Let Me Put You In The Picture: Version 1

Chapter 167

                  

There was a bit of fanfare when we arrived at LAX.

            "Oh my God! Are you Nic Cester?"

            Matt became the official photographer for the different people who wanted a selfie with our Nic.

            And Nic obliged for every one with a smile on his face and that gentle look in his clear blue eyes.

            A bit different than any photo op with our Noel.

            Two taxis waited for us outside: one for Pia and Nic. The other for me and Matt. We drove through the crowded streets of Los Angeles until we turned onto a road with trees lining both sides of it.

            The house was one of those modern looking ones, with big glass windows and a quite boxy shape to it. It sat overlooking a couple miles of trees and houses down below. It was quiet and away from the noise of the city. The exact opposite of what I expected but I loved every bit of it.

            "Wanna go see the sights?" Matt suggested.

            There was no way I could turn down that idea so we headed off back to the main buzz and got to it.

            "I'm sorry I was a bit of a tit a while back." He said as we walked up the sidewalk gazing at all the people's names on stars at our feet.

            "Don't be sorry." I told him. "You had every right to be upset."

            "I wasn't upset. At least, not what you're thinking about. I mean, we are talkin' about the same thing, right?"

            "I think so. But I guess there's more than one."

            He looked at me concerned. "Jules?" He said curiously. "Is everything alright?"

            I went to respond but my phone started ringing. "Oh for fuck's sake!" I exclaimed as I looked at it.

            "What's the matter?"

            "He just won't fucking quit!"

            "Who won't?" He asked.

            "This guy." I replied with a sigh. "We used to be friends but then he went all bat shit crazy-"

            "And gave Liam that coke."

            I looked at him puzzled. "How did you-"

            "You told Pia. Pia told Nic. Nic told me. He was there, y'know. In case ya forgot."

            "I kinda did." I confessed. "My mind's just been in a million freaking places lately, I can't keep everything straight."

            "Well if you need somebody to help straighten things out for ya," he said with a smile, "ya know you can count on me."

            I smiled back. "Thanks."

            Nic called a while later, telling us to drop by Chris' studio.

            "Wonder what that's about?" Matt said with a shrug.

            But when we got there, it was pretty easy to figure out.

            My eyes got big and my body felt frozen as I just stood there taking in the sight. Nic led the other three on some sort of twangy jam, with Chris providing a steady beat, Cam giving a winding lead guitar, and Mark following along with a bellowing bass groove.

            "Don't let your tongue hit the floor too hard, eh Jules?" Matt nudged me with a giggle.

            "Oh!" I said as I rolled my eyes and nudged him back.

            After a few minutes, they quit the music and broke for cigarettes.

            "Yins recording that?" I asked as we all sat around on the couches.

            "Not officially." Chris replied as he took a drag.

            "Of course you aren't. Just sit around and take the piss."

            Mark giggled with a bit of an, "Ooh!" while everyone else stayed silent and Chris stared at me with a small grin.

            "Liam teach ya that?" He asked.

            "No." I replied. "Liam ain't taught me nothing. I just can't imagine that with all four of you here, that this is just another DAMNDogs thing or something."

            The house was quiet as everyone had gone to bed. I was still a bit goofed up with the time change so I got up and went to the kitchen.

            "What you doin' up?" Nic asked as he sat there on a stool at the island, making me gasp.

            "Could ask you the same thing." I replied as I sat down across from him.

            He smiled as he pushed the bowl of grapes in the center of the island towards me.

            I took one and held it in my hand, looking down at it while I thought. "I think I made a mistake." I said softly.

            "About what?" He asked. "Thinking what we did today was the path to a reunion?"

            I giggled. "Yeah. But I think I made another one. About Liam."

            "Maybe ya have. But I don't think you're wrong in wanting to get away. It's not like you ran off or anything. You had a legitimate reason for coming to Milan and in two days you'll have another legitimate reason for going to Copenhagen."

            I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. "Copenhagen?" I echoed. "What's in Copenhagen?"

            "The Blue Van." He replied. "They've got a gig and asked me to come and join them. Like I did last April. Another review for ya, right?"

            "Right."

Author's Note:

            I cut so much out of this but maybe it's just because I want to get to a certain part and bypass some things to get there. I'm kind of annoyed with Jet today. I got on Facebook this morning and a post from their page came up on my newsfeed. It's a video from one of their performances in like 2003 or 2004 with the caption, "Come around again.....?" Of course, this led to people commenting and stuff wondering what the heck is up. They post things every few weeks or so, usually with "#tbt" as the caption, which gets people excited but the band gives no further response. It's getting annoying because as much as I'd love to say otherwise, I doubt there's hope for a reunion. It's as annoying as all these rumors about Oasis reuniting. If it's not going to happen, people really need to quit getting everyone's hopes up. I don't know for sure, but I imagine Chris Cester is the one who runs their Facebook. He ran their Twitter (which hasn't been updated since 2014) and he's the only one the page has wished a happy birthday or told people to follow on Instagram (Mark and Cam both have Instagram but I don't know how often they update theirs). I considered joining Instagram just to follow him since his page is private but I haven't done that yet. And on another sad note: I thought about how to end Jules' story. Maybe it's just because I'm running into a dry spell. After I get through what's about to happen, I don't know where to go next. But I can't end this story. There's no way I could quit Jules. Take a break from her, maybe, but be totally done...she and Liam haven't even been married a year yet! I'm sorry to sound so negative. Somebody just really needs to save the state of music. Noel's doing pretty well on his own but there'd be nothing wrong with him having some assistance. And thank you so much for giving Book 1 over 9K reads! It really means a lot. Thanks again for reading!