Jaded (Rock Star Trilogy) - By Mercy Amare Page 0,19

for tomorrow night?” he asks, as we pull out of the parking lot of the school.

“I am very ready. Tuesday night was so much fun. I still can't believe that was just practice for you guys.” I pause. “Actually, I'm hoping that I can race next Friday night.”

“I don't know, Scarlett,” he says. “It's kind of a big secret, and having you race... It could blow everything.”

“What? Like I'm going to tell everybody about it?” I roll my eyes at him. “I don't even have friends here, besides you and Ethan that is. Who am I going to tell?”

“I don't know... Just, don't tweet about it, ok?”

I can't help but laugh at that. “I haven't been on Twitter since Monday.”

“Me either,” he says, sheepishly. “I had to sign out of it on my phone. I keep getting hate tweets.”

“I wonder why...”

“Seriously, you have some loyal fans. They were threatening my life.”

I shrug. “Guess you won't mess with Scarlett Ryan again.”

Stephan shakes his head. “You should really stop referring to yourself in the third person, Scarlett Ryan. It's kind of creepy.”

I roll my eyes jokingly. “I'm Scarlett Ryan, and I don't have to take this.”

Stephan just shakes his head.

3:15pm

Weird.

We pull into Stephan's house at 3:15, and I'm surprised to see his mom's car is there. She's rarely ever home, especially during the day. Stephan stiffens when he sees her car.

“Should I just go home?” I ask, not wanting to intrude. We definitely aren't at the meet my parents stage... Far from it, in fact.

“No!” he answers quickly. “It's fine. You can meet her. She'll love you.”

“Wow. Stephan Montgomery is introducing me to his mother.”

“Well, I wouldn't introduce just any girl to her,” he smiles.

Damn, his smile should be illegal.

“I hope she likes me.”

“She will. In fact, she already does. She's a big fan. She's never missed a TV appearance with you.”

“Great...” I roll my eyes.

“Hey, I was just warning you.” He takes off his seat belt. “Come on, I'll protect you.”

“Fine. Let me just tell Bob I'll be here tonight and he can take the rest of the night off.” I get out of my car, and Bob is parked behind us. Stephan waits for me at his front door.

“Hey, you can just take off the rest of the night. I'm going to be here all night anyway,” I tell him.

“Ok, Miss Ryan. I will see you in the morning.”

I follow Stephan inside his house. Ethan hasn't made it back from school yet, so I follow him into the kitchen where his mom is pouring herself a glass of ice tea.

“Mom.” She looks up at him, and smiles, then looks over at me. Her glass is full of tea, but she keeps pouring. It is slowly overflowing onto the counter. “This is my friend, Scarlett Ryan. Scarlett, this is my mother, Sarah James.”

His mom finally notices what she's doing and immediately puts down the jug of tea. She wipes up the spilled tea off the counter. “It's so nice to meet you, Scarlett,” she says in a very controlled voice. “I'm a big fan. Um, Stephan didn't tell me that you two were friends.”

“Are you ashamed of me?” I joke with Stephan.

“Would you like to stay for dinner? I know that my husband would be thrilled to have you,” she urges me.

“Sure,” I say, then look at Stephan. “I mean, as long as it's alright with Stephan.”

“Of course it is!” Sarah jumps before Stephan can even respond.

I hear the front door open and Ethan walks into the kitchen. He looks annoyed. “Ready to study?”

“Yeah,” I say. “Nice to meet you Mrs. James.” I turn to Stephan. “You want to study with us?”

He shakes his head. “You two go ahead.”

4:25 pm

Mind your own business.

“Enough studying!” I tell Ethan after only 45 minutes. I feel like banging my head against the wall. “If I see one more math equation I may kill myself.”

Ethan get's a very serious look on his face. “That's not funny, Scarlett. Suicide is not something to joke about.”

“It was just an expression. I'm not actually suicidal. I'm sorry if it offended you, but I promise I'm not going to off myself,” I quickly say.

He sighs. “Sorry. It's just a sensitive subject for me.”

“Why? What happened?”

“I don't really want to talk about it.”

I nod, and decide to change the subject. “So, I was thinking about Mona. She's kind of a bitch. I think you should set your sights on somebody else. Maybe somebody with a personality.”

“And maybe you should mind