Rocking Esme (The Rocking Series Book 1) (12 page)

Esmeralda

It was Monday night, I was sat in my car outside Marcy’s place, I’d already beeped my horn twice. I was picking her up and we were meeting Kate and Danni for a meal, we were supposed to have been there ten minutes ago.

I beeped again and then as I looked towards her door I saw an arm wave at me as if to say, ’yeah yeah, I’m coming’.

She finally got to the car; “Calm down, Esme, I’m not that late.” Marcy puffed.

“Yeah, you are, by the time we get there we’re gonna be nearly thirty minutes late!”

“Oh, oops.” She said, as she shrugged her shoulders.

We arrived at the Chinese restaurant, ‘The Fortune Cookie’ half an hour late, as I’d predicted. We were walking in the door, laughing and joking, until I walked into what felt like a hard wall. When I looked up, I saw a smiling Rick.

“Oh, hey, sorry.” I said, smiling up at him.

“Not to worry, what are you girls doing here?” He asked, looking over my shoulder and smiling at Marcy.

“Meeting Danni and Kate, we’re already late.” I told him, looking around at who he was with and feeling butterflies in my stomach as I locked eyes with Jax.
I smiled at him as I heard Rick say; “Why don’t we all eat together?”

“Yes, that will be fun.” Marcy answered for me.

“Ok, great... A table for eight, please.” He asked the waitress.

Marcy went over to get Danni and Kate and we all made our way to the larger table. I sat down next to Rick and Danni with Jax opposite me. Marcy was on the other side of Rick.

The waitress came over and took our drink order, when she returned with our drinks we put our food order in.

“So, Es, what you been up to?” Rick asked as he nudged my arm with his.

“Not a lot, just working like usual. You?”

“Same really, working on some new music with Jax.” He said as he nodded his head towards Jax. I took that opportunity to look up at Jax and noticed that he was frowning. I opened my mouth to ask him if he was ok and he just looked away. So I turned my attention back to Rick. Although I hadn’t heard from Jax for a couple of days, things were fine when I saw him Friday night so I couldn’t help but wonder why he was being cold with me.
We were laughing and joking throughout the whole meal; Marcy was getting a lot of attention from Rick, which she was loving. She was always happy if she was the centre of attention.

“Is anyone having dessert?” Jax asked, a bit short. It was the first time he had spoken throughout the whole meal.

“Es will, she loves dessert.” Rick said as he smiled at me.

“Yep, gotta have dessert and you are not sharing it this time. Get your own! You ate over half of the last cake!” I said to Rick, laughing. The next thing I heard was a chair scrape along the floor and Jax saying; “I’m outta here.” He then threw some money on the table and walked out of the restaurant.

“What’s his problem?” Marcy asked.

I shrugged my shoulders and looked at the rest of the guys and none of them said a word, so I turned to Rick and said; “Well?”

“He was fine earlier.” He said, shrugging his shoulders.

We decided against dessert in the end; I had some ice cream at home in the freezer. Jax had put a downer on the rest of the evening so we drank our drinks and left the restaurant. Marcy, Danni and Kate decided to go out for a drink with the guys, I just wanted to go home, so I said my goodbyes and made my way home.

When I got in I couldn’t stop thinking about how Jax was acting, he wasn’t being himself. So I decided to text him;

Hey, you ok? Thanks for letting us join you for dinner

No problem.
Was all he texted back. He clearly didn’t want to talk, so I put my phone down, went over to the freezer to get my ice cream out and put on a movie.

Jackson

I felt bad for not talking to Esme tonight; I was finding it difficult, I didn’t know whether to distance myself from her because of Cindy or whether to plunge in with both feet, regardless of the consequences. I didn’t want Es to get hurt, and knowing that Cindy was drinking lots and using drugs, I didn’t know what she was capable of. It worried me that she had already shown aggression towards Esme, but I didn’t know what to do for the best.

I was also trying to get my head around Esme flirting with Rick; she chose to sit next to him tonight and they had their private joke about the dessert. I didn’t like her being like that with him, it made me jealous and I never got jealous. I couldn’t stand to be in the restaurant with them anymore, let alone watching them share a dessert, so I left and made my way back to Rick’s place. I’d hoped the walk home would help to clear my head and give me time to calm down a little before blowing up at someone.

***

“Hey, man…” Rick said as he and Marcy walked into the living room, about three hours after I left the restaurant. “You ok? What’s up with you tonight?”

I shrugged my shoulders and told them; “I’m worried about Cindy, she is unstable, man, she’s still hanging around. I don’t want Esme to get hurt, she means too much to me.”

“What are you talking about?” Marcy asked “Is this why you were being quiet at the restaurant?”

I nodded and she continued with; “Don’t be such an ass, she won’t care about Cindy… Do not upset her!”

“Sorry, I was just looking out for her.”

“She doesn’t know that.” Marcy snapped. “Why couldn’t you just tell her that before storming off.”

“I’m gonna go for a walk and clear my head, see you guys later.”

As I was getting my shoes on and getting ready to leave I could hear Rick and Marcy whispering and giggling with each other. I was glad he had found her; it was nice to see him happy. He was like me, he wasn’t into sleeping around with random girls. If only I could get Cindy out of the picture, maybe I could have that with Esme.

Esmeralda

I was cleaning up at home as I’d invited the girls over for a slumber party in the evening. I was tired as I couldn’t get my head around why Jax had acted so weird with me at the restaurant last night. I thought we had moved forwards not backwards. At least with the girls coming over it would help to keep my mind off him. I was busy cleaning the bathroom when I heard my phone ping; I dried off my hands and reached into my pocket for my phone and saw that it was a text from Jax.

Hey beautiful will you be home later?

Beautiful? One minute he wasn’t talking to me at all and hardly looking at me and the next he was calling me beautiful. I couldn’t keep up with the rollercoaster of emotions, but I wanted to know what I had done to upset him, so I messaged him back;

Got the girls over this evening but free this afternoon  
I didn’t have to wait long before he replied

Is it ok if I pop over about 3?

No probs, see you later.

I really hoped the reason he was coming over was to explain about his bad mood last night, I hadn’t heard from him since he stormed off and I deserved an explanation.

***

It was nearly three o’clock and Jax was due to arrive any minute. I was starting to feel a little nervous and worried; maybe he was being off with me because he didn’t want to see me anymore. I really hoped that wasn’t the case. The doorbell rang and snapped me out of my daydream and being worried. My stomach flipped as I walked towards the door and opened it.

“Hi.” I said shyly.

“Hi, are you ok? You look pale?” Jax asked as he walked in the front door and cupped my face in his hands.

“Uh… I’m fine. Are you ok?”

“Yeah, kind of… Can we sit down?”

I nodded and we made our way to the sofa. Oh, this had to be bad, else why would he ask for us to be sitting? People only get told to sit when they are being given bad news. He was sending me mixed signals; touching my face, asking if I was ok. Why would he care if he was about to walk out of my life.

“Es?” Oh, shit, Jax had been talking and I’d zoned out and I’d completely missed everything he’d said.

“Oh, sorry… What?”

“Are you sure you’re ok? You seem a bit out of it?” He looked concerned.

“Yeah, I’m fine, sorry, what were you saying?”

“I came to apologise about last night, I’m sorry for the way I acted… Rick told me what Cindy had done to you at the club the other night. I thought it would be better for you if I distanced myself from you… Not that I wanted to… You just don’t deserve the hassle of me and my baggage… And… I was also feeling a little jealous.”

“Jealous? What did you have to be jealous about?”

“You and Rick.”

“Me and Rick? We are friends, he is dating Marcy, you know that. He is crazy about her.”

“I know, I’m sorry… I’ve just never felt jealous before and I didn’t know how to handle it, apparently I didn’t handle it very well.”

“No, you didn’t.” I said laughing. “Also, you don’t have baggage, you have an ex-girlfriend who treated you badly… I really like you, Jax.”

“I really like you, too.” He moved closer to me and grabbed my hand. “I don’t wanna mess this up, I don’t want you to get hurt because of Cindy.”

“I’ll be ok, don’t worry. Cindy won’t succeed in scaring me off.” I didn’t think it would be a good idea to tell him that I was scared of Cindy, I didn’t want to put any more doubt in his mind about our future.
Jax exhaled and said; “So, are we ok? You forgive me for being a jerk?”

“Yes, I forgive you.”

“Ok, that’s great… Well, I guess I better leave you to get everything ready for your evening.” He said as he stood up. I stood as well and led him to the front door. He pulled me close to him and gave me a hug followed by a peck on the lips.

“See you soon.” I told him.

“Hopefully sooner rather than later.” He winked at me and I watched him walk to his car.

Jackson

What a relief, I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Esme was kind and forgiving and she told me that she really liked me, which made me happy as I was crazy about that girl. I just couldn’t wait to spend more time with her and take her out properly.

It was going to be difficult to try and stay away from her, all I wanted to do right now was go back and spend the evening with her, but I couldn’t as she had a girls night planned.

All I wanted to do was spend every minute with her, I had never felt like this before, the feelings that I felt were so much more than what I felt for Cindy. With Cindy it had been easy but that was probably because we had been together for so long and it was almost like a routine. Whereas Esme made me feel things I haven’t felt before; it must have been because we were meant to be together.

Dropping in to see her for a few minutes here and there was like torture, I wanted to put my arms around her and hold her for hours, man, what was happening to me? The girl was turning me into a gentleman, but at the same time all I wanted to do was kiss every inch of her body, I didn’t want to rush her as I knew it was too soon for her.

Esmeralda

I was gathering everything together, ready for our girl’s night in. I’d got a selection of movies ready, duvets, popcorn, chocolate and cocktails. All the essentials for a good slumber party.

The door opened and in walked the girls.

“Hey, chicks!” I called out.

“Hey.” They all called back at the same time.

“Marcy is being secretive.” Danni said as she gave me a hug.

“What about? Marce?..” I asked looking at her.

“Oh, ok, let’s settle down and I will tell you.”

We all grabbed a drink, settled under the duvet and put on a movie in the background.

“Well...” I asked Marcy.

“Ok, I’ve been seeing Rick.” She tells the girls, which was promptly followed by Danni and Kate shouting at the same time “WHAT?”

“How long for?” Kate asked.

“Several weeks, though we made it official last night.”

Danni looked at me questioningly; “Esme, you don’t look surprised, did you know?”

Marcy butted in; “Yes, she knew because she has also been spending a lot of time with Jackson!”

“Well, we kind of figured that out for ourselves after seeing you dancing together at the club the other night.”

I couldn’t stop grinning but as it was early days I didn’t want to go into too much detail with the girls, so I steered the conversation back round to Marcy. “So, Marce, dare we ask how you made it official?”

“Oh my God, is he good in bed? He looks like he could be good in bed.” Kate asked.

“Has he got a big d…?” Danni butted in.

Marcy cut her off and said; “We haven’t slept together, yet.”

“You haven’t?” I asked, Danni and Kate looked shocked too as we all knew Marcy wasn’t known for holding back.

She shook her head and said; “I really like him, I’ve never felt like this before. I don’t want to mess this up.”

“Wow, have you fallen in love?” Kate asked.

“What? No! It’s only been just over a month, we have done stuff... Just not all the way yet.”

“Really happy for you, Marce, he’s hot and seems really nice too.” Kate said.

“Now, we just need to find guys for you two.” Marcy told them.

“When Kate gets over her crush on my brother, then we can fix her up with someone.”

“Oh, come on, Kate, you have been in love with Esme’s brother since you were like five, so maybe it’s time to move on.” Danni said to her.

“Well, there are still two guys left in Flix that are single…” Marcy smiled.

“Hmmm, Will is quite hot and I bet he has really strong arms from all that drumming.” Kate giggled.

“Hey, why do you get the drummer, I think he is cute too.” Danni argued.

I left the girls arguing over Will and went to the kitchen to make some popcorn. I didn’t really want to get into a conversation about Will and Frank after what they had done to Jackson with Cindy. I turned and looked back to the girls to see that the argument over Will had turned into a cushion fight and Kate was being pinned down by Danni who was screaming; “He’s mine!”

The popcorn was going to take a few minutes, so I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone. There was a message from Jax, no wonder I didn’t hear it come through, with all the screaming.

How’s the girls night? Should my ears be burning?

I grinned and sent a reply
Ha-ha no I think you’re safe, though I’m about to open some wine so maybe I’ll start answering their questions after a few glasses ;-)

I poured the popcorn into a bowl and took it in and put it on the coffee table.

“Anyone for wine?” I asked the girls.

“Yes.” They all shouted at once, Marcy downed the last bit of her cocktail and held out her glass to me, I took it to the kitchen and returned with a bottle of wine and four glasses.

We all settled down with our wine and watched a film, Marcy’s phone kept going off and she was smiling a lot, the texts must have been from Rick. It was nice to see her happy and being with one man. We had started a second movie and Marcy had just opened a second bottle of wine, when Danni turned to me asked; “So, Esme, what’s happening with you and Jackson?”

I held my glass out for Marcy to re-fill. “I really like him, we are taking things slowly as he hasn’t been split up with Cindy for long.”

Marcy chipped in; “He’s crazy about her, stop playing it down, Esme. What would you do if he asked you out?”

I was about to reply when there was a knock on the door.

“I’ll get it!” Marcy yelled as she jumped to her feet and ran to the door.
We all leant forward and peered down the hallway to see who was at the door. It was Rick and as soon as the door was opened, he pulled her in for a kiss. I couldn’t help thinking that I wished that was me and Jax. As she turned around, we all giggled and fell back into the sofa. They walked into the front room and I said;

“Hey, Rick, what you doing here? Crashing girl’s night?”

He chuckled and said; “No, I’m here to take Marcy home.”

“Oh, that’s sweet.” Kate said, Marcy shot her a glare telling her to be quiet.

“You ready, Angel?” He asked her.

“Yep, let me just grab my stuff.” She told him and I mouthed to her behind his back; ‘Angel?’

She nodded her head and smiled, she seemed all giddy. She gulped down the rest of her wine and picked up her bag.

“What you been up to tonight, Rick? Apart from texting Marce, all evening?” I asked.

He chuckled again and said; “We have just been doing some song writing and stuff at my place.”

“Everyone ok?” I asked.

“Yep, everyone is fine.” Rick replied giving me a knowing smile.

“She means Jax.” Marcy said to him.

“Marce!” I exclaimed at her; “That’s not what I meant, I care about you all.” I explained to him.

He chuckled again and shook his head.
“Jax is fine, though he has been checking his phone a lot tonight.”

“And Will, how’s Will?” Asked Danni, which earnt her a glare from Kate.

Rick looked at Marcy confused and said; “He’s fine.”

“I’m ready... Bye, girls. Coffee in the week?” Marcy asked us and we all nodded.

There was a round of hugs and saying goodbye, then they left. We settled down to watch the rest of the movie when I remembered Rick’s comment about Jax checking his phone. I took my phone out of my pocket to find four unread messages;

9:01pm Oh no, I know what you’re like after a few drinks ;-)

9:35pm  Hoping the girls are being kind and not asking too many questions

10:10pm You have no idea how much I want to gate crash your girls night!

The last message was from Rick and it made me smile;
Es for Gods sake reply to Jax messages, his phone is stuck to his hand and we can’t get any sense out of him to get these songs written

I smiled to myself and settled back into the sofa to watch the rest of the film with the girls.