AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Gonna throw a rager?” Tommy teases.
“Nah.” I grin though at the reminder.
Junior year of high school was the first time Mabel and John drove to California to visit their good friends and goddaughter. And being the hellion I was back then, I took full advantage. After my success with music, that party is probably what I’m best known for in this town.
“Too bad Chief Twain has a long memory,” Hudson says, taking a sip of beer and then smirking in Tommy’s direction. “Must make work a little awkward.”
“Work?” I look at Tommy too.
“Yeah.” He rubs the back of his neck. “Company got a contract to revamp the town’s systems. Including the police department. Since I’m local, I’m overseeing the project.”
“That’s awesome, man.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
I’ve never been totally clear on what Tommy’s job entails. He works remotely for a big tech company headquartered in Phoenix. And instead of moving to Arizona or to a larger city, he’s remained in Oak Grove.
Just like Hudson.
And like Danny DeLuca, the fourth member of our little crew, who shows up a few minutes later, carrying a six-pack and wearing a wide smile.
Danny talked us out of all our craziest ideas back in high school, although when I look back at how we spent those years, the bar was pretty damn low to begin with. He’s now the town attorney, taking over for his pops after Danny Sr. had a health scare a few years back.
More and more people follow Danny’s arrival until the yard resembles an Oak Grove High reunion. People I’ve only seen in passing, if that, during my short, sporadic visits here in the past ten years.
Hudson pitched tonight as a chill hangout, but I’m not surprised it’s expanded into a giant gathering. The best and worst thing about living in a small town is the total lack of boundaries.
I answer an endless stream of questions about my latest tour and how Mabel and John are doing. No one mentions my mom. But plenty of people make predictions about how soon my next album will release or when my next tour will kick off.
I feel like a fraud, offering different versions of the same vague responses. Realizing everyone here sees the glamorous facade of my life and not the exhaustion beneath the shiny surface. I might not have to worry about money and have staff handling the ranch’s daily chores, but I worked hard for that privilege. There’s an immense amount of pressure that goes along with knowing tens of thousands of people paid a lot of money to see you perform. Especially after changing hotels in the middle of the night because fans shut down the street or waking up at the crack of dawn to do a radio show.
But that reality is nothing I can describe to the awed, impressed expressions aimed my way.
I’m the exception in Oak Grove, the guy who left and did so in spectacular fashion. My career easily could have fizzled. There are no guarantees when it comes to anything, but that’s twice as true in music. Often, the brighter you shine, the faster you fade. I knew I was lucky, so I never complained.
It feels like I’ve talked to every single one of the forty or so people in the yard by the time I head inside to use the bathroom.
There are a few young kids drawing on the patio with chalk, which is bizarre. I’m nowhere near the point in my life where procreating has occurred to me as a positive possibility. The realization people my age—people I grew up with—have is strange. It makes me feel like an outsider in a different way. The same weirdness of seeing Hudson with Morgan earlier, like I fell behind without noticing. Skipped a step without realizing.
I use the bathroom and then end up in the kitchen. The leftover burgers are already stored and the dishes cleared.
My head is in the fridge as I grab a water when I hear Hudson’s voice.
“Sorry, man.”
I grip the plastic bottle and turn, shutting the door with my foot. “Don’t apologize.”
“It wassupposedto be small. I only mentioned it to—”
I shake my head as I twist the top open. “It’s fine.”
“They’re all proud of you, superstar.”
I take a long sip.
I know people are proud of me. And it’s stifling, pretending like my life is perfect.
“You doing okay?” Hudson asks. “Really?”
