The Resident

Chapter 10

IAN'S POV:

I cleared my calendar for the next few months. I had some promos to do, a few little gigs here and there...you know....rock star stuff. I did it all. The only difference was that I didn't go home to England to stay like I was going to. I stayed here. In Philadelphia, PA, to see Janel every second I could. Not that I didn't get to see my family in England anyway. I did. I stayed a weekend there, and was back for Janel by Monday morning.
It was getting pretty damn hard to hide Janel from my "people". My manager, and all those industry peeps. I finally had to tell him that I was seeing someone, and it was a total secret. They said ok, and that was that. It really wasn't a big deal to them. I was just being paranoid and thinking too much about it.
Every tv appearance I made in America made me realize that at some point soon, I was going to be recognized by either Janel, or employees in the group home. Luckily they were mostly all older people, so they weren't that hip to the young music scene. But still.....all it took was one scanning through the channels one night, to see me close up, singing. I was suprised it didn't happen already. But I knew it would. I didn't know WHAT I was gonna do, then.
But I had Bonnie working with me to try and get Janel into her own apartment. I told her I'd pay for it. I didn't care. I told her sky was the limit. Contact whoever she needs to contact, no matter how high up and powerful....contact the president, if needed, to get the ball rolling on Janel's independence.
And honestly, it didn't even occur to me to do that for ME. I did it because I wanted her to be a 'normal person' like she was striving for. She talked about it a lot. "If I had my own place", she'd say.
She wanted it more than me. It scared me, actually. Her on her own. I'd be there for her, sure...but I couldn't be there all the time. Maybe I could take her with me whenever I needed to....
But I knew in my heart, she could handle it fine. She'd learn quick. And she'd be a perfectly normal person, just like she's always wanted. If they could just get someone to listen and sign her the hell out of that group home!

In the two months since I'd known her, Janel and I took lots of walks. I was starting to be more and more popular in America now, so I started wearing my hood up outside. Luckily it was late December, so that was normal.
I did get some looks here and there, though. I tried walking in more empty places in the park. And sitting in the tunnel, that was always pretty secluded.
I had a taxi pick us up from the park a few times, and took Janel for drives, too. We drove through the countryside a lot, to get out of the city. We went to stores, malls, other parks, etc....anywhere to get out of the home. And that local park. It was getting too routine for us.
I had also given Janel an iPhone. I didn't like blocking my phone number every single time I called for her, so I gave her her own phone. She learned it pretty quickly. She loved it. I even put all her music on it for her. She was soooo excited about that because her first concern was what if she was listening to music in her room and didn't hear my call. This solved that problem.
I bought her a hoodie she was admiring at a store. A slouchy beanie hat she tried on and looked sooo cute in, that I liked, a few colorful cases for her phone so she could accessorize. I had them wrapped up and I gave them to her for Christmas. She was excited. She'd never gotten Christmas presents before, really. She got one from Bonnie every year. Sometimes a cd, or new headphones when hers would start wearing out. Or a shirt or something. But this was a couple presents.
I put them under the small fake Christmas tree in the reception area one day when I visited her, and I took her out of her room and dragged her out to the tree. She didn't notice anything right away, but then she happened to look down and see her name on one gift. And then another....and another....she was all smiles. "YOU did this, didn't you?" she asked me. "YeP!" was all I said.
That was the last day I saw her until two days after Christmas. I had to go home. My parents would have killed me if I didn't. I'd promised them I'd be there for Christmas. I was planning on staying until after New Years, but I couldn't wait. I had to come back for a few days in between to see Janel. And I went back again, for New Years with my parents and brother and other relatives.
I called her at the stroke of midnight to say hi, which was fine, because it was only like 7pm where she was. She fell asleep for her own midnight, which was also good, because it would have been 5am where I was. Lol.
When I'd leave her at night after visiting her, I'd go back to my hotel and call her. Sometimes I'd call her as I was still walking out the door, so I could see her smile and answer her phone and wave to me like I was crazy.
We sort of got into a talking all night/sleeping all day routine, which also benefitted me because it was easier to avoid being noticed at night. But we didn't do it on purpose. We'd generally wake up at lunch, unless I had a promo or something, then I'd let her sleep. She called me when she woke up one time, and I was on the air. It killed me not to answer it, as it vibrated in my pocket.
I had to tell her who I was soon. I just liked the fact that she didn't know. Because she liked ME. Not the famous musician. But I wanted to officially make us a couple, so I needed to tell her soon. I wouldn't make us official while hiding something huge like that. She has the right to know who she's going out with, right? Sometimes I'd almost tell her, but I'd change the subject at the last second.
Dammit.
I'd start thinking about her, and how if people knew who she was with, they might bother her....I don't know. It was selfish not to tell her. I know. But I just didn't want to put that much onto her plate. And when I'd decide to tell her, I'd wimp out. The deeper and deeper we got, the harder it was to tell her, though. I didn't want to piss her off, but the whole thing would probably piss her off. I hoped not.