Echoes of Us (21 page)

Sometimes, we all left together. Sometimes, Andy had Jade and Kelli go out for dinner and Maggie and I would do something else. I hated being apart from Jade, but it was part of our job.

Two days before we left for our tour, we were hanging out in the safety of the house in LA. Maggie was talking to Mrs. Morgan, telling her about the tour. She put her on speaker so I could hear her.

“I know what’s going on,” Mrs. Morgan said. “I follow you all on Twitter.”

She voiced her displeasure that we weren’t coming to Chicago on this leg of the tour, and reminded us of the promise we made to her.

“Jade and Rylan have no control over what cities they visit,” Maggie said.

“Well, hurry up and get here before I croak or something,” she said.

“You’re not going to croak,” I said.

She snorted. “When your time is up, it’s up.”

“Are you sick or something?”

“Well, no, but I want to see my boys,” she said.

“I’ll see what I can do,” I said.

We talked for a few more minutes before Mrs. Morgan had to say good-bye. She was going out to lunch with her no-good son.

“Was that Mrs. Morgan?” Jade asked when he came into the room.

“Yeah. She’s concerned she may die before we play in Chicago,” I said.

“Andy wants us to come to the office,” Jade said.

I groaned. “Can’t we have one day off?”

“He probably wants to go over all the rules and regulations we must abide by during this tour. Pete’s waiting for us.”

Ms. Loe, Andy’s red-haired guardian, let us by without so much as a glance. She may have smirked at us. I never knew if she was happy or mad when we came to the office. I think she liked to keep me guessing, because sometimes she even seemed friendly, but most of the time she just freaked me out.

“Hello, gentlemen,” Andy Tremaine said as he spun his chair around to face us.

“Hi, Andy,” Jade said and sat down.

“This won’t take long,” Andy said. “I wanted to let you know you have both totally surprised me. We were going to save these until after the first leg of this tour, but there’s going to be more, much more.”

He grinned at us and slid two pieces of paper across his desk. We both picked them up and turned them over.

Jade stared at the check in his hand. I forgot how to breathe. I wasn’t expecting this much money. I wasn’t expecting anywhere close to what was on this check, but since I couldn’t breathe, I was going to expire before I could spend any of it.

“Rylan,” Jade said and punched my arm.

“Uh,” I grunted. My heart seemed to be beating again, and my lungs were taking in air.

“I want a car,” Jade said.

“Me too,” I agreed.

“Let’s go shopping. Can someone drive us?” Jade asked.

Andy laughed and made a quick call. “Downstairs. Behave, there’ll be photographers.”

I rolled my eyes. There were always photographers.

“Where to, gentlemen?” Pete asked.

“Porsche dealer!” we both shouted at the same time.

“You want a Porsche?” I asked.

“Always have,” Jade said, grinning at me.

“Good choice,” Pete said.

The salesman was a total dick to us, basically waving us off as two young kids who didn’t have a pot to piss in. Pete disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a different guy in tow.

“Take a break, Monroe,” the new guy said.

“Yeah, take a fucking break, Monroe,” Jade said, sneering at the jerk. I couldn’t help but laugh and hope Monroe’s salary was based on commission.

Pete winked at us. I knew he’d probably called Andy to vouch for us, but I didn’t give a damn. This new salesman, Derek, was awesome. We strolled around the showroom floor, looking at the different styles of Porsches. Jade may have been drooling when he crawled into a convertible 911 Carrera Cabriolet.

I found myself standing in front of a 911 Carrera. I wanted a top on my car that didn’t come off.

“I want it,” I said.

I’d never been frivolous with money, but I really wanted this car, and all I’d been doing for the last few months was working my ass off. This was a reward. A very expensive reward, but fuck it, you only live once, and I could afford the damn thing.

My car was midnight blue, and Jade’s convertible was metallic black. We signed a bunch of papers. Pete pulled out two cashier’s checks and told us the cars were a bonus from Andy. I almost passed out.

After spending over two hundred thousand dollars, I was starving. We made Pete come out to eat with us. His phone beeped in the middle of lunch, and he excused himself.

“I’ve been thinking,” Jade said. He folded and refolded his napkin several times.

“About what?” I asked. The tablecloth covered our feet, so I inched my foot forward until I found his foot.

“Hey, guys,” Pete said. “Ella wants me to bring you over to this store to pick up some new clothes.”

We quickly finished lunch and took a ride over to some exclusive shop for men.

Ella must have called ahead and cleared out the store for us, because there was a closed sign hanging on the door. The salesman was buzzing around the store, pulling items as his phone beeped. Ella must have been texting him.

“We never finished our conversation in the restaurant. What have you been thinking about?” I asked as we headed into the dressing room again.

“Well, we should probably pick a few places to buy houses,” Jade said. “If you want.”

“What?” I asked.

“Um, we won’t be staying in Andy Tremaine’s rental house forever, so I was just thinking about it. I mean….” Jade’s face turned bright red.

“You want to buy some houses together?” I asked.

A sweet, crooked smile spread across his face. “When I gave you that bracelet, I meant it.”

“Let’s go home,” I said, dropping the clothes onto the nearest display table.

“But….” Jade paused and looked at me.

“If we don’t go home this second, I’m going to jump your bones right in this fucking store. I don’t think Andy would be impressed.”

“Right,” Jade said.

The sales guy who had been helping us came around the corner with an armload of shirts.

“Sorry, but we have to go,” I said. “I promise we’ll be back, and when we do, we’ll ask for you.” I looked at his nametag. “Dustin. Remember that name, Jade, or just pack up all the stuff Ella wants and send it to her. She’ll know where to find us.”

We raced out of the shop, startling the photographers waiting to ambush our shopping trip. Jade waved and jumped into the car. I climbed in after him, and we took off. I pulled him down and kissed him.

“Guys,” Pete warned.

“Right,” I panted. “Sorry.” I sat up and stared at my cock straining to get out of my pants.

I sent a text to Maggie. The girls were out shopping and we would have the house to ourselves.

I think Pete broke the sound barrier getting us home. We barely made it into the house before our clothes were off and Jade had me pinned to the wall.

“You know,” he whispered. “I’ve heard it’s fucking sexy as hell to fuck someone up against the wall.”

Whoever said that was a fucking idiot. It was a lot of work to get in the right position for wall sex. I wasn’t some pixie, lightweight girl. Jade was a strong guy, but to hold me in the air while fucking me was too much work. Plus, I was going to have wall burns on my back. In the end, we settled with Jade sitting on the floor leaning against the wall and me facing him, riding him. It was a great position. We finished right before Maggie and Kelli walked through the front door.

“What is this spot on the rug?” Kelli asked.

Jade barked out a laugh and slammed our bedroom door.

“Do not tell them anything,” I said, covering Jade’s mouth with my hand. “Maggie will call the cleaning crew, and I don’t want anyone else around tonight. I need to spend time with you.”

Jade licked my hand. Within ten minutes, he had me flat on my back with my legs over his shoulders. After we finished, Jade passed out and couldn’t be moved. I was starving and needed some food. As I walked by Maggie’s room, I heard crying. I tapped on the door, but she didn’t answer.

“Maggie? Can I come in?” I asked and knocked again. She sniffled, but didn’t answer. I opened the door. She was sitting on her bed with her laptop in her lap and tears were streaming down her face.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she mumbled and wiped her face with her sleeve.

“No pleading the Fifth,” I said.

She groaned. “Fine, but it’s stupid. I was tweeting like I’m supposed to do, and some assholes started attacking me. I’m just tired. It usually doesn’t bother me. I mean I don’t know these stupid people. Why should I give a shit what they think about me?”

I scanned the screen and people were calling her all sorts of shitty names. Some told her she should die.

“Maggie, how long has this been going on?” I asked.

Maggie snorted. “The moment I was introduced as your girlfriend. Not all the people are this bad. It just got too mean tonight.”

She clicked off the screen, and YouTube came up. My name was plastered all over the screen. “What are all those videos?” I asked.

“You don’t know about these?”

“No, I don’t have time to mess around on the Internet. I barely have time to breathe anymore.”

“These are the RheartJ shippers,” she said. It was like she was talking in a secret code, but then she clicked on a video. Images of Jade and I together played across the screen. The way he looked at me during some interview made my stomach do a somersault. Playful touches and teases during an old concert I didn’t even realize happened were highlighted and slo-mo’d.

“There are tons of these RheartJ videos all over the Internet. There’s stuff written about you guys being in love and theories that Kelli and I are beards. Some people have way too much fucking time on their hands.”

We watched a few more.

“Fuck,” I said. “Andy hasn’t said anything. Maybe he doesn’t know about this shit.”

Maggie gave me a look that told me I was an idiot. “If you’re a fan of Rylan and Jade, you know about RheartJ. I’m sure Andy knows, but what the hell is he supposed to do? He can’t shut down the Internet.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. I knew she would shout at me for apologizing, but I didn’t know what else to say. This whole thing was turning into a gigantic headache, all because I loved Jade.

“Rylan,” Maggie said.

“I know, but I am sorry you have to go through all this shit. I don’t understand how people can hate someone they don’t even know.”

“They are jealous that I know you,” she said.

“That’s crazy,” I said. “When are you and Kelli hooking up with us?”

“Not sure yet,” Maggie said. “We meet with Andy tomorrow to discuss our schedule. I know we’re not going right away. He said he didn’t want any distractions for the first couple shows. Promise me you’ll be mellow and maybe you won’t need us.”

I snorted. “I’ll always need you.”

“Just try to have some fun. Be friends with Jade onstage. You can be lovers behind closed doors,” she said. “I know it sucks, but it’s better than nothing.”

She leaned against me and softly cried on my shoulder. It wasn’t often Maggie let the world get to her. Usually, she was propping me up. It was my turn to be her rock.

A few hours later, Jade found me in Maggie’s room holding her. She had finally cried herself out and fallen asleep on my arm. I didn’t dare move.

“Hey,” Jade said. “Is everything okay?”

“Did you know about all this RheartJ stuff and that people attack Maggie and Kelli online?”

Jade sighed and sat down on the bed. “Yeah, Kelli gets upset about it sometimes. I tweeted a few times pleading with people to knock that shit off, but it only fueled the fire. I don’t look at the shit anymore.”

“It’s horrible,” I said.

“I don’t know how the girls can handle it,” Jade said. “Reading some of the shit people write makes me want to punch them in the face. I doubt they would ever have the guts to say it to our faces.”

Jade curled up next to me, and we stayed in Maggie’s room for the night. Early in the morning, Jade shook me hard, shouting something about our cars being delivered. It was hard to get excited when Maggie and Kelli were being called whores. Maggie bonked me on the head and told me to get over it. She was just having a bad night, and if I really was worried about her I would let her drive my shiny new car. It was the least I could do. We raced around town until Maggie was due at Andy’s office.

Jade and I were leaving late that night, and I didn’t know if I’d see her again before we went, so I gave her a kiss on the cheek and a hug. Of course, someone captured the moment and posted it online, gleefully stating our relationship was a fake. I sighed and waited for the shit to hit the fan again.

When I got back home, Jade was waiting on the front step, sitting on a pile of luggage. Pete was picking us up in less than an hour.

“I think I got everything,” Jade said.

I didn’t care. If I forgot something important, someone could send it to me.

“Nervous?” Jade asked when we boarded the plane.

“Always,” I said.

“I’m here for you,” Jade said.

I bit my lip and looked down at my feet. I wanted to kiss him and snuggle into the warmth of his body, but we’d probably get tossed from the plane.

“Thanks,” I whispered and pressed my knee against his thigh.

Our first show was in Seattle. When we walked into the arena and saw all the seats, Dave had to physically carry me to the stage. I didn’t want to know how many people were going to be at the show that night.

Ethan, Brody, and Jens raced up to the stage and jumped around like maniacs, screaming about the enormity of the moment. It made me feel faint.

“Scope it out,” Jade said to Dave as he placed me in a chair. I had no idea what Jade wanted scoped out. A few minutes later, Dave waved at Jade from the side of the stage.

“Come on,” Jade said, pulling me out of the chair by my arm.

I followed close behind him. Dave pointed at a door and Jade pushed me inside the small dark space. He wrapped me in a tight hug, kissing my neck and whispering to me. “I love you, Rylan. We deserve this.”