Set Fire to the Rain

This little plan that J and I had come up with to win over Eliza, ok, this whole thing was admittedly concocted by Jay, and I have to admit, it sounds genius, in theory. I however, was beginning to have major doubts about the entire thing. Jared kept saying that in the grand scheme of things, I wasn’t looking at the big picture. Maybe he was right and I hadn’t been. It just wasn’t something I had ever really done, until Eliza appeared in my life that was. Part of this whole idea my little brother had come up with, was that I had to come up with a Grand Gesture to show Eliza how I felt about her and the lengths that I would go too in order to have her in my life. He said it would be a new way of sweeping her off her feet. In all honesty, I thought I was doing that already, but not according to the all-knowing Jared. He said I would have to ‘woo’ her. Yes, my brother actually used the word 'woo'. Insert major eye roll here. God all mighty, the things that came out of his mouth sometimes. Anyway, so I would have to woo Eliza, make a grand gesture, and if all went well, make things official with her, as in making her my ‘official’ girlfriend, and live happily ever after, I hope by the time I leave at the end of the week. Getting to that point within 1 week was going to be nothing if not challenging especially since we have 2 shows coming up, one tomorrow and then one on Friday night, oh yeah add to that the fact that Jared had decided that I should completely and totally ignore the woman in that time. Now how the fuck that would happen I don’t know. All I do know is that when we are finally finished with tour, I can focus all my energy on winning Eliza’s heart. Jared and I decided that we would probably need to bring in an extra accomplice or two to help us out, figuring that MJ and Kym would be the best people to have on our side to conspire with. Mags because she knows her mom so well, and we can easily get the inside scoop on everything, if she’s willing to do it, and Kym I am fairly certain will be more than happy to help us try to make this happen. Jared was presently on his cell phone with MJ as I stood in his open modern styled kitchen drinking a large mug of coffee. After Jared had talked with Mags we were going to get in touch with Emma and have her get Kym’s contact information for me so I could fill her in on what we were planning. From there, hopefully everything would fall into place. Unfortunately, a Genie in a Bottle I am not, nor do I have a crystal ball, and as of right now, I wish I did. And honestly, I’d even take advice from a Magic 8 Ball right now. Yeah, a fucking toy, with no rhyme or reason for any answer it gives. At that I found myself chuckling sadly. Sounded like a very recent conversation I had with a very gorgeous woman I know. Fuck I just wanted to call her and hear her laugh. This sucks big brass monkey balls man, and I fucking hate it.

Being pulled from my own selfish thoughts, I could hear Jay laughing in the living room continued on with his conversation. How the hell I was going to actually be able to do what Jared wanted to set forth into motion? Eliza had become such a big part of my life in such a short period of time, I couldn’t even explain it. I thought myself a bit crazy in the beginning, when I found that I was thinking of her, wanting to see and talk to her and just be with her all the fucking time. I had to be crazy, right. I had just met her, and she was consuming my thoughts. Then when we spent time together, there was a connection between us that was undeniable, well at least on my part. I looked out the window above the sink in Jared’s kitchen, staring out into the darkness, slowly drinking my coffee deep in thought… It’s like she’s my other half, I feel complete when we are together and incomplete, not myself, almost lost when we are apart. Yeah, crazy I know. This is what Jared believes will happen if I push Eliza away, ignore her… she will realize that she misses me, she needs me and has the same deep seeded feelings as I do yet is terrified to admit them. What Jared is hoping is that by me pushing her away, and ignoring her, that she will realize what it is she wants quicker than if we were to leave well enough alone. Then of course we also have the help of MJ, Jake and Kyme. I hope. It sounds good from what I have heard so far on our end, and I can only assume that Kyme will be all for Eliza and I getting together. The huge downside to all of this is that Eliza completely shuts down and decides that she wants nothing to do with me anymore, or the worst would be that she tells me she doesn’t feel anything for me. I think that would just about kill me. I can’t even think about the possibility of that right now. Deep breath man, think positive… So going forward with this mastermind plan to win over the most amazing woman I have ever known, means, I can’t text her, call her, see her, absolutely nothing for almost a fucking week. If she calls me, I have to cut the conversation short and to the point. Keep it simple, find an excuse and get off the phone. Seriously, I have talked to Eliza almost every day since we met sometimes 3 times a day! How the hell am I supposed to start ignoring the woman? What if she comes to the show tomorrow then what? I started to really doubt J’s brilliant idea and my ability to pull this off. He told me that there was more to his amazing idea, but said he would fill me in after we finished with tour over the weekend. We had enough to worry about right now with getting through the next two shows. Suddenly I wasn’t feeling so well and I drank down some of the now Luke-warm coffee from my mug that I had been sipping on for the last half hour, and stared off at nothing in particular the whole time. One thing I didn’t quite understand about Jared and his amazing plan, was if he wanted me to woo her, then why the fuck was I ignoring her! It made no sense to me at all. I was seriously rethinking this whole idea.

“Someone looks like they are having second thoughts.” I heard from next to me. I glanced to my side and back down at my coffee shrugging my shoulders not answering my brother. “Shannon, come on, you can do this. If this all works out, you and El will be together at the end of next week. You just need to stay the course man.” Jared said with all sincerity placing a hand gently on Shannon’s shoulder.

“I don’t know if I can follow through with this, and if I fuck it up, it will be my fault that I lose her. How can I live with that?” I asked dumping the rest of my coffee into the sink washing the mug out and placing into the rack on the counter to dry. Turning towards Jared, I shook my head and walked around him into the living room.

“Well, if it helps, MJ’s on board and thinks it’s a great fucking idea. She can’t wait to help out whenever she can. If we want Jake in on it, she offered to talk to him too.”

“That’s great J. Really, I am happy she’s willing to help us out. Honestly, I don’t know how I feel about bringing him into this whole thing man. I already feel like this is turning into a 3 ringed circus.”

“Awwe, come on, it’s not that bad Shannon. You should be excited bro.” Jared said with an excited tone.

I shook my head at my brother in defeat. “I just…I’m just scared that I may have lost her before I even had my chance.” I ran both my hands through my hair and down over my face in a frustrated way, then looked up at my brother.

Jared came around and sat down next to me placing his arm around my shoulder and pulled me close. “Don’t worry so much Shannon. I have a feeling this is going to all work out exactly how it should. Just have a little faith.” With that he sat back crossing his arms over his chest.

“What if she shows up at the show tomorrow or Friday, what am I supposed to do? How do I blow her off and ignore the woman I am fucking crazy about?”

“Don’t worry about that, Mags said that El isn’t coming tomorrow night, she’s really sore and isn’t up for it. She is going to call you later to let you know I guess. Though, she’s still unsure about Friday and won’t decide until Friday morning. I have a feeling she may show up. If she does, you are friends, right? So be her friend and that’s it. I bet you anything she won’t know what the hell to make of it. I guarantee you that she will be putty in your hands by the Karaoke party for JT next week. By the way brother, it’s ok to admit that you are or have already fallen in love with her.” He said with a wiggle of the eyebrows.

“Bro, that is none of your fucking business. Besides it is only something that I would only say directly to her if and when I am ready too, and to no one else. And you think she will end up being Putty in my hands, huh? And you have a guarantee. What kind of guarantee is that?”

“It’s the Jared Leto guarantee of course. Its fail safe, you’ll see.”

“Mhmm. I guess we’ll see won’t we. You are slightly insane Jay.”

“Nope, not me!” He joked.

“Mhmm…Hey didn’t Evan ask you to look in on Mags this week while he’s back in Cali?”

“Yeah, poor guy has it real bad, like someone else I know.” Giving the cocky Jared Leto grin he was known for.

“Fuck off Jay.”

“Hey, I’m just stating the obvious. Anyway, he just wants me to check in on her every so often, call, text, make sure she hasn’t been abducted by aliens, shit like that.”

“That really isn’t very funny given the circumstances with her dad running around and we never know where the asshole is going to show up.”

“I know, I’m sorry, I was trying to lighten the mood.”

“You failed bro. How is this checking in thing going to work anyhow?” I asked leaning back resting my right arm along the back of the couch.

“Well, we figured that I would meet her at different times of the day at whatever class she may be coming from, and we can go hang. Or depending on what we have going on, I can walk her to and from class or between her dorm room and classes just to make sure she gets there ok. When I am not playing chaperone, we text or call each other to check in. If she doesn’t check in at a designated time, I know something is up and I go on alert.”

“You two have it all figured out don’t you?” I laughed.

“Hey, when I give someone my word that nothing will happen to the person they care about while they are gone, I fucking mean it.” Jared said very proudly puffing out his chest and placing his hands on his hips to make himself look more muscular.

I couldn’t help but to bust out laughing. The whole picture of him sitting there making the facial expression and pose reminded me of something he would do with his partner in crime Terry.

“What? I am serious about this! Don’t laugh at me asshole!” He yelled at me playfully.

“Hey, it’s nothing personal, it was just the whole picture in my head of you playing bodyguard to a teenage girl while her boyfriend is out of town, well it’s kind of cute J.” I joked shaking my head, and rubbing my chin trying to cover the huge grin that had spread across my face.

“She’s not a teenager, she’s 20 years old. So fuck you dick face!” Jared was really embarrassed for some reason. Lord I had to find him a girlfriend. Hahahahahaha!

“Well, excuuuuuse me. I’m sorry for giving you a hard time. I actually think that what you are doing for Evan is a really cool thing, especially considering everything that’s been going on lately with David and his fucking shit. Evan was genuinely concerned for Mag’s safety before he left, and I know he wouldn’t have been comfortable leaving her behind, if there wasn’t someone here to watch out for her that he trusted. That says a lot about you Jay.” I told my brother in all sincerity.

“Dawwwwe, thank you Shanny!” Jared said with a huge goofy grin spread across his face while making a heart shape over his chest with his hands. He was being a smart ass once again.
“Fuck you asshole.”

We sat in silence surprisingly for a few minutes while I tapped my fingers along the top of the couch and on my lap, force of habit. “J, did Mags say if Eliza mentioned anything about the beach and what happened there earlier?”

Taking a deep breath, he sat forward running a hand through his brown hair making it stand out even more, if it was possible, and then clasped his hands in front of him, as he fidgeted then looked up at me and spoke. “Mags only said that when El Skyped her earlier after she got home, she wasn’t herself. That normally after a day spent with you, she had a glow, a spark of life, and tonight, she looked... How did she describe it? I believe it was along the lines of she looked like she had lost everything. When MJ asked what was wrong, all she said was that you had brought her to the beach, and that El mumbled something about not knowing what she was doing, or what she had done or something like that. Because the connection wasn’t the best and Eliza wasn’t talking very loudly, she didn’t catch it. When MJ asked her if she wanted to talk about it, El said no, and that she needed to go make dinner. That was the end of it basically. When I asked how things looked to her, because I knew you would ask, she said her mom looks like shit.”

“Great. That makes me feel so much better about what we are going to do. Not.” I grumbled under my breath.

“It’s going to all work out. Trust me. This actually will work out in our benefit.”

“God, I hope so, and that’s why I came here, you know. I do trust you. Listen, it’s late and I am fucking exhausted, plus we are going to have a long ass day tomorrow, so I’m going to head home and get some rest. Thanks for the help man.” Glancing at the clock hanging on the opposite wall, it read close to 11pm, time had flown by. Thankfully, my apartment wasn’t that far from Jared’s.

I reached down to grab my jacket off of Jared’s couch and slipped it over my shoulders then turned and faced Jared. It had been a very long and emotionally exhausting day.
“Anytime bro. that’s what I’m here for.” Jared said standing up and walking towards me, we wrapped our arms around each other in a warm embrace and we said our goodbyes.