“I’d just as soon we not talk about it,” I interjected.
I was nervous when I walked into the apartment, but the sight of Naya and Will there on the sofa looking happy calmed me down. Jack was sitting across from him. Will asked if we’d brought back presents. Sue asked him if Jack’s car still being intact counted. Jack looked exhausted. I figured he must have taken a nap at least, but maybe it hadn’t helped. His suitcase was still under the bar by the kitchen.
I wasn’t sure what he was feeling just then, but when he walked past me to the bedroom with a bare nod—no hug, no kiss—I realized he was probably in a bad mood.
“Jack,” I said as he disappeared down the hallway, and he called back, “Not now.”
Everyone’s eyes turned to me. After a moment’s hesitation, I grabbed his suitcase and dragged it back to the bedroom. When I shut the door behind us, I found him lying on the bed with a pillow on top of his head.
“Not now,” he repeated.
“Just let me explain…”
“There’s nothing to explain, Jen. We agreed we would talk aboutthings, and I trusted you, and you used that to do something you knew I wouldn’t approve of.”
“There wasn’t time!”
“There was. There’s always time to call. But as I said, I don’t want to talk about it. I’m exhausted.” I knew that was the end of it. He turned his back to me and to the entire world. And since I wouldn’t get anywhere with him in that moment, I left him alone.
20
Christmas with the Fam
As the weeks passed, I had to get used to Jack’s absences. He’d leave for a few days, come back with souvenirs, usually food, from wherever he’d been, and soon he’d be gone again. He seemed happy. He liked having something to do, and he liked meeting his fans and his favorite actors, directors, and producers. The energy of the film world was a rush for him. That was something he couldn’t hide.
And he was getting better and better known. Not just in town, but in other cities, other countries, other continents. He was made for the camera, and the little jokes he cracked in interviews made the whole world fall in love with him. Sue dedicated herself to getting views for all the videos he posted online; apparently, she’d taken a class in SEO, and she was determined to make his stuff go viral. As for the rest of us, we were stuck in the twentieth century, waiting for him to show up on television.
It wasn’t the best time for me, though. I was feeling lonely at school without Curtis. Hanging out with my classmates was dull without him, and as I struggled to get through the material, I started to realize how much he had helped me. To tell the truth, I was getting mopey. It was Will who pulled me out of it. He encouraged me to start my own study group,and even if it wasn’t the best thing I’d ever done, it did help, and my grades certainly improved.
After one of our weekly meetings in the library, I saw a flash on my way down the stairs. I looked around but didn’t see anyone taking pictures, and I forgot the whole thing until the following week, when a major magazine published an article about Jack with my photo in it, describing me as his girlfriend. I had thought I was angry until Jack called from Argentina, so furious that it took Will, Naya, and me to try to calm him down.
“Stop telling me to chill out!” Jack screamed over speakerphone. “Who the hell do these people think they are? They can’t just invade my privacy like this! Some psycho on the internet is going to look at that picture and figure out which school Jen goes to, and then there will be all kind of stalkers following her around.”
“Jack,” I tried to reassure him, “it’ll be fine. The article’s been out for a while already, and I haven’t noticed anything weird. I don’t even think the photo’s that clear.”
“If a single person bothers you,” Jack said, “that’s it for any contact with the press. I’ll move to Tahiti and they’ll never hear another word out of me.”
I didn’t like that he was angry, but I was glad we could have a normal conversation about something. He had been weird ever since I’d gone to get Nelle. Not confrontational, just unable to relax around me. I had wanted to sit down and talk to him about it, but between one thing and another, it was hard for us to get a moment alone, and I think in a way we were both avoiding it, too.
Naya was now eight months along, and attending classes had started to be too much for her. Will finally managed to convince her to finish off her semester at home, and fortunately, her professors were understanding.
There was just one little problem. Or not so little. Having a pregnant,bored, nervous, stir-crazy Naya in the house was a challenge none of us were ready for.
Sometimes she would cook all day. Other times she’d lie on the sofa immobile. She might get a wild hair and go on a cleaning frenzy while chewing out Sue and Mike for being messy. Every day, there was at least one crisis. We all started entering the house with our guard up in case a shoe or a plate might fly past when we walked in the door.
Will had gotten an internship at a financial company. The hours were long, and he came home exhausted every night. And that left me staying up with Naya, watching movies and series and just talking. Because of her hormones or her nerves, she spent most of the day in bed, then when night came, she was full of energy and wanted company.
One night, while she was playing with her heartbeat monitor, I asked her, “As much as you play with that thing, I’ve got to say it’s weird that you don’t want to know if it’s a boy or a girl.”
I dipped a tortilla chip in some queso—that was one of the things Naya had cravings for, and I wasn’t so rude that I’d let her eat alone!
Naya passed me the headphones so I could hear the heartbeat, too, as she said, “Honestly, I just want it to be healthy. That’s all I keep thinking about.”
“Have you guys talked about names?” I asked.
“Yeah, lots. Will hates them all, though.”
“Tell me some.”
