Present - Erin
2552 Words
PRESENT
Erin
Erin was sitting in her rental car outside of the O’Donnell mansion kicking herself for being such an i***t. The guy was an asshole but she shouldn’t have been so hostile. Reluctant to tell her editor about what happened, especially after they paid for her flight and hotel, she sat in the car longer than necessary.
Erin had dealt with obscure bands who didn’t want to ‘sellout’, up and coming bands who were obsessed with how to present themselves in the media, and established artists who’d thought they’d already said it all. Jack O’Donnell was on a whole other level. She had been an i***t, letting her anger get the better of her. Aging musician past his prime, what was she thinking?
Leaning her head against the steering wheel, Erin tried to figure out a way to get back into the house when a siren in the distance steadily grew louder until it was screaming up the driveway. Every hair on her arms was standing on end as she watched the paramedics race into the house.
Something was very wrong.
Like a dream, time slowed down. The best thing to do was leave but it went against her every instinct as a journalist. She was taught to get the story but this was not the story she was after. The paramedics wheeled someone out of the house and into the back of the ambulance. Suddenly, the passenger door was yanked open scaring the s**t out of her. In shock, she realized it was Jack. A very pale, shaking Jack…with his shirt on, which was slightly disappointing because she was enjoying the view earlier. Get it together! Erin mentally smacked herself.
“Drive!” He yelled, causing Erin to jump. “Go!” Jack yelled again snapping her to attention.
Erin hit the gas and followed the ambulance through the curving streets of the Hollywood Hills. She had no idea where she was going but kept a respectful distance from the ambulance. Each time she missed a light, panic coursed through her, watching up ahead to see where the ambulance was going, hoping not to lose them in the heavy L.A. traffic. Used to navigating the crazy New York streets, she had a good sense of direction, but mostly as a passenger in a cab or on a bike. L.A. was a whole other beast to master.
Out of the corner of her eye, Erin could see Jack’s leg bouncing nervously. He was definitely in no shape to have driven himself. He didn’t speak and she wondered if it was because he didn’t want to or couldn’t find his voice. Navigating the L.A. streets in silence, she didn’t dare ask. Hospital signs up ahead directed her into the parking lot where the emergency room entrance awaited. When she pulled the car up to the curb, Jack sat motionless staring at the double doors sliding open and close as people came and went.
The silence was like a thick blanket. Finally, she placed her hand on Jack’s knee to stop it from shaking. It was a bold move and she half expected him to slap her hand away or yell but he didn’t. “Do you want me to go in with you?” She asked, surprising herself. She didn’t want to since she hated hospitals but seeing how panicked Jack was she felt compelled to stay with him.
Surprisingly, Jack nodded but did not attempt to open the door. Realizing he probably couldn’t get out of the car without help, she took control of the situation and opened the door for him. On shaky legs, Jack exited the vehicle and the two of them walked through the double doors and into the emergency waiting room.
After arguing with the receptionist at the desk that he was family, she finally let him pass but Erin had to stay behind. Wanting no part of this, Erin was relieved. It was the opposite of every journalistic instinct but every part of her human instinct. Too afraid to ask, she still didn’t know what happened. It was none of her business anyway.
After Jack went past the reception desk, Erin walked outside to move her car. She contemplated just leaving and going back to her hotel room to book an earlier flight home but something made her park the car and go back inside. She didn’t want Jack to come out thinking he had been abandoned, so she sank into one of the green chairs bolted to the floor. For an L.A. hospital, she expected something cushier. Who cares about chairs? She thought. This whole situation was absurd. Feeling completely out of place but not wanting to leave either, she kept busy by exploring the emergency room area. Coffee from a vending machine was not ideal but it was the best she could find.
By the time Jack came back, she had eaten a bag of Dorito’s and tossed two cups of coffee in the trash. She thought the first cup was just bad luck but the second solidified the fact that vending machine coffee was just plain disgusting.
“You’re still here.” Jack looked at her, surprised, after noticing her lingering by the vending machine where she was mentally talking herself out of buying a Snickers bar. She didn’t blame him, she was surprised too but all she did was smile and hand him the 3rd cup of coffee she couldn’t bring herself to drink. Jack took a sip and then promptly handed it to the rude woman behind the desk.
“Here, I got this for you.” He said with a grin.
“I should go.” Erin collected her bag from the nearby chair but Jack grabbed her arm.
“Why are you here?” He asked.
Erin didn’t know, having been caught up in all of this but found it difficult to just walk away.
“For the story?” He prodded when she didn’t answer right away.
“No!” Erin said a little too loudly that people in the waiting room began to pay attention to their conversation. Jack looked uncomfortable and walked out of the emergency room. He turned the corner and lit a cigarette. Offering one to Erin but she declined.
“Then what?” Jack took a drag and blew out a long stream of smoke.
“Yes, I want a story, but not this story.” She said. “I mean, your story. The one I came here for.” She stammered.
“You really are green.” Jack shook his head, the hint of a smile on his face.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Erin took offense.
“Any reporter in their right mind would have already called this in.” Jack gave a tired laugh. “Unless you already have?”
“I guess journalists aren’t supposed to have integrity anymore.” Erin felt indignant. “You climbed into my car, remember. I didn’t ask for this.”
Jack seemed to soften a little, realizing he was the one who brought her here in the first place. His silence gave Erin the nerve to ask what happened.
Jack gave her a look like she was stupid and she replied with a sarcastic, are you f*****g kidding me right now, expression.
“Amber did something stupid.” Jack’s gaze moved from her to the pavement. Erin took the implied statement to mean she did something stupid to herself.
“How is your wife?” She asked.
“Ex-wife.” Jack corrected.
“Of course,” Erin said. She knew this but it was confusing. Jack and Amber were married and then went through a very public divorce, but then they were photographed together all the time. Erin didn’t know left from right, even after all her research.
Jack flicked the cigarette on the ground and stomped on it with his boot. He squeezed his forehead between his fingers as if to push out the headache that was building.
“Sleeping pills.” He managed to choke out. “That’s all I heard before I got kicked out.”
“Kicked out? But you’re family.” Erin was appalled. After Jack had struggled with the rude lady at the front desk, she thought his battle was over. Even though he was her ex-husband, he had a right to be there, she thought.
“Yeah well, tell that to my daughter.” He leaned on the wall and placed the bottom of his boot flat against the brick. It reminded Erin of an old magazine cover she saw of Jack in his younger years looking very James Dean. His hair was still the same, a little long over the ears, and his eyes were the same brilliant blue. Jack definitely had aged well. During her research, she poured over pictures but now, here was Jack in the flesh and she was not disappointed.
“What the f**k did you do to my sister this time?” Erin was caught off guard when a woman came tearing out of nowhere and started yelling and swinging at Jack. She looked slightly familiar with her stylish shoulder-length blonde hair, high cheekbones, and grey/blue eyes. Jack held his arms up defensively to block her purse from hitting him in the face.
“You never deserved her, you piece of s**t!” She shrilled and smacked him one more time. The commotion caused several people to come out of the waiting room including the indignant receptionist from the front desk.
“Do I need to call security?” The receptionist said as she stood with her arms crossed over her chest, rigidly.
The woman gave Jack one final shove and walked away. “No!” She gave the receptionist a sneer as she walked past. “I’m here to see my sister.” She stormed inside, a designer bag demurely clutched under her arm that was wielded as a weapon only moments ago.
“Are you ok?” Erin touched Jack’s arm out of concern, as he attempted to smooth down his hair. After witnessing the aggressive display, she felt oddly protective of him.
“No, I am definitely not ok.” He sneered, not at Erin but in the general direction of the retreating nurse and the two orderlies she brought with.
“What was that all about?” Erin asked, mouth still agape.
Jack looked at her skeptically. “Off the record.” He said definitively.
Erin nodded. She couldn’t blame him for not fully trusting her. There was a little glimmer of hope that the article was still on the table but now was not the time to bring that up.
“That was Rachel, Amber’s sister.” He said, peering over at the hospital entrance again.
Erin waited for him to continue.
“She hates me.” He offered.
“I gathered that,” Erin said sarcastically and Jack gave her an amused grin. “Why?”
“I’m an asshole.” He shrugged.
“Really?” Erin pretended to be shocked.
Jack, ignoring her sarcasm, pulled out a wrinkled picture from his back pocket, the torn edge making it obvious it was ripped from a magazine. Jack smoothed it out against his thigh and gave it to Erin. Taking it from him tentatively, she recognized the cover. It was a recent article but an older picture of Jack and his bandmate Mia. This picture stood out the most during her research because it was like eavesdropping in on someone’s private moment. The way Jack looked at Mia, their foreheads close together, as they were singing and the genuine smile on Jack’s face. Erin could only describe it as intimate.
No one had ever looked at Erin the way Jack looked at Mia.
Erin peered at the photo enviously. She had always been a people watcher, imagining what their lives were like as people walked down the street, shopped in a store, held hands with a lover. She supposed that was what drew her to become a journalist. She wanted to be able to tell human stories, not just imagine them. Staring at Mia, she wanted to know the story behind this picture and so many others. Jack and the band had always been private, limiting interviews and press but it only seemed to fuel the media’s need to know more as the band grew in popularity.
Jack, was aloof, sharp-edged, and had confidence that bordered on egotistical. He was the kind of guy you didn’t know whether to slap or kiss. People either hated him or loved him. There was no in-between when it came to a guy like Jack. The way his fingers plucked the guitar strings with such force and pleasure, or the way he screamed into a microphone, made you fall in love with him.
“This is why Rachel hates you?” She handed the picture back to him.
“Among many other reasons.” He rolled his eyes.
Jack took the picture back from her.
“Found this on the bathroom floor.” He held it up to her again before folding it and sliding it in his pocket. “Where I found…” he didn’t finish the sentence.
Erin remained still, watching him as if he were a bomb.
“It’s so stupid. This whole thing is just so stupid.” Jack’s expression was pained. It was obvious to Erin that he cared for Amber even though their divorce had been nasty and riddled with tabloid fodder.
“It’s life,” Erin spoke plainly. “I don’t pretend to know anything about you or Amber or her crazy sister, but pain has a way of cutting into all of us and sometimes it’s so deep that it can’t heal.”
Jack looked at her thoughtfully. His dark hair had fallen into his face. It seemed to be perpetually messy, casting a shadow across his painfully clear blue eyes. Erin found them jarring to look at for too long. The eyes were described as a window to the soul, but Jack’s were like a clear pool of water reflecting only her image.
“Sounds like you know what you’re talking about,” Jack suggested.
“We all have our own story, don’t we?” Erin momentarily thought about her Dad. “You don’t get to corner the market on stupid s**t happening to you, right?” She added, to lighten the mood.
“Maybe being a selfish prick has its’ advantages.” Jack jested.
“How so?” Erin had a feeling there was more to Jack O’Donnell than the egotistical asshole he wanted everyone to see.
“Of all the s**t that has happened to me, not once did I contemplate offing myself.” He sounded almost proud.
“Ego does have something to do with it I guess.” Erin was a little uneasy with the lighthearted nature they were discussing suicide.
“The world would have missed me too much.” Jack pushed himself away from the wall and linked his arm with Erin’s. In a surprising change of mood, he said, “Do you think the cafeteria has cappuccinos?” He led her back inside the hospital.
FOUR Darlin', I Already Have
- Writer
