Chapter Forty-Four

“That was insane!” Richie slapped Jon’s back as they ducked down the stage stairs. Jon laughed and grabbed a towel and mashed it into his face. His heart raced, and his head was alert, and alive, pumping with stage time. It didn’t get old, it just got better. Jon grabbed the water bottle offered, flipped the top and glugged it down.

“The crowd was so into it, I can’t believe it. They knew all the fucking words!” The buzz of that alone, was enough to throw him off the charts. Standing, commanding an audience was a bigger buzz than sex. He chuckled, ok so that was a little exaggerated. But shit, it was up there.

The echo of the crowd flew around him as he climbed into the bus with his band-mates, Alec had hauled up two pieces of ass at the back and Richie was already leeching onto another. Fucking Doc and his intention to keep the bus like a well stock bar, full of ladies. Not that Jon could say, he never partook. In fact, he partook a lot. But not tonight, he was too ramped up. Kicking back he stretched out and closed his eyes, while his head spun like a carousel.

When the bus hadn’t closed up, or shown signs to move five minutes later he cracked an eye open. “Where is Doc?” No one responded, they were too busy sleeping off the adrenaline or were getting their cocks sucked, he assumed.

He lifted himself out of the chair and nudged himself down the aisle, pulling a beer out of a bucket and walking off the bus. Sure enough, there were a few straggles of girls hanging about. He turned on the smile and pushed his sunglasses up his nose. “Hey ladies, thanks for coming.”

He left the in a trail of squeals and squabbles, as he looked around for his fucking manager. Where the hell is he? They had to get out of here, or more girls would work out they were still on the damn premises, and they’d have a situation like last month. Fifty girls piling into the damn bus!

He walked into the concrete underpass, which tunnelled under the stadium. “Doc?”
He pulled off his glasses and adjusted to the poor lighting. “Doc, we’ve got to get going.” He growled, nothing but silence answered him. The click of his boots followed him down further until he could see a couple of figures . “Doc?”
There was a scuffle, some rustling, and then Doc’s face came out to meet him.

“Jonny? What are you doing here?” The darkness in the depths in his eyes sent warning bells off in Jon’s head.

“What are you doing? We’re meant to be gone, and what are you doing down in here?” He folded his arms and waited for him to talk. Whoever the hell he was with, started to back away. “Well?”

“Jonny, go get on the bus, I’ll be there in a second.”

Jon didn’t move. “What the fuck is going on here Doc.”

“We just want the stuff McGhee, and then we’ll fuck right off.”

“Stuff?” What stuff? Jon was about to grab Doc and get the hell out of dodge when the light blasted from behind him.

“Freeze!” The clatter and clang behind him made him wince. Cops, Fuck.

Doc’s eyes went wide, and Jon turned around. “Look officers, you’ve got the wrong idea. Nothing is happened here.”

“Jonny, shut up.” Doc hissed.

“Nothing.” The cop, who towered above Jon at least two feet, jammed his hat down and busted past Doc. He snatched a parcel from behind Doc’s back and shoved it in Jon’s face.

“NOTHING? Yeah, just as I thought.”

The world blurred, as the blood drained from his face. “Please tell me that is NOT what I think it is.”

The policeman pushed past Doc to the other two men, “quite the little operation going on here then isn’t there?”

“No, it wasn’t anything to do with him,” Doc pleaded and Jon’s adrenaline leaked out of his body drop by drop as fear took over.

“Sure, tell that to the judge before he locks you all away.”

Jon grunted as his arms were pulled behind him and cuff’s snapped over his wrists. He wanted to yell, he wanted to scream and pummel Doc into the ground but he was smarter enough to know anything he did here would just land in further in shit and get the book thrown at him. Fuck.

They were all cuffed, and escorted out and past the girls that cackled and oogled.

Great, now it would be spread like wildfire through the media. He looked up as
Richie crashed off the bus, his belt buckle still flapping out from his jeans.

“Dude, I get some head and now you’re in cuffs? What the fuck’s going on?”

“Get me a lawyer Richie. A damn good one.” That’s all he could muster, his insides were boiling and his anger was rising. If this jeopardized their career, he’d fucking kill the guy.

“A lawyer? What the hell’s going on? I’ll call Callie.”

Jon grabbed his arm. “No, call the band’s lawyer. Don’t call her.” Christ, that’s the last person he needed to see right now. His heart flip flopped at the mere sound of her name. He hadn’t called her all this time, he wasn’t going to call her at the first sign of trouble. He had no right too.

“Ok, Ok. Where are you taking them?” Richie asked.

“Downtown, central on west.”

Jon was pushed into a separate car, thank fucking god. Right this moment he wanted to rip Doc’s face off. What the fuck had he been doing? Drugs? It’s not like that was new, Alec and Richie and a few of the others partook in some recreational usage. He didn’t care for the stuff. But what part did Doc have in all this? He wasn’t stupid, he knew they got it illegally, but he had no idea Doc was in on it. Fuck. They had gigs coming out their asses for the next few months, this was not a good time for this shit. He was sliding down Shit Street that was for fucking sure.

~

Callie woke with a start, sighed and peeled the paper off her cheek. She’d fallen asleep at her desk, again.

The phone was screaming in the next room, least that’s what it sounded like when her head was so damn fuzzy. She rubbed her eyes and padded through the kitchen. “Hello?” She glanced at her watch, Christ it was two-thirty in the morning. Her neck was stiff as a board, and her back felt like it was bent sixty four different ways.
But all that stopped when she heard the voice on the other end.

“Callie?”

“Ah-hi, Richie?”

It was part of her life she’d locked away, part of her life she’d long buried, with the occasional lapse every time he was on TV or the radio. How many times had she wished she could have picked up the phone and called him? But the ache in her heart had still been much too fierce than she cared to admit. She wasn’t used to a broken heart, and no one in her own circle knew, that she had fallen in love with Jon, for real.

“Callie,fuck-I mean hi, it’s so good to hear your voice.”

She twisted the pencil around her fingers, “yeah you too Richie. What can I do for you?” Was something wrong? Or happened to Jon? Why else would Richie be ringing her?

“Something’s happened, I need your help. Jonny’s in trouble, so is Doc but I’m more worried about Jon.”

Her heart dropped, “what’s happened to him? I’m not sure I can help Richie.” She didn’t want to help...or so she kept telling herself.

“They’ve been arrested, Doc had drugs on him and Jon found him with some guys and he’s been busted, and right now they’re on their way down town, we’re in Chicago Callie.”

Her instinct was to drop everything and get down there as soon as possible, she had no doubt without even the rest of the story that this was not Jon’s doing. This had the potential to get very ugly, and very out of control if the lawyer they had didn’t know what they were doing. It would be all too easy to pin it on Jon. “Well I know some excellent contacts there Richie, I’ll get you the details.” She reached across the desk for her rolodex.

“Can’t you come down?”

She froze in motion, and closed her eyes, listening to the sound of her own heart racing in her ears. She couldn’t, she was snowed in with paper work up to the neck as well as an assignment for her course due in days. The extracurricular work her father had her doing, had been slowly and surely building up, she was looking for the right time to have that conversation. Now was not it. Who was she kidding? It was never a right time to talk to her father, she’d got this far and started her study in medicine, but as they year wound on, the work became more intense, as did her father’s favors.

Her knuckles turned white, she couldn’t do this. She couldn’t risk this on top of what she was already juggling; this could take months and would require careful planning for the trial or whatever charges were laid. The media would eat it up like free dessert day at the YMCA.

“Richie. I can’t, I’m really busy and I just can’t get away right now.” It pained her to say it and she rubbed away the tingle at the back of her neck.

“Callie, I know he hurt you. He knows he hurt you, but he loved you Callie.”

She blinked furiously, determined not to let her emotion get to her. She couldn’t do this, she couldn’t go back there. She’d changed, and for the better. She’d changed to slowly become what she wanted to become all this time. “It’s long over Richie. I don’t think it’s a good idea for me to come. Look,” she flipped through her rolodex and found the names she’d been looking for. “I’ve know some top lawyers, best in their field at this. They’d be better, more focused.”

“We miss you Cal, and I’m scared. What if this is the end of the band, we’ve just made the big time. You gotta know Jon will be thinking the same thing right now, alone in a cell somewhere.”

God, he knew how to make her feel bad. He wasn’t awful though, he was just being Richie and he was scared. She knew exactly how much this dream meant to every one of them. “Rich, I know you are but that’s why I think its better that we get guys to do this. I’ve got so much work on, that I won’t concentrate and you deserve better.” That was a lie, and she knew it. She was a cop out, she didn’t want to face Jon and she didn’t want to be bullied into doing anything ever again.

There was long pause and then a sigh. “OK, give me the numbers. I’ll give them a call. Can I tell them you put them onto them?”

“Sure, you can.” She quickly replied, feeling the weight slide off her shoulders.

“Ok, thanks Callie. I do appreciate it and I do understand why you won’t come. I really do.”

She twisted the cord around her wrist, until pain seeped into her arm. “Thank you Richie, it’s not that I don’t want to – I do...I care-“She stopped, took a deep breath and closed the door inside her heart once more.

“I know, thanks Callie. Take care now.”

And then he was gone. She should have felt relief and she should not have felt sad when she clicked the receiver back into place. But instead, the dull ache in her heart that had healed over time, she felt pang. Maybe it was a good thing she wasn’t seeing him again, she clearly wasn’t ready.