Hotbox (35 page)

The odd thing was that I could actually see myself being friends with a guy like Chris. When I thought about it, I realized we actually had a lot in common. He really did seem like a great guy around his other friends, just as Matt said, and I guess I did sort of feel left out because
he didn’t like me
. I
wanted
to be friends with him, but I also felt that he would never be willing to come to that point.
I wasn’t sure if that would ever change.

My thoughts were interrupted when I noticed Shawn had an acoustic guitar in his hands and he was playing a very familiar song.

“See, this is my version—” he played a part of the song and it sounded pretty
powerful
“—and here’s Jayden
—” he played the same part a bit timid,
forcing it to sound more
delicate.

“Oh, right!” Matt said, throwing an empty
soda
can at him. “You can’t even play every note, that’s why you just slam ‘em all together! At least Jay has some talent to add to it. Take that guitar away from him,” he told Jayden, “and show him how to do it right.”

“Yeah
Jayden, show me how to do it
right
,” Shawn mimicked. He handed her the guitar with a smirk
, but I could tell he already knew how well she could play it
.

“Why should I give you a free lesson?” she asked him with a smile.

Everyone laughed, but Shawn just shrugged his shoulders.

She put her fingers to the strings and played the exact same measures of the song, but it actually sounded like a complete mixture of the two styles that Shawn had played. It had the fierceness of “his” style, but the smoothness and intricacy of “hers.”

It brought a loud response from everyone.

“Oh
, man
!” Josh yelled at his brother. “You have been
outplayed
!”

“I don’t even know how you do shows without her,” Matt added. “You actually get paid when she doesn’t play with you?”

Shawn laughed and said, “No, not as much.” He winked at Jayden and she
tried to hand him
the guitar. “No,” he motioned, “you’ve earned the honor of playing something for us.”

“Th
anks, but no thanks,” she smiled.

“Oh, come on,
Jay,
” Chris spoke up. “Play us some
80’s hair band music, acoustic-style. You know Cali’s too shy to ask.”

Cali laughed out loud. “Did my brother call me shy?”

“Matt, do you still have that old, beat up Taylor?” Jayden asked him.

“I do. You want it?”

“Yes,” she smiled.

Matt got up to retrieve the requested guitar while Jayden handed Shawn his.

“Are we dueling, or duet-
ing
?” he smiled.

“You never win a duel,” Josh told him.

“Of course he does,” Jayden said. “Especially when he
chooses songs that I haven’t played for a while
.”

“
No, he usually gets out of it by claiming he’s too drunk
,” Matt added, handing Jayden a
very worn-looking
guitar. “It needs tuned. My nephew was here the other day.”

She worked on it for a
minute
while Shawn was playing another song. “Hey Jay, remember this?” He played out a few more measures and she smiled.

“Is that your version, or Craig’s?”

He scoffed. “Mine, of course.
Why would I play
his
?
”

“I was joking,” she rolled her eyes. “You think I’d forget being in the middle of you two, fighting over every note?”

Shawn laughed. “True. You
and uh… You two
walked out on us at least
a dozen
times.”

Ther
e was an awkward silence for a few
seconds
, and
everyone seemed to be staring at him.

“What?” he finally
asked
.

“You can’t even say her name,” Matt told him.

Shawn shook his head in denial. “I can too. I was just…” He shrugged.

“Say whose name?” I
murmured to Jayden
.

Shawn looked like he wanted to prevent Jayden from saying anything, but she turned to me with a smile and said, “Camryn.”

             
I recognized the name, and then slowly nodded my head. She was one of Jayden’s friends that visited her in the hospital.

             
“Is that a name we’re not supposed to
bring up
?” I asked.

Shawn waved his hand. “They’re just being dramatic.”

“Dramatic?” Matt asked with disbelief. “You pine over a girl for three years, spend countless hours playing music with her, can’t even get the nerve to ask her out, turn red at the mention of her name, and
we’re
being dramatic?”

“Whatever!” Shawn protested. “And I
did
go out with her, so I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m talking about the fact that you’ve never gotten over her, half your songs are about her, and you still can’t tell her how you
really
feel about her! No, you have to wait until she’s finally dating someone
else
, and
then
you want to get all sappy for her.”

“Ah, leave him alone,” Jayden said
to Matt
. “I don’t even want to get into
your
relationship issue
s
.”

“Yeah,” Stacie added, punching
Matt
in the arm.

“
Ow.
All I’m saying is that he should just be honest.”

“And what is that gonna do?” Shawn asked. “I tell her how much I care about her, she laughs in my face and continues to date what’s-his-face.”

“Kyle,” Cali interjected.

Shawn gave her a look that said he
very well knew the guy’s name
.

“Sorry,” she mumbled.

“Anyway,” he continued. “She’s happy with him. I’m not gonna mess with that.”

“You’re being a coward,
”
Matt replied, folding his arms across his chest.

“Just stay out of it. I’m happy dating other people,” Shawn shrugged casually.
“And…I’m gonna have a busy music career one of these days and don’t wanna be tied down.”

He continued with the song to signify that the topic of Camryn was closed, but I could tell that his friends didn’t agree with him. However, the conversation did cease, and the music took over instead.
He began playing another part of the song and Jayden joined in.

“Oh, whoops, wrong part,” she laughed, and began it again.

They played through the song for a few se
conds until Cali said, “Sing it
or
I
will.”

“Oh, hell no!” Shawn laughed, and he began to sing
a
song before Cali could.

“That’s not even how it goes!” Cali objected.

“I don’t care,” he replied. “I’m gonna sing until I remember it, just so you can’t make our ears bleed.” He continued to babble
random
words until she threw a chip at him. Then he laughed and said, “Come on, Jay, help me out.”

“I don’t remember it either,” she admitted.

Cali started to obnoxiously sing a line to the song and several people cringed. But after Shawn made a face at her to let her know how awful she was, he remembered the words. Jayden listened for a moment until she recalled them also, and the two played and sang it together.

After that
,
and several songs of requested “hair band music,” Jayden called it quits.
We began cleaning up the backyard from the barbecue while Shawn continued playing
, occasionally talking to Jayden about a new song he was working on. He asked her opinion on a couple of things and she ended up sitting back down with him to figure it out. I was actually surprised that they worked so well together, being that Shawn was so cock
y about his musical abilities. B
u
t I guess when it came to music
he set everything aside and focused solely on what gave him the best result.

We left around four-thirty and headed to the lake where there was a huge festival going on
.
We all walked
there
together
, but there were so many things
happening
, we would separate and then meet up again every so often.

Jayden and I were walking through a street market when I spotted Holly, but before I could make a move to avoid her, she had already seen me.
S
ince Jesse had made it clear to her that I was not at
all interested in her
,
and very much involved wi
th someone else,
I didn’t think she would
make an effort to talk to me.

I was wrong.

“Hey, Ty,” she smiled, coming up to me. She was eyeing Jayden at the sam
e time, who was holding my hand
but
politely
listening to one of the vendors
.

“Hi,” I replied, hoping that would be the extent of our conversation.

“Is this your girlfriend?” she asked, still smiling
. She leaned slightly to get Jayden’s attention, an
d when Jayden looked at her she
said, “Hi, I’m Holly.”

Jayden
eyed her for a second
and a tiny smile appeared
at
the corner of
her mouth.
“
Jayden,
”
she answered
a bit dryly
.
I was surprised by her lack of friendliness, but for this particular occasion, I was glad.

I was content with moving on at that point
,
and Jayden took a couple of steps with me.

“
Watch
out for this one,” Holly smiled
. “He’s a heartbreaker. He’ll tell you everything you want to hear, sleep with you, and move on. But I have to admit,” she added, winking at me, “he’s very good in bed.”

Jayden didn’t even miss a beat when she leaned toward Holly and whispered, “I know! He’s
amazing
in bed, and anywhere else we happen to end up.”

I was still stunned by the first comment, but Jayden’s almost made me choke. She put her arm around me as Holly gave her an angry glare
, b
ut Jayden wasn’t done.

“And by the way,
Holly
…
I’d be careful
with the tricks you turn,
because one of these days
it’s going to catch up to you
, and it won’t
be pretty.
You spread anymore rumors about him again, and I’ll come after you myself.
”

Jayden smiled at her,
and
Holly
turned on her heel to storm away.

“There, I don’t think she’ll want to bother you an
ymore,” Jayden said to me. S
he
took my hand and
began to walk like nothing even happened.

When I finally found my voice I said, “I did not sleep with her.”

“Oh, I know,” she smiled. She stopped in front of me and took both of my hands. “I should have told you this sooner, but I’m quite familiar with Holly. I’ve never met her, but she dated Josh for a while. Shawn calls her
‘
P
sycho,
’
”
she
chuckled. “He hates her
for
what she did to his little brother. She’s a liar and quite vindictive. You’re lucky you avoided her as much as you did.”

We began walking again, but my curiosity was too much.

“What did she do to Josh?”

She sighed a heavy sigh. “He wanted to break up with her, so she decided to tell him she was pregnant.”

“
What
?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Josh was just…freaked out and didn’t know what to do. He was barely n
ineteen. But he stuck with her
for another month
—he was miserable
. Finally she wanted to move on to another guy and she tol
d him she wasn’t even pregnant. P
oor Josh… He was really screwed up after that. It took him a long time to even get
near
another girl. Silvia’s really sweet, though, and totally more
his
pace.”