Page 18 of Nanny for the Rockstars

“Why not?” I ask, cutting into the conversation now.

“When do you have time for the things that matter if you’re always bouncing from one place to the next? Doesn’t seem like you have the time to really put down any real meaning anywhere,” she says.

“Look at Hendrix,” Caleb says. “You mean to tell me that he’s not real meaning? I didn’t have to settle down or give up on anything for Hendrix to be in this world, and you’re really going to sit there and tell me I haven’t accomplished anything with my life?”

“You know I’m not talking about a child,” she retorts, but she’s blushing just the same. Clearly she didn’t expect him to have such a rebuttal to her comment. I get the impression she really didn’t mean it that way, and was caught off guard with the way Caleb brought up our son.

“So we went and helped to create the next generation, and we’re providing the world with a new standard of music that is the most magnificent thing they’ve ever heard. It’s been quite a decade for the three of us. What about you? How far did you make it in that company back home before you moved away?” Julian smirks.

“Fuck you,” she spits. “I didn’t come to you for a job because you were my only choice you know. I could have turned you down and found something else. Don’t think you’re the only reason I’m employed right now!”

“I didn’t say you weren’t employed,” he replies. “I just wondered what brought you all the way to Detroit, that’s all.”

He’s using his most flippant tone, I recognize it in an instant. And it has the desired effect on Jeanette. I’ve already deduced that she’s determined to make sure the three of us know she’s here because she’s doing us a favor, and she doesn’t want us to think we’re doing anything good for her in return.

She’s clearly harbored a lot of resentment, but I think it’s grown into more than that over the years. I’m good at reading people, I have to be in the music industry. I’m certain I’m reading in her body language and the way she’s so defensive toward us that she’s fighting something inside herself.

And I’m bold enough to entertain the idea that she’s fighting the fact that she still wants us. I can see it in the way she looks at my brothers, and I’m sure she looks at me the same way when she knows I won’t catch her staring.

“And that’s fine for you to ask, but I’m getting the impression that you’re even more arrogant now than you were back in high school, and I’m telling you right now that not all of us went on to be famous rockstars. Some of us have had to deal with a lot of shit along the way,” she shoots back.

“Life is hard for everyone,” I inform her. “You think going out and making this career for ourselves has been easy? It hasn’t been. A lot of sleepless nights have gone into the career we have, and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears have gone into the songs we’ve written. Not to say you haven’t had to deal with the same shit, but don’t think you’re the only one with struggle.”

“Forgive me if I don’t know what it’s like to be famous with tons of adoring fans,” she responds, her tone just as sarcastic as Julian’s was flippant. “Some of us have become nobodies, with regular jobs we have to fight to keep because it’s so damn expensive to live.”

“Cry me a river, sweetheart,” Caleb condescends. “As I recall, you’re the one who got an apartment the minute you were eighteen. You didn’t even graduate high school before you did that. I get you didn’t have the coolest relationship with your dad, but we didn’t even have a dad growing up, so it’s hard for me to let you use that excuse.”

“What’s your point?” Jeanette demands, her defensiveness growing as she folds her arms over her chest.

“My point is you act like you’ve had such a hard time with life, but you’re the one who went and made it even harder than it had to be. You could have come with us, you know, and you didn’t want to. That’s on you,” Caleb says.

“Fuck you again!” Jeanette cries. “Don’t you dare tell me I needed you! I didn’t back then and I don’t now! “

“Cool it, you’re going to get Hendrix all worked up with your attitude,” I tell her. “He’s not used to seeing these kinds of conversations, and I don’t want to upset him now.”

“Not used to seeing these kinds of conversations?” Jeanette asks with a scoff. “Why is that? Because you didn’t get the chance to really talk about the hard things in life with his mother?”

“That’s a low blow,” Caleb says. “You know from the contract you signed that this isn’t what we planned on, hence the reason that we’re hiring a nanny right in the middle of our tour. Things would be a lot different if we knew who the mother was or if she had come and let us know she was pregnant long before she left the kid in our dressing room.”

“Call it a low blow if you want, but I don’t see how it’s any lower than what you did to me for that entire goddamn year!” she snaps. “Turning on me seemingly overnight and just going from being sweet one day to turning my life into a nightmare the next. I don’t know how you can sit here and tell me what’s a low blow when you have that on your record.”

I roll my eyes to myself. I can see now that we’re going to be hearing a lot about what we did to her back in high school, and I’m sure this is just the beginning. Part of me wants to think I can’t blame her for feeling this way, but another part of me thinks she needs to let it go and move on. That was ten years ago, and we’re different people now than we were back then.

This isn’t the same situation as what we had back then.

But Caleb isn’t taking her attitude with such a grain of salt. He’s clearly getting more and more irritated with her by the minute, and he also clearly doesn’t like to hear the way she’s throwing our bullying back in our faces. So he does what he always did to her back then.

He unleashes the verbal torment.

He starts with passive comments, asking her what else she’s been up to all this time, making mention of the success we’ve had with our own career. From there, he gets more aggressive with the questions about her life and the commentary on the ways her life hasn’t gone as she had hoped.

He’s not holding back in any way, and while Jeanette is doing her best to ignore him and just focus on the baby, I can clearly see she’s growing more and more agitated with each passing second. If there’s one thing I can say about Caleb, it’s that once he has something in his head he’s not about to let up on it until he gets what he wants.

“I don’t see what you’re getting so bitchy about,” he says to her. “You’re the one who decided to turn the conversation sour. We were just trying to make some polite conversation, and you decided to throw some cheap shots. That’s on you, not us.”

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” she says, though there is little apology in her tone. “But you’re going to have to get used to the idea that I don’t like you. I might be working for you, but that has no other meaning besides the fact that I was looking for a job and I found one. We are not friends, and I have no inclination to become friends again, so don’t expect the friendly conversation.”

“Don’t do us any favors,” Caleb condescends to her again. “God knows we’ve always been the ones who worked for everything we have in our lives.”

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