The Anger Album

Track Four

"You're late."

I'd ran into Jay's office with helmet hair, my fingers white from clutching my songbook so tightly against Nolan's frail body. When I darted through the door, Jay was swiveled backwards in his desk chair, observing Nolan through the blinds.

"I know. Stuff happened," I groaned back to him, halfway out of breath. That was about all of an explanation that Jay was going to get. I didn't want to tell him how close I'd been to getting my face pounded in—not when I had another deal to strike with him.

On his own time, he brought himself back to my attention and slipped his shoes off. "You show up late to my appointment on the back of some guy's motorcycle, and all you're going to say is 'stuff happened'?"

I propped my feet up on the opposite end of the sofa, not bothering to unlace my chucks. I wondered how long it would be before Nolan took off and left me, sticking me with no option but to call Jules and ask him to come and pick me up.

"Where do you want to start, Andie?" he asked, forcing me to concentrate. Jay picked his pen up and set it to the paper. "From the moment you woke up today, or from the moment he happened?"

He put emphasis on the word 'he' in some attempt to accuse Nolan for my being late. I supposed that was fair, seeing as how it was partially Nolan's fault for inserting himself into my life. I supposed it was best to take the blame for my own actions, but life wasn't fair.

I had another fifty minutes or so with Jay, and they were going to be long ones. So just because I was a headache, I chose to start from the moment I woke up. "I flung the window open first thing this morning to check and see how cool it was outside. You know," I gave an encouraging nod, "I couldn't really wear my Zeppelin cut-off if it was going to be colder out today. And this," I picked the collar of my faded t-shirt up to my nose and gave an exaggerated sniff, "was about the only thing I knew for sure was clean. You can give it a go, if you don't believe me." I extended the collar as far as it would go in his direction for effect.

I couldn't help it. Smartass was my default.

I noticed that Jay had tucked his personalized pen behind his big ear, giving up on taking notes. "If none of this information is relevant, I'd ask you to skip ahead."

I let out a sigh, resigning to unlacing my sneakers and kicking them off. Partially thanks to Jay and partially thanks to myself, it seemed we were going to do this the hard way. That was okay, because I was a pro at this game.

"Let's see..." I trailed, aiming to make our hour as long for him as it was for me. "Do you want to hear about what I ate for breakfast this morning, or shall I jump to when Jules picked me up for school? After breakfast, there was this speck of pepper stuck between my front teeth and I couldn't get it out for the life of me..."

"Andie," he interrupted, apparently uninterested in hearing how I removed the little sucker. "Give me your anger journal. I'd like to see the progress you've made so far."