Wait until the music's over

14. On the road (Pt.2)

"Stone, would you please tell me once again why the hell we're going to Portland?" I dare asking our driver.

"To support our friends Alice in Chains!" he answers with a big grin.

"I mean the other reason, the true one" I restate.

"To catch Jerry and his little friend red-handed" he adds without batting an eyelid.

"Who's this friend?" asks Ben from the back of our van.

"Angela, of course, who else?" Stone answers, almost annoyed by the question.

"What? You mean we're driving a three-hour ride all packed up in this shitty van just to find out if those two actually fuck? I could have told you myself without making such a mess" Kim chimes in. Ah the old Indian wisdom!

Stone abruptlly pulls over and slams on the brakes. The girls are ahead and there are no cars immediately behind us or we'd have been rear-ended for sure.

"What do you mean? How do you know? Did Jerry tell you something?" Gossard's questioning has officially started.

"He didn't tell me anything, Stone, relax! He didn't need to, I mean, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what's going on between them" Kim answers giggling.

"They always stick together!" Cornell adds.

"Duh I know! That's fucking obvious, I'm not blind..." Stone pulls out snorting "I'm not Jeff, who still believes in fairy tales about friendship"

"Oh don't even start with this bullshit Stone! I just said Angie won't necessarily put out, I mean, maybe she's not that much into him" Jeffrey bitterly snaps from the seat behind mine.

"Hahahah come on!" I step in because I really can't shut up "Are you kidding? She's been drooling over that guy since she first saw him!"

"I agree with Mike, they like each other, a lot. The thing's been going on for months, as soon as the little girl turned legal our Jerry got his claws into her and she couldn't resist the musician charm" Chris explains.

"Jerk musician charm" Stoney points out.

"Oh that's even better! Chicks dig jerk musicians more" Kim jokes.

"Yeah, well, no doubt about it. I just thought Angela was smarter than that" Stone mutters.

"That's not about being smart, Stone. When you like someone, you know, you get stupid, men start thinking with their penis, and it's not that different for girls I think. She has a crush on him and in these cases the power of reasoning simply goes to hell sometimes. Don't you think, Eddie?" I ask him just to annoy him, since he didn't speak a word since we left the pub and sits there lost in his thoughts, resting his head against the window.

"Ehm yeah, well, I don't know them so much..." he stammers.

"Ok, but at first sight, do you think they're well-matched?" Stone asks him.

"Oh I don't know... very different people can get perfectly along sometimes..."

"Uh forget it!" Stone mumbles.

"Anyway, why should we give a fuck?" Ben legitimately asks.

"Don't know about you, but I do care. Because despite everything, Angie's still a kid and you can make as much fun of me as you want but I feel responsible for her. And I hate being fooled" Stone explains without taking his eyes off the road.

"So we're going to Portland only to find out if Angie's fucking around with you?" I say.

"Exactly"