Chapter 4 Bathroom Invader
Bathroom Invader
I managed to get another two or three hours of sleep, then drifted in and out for a while before giving it up and walking to the kitchen.
As I passed the living room, I noticed Jack wasn’t there.
Sue was standing at the bar eating ice cream and pointed her spoon at me as she said, “He was gone when I got up.”
“Is that common?”
“Is it common for him to spend all night sniffing coke and then vanish out of the blue? Definitely.”
She must have seen the scandalized look on my face, because she asked then if she’d taken it too far, and when I nodded, she said, “All right, sorry. Yes, it happens a lot, unfortunately. He relapsed in France. He’s been a totally different person since he came back.”
That was like a punch to the stomach. He had regretted the person he used to be—why would he go back to it now? Had the pressure of being a filmmaker been too much for him? Was it his school? Something else? I didn’t know, but we had to do something about it.
“He can’t go on like this,” I said. “He should… I don’t know, I’ve never been in this situation, what do people do? Go to rehab, right?”
“I guess, yeah. I’m not really an expert,” Sue replied.
“Good mooooorning!” we heard. It was Naya interrupting us, strolling over in a pair of panties and one of Will’s sweatshirts.
“I’m dying of hunger.” She was so chipper, I assumed Will hadn’t told her anything.
He stomped in soon afterward, looking miserable, mumbled, “Hello, girls,” and turned on the coffee machine.
“Did you get any sleep?” he asked me a second later.
“About the same as you, I’d guess,” I answered. That got a slight grin out of him.
I heard a ding and took a look at my phone. Sue peeked at it over my shoulder, and when she saw what it was, remarked, “Damn, you didn’t waste any time!” It was Curtis telling me there were big plans that evening. He was hosting movie night. Bring popcorn, or I’m not letting you in, he had written.
“Jenna, are you up to something naughty?” Naya asked.
“Her boyfriend wrote her,” Sue cut in.
“Curtis isn’t my boyfriend!” I shouted. But it was too late. Naya started repeating the name Curtis over and over, asking herself why it sounded familiar, and then announced that she remembered him.
“The handsome one, right? Weren’t you with him late last night? Now I understand why you look so beat…”
“He’s not that handsome,” Sue interjected. I noticed no one had asked about Jack, and I wondered why, but also didn’t want to bring him up. I thought the next best thing was to mention his brother, and said, “Hey, what’s up with Mike?”
Sue murmured, “Who cares? He probably just found someone new to sponge off of. He’ll show up eventually.”
Will shook his head and said, “He’s still with his band.
They put out a song that did OK and we managed to get him to take some singing classes.
He’s gotten better, but obviously there was a lot of room for improvement.
He’s no Frank Sinatra, but at least he doesn’t just scream into the microphone now. ”
My phone sounded again, and this time everybody turned. I had three messages.
I got that book you asked for! I left it in my underwear pile.
BTW, I disinfected it!
You want me to bring it by?
Naya shrieked, “Is it him? We want to meet him!”
“Fine,” I said, “but he’s not my boyfriend.”
“So he’s a friend, so what, I still want to meet him,” Naya responded. “If we get along, maybe we can all have dinner or something sometime. I get bored with it always being the same people here. Not saying there’s anything wrong with you guys, but a little new blood might do us some good.”
Will stared at her as she spoke. He didn’t seem to find it such a good idea.
But I told Curtis sure, he could come by that afternoon, and I was actually looking forward to it.
I mean, I’d met his friends and he’d gotten them to accept me, so why shouldn’t it go both ways?
He was a great guy, and I was sure everyone would love him.
Later, when he rang the doorbell, Naya was about to jump out of her skin. I opened the door to find him leaning on one side of the doorframe. He lifted my book up and winked.
“Special delivery,” he said.
“Thanks. You want to come in?”
“Of course. You know how nosy I am!”
I laughed and stood aside, and right away I heard Naya greeting him.
It was obvious that they would get along great: they were both super-social, and as soon as they flopped down on the sofa together, they were chattering away.
Sue ignored them, flipping through her fashion magazine, and Will set a couple of beers down on the coffee table.
“I’m glad you guys have some classes together this year,” Naya said. “I worry about Jenna being on her own.”
“You sound like my mom,” I told her, but Curtis said Naya was right, that I struggled to fit in, especially with big groups.
“And my friends all love you,” he added, pulling me into him and squeezing.
I found that a relief—much more than I wanted to admit.
Even if I had fun with people, I always wondered afterward whether they really liked me or were just pretending.
“Big groups suck,” Sue said, turning a page of her magazine.
“Says you,” Curtis responded. “I love hanging out with a bunch of people. It just means more people to talk shit to and embarrass.”
Sue must have liked that—it fit with her weird sense of humor. She grinned slightly, and I had to admire Curtis’s skill at winning over everyone in the house. I had needed weeks to get Sue to stop scowling at me when I’d first started coming over there.
Just then, Jack walked in and threw his keys on the counter.
He had changed into a gray sweatshirt and a pair of jeans, all of it new looking.
I felt somehow sad not to see him in clothing I recognized.
Had things changed that much in a year? He didn’t notice me, instead addressing Will and saying, “Hey, bro, have you seen Jen? I need…”
He turned, stopped talking, froze. And I realized Curtis’s arm was around me.
He withdrew it, clapped me on the back, and straightened up awkwardly.
Jack didn’t react. But you could tell he thought something wasn’t right.
He had reached into the pocket of his sweatshirt, but then he stopped himself instead of taking something out.
Will broke the tense silence: “Hey, man. This is Curtis, he’s one of Jenna’s friends.”
I didn’t like the tone of that word friends.
It made it sound like he was trying to cover up for something.
Jack’s expression turned suddenly spiteful, the same way I had already seen him look—I guess I was naive to think something would have changed after last night—and he murmured, as if he couldn’t care less, “Great.”
He grabbed a beer, opened it, and sat on the other end of the sofa, leaving me between him and Curtis. Now things were actually getting weird.
“Our dear friend Jack here, who’s swilling his beer and ignoring everyone, is a movie director,” Naya announced, to try and make us feel less uncomfortable. “He’s about to make his big debut.”
“For real?” Curtis asked. “When?”
“Two weeks,” Jack said.
“Look how overjoyed he is,” Sue remarked.
Jack stared into the TV set. I wanted to ask if he was OK, but I was sure he’d be pissed if I did it in front of everyone. Will tried to force a conversation out of him again, asking, “Is Vivian going to be at the premiere?”
Vivian? I couldn’t help but frown. That girl who had picked up the phone when I called on Ross’s birthday…was that Vivian? What was the deal with them? I’d tried not to think about it before, telling myself it wasn’t my problem, but if it wasn’t, it sure as hell felt like it was.
“Obvs,” Ross grunted.
“I can’t wait to meet her,” Naya told him courteously.
Why did I feel like everyone was being quiet for my sake? I turned to Will wide-eyed, pleading for help, but he pretended not to see me. Curtis, clearly tired of pretending everything was normal, told me with a smirk, “I gotta go. We’ll talk, OK?”
“Sure,” I said. “I’ll walk you to the door.”
I tried to ignore the sensation of being watched as he put on his jacket and I opened the door for him.
He gave me a quick but friendly hug, which I was thankful for, then whispered in my ear, “One of these days, you’ll have to tell me why the weirdo on the couch was staring daggers at me.
I feel like there’s some hot goss behind that. ”
I couldn’t help but smile as I told him, “You can’t even imagine.”
“Now I’m dying to know.”
“I’m sorry the evening ended up this way. If it makes you feel better, I think the rest of them really liked you.”
“Of course they did, Jenna. I’m great.”
I closed the door and felt everyone’s eyes on me again. Jack had stood by then and was leaning against the wall. As cordially as I could, I asked him, “Did you want to tell me something?”
He arched an eyebrow, pretending to be apathetic, but he was squeezing his beer so tight, I thought he might crush it in his hand, and there was tension in his shoulders as he tapped his foot on the floor. It felt like a bomb was about to go off.
Jack didn’t respond, so I tried again. “You said you were looking for me. Was it anything in particular you needed?”
“You seriously think I want to talk to you? Like you could possibly matter to me,” he snapped.
“You literally said you were looking for me,” I told him.
With a humorless smile, he responded, “Trust me, Jennifer, you don’t want to hear what I have to say.”
He’d said my name that way on purpose. To mark the distance. To tell me there was nothing between us. And there was defiance in his expression. He was daring me to say something. To keep from breaking, I announced, “I’m going to take a shower. Whenever you want to talk, come find me.”