A Spotlight Summer (Jack Gilinsky)

Chapter Twenty-Six

Jack POV

“Let me get this straight,” Johnson says, “You asked her to come on tour with us?”

“Look, I know I should have asked you first, but it just sort of… happened,” I explained.

I averted my eyes from my best friend and suddenly became very interested in the ingredients of the box of Frosted Flakes in front of me.

Johnson shoved a spoonful into his mouth and then mumbled, “It’s only for three weeks, it should be fine, I guess.”

I took my time chewing and tried to think of something to say; Johnson wasn’t happy. He wasn’t mad per say, but he definitely wasn’t thrilled about the Kelsey situation.

After the silence became deafening, I finally conceded defeat and spoke, “Just say it, bro.”

Johnson shook his head and shoveled more cereal into his mouth, “I have nothing to say.”

I glared at him from across my kitchen table and waited a couple more minutes before I spoke again, “Are you seriously going to be like this? Just fucking say it.”

Johnson slammed his spoon onto the bowl and following a loud clamor, he responded, “What do you want me to say Jack? Jesus, if I don’t speak you get mad. If I open my mouth and say I’m pissed that you invited Kelsey onto our tour, you’ll get mad. There’s no winning with you, so I prefer to eat my cereal in peace before our meeting.”

Johnson rarely got agitated and when he did, it was never at me. His anger made me more pissed off than I already was.

“Why are you pissed?” I almost screamed.

Johnson bit the side of his cheek and abruptly stood from his chair and walked out of my kitchen. I sat dumbfounded for a couple of seconds and then I remembered my motor skills. I quickly got up from my chair and followed him to the front of my house. Just as he was about to open the front door, I quickly came from behind him and slammed it shut.

“You really want to fucking get into this?” Johnson spit at me.

“Yeah, let’s get into it,” I angrily replied.

“Ok. You meet this girl from New York, you fall in love with her,” Johnson’s voice took on a higher pitch as a result of his disapproval, “over the course of a month, might I add, and I have done nothing! I have sat back and I have let it happen, because she makes you happy, so I thought, ‘what the hell’! But now, you invited her to come on our tour, our dream, without even asking me! You have fucking ditched me the entire summer and now you want to ditch me on the JACK & JACK TOUR? There are only two names in that headline Jack, and neither of them are Kelsey,” Johnson ended.

I probably should have thought before I said what I was about to say, but my anger erupted from the surface and I yelled, “Oh, poor Johnson, I haven’t been paying attention to him for a month. Poor Johnson, who is at my house 24/7 and who sees me more than my own family. Poor Johnson, who I am touring the country with for three months. Sorry, I am so sorry that I invited my girlfriend to come along for three weeks. 21 days out of 90, my mistake. I forgot that when you were with Fiona she never came to any of our shows or events and she never hung out with you while I was sitting at home doing nothing.” Johnson’s eyes became slits at my mocking tone and his hypocritical reaction made me even angrier.

He opened the door and hurried down my steps and before he was out of my sight, I shouted, “Just because you fucked up the best thing that ever happened to you doesn’t mean I’m going to make the same mistake with Kelsey.”