“No, I’m having fun, except for having to wait on the bathroom. Even you didn’t take as long in there as these girls do.”
“At least you’re sharing your bathroom with girls. Why is it that a boy can’t hit the toilet right in the center every time?”
I loved Susie; she had me in an even better mood by the time I hung up. I called my Mom next and after she asked me if I was eating and sleeping okay, she said, “And how is Tristan? Is he thrilled to be the star attraction?”
“Yeah, there’s nothing Tristan loves more than that,” I told her.
“You sound like you’re upset with him. Did something happen?”
With a sigh I said, “I’m just not so sure it’s going to work out for us, Mom.”
“Oh honey, I’m sorry. You two are so cute together.”
“I have to go now, Mom. I love you. Kiss Daddy for me.”
I hung up after she sent her love back, wishing that I hadn’t called her at all. It wasn’t her fault, but I was thinking about him again and wishing we really had been cute together.
It was finally my turn in the bathroom. I dressed warm because in spite of the beautiful, sunny day, Colorado was still no California in the fall. Finally dressed and feeling better about myself in my new jeans and Roxy sweater, I pulled on my black leather boots and headed out with Tammy to get the ball rolling. The show was set to begin at five and would go until about eight. All the way over to the theatre, Tammy chatted, but I didn’t really hear what she was saying. I was trying to convince myself to stop thinking about Tristan. I hated to admit it, but I’d half expected him to call me and tell me that he really didn’t sleep with Brooke. When he didn’t call, I started trying to tell myself that maybe he really hadn’t slept with her and I’d accused him unjustly. I really was an idiot.
Just as I was about to check my headset before the show began, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I pulled it out and looked at it, still hoping it would be Tristan with a totally believable explanation. It was a text and it wasn’t from Tristan.
Hey, I’m here at the show too!
I stared at the number for a while. It looked familiar to me but I couldn’t remember who it belonged to. Whoever it was knew I was at the show, unless it was just a random coincidence. I started to ignore it, but then I got another right after that.
Maybe we could hang out after the show? I’ve missed you. It’ll be fun to catch up.
Finally I had to answer.
Who is this?
The response came quickly.
Cole.
Shit! How did he know that I was there? I hadn’t talked to him in at least a year. The last time was right before I went to rehab. He was drinking heavily back then and I told him it wouldn’t be good for me to be around him. The truth really was that once you crossed that line between friendship and sex, there was no going back. He didn’t seem to care much back then. All of a sudden he misses me?
How did you know I was here?
Facebook!
I decided it was time to turn off location services. That’s another thing, if he missed me so much, why the hell hadn’t he ever messaged me on Facebook? I decided to politely decline.
I have to stay and clean up after. I don’t think I’ll have time.
Tomorrow?
Shit! I guessed it wouldn’t hurt to just hang out for a while, although it was probably going to be as uncomfortable as hell.
Yeah, we have a day off tomorrow so I have some things to do in the morning. Maybe we can get a cup of coffee or something.
He sent back a smiley face.
I’ll text you tomorrow. Can’t wait.
Shit! Cole and I were good for one thing…helping each other deal with the tragic loss of a man we both cared about. No, that wasn’t really true. We had been good friends once, a long time ago. After my boyfriend, who was also a good friend of his, died, all we did was help each other get high and drunk and then we had wild sex so we didn’t have to think about it. I guessed a cup of coffee wasn’t going to kill anyone. We’d be back on the road right afterwards and Cole and I could go our separate ways for another year…or more. I put him out of my head for that night and concentrated on my work. If anything did come up later down the line with Jake, I wanted to have the fact that I did a great job to fall back on.
I watched as each of the singers did their thing. Brooke was fifth on stage and she seemed a little off that night. She looked gorgeous, as usual. I should have given her a black eye at least. It would have been nice to see her up there with a ton of concealer, trying to cover it up. I shook off that nasty thought and moved onto my next when Tristan came out. As usual, he was amazing. It was country night and he did a song called Burnin’ it Down by Jason Aldean. I stood there trying not to let it get to me as he sang about lying naked in bed and making his woman feel like an angel as he sang to her. Argh! Stupid bastard was probably thinking about Brooke while singing it.
When the show was over, he must have went straight back to his bus. I went in to clean up the equipment in the green room and Brooke and Ethan were there, but no sign of Tristan. I got a glare from Brooke, but the fact that Ethan was there kept her mouth in check, I think. It kept my mouth in check too. I had plenty that I’d liked to have said to the skank, but not in front of mixed company. I kept to myself, and by the time I finished wrapping cords and unplugging systems, they were gone.
The girls and I worked until after ten cleaning up and packing up. When we finished, we all went out for something to eat. Afterwards, since we had a night off, most of them went out to a club. Hannah and I begged off and went back to the bus. We talked for a while, mostly about the show and everyone that had anything to do with it. Hannah was really well-informed about everyone. I guess it was because she was one of those people that felt safe to talk to. I told her about my plans the next day and that I wasn’t really looking forward to seeing Cole.
“Why not?” she asked.
I didn’t talk about my boyfriend that had overdosed to anyone other than family or Susie. I’d never even really told Tristan all about him. I finally just said, “We both lost a good friend and because of that, while we were grieving, we crossed that line friends aren’t supposed to cross. Things got weird and uncomfortable. I haven’t seen him since.” I didn’t tell her that we didn’t only have sex once; it was several times. It was also drug and alcohol fueled. Those were details that Hannah didn’t really need to know.
“You know, sometimes you can get that friendship back, and sometimes things and people are in the past because that is where they belong. You won’t know, though, until you see him again.”
“True,” I said. “And it’s only for tomorrow. I doubt he’ll be expecting much.”
CHAPTER FOUR
TRISTAN
I thought I did another great job that night, but I was restless as hell after the show. I went back to the bus after turning down about five offers to go out and party; what the hell do people think being clean and sober means? I didn’t feel like going out, anyways. What I wanted to do was go and talk to Elly. I wanted to make her listen to me and make her believe that I didn’t fuck that skank Brooke. I knew that she wasn’t going to listen at that point, and I didn’t want to just go over there to her bus and fight with her, so I didn’t do that either. I thought about calling her, but I didn’t want to fight on the phone. Fuck! I finally settled on doing the one thing that I actually needed to do, and that was writing another song for the record. I had a few of them finished. If I disciplined myself, I could have the twelve that the fuckers wanted so that I could get my money when we finish the tour. Then I was going to tell Jake and his little, fat minion Tony to go fuck themselves.
I took out my guitar and notebook. I lay down on my bed and stared at the ceiling. I strummed a few notes on the guitar and wrote them down, and then I scratched them off again. I started strumming the guitar again, and as I did, I tried to put words to it. I surprised myself when I started singing about Elly and me. I
guess what was in my head just came out and before I knew it, I was writing a song about losing someone. It had a good beat to it so it wasn’t overly depressing, but it talked about having feelings for someone that you hadn’t intended to care so much about and the chorus said,
Why did you leave me standing speechless in the rain?
Come back to me baby, let’s get this thing right,
Come back to me baby, I want to hold you tonight.
I worked on it until the sound was just right and then I put it away with the other ones and lay there staring at the ceiling again, wondering what I’d do on our day off the next day. If Elly wasn’t pissed off at me, we could hang out: or better yet, spend the day in bed.
CHAPTER FIVE
ELLY
I woke up with the same knot in my stomach that I’d gone to bed with the night before. Something was telling me that hanging out with Cole was not going to be my best idea ever. The whole time I was in a shower I told thought about cancelling on him. What I really wanted to do was explore on my own, or hang out with some of the girls. They were going to the fair that was being held in the town we were in. I hadn’t been to a fair in a really long time. By the time I was dressed, I’d decided to at least see if Cole wanted to hang out at the fair. I got his text around ten.
Hey! Are we still hanging out today?
Sure, as long as you want to go to the fair.
That’s cool. Want me to pick you up?
Sure.
I told him where to go and then I grabbed my bag and walked out to the front of the lot. He said he was staying at a hotel nearby and would be there in less than ten minutes. After about fifteen minutes, I saw a red Camaro drive up. I thought surely that couldn’t be him; who rents a Camaro anyways? It was Cole, and it was also obvious that he thought he was as cool as ever. That was one reason we’d become such good friends back in high school: I’d seen right through his cool guy façade and told him he was full of shit. For some reason, he’d appreciated that.
He stopped the car alongside me and the passenger side window slid down. He grinned at me. I’d almost forgotten how good looking he was. He was the polar opposite of Tristan. He had blonde hair and he always kept it cut short and perfectly styled. His parents were well off, so he always dressed in designer clothes. He was buff, too; even when he was drinking heavily, he never missed a day at the gym. He had been the football star at our high school. Back then, he didn’t put anything in his body that wasn’t healthy. He had green eyes and these really deep dimples on either side of his mouth that he knew how to use when the moment called for it.
“Hey good-looking; need a lift?” he said.
“Hey, Cole,” I said, opening the door. “As smooth as ever with the ladies, I see.”
I slid in and he said, “It’s true; I’m a lady killer,” he said, with another grin. He was really a dork, but a dork with good self-esteem. “Wow, Elly. You’re looking even finer than I remember you, and that’s no line.”
I smiled to be polite and said, “Thanks.” I’m sure he was waiting for a return compliment; he was a little vain like that. I let the moment pass and then I said, “What are you doing in Colorado?”
“I have a friend whose family owns a cabin up at Vail. He turned twenty five and had a big party. I was on vacation from work this week so I came up. I went to the party and then I came down here to stay in town. I saw your post on Facebook and decided the concert might be fun. My boys and I went and then they headed back to L. A. this morning. I stuck around…to see you.”
“Wow, um, thanks. Since I hadn’t heard from you in a year, I didn’t even know we were that close any more.”
He laughed and said, “I guess we grew apart during all the shit that happened. I could tell that you needed your space. Those were bad times, for all of us. I took your lead a few months later and went to rehab myself. I’ve been clean and sober for nine months now.”
“Good for you,” I told him, sincerely. Maybe there was hope for us to re-kindle our friendship after all.
“You still on the wagon?”
“Yep, almost a year for me now.”
He nodded, “Good, it’s a better life.”
“Yes it is,” I agreed.
“So where’s this fair at?”
I had it programmed into my GPS so I gave him directions. It was a small town and that meant a small town fair, which sounded like a lot of fun to me. I’d read an article about it in one of the local papers that said they had, “Blended just the right touches of Elvis and mini-mod tractors along with a fair princess and a queen.” It sounded like just the place for me to finally have a day without Tristan on my mind.
We found the fairgrounds easily and after finding a parking spot we made our way inside. As soon as we were through the gates, I could smell the popcorn and peanuts and deep fried foods from all along the midway. As much as my stomach would complain later, it was growling right then.
“So, what first?” Cole asked.
I looked up and saw the Ferris wheel; I pointed at it and said, “That.”
He laughed and then suddenly turned serious and said, “Aw come on, you’re kidding, right?”
“Nope, I’m totally serious.”
“I can’t….I mean, I haven’t since….”
I laughed and he realized that I was just kidding. The first time Cole and I had hung out right after my boyfriend died; we’d gone to Santa Monica. We went bar-hopping and we were both really drunk. We made the very stupid decision to get on the Ferris wheel on the pier. Cole puked before the ride finally stopped and then I had to have the cab pull over three times so that I could puke on the way home. That night we had collapsed on my bed, drunk off our asses, and fell into a semi-comatose state. The first time we had sex was the next night; we were drunk then, too, but that’s a story for another time.
“Let’s go play some games on the midway,” I told him.
We walked along the midway, going from game to game. The first one we played was the one where you shoot water into a clown’s mouth and blow up a balloon. Whoever breaks their balloon first wins. I won the first two games and ended up with a two dollar toy for five dollars’ worth of game. Cole won the next three, and by that time I was down ten bucks.
We played the duck hunt shooting game next. Cole blew me away on that one, and ended up with a pretty good sized stuffed animal. It was fun, kind of like old times. He wasn’t hitting on me and my mind wasn’t constantly on Tristan, although it liked to flicker over there every so often. We played a few more games and won a few more stupid prizes; then, to my surprise, Cole suggested we go watch the tractor pulls.
“Tractor pulls, really?”
“You forget that I’m a country boy at heart. L.A. wasn’t my home until I was into my late teens, remember? I grew up out in the central valley. I love me some tractor pulls.”
“I don’t even know what a tractor pull is,” I told him.
He laughed and said, “It’s exciting stuff. These tractors are modified for power. They have to pull a big heavy sledge…”
“What’s a sledge?”
“It’s a sled,” he said.
“Then why call it a sledge?”
“Do you want to know about the tractor pulls, or do you want to argue over grammar?”
I laughed and said, “I’m sorry, please, go on.”
“Okay, so they pull this sled across a thirty foot wide track. It’s around three hundred feet long and the object is to be the tractor that pulls it the farthest.”
“Hmm,” I said.
“Just hmm?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. That sounds absolutely fascinating,” I lied. I was sarcastic about it so he knew I was lying. It only served to amuse him further.
We sat through the tractor pulls and, to my amazement, it was fun. We took bets just between us on who would win. The winner would keep doubling it; at one point I owed him thirty bucks. I proudly came back and he ended up owing me twenty before it was over.
W
e caught an Elvis impersonator show and by that time we were both starving. “Why don’t we go out and have a real dinner. I’ll buy,” he said.
“Not a fan of midway food?” I asked him, teasing.
“If you thought I was up-chucking after the Ferris wheel….”
I laughed, “Okay, enough of the night of many pukings. I got it. I feel like my hair smells like the midway though. If we’re going to have a nice sit down dinner, do you mind if I go take a quick shower first?”
He shrugged and said, “I got nothing else going on tonight. I don’t mind.”
He drove me back to the back lot and we found our way to my bus. I wasn’t really supposed to bring people in with me but security barely looked at my badge and didn’t say anything to him at all. When we got to the bus, none of the girls were there. I was a little nervous being alone with him so close to a bed. When we first became friends in high school, sex never even came up between us. He would sometimes brag about his conquests but he never treated me like I was someone he’d sleep with. That was okay with me, because I didn’t see him that way, either. Every girl in our senior class was jealous of me because I spent so much time with him. I always thought he was good-looking, but he was just never really my type. After my boyfriend died and we crossed that line, getting high and fucking was the bulk of what we did. We’d stopped talking about anything or even thinking about doing anything fun. It kind of sucked, and when I was sober, it made me sad. We should have been able to comfort each other like adults, but we let the drugs and alcohol get in the way. We had fallen into the old rhythm on that day, though, and it seemed like he at least realized as I did that wasn’t a place we needed to re-visit.
CHAPTER SIX
TRISTAN
I hung around the bus lot all day on our day off. I wrote some more music and then I had lunch and shot the shit with a few of the guys in the band for a while. They even played some of the new songs I wrote and let me sing through them. It was good to hear them with the band, that way I knew what adjustments I needed to make. All in all, it was a pretty good day. I did run into Tony while I was on my way out of the room the band and I used. It pissed me off just to look at him.
My Rock #7 (The Rock Star Romance Series - Book #7) Page 2