When Jared woke up the next morning he was greeted with his usual morning hangover however this one was different than the others. “What the Hell happened last night?” Jared asked quietly to himself. He looked at his surroundings and noticed that he was in his room. He could hear the shower running in the bathroom. ‘I was talking to Jenny then I left to go to a bar. Did I make it back to the church on time? Did I actually hook up with her and now she is in the shower?’ thought Jared.
He looked over at his nightstand and saw his phone, one missed call it read. He flipped it open and saw that Nate had left a voicemail. ‘Please let it just be him asking if I made it home okay afterwards.’ Jared dialed into his voicemail and waited with baited breath as Nathans voice filled his ears. “Jared! Its Nate! Well guess what? Its almost time to start the show and you…aren’t…here! I can’t believe you bailed on us man. Are you alright? Jenny said that you left in a hurry and that you didn’t look so good. Where the fuck…?” “Message deleted” came the robotic voice. Jared didn’t want to listen anymore and placed the phone back onto the night stand. He laid his head back onto his pillow and sighed. ‘I missed it. I guess that is why this hangover feels worse than the others. Its laced with guilt.’
Jared was still pondering the events of what could’ve possibly occurred last night in his drunken state when all of a sudden the bathroom door opened and out walked a cute blonde draped in nothing but a towel. Now, normally the sight of an attractive naked woman would have caused him to leap right out of bed, rip the towel from her body and have his beastly way with her but this time Jared was in no mood. Very uncharacteristic. Call the TNT with the news that Hell has officially frozen over. “Hey, your finally up. I was getting scared there for a minute. I almost thought you were dead but saw that you were still breathing so I knew you were still alive, so all good.” she spoke nonchalantly while drying her hair with a towel then stopped to look at Jared and smiled. “So last night was fun, huh? Wanna have a repeat?” she asked seductively as she crawled on top of him. Jared ignored her. He was looking up at the ceiling as towel girl was layering his jaw line with wet sloppy kisses when the events of last night started to slowly come back to him.
He remembers leaving the church and getting into his car to go find a bar as he was in dire need of alcohol. Once he arrived at his destination he then proceeded to knock back a couple shots of Patron. Jared looked down at his watch, 7:00pm it read. ‘I got an hour before I have to go back.’ he told himself. But he didn’t want to go back. He didn’t like that he was forced into doing something he never wanted to do in the first place.
“Maybe if I get drunk enough I’ll forget to show up.’ Jared pondered this thought for a moment. It seemed like a good idea but then the thought of Jenny crossed his mind, he wondered what she would think of him if he bailed on her charity event. ‘You don’t know this girl. You don’t owe her anything. She seemed to understand that I was forced into this by Nathan and Jessie that maybe it won’t be such a big deal if I don’t show up.’ thought Jared but then his conscience decided to chime in, which sounded a lot like his mama.
’Oh grow up! You’re 24 years old. Stop making excuses. You didn’t have to do this if you didn’t want to but guess what you said yes. Don’t give me that “but Nate and Jessie” crap. You said yes cause deep down you wanted to do it. You wanted to help. So get your butt back to that church!’ Jared sighed and was about to get up from the bar when an attractive blonde girl walked over to him and started flirting with him and he couldn’t help but reciprocate. ‘She looks like a nice distraction. No! No, I can’t. Tell her you have somewhere else to be.’ He tried his best to sum up the courage to excuse himself but once she placed her hand delicately between his inner thigh was when the “brain” in his pants decided it was going to be in charge now. ‘Oh well. Can’t say I didn’t try.’ And that is the last moment he could remember from the night before.
“How did we get back to my place?” Jared asked the girl who was still kissing him which she was now leading a trail down his toned stomach. She stopped to look up at him, “You drove us here. I gotta tell you I was really nervous we would get in an accident cause you kinda had a lot to drink at the bar but I gotta say that you drive pretty good buzzed. Very impressed.” towel girl complimented then went back to kissing and licking his stomach.
He needed to stop this. “Get dress. I’ll call you a cab.” Jared instructed. He saw the disappointment on towel girls face as she got up off him, gathered her clothes and went back into the bathroom to get dressed. Jared got out of bed to also put clothes on and went downstairs. He was thankful that they didn’t make a mess of the kitchen and family room, only one lamp was knocked over. He ran the faucet with cold water and took a sip from the tap. The water was refreshing in his mouth.
Just then Jared remembered he needed to call a cab company to pick up towel girl and saw that his laptop was on the coffee table. He searched for cab companies around Nashville and called the first number he saw. He prayed they would get here so he wouldn’t have to make small talk. ‘What the hell is her name again?’ wondered Jared. ‘Oh well. Doesn’t matter. Not like I am ever gonna see her again. God I hope I didn’t just jinx myself by saying that.’ he added. Just then he heard footsteps descending from the stairs. He didn’t even bother to look up. It wasn’t until he felt movement on the other side of the couch that made him look over at her, she smiled at him as she put lip gloss on her lips. “Cab will be here any minute.” Jared told her but mostly to reassure himself that this will all be over soon.
He went back to his laptop and noticed that ‘A Night of Hope’ was trending on Yahoo which surprised Jared. He didn’t expect that such a small, low key event could garner such press. As he was about to click on an article mentioning last nights benefit concert the sound of a horn honking from outside broke his concentration. “Well I guess that’s my ride.” announced towel girl as she got up from the couch. “Here let me pay for the cab fare.” Jared offered but she shot him down. “No thank you that would be weird.” “How would that be weird?” Jared asked. ”I don’t know it just would but thanks anyway.” she said and walked out the door and out of his life just like the rest of the girls that he would bring home. They come and then they go. No pun intended.
Once Jared heard the cab pull out of his driveway he turned his attention back to the article which didn’t say a whole lot, it just mostly mentioned what Jenny told him yesterday and how Nathan was the drummer for the house band. Thankfully no mention of him and how he was suppose to play bass but skipped out on it. Every article Jared skimmed through appeared to be the same. ‘Jeez no wonder the journalism field is becoming a bust. Everybody just copies everybody else’s work.’
As he was about to click out he saw that a youtube video of last night posted at the bottom of the page that read Jenny Reilly singing Peggy Lee’s “I Don’t Know Enough About You.” Jared pushed play and was totally taken aback by her voice. Not at all what he expected. It was very soothing, soulful and approachable if that makes sense. The way Jenny delivered the lyrics to the song was very emotional and honest.
He wanted to see what else he could do so he went to youtube and typed in Jenny Reilly. After watching video after video of Jenny singing and performing Jared was impressed and he was not one to be easily impressed by anyone as he prided himself as being a music snob and mostly listened to bands that no “normal” person has heard of or knew existed. So maybe that is why he liked Jenny, not a lot of people seemed to know about her. She did appear to have a cult following, however she was in no way mainstream which Jared couldn’t understand why exactly. As he listened to her original songs a lot of them were “radio-friendly”. You know very hooky and catchy. Plus her voice seemed like it was made for the formulaic, melodic pop tune that Top 40 radio shoves down listeners throats. One of the videos that he watched of her was an interview back in 2008. The guy asked if she ever wants to be famous? Her reply was a straight “No” and then Jenny added ” I would rather be a happy nobody then a sad somebody.” Nope no fame and fortune for Jenny, she was an artist and for that Jared truly admired her.
When the band all got back together to tour overseas it would be the first time Jared saw Nathan since the day he didn’t show up for the benefit concert. The youngest Followill was surprised when his eldest brother mentioned that no one was upset with him that he bailed. “Really?” Jared asked. “Yeah. Jenny thought you probably got sick since you never returned and Jessie was cool cause she was afraid you were gonna try and sleep with her friend so when you didn’t show up Jess was relieved that she didn’t have to spend her night watching you like a hawk.” explained Nathan and Jared just laughed it off.
”I was watching some of the videos that the audience recorded that night and it looked like everyone had a good time.” Jared pointed out. “Yeah it was a lot of fun. We sang. We raised money for a good cause. Jenny attacked me.” stated Nathan as he took a swig of his beer. “What? Why did she attack you?” “Oh, it was all in good fun. Nothing serious. She just got mad that I wouldn’t spit out my gum. And I told her I need it cause it helps me focus on my drumming, right?” “Right” “But then she joked that I was wasting my gum. So when I said that I’m not spitting it out Jenny climbed over my drums to snatch the gum out of my mouth.” Nathan elaborated then took another swig. “So did she get?” Nathan got silent and Jared had to laugh. He couldn’t believe it. “Dude, don’t laugh at me. She’s freaking quick.” “She’s half you size.” “Whatever man. So what did you end doing? Or should I rephrase that to who did you end up doing?” asked Nathan wiggling his eyebrows but was clearly trying to direct the conversation away from him. “Uh…I was…Uh… not feeling so good, so I went home to rest. Didn’t want to risk getting sick right before the tour starts back up, you know.” Jared lied.
