Well the day of the Grammy Awards had finally arrived and everyone was scrambling around to get ready on time so they could head on out to the Staples Center before traffic got crazy. It was hectic. The whole week was hectic. It was starting to become too much for Jenny. There was always something to do or somewhere to be. She never had a break for herself. ‘How the hell does Jared do this? This would drive me insane.’ She would tell herself. 

 “Are you actually having fun Jared?” Jenny asked him the other night at another Grammy party.

“Yeah. Why? Aren’t you? You’ve met some pretty cool people here and you went shopping for dresses with my Mom the day.” he reminded her of the things she’s done.

True, Jenny had met some celebrities while in L.A. and found an amazing dress to wear but that wasn’t why she was with Jared. She could care less about parties or celebrities. ‘I wish I was fishing with Matt and Coleman right now. Anywhere but here.’ 

“Jenny, honey, since you’re finished getting dressed will you go and check on Jared to see if he is almost ready? I swear that boy takes the longest to get dressed.” said Betty Ann as she was getting her hair and makeup done. 

“He’s probably dressed but spending most of his time fixing his hair.” mentioned Jenny and walked out of her hotel room to see if Jared was ready. She knocked on the door and Doug was the one to answer. Despite Jared’s wish for the two to end up friends, that didn’t seem like that was going to happen between Doug and Jenny. They just didn’t seem to click. Jenny saw Doug as someone who just leeched off Jared to get recognition and Doug thought the same of her. “If you two would just talk to each other, you would find out that you both have something in common.” chastised Jared. “The only thing Doug and I have in common is you.” said Jenny. “See! That’s perfect. Talk about how you both love having me in your life.” suggested Jared.

“Hey.” They both greeted each other and Doug stepped aside to let her in. “He’s in the bathroom.” Doug told her. “Of course he is.” Jenny said under her breath and lightly knocked on the bathroom door. 

“Doug, seriously, I’m almost done!” yelled Jared through the door.

“Its Jenny.” 

“Oh, sorry.” he said as he opened the door. Once Jared caught sight of Jenny in the ivory lace, Diana von Furstenburg dress with cranberry colored high heel sandals to go with it he pulled her into the bathroom and slammed her up against the door. 

“No, no, no. You’ll ruin my makeup and hair.” Jenny pushed Jared  back and looked into the mirror to see how she looked. 

“You look so beautiful.” he gushed.

“Really? Jessie said that this dress looked a lot like the one Lily wore last year. Does it look like Lily’s old dress? Can you even remember? I don’t want to be compared to her. She’s a freaking supermodel for Gods sake. Do I really look okay?” Jenny rambled.

“Of course you do. You look better than okay. You’re gorgeous. Now, how about me? How do I look?” he asked with a boyish smile on his face.

“You look handsome as always. Are you ready?”

Jared gave himself one more look over in the mirror and said, “Yes. I’m ready to go. You sure you don’t want to have quickie before we leave.” 

“Come one Jared.” Jenny said and grabbed Jared by the arm to head on out.

The limo ride was filled with chatter and the alcohol was flowing freely. “I don’t want anyone to get wasted before we even arrive on the carpet.” warned Betty Ann.

“We’re gonna get Mom wasted again.” said Caleb in a sing song voice.

“Caleb where’s Lily? Is she not coming?” Jenny asked. 

“Oh, she’s coming later. She’s busy with some other things.” he told her. Jenny hoped that Caleb didn’t tell Jared about there talk the other day. She didn’t want her boyfriend to know the insecurities she had in dealing with everything this past week.

‘Its almost over. Soon everything will go back to normal.’ Jenny kept reminding herself.

When they pulled up to the Staples Center, the girls went past the red carpet craziness to enter the arena and wait for the guys to get finished with the press junket.

“Is there a bar in here?” Jenny looked around. She needed a drink. Something stronger than the stuff she was drinking in the limo.

“There’s a bar over there.” Jessie pointed out and the three women headed on over.

“Girls, remember, lets try to keep this night clean.” reminded Betty Ann.

“Hey, what can I get you ladies?” greeted the bartender.

Before Jenny could order a shot of whiskey, Betty Ann spoke up, “Three Shirley Temples please.” 

“Really? We can’t even make them Shirley Temple blacks?” asked Jenny.

Jessie stood back while doing her best to suppress the laughter that was about to come out of her. 

Betty Ann looked over at Jenny. “We are here to support our boys, not to get wasted.”

“Okay, you do realize that your sons are basically alcoholics themselves. You’re not that naive are you?” Jenny asked with a bit of an attitude in her voice. She wasn’t going to be treated like a child especially not from her boyfriends mother. Betty Ann chose to ignore Jenny since the older woman wasn’t a fan of conflict. 

“Uh, excuse me, I’ll have a shot of whiskey.” Jenny spoke up when the bartender placed her Shirley Temple in front her.

“Sure. Any specific whiskey you have in mind?”

“Chivas, please, if you have it if not then surprise me.” said Jenny who looked over at Betty Ann and Jessie to see if they would say something. Both women remained quiet.

After what felt like an eternity the boys finally showed up and the tension seemed to have lifted. “Alright, lets get this show on the road.” said Nathan taking Jessie’s hand and leading the gang into the arena to take their seats.

“Hey, come on, we got to go.” said Jared when he noticed that Jenny didn’t make an effort to move away from the bar.

“I need to use the bathroom.” she mentioned. Jared could make out the subtle annoyed tone in her voice.

“Well, can’t you hold it?” he asked.

“No. Geez, what do want me to do? Piss myself? Where the Hell is the fucking bathroom?” 

“Over there. Look, I’ll meet you in there, alright. You have everything you need, right? I don’t want you to get kicked out.”

‘Trust me getting kicked out would not be the worst thing.’ Jenny said to herself as she made her way over to the restroom.

Jared watched her walk through the crowds of people. When he saw Jenny go into the restroom he decided to go find the others and take his seat. “She’s is in the bathroom.” he said when Jessie asked where Jenny was.

Five minutes passed and still no Jenny. Then ten minutes, then twenty, still no sign of Jenny. Jared was getting worried. “I’ll go find her.” offered Jessie but when she came back Jared saw a look of anger on his sister in laws face and no Jenny. 

“She’s talking on the phone with her mom.” was all Jessie informed.

“Well is she going to come and take her seat?” asked Jared.

“I don’t know. You’ll have to ask her.” he could tell that Jessie was annoyed and didn’t want to get involved in whatever problems Jenny seemed to be having that night.

Jared looked back over his shoulder hoping to be able to see Jenny walk towards him but no such luck. “Mama, what should
I do?” 

“Just let Jenny be. Her nerves probably got the best of her.”

Jared took his mother’s advice and sat back in his seat. ‘This is going to be pure Hell.’ he thought to himself as the show started.

After presenting the Best Country Album award to Lady Antebellum, Jared went to see where and what Jenny was up to. It was an hour into the show and he hadn’t heard from her. He texted her earlier to see if she was alright but all he got back from her in reply was a smily face.

Sadly, Jenny was right where he had left her earlier, at the bar talking to the bartender.

“Hey.” he greeted when he approached her.

“Jared!” she slurred and wrapped her arms around him to give him a sloppy kiss on the lips.

“Is the show over?” she asked.

“No. The show isn’t over but we can leave if you want. I’m pretty much done here.” he told her. He wanted to get Jenny away from this place before she had the chance to embarrass herself or him.

“Leave? Why? I’m finally starting to have fun. Jared you have to meet my new best friend, Todd the bartender. Todd this Jared.” Jenny pointed over to Todd who looked back at gave her a wink. “We can up with a new drink, Todd and I. Well its not so much as new as we changed the name from a Shirley Temple to a Jen Bunny. Of course mine has more alcohol in it.” Jenny giggled and sipped her drink. Jared pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to remain calm. His girlfriend was shit faced drunk. He couldn’t understand why.

“We need to get you out of here.” Jared stood up and grabbed Jenny by the arm.

“Don’t touch me.” she said through gritted teeth and jerked her arm from Jared’s grasp.

“I’m not doing this here.” The anger in his voice appeared to be lost on Jenny.

“Then don’t. Go back inside and I’ll stay here.”

“Why are you doing this? What did I do?” Jared wanted to know. This past week he thought he was doing everything right by including Jenny. Now he sees that it pretty much blew up in his face.

“Not everything is about you, Jared.” stated Jenny.

“Jared!” someone shouted. Jared looked over to see Patrick Carney from the band The Black Keys walk over. 

“Oh shit.” Jared said under breath. “Hey, Pat. Congratulations on your win. You and Dan really deserved it.” he pointed out.

“Really, you and Dan are so fucking awesome.” Jenny spoke up and Jared gave her a death glare but she ignored him and kept on talking. “You know you and Dan have this amazing thing. I don’t know what it is but it’s…just…wow. Aren’t you gonna introduce us Jared? I mean really? That’s just rude.”

Jared sighed and said, “Pat this Jenny. She’s my…”

“I’m a singer/songwriter myself. I live in Nashville, just like you.” Jenny interrupted and shook Patrick’s hand. The drummer appeared to be confused and uncomfortable but did his best to hide it.

“Well, its nice to meet you.” uttered Patrick glancing over at Jared who just shook his head.

“I have to give my deepest sympathies, Pat, about that bitch ex wife of yours writing a tell all book about you. I mean seriously, who does that?”

“Well, I…I think that’s just a rumor.” implied Patrick.

“Rumor or not that is a really shitty thing to do to somebody. I mean when this guy and I eventually call it quits,” Jenny pointed over to Jared and continued rambling on, “I’m not gonna write some memoir about him. I will write songs but that’s completely different.” expressed Jenny looking between Jared and Patrick as she talked.

Pat just gave her a nice nod and sympathetic smile while Jared turned away from Jenny cause he could no longer look at her anymore. He was officially embarrassed. The one person who was suppose to have his back tonight failed at doing that. He didn’t understand what brought out this side of Jenny. He played back the week over in his head, trying to figure out what he did wrong but he couldn’t see it. ‘I did nothing wrong this time. I did everything right. For once this is not my fault.’ Jared told himself.