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Adam had been in the lobby of the record company of all
places when the earthquake hit. One minute he was
talking to the producer about switching up the melodies
on a few songs, the next moment everyone was running
for the doorways. Framed pictures of the artists the
company had hosted over the years fell off the walls,
some shattering into pools of millions of glass shards.
The lights dimmed, went off for a few moments, then
snapped back back on, some of the fixtures that were
suspended from the ceiling swaying dangerously. And
throughout the building, there were several screams.
And then, just as suddenly as it had happened, it was
over. Though there would no doubt be some messes to
clean up, it had been a relatively small quake for LA.
Nothing like the big ones they'd had when Adam was a
kid. Still, he felt a sort of panic overwhelm him when
he thought about who else was in LA right now...and
completely unaccomsted to earthquakes.
He wrapped up things with the producer as quickly as
possible, smiling and nodding while the whole time he
was worrying about his Okie on the inside. Blake was in
town for the next six weeks or so for the live shows of
this season's Voice. He'd rented a house, but he spent
the bulk of his night at Adam's, much to rock star's
great pleasure. But now he was feeling guilty somehow.
Once he got back into his car, Adam grabbed his
cellphone and called Blake. "Come on...pick up."
When it went to voicemail, he groaned in frusteration
and ended the call. They had done the stuff at the
studio for the show that morning, and Blake didn't have
any appointments for the afternoon that Adam had known
about. Which mean the country singer could be anywhere
in the city.
Adam turned on the radio as he started his Corvette,
but obviously they didn't have much useful information
about the quake. They thought it was in the 4.0's range
on the Ritcher scale, maybe a 5.0 at the very, very
most. Still, there would be some damage, mostly things
falling off walls and shelves. And there were always
injuries, even in aftershocks. They came on so suddenly
there was no way to know ahead of time to put yourself
in a place where something wouldn't fall on your head.
Not like Oklahoma, where they had at least fifteen
minutes warning on tornadoes and often knew most of the
day that they could get severe weather. That's what
Blake was used to...diasters that gave you hours of
time to consider and at least a few minutes to get into
a safe place.
"Dammit." He swore when he came to a stoplight. There
were at least six cars in front of him in each lane. It
took him a moment to realize the light was alternating
between red, yellow and green. And of course no one
wanted to move without the light in mid-afternoon LA
traffic.
The next ten minutes were the slowest of Adam's life.
As he waited for his turn to be waved through the light
by the cop that had arrived to the light about five
minutes after him, he went through his phone. He left
Blake two messages, texted him a half dozen times and
then began calling the people they both knew...Carson,
Cee-Lo, Usher, Christina.
None of them had seen him that afternoon or had any
clue where he might be.
Adam was tempted to throw his phone out the window by
the time he could move through the light, though that
would greatly hinder his search for his best friend. As
he drove in the direction of his house, he tried to
think of the places Blake might be. He wasn't very fond
of driving around LA to begin with, so normally he
didn't go too many places alone.
Then a scary thought occured to Adam. What if Blake had
been driving when it happened? He could've panicked and
swerved off the road. Or, God forbid, into another car
or a tree or over a bridge or...
"Shit...calm the fuck down Levine..." He coached
himself. "You're just panicking. Blake is fine. He's
fine. He's a big, tough guy, he can handle a little
earthquake."
His voice might have been saying those words, but he
wasn't thinking them. All he could picture was Blake in
a hospital somewhere. Of course, it had been about
twenty minutes since the quake, so he wouldn't even be
in the hospital yet. He could just be laying in the
ruins of his rented pick up truck on the side of the
road.
Adam made an abrupt turn and headed for the studio
where "The Voice" was filmed. He had left before Blake
that morning, so he didn't know what time his friend
had gotten out. He figured he would drive the path
between the studio and Blake's rental, keeping his eyes
open for a black pick up on the side of the road.
Traffic was still agonizingly slow in some pockets and
every chance Adam got, he was back on his phone trying
to get ahold of Blake. He knew he loved the other man,
he'd known by the end of the first season of their
show, but moments like this it was obvious to him just
how deep that love ran. So deep that he didn't want to
contemplate a future without his beloved redneck.
When he got to Blake's rental house, he pulled the
Vette up to the curb, parked at an angle that would've
made him laugh usually at the sheer crappiness of his
park job. Instead he ran up to the gate, punched in his
code, and headed for the door.
He knocked several times and rang the bell, but there
was no response. Nothing. He went and knocked on the
living room window, shouting through it.
"BLAKE! Hey! Blake!"
With a sigh, he decided to check the garage to make
sure Blake was actually home before he commited an act
of breaking and entering. There was a spare key hidden
somewhere, but in his worry he couldn't remember where.
The garage was totally empty and Adam wasn't sure
whether to be relieved or even more upset. Where the
hell could Blake be? He wasn't at the stuido or his
place, he wasn't crashed into a tree somewhere between
the two. No one knew where he was and he wasn't
answering his phone or texts. It was like the man had
dropped off the face of the earth.
Adam wasn't going to take that for an answer, though.
He wouldn't rest until he knew Blake was okay. When he
got back into the Vette, it had been a little over an
hour since the quake. The radio was reporting some
minor property damage and a rash of injuries, though
the disc jockey stated that most of them were probably
of the cuts and bruises variety.
'Or something fell on someone's head.' He thought
glumly as he headed back towards his house. Did Blake
even know you were supposed to get into the doorframe
during a quake? He didn't think he'd ever mentioned
that and he kicked himself for it now. But how had Adam
known this was going to happen?
'It's LA, dumbass. This happens all the time.' He
scolded himself. 'Even people from out of town know
that. Movie stars and earthquakes, that's what we're
known for...'
Adam tried Blake's phone at least three more times on
the way back to his house. It was no surprise that
Blake had choosen a house near Adam's, though the
country singer's rental was quite modest compared to
the house in Adam's own neighborhood. The drive was
much more clear when he got into the residental
section, but that didn't make hearing Blake's voicemail
pick up each time any easier.
He felt near tears with frusteration when he finally
got through his front gate. Parking the Corvette in
front of the garage instead of inside for time reasons,
he hopped out of the little sports car and headed
inside.
What did he do now? He'd put the word out that he was
looking for Blake, he'd looked in the obvious locations
for him, and he'd blown up the other man's phone with
calls and texts. Now it seemed all he could do was
wait. As he headed into the living room, he decided to
see what the news was saying about the quake.
That almost made him laugh, if he wasn't worried about
of his mind. How often in his adult life did he
purposely watch the news on a quake? As long as they
didn't cause a lot of damage, he just kept right on
going with his own plans. It was just something you got
used to when you lived in LA; sometimes the earth shook
and most of the time it wasn't even a big deal.
When he walked into the living room he was a bit
surprised to find the huge flat screen already on. He
rarely left stuff on when he left the house, probably
something his mother had taught him as a child to
prevent a fire hazard or something like that. At the
moment he couldn't remember that when he was trying to
remember if he'd left the TV on.
As he walked around the big leather sectional, he heard
a strangely familair sound that made him stop in his
tracks. Someone was snoring. And it sounded just like
the one he'd heard the night before....
Turning to face the couch, he found Blake sprawled
across it, completely dead to the world. Adam blinked a
few times, fighting the dual emotions of extreme relief
and frusteration that he'd been worrying himself into
insanity while the big lug had been asleep on his couch
the whole time.
"Blake..." Relief won out and Adam fell onto his knees
beside the couch, embracing the country star tightly.
"Mmmm...wazzat?" Blake's blue eyes opened slowly and
looked at Adam like he might be insane. "What...is this
a booty call or somethin'?"
"A booty call..." Adam rolled his eyes. "No, you
dumbass! I've been looking for you for the last two
hours. I thought you were dead in a ditch somewhere or
had massive head trauma or something because you don't
know how to deal with earthquakes and-"
"Wait," Blake cut him off, seemingly waking up rest of
the way. "Earthquake?"
That shocked Adam for a moment, just staring at Blake.
"Yeah...that one two hours ago? I'm sure some stuff got
knocked around in here..." He looked around the room
for a moment, then back to Blake. "There's a few
pictures down. You didn't hear them fall? Or feel the
shaking?"
"Uh..." He considered it a moment. "No. Nope. Didn't
feel a thing. That was one great nap."
"One great nap..." Adam muttered. "I....do you realize
what the last two hours have been like for me? Why the
hell didn't you answer the phone?"
Blake picked up the phone and looked at it. "I guess I
put in on silent mode before I fell asleep. I was
watching a great horror movie and I got two wrong
number calls in like ten minutes."
"Fuck..." Adam sighed and clapped his hand to his face.
"Look at your inbox."
The country singer tapped the iphone screen a few
times, then his eyes went wide. "Eighteen voice mails
and sixty-two texts? All from you?"
"Well yeah..." He shrugged. "I was worried."
"You Hollywood people sure love to make a mountain out
of a molehill." Blake tsked.
"Well, I didn't know you'd be so comfortable with
earthquakes that you'd sleep through your first one!"
Adam shot back, though he wasn't angry. "How do you
sleep through an earthquake anyhow?"
The Okie shrugged a little. "I was tired."
"You were tired." Adam repeated, almost in disbelief.
"You were...TIRED."
"Yup," Blake nodded and grinned at his friend. "You
kept me up late last night, if I remember correctly."
Adam groaned and crawled up onto the couch with Blake,
wrapping his arms around the other man and hugging him
tightly. "Come here you big dumb redneck."
Despite his frusteration after finding that he'd spent
the last two hours scared to death that Blake was hurt
or wose when he was really napping on the couch Adam
couldn't get angry. He was just too glad to be holding
his friend, his lover, and his partner. Nothing else
mattered. And years from now, he knew he'd be telling
this story and laughing at it.