Thomas & January (Sleepless 2)

I frantically searched the people around me, gripping them as I went and ensuring they weren’t January. I went from person to person until the black cut off my view and two hands reached for me.

“No!” I told the person dragging me toward what I assumed was some sort of exit. “No!” I exclaimed, pushing back but they succeeded in pushing me into the night air. I coughed and gagged as I reached soil and fresh air but immediately got back up, determined to find her.

The fireman who pulled me out, pushed me toward the crowd, unwilling to let me back in. “January!” I yelled at the building, begging her to come out.

I immediately turned toward the crowd surrounding the burning building and searched for her face. I hysterically wound my way through the throngs of stunned faces calling out her name.

“Tom!” I heard to my left and ran toward the voice.

“Jason!”

“Are you all right?” he asked. “Where’s January?”

o;Jason? Jonah is taking me to the club tonight?”

“Yeah,” he said, clearing his throat uncomfortably. Something was up. “Uh, Tom is indisposed. He said he’ll see you here.”

I hung up. “That son of a...”

“What’s that?” Jonah asked, a devious smile on his face.

“Shut up, Jonah. Let’s go.”

I grabbed my bag and stuck in a few essentials before letting the door click behind me.

“Good God, January,” he began. “I gotta admit, you’ve got to be one of the sexiest women ever. You’re making me think twice about my girl back home.”

“Classy, Jonah.”

“No shit. You are smoking hot. What would you say...”

“Stop!” I said, holding up my hand to get away from his slime. “I wouldn’t mess with you if we were the last two people on Earth and our need to procreate was the difference between the continuation of the world or not. That’s how much I hate you.”

“So...”

“Absolutely not, Jonah. Take me to the club and leave me the hell alone.”

“Feisty little thing.”

“Ugh! You are beyond creepy.”

When we reached downstairs, there was a car waiting for which I was eternally grateful. The club was only two blocks but I didn’t think I could survive my heels much less Jonah’s incessant come-ons.

We pulled up to the club and true to Tom’s word, there were paparazzi, their cameras flashing at an astronomical rate. I was so freaking nervous, I could vomit. Jonah started to exit the cab but I pushed him back.

“Don’t even think for a second you’re exiting this car in front of me. You’re going to let me leave, then you're going to circle the block so no one knows we rode together.”

“Fine,” Jonah admitted too easily, sitting back.

I stepped out of the car and shut the door behind me, ensuring Jonah wasn’t following. The clicks of lights were blinding and took a moment to become accustomed to. I followed the walk in front of me slowly so as not to trip and made a beeline for the entrance but was stopped short just a few feet into the promotional backdrop. Photographers clambered my direction and insisted on a picture. Fine, I thought, give them a picture to shut them up. They won’t publish a nobody.

I posed as best I could and moved but was stopped again...and again and again. Finally, I made it to the door and broke the threshold feeling part exhilarated, part terrified. Either way I was glad it was over.

Thomas

I sat just behind the door not expecting to see January for at least an hour. I wasn’t keeping an eye out for her...All right, I was definitely keeping my eye out for her, but I was also doing my job, waiting for one band in particular that I recommended for tonight’s performance and I was eager to talk with them. In other words, eager to get Jonah away from them.

That’s when I saw her and literally lost my balance resting against the door. I scrambled for some semblance of cool but couldn’t tear my eyes away.