STARBURST #1

by Woodruff, Jettie

  Trevas called Peyton one Friday morning around the end of March while he waited for Alley to come out to appear on her very first talk show to promote the movie. He was a nervous wreck worried that she was going to say something that she shouldn’t say and Peyton knew too, there was a good possibility of that as well, especially if Mickey Blue, who Peyton had been on many times got off topic, and got too personal, which he was known to do.

  “I have to go Peyton he just announced her name,” Trevas told her, and she made him promise to call as soon as she was done.

  Alley was dressed in a short white dress with a dark blue wide stripes going down both sides and black heels. The dress fit snug and her hair was down, and she tossed it nervously out of her face as she walked up the one step and Mickey took her hand, kissing her on the cheek. She waved to the audience and sat in the leather chair in front of his desk.

  The audience was yelling, she smiled a weak smile and waved a weak hand toward them.

  “Thank you so much for coming, Alley,” he started.

  “Thank you for having me,” she replied and Trevas had to snicker, knowing she would have rather been shoveling shit than sitting there.

  “So this is your first movie?” he asked.

  “It is,” she replied with only that.

  “And you are staring with Jerrod Jackson, correct?”

  “Yes Jerrod Jackson plays my solider companion,” she replied, and Trevas was pleasantly surprised at how calm she seemed to be, and she answered his questions about the movie flawlessly as if she had done it a million times. They watched a clip and of course he had to show a clip of them being intimate, which made Alley uncomfortable, and he could tell as she crossed her legs and the heel of her foot on the floor bounced up and down.

  “This is quite the steamy movie for a first time role. Where you uncomfortable at all about doing scenes like this?”

  “Did I look uncomfortable to you?” she asked, and Trevas thought, oh no, here it comes, but surprisingly, she laughed and rephrased her response.

  “No, I was fine with it really, remember who my mother and father are,” she added. “I have been around a set my whole life, and I knew before I ever agreed, what I was getting into.”

  “I also read that you agreed to the part because it was one of your favorite books.”

  “Yes, I read the book first, in like my freshman year in school, and I read it twice after that.”

  Mickey stayed on topic for about twelve of her eighteen minute time frame and then got off.

  “I’m sure you have seen your mom play the internet game with us, are you up for it?” he asked, and Trevas knew exactly what he was doing. It was a game where they put up pictures of the guest from different internet sites, and the stars had to describe what was going on in them.

  “Oh yes, the internet game, I freaking love that game,” she said, sarcastically and frowned at the audience, and they laughed. Trevas couldn’t believe her, she had them all eating out of the palm of her hand, and he loved it. “Go,” she said, twirling her finger in a circular motion, agreeing to the game.

  She put her head down and shook it with an embarrassed shake at the first picture of her, holding a bowl and lighting it with a lighter.

  “Fucked up,” she described, and the audience laughed. Trevas shook his head but had to laugh too, along with Mickey Blue.

  “That’s it? That’s all the exclamation we get?” he joked.

  “I really hope you can figure out what is going on there without an exclamation,” she told him. “That’s not me, I’m sure its photo shopped,” she added, but they all knew she was joking and knew that it was indeed her. “Next,” she said, waving her hand to get rid of the picture.

  The next one was her, and Jerrod Jackson at the wrap party and he was twirling her around.

  “Fucked up,” she said again, and once again they all laughed. “I don’t know. What do you want me to say to that?” she rephrased. “It was an after party, and we were just goofing off.”

  “Can we expect love in the air with you two?” he asked, hoping to get some gossip.

  “You can expect whatever you want,” she explained, and everyone once again laughed at her response.

  The next picture was a photo shoot, and she was wearing a white transparent, remarkably short dress with long flowing sleeves and a black bikini underneath. Her foot was straightened out and she was dipping her toes into a creek, showing her flawless long legs.

  “You describe that one,” she told him.

  “Help me out here audience,” he called and someone yelled, “HOT!” and the guys all yelled and whistled.

  “Get that off of there,” she demanded with rosy cheeks.

  The next picture was her going into the tattoo shop with her hood on, dark sunglasses and short, shorts.

  “That’s not me,” she said and got another laugh.

  “There have been numerous rumors about you having a tattoo, but nobody seems to know if or what you have.”

  “Next,” she said, swiping her hand for the next picture, and Mickey Blue dropped it, knowing she wasn’t telling.

  The next picture was of her and Trevas leaving the LAX airport. She had on skinny jeans, converse sneakers and a hooded sweatshirt covered her head, along with dark sunglasses and headphones. Trevas had his hand on her back leading her out, his other hand blocked bystanders as he rushed her to the waiting car.

  Alley twisted her lips to the side, and Trevas got a quick adrenalin rush, worried about what she was trying not to say.

  “This was after going back to New Orleans for a reshoot. We had worked nine straight hours trying finish up, and then flew fifteen hours plus a three hour layover, so I was going on like thirty hours with no sleep. I look like hell in this picture, so I’m assuming you want me to comment on the hot body guard.” She asked with raised eyebrows and Trevas smiled.

  “We have noticed that this one bodyguard seems to travel everywhere with you.” Mickey explained.

  “We have… as in who?” she asked, catching him off guard, and he wasn’t sure how to respond.

  “Is this your personal bodyguard?”

  “Yes, I guess you could say that. He is the only one that my dad has been able to find to put up with my shit,” she explained and again got a laugh.

  The next picture was of her dad and friend Brooke Austin, kissing on the balcony of the hotel, and again she twisted her mouth to the side.

  “That one pisses me off and tells me that you are an ass for putting it up there,” she said, and Trevas was starting to freak out a little. He couldn’t believe that they did that to her. “But it also tells me that you have balls for trying, but I have no comment so, move along.” She said, and Trevas breathed a sigh of relief.

  The next picture was of Peyton and her when she was maybe six or seven with no front teeth dressed like a bloody zombie, holding an orange pumpkin full of candy.

  “What the hell? Where did you get that?” she asked, shaking her head at the photo.

  “You were like two in this picture. What would possess your mother to let you dress like this?”

  Alley laughed. “It was right after she had done ‘Zombie Bride’ I wanted to be the girl Flo in it,” she explained.

  “Your mother let you watch that at that age? I’m going to have to have a talk with her”

  “Yup, it’s all her fault, I turned out like this” she accused Payton, “Actually I never saw the movie until I was probably thirteen or so, but I was on set a lot for, it and got to watch the makeup artist dress the zombies, so it was all just make believe and playing dress up to me.”

  “Thank you so much for being here,” Mickey finally said, dismissing her. “Folks Ms. Alley Fletcher, lead role in the movie ‘Handbook’ coming out in theaters May 12th.” He called to the audience, and they all clapped as he helped her down the one step, waving to the audience one more time.

  Trevas waited in the hall for her to change into jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. He ha
d the biggest smile on his face when she joined him.

  “You were awesome up there,” he told her excited.

  “What? You’re not going to yell at me for dropping the F bomb?”

  “Not a chance, you dropped it where it needed to be dropped, and I am so proud of you.”

  “Good now get me the hell out of here,” she demanded, and he led her to their waiting car.

  Peyton watched at eleven thirty and called her as soon as it was over. “Alley Fletcher you freaking amaze me sometimes. You were spectacular.”

  Alley laughed, “Thanks mom, but I prefer not to do it again.”

  “You are going to do it several more times before this movie comes out, but if you do what you did today, you won’t have a thing to worry about, other than there are some that you are not going to be able to use the language.”

  “I know, but if it falls out of my mouth, they will just have to bleep it out.”

  “Alley I have to go, your dad is beeping in my ear. I’m so proud of you. Love you.”

  “Love you bye,” Alley replied.

  “Fletcher did you see how amazing our daughter was?” she answered his call.

  “Yes I did, that’s why I’m calling you. I was a nervous wreck waiting to watch what she said. I don’t think I could have said it better.”

  “Me either, I’m dumbfounded at her right now. She was born to be in show business.”

  “I agree, come over here,” he added, changing the subject.

  “Fletcher, stop it. I’m not coming over there, and we are not having sex,” she told him, but had to argue with herself not to go. She hadn’t seen James in over a month, and she was starting to get frustrated, but she wasn’t about to go there with Fletcher.

  “Why?” he asked.

  “Because, I divorced you a long time ago.”

  “So what? and I divorced you.”

  Peyton laughed. “Okay you divorced me, but I’m still not coming to your house. Goodnight Fletch.”

  “Goodnight Peyton,” he growled, frustrated.

  Peyton poured a glass of wine and ran a tub of hot water in her Jacuzzi tub. She was just about to step in when Kay called, and she was so glad for the company even if it was just over the phone.

  “Oh my God Peyton, Alley was a card.”

  “I know, I can’t believe how good she did, and she handled it with so much dignity.”

  “Are you busy? I can call back if you want?” Kay asked, hearing the water slosh.

  “No, I’m not busy and don’t you dare hang up. I am going crazy here by myself. I’m about ready to take one of these movies that I am not the least bit interested in, just for something to do.”

  “Peyton!” Kay exclaimed.

  “What?” she answered, thinking she said something wrong.

  “Come out here. I just took two weeks’ vacation, but I can’t go far because of an audit and a new client that I’m trying to get. Fly out here and spend a few days.”

  “Really Kay?”

  “Yeah, it will be fun, we can shop and eat out without being bombarded with your crazy fans in LA.”

  “What are you saying, I don’t have fans in Utah?”

  “Of course you do. I’m here aren’t I? I just know they won’t attack you here like they do there. You may have to sign a few autographs, but I’m sure they won’t gather around you like they do there.”

  “Kay I love you. This is just what I need right now.”

  “Really? You’ll come?”

  “Yes, when did you want me to come?”

  “You can come whenever you want. My vacation started at five o’clock today.”

  “Let me see when I can get a flight, and I will let you know.”

  “Okay that sounds like a plan. Give me a call when you find out.”

  “Kay, you’re not hanging up on me now are you? Because it sounds to me like you’re saying goodbye.”

  Kay laughed. “I’m not doing anything, so if you need to talk, I’m free for at least two more beers.”

  ****

  Payton got a flight out on Tuesday morning and had an escort take her to the airport but didn’t want one all the way and Kay was picking her up. Alley and Trevas would be there in a few days as well, and she was excited to get away.

  Kay spent two days cleaning even though she knew Peyton would never judge her normal, ordinary house, she was still a little self-conscious about it knowing that Peyton was used to extravagant. She had no elaborate pool for them to hang out in, her washer and dryer was in a dungeon like basement that smelled of musty cinderblock. Her bedrooms had no private bathrooms, and there was only one, besides the small one in the basement that hadn’t been used since Trevas lived there. Her home was fifteen hundred square feet and would fit inside of Peyton’s four thousand square foot home, twice over. It was a nice middle class home, and Kay was proud that it was hers and she worked hard for it. It sat in a neighborhood, and the only privacy was the back yard with the privacy fence that kept her dog Strike from wondering to the neighbor’s yard.

  Kay picked her up from the airport and smiled when she saw just one person by her and Peyton was signing an autograph for her. Some people did stare as they walked to the car, but no one hounded her or yelled questions, and there were no cameras flashing in her eyes.

  They stopped at a small dinner called, ‘Lucky Dog’ on the way home for lunch. There were only a few people in the restaurant, and not one of them came up to them. The older lady waitress acted as though she didn’t know her from Adam, and they ate in peace, it was extremely refreshing for Peyton.

  Kay pulled up to her ordinary one story brick home and looked to see Peyton’s reaction, and she had a smile as she observed Kay’s home. Kay let the white poodle out the back door and showed Peyton where she could put her things. She had put her in Anna’s old room because the bed was bigger, and it was decorated more feminine than Trevas’s old room with the walls still painted in his red and gray high school colors. The room was done in lavender and mint green with matching curtains that looked out to the back yard.

  “You have a lovely home Kay,” Peyton said, and Kay snickered.

  “You don’t have to be modest Peyton,” she replied.

  “You stop that,” she demanded. “I’m being sincere, I love it, it’s so homey and feels so comfortable,” she said after looking for the right words.

  “Well thank you, do you want some coffee?”

  “Sure, that sounds great.”

  Kay put on coffee and Peyton looked around at the pictures on the wall. She smiled at the pictures of Trevas as a small boy and looked at each one of them as he grew up.

  “Trevas always was a heartbreaker,” she called to Kay, admiring her son.

  “Yes he was always a handsome boy,” she agreed, meeting her back in the living room, drying her hands on a dishtowel.

  “Can you imagine what their kids would look like?” Peyton asked, thinking about not only her beautiful daughter, but Kay’s handsome son as well.

  “Payton… shut the hell up. Are you trying to make us grandmas?”

  Payton laughed. “No but it would be nice to have a little one around again. Poor Alley was raised by a nanny while I was out trying to make it big.”

  “My kids spent a lot of time alone too while I was trying to make it big,” she replied but not talking about the same kind of big. Kay spent her time trying to prove that she could run a brand new company in a brand new location.

  They sat at the table and talked and drank coffee. Peyton asked her about Trevas and Anna's dad, and Kay didn’t lie to her. She told her the truth and explained that she wasn’t sure who Trevas’s dad was and told her about the time when she got pregnant, she had partied the whole month and couldn’t remember half of what she had done. She explained to her that she did marry Anna’s dad and knew that he was an alcoholic before she ever did it, thinking she could change him and divorced him three years later.

  “Don’t think I’m going to judge you for your
mistakes Kay. I have made plenty of them myself. Half of which you probably have read about,” she teased.

  “You have to come to work with me tomorrow for a little while.”

  “Okay, but I sense a reason,” she admitted.

  “Yeah I kind of told some people that I work with that you were coming here, they don’t believe that Peyton Paxton is staying with me, and you are kind of going to sit in on a meeting with me.”

  Peyton laughed. “Fine, what else would I do anyway?”

  Kay was up early on Wednesday morning, wanting to get in and out of the bathroom so that Peyton could shower. She dressed in her room in a dark blue skirt that came just above her knees and a white button up shirt with matching dark blue buttons on the long sleeved blouse. She wore dark pantyhose and dark blue heels, with her hair pulled back in a tight bun.

  “Am I underdressed?” Peyton asked, wearing dark jeans and a longed sleeved button up shirt.

  “Lord no, you are fine. I wouldn’t dress this way either, but there is going to be some people from ‘Wellington Brass’ in this meeting and I feel like I should dress the part. You’re fine, I promise.”

  Kay fixed them each a bagel and a cup of coffee before heading over to the factory. She pulled into her respected parking spot, and they walked through the dark glassed doors of the office.

  “Oh my God, it is true,” the girl behind the glass window squealed, standing up, and Peyton smiled at her.

  “Good morning Jess and yes it is true so get it over with, give her whatever it is you want signed. I’m on vacation, I don’t want to be here all day,” she teased.

  The young girl pulled her copy of the Black DVD from her bag, and Peyton happily signed it for her and Kay had to take their picture.