He Told Me To Walk This Way

Blues-Hearted Lady

As soon as Angela picked up, I could sense a serious tension in her voice. “Angie what’s wrong?”

“Nothing…I don’t wanna rain on your parade. You said you had good news.”

“You sure you don’t wanna talk about anything?”

“No, please just…go on.”

I didn’t want to pry or anything, but I was kind of worried. Usually we would tell each other everything. But lately we hadn’t been hanging out, and I felt a little guilty. “Okay, well, ya know how the guys have been getting like, zero gigs lately?”

“Uh-huh…”

“This guy from Columbia records called and said he wants Aerosmith to put out another album! Isn’t that fantastic?” I practically shouted. She sobbed on the other end. This time I couldn’t ignore it. “Angela, please tell me what’s wrong.”

“Oh nothing…yeah, that’s really cool. That’s good news Gin!” She started sobbing more and finally I could tell that I’d cracked her shell and she was going to tell me what was wrong. “Oh Ginger, I’m just so…confused.”

“About what babe? You know you can tell me anything.”

“I know…okay…you know how we stopped hanging out months ago?” Of course I knew. I felt terrible about it too. Ever since that morning after Monty Rock III’s party with the sleeping around situation, we had seen less and less of one another.

Of course…this was all my fault. I’d been ignoring her again and she was feeling terrible about it. “Angie I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have been ignoring you-“

She cut me off midsentence. “Ginger, that’s not it. I’m not mad at you or anything. I stopped returning your calls and coming over because…b-because I’m p-pregnant.”  She sighed and waited for me to reply. But I didn’t know how. What could I possibly say? “Ginger…are you still there?”

“Yeah I’m here.”

“Well…can you say something? You’re scaring me with this silent shit.”

“Sorry um…wow. Pregnant? Do you know who the father is?”

 “I do, actually.”

“And?” Just as the words left my mouth, Steven put his hand on my shoulder and kissed my cheek. I shook his hand off, hoping he’d get the idea that I was in the middle of a pretty important conversation. When he didn’t take the hint, I whisper-yelled, “Stop it!”

“What?” She asked.

“Nothing; I was talking to Steven. Anyway, who is it?”

After years of being friends, I knew that right about now she was biting her bottom lip and contemplating whether or not to tell me. But in the end, she would. She always did. “It’s Joey.”

“As in Kramer?”

“Yes.”

“Oh my god Angie! Does he know? Of course he doesn’t. Um…it’s from that time isn’t it? That time after that party?”

“Can I come over? I need to talk face-to-face.”

“Sure babe. We’re waiting for ya.”

“Thanks Ginger…you’re such a good friend.”

“No problem.”

After I got off the phone I turned around and leaned against the kitchen wall. Would it be best for us to talk without the guys around? Of course, but that would be kind of hard to manage since we live in the same house. We could always go up to my room but, as I’ve learned from Joe Perry, people don’t respect the boundaries of my room.