Izzy was sitting in the audience watching the guys do their sound check. Her mind was racing over JC and last night’s revelations. What did this all mean? She was so confused over the whole situation and had been avoiding JC ever since she had left that morning before he woke. She just needed to figure it all out for herself. Though JC’s worried looks were slowly breaking her down. She just didn’t know what to do with the whole situation. How long had he known that she was Bell? Did he still want her like he did back then? There were so many questions and not nearly enough answers. Her cell phone rang and dropped her out of her thoughts,
“Hello?” She got up to get a drink because she was thirsty.
“Hey Izzy, it’s Lucy.”
“Hey baby what’s up?” Izzy brighten at the sound of her big sister,
“Not much, how’s the tour?” Lucy sounded sad,
“Good, it’s going great. Luce, what’s wrong? You don’t sound good.”
“Um yeah, have you heard from Greg lately?”
“Yeah I just talked to him a couple days ago, why?”
“Izzy, Greg’s dead. He killed himself.” Lucy’s words hung in the air and Izzy felt like someone had punched her in the stomach. Her legs gave way and she sat down hard in the aisle.
“What? Lucy you’re lying, he’s not, I just talked to him!”
“I’m so sorry honey.” Lucy started crying, “They found him this morning in his room. He had the gun in his mouth. Oh baby girl, I’m sorry I just didn’t want you to find out through the news or something.” Tears poured down Izzy’s face,
“Oh God why? Why would he?”
“No one ever saw it coming it was a surprise to everyone.” Izzy could barely speak. Her mind was racing and finally she squeaked out,
“Thank you for telling me Lucy.”
“Yeah well are you going to be okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine.”
“You call me if you need me, okay?”
“Yeah I will, bye Luce.”
“Bye Izzy.” Izzy hung up the phone and hugged her knees. She couldn’t believe that Greg was dead. He sounded so good the last time she talked to him. Izzy slowly got up and found one of the drivers, Leo.
“Hey Miss Izzy, you okay?” Izzy nodded her head,
“Leo I would like to go back to the hotel, please.” He was about to protest but one look in her eyes and he gave in. Leo radioed in and then escorted her to the awaiting car.
“Carlos, Have you seen Izzy around?”
“Izzy? I think she was taken back to the hotel. I remember Leo calling over the radio saying that he was taking her.”
“Okay, thanks.” Joey replied and pulled out his cell, calling up Izzy. Her phone rang and rang till it picked up into her voice mail. He left a quick message for her to call him back. Why didn’t she pick up? She always did, maybe she went back to the hotel to change and was in the shower.
“Apparently we’re playing hide and seek today, huh?” There was no answer, “Playing hard to get? Well I’ll even the odds.” He flicked on the lights and quickly glanced around the room. It was empty and he was talking to himself. He was dumbfounded, where was Izzy? He looked at his watch; it was 6:30pm on the dot. What was going on? Why was she ignoring him? He thought that they had had a break through last night. JC pulled out his cell and dialed Izzy up. She didn’t answer and he got her voicemail, “Hey sexy, it’s me and it’s 6:30pm and I’m in the side room by the lighting booth wondering where you are. Give me a call, hopefully you’ll find me before you get this.”
“Izzy! It’s Joey!” There was no answer, he tried the doorknob and it was unlocked. He opened the door and poked his head in, “Izzy?” He didn’t see her and he opened the door wider as he stepped into the room. “Izzy?” He called again, “Where are you?” There was still no answer and he saw that the balcony door was open. He walked cautiously towards it, “Izzy?” He walked out on to the balcony and saw her there. She was sitting in a chair wrapped in a blanket, staring out into the city. Joey went to her side, “Izzy? What’s wrong? You worried me when I couldn’t find you. Why didn’t you answer your phone?” Izzy took a long sip from the beer that she was holding,
“Maybe I didn’t want to be found.” She said quietly and then she sadly laughed, Joey glanced down and saw the half empty case of beer that was sitting there.
“Izzy-bell, what’s wrong baby?” Cecilia by Simon and Garfunkel began playing in the background.
“I love this song.” Izzy said, “I love this CD, it has all my favorite songs on it.” Greg made it for me; he called it my happy CD. So that anytime I was having a bad day I could play it and it would make me feel better.”
“Yeah, I know. Why are you upset, Izzy?” Izzy didn’t say anything and just stared out into the city. She kept drinking from her beer silently. “Izzy I’m so worried about you. Why won’t you tell me what’s wrong?” Tears began to slip down Izzy’s face. She sniffled and wiped her nose with a tissue.
“The CD isn’t making me feel better, Greg was wrong.”
“Did something happen between you and Greg?” Izzy’s tears kept falling,
“Greg’s dead Joey.” She said quietly, her voice barely above a whisper.
“What? How?”
“He shot himself this morning.”
“That’s horrible Iz.” He rubbed her arm. Izzy finished her beer and put it down beside her and reached for another. Joey stopped her,
“Izzy don’t, it won’t help.”
“Don’t tell me what will or won’t help Joey.”
“It won’t bring Greg back.”
“Let go of my arm Joey.”
“No.” She ripped her arm away and got up. Joey stood up and blocked her way.
“Joey, get out of my way.”
“Where are you going?”
“Somewhere you aren’t.” She tried to get past him but he blocked her attempts.
“Joey!!! Leave me alone!!!”
“No, I’m not going to let you go through this alone.”
“I don’t care what you want!”
“Yeah, but I care about you!”
“If you care about me then let me go!”
“No.” She pushed him,
“I hate you Joey!” Joey grabbed her arms and held her tightly. Izzy thrashed wildly to be let go. Finally she gave up and collapsed, sobbing in his arms. He sat on the balcony and held her as she cried, slowly rocking her.