I thank everyone who has lifted a review. It means so much to me to hear that you like my story. I'll try to be a little faster on the updates, but I am currently working on a second story that I hope will be like as much as this one. Without bording you more. Please review and Enjoy Chapter 11 of Jade's Big Break.
Chapter 11
"Robbie!" is all Jade can say as she stares across the busy airport, shock and surprise clear in her voice as well as on her face. Seeing the boy that disappeared almost without a trace years ago, leaving most to give him up for dead by now, sends Jade back to the day Robbie first came up missing.
It was barley four days after graduation when Cat walked into Tori's house through the front door without knocking. "Hey Cat, thanks for knocking" Tori says as she looks at her red headed friend who clearly looks upset. Tori, Andre and Jade were sitting at the dinning room table playing cards. They look up when Cat doesn't answer, seeing the tears in her eyes and the sad look on her face.
"Cat, whats wrong?" Tori says as she get up and heads over to her, soon followed by the other two friends. Tori takes the upset Cat by the upper arms and leads her to sit down onto the nearby couch. Cat remains silent and just sniffs like she has been crying.
"Come on Cat, your scaring me. Tell us what happened" Tori pleads with Cat to get her to speak. "Yeah, you can tell us little red. It can't be that bad" Andre said as he sits on the coffee table next to Tori in front of Cat. Jade sits down next to Cat and takes hold of her hand, giving it a little squeeze of encouragement.
"Rob... Robbie's gone" Cat says in a shaking weak voice. Not seeming very interested in going into details.
"Gone? What do you mean by he's gone?" Andre says as he tries to get more information out of Cat. Doing his best to keep his voice soft for Cat benefit, no wanting to upset her more.
Cat takes a breath to try and steady her voice then looks up at her friends. Her eyes shining with the tears she hasn't shed yet. "I went over to Robbie's place today to give him a ride here. When I knocked on the door Robbie's mom answered" Cat fights off a sob. "She told me that Robbie lifted California to pursue his dreams. That's all she was able to tell me, beside that she doesn't know where he went or when he will be coming back" Cat says all this in a voice that was weak and filled with pain. Hearing Cat talk like this breaks Jade's heart, making her want to rip Robbie's head off. "Why wouldn't he say goodbye, I thought we were friends" Cat asks to no one in-particular before she begins to sob into her hands again. Her friends in shock over the news of Robbie's disappearance.
The next couple weeks are spent trying to find out where Robbie went to but any leads they tried to follow all lead to dead ends. After about two week the four friends are forced to give up, since none of them have any more ideas on where to look. Tori, Cat and Andre end up just silently wishing Robbie the best where ever he is. Jade just hopes the little piss ant doesn't die before she gets the chance to punch him in the face for making Cat cry.
"What the hell is he doing here?" Jade thinks as she begins to walk towards Robbie. Doing her best not to let old anger effect her actions now.
"HEY JADE!" Robbie shouts as he wildly waves his hand over his head to draw her attention, only getting her to throw a dirty look his way since she is barley twenty feet away and has already spotted him.
Jade notices that Robbie seems unaffected by 'the Jade' stare. "Hmm... either I'm losing my touch or he's in spas mode right now and didn't notice" Jade thinks this thought quickly as she stands in front of her old high school punching bag.
Robbie jesters to the side away from the crowd. Jade walks with Robbie for awhile towards baggage claim, doing her best to think about what question to ask first. "God, it probably the first time I actually wanted to hear something from Robbie" Jade thinks with an amused smirk.
"So your probably wondering what I'm doing here" Robbie says as he stands next to the track that has all the luggage from the plain spinning on it. He keeps an eye out for Jade's bags as he keeps talking. "Its actually a kind of interesting story, but its a bit long so lets get your stuff first so we can be on our way" Robbie is speaking with a confidence that Jade has never heard come out of him before. Jade fines it off putting and interesting all in the same go. Jade just silently nodes in agreement.
When they find all of Jade's bags they begin to leave the airport through the front doors, both Robbie and Jade saying very little. Jade has been silent for nearly ten minutes now and the pressure of the questions that are building up inside of her has gotten to be too much. Suddenly Jade begins to blurt them out "So are you really Adam Lambert assistant?" Jade stares at Robbie as she waits for the answer, having to look upwards since Robbie is about a haft foot taller then Jade.
"Yup, sure am. I'm his personal and executive assistant" Robbie says sounding proud of himself. The proud tone of voice confusing Jade slightly as she rarely ever heard it come out of him before, but she powers on and asks her next question. "So it was you I was talking to on the phone the other day. How come you didn't say it was you when I asked your name?" Jade says as a hint of irritation enters her voice. Jade doesn't really like surprises, unless there on someone else.
"Well..." Robbie begins, sounding a little more like his old awkward self. "You see when Mr. Lambert told me that you were going to be the new head writer for the play I figured I'd let it be a surprise that I'm here. You know, let you see how far I've come instead of just telling you over the phone" Robbie says giving Jade a nervous smile as he sees the irritation spread beyond just Jade's words, now its clearly being seen on her face.
"It wasn't that I was trying to trick you Jade" Robbie continues quickly, the former confidence now fading. "Its just... well... a lot has happened since I lifted L.A." Robbie said sounding thoughtful, with a look on his face that showed his mind was now somewhere else entirely.
Jade could tell Robbie was speaking the truth. A lot must have happened to Robbie after leaving Hollywood because Jade could tell just by looking at him that he's not the same weird boy he was back in high school. The line of thinking tempered Jade's irritation and caused her to calm down a little. "What must have happened to him to turn puppet boy into this guy, who ever he is?" Jade wonders silently to herself.
They reach a large black expensive looking car in the airport parking lot. "A Lincoln Town Car, did Adam give you this to drive me around in?" Jade asks questioningly. Robbie just looks at her and smiles "Kind of, lets just says that Mr. Lambert may be a slave driver when it comes to working for him. But if you can do what he asks of you he'll treat you right" Robbie says putting Jade's bags into the trunk.
"Whoa, hold on a second. Are you saying this is your car?" Jade says sounding surprised. "This isn't just a car Adam rented for you to take me around town?" Robbie just smirks and laughs softly at Jade responds.
"I told you Jade. If you can do the job Mr. Lambert wants you to do, he'll treat you right. And I am very good at my job" Robbie says as he opens the door to the back seat on the passengers side to let Jade get in. Jade just looks at him questioningly for a moment before she just shakes her head and gets in the car.
Shutting the door Robbie walks around the car and gets in the drivers seat. As he starts the car, Jade continues with her line of questions "So Adam just gave you this car for being a good assistant. Wow, I guess its good to be Mr. Lambert's pet huh?" Jade casually says as the car began to pull out of the parking spot but then Jade is jerked forward as the car takes an abrupt stop.
Jade looks forward at Robbie in shock "What the hell was that?" Jade asks a little pissed, wondering why he stopped like that.
Robbie then turns in his seat to look directly at Jade, his eyes show an angry look that's as clear as day even in the dim light of two in the morning. "First of all Jade" Robbie says with content in his voice, his eyes staring right into Jade with no fear in them at all. The sound and the look he's making causes Jade to sit back in her seat in shock. "I am no ones pet, I make my own choices in life and its gotten me pretty far thous far. I may be Adam's assistant for now but I not going to be forever" Robbie continues sounding calmer then before, but Jade can tell he's hiding a underlining anger in his words.
"I have plans for my life and Adam is only a stepping stone for those plans" Jade notices how he's using Adam's first name now instead of saying Mr. Lambert. "Secondly, I don't need to or have to take being talked down to by the likes of you or anyone. This isn't high school anymore and you need to remember that" Robbie says keeping his voice even and steady, but his eyes hold anger and threat in them.
Jade can only stare at Robbie. His actions and words were so forceful that Jade almost didn't recognize him while he was speaking. "What the hell? Did Robbie Shapiro just talk to Jade West like she some dumb kid?" Jade thinks to herself as she watches Robbie turn back around and pull out of the parking lot. She did feels the urge to respond in kind to Robbie tone, but she just couldn't bring herself to say something nasty or utter a threat to the man behind the wheel.
A large part of Jade is telling her to reach over and smack Robbie in the side of the head, but the other part of her is stopping the action from happening. It would take someone with a lot of guts to talk like that to Jade if they had any idea what she's like. To have the boy who needed to have the puppet Rex say what is really on his mind just talk to her like that, well its kind of impressive. Jade actually started to grow some respect for the man she used to abuse back in high school. "Apparently New York has done wonders for Robbie" Jade thinks with a little smirk, staring at Robbie as he guides the car through late night New York traffic.
The rest of the car ride to the hotel was silent like the grave. Jade actually felt awkward sitting in the back seat while Robbie drove, his face as unreadable as a stone. So Jade just let Robbie simmer down and let him have his quiet time, she could always get back at him later for talking down to her if the urge really was there to.
The drive took about 25 minutes before Robbie pulled up to a large building in the middle of downtown Manhattan. Jade and Robbie get out of the car at the same time, Jade looks up in shock at the extravagant building in front of her. "Is this where I'll be staying?" Jade asks, feeling only slightly overwhelmed by Adam's generosity. The first class plain ride was one thing, but Jade never expected to be staying in such a beautiful place. She excepted to be staying at a Hampton Inn at best.
"Once again, I have told you this. Adam may expect the best out of you, but if you measure up to his expectations he will make sure you got everything you ever need" Robbie says sounding very deadpan as he uploads Jade luggage from the trunk of his car. He calls a bellhop over to them and the bellhop begins to load Jades stuff onto a cart.
Robbie them walks over to Jade and stares at her directly into her eyes. Jade almost excepts him to yell, but he simply talks in his normal voice. "You'll be in room 402. Their expecting you so all you got to do is walk in and give them your name at the head desk, they'll show you to your room after that. And just so you know the room is completely paid for the next three months, if your here longer just tell me and I'll set you up for a longer stay" Robbie states in his confident tone once again. "Room service is included in your stay here so when you get up to your room feel free to order something to eat if you like" Robbie says as he begins to walk back around to the drivers side of his car.
"Hey, when am I going to meet Mr. Lambert?" Jade asks as she watches Robbie open the door to his car.
"I'll call you first, but I'll most likely be here around ten to pick you up. From here I'll take you straight to the venue where the play will be held at and there you'll have a meeting with Mr. Lambert and the director. Is there's anything else you need to know?" Robbie doing his best to hide the fact the he really wants to get home to get some sleep.
"um... no, I think I'm good for the moment" Jade says simply. "Alright cool, I'll see you around ten. Try to get some sleep, your going to have a long day tomorrow" Robbie says as he gets in his car, shuts the door and drives off without saying another word to Jade.
Jade almost feels like she should have apologized for the pet comment she made earlier, but its too late to says it now. "Hell, if he still looks upset the next time I see him I'll take the comment back or whatever" Jade thinks as she heads into the hotel.