“Still no answer?”
“No….Argghhh”
She slammed down the phone and stared at it. Keryn should be there! What was going on. Just as she was about to pick it up and dial again it rang. It gave her such a fright that she splashed her coffee down her front. Charlie with a stifled giggle reached over and answered the phone.
“Hello, Kayla’s personal answering service, how may I help you.”
Kayla shot him a pained glare. Having slept all of 2 hours during the night because of nerves she wasn’t exactly perky.
“Keryn…” Charlie continued, “She was just trying to ring you…woke the whole house? Why who else is there…..oh early…Yeah well she’s a bit cranky this morning, seems that she once slept about half a wink last night….”
Kayla grabbed the phone off him.
“Morning Kezz..”
“You okay?”
“Yeah, just a little nervous, you know the norm. How are the guys?”
“Fine, Fine.”
Keryn was lying through her teeth there was no way known that she was going to tell Kayla before her call back the real reason why nobody was answering the phone.
“That’s good, did Taylor have any friendly adventures with the toilets onboard?”
“Well, I haven’t brought it up.” Keryn laughed back. “Hey you sound tired too....late night?”
“Yeah very.”
“Don’t tell me they insisted on watching all the Star Wars as soon as they arrived home?”
“Yep.” Replied Keryn lying through her teeth, she wished it had been that simple.
“Well, I guess I might as well ask, is Ike there? Can I speak to him?”
Keryn’s face feel and she searched for something to say.
“Nah he’s still asleep. They’re all asleep.”
“Keryn it’s 2 in the afternoon, they never sleep that late, they’re energiser bunnies.”
“Well I guess their all dead tired from all the promoing, I’ve been creeping around the house with Jessie all morning.”
“Oh, well tell them I’ll give them a ring later tonight. Okay? Wish me luck!”
“LUCK! Bye Kayla.”
“Bye Kezz.”
Upon putting down the phone Keryn wandered back into the living room where Ike was still sprawled on the floor. Taylor looked up helplessly, he had been mopping his brothers brow for the past hour and it didn’t seem like it was doing any good.
“Did you tell her?”
“I couldn’t.”
“Someone is going to have to sometime.” Said Taylor as he squeezed out the cloth again.
“I know Tay, but she has her call back today. She doesn’t need this hanging in the back in her mind. And I can’t exactly tell her when she’s home alone, she is going to freak out. You know that.”
“I know Keryn, but we cant not tell her, this she needs to know. Besides Charlie will be there.”
Keryn took the cloth out of Taylor’s hand and sighed.
“I know, I’m thinking of ringing Charlie in about and hour and letting him tell her. At least she wont have to get the news over the phone.”
“Yeah, that sounds like a better idea.”
Working again in silence Keryn bent down to examine Ike’s bruised face, To think this would happen to Ike. To think he would behave like this. Taylor lent against the sofa and looked meekly on, he felt betrayed. His older, apparently wiser brother had just proved that he love sometimes wasn’t what it was cut out to be.
Zac was doing his best at keeping Margo at bay and his parents entertained in Tulsa. He couldn’t take them back to the house yet. He had to give the others time to get Ike slightly presentable, or stash him in some cupboard. And Margo…well Margo wouldn’t stop draping herself all over him. He sometimes couldn’t quite remember what it was about her that made him attracted. He shot out another smile as he attempted to drag his mother into another shop, hoping this would buy him more time. While wandering the aisles of the shop Zac’s brain was functioning at top speed. He could quite piece together the night. After arriving home they had all gone their separate ways. Taylor and Keryn had headed quickly out the back to sit in the warm air that still lingered in the darkened night. Zac and his Dad has herded all the things into the house and then gone on with his father to spend some more time with the family seeing Taylor was spending time with Keryn and Ike had pleaded fatigue. Then by the time Zac returned home Taylor and Keryn were freaking out, Ike was nowhere to be found and he wasn’t answering his phone. Zac had been ordered to stay at home in case he rang while the other two got into the car in search of him. It was so unlike Ike not to say he was going out, especially odd of him not to say where he was going and it just didn’t fit. The comic exchanges on the way home had turned to rushed words of anxiety. Left in the darkened house Zac had sat by the phone for three hours. He couldn’t help but to fall asleep. Upon waking he had found Taylor and Keryn attending to a snoring Ike who stank of cigars and beer.
Margo’s screech of delight brought Zac’s recounting mind back to the present. She held up a red shiny miniskirt and asked in a painful whine if Zac liked it. As his eyes refocused he managed a nod and automatically followed her to the cash register.
“Do I look OK?” Asked Kayla
“Yes.”
“Could you at least look!!”
Kayla stood in her third outfit asked a very confused Charlie for his opinion.
“Kayla, seriously you look fine, but I seriously don’t see the difference. It looks the same as the last outfit.”
“Charlie, you’re supposed to be helping. This belt is hot pink that last one was baby.”
“Ohhh”
“I can’t believe this, I am so nervous, are you sure I look Ok?”
“You look fine, you always look fine. And please can we go….”
“Okay okay…just let me get my…”
Charlie watched her back as she hurried off again to her room for some small something. It was killing him watching her parade around in front of him as a friend. Maybe she would relax and see all the hints after the pressure of the casting. He jingled the keys as he slipped his shoes on. This had been such a long drawn out process for her, in the midst of a very eventful year. One couldn’t blame her for being so nervous. Her flittering body now threw open the front door and with a happy “Are You Coming?” she was out on the pavement. Charlie scooped up his mobile and followed her out.
“Taylor poking him won’t help.”
“I know that Keryn.”
“Then stop it.”
“Give me a break, how often is it I can poke my older brother without getting killed?”
“About as often as it is that he gets drunk and has to be dragged home from a bar by his brother and girlfriend.”
“Keryn. Calm down. Nobody saw.”
“Taylor, he is underaged!”
“Nobody saw, he is fine. He’s home now. He’ll be fine when he wakes up. Apart from a headache and a couple of killer bruises he’ll be fine.”
“Stop saying he’ll be fine! I don’t know why you are taking this so lightly, we have no idea what he was doing in there.”
Taylor rolled his eyes.
“He was doing what normal teenage boys do. He was trying to be normal, trying to find a girlfriend trying to loosen up.”
“I cant believe this. You’re brother is nothing like that, I can’t believe you would even think that he would be the kind of guy to go to a bar too “loosen up” and “find a girlfriend.” He’s way above all that.”
“Nope, he is a teenage male.”
“And that is supposed to mean?”
“It is supposed to mean that you are wrong Keryn. The reason he was out there last night was a pale attempt to get over Kayla. I know that for a fact.”
“How?”
“He told me.”
Keryn’s eyebrows raised. She couldn’t understand all this. It was so confusing. But never the less there was a half dead Ike in front of her confirming Taylor’s words.
“Truthfully?”
He nodded in reply.
“Oh God, how are we going to tell Kayla?”
“We’re not. Charlie will, after you’ve told him.”
Keryn sighed and pulled herself off the floor while tossing Taylor the cloth.
“We better get him upstairs, then I’ll give Charlie a ring.”
“Thanks Keryn, You know I couldn’t do this without you.”
“Yeah I know. Just next time you come home, try to make it less exciting.”
Taylor smiled through the glaze of fatigue.
“That I can guarantee.”
Charlie sat on the brink wall outside the studio drinking a can of coke. The sun was beating down on him and already he was sweltering. Summer was going to be a stinker this year. He stretched and threw the empty can into a nearby bin. Studio’s in LA were gross. He hated them. Knowing Kayla she would come out smelling like cigars and insist on needed a shower ASAP. The guys in there were always cranky and smelly. The whole atmosphere inside being one of a dampened darkened burrow. The people living in there seeming to never come into the sunlight. It was nearing late afternoon, people were starting to pound the streets, Charlie quickly walked into the side ally that led into the park. Sitting on the bench he began to play snake on his Nokia. As he was just about to beat his highest score the phone began to ring, he cursed and answered it.
“Hello?”
“Hey Charlie it’s Keryn…”
“Keryn this better be damn important! I just sacrificed my highest ever snake score for this call!”
“Trust me it’ll be worth it.”
Her deadened tone caught his breath,
“Something wrong?”
“Something is very wrong..”
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