How to Date a Nerd

Chapter 28 - We Commence Plan B

Chapter 28 – We Commence Plan B

Here you left scattered
Like wishes I led to your room
Bury my face in your pillow
Just to smell your perfume
Outside I'm hungry
But inside I'm just consumed
Tell me how I'm supposed to breathe
Losing you is choking me

 

“What do we do now?” Nathan flopped in the sofa, throwing me a cold look.

Dad didn’t even move. He just kept watching NCIS Season 2 marathon. Pretending to look like he didn’t worry at all was his way to keep Nathan and me from panicking. I kept pacing the floor, looking at the street every now and then.

At 6 PM, it was already a bit dark outside. There were only a few cars left, parked in front of Dad’s house. The closest one had its windows rolled down. A man was snoozing in the driver’s seat. His passenger had come out of the car, craning her neck to see through the window if anyone’s home. Those people had been hanging around the neighborhood for a few days now.

Reporters. The power suits and tool vests gave it away.  Not like they were trying to blend in or anything. Some even had the station logo printed on their cars. Most of them were Boston press. But some were smart enough to cover up their business.

Just this morning, there had got to be twenty of them flocking the neighborhood street. A few of them even tried to harass information out of the neighbors. Dad had to make phone calls all day  to apologize to everyone. Some of them took it well. Most just bugged Dad with gossip and probing questions. An old grumpy couple from the other end of the street even threatened to report us to the police if we don’t leave town soon.

Nathan was so tempted to throw empty glass bottles at every one of them. You know, the ones with gasoline in them. And then you shoot the target with flaming arrows and everything goes Bam! He couldn’t destroy them all though. At least, not when Dad was watching.

The doctors told us that Arthur should avoid getting stressed out. Not until he got some heart operation that sounded like cabbage or something like that. He needed a good long rest. A soothing environment. Some light exercise. Healthy diet. Easy.

Yeah, right. We couldn’t even get out of the house without those reporters chasing us. So we’d resorted to sleeping all day, TV and Spam. Dad tried to make it sound like a fun thing just to lighten up the mood. He just couldn’t afford to let us worry about him. That’d damage his reputation. Nate had always saw Dad as his hero or something.

But seriously, we needed new security. All this ruckus had brought us enough trouble already.

If only Moira wasn’t too busy straightening out ‘things’ she could recruit some trusty dudes in black right away. She’d always been the one to do everything for me. But Megan’s funeral was just yesterday and I couldn’t possibly expect Moira to be back on the job now. Maybe not ever. That was just too bad. And I felt really down thinking that. Moira had been like a second mother to me.

I just got a call from Sonnet this morning. It was a long winding conversation with Jobs’ assistant. The gist was that they were letting the band go. I was told to report ASAP, though. Looked like they wanted to keep me. The problem was I didn’t if I want to go back without my friends. Stardom had kept life comfortable for my family for so many years. It was tempting, especially now that Dad needed some kind of surgery. But I dunno. Maybe I’d somehow changed. Those guys practically hauled me from being down in the dumps too many times. Turning my back on them was not an option.

I’d been trying to talk to Sarah for weeks. All those times, she kept avoiding me. Once I tried to call her and when she picked up all she said was, “Ready to explain yourself yet?” She didn’t even sound angry. Just tired and unsure.