Tonight is about phones.
"She missed Matt, and there were times when she would've called him had a telephone been as close as the tips of her fingers."
In Chapter 10 of Half Moon, Jules is on a trip with her mother drinking away relationship worries and rethinking her relationship with Matt. If cell phones had been around then, would this chapter have ended differently?
Hmm, I'm thinking a resounding yes!
Excerpt from this chapter:
“Think I will get this.”
Jules fingered a shiny orange, sleeveless top picturing it under her black
jacket. Holding it up to her chest, she swung around to the mirrored column.
Starla let out her
signature squeal of approval. “Makes your hair pop.”
And, hopefully, Matt’s
eyes pop. Jules smiled at the
secret thought. They were just friends, but that didn’t stop her from wanting
to look good for him.
They left the store
after Jules actually paid for her shirt. Star drove Jules to her therapy
appointment and then sat in the waiting area, thumbing through a magazine until
Jules was done. Since they had been fifteen minutes late, it was only a
forty-five minute ordeal.
The therapist, upon
hearing Jules’ parents were back in town, was interested in the so far elusive
appointment with them as a family unit. Jules let her know that realistically,
it would most likely never happen.
“Why don’t I just give
them a call now, since they are both home, you said?” Nodding, Jules picked at
the color on her fingernails, listening with interest to the soft bleep of each
digit as her home number punched into the sleek phone with buttons instead of a
rotary dial. The conversation with her mother was over in less than a minute.
With her usual stoic face, the woman jotted something in her file before
looking up with an actual sympathetic smile, which threw Jules off guard. “I’ll
see you next week then?”
Jules couldn’t muster a
return smile, and with a mumble of acquiescence, she rushed home with Star to
practice.
Their gig planned for
the next night was at a rising young starlet’s home. Marc asked to be included,
offering to help them set up, and of course, they didn’t deny him this. Marc
had, after all, introduced Matt into the band, was Jules’ sibling in blood and
bond, and they welcomed the help. Candi’s obvious glee was something Jules
tried to ignore.
Chapter 11 Half Moon. The fight
Remember--or your parents will--when you could slam the receiver down in a fit of rage? Somehow "end call" on a cell phone is not as satisfying...
Excerpt from this chapter
The next fateful ring of
the phone came just days later during those wee hours, which could be called
night or morning.
“Hey…” The quiet word
was a hesitant breath from Matt’s side of the line.
“What do you want?”
Unlike his, her voice, fed by the alcohol in her system, was strong.
“To hear your voice.”
Breathing stopped, her
throat clinched, and she felt the faint crackle in destiny. Later she would
look back and remember it strongly, but that night it was fate’s feather brush,
and she stupidly and senselessly ignored it. “Why? Already sick of Donna’s
hoo-ha?”
The silence between them
stretched. Either he was declining to answer, or she’d rendered him speechless
by the mere fact that she knew of his duplicity. Foreigner’s ‘Hot Blooded’ pounded
softly through her speakers, a song which had been one of their favorites as a
couple.
“Don’t,” he finally
spoke, barely above a whisper. “Don’t, Jules. Do that. Don’t…”
The alcohol, the fury,
the embarrassment, and the hurt—all of it was a fog in her brain. She would
never remember anything except bits and pieces of what was said afterward.
Ignoring his ‘don’t’ plea, she raged at him. Horrible things about him not
being able to wait to screw someone else. When he denied it, she said something
about the kiss—that he couldn’t deny kissing someone else THIS time. At one
point, she thought she heard her brother pick up his line, but Matt had begun
screaming back at her by then, and it was a clicking sound swallowed, and
forgotten in the anger of the argument.
Matt ended up hanging up
on her accusations, but even that was done in perfect Matt style. All yelled
out, he said something like, “I’m hanging up now. Call me if you grow up.”
Even though Matt had
already disconnected, she slammed the receiver into its cradle, again and
again, and finally threw the entire phone across her bedroom, ripping the cord
from the phone jack in the process.
Payphones! Still around but scarce and definately not a dime anymore!
Excerpt from Half Moon Chapter 10 Pop Rocks and Other Obstacles
Jules began the drive home and realized within two minutes that she shouldn’t be behind the wheel. She wanted to call Matt to come get her. She wanted to go home to him. To his home which should be their home. To the couch, or the bed, or whatever Matt had tonight. The payphone was even in her hand with a dime in its slot when she remembered their last conversation about her drinking, and she replaced the receiver. Buying a coffee, she iced it despite the store clerk’s revolted stare. Carrying it to the car, she chugged it in her usual manner before twisting the key.
That's all the phone examples I could think up on the spot, but I remember the story being riddled with busy signals, long distance charges, and times when an easy phone call would have smoothed over a huge relationship rift.
The differences over the decades is part of what makes this story evolve how it does.
Rising Sun, Half Moon, Rock Stars
Silver Strings D-String Set Trilogy
They are friends in public, lovers in private. In an age of sex, drugs, rock and roll, they want it all. But 'all' has a different definition to everyone. What happens when sexy drummer Matt Loren wants bandmate Jules Breaux as more than a bedroom plaything? Is her love more than a four letter word?
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