Jaded (Rock Star Trilogy) (8 page)

I can't help but laugh at that. “I haven't been on Twitter since Monday.”

“Me either,” he says, sheepishly. “I had to sign out of it on my phone. I keep getting hate tweets.”

“
I wonder why...”

“
Seriously, you have some loyal fans. They were threatening my life.”

I shrug. “Guess you won't mess with Scarlett Ryan again.”

Stephan shakes his head. “You should really stop referring to yourself in the third person,
Scarlett Ryan
. It's kind of creepy.”

I roll my eyes jokingly. “I'm Scarlett Ryan, and I don't have to take this.”

Stephan just shakes his head.

3:15pm

Weird.

We pull into Stephan's house at 3:15, and I'm surprised to see his mom's car is there. She's rarely ever home, especially during the day. Stephan stiffens when he sees her car.

“
Should I just go home?” I ask, not wanting to intrude. We definitely aren't at the
meet my parents
stage... Far from it, in fact.

“
No!” he answers quickly. “It's fine. You can meet her. She'll love you.”

“
Wow.
Stephan Montgomery is introducing me to his mother.
”

“
Well, I wouldn't introduce just any girl to her,” he smiles.

Damn, his smile should be illegal.

“I hope she likes me.”

“
She will. In fact, she already does. She's a big fan. She's never missed a TV appearance with you.”

“
Great...” I roll my eyes.

“
Hey, I was just warning you.” He takes off his seat belt. “Come on, I'll protect you.”

“
Fine. Let me just tell Bob I'll be here tonight and he can take the rest of the night off.” I get out of my car, and Bob is parked behind us. Stephan waits for me at his front door.

“
Hey, you can just take off the rest of the night. I'm going to be here all night anyway,” I tell him.

“
Ok, Miss Ryan. I will see you in the morning.”

I follow Stephan inside his house. Ethan hasn't made it back from school yet, so I follow him into the kitchen where his mom is pouring herself a glass of ice tea.

“Mom.” She looks up at him, and smiles, then looks over at me. Her glass is full of tea, but she keeps pouring. It is slowly overflowing onto the counter. “This is my friend, Scarlett Ryan. Scarlett, this is my mother, Sarah James.”

His mom finally notices what she's doing and immediately puts down the jug of tea. She wipes up the spilled tea off the counter. “It's so nice to meet you, Scarlett,” she says in a very controlled voice. “I'm a big fan. Um, Stephan didn't tell me that you two were friends.”

“Are you ashamed of me?” I joke with Stephan.

“
Would you like to stay for dinner? I know that my husband would be thrilled to have you,” she urges me.

“
Sure,” I say, then look at Stephan. “I mean, as long as it's alright with Stephan.”

“
Of course it is!” Sarah jumps before Stephan can even respond.

I hear the front door open and Ethan walks into the kitchen. He looks annoyed. “Ready to study?”

“Yeah,” I say. “Nice to meet you Mrs. James.” I turn to Stephan. “You want to study with us?”

He shakes his head. “You two go ahead.”

4:25 pm

Mind your own business.

“Enough studying!” I tell Ethan after only 45 minutes. I feel like banging my head against the wall. “If I see one more math equation I may kill myself.”

Ethan get's a very serious look on his face. “That's not funny, Scarlett. Suicide is not something to joke about.”

“It was just an expression. I'm not
actually
suicidal. I'm sorry if it offended you, but I promise I'm not going to off myself,” I quickly say.

He sighs. “Sorry. It's just a sensitive subject for me.”

“Why? What happened?”

“
I don't really want to talk about it.”

I nod, and decide to change the subject. “So, I was thinking about Mona. She's kind of a bitch. I think you should set your sights on somebody else. Maybe somebody with a personality.”

“And maybe you should mind your own business.” His voice is cold, and very unlike him. “Seriously, don't act like you know anything.”

“
I'm not,” I defend myself. “Seriously, get a grip, Ethan. The girl sent her clone to tell me that as long as you were with me, I wasn't welcome at her table. Do you really want to be with a girl like that?”

He doesn't answer.

I get up and gather my things. I'm so furious that my hand is shaking. I'm about to open the door, but Ethan stops me.

“
I'm sorry, Scarlett. It's just really complicated, but it's not my story to tell.”

“
Stephan?” I ask.

“
Yeah,” he says in a whisper. “But, don't ask him yet. Let him tell you when he's ready.”

I nod my head, but don't say a word. Honestly, I think I may be scared to. I walk out of his room.

4:40 pm

The 'L' word.

I walk down the hallway and eventually I find Stephan sitting in his room. He's listening to music, but he has his headphones on so I can't tell what is playing. I sit beside him on the bed, and he looks up at me smiling.

“
Hey,” he says, pulling off his headphones.

“
Hey,” I repeat. I look around his messy room. It's exactly how I pictured it would be. Posters of classic cars are hanging on the wall, his bed is black, and clothes are spread out across the floor. “No poster of me?” I ask, trying to act hurt.

He rolls his eyes. “I'm not the kind of guy who lusts after what he can't have.”

“Who said you can't have me?” It's a joke. Sort of.

“
Um, duh,
you
did.”

“
Whatever.” I roll my eyes.

“
Pull out your phone,” he insists.

“
So you can update my Twitter again?” I ask, shaking my head. “No way.”

“
Seriously. I promise not to update your Twitter, Facebook, or whatever other social network you have...”

I pull out my phone, and hand it to him. “If you're lying, I will cut off your balls.”

He grabs my phone, and gives me a serious look. “That's not funny.” He scrolls through my phone, and then holds it up to me. It's the tweet from Monday.

@RockStarScar: I have no clue who @Stephan_Montgomery is, but I can assure you, I will NEVER be in his pants.

“Why try?” he asks, smiling. “You obviously don't want me.”

“
Fine...” I click at my phone and then hand it back to him. He smiles.

@RockStarScar: I take back what I said about @Stephan_Montgomery. I have every intention of getting in his pants.

He clears his throat.

“
Oh my gosh, Stephan! Are you blushing?” I joke with him.

“
Just because you want me doesn't mean I want you,” he says, smiling. I know he's joking, but he's trying to sound serious. “I am not easy. I don't give just anybody the golden ticket.”

I laugh when I realize that he quoted what I told him the first day. “Who says I won't work for it?”

“Ooooh, you play dirty,” he raises his eyebrow at me. “But, two can play at that game.”

My phone vibrates in my hand, and I look down to see the tweets pouring in. I turn my phone off and set it on the desk beside his bed.

“Whoa,” he says with disbelief. “Miss High and Mighty Rock Star is turning
off
her phone? Whatever will you do without your adoring fans telling you how awesome you are every five seconds?”

“
I guess I'd rather listen to
you
tell
me
how awesome I am.” I flutter my eyelashes at him.

He throws a pillow in my face.

“HEY!” I throw it back.

He looks at me, and I swear I can see desire in his eyes. He moves closer to my mouth, and says, “I think you already know how I feel about you.”

“It's still nice to hear it out loud.” I never once look away from his lips, which are literally inches from mine.

“
No matter what I feel, I'm not going to tell you after knowing you four days.”

“
I've told you more about me in these four days than I've
ever
told anybody else.” It's the truth. I've never been close to anybody, at least not since Stacy ran away.

“
I at least have to take you out on a date first. Then I can kiss you.” He pulls back, but I'm actually not disappointed. I smile, and have no idea what to say. Nobody has ever said anything that sweet to me before. I think I can definitely get used to small town guys.

No, it's not just small town guys. It's
Stephan
.

“
I think I may be in love,” I joke.

He laughs. “And I definitely won't say
the L word
for a really long time.”

“
Are you scared of love?”

“
No,” he shakes his head. “I'm just realistic. I won't say it until I'm one hundred percent certain that it's true. I don't think the word should just be thrown around. It kind of means less if you do.”

“
I've never been in love,” I admit.

“
Me either.” He hesitates, then says, “Unless you count my car, and I'm
definitely in love with my car
.”

I laugh, thankful that the subject was lighter. “You have a serious problem.”

“You're telling me. There is this blonde rock star who won't leave me alone. Seriously. I think she's stalking me.”

“
I can leave,” I say, getting up.

“
NO
!” He pulls me back down onto his bed. “I kind of like that you're always around.”

“
You should! You invited me!”

He shakes his head. “No, my stepbrother did, and then my mom asked you to stay.”

“And what if they wouldn't have asked me to come over?” And I am officially one of
those girls
. You know, the kind who fishes for compliments.

He smiles. “Well, I guess I would just have to ask you myself.”

It took everything in me not to let out a girly squeal when he said that. Wow. Could Stephan Montgomery be anymore perfect?

Probably not.

7:00 pm

Dinner with the James's.

When I was invited to dinner, I expected take out – pizza, Chinese food, maybe even Indian food. What I did not expect is an
actual home cooked meal
. I don't think I've had one of those...
ever
.

Spread out across the table is true southern comfort food – fried chicken, mashed potatoes (or
taters
at Stephan's mom calls them), cornbread, and gravy. I'm also pretty sure there is nothing on this table that my nutritionist would approve of. I decide that this weekend, I'm getting a gym membership.

“
Wow, Mrs. James, this looks amazing,” I compliment her, as she hands me a huge plate of food.

“
Call me Sarah.” She winks.

Stephan's mom is cute. She looks like somebody you would see on The Real Housewives of New Jersey, but she has real southern charm. It was a weird combination. I could even hear a little bit of a southern accent, if I wasn't mistaken.

“Where are you from, Sarah?” I ask.

“
I'm from Atlanta. I moved here when I married Stephan's father,” she answers proudly. “What about you darling? You always live in Los Angeles?”

I shake my head. “I'm actually from Seattle. I moved to California when I was 10. I think I like it here the best though. It's nice to get away from the big city.”

“What made you choose Hope?” she asks.

I feel my face grow warm. I chose it simply because of the name – Hope. I haven't had hope in a long time. But I'm certainly not going to say that to
her
.

“
I threw a dart at a map,” I joke.

Everybody laughs and thankfully that is the end of
that
conversation.

I enjoy every moment of my dinner with Stephan's family. His step dad isn't there, but I figured he was working late. I couldn't remember the last time I ate dinner with my parents, and we
never
ate at home. My dad likes me to be
seen
in public as often as possible. He isn't happy unless I grace the cover of all the gossip magazines, and tabloids. Sometimes, I wonder what it would be like to have
normal parents
. But, that isn't going to happen.