The Nerd Daughter

I headed over to the sodas were and grabbed an Arizona Ice Tea, they were my guilty pleasure, and then I headed over to where the snacks were and grabbed a tuna sandwich, “That’s all?” Derek asked from behind me, “Yeah, I was munching on some chips so I’m not that hungry” he nodded and I saw in his hand was a bottle of Jack Daniels. “I didn’t know you drank, and two you’re only eighteen how is it that I wasn’t old enough to buy it, but you are” he snickered at my pout, “I have a fake ID” he whispered. I gasped, “Those are illegal” I said louder than I should have, he placed hand on my mouth and pushed my back against the clear door of where the drinks were.

My eyes widened and Derek looked over to where the cashier is, “Is what illegal?” he asked suspiciously as he looked at the Jack Daniels in his hand, “She means my piercings, she thinks they should be illegal” the cashier wasn’t that convinced, but he left it alone. I stared up at Derek who is 6’3 by the way, and he smiled at me, I’ve never seen this side of him, and as much as I wanted to deny it; it sent tingling feelings in my stomach and I wasn’t sure if I liked it.

Derek’s POV

I looked down on Jamie, her eyes wide her chest pushing against mine and her breathing became heavier, just looking at her like that sent a tingling feeling in inappropriate places and I wasn’t very sure if I liked it, but I knew I had to back off before I did something. I slowly let my hand drop from her mouth, but neither of us made a move to leave, “Hey love birds, let’s hit the road” that kind of snapped us out of our thoughts and both of us blushed, “Sorry, I got to go pay for this” she said, and left me there hanging.

After I paid for the JD, I went back to the car to see Jamie waiting for me, already in the driver’s seat. I sighed and went into the car to finish the trip, it was a little awkward when we were in the car, and I had hoped that it would disappear, and it did once I decided to sing to some obnoxious song on the radio, Jamie started to giggle, but then the giggle went into a full blown laughter, that tears were pouring out of her eyes. Her laughter was infectious and soon we were all laughing in the car, I had to park the car on the sideline so we wouldn’t crash, once we were able to control our laughter Jamie’s phone rang. “Hello?” she asked, “Yeah, we’re fine.
No it was Derek’s fault he made me laugh and we had to stop because we didn’t want to crash. We’re on our way” she hung up the phone once she was done.

She sighed, “She’s asking us why we stopped, and that to get our butts over to them now” I scoffed, “Well, she’s rude” she chuckled, “Let’s go before she has a bigger bitch fit” I started the car and we were able to catch up with the other car within the hour. We kept our pace to make it to California, and it got dark soon and Jamie had fallen asleep in the back seat.

Huntington Beach

Matt’s POV

I was in the studio with the guys, and nothing was coming out right, “Dude, are you okay?” Jimmy asked, I sighed, “I don’t know man, I feel weird” Jimmy furrowed his eyebrows and said, “Maybe you should head home, take a break” I nod, “I guess” he placed a hand on my shoulder, “No worries, Syn can start doing his part, and then once we’re done we’ll head over to you house and drink some beer” I nod and leave the studio, but not before telling the guys where I was going. I headed home and went to the basement; I started to play some call of duty to try and get this feeling to go away. I felt like something was missing and I hated feeling this way, and I’ve been feeling this way for a while now, but it seemed that it was escalating and I hate feeling this because it was something I couldn’t control.

After playing for a couple of hours, I heard the knocking the door and I went to answer it, to se Jimmy and the guys waiting at the door. Jimmy grinned and raised a plastic bag, “I brought beer” he sang, I chuckled, and opened the door wider for them to enter and crash on the couch. After a couple of beer and talking about the new album Brian said, “Michelle got a call from Val yesterday” he looked at me expecting some type of reaction out of me. I shrugged, “And?” he sighed, “She’s coming back, apparently something happened in New York and now she’s back for good and then she asked for you” I wasn’t interested as to why she was asking for me, but I knew I had to ask, because whether or not I wanted to Brian was going to tell me

“What did she want?” I asked, “That if you guys wanted to meet and maybe continue where you guys apparently left off” “And what did Michelle said?” “She wasn’t really into it, she tried to tell her you moved on” I groaned, “Great, now I have to deal with that” that was the end of the conversation of Val coming back and we continued on what we wanted to have on the album. There was no doubt that Val coming back was nothing but a coincidence and I wasn’t going to back with her, after her leaving me eighteen years ago. The guys ended up leaving after their girls called them, and I was now alone in my house, I decided to sleep early because today had been a long day and I was not happy for the fact that Val decided to come back and think everything was fine.

Jamie’s POV

I felt someone shake my shoulder and I woke up seeing a blurry Derek looking over me, “Jamie, We’re here” he said, I put my glasses on and I looked out the window to see we had arrived at George’s parents summer home. “Swanky” I said, Derek chuckled, “Yeah, I know right” he said, “At least we don’t have to pay for a hotel” I nod my head, “Come on before they take all the good rooms” I said to Derek. George was waiting for us by the door, and once we were all there he opened the door, we all walked inside awing at everything, “I’m guessing you guys like it” he said, “You have no idea” Tyler said, “Well, let me show you guys the rooms and then I’ll give you guys the rest of the tour of the house”

After we were all settled in our rooms, George decided to give us a tour of his parent’s house and started from the basement, “All right so this is the entertainment room,” he said, pointing at different things around the room, “it has a couple of game system, it has a pool table, a bar, and everything that is entertaining” once he said that, Tyler yelled, “Score!” and ran to all the game systems that were placed in front of the flat screen and started playing Call of Duty. We had left Tyler in the basement, only hearing swear words and threats against their opponents, he continued the tour and he showed us, the living room, kitchen, library, offices, music room, and the pool. I decided to venture back into the library and get some reading, I grabbed the first book that had caught my interest and decided to sit by the window.

Derek’s POV

“So when are we going to Jamie’s Dad house?” asked Tyler, I shrugged my shoulders, “I don’t know man, but I’ll ask her now since I am pretty sure she’s in the library George showed us” I left Tyler and George in the kitchen and headed towards the library, I opened the door slightly to see if she was really in there. When I did, I saw Jamie on the windowsill, a book in her lap; I smiled and decided to knock on the door frame, Jamie suddenly looked towards the door and saw me standing there. “Hey Derek” she said, “Hey Munchkin” I said as I walked in and I placed her legs on my lap. “So, the guys and I were talking on when you wanted to head over to your dad’s house” I asked.

She bit her lip, that’s when I knew something was wrong, “What’s wrong? I thought you wanted this” I said, she sighed, “I do, but what if he doesn’t believe me, I mean I don’t look anything like him, I mean other than the dimples I looked nothing like him” she had tears in her eyes, and I opened my arms and she immediately attached her arms around me. I tried soothing her, “Jamie, I understand the insecurity of him not acknowledging you as his daughter, but you know that if it doesn’t work out, you have me and the rest of the guys to pick up the pieces, whoever this guy is, would have to be one of the dumbest guy ever to ever reject you” I said.
I heard her sniffle, “You will?” she asked looking up at me with her doe eyes, “Of course, no matter what happens we’ll always be there” she cuddled her face against my chest, “Can I tell you something Jamie?” she nodded against my chest, “We’ve known each other for a while now right?” I asked, she looked up at me, “Yeah” I sighed getting nervous all of a sudden, “It’s been really hard for me to tell you this since we’ve been friends for so long” I said, “and I don’t want anyone to tell you this, but I love you” she smiled, “I love you too” I placed my hands on her face and said, “No, I love you more than friends, I have for so long now, that I didn’t want to ruin our friendship if I told you how I felt, but I mean you’re taking a chance to find your dad, so why can’t I take that chance”

By the end of my rant I released my hold on Jamie, her eyes were wide, “I don’t know what to say” she said, I was about to move away so that I could leave, but she placed her hands on my chest, “But it doesn’t mean I can’t give this a chance, I know I might not return those feelings right now, but I am willing to give it a try” she said smiling, a blush on her cheeks. I smiled at her, “You don’t know how much that’s means to me”

All of a sudden I heard cheering by the door, “Finally, I thought I had to punch you if you didn’t” Tyler said, “Now, that that’s done when you want to go knock on your dad’s door?”

The Next Morning

Jamie’s POV

I woke up this morning confused for a moment as to where I was until I realized that I was in California, I smiled opening the curtains to the room that I had chosen, the balcony looked over the beach and I was absolutely enthralled by the beauty of it. I decided to shower today and maybe work up the guts to find my father, after changing I walked downstairs to the kitchen where a lady was there cooking, “Hello Ms. Sanders” she said in Latin accent, “Hello, um, who are you?” I asked, she smiles, “Oh, I am the cook, Maria, what would like to eat?” she asked.
I was nervous, I didn’t want to have a woman cook for me, I was pretty sure she had other things to do, “It’s okay, I can make my own” I said, she tsked me as said, “No, Ms. Sanders, do not worry, I make breakfast” she said, I shrugged “Okay, well, I have been yearning for some pancakes” I said blushing. She nods and gets to work on making some pancakes, “Will the other guests like some pancakes as well” I nodded my head. She placed a plate in front of me with a stack of pancakes and I started to eat, “These are Delicious, Maria” I said, “Thank you very much”. She smiled, “It was my pleasure” she said, moments later Derek walked in the kitchen with Tyler, Susie Q, Lilly, and George behind him.

“Thanks Maria for breakfast” I hear the guys and girls say, “So what are today’s plans?” George asked, “I was thinking of finding my dad” I said nervously, Lily and Susie Q placed a hand on mine, “Okay, we can do that” George said, “Where do we start though?” Tyler asked, since we couldn’t get much out of the photo we had to find some other alternative way to find Matt Sanders. I bit my lip, “Maybe we could try and ask people, or go through the local yellow book” I saw the guys thinking about it and Tyler suggested we do the yellow books first since asking around would be kind of weird. I nod my head, Derek found a yellow book by the door so he brought it over to the table, “Okay so his name is Matt Sanders, I’m guessing Matt is short for Matthew” he said, he flipped through the pages of the book when he saw that there was at least a few pages of just different Matthew Sanders.

“Okay, so I’ll tear these out and give each of you three, grab a marker and cross off those who are not the guy we’re looking for” Derek said, “What are we going to ask? Did you know a Valary DiBenedetto?” Susie Q asked sarcastically. Derek smiled, “Of course, Susie Q!” I giggled at Susie Q’s expression, “You can’t be serious I mean, her mom was a slut. No offence Jimmy” she said, “None taken” I returned. Derek shrugged his shoulders, “It’s the best we can do for now” he said, “Okay, so for now we’ll start and make calls and then if this doesn’t work we’ll try something else.” While they started making calls, I was able to slip away from them and headed outside to the backyard; I walked to the shoreline and let the water reach my ankles. The fact that I was here made it even more real for me to know that my father could be miles, yards, or even inches away from me, I closed my eyes thinking of how the meeting with my father was going to be; I know for sure there is going to be crying involved.

I walked along the shoreline letting the ocean breeze blow through my hair, I wrapped my arms around myself to keep warm, when I heard someone yell behind me, “Jimmy!” I turned around and squint my eyes to see George running towards me with a sweater in hand, “Hey! How do you know my name?” I heard a deep voice with lisp ask behind me, I gasped and turned around to see a very tall man with piercing blue eyes, narrowed at me. “Um” I started when George stood in front of me, “It’s her nickname” he stated his eyes narrowed at him as well. When those words passed his lips, the man grinned, “That’s my name too” he said, “High five” and raised his hand high enough for me to slap him, which I did nervously behind George.