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15th December 1988 / Sayreville New Jersey
•JON'S POV•
I stood in the middle of my living room, hands on hips, staring at the bare tree next to my fireplace. It looked so dull on its own, I needed to decorate it, but the thought of doing that on my own kind of bored me, I didn't even really have an idea how to...I hadn't decorated a tree in years. I sighed, going into the kitchen to pour myself a glass of wine to relax.
As the deep red liquid filled to the brim of the glass, a small sheet of paper on my kitchen counter caught my eye. I set down the half empty bottle of wine, and grabbed the paper. Immediately, I recognized the handwriting. It belonged to my bandmate, Richie Sambora. I bit the inside of my lip, in his scruffy handwriting, it read out a long number, and then underlined next to it, he'd written HAYLEE'S!
It did annoy me, considerably, how hard he was trying to get me to move on. He didn't seem to understand how much I'd been through, finding my best friend in bed with my girlfriend had taken a huge toll on me, it had messed me up, badly. I hid my pain most of the time, no, I didn't blame Richie, I know he felt guilty, and I know he was sorry...and we're brothers, no girl comes between that, but it did still hurt me to this day. That's just what I was scared of, I didn't want to fall in love again, last time it had messed me up, and that was even before I was 'famous' or any of that shit. It would be even harder now. Finding someone that loved me for me, and not just the fame, the money, or my face, was gonna be practically impossible, so I gave up trying, it'd save me the pain later on.
I simply stared at the digits written on the paper. I liked Haylee, I really did, she seemed like a really nice girl, calling her wouldn't do me any harm.
And so, with a glass of red wine in one hand, and the little slip of paper in the other, I sat down on the sofa, making myself comfortable as I reached over to grab the phone. I dialed her number, and listened to it ring for a few moments. A smile appeared on my face as soon as I heard her voice on the other end.
"Hello?" she answered. It then occured to me that I hadn't really planned out what I was going to say. I felt a sudden sense of awkwardness as I opened my mouth to speak.
"Uhm, hi, it's Jon," I said, stammering a little. I took another sip of wine and sighed outwards, relaxing a little.
"Oh!" she mumbled in surprise, "Hi Jon, sorry, I didn't realize you had my number,"
"Oh yeah, sorry Richie gave it to me, hope you don't mind," I revealed, scratching the back of my neck.
"No not at all," she said. I felt much more comfortable as I heard her smile at the other end, it eased me a little. "What was the matter anyways?"
I laughed a little, "Well, somehow I guess you managed to convince me to actually buy a Christmas tree this year,"
I heard her hyperbolic gasp down the line, and it only furthered my amusement. "Oh my God no way!" she practically squealed. "That's great!"
