sixteen
"Jack! Buddy! Good to see you again!" Alex says into my computer screen as my boss lights up the Skype call.
I scoot closer to the brunette, getting into the picture so Jack knows I'm not dead, yet.
"Aw, hey. You two look comfortable," he says, a smile upon his face. He has a nice smile, one that's impossible to ignore.
"We bond over our annoyance of my client."
Jack nods, "My boy has told me a lot about him."
"He's really not that bad," I say, not wanting to badmouth Luke, "he's just different."
Alex rolled his eyes, "He's a nuisance but Michael is doing well."
"You having any trouble, M?"
I shrugged, biting down on my bottom lip. "I mean, not really. I'm worried I'm not getting everything I need to write about."
Alex and I can hear Luke sound-checking from upstairs, the bass riffs bouncing off the walls and washing out his voice.
"It looked fine last time I checked over it. You've gotta get more interviews with him, though, you need to get personal." Jack is in his New York City office, I can see the skyline I recognize too well. I miss that office, I miss that city.
When I was overwhelmed, I'd always go into Jack's office and sit on his couch eating the green gummy bears he'd leave out for me. I'd tell him about my problems and he'd listen to every breath leaving my throat.
I needed that right now.
"It's hard, Luke doesn't talk much."
Alex interrupted me, "He talks shit a lot, just nothing important."
I shrugged again, not wanting to agree but not wanting to argue. "I'll ask questions and he'll make me skip over them. What am I supposed to do with that?"
"You could write that. Write everything that's happening. Use your five senses," Jack says.
"I feel like a five-year-old when I'm like 'Luke looks sad'. No one wants to read that."
Alex looked over at me shaking his head from left to right, "Everyone will want to read that. They crave knowing more than they need to."
I scratched the back of my head, feeling the dryness of my hair. "Luke makes me take so much off the record," I sigh, "it's hard."
"What does he make you take off the record?" Alex ask, this all being the first time he's heard this.
"It's off the record, I don't think I'm supposed to tell you."
Alex furrowed his eyebrows and looked directly at me, "I'm his manager, I'm in charge of him. Everything that involves Luke also involves me."
I looked at Jack, hoping for some help. He shook his head, obviously not going to help me as he watched everything unfold. "Like, the other night he came to my room and he was on something, I think. He was just very loopy and sad, I guess. Then the next morning he told me not to write about it but the problem is that I already wrote about it. I had to rewrite it all and it kind of sucked."
Alex bit the inside of his cheek and looked forward. "Hm," he said.
Jack licked over his bottom lip, "That's not bad."
"I know it's not bad, but I had to delete two entire pages of notes." I sighed, my back arching comfortably into the pillows behind me.
"How did you write two pages off of, like, three minutes?" Alex asked, obviously not knowing my writing style.
"My boy is infatuated with your boy," Jack said, leaning back in his office chair with a smile.
"I am not!" I squeaked, trying to let it off as a cough, "I am not."
Alex laughed as he crossed his arms over one another. "Luke needs someone like you, though," he told me.
I rolled my eyes, not wanting to listen to either of the men.
"Sounds like Mr. Famous needs some stability and my boy has got that," my boss raved, leaning back forward towards his computer. "Michael has been with our company since we were no more than an online publication, think of all the magic he could do on Luke."
"That sounds like a porno."
"Hey," Alex said, holing out his hands, "whatever brings in the cash flow, I support."
Does Jack lowkey ship Luke and Michael?
Wait for some Real Action coming up soon alright alright alright
