Lost in Stereo

Jade's Point of View

I didn’t get any sleep that night. After I’d finally quit crying, I’d plugged my headphones in and wrote in my journal for an hour or two. It felt to me that time was passing by increasingly slowly. Finally, everyone else was starting to wake up, so I felt that it was safe to start making a little noise in my bunk. I was about to call Liz when Jack tore back my curtain.

“We need to call Mom,” he told me. “We didn’t call her last night.”

“Jack, you’re a big boy, you don’t need to talk to Mom every single night,” I rolled my eyes.

“I know,” he said. “I usually talk to her like once a week on tour, but she’s never sent you off before, so she’s gonna wanna talk to you.”

I sighed impatiently. “I don’t have anything to say to Mom.”

“Really? You don’t wanna tell her how much you’re loving tour?” he asked.

I scoffed. “What gave you that impression?”

“Wishful thinking,” Jack half-laughed. “Seriously though, call her.”

“I’ll call her later,” I brushed him off. “I wanna talk to Liz.” Liz was basically my go-to girl when I had a problem. She was opinionated and blunt, which I definitely needed a dose of. With any luck, she’d be with Andrea, who’d give me something to laugh at. It wasn’t that Skye didn’t do either of those things for me, but I didn’t want to burden her with my Alex problems by putting her in the middle of everything. She had enough to worry about, especially since the previous night she’d stood up for me.

“Call Liz later,” Jack was insisting. “You should call Mom.”

Skye happened to be walking by and smacked the back of Jack’s head. “Just let her call Liz, you dope.”

“Yeah,” I agreed, thankful for her. “I’ll call Mom tonight. I’ll have more to talk to her about then. The first show’s tonight, right?” Jack nodded. “Then I’ll probably have stories to tell her about working merch with Vinny.”

Jack shrugged. “Fair enough. Just don’t forget.”

“I won’t,” I replied. Jack left and I thanked Skye.

“No problem,” she waved me off. “It’s what friends do.”

“So are you okay?” I asked. “I heard you and Alex fighting last night.”

“I’m fine,” she said. “I’m more worried about you.”

“I’m fine,” I repeated.

Skye shot me a look. “You never talk to me anymore.”

“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “Really. I just don’t want to put you in the middle of everything. Or anyone else, for that matter. I’d feel like an asshole. Plus, I don’t wanna burden you with it. I know you’ve got a lot of stuff going on, too.”

Skye sighed. “I appreciate that. But seriously, if you wanna talk, I’m here.”

I thanked Skye again and she headed off to go talk to Zack. I called Liz and talked to her for awhile, telling her what happened between Alex and me. She started cursing him out and saying what a dickhead he was, so I felt a little better after that. We talked about some other people we hated, and then I segued into my good news.

“So I have an update about the apartment,” I started. “Jack saved the day. He told me I could work merch during tour.”

“That’s so awesome!” Liz cheered. “So the apartment’s back on?”

“Definitely,” I nodded. “Let Andrea know, okay? I’ve gotta go and charge my phone.”

We said good-bye and I headed over to an outlet to plug my phone and let it charge, first making sure the lock on my phone was working and then cleared all my texts just to make sure. I set my phone down and headed to my bunk to try to take a nap, smiling just a little as I fell asleep, reveling in the fact that I’d have something to look forward to when I came home.