Generations 2.7 kindle (5 page)

……

J
ackson knew Kat well enough to know that the parking lot pep-talk wasn’t the end of the conversation. She talked about it the entire way home. Jackson wished that he would have driven his own car. Instead, he was trapped in Bugsy listening to an entire recap of Ben asking her out. Again and again. He could perform it verbatim in a one-man play if necessary.

As Katrina drove into their subdivision, Jackson took a good look at her. She was wreck-ish. Pale face, scowling eyes, and her hair—she really shouldn’t fluff it when she gets stressed out. It looked kinda poodle-puffish.

Jackson foresaw a problem: if he could read Kat like an open book, surely others could as well. Her dad would see Kat and instantly know something was up. And Kat would either blurt out the Ben Wilder secret … or lie about it. The lie would be bad and require lots of smaller lies to corroborate. Jackson didn’t know that he had the brainpower to keep up with another lie.

“Hey Kat,” Jackson said, “Do you want me to tell your parents what is going on?”

She looked surprised. Sorta relieved too. “Would you?
 
Could you?”

“Try green eggs and ham?” He had to say it. Also, “Try them on a boat, with a goat? In a house, with a mouse?”

 
She didn’t even crack a smile. “Seriously, Jack. Do you think you could?”

Her hands were tight on the steering wheel. Exactly at ten and two. She never drove like that. Yeah, he had better help her out. He told her that he knew he could trust her parents not to blab. Plus, Jackson didn’t know how much longer his dad could keep it from her dad, Darin. They were best friends. They talked basically every day. It was going to slip out eventually.

Kat’s dad was in the kitchen doing the dinner dishes. Her little sister sat at the kitchen table doing homework. Jackson and Kat had agreed not to tell Taylor. She was eight. She was gabby. She was also in love with Ben Wilder. She definitely would not keep the secret.

“What time will mom be home?” Kat asked. Jackson could tell that she was being careful not to fluctuate her voice. It backfired. She sounded like she was trying to hide something.

Darin turned from his dishes and looked from Kat to Jackson and then back to Kat again. “What’s up?” he asked.

“Nothing.” Kat said it too fast. It implied that something was certainly up. “We just need to talk to her. And to you.” Taylor looked up. “Privately,” Kat added.

Darin scrutinized them again. It was like the look he gave them in the backyard a few weeks ago. When Jackson was lying on top of Kat. The look that said “What in the name of Hef are you doing to my daughter?” Only this look was a little worse. Jackson felt like shrinking. Sheesh. Darin had never looked at Jackson like that before. Like he was a poisonous weed that needed to be eradicated.

“So?” Kat asked. “When will mom be home? Soon? Or should we do this later?”

“Yeah. Soon. Five, maybe ten minutes. Can you wait that long?”

Jackson had to hide a smirk. He could tell that not only was Darin irritated, he was also dying from the suspense. Oh, this could be fun.

Jamie Hayes came home exactly seven minutes later. Dang. Darin was good. Then again, he probably had some new GPS device to test. He’d probably attached it to Jamie’s car. He likely had a detailed route, including changes in elevation made, of Jamie’s entire route that day. Not that he was a spy or anything. Just a camping/hiking gadget tester guy. And there was always some sort of research going on at the Hayes house.

By the time Jamie arrived, Jackson had pitched in to help with the dishes. Kat had been to the bathroom and came back with her hair pulled back. Much better. She must have realized that all that fluffing she does when stressed equals ughair. If only she would remember that. Jackson heard Darin whisper something to Jamie as she bent in to kiss him. Darin said, “Kids … talk to us … it’s serious.” Jackson wanted to laugh. But he kept on loading the dishwasher. He pretended like nothing was on his mind. Like he had no need to speak to anyone, whatsoever. And that the only thing he was interested in was doing the dishes.

He kept it up until the entire dishwasher was full. He could tell that everyone was staring at him … waiting. And rather impatiently. Finally, Darin led them downstairs into his office. He actually locked the door at the top of the stairs so Taylor couldn’t come close enough to eavesdrop. Darin must have sensed the enormity of this discussion. After all, Jackson had never requested to talk in private with Kat’s parents before. He had better make this good.

Once they had all taken a seat in Darin’s office, Jackson began, “As you know, Kat and I are best friends ….” He made his voice low and somber. “We are close. We know everything about each other. But … um … something happened.”

Kat squinted at him. Her parents looked alarmed.

“We maybe let something get out of hand.” He was referring to the secret with Ben, but Jackson knew that it sounded like something else. This was intentional. “And now there are consequences. That we don’t quite know how to handle.”

Oh, yikes. He’d better stop. Jackson had forgotten that Darin’s gun collection was down here, in this very room. And Darin looked like he was ready to polish some guns. Jamie looked pale, like she was going to faint. Kat looked mad—which was never good. She, in fact, tried to kick him, but missed.

“What Jackson is supposed to be saying is that this video—the competition that he won …” Kat spoke quickly, like she was worried that if she didn’t redirect the conversation, maybe Jack
would
get shot. “… He’s doing a video for Ben Wilder.”

There should have been screaming and happy cheers. Instead there was silence.

It must have taken a few seconds for what Kat said to sink in. “Ben Wilder?” Her mom asked.

Then there
was
some serious screaming. Kat’s parents were excited, but most of the screaming came from Kat. Like this was the first she’d ever heard the news. “Ben Wilder!” she screamed again.

After a brief round of congrats for Jackson, the conversation ultimately turned to Ben. Darin and Jamie wanted to know what Ben was like. Not what the video was like. Not what Jackson was learning about directing, not what an amazing opportunity this was. They wanted to know all about His Greatness, Ben Wilder. Jackson was a little annoyed, but he did get a kick out of one of Darin’s question.

“What about Lena? Ben’s mom? Have you met her?” Darin eagerly asked.

Jamie shot Darin a glare. So that’s where Kat learned it from. Then Jackson saw Darin erase that goofy grin and replace it with a look of attrition.

“Ah, no,” Jackson answered, even though maybe he wasn’t supposed to respond. “Just his stepdad.”

It was at this point in the conversation that Kat told her parents she had gone with Jackson to the studio the past two days. Her parents looked surprised, and even a little miffed. Of course, Kat hadn’t been able to tell them what she was up to. She may even have lied about her whereabouts. All to keep Jackson’s secret.

He felt bad, so he quickly spoke up. “The entire project is top secret right now. Ben’s people don’t want the word to get out about me doing the treatment, mostly because they think it will be a problem for me. Ya know, everyone and their dog … and Kat,” he couldn’t pass that opportunity up. He gave Kat a sly glance. She glared. “… would think that I could arrange for them to meet Ben. So this has to remain confidential. It can’t leave this room. I was only supposed to tell family. I could get removed from the project for disclosing this.”

Jamie reached out and patted Jackson’s arm. “No worries—we won’t tell anyone. Besides, I don’t think they would mind you telling us; we’re practically family.”

“Yeah, right.” Jackson said. “Practically. Kat’s like my sister.”

Kat gave him a look of warning before her mom started hounding her about Ben.

“So did you
meet him? Did you talk to him?”

Jackson kinda tuned them out. But he heard Kat say, “Oh, his eyes, mom. Unbelievable.” And blah blah blah. Jackson didn’t want to hear anymore about Ben’s dreamy eyes.

So he seized on the opportunity to tell Darin what he had heard about Ben’s mom, Lena. “She’s been in Italy, visiting her family. But she’s supposed to be back next week. They are talking like she’ll drop in to the studio to watch the filming.”

Darin glanced in Jamie’s direction. “Do you think you could get a picture with her? Or get her autograph?”

Jackson thought about his contract: it said that he couldn’t ask for Ben’s autograph. But it didn’t say anything about Lena. “Um, yeah. I’ll try my best.”

“Wow, this is so cool!”Darin exclaimed. “What a connection to make! There’s no one in the music industry bigger than the Wilders. Wow!”

Darin’s eyes lit up even more. “You know: if you could ever arrange to get some of Dan Wilder’s memorabilia … that would just be amazing. That stuff if priceless. You know I have a drumstick from that concert I went to in New York. It’s not Dan Wilder’s. But so close.”

Yeah, Jackson had heard that story before. How his dad and Darin were at Dan Wilder’s big Central Park concert back in the eighties, and they elbowed their way to the front. They both jumped to catch the drumsticks thrown by the drummer at the end of the show, but Darin was two inches taller and more aggressive than Jackson’s dad.

“That’s not gonna happen,” Jackson said. “I can’t even mention Dan’s name on the set. It’s completely forbidden. Like saying Voldemort.”

“Oh, yeah. Well, that makes sense.” Darin sounded disappointed. Then he reached out and put his arm around Jackson’s shoulder. “This is good news, Jackson.” He gave a little laugh. “I thought for a second there that you’d gotten Kat pregnant.”

Darin’s hand squeezed Jackson’s shoulder. Ouch. Jackson tried to laugh it off. “Yeah, I was just toying with ya.”

Darin’s hand was still squeezing. “Not funny. At all.” Then he patted Jackson affectionately and smiled like maybe he was teasing a little too. Hard to tell. But just to be on the safe side, Jackson would never pull a stunt like that again. Or ever lay a hand on Kat. Just to be safe.

……

J
ackson was semi-relieved when he was able to go to the sound stage by himself on Friday. He hoped Kat would be out-of-sight, out-of-mind to Ben. That would be the relieved part. But Jackson missed her himself. He somehow felt more confident when she was around. More comfortable in this high-stakes new world he so desperately wanted to belong to. The world she seemed to fit into so seamlessly. And she had helped Jackson fit in better. People who had never given him the time of day before were suddenly his friend. Including you-know-who.

During the first break, it was obvious that she wasn’t out-of-mind like Jackson had hoped. Ben brought her up, just seconds into his conversation with Jackson. “So were you trying to tell me something yesterday? Katrina turned me down.”

Okay, he could go two ways with this. Ben set it up perfectly. It would be so easy for Jackson to say Kat wasn’t into Ben. Then the rockstar crush on his best friend (aka stepsister) would be over. That was Jackson’s preferred option.

But, yeah, he knew he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t lie to Ben. And he especially couldn’t deceive Kat like that. So he had to choose option number two. Jackson gave Ben the run-down of his conversation with Kat yesterday: how much she regretted saying no, and how she really wished she didn’t have a prior commitment. Jackson was careful not to say too much: he didn’t want Kat to sound like a desperate bimbo.
 

Ben listened intently. Then he smiled a huge magazine-cover kind of smile and smacked Jackson on the back. “Cool. Thanks, man.”

“Ouch,” Jackson muttered. Why did he always feel like a human slap jockey?

“So, if I asked her again, she’d say yes?” Ben asked.

Jackson could hear the hopeful longing in Ben’s voice. “Yes, definitely,” Jackson said. “Unless she is getting deported, or has surgery scheduled, or has detention or something.”

Ben didn’t laugh. “So this dance thing she has … what is it exactly?”

 
“Um,” Kat’s dance world was nearly foreign to Jackson. “I don’t really know. She’s just in this troupe. They do ballroom dance and stuff. I think she said they are performing at a birthday party. For that game-show guy. What’s his name? The old one with the gray hair.”

“Gregory Ball?”

“Yeah. Him. He’s way old. A hundred and fifty, I think. So they are doing a performance to celebrate … his oldness.”

“Awesome,” Ben said. He gave Jackson huge, triumphant smile and turned to leave, marking the end of the conversation.

Obviously Ben only had one thing on his mind.