh and pulled out of the parking lot. Sam turned towards Brian.

“She’s going to be fine,” Brian said.

“Then how come I feel like I’m missing something?” Sam said as he kissed her.

“Because she’s become closer to you in the past few weeks, she’s become closer to us, hell she’s a different person from the girl we met at the concert in Toronto.” Brian pulled her towards the bus, the guys were already on it.

“It’s true, you guys had an amazing influence on her, even Matt did.” Sam was about to get on the bus.

“Even pain is sometimes good,” Brian said as Sam stopped on the first step and turned back to him, he wrapped his arms around her waist.

“How come you’re so smart?” Sam asked as she kissed him, between kisses he answered.

“It comes naturally,” Brian said, Sam let out a laugh and went on the bus.

“So where are we going?” Sam asked.

Jimmy looked up at her, he looked depressed in fact everyone did, except Matt he looked mad. “We’re going home,” Jimmy said.

“Why the long faces?” Sam asked sitting next to Johnny.

“We miss Jo,” Jimmy said.

“Dude, she just left,” Sam said.

“It’s the whole not seeing her anymore, she was fun.” Johnny let out a sigh.

“I’m fun too,” Sam said and when they ignored her she laughed. “Oh, come on guys, it’s not like you’re never going to see her again, besides you can all text her or call her.”

That got their attention, they all were about to reach for their phones but they stopped when Sam said, “Not right now, give her some room to breathe.” She let out a laugh when they looked at her with puppy dog eyes, she herself felt like texting Jo, but she didn’t .

Jo drove calmly, she was going back to say goodbye to everything. She had not told anyone but the movie producer wanted Jo in L.A. as soon as possible, but she pushed him off until next summer. It was now August and she would start her fourth and final year at the University, she wanted to finish that before she moved on with anything else.

She had decided not to tell Matt about the book being hers, it was better he didn’t know for now. He needed to believe her saying goodbye right now meant they wouldn’t have anything to do with each other ever again. She liked that idea.

It was going to be along drive home, but she needed to make it. She had talked to Paula and allowed her to stay in the apartment, after all Jo was planning on going back to the house, fixing it up and selling it. It would be her pet project.

Her phone woke her from her day dream. “Hello?” she picked it up not recognizing the number.

“Hello, Ms.Soiman,” a woman’s voice travelled through her ear.

“Yes,” Jo said.

“I’m calling on behalf of Mr.Andreson,” that was one of the movie producers, “he was wondering if you had the time to speak to him,”

“Yeah can you give me a couple of minutes,” Jo said. When the woman agreed she pulled the car over and took out her head set and charger, she plugged in the phone and placed it to her ear. “Ok, I can talk to him now.”

“Thank you,” the woman said and Jo had lovely annoying music playing while she was on hold.

“Ms.Soiman,” the voice traveled into her ear as she pulled away from the side of the road.

“Hello, Mr.Anderson, but please call me Jo,” she said easing into traffic.

“If you call me Andy,” he said smoothly.

“Alright, Andy what can I do for you?” Jo asked.

“Well, there’s a problem, one of the producers is pulling out, he has some bad investments and he can’t back up the movie any longer,” Andy said, Jo let out a sigh.

“Alright, is the damage big?” She asked.

“Well, not considerable, but still, it would be better if we had another person investing into the movie,” Andy said smoothly.

“Ok, I’ll do it,” Jo said, realizing this gave her more power over the movie.

“Are you sure you can?” Andy asked.

“Yes, I’m sure. Now just send the papers to my lawyer in Canada, I’m on my way there.”

“Well, and here I thought I could ask you to dinner to celebrate,” Andy sounded disappointed.

“I’m sorry, but I won’t be anywhere in the United States until next summer, around April to be exact,” Jo said.

“And why is that?” Andy asked.

“I have t finish my undergrad degree at the University of Windsor,” Jo said matter of fact.

“Oh, but you’re a very rich woman,” Andy said.

“Well, you’re only as rich as the education you have, I believe,” Jo said with a smile.

“Alright, well when you come back to town, would you give me a call and we can arrange a meeting, I would love to meet you in person.” Andy let out a sigh.
“Of course the feeling is mutual, now I must let you go, I’m driving and it’s not safe to be on the phone,” Jo said wanting to let him go, she didn’t want someone she worked with to hit on her.

“Of course, I’ll keep in touch,” Andy warned her.

Jo hung up the phone and stared at the road again, she was ready to face her demons even if that meant breaking her heart by herself again.