Eyes on Us Book 4

KIERAN

~

~ There was always a party to go to in LA. People usually party-hopped, trying to go to the best party they can find. There was always a better party. ~

~ Jetsons was a dance club. A lot of celebrities come here. Mostly because they can bring their drugs and not get kicked out. Everyone had connections here; it was all about who you knew. ~

~ I bought VIP tonight. I didn’t want to worry about fans trying to come up to me right now. I just wanted to hang out with some of my friends, and possibly find someone to take home. ~

~ We were two big bottles of champagne and a bottle of vodka in when my dear friend Tyler, actor and probably the biggest druggie I knew, came into the VIP area with a group of three girls. ~

~ Tyler Wilson. Twenty-five. A-list actor. ~

~If it got out how much drugs he was actually doing, his career would be over. But everyone in LA has dirt on everyone, so keeping things quiet wasn’t a problem. He’s also one of my closest friends, outside of my band. ~

~ “Kieran, Alex, this is Jenna, Marley, and Kristin.” I waved at them. They were all very giddy to be in the VIP area. ~

~ My eyes went immediately toward Jenna. She was the prettiest of the group, in my opinion. They were all gorgeous, but there was something about her specifically. ~

I felt drawn to her. It might have been all the alcohol I just consumed.

Jenna had the darkest eyes, very black hair, and she was very tan. I wondered if it was natural or fake; you can never tell with people in LA.

I guess I must’ve caught her eye, too, because she comes and sits next to me. This is all happening while Alex and Tyler are talking to her two friends.

When she’s sitting next to me, I lean into her ear to talk to her.

“Are you from LA?” I ask. I pull away and she shakes her head.

“I’m from New York.” I can hear the New York accent. I used to have one. I grew up in New York, but in the past fifteen years the accent has kind of disappeared. You can only hear it in certain words.

“Me too. What part?”

“Queens,” she says, which is funny. I’m from Queens as well. Though I have an apartment in Manhattan now.

“And what brings you all the way to LA?”

~ “Oh, we’re just on a girls’ trip. Tomorrow we fly out, so we wanted to make tonight fun.” I smile. ~

~ “I could definitely help with that.” She then says something that is drowned out by the very loud music. “What?” ~

~ Now she leans into my ear. “Do you want some blow?” I turn my head to look at her. Now Jenna doesn’t look like someone who does cocaine, but in LA I was always very surprised. ~

~ I’ve never had anything stronger than weed. I did smoke a lot, and drank a lot, but that was pretty much it for me. Trying other drugs has never crossed my mind, but right now…I really wanted to do it. ~

~ I nod. Sweet Jenna pulls out a little baggie with white powder. She pours some out onto the table in front of us, and divides it into two thin lines. ~

~ She then pulls out a paper, rolls it, and next thing I know one of those thin lines is gone. She holds her nose for a moment, closes her eyes, and then when she opens them back up she is smiling. ~

~ “Your turn,” I hear her say. ~

~ I do what I’ve seen in the movies. As soon as I snort it, I feel this deep discomfort in my nose. I’ve never felt anything quite like it. I couldn’t even describe it, but I had to admit that I liked it. ~

***

Come morning, I woke up alone in my bed in my apartment. I have some memories of what happened after the club. We all came to my apartment.

I really liked Jenna, she was quite fun, but when the time came to seal the deal she admitted that she wasn’t that kind of girl. I respected that.

I was a little annoyed but I was not going to be the gross guy and push myself on her.

I came out of my apartment to see that she was actually lying on my couch. And she was awake. She looked at me with those sweet chocolate-colored eyes and immediately sat up.

“I was going to leave before you woke up,” she admits.

“Why didn’t you?” I don’t really care, if I’m being honest. I wasn’t kicking her out.

“My sister Rosie called me and I lost track of time, I literally just got off the phone with her.” I shrug.

“That’s fine. Would you like some breakfast?” Jenna seems shocked that I wasn’t just kicking her out. That’s not who I am. Jenna also seems like a genuine person, not one to take advantage of others.

“I am famished. I would love some before I need to go back to the hotel and pack.” My apartment in LA was very big, but also very empty.

I had a minimalist decorator design my whole apartment. With me being gone eight months out of the year, it worked really well for me.

I open my fridge and frown. The only thing I have is almond milk, and luckily I have some cereal.

“I haven’t had time to properly shop for groceries, I just got back from Chicago, but I do have cereal and almond milk that I bought on my way home two days ago.”

Jenna smiles. “That’s fine.”

I serve us some cereal. I sit across from her. I am starting to remember the high from the cocaine. It was unlike any other high I’ve ever had. Once it hit, my mood was completely different.

“So what’s your deal?” I ask her.

“What do you mean?” Jenna asks.

“Are you single?” I am genuinely curious.

She laughs. “I have a boyfriend back home.” I nod.

“So you’re taken…what about your sister, Rosie?” I am just kidding. I don’t want her feeling awkward so I am trying to lighten the mood.

“She just finished nursing school, and she works in an emergency room in New York. She is way too invested in her job to be dating someone right now. Especially a rock star.” She winks at me.

“How old is she?” I ask as I put a mouthful of cereal in my mouth. I’ll be thirty in a year and a half, and just the thought of that sounded crazy to me.

“She’s twenty-four. I’m twenty-seven.” Jenna looks quite young; I would have guessed that she was barely twenty-one.

“Do you often come to LA?”

“It’s my first time out here, but I don’t think I’ll be back anytime soon.” She looks at her phone. “I have to get going. I have a lot of packing to do, and my flight leaves in a few hours.”

I stand up with her. “You said you live in New York, right?” I ask her as she is walking to the door.

~ “I told you already I wasn’t going to hook up with you. I have a boyfriend.” I chuckle. ~

~ “I respect that. I was asking because I actually like you as a friend. I’m in New York often, so we could hang out again, with or without your boyfriend. Maybe you could introduce me to your sister.” I wink at her. ~

~ Jenna is amused. “All right, I’m okay with being friends and hanging out. I don’t know about introducing my sister to you,” she jokes. ~

I hand her my phone. “Put your number in here. I’ll text you when I’m in town.” She nods and quickly types her phone number into my cell phone. When she hands it to me, I see that she wrote her name and the word friend~ next to it. ~

~ “Thank you for letting me crash here tonight, your couch is very comfortable. If I could rate the experience it would be four stars.” I laugh. “It could have been five had you had more food. But next time I expect you to do better.” She smiles. ~

~ This girl is funny. ~

~ “Of course, I will not make that mistake again.” ~

~ Jenna smiles. “It was nice meeting you, Kieran. You’re not like anything I expected, you were actually better.” ~

~ “Thank you.” Jenna is a sweet girl. ~

~ “I’ll be expecting that text soon.” I nod. ~

~ “Have a safe flight, Jenna.” And with that she walks out. ~

~ Jenna was a quirky girl. I had fun with her. I really could see myself being friends with her. Plus she introduced me to my new favorite drug. ~

~ I needed to have that high again, but for now I’d just stick to drinking and smoking weed. Those were my comforts. ~

~ I close my door and go back into my room. I am still really tired. I am most definitely going back to sleep. It’s been a stressful week, and it was a very late night last night. I need to recharge. ~

~ As soon as my body hits my bed, I’m out like a light. ~