“What?!” A thousand thoughts ran through Jake’s head. Frank had been known to lie before, but was he telling the truth now?
“You heard me. An addict!”
“So what are we talking about here? Drugs?”
“No, no, no. Video games!”
“What?!”
“Yeah, you know, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Mario, Halo…”
“So you’re telling me that Fred’s too busy shooting virtual aliens to rehearse band material? That doesn’t sound like the Fred I know.”
“Really? ‘Cus I thought I was pretty convincing.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well since you decided to joke about us getting a record deal, I thought I’d joke about Fred being a video game addict.”
“I wasn’t kidding Frank!!!!”
“Oh. That changes everything! I don’t know what his problem was today, but after he left the rehearsal, I’m pretty sure he headed home. I don’t know if he’s still there.”
“Thanks Frank. Just call up Rick and tell him about the record deal. I’ll go talk to Fred.”
“Okay, see ya.”
Jake hung up the phone and headed for Fred’s house, hoping for the best.