Let the Music Say I Do-6
901 Words
When we reached Grady’s hospital room, Joey hung back as I went in. Grady was awake, and the other members of the band were already there, laughing a little and playing around.
Grady turned his head when I entered and gave me a big smile. “Jared! Thanks for coming to visit.” He held out a hand to me, which I took and squeezed briefly before letting it go.
“What’d that car ever do to you?” I asked as I sat carefully next to him on the bed.
“Hey, I was just trying to cross the road. I want to—” He stopped, apparently realizing that Joey was in the room now, too. “What’s he doing here?” His tone was acidic.
I turned my head and glared at Joey. “He’s here to visit you and apologize. Aren’t you, Joey?” The other guys took my statement as a cue to scoot. With just the three of us in the room now, I moved from the bed to sit in one of the chairs against the wall. I pointed to Joey. “Do it.”
Joey swallowed and walked closer to the bed. Grady’s expression was not at all welcoming.
“Grady, I’m a shit.”
“What’s new?”
“Hey, I’m trying here. Cut me some slack.”
“What for?”
“Look, I’m really sorry about the accident. If I had anything to do with that—”
“Oh, my God, you think this is about you!” Grady tried to sit up, but he winced and lay back against the pillows.
“Try to think beyond your ego for a few seconds, Joey,” I cut in. “It might help salvage your relationship with Grady on some level. Maybe he’ll even stay with the band.”
Joey rounded on me. “What the f**k is up with you lately about my ego?”
I stood and got in his face. “Jesus, you’re so frickin’ blind, it’s ridiculous.”
“I’m blind? You’re the one who’s so perfect that no other guy can live up to the bar, it’s raised so high!”
I was taken aback by his vehemence. He sounded so bitter. And loud.
“Guys, stop. Please,” I heard Grady say, but we were too far gone to listen to him.
“I loved you, and you threw it away because you were too scared to commit to someone. You hide behind frequent s*x because it’s just easier. You’re a f*****g joke.”
Joey looked at me as though I’d slapped him in the face. I’d never seen such an expression on his face before. He seemed to be…in pain. It occurred to me that I may have gone too far.
A nurse came into the room briefly to ask us to stop yelling. Joey rubbed his hands up and down his face and gave me an undecipherable look. Then he turned back to Grady.
“Grady, I’m sorry I can’t stay. But know this.” He took a deep breath. “I truly apologize for my antics and for hurting you the way I did. It was stupid and moronic, I know that. There’s no excuse for any of that, except apparently, I’m not capable of anything other than callow behavior.”
I flinched at that.
“Feel better soon, okay? Call me if you need help with anything, and I hope you’ll come back to the band. You have my word of honor, whatever that’s worth to you, that I will be professional from now on.” He leaned in to kiss Grady on the forehead. “I’m over the top, yeah? But I appreciate good musicianship, and you have that in spades. But if you can’t or won’t come back, that’s okay, too. I won’t blame you. Just let me know soon so I can make plans for the future. In the meantime, I’ll get Tim or somebody else to help out.”
He walked to the doorway, turned to stare at me for a few seconds, then left. I felt awful.
“Wow, that was…unexpected,” Grady said.
“Yeah.” This was more like the Joey I had known before our relationship went to hell and he’d started behaving like a slut.
“You really lit into him, didn’t you?” Grady observed as he watched me sit down again. His expression was thoughtful.
“Yeah, I did.”
“The guys told me that you two were a couple a long time ago. Maybe it’s not over.”
“I don’t know what’s going on, but I was unnecessarily harsh just now. I didn’t realize I still had such anger wrapped up in him.” Enough about me and Joey.
“You all right? What can I do?”
Grady studied me for a minute, but let me change the subject. “I’ll be fine. I’ll stay here for another night, then my mom will come get me. The parents will fuss for a while, but that’s okay.”
“Cool. Well, call me if you need anything. I gotta go. Have a bar mitzvah tonight, and it’s a two-hour drive to get to the event.” I got up and clasped his hand briefly before moving to the doorway.
“Jared?” he called out before I left the room.
“Yeah?” I turned to look at him.
“I think there’s more to what’s going on with Joey than he lets on. He hurt me, sure. But now that I think about it, all the time we screwed around, he held something back. I mean, the s*x was good, don’t get me wrong, but there was always this wall between that and anything serious.” He shifted on the bed.
“Deep down, I knew this, but it still hurt, you know? All the same, I think his behavior is a smoke screen. It might even go back to something in his past. Bruce told me that Joey didn’t act like this until after you left. It’s as if he’s trying to prove to himself that he doesn’t need anyone. But, now that I’ve seen you two go at it, he may actually still need you, He’s running scared, Jared.”
It was almost bizarre enough to be true, especially after the expression I’d seen on Joey’s face after I insulted him.
“It’s obvious you still have strong feelings where Joey’s concerned. What are you going to do about it?”
“I don’t know.”
- Writer
