think the pressure’s
gotten to you.”
Jake just shook his head. “People say a lot of things. Why should I care?”
“Because,” Kurt told him, “you’ve
suddenly acquired an image problem.” He shot Raven a knowing glance as if to say, we both know this is all your fault .
Jake wasn’t paying attention, so Kurt
obviously knew he could get away with his little mind games.
Raven rolled her eyes at Kurt before
speaking. “The biggest problem
right now is that video of you insulting depressed and suicidal people. We need to find a way to show everyone
that you’ve changed.”
“Right, that’s where you come in,” Jake
said, finally looking at her. “We
need to get your story out there. But it can’t look planned, it can’t look phony and staged.”
Even
though it is .
Even
though I wish it wasn’t, and maybe part of me actually believes that you really
have changed and you do care about me, instead of only thinking about what I
can do for you.
Suddenly, Raven’s phone cell phone was
buzzing, and she looked at the caller ID.
The number, at first, was vaguely
familiar but for a moment she couldn’t for the life of her remember
why—but just for a moment. It
was only unfamiliar because she hadn’t seen it in years…even though it should
have been as familiar as her own number.
Because it was her own number.
It was her old home phone number, the
landline from her parents’ house in Southbridge Massachusetts. She stared at it like she’d seen a ghost.
“What’s wrong?” Jake asked, suddenly
taking an interest in her again. “Is it something with Skylar?”
“No,” Raven said, her stomach feeling
like someone had dropped it down an elevator shaft. “It’s my parents. Someone’s calling me.”
“Is that bad?” Kurt asked, his tone
condescending.
“It’s not bad …”
she said, not knowing if that was true or not. “I just haven’t kept in close contact
with my family since I moved away when I was seventeen.”
Kurt’s eyes widened and a strange grin
crept across his face. “That’s it,”
he whispered.
The cell phone stopped ringing and now it
just said missed call. She put it
away in her purse and tried not to think about it.
“I’ll call them back,” she said, not
knowing if she would.
Kurt laughed wildly. He took a long swig from his beer. “This is why I’m a genius,” he said,
tapping his head with a finger. “Because I think outside the frigging box.”
“Come on, spit it out already,” Jake
said, an edge seeping into his voice.
“The two of you need to go home,” Kurt
said, pointing his finger first at Raven and then
Jake.
“I don’t get it,” Jake said. “Why should I go home?”
“No,” Kurt corrected him. “You’re going to her hometown—together. Back to where she grew up, to meet her family.”
Raven felt the hair stand up on the back
of her neck. “I don’t think that’s
a good idea,” she said flatly.
“It’s not a good idea,” Jake said.
She breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness Jake didn’t agree with
Kurt’s horrible plan.
“It’s not?” Kurt said, his smile turning
to a frown.
“It’s a fucking great idea,” Jake smiled, hopping off the edge of the chair and
holding out his fist for a reply fist bump from his old buddy Kurt.
They laughed and Kurt took another swig
of beer and belched.
Raven thought how much she hated Jake’s
manager. But she didn’t say
anything right away because this wasn’t something she could just flat out
refuse to do. If Jake liked the
idea, she needed to help him see why it was bad, without telling him the total
truth. Especially not with Kurt
listening to every word she said, waiting to smell any weakness before he
attacked.
“Don’t you think people will view it as
Jake running away from everything if he leaves New York, the tour,
everything—and escapes to some small town in