Chapter 2...as promised, since I was not magically spirited away to Ohio.
“Mrs. Jonas?” Abbey knocked on the first dressing room she came to. The guard had pointed her in this direction and had told her good luck. So, Abbey went ahead on her own, trying to find the family matriarch.
“Close the da.mn door!” She had just meant to peek inside, but regretted it, seeing the anger in the boy’s face and hearing it in his words. Abbey nodded and closed the door.
“Rob! There’s some crazy bi.tch wandering the hall!” She spun around only to come face to face with yet another angry, although slightly older, boy. “Who are you?”
“I’m here to see your mom. I have a pass.” She held out the pass she’d received earlier. He barely glanced at it, before returning his gaze back to her.
“She’s down the hall.” And with that, he continued on his way. Undaunted, Abbey squared her shoulders and continued towards her destination. She was, however, slightly intimidated by the large black man who happened upon her moments later.
“I have a pass.” Abbey wasted no time holding up her pass, hopeful to avoid any anger coming from the man in front of her. He nodded, and she couldn’t help but feel slightly relieved when he walked past her. “Um, I hate to be a bother…” She let her voice trail off as he turned back to face her.
“What’s up?”
“I need to find Mrs. Jonas. She asked me to meet her here, and I haven’t been able to locate her yet.”
“Sure.” Even though his size was daunting, he had to be the nicest person she’d come across since stepping foot on the lot. He led her down the hall, around a corner, to a door marked ‘Parents.’ “She’ll be in there.”
“Thank you for your help.”
“No problem.” He nodded, and then left. She raised her hand to knock on the door when she heard yelling going on, just on the other side.
“I don’t want to do that dumb ass chat!”
“Son,” Mrs. Jonas was trying to sooth the situation; that much was obvious.
“No! Its lame, and all they’re gonna do is talk about how much they wanna marry me. If I hear one more person say they’re ‘Mrs. Nicholas Jonas’, I’m gonna puke!”
“Nick,” That must be Mr. Jonas. “You don’t have a choice. I’ve already told the fans you would do this chat. So just paste a smile on your face, and be ready in an hour.”
"Da.mn it!” The door swung open, revealing a very pissed off young man. Behind him were his parents; Mr. Jonas looked about as angry as his son, and Mrs. Jonas looked near tears. Nick pushed past Abbey and stalked down the hall.
“Abbey!” There was definite relief in Mrs. Jonas’s voice. “Abbey, this is my husband, Paul.” Paul’s demeanor relaxed only slightly, as he offered his hand to Abbey. She shook it, making a conscious effort to keep her smile. “Paul, Abbey is…well, she’s…”
“I’m a counselor. Your wife thought that maybe your family could use an extra set of eyes that could possibly help with some of the emotional problems you guys seem to be facing.” He suddenly seemed startled, as if he didn’t know how to deal with the information he’d just received.
“Oh, ok. Denise, could I talk to you, privately for a moment?”
“I’ll just…” At that moment, a young boy walked into the room, tears streaking down his face.
“What’s wrong, Frankie?” Denise cooed.
“Joe said he doesn’t wanna be brothers anymore.” Abbey knelt down to where she and Frankie were on the same eye-level.
“Hey, do you think you could show me where the set is?” Frankie looked to his mom who nodded. He shrugged, wiped his eyes, and led the way out the door. “I’m sorry about your brother.” Again, all she got in response was a shrug. “How many brothers do you have?”
“Three.”
“Do you like traveling with your brothers?” Another shrug. “Do you get to hang out with anyone your own age?”
“Not really.” Finally, they stepped onto the set. It was a relatively warm, welcoming background, but it bothered Abbey to know that the brothers could easily turn off and on their good-will towards each other, by just stepping off and on this set.
“Well, you know, I’m sure your brother didn’t mean what he said.”
“How do you know?” His tone wasn’t as accusatory as it was questioning.
“You know, sometimes people say things they don’t mean when they’re upset. I’m positive your brother does love you.”
“Then why are they always mean to me, to everyone? I just…I’m so tired of everybody fighting. It makes me sick.”
“I’m sure it does.”
“Abbey.” The two of them turned to see Mr. and Mrs. Jonas approaching them. “We-”
Mr. Jonas jumped in, cutting off his wife. “We’ve talked it over and we agree that perhaps counseling will help get this family back on track.” Abbey bit her tongue, but nodded. This was neither the time, nor the place to point out the impudence of his behavior. Mr. Jonas glanced down at his watch. “The boys will start filming in ten minutes. Do you need to see them interacting?”
“That would be helpful, yes.”
“Counseling?” Frankie looked back and forth between his parents and the woman standing next to him. “Like, you’re gonna help everyone get back to normal?” Abbey smiled.
“I don’t know about ‘normal’ but I will definitely try to help everyone to stop being so mean to each other. Does that work for you?” He nodded, a small smile gracing his face.
