Radio Love Song

Jenna drove through the quiet neighborhood. Everyone was either in school or at work. She pulled into the driveway of a one story white house and put her black sedan in park. Moments later, Sharon walked out of the house and shut the front door behind her. She double checked to make sure it was locked.

"Thanks for picking me up," she said once she was in the car.

"It's no problem," Jenna said while pulling out of J's driveway. "It was along the way anyway."

"Oh, where are you going?"

"PetCo, Crook needs some treats and new toys."

"Oh," Sharon said and then proceeded to talk about Travis and J and the confusion she was feeling about them. It even continued once they were inside the pet store.

"Look," Jenna cut her off. "If you don't like J then break up with him and talk to Travis."

"What if he lies again?"

"Boys lie. That's a chance you're going to have to take." Annoyed, Jenna turned back to the shelves of toys. Sharon stayed silent after that.

* * * * *

"Hey doll, there's been a slight change in plans," Gabe said after walking into his apartment. He immediately stopped where he was. "Whoa, that is one big dog."

"Don't be nervous," she quickly said but was a moment too late. Crook already picked up his negative energy and became alert.

"Aww, what a cute doggie!" He started talking to Crook as if he were a baby.

"No touch, no talk, no eye contact!"

"Yes m' am," Gabe said and looked away from him.

"You're so retarded," Jenna said and laughed at him. Gabe shrugged his shoulders and slowly sat next to her.

"I try."

"Really? That seemed effortless to me."

"Whatever little girl!"

"How was your day?"

"They were so mad when I said we were going out of town so I wouldn't be here. I thought Nate was going to explode! Pete wasn't too happy either."

"That's pretty great to be honest. They need to get over themselves anyway...at least some more than others."

Gabe reached out and scratched Crook's head after he finally warmed up to him. When he stopped, Crook set his head in Gabe's lap and stared at him. After a moment, when Gabe still hadn't touched him again, Crook groaned and put a paw on his lap.

"Can you pet him again already?" Jenna picked up his favorite tennis ball and threw it. Crook went after it.

"No throwing stuff in the apartment," Gabe said in an assertive voice and stood up.

"Yes sir," Jenna said and made a face at him. Gabe pulled his shirt off and sat back on the couch. "You know, I think Sharon might be a little mad at me."

"Why?"

"After I picked her up from J's, she kind of went off on this tangent about J and Travis and I pretty much told her to shut up about it. She hasn't said a word to me since."

"What'd she say?"

"Pretty much that she likes J but she's not sure she likes him enough to stay with him and that she still loves Travis and may or may not want to give it another try with him but he's with Katy Perry now and she doesn't really know what to do and all I could really say was shut the fuck up. I'm a terrible friend."

"No you're not. I mean, it's not like you don't have your own things going on that aren't a big deal to you. You claim my friends hate you, you're about to meet my family, you've got your own things to deal with."

"I don't claim your friends hate me, they do."

"I don't think they hate you. I think they just don't understand you."

"What?"

"Look, in the past, they've met all my girlfriends before they became my girlfriends. You on the other hand, just showed up. I haven't really told them much about you to be honest. I don't know what you want them to know and what you don't so I haven't said anything."

"How did this go from me being a bad friend to your friends not understanding me?"

"You're not a bad friend. You're just preoccupied. It happens. She'll get over it."

"She still hasn't gotten over the fact that Travis has a child."

"If she wants another go with him, then she probably has."

"No, I don't think so. She said, and I quote, 'But J doesn't have any kids,' end quote."

"Oh, well that changes things."

"And she never once brought up Justyn, not one single time."

"I never really realized how complicated she was," Gabe said.

"She's not complicated, she's fickle," Jenna said.

"Okay Jenna, don't get too annoyed now. Have you had any dinner yet?" He changed the subject.

"No," she said as he pulled out his phone and then called a pizza place. While he did that, she answered the knock at the door. Pete, Ashlee and Patrick stood on the other side.

"Is Gabe here?" Pete asked.

Instead of saying anything, Jenna just nodded her head and let them into the apartment.

"Thanks," Pete said quietly.

* * * * *

"Who called her a gold digging whore?" Alex said as everyone took a seat in the booth in the Denny's.

"I may have said something along those lines," Victoria confessed.

"Vicky! Shame on you!" Alex exclaimed in a joking manner. "No but seriously, was that really called for?"

"I don't know," Victoria shrugged her shoulders. "Probably."

"No, it wasn't. Trust me; she's not after Gabe for his money. She really does love him. You would be able to tell if you just talked to her but you obviously can't since you and Nate have your heads so far up your asses-"

"Alex, come on," Ryland said trying to stop him from snapping on them. He didn't want him to say something he'd regret later. "Don't say something you might regret later."

"The only thing I regret at this moment is that I couldn't really see who I befriended." Alex got up and walked outside.

"I'll be right back," Ryland said and slid out of the booth and went outside.

Alex was pacing a small section of the parking lot.

"Are you all right?" Ryland asked.

"No! Jenna's become one of my best friends and I come to find out that you guys have been calling her a whore among other things."

"I didn't call her anything," Ryland said and put his hands in the air as if to signal that he was backing off.

"Yeah," Alex nodded his head, "right."

"I seriously haven't said anything negative about the girl. I don't know her enough to like her but she also hasn't given me a reason to hate her. Look, let's just go back inside and drop the subject completely."

"Fine," Alex said and walked ahead of Ryland. Nate and Victoria rearranged themselves so they were sitting next to one another. Neither of them wanted to be next to Alex while he was in this state of mind.

"You seriously called her that?" Nate asked.

"Yeah, when we were at Angels and Kings, Tess and I had gone to into the bathroom and she was already in there but we didn't know and I guess she heard and told Gabe."

"There has to be another side to her that we haven't seen, one that keeps Gabe at bay and away from us."

"I'm sure she's a perfect angel when Gabe's around." Victoria rolled her eyes.

"You're just jealous," Nate said and sat back.

"Look who's talking," she snapped back.

Ryland walked back into the restaurant and sat down.

"Where's Al?" Nate asked.

"He had to make a quick phone call," was all Ryland said. Just to piss Victoria off, Alex called Gabe and invited him and everyone else to join them.

* * * * *

Jenna had to admit to herself that she felt a little guilty for bonding so well with Ashlee. Ashlee had taken her mind off the fact that Sharon wasn't responding to any of her texts. They both bonded over the fact that they both used to be dancers, each giving it up for totally different reasons.

"Not to interrupt girl time," Gabe said as he walked into the kitchen where the girls were, "but Alex just invited us to meet up with him and the others at Denny's and Pete and I just wanna know if you ladies would like to go?"

"Yeah, sure," Jenna said and nodded her head.

"Are you sure?" Gabe asked in a shocked tone of voice.

"You honestly didn't think I would turn down an invitation from Alex, now did you?"

"Well..." Gabe wasn't sure what to say.

"Just let me change and then we can go?" They both nodded their heads. Gabe followed her to the bedroom while Ashlee waited with the boys in the living room.

"That was kind of odd," Gabe admitted.

"What was?"

"You were accepting an invitation to be in the same room as the others."

"Oh, well, it'd have to be done eventually. Besides, I got you, Alex and Ashlee if I need you."

"So you like her, Ashlee?"

"Yeah, she's a great girl. A lot different than I thought."

"Well I'm glad to see you're getting along with someone," Gabe said as he zipped up his jeans.

"Can we meet everyone at Denny's? I wanna drop Crook off at Daniel's. I don't want my dog to be alone."

"Yeah, sure," Gabe said and looked at her. He quickly did a double take of her. "Well that's a cute outfit, when'd you get that shirt? You look pretty hot if I do say so myself."

Jenna blushed and looked down at her teal plaid baby doll shirt with black skinny jeans and her Chuck Taylors. "I've had it for a while, I just never wore it."

"Well I can't wait to take it off you tonight."

"Can we just go now?" she asked and blushed again. Gabe laughed and grabbed his purple hoody and her navy blue Midtown hoody and followed her and the others out of his apartment.

* * * * *

"Can you meet me at Denny's?"

"Why?"

"Because we need to talk about Justyn."

"Fine! Will she be there?"

"Yes."

"If she says one single word to me, I will punch her in the face," Sharon warned Travis.

"All right, jeez," Travis said and hung up.

Sharon sighed and put her phone on the table. She couldn't pin point exactly how she felt at the moment. Her ex-boyfriend wanted her to meet him and his girlfriend somewhere. Her best friend wasn't being much of a best friend at all. Frustrated, she grabbed her zip up hoody and left Daniel's house. Jenna and Gabe had been there just minutes before. All she did was drop off her dog, say a couple words to Daniel and leave. She didn't bother trying to get Sharon to talk to her. If that's how she wants to be then that's fine with me! Sharon thought to herself as she drove across town.

When she got there, Katy and Travis were waiting in the parking lot. Katy was the last person she wanted to see.

"Hi," Katy said, trying to be a civil person.

"Whatever," Sharon grumbled as she walked into the restaurant.

The restaurant was pretty empty except for the corner where there was a large group of people. She instantly recognized Cobra Starship with Pete, Patrick, Ashlee and Jenna. Her best friend was sitting next to Ashlee Simpson, the same girl she used to call a lip synching good for nothing harlot. Whatever. The waitress sat them close to the group so she could manage better but still far enough so that they wouldn't feel crowded.

They spent the next half hour talking about what to do about Justyn. Justyn noticed that Sharon had gone missing and was refusing to listen to Travis or Katy until he saw her again. Sharon didn't want to see him but Travis wanted her to see him.

"Travis, that's just going to confuse him, I don't want to confuse him," Sharon objected.

"He loves you though. He really wants to see you," Travis practically begged.

"Fine, I don't have any days off until Saturday though."

"That's fine. I'm sure I can reason with him until then."

"Great. Can I go now?" she asked as she stood up.

"Yeah, I'll walk you out," Travis said and stood up also.

After crawling under the table, Jenna ran out the door.

"Sharon!" she called after her. Sharon glanced at her but kept walking.

Everything seemed to happen in a second flat. Screeching tires echoed throughout the entire area. Jenna screamed for Sharon again just before she watched her best friend and Travis and Katy get struck by the out of control vehicle.