Chapter 219: The Call IV

“I mean, and you, son? You and Scarlett?” Mom asked me.

“Yeah. But she’s moving to Europe in April for a new movie, so we both know not to get too involved.”

Mom nodded without saying anything.

“But I think I should tell her the truth about Marshmello. I was thinking about inviting her on Saturday, when I’ll be recording with Brit and Shakira.”

Mom approached me and kissed my head. “It’s good that you have more people you can trust.”

“Oh, I told the people in New York too — Monica, Rachel, and Chandler. The rest weren’t home.”

“You told them by phone?” Judith looked at me.

“Yes, and it was funny too, even though I couldn’t see their reaction,” I laughed.

---

Flashback

“Hello, my beautiful Aunt Rachel,” I called.

“What mischievous thing are you thinking about this time, Jake?” she asked.

“What? I just want to talk to you. Is there anyone else there?”

Rachel paused for a moment before replying, “Monica and Chandler, the rest are out.”

“Call them, please.”

A moment later—

“We’re ready,” Chandler said.

“Hi Jake,” Monica greeted me.

“Hey guys, you were talking about your most embarrassing moments… puh—”

“If you start laughing, I’m hanging up,” Rachel warned.

“Sorry. I just remembered that I haven’t told you my secret yet,” I said.

“Okay… we’re listening.”

“I trust you guys, I just never found the right moment. I didn’t want to steal anyone’s thunder, like Rac—”

“Jake!” Rachel snapped.

“He kinda has a point, Rach,” Monica said.

“Monica!” Now Rachel snapped at her.

“Girls, let’s go back to the secret Jake wants to tell,” Chandler cut in.

“Fine, what is the big secret, Jake?” Rachel asked.

“It’s not a big secret, it’s just… I’m Marshmello.”

The only thing I heard was a quiet, “What?” from Rachel, without much intonation.

“See? Not a biggie. I’m the guy who wears the Marshmello mask and makes the songs.”

“Jake, what do you mean you are Marshmello?” Monica asked, probably taking the phone from Rachel’s hand.

“That I’m him?”

“What??” all three shouted into the phone.

“How would I know you’re not pranking us?” Rachel asked suspiciously.

“Do you have the second album?” I asked.

“We do, Chandler’s got it here.”

“Okay, check the booklet. There’s a part with random phrases,” I instructed.

“Oh, some friends tried to decipher that to see if there was something in it. But it’s just a bunch of random disconnected phrases,” Chandler said.

“Look on the third page, closer to the end.”

“There are a bunch of random phrases and words: two.and.half.men, modern.family, smelly.cat… wait,” Rachel read out loud, “in.London, three.marriages, we.were.on.a.break!”

“Oh my God!” Chandler shouted.

“Yep, that was the last one after we were on a break,” I laughed (Oh.My.God)

“Jake!”

“Wow, you really are Marshmello?”

“Yep, and when you come to the Oscars, I can introduce you to my friend Britney Spears, if any of you are a fan.”

“What??” they all shouted again.

“And if you want to come earlier, there’s my show, Tomorrowland. You can stay in the VIP of the VIP area.”

“Wot??”

“Oh, even earlier, next week, I’ll be recording some songs with Shakira. You can come meet her.”

“What??”

“And the—”

“Okay, Jake, can you stop for a moment?” Rachel said exasperatedly and overwhelmed. “I’m still processing ‘we were on a break.’”

“Oh, come on, Rach, you should make peace with Ross about that,” I joked.

“Jake!” she snapped at me again.

She let out a long sigh. “Jesus Christ, Jake. You are the most famous artist in the world!!”

“It’s still arguable. There are the Beatles, MJ, and Madonna,” I pointed out

And let's not compare with Jesus — only the Beatles do that.

“My God, look at all these names…” Chandler whispered.

“Come on, guys, it’s still me, your handsome nephew.” I continued mischievously. “And you can still call me, Rach, to tell me the gossip. Monica, Rachel told me everything about what happened last week.”

“Ahh!” Rachel let out a small scream and probably tried to cover the phone.

“Rachel, what did you tell him?” Monica asked angrily.

“Need to go, love you guys!” I said in farewell.

“You really are still the same…” Chandler said a little dryly.

End of Flashback

---

We arrived at Jay and Gloria’s house.

“Judith, Jake!” Gloria greeted us excitedly.

I said hi to her, Manny, and Jay.

Jay immediately called me over to watch the game.

“Who’s playing?” I asked while sitting on the sofa.

“Lakers vs Hawks,” Jay replied, then turned to me. “Not a basketball fan?”

“Yeah, I’m not really a fan, I just watch the finals. I prefer football and soccer.”

Speaking of soccer and basketball, those are two things we’re thinking about investing in. I’ll talk to Pepper about our plans tomorrow.

“But I really love the other two. I went to the last two Super Bowls and I’m going to the World Cup final this year in Japan,” I said.

We accepted the invitation to perform at the closing of the World Cup, 50 minutes before the game (with a 15-minute presentation). 

It’s going to be ‘Where is the Love?’ with Britney and Eminem already confirmed, and a second and third song still to be decided (my choice, since the invitation was for Marshmello to do the whole performance).

Jay looked at me surprised, and even a bit envious. “I’m not really a fan of soccer, but I have to watch now with Gloria and Manny here. But football is my favorite sport. I envy you for having gone to the last two…”

“Come on, Jay, money is for that. If it’s a partnership you need, come with us to the next one. But you’ll have to wear Patriots,” I teased.

“Patriots?? I’m a 49ers fan!!” he said indignantly. “And why do you think the Patriots will make it to the final again?”

“Tommy boy is going to take us to the final,” I stated.

We’ll probably have a better chance, since I’m going to tell them to pick Ed Reed in the first draft.

“Brady?! You should have seen Montana, that was a QB.”

“Mark my words, Jay. In 10 years, Brady will surpass JoeBoy.”