Chapter 5
Jagger
Second Chances
A/N - This is mostly a filler, so I'm sorry ): But I do promise that things will definitely start heating up next chapter with Ella's POV (: Thanks for the support dears!
“Rise and shine, Jag boy,” Wyatt’s voice pierced through my ear drums. I quickly placed my hands over them, wincing at the loud sound.
“Dude, quiet down,” I groaned, rolling the pillow over my face to shade myself from the sunlight seeping into the room through the massive open window in Cooper’s guest bedroom. “Why are you even in Cooper’s house this early?”
“This early? Jag, it’s afternoon,” he scoffed, throwing random articles of clothing at my body. “We have a meeting today and Coop said to come and wake you up.”
“And why didn’t he wake me up himself?” I asked, throwing the covers off of my body and groaning again as a wave of dizziness and sheer pain radiated through my head. I massaged my temples with my fingers as I got up off the bed.
“He didn’t feel like dealing with your attitude,” he grinned slyly at me as he threw a white v-neck at my chest. “You always get like this after a night out.”
“At least I had fun,” I muttered, throwing on the shirt and skinny jeans.
“Oh yeah?” he inquired. “What was her name this time?”
“I don’t ask for…” I went to say, but he cut me off.
“I’m sorry, I forgot. You don’t ask for names. Was she hot?”
“That’s about the dumbest question you’ve ever asked, dumbass. Of course she was,” I murmured, my mind running off to the tall brunette who was in my arms last night. I still couldn’t shake thoughts of her from the party. It was like I so drawn to her that I didn’t know how to cope with this new found feeling. “She knew who I was though…” I trailed off.
“Of course she did. You’re at like every party on campus,” Wyatt explained.
“No, she knew who I was from you and Matty. She said she knew I was a singer and that my name sounded familiar.”
“Well what did she look like? I talked to a lot of girls yesterday at the mall,” he said, walking out of my bedroom and towards the kitchen.
I followed him as I spoke. “She was tall, had like brown wavy hair and these big blue eyes. She was with this little blonde one too.”
Wyatt stopped dead in his trek to the kitchen and turned around. “Was the blonde all loud and perky?”
“Sort of. I mean she was drunk so I don’t…”
He cut me off. “I remember those girls!” he exclaimed with a snap of his fingers. He faced me with a smile. “Their names were…Wait a minute. Why do you seem so interested in this? You’ve never cared what your bed friends’ names were.”
I eyed him carefully as he smirked at me knowingly. With a shrug of my shoulders I said, “I’m not really interested. You just asked a question and I answered it.”
I walked over to the refrigerator and sipped from the milk carton inside. Wyatt watched me with that stupid smirk still planted on his face and I wanted to punch it off. I knew I was fucked now, he knew me too well to know that I wasn’t just going along with the conversation. He knew how badly I wanted to know her name.
“I don’t even know their names. I just remember the faces,” he said.
I dropped my hand down from my mouth and eyed him with a glare. “Then why the hell did you stand there and try to make fun of me?”
“Just because it’s funny to mess with you when you’re hung-over…” he grinned, grabbing his car keys from his pocket. “Now let’s go, Cooper’s waiting for us.”
I felt a little part inside of me drop to my stomach when Wyatt told me he didn’t know her name. I wouldn’t admit that to him though. I was almost excited to know her name because if I knew her name, I could possibly have another chance at seeing her again.
I honestly didn’t know what was getting into me. I never cared this much about the girls I slept with before. I didn’t understand why the brunette made me feel something, even if it was just a small thing. She didn’t really seem different from the other girls I’ve hung out with at parties, other than the look of pure innocence plastered on her face when I met her.
I needed to nip this feeling in the bud and get on with my life, especially with the tour coming up soon.
*****
At the meeting Cooper explained to us that there was a last minute show planned for the end of next week. It would be our last show in the Everest before leaving for tour and he wanted us to leave with a bang of some sorts. Our fan bases didn’t quite fill up the clubs we played at, so I didn’t understand how we were supposed to achieve leaving with a bang, but no one questioned Cooper’s words to begin with.
I was at the supermarket later on that day, realizing that I didn’t have anything at the Tally residence that I would even think of shoveling into my mouth. I took a last minute run to grab a few things, but ended up staying a little longer than I thought when I ran into a girl I couldn’t just leave without talking to.
She was standing in front of the fruit stand, carefully picking up certain fruits and placing them into a plastic bag to be weighed. I watched her for a little, contemplating whether or not I should go up and speak to her. When I felt almost borderline creepy for staring at her for too long, I ran a hand through my disheveled brown locks and made my way towards her.
“Excuse me,” I said, tapping the petite blonde on the shoulder, almost startling her half to death. She jumped with the bag in her hand and almost dropped the bright red apple in her other hand.
“Jesus, you really know how to scare a girl,” she breathed, turning around to meet my eyes. “I didn’t even hear you come up behind…” she trailed off when she took a good look at me, her mouth gaping open like a fish out of water.
"What? Do I have something on my face?” I asked, rubbing my cheek furiously, wondering why she was looking at like that.
“No!” she exclaimed, raising her hands up at me. “No, that’s not it! You’re um…you’re Jagger Linden.”
It was my turn for my jaw to drop and my eyes widened at her. “How the hell do you know my name?”
“You were on some music television station this morning. Fight the Fury was in the headlines…” she trailed off nervously, twirling a strand of long blonde hair around her finger.
“Seriously?” I questioned, my voice squeaking for a moment before I cleared it. I was more shocked than she was, considering I hadn’t even known we made it on that music station in the first place. “Wow,” I breathed.
“Yeah,” she breathed again, almost dreamily. “I met your guys’ guitarist and drummer at the mall yesterday. I even saw you at some party on campus last night,” she explained, pointing a finger at my chest gently.
I smiled in return. “I know, that’s why I came over here,” I cleared my throat again before continuing. “Your friend…”
“I know you slept with her last night,” she deadpanned, dropping all flirting tone she once had.
I coughed at her blunt attitude and put a hand over my mouth. When I stopped the fit I eyed her warily. “How do you know that?”
“She told me this morning. I mean any one in the room could see you guys had something going on with each other. It was so hot and heavy for the five minutes you two spent together before disappearing,” she went on.
“God, what were you watching us the whole time or something?” I accused.
“Of course! That’s my best friend you took to bed. Ella never does things like that with other guys,” she explained, acting like it was no big deal.
I smiled for a moment when she mentioned her name. So that was it then. “Her name’s Ella?”
She glared at me. “You didn’t even bother to ask her name before sleeping with her last night?” She looked like she was just about to throw the apple in her hand at my head before I explained further.
I raised my hands in surrender. “I did! I just couldn’t hear her before she fell asleep. I’ve wanted to know her name since last night!”
Her face softened and a smile lit up on her lips. “Do you have a thing for my friend, Jagger?”
I erased all emotion from my face before I continued. If Wyatt could read me like an open book, I wasn’t quite sure how the blonde would read me. I didn’t need her running back to her friend and saying I was in love with her. I just wanted a way to spend more time with her. That’s all I wanted.
“No,” I eased into it carefully. “I just wanted to know her name. I was curious. I haven’t seen her around though.”
“Well yes, her name is Ella. And I’m her best friend Charlee,” she said, offering her hand for me to shake. I took it for a small handshake and suddenly felt awkward.
I didn’t know where else this conversation was going to go because I didn’t know Charlee at all, and I didn’t want to ask anymore questions about Ella without seeming like a creep. I didn’t need news going back to Ella that I was a stalker if I wanted things to go my way this time.
“Well, it was nice meeting you,” I began. “I should be getting back home.”
“It was nice meeting you too, Jag. I’ll be sure to tell Ella you asked about her,” she simply stated, before returning back to her selection of fruits.
I walked away from Charlee regretfully, wondering what else I could have said to keep the conversation going, get to know Ella a bit better. I couldn’t just ask her best friend if Ella would like to see me another time, other than in bed. I’d never done things like this before with women, and I wasn’t used to the usual lingo that went on if you wanted to ask for a number or a date. I was used to playing my cards right and getting certain women into bed. The physical aspects seemed to be the only thing I was good at, not that I could complain really.
While I walked away, silently cursing myself for being so damn stupid when it came to continuing conversations like the one I just had, something clicked quickly in my mind and I snapped my finger in recognition. I quickly reverted my footing back to Charlee and tapped her and cleared my throat to get her attention.
“At least you didn’t scare me this time,” she quipped, grinning at me.
“My band’s having a show next Friday and I was wondering if you and Ella would want to come and hang out with us…” I explained, tapping my fingers anxiously against my leg as I waited for her to answer.
“You mean so you could spend time with Ella,” she said, putting her hands on her hips.
“Well yes, but Wyatt clearly remembers who you are and I’m pretty sure he’ll love to hang out with you, too,” I said quickly.
Her whole face lit up at my statement and she beamed at me. “Well I’d love to go! But I’m not so sure Ella would want too,” she said, her smile dropping some.
I frowned at her, trying to think of something else I could say that Ella would like to do. “Well what does she like…?” I trailed off.
“Ella doesn’t get out much at all,” she scoffed. “It’s always school, school, and school for her.”
“Do you think you could possibly convince her?” I questioned, raising an eyebrow at her impatiently.
“I could definitely try. You seem to really like her, so why not?” she smiled again.
“I don’t even know how I feel about her,” I murmured as I scratched the back of my neck nervously. “Just ask her…please?”
“I will, Jagger,” she said, placing a comforting hand on my arm. “I’m sure she’ll go with me.”
With that, we said our goodbyes and exchanged phone numbers so she could let me know when she arrived at the venue on Friday. I offered her a smile and a huge thank your before we parted ways, and the smile still lingered on my face. I still wasn’t sure what I felt for Ella, but I sure as hell couldn’t wait to find out.