Chapter 85

“Morning Matty,” Lexie said as she let her brother-in-law in the suite. 

“Is it morning?”  Matt asked walking in, he looked like hell and he felt like hell. No sleep does that to a body.

“I think so, this vampire life is new to me.”  She shut the door behind him.  “I think there is coffee if you want some?”  She went over to the bar and checked the coffee pot.  “I’ll call for another pot.”

“Thanks, Lex.  Where is my big brother?”  He looked at the kids, noticing his niece was not with the boys.  Not really wanting to see the reason he had to let four of his best packers and roadies go. Before going to rooms and having them pack up and hit the road, he had to look at security tapes from the lots and the stage area.  He found his niece and make a copy for his records and in case any of the crew he let go, decided to talk to the press or tried to take them to court for firing them.

“Still in bed, where else?”  She tried to lighten the mood.

“Let’s get this over with.”  He headed to the bedroom door and knocked.

“Matt, he had his head under the pillow, you better just go on in.” Lexie told him.  “I’ll have coffee here soon.”

He nodded his head and walked into the bedroom.

Jon had heard the voices, but figured that if he ignored them, they would go away. 

“I know you’re awake,” Matt said as he closed the door.  “I haven’t even been to bed yet.  Get up and let’s get this over with.” Matt picked up his jeans off the floor and tossed them on the bed.

“Go away.”  Jon grumbled under the pillow.

“Hell no, I haven’t been to bed and we need this over and done with. Now get up, Lex will have coffee ready by the time you drag your sorry ass out of bed.”  He walked over to the bed and yanked the pillow off his head. “Hiding doesn’t make it all go away.”  He turned and headed to the door.

“Okay.”  Jon grumbled as his brother walked out the door.

Matt joined Lexie in the living room.

“I sent the kids off with Carol and John Senior, they don’t need to hear this.”  Lexie told Matt.  She had gotten the boys off with their grandparents, Stephanie was still in her room waiting to see if she was going to get called in on this family meeting.

“Yeah, I caught dad in the hallway coming up, he’s got tickets to a Basketball game today, and Mom is going shopping with Desiree so that way I can get some sleep in before I have to be up for tonight’s show.”  He took a cup off the tray and poured hot black coffee in the cup. 

Jon joined them around the second cup.  Lexie was checking her iPad when Jon headed to the coffee pot.

“How is the trio doing this morning?”  Jon asked, trying to ignore the tension that was filling the room.

“Eating and watching Disney.”  She sat the iPad to the side and watched her husband.

“Good.”  He took a sip of hot coffee, he really didn’t want to hear this report from Matty.  “Okay Matt, let’s get this over with.  What did you find out?”

“Well, after watching twelve different security tapes I found the right one.”  He looked over at Lexie.

“I,” She started to tell Jon what she saw, when Stephanie came out of the bedroom.

“Mom saw me outside, I sort of pressured her not to say anything to you.” Stephanie came clean, standing by Lexie.

Lexie reached out and took her hand and gave it a squeeze.

“You knew?”  Jon looked at Lexie, why did she hide it from him. 

“Yes, I saw her pass the joint, I never saw it touch her lips.”  Lexie told Jon.

“You didn’t see me?  Then how did you know?”  Stephanie was shocked.

“I overheard you and Jesse talking about it in the bathroom, the acoustics in there are really good.”  Lexie told Stephanie.

Jon watched the discussion between Lexie and Stephanie.  He still wished that Lexie had told him that she knew about the joint, but if she didn’t see her take the hit, then he couldn’t fault her in not telling him.

“As I was saying, we will need four roadies that were packers, they we’re warned about drug use, with the other problems.” Matt was talking about Richie and his drug use, as of late.

“Four.”  Jon looked at his daughter.

Stephanie cringed a little, she was the reason these men lost their jobs.  Knowing that getting on a tour this late, they would need references.  She hoped that Uncle Matt did that.

“Have they been taken care of?”  Jon asked his brother.

“Yes, signed and paid.”  Matt told him as he got up and got more coffee.

“Good, thanks for doing this, go get some sleep bro.”  Jon got up to fill his cup and took the cup out of Matt’s hands and ushered him to the door.

“Okay.”  Matt yawned and let Jon push him to the door.

Once the three of them were all alone, Jon looked at his daughter.  He really didn’t know what to say to her.  He has never had to fire one of his crew before and to have to fire four?  He looked over at Lexie, who was watching them, but not watching them.  She had her iPad out for she was looking over the top of the screen not at it.

“Jonny, I think when the boys get back, we’ll head home and see you when you get home.”  Lexie told him as she put her iPad in her bag at her feet.

Stephanie turned and looked at her.  The plan had been to go back with daddy.

“Home?” Stephanie asked her parents.

“I think its best.”  Lexie said looking straight at Stephanie.  “Don’t you?”

“I guess.”  Stephanie felt Lexie made her point very clear.

“I also think it’s for the best.”  Jon said as he went to the counter and filled up his coffee cup and leaned on the bar. 

“Why don’t you go to the bedroom and get everything packed up.” Lexie told Stephanie, as she picked up her bag and headed to the other bedroom. 

Once she had shut the door, Stephanie turned to her dad.

“Do we have to go home?”  Stephanie asked her dad.

“I think after last night, it would be best.  I have to be four people short to pack up tonight. I have this last show before a week long break and before I head to Europe leg.  In that down time we have to hire four people and I had plans for the week I’ll be home.”  Jon pushed off the counter and walked back to the table and sat down with a groan.  “We need to discuss the possibility of not having a party for your graduation. But not right now, I’m still mad.” He leaned back and held the coffee cup with both hands like it was a life line.

“Okay, I’ll go pack the boys stuff and mine.”  Stephanie said as she walked defeated to the bedroom.

Jon sat there for a while, finally getting up he headed to the master bedroom and walked in.  Lexie was sitting on the bed, her iPad in her hands as she tapped on the screen.

“Why are you really heading home?”  Jon asked her, going over he sat beside her and looked over her shoulder.  He saw the trio sitting on a blanket on the floor, they were wiggling to music.

“Well let’s see, Stephanie has a drug problem, and this isn’t the atmosphere she needs to be in.”  Lexie put the ipad down on her lap.  “I don’t like to be put in this situation.”

“You saw her smoke that joint didn’t you?” Jon asked her again,

“Yes, I felt like a nark, I even taped Jesse and Steph taking about it.”  Lexie laid back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling.  “We were going to the stage and she rounded on me, almost daring me to tell you what I saw.”

“You should have told me, you’re my wife and her mother.”  Jon laid back beside her, reaching for her hand, threading his fingers with hers.

“I am more her poor relation, to ignore when she wants to do what she wants.  No matter what rules she breaks.”  Lexie turned her head and looked at Jon.  “I’m scared, she’s going to end up in rehab if we’re not careful.  Pot leads to other drugs.”

“I don’t think she’s testing other drugs out. The most I’ve seen of her friends is weed.” Jon told her.

“But, at her last party you found powder and rolled bills, Cocaine is where pot leads to, Coke leads to heroin, and I think she’s testing the waters.  That scares me way more than taking a few tokes of weed.”  Lexie said as she reached over and rolled to face him. “Talk to Sister Mary, maybe she can get divine interventions.”

“The thought has played around in my brain.  Her teachers don’t see any problems.  We never get called about her.”  Jon thought about his little girl, she was so smart, the good kid.  Where did she go wrong?

The car came to pick the family up, Mom and Dad Bongiovi stayed for the last show.  The drive back to the city was long and quiet.  Stephanie must’ve told the boys what was going on, because Lexie caught them looking at her when they thought she wasn’t looking.  As they pulled up to the townhouse and unloaded, Lexie told them dinner would be late.  She went and checked on her babies and then went to the closet and pulled out Snowballs leash and harness, the little dog left from under the feeding table.  Hooking her up, she told the nanny that she and Snow were going for a walk.  Snowball danced around her feet going to the elevator.  Soon they were out on the sidewalk heading down to the dog park at the end of the block.

“Snow, what are we going to do with sissy?  She’s doing bad things.” Lexie spoke to the little dog whose nose was snuffling the sidewalk.

“Your daddy is mad and hurt, I should’ve told him about what I saw.  I lied to him.”  Lexie took a deep breath.

“I know you lied to him.”  Stephanie said from behind her.

Lexie jumped and yanked on Snowballs leash, causing the little dog to yelp.

“Stephanie, you scared me, how long have you been back there?”  Lexie asked her daughter, waiting on her to come up beside her.

“I missed the elevator so I had to take the stairs.  Why didn’t you tell him what you saw?”  Stephanie said as they started to walk again.

“I heard what he said to you, how he was disappointed in you, I thought you had been through enough, so I kept it to myself.”  They entered the gate at the dog park.  Lexie let Snowball off the leash to run.  She and Stephanie moved to the bench.  The sun was starting to set and they were the only ones in the park.  Once the owners got home from work, the park would get crowded.

“You should’ve.”  Stephanie said, bending over picked up a twig and threw it so Snowball could fetch it.

“You think so?”  Lexie watched the little dog chase the stick and bring it back to her sissy.  “How long has this been going on?

“The Pot?  Sixth grade, Mom and daddy moved us to Polly when I got busted at school.  Daddy had it hushed up.”  Stephanie picked up the stick and tossed it again.  “At Polly, you either drink or do drugs.  I don’t like the hard stuff.  Mom let me have beer.  When she was married to daddy she was the fun mom.  We had a keg party out on the dock.  I tried coke, didn’t like how it made me feel.”  She picked up the stick and tossed it again.  “I can’t wait to go to college.  Pot isn’t bad, gives you a bad case of munchies.  One day it will be legal to buy pot in the stores.” Stephanie sighed.

“Steph, promise me you won’t do anything harder than pot.”  Lexie reached out and took her hands and made her look at her.  “Promise me, you won’t do crack or Heroin.  I’ve seen what that does to a person, I dated a guy who was hooked on the big H.  All his money went to buy drug, he lost his car, stole from his friends.”  Lexie let go of her hands and picked up Snow and hooked the leash back on.  “Let’s head back, but think about what we talked about.” 

“I promise.” Stephanie took the leash and they headed back toward the townhouse.

~.~.~.~

Show done, month off.  Rehab for Rich and snip cut for him.  They were due at the office at eight that morning, they saw the kids off to the bus and them the car picked them up.

“Tell me again why I have to be there at zero dark thirty?”  Jon asked as the headed toward the medical center.

“Because you have to be at a meeting for the Soul at six and if you want to be there, you have to do this at zero dark thirty.” Lexie pulled out her planner and looked at all that was planned today.  “I have a meeting with the cover art place.  Then we need to go by the school for a parent teacher meeting for Romey and Jakey.  I have the driver with your frozen peas.”  Lexie ticked of what they had to do today. 

“I don’t think I will feel much like going to the school.”  Jon said thinking what he had heard and read about getting a vasectomy, he was gonna have a problem walking.

“You know Doctor Marx said by this afternoon, the pain will subside and since you quit smoking, you’ll have a higher success rate.”  Lexie put her planner in her bag and took his hand bringing it to her lips.  “Thank you.”

“I hope you plan on kissing something else and making it better.”  Jon wiggled his eyebrows at her.

“Play your cards right and I just might.” She wiggled her eyebrows back at him.

“Jon, can I ask you something about Polly Prep?”  Lexie had been mulling this over.

“We moved to the city and thought private over public would be better.  Why do you ask?”  Jon shifted in the seat to look at her.

“It was something Steph said.”  Lexie looked out the window over his shoulder.

“About Polly, what did she say?”  Jon asked just as they pulled up to the medical center.