by Magan Vernon
“Are you serious right now?” I asked, staring at Pamela with wide eyes.
She just crossed her arms over her chest and looked at her watch. “We have five minutes.”
***
I adjusted the cap backward and forward, looking in the mirror backstage. I looked like some kind of teen pop star. I might have two crossover hits now, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I’d always wanted to be like George Strait or, hell, even Garth Brooks. But Stan and Pam assured me this was the best thing for my career.
“No cowboy hat?” a breathy, honeyed voice said.
I turned toward the voice and came face-to-face with my co-presenter and the current star of some teen vampire drama, Mary James.
The first time I laid eyes on her, I thought she had everything that was a guy’s wet dream with her long wavy blonde hair, bright blue eyes surrounded by long eyelashes, and a body that was the work of a lot of time in the gym and the plastic surgeon’s chair.
“Nah, my publicist says people like the ball cap. What do you think?” I asked, adjusting it so it faced forward.
A smile barely crossed her pale pink lips as she reached up and twisted my cap backward. “I think it suits you.”
When Mary moved in, she had the picture of us from backstage at the Teen Scene Awards blown up and framed to hang in the entryway. As I walked toward where that picture used to be, I noticed it was missing.
That was when I heard the clicking of her heels. I winced, hoping it was just Pam, but no such luck. I came face-to-face with my cheating ex-fiancée.
Mary’s mouth went into a perfect O with her eyes widening in surprise. I hadn’t seen her in months since she left to film the last season of Vamps in the City in New York. It was also where she made that infamous sex tape with two officers that I only found out about with the rest of the world when TNC reported it.
“Didn’t know that the cleaning lady forgot to take the trash out while I was gone,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest.
“I just came to get the last of my things, and I’ll be gone,” she muttered, power walking toward the living room where she had full two boxes.
“If you wanted that stuff so badly, you could have just had your agent call mine to arrange something,” I replied, following her toward the bright white living room.
She rolled her eyes, groaning as she picked up one of the overflowing boxes. “Don’t you think I tried that? Your agent didn’t answer, and Pam kept saying she’d get back to me. After so many months, I just wanted this to be over. Goodbye, Eddie.”
I stopped her, putting my hand on her elbow. “You really called them?”
Mary huffed, setting the box down and putting her hands on her hips. “Eddie, do you even know half of what goes on around you or do you only know what affects Eddie freaking Justice, superstar?” She made a big show of jazz hands before putting her fists back at her side.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean? I’m not the one who cheated,” I growled.
“Really? You don’t think spending every minute you could with your music or your publicist or in the studio wasn’t cheating?” she spat.
“What? How could you even consider that the same thing? You slept with two guys and filmed it!” I threw my arms in the air.
“Okay, yeah, I get that. It was wrong, and I had no idea they recorded it. But you know what, Eddie? At least, someone was giving me attention,” she whined.
I rolled my eyes. “Of course, the great teen vampire Mary James needs more attention.”
She narrowed her eyes. “We’ve been together two years, Eddie. Two freaking years. Do you know how many times I asked you to come home with me for holidays? Or to see your family? I thought maybe it would change when you put a ring on my finger, but nope, you were still the same old Eddie who couldn’t take his girlfriend to meet his parents, even though he has his own private plane, because he had to record a Christmas album. I was starting to think I embarrassed you until I saw that you do the same thing to everybody. I thought you were this down-to-earth, good ol’ Texas country boy, but if you ever were that guy, he died the minute you left that small Texas town.”
I wanted to respond, but it felt like the wind had been knocked out of me. Instead of an actual hit, it was a verbal slap to the face.
Mary was right. For so long, I’d done nothing but worry about my career that I forgot everyone around me. Her leaving me and forcing me to reconnect with Friendship was one of the best things I’d ever done for myself, and now, I was about to throw all of that away again.
“I’m going to take your silence as a goodbye. See you around, Eddie,” Mary said before she grabbed her other box and left out the front door, leaving me alone in the big house.
“What the hell am I doing?” I muttered, finally gathering my words. “Well, besides talking to myself …”
I raked my fingers through my hair. I could do the call with Stan and the producers via Skype. I needed to get back to Brooke and to Friendship. I couldn’t keep messing things up with everyone in my life because someday, they would walk out on me forever just like Mary did.
Grabbing my phone out of my back pocket, I unlocked it to call my pilot when a call came through from Stan.
“Hey, Stan …” I answered, ready to give him an explanation on why I wouldn’t be able to meet him.
“Get to the studio. Now. I’m sending a car.”
“What?” I asked.
“He should be outside right now. Big news. Huge news. This is going to be your big comeback, Eddie, my boy,” Stan said with a cheery laugh.
“What are you even talking about?” I looked out the front window to see a black SUV pull up.
“Just get in the car and I’ll explain when you get here.”
I hung up the phone and stared back and forth between it and the car. I could just tell the driver to take me to the airport. I probably should have. Instead, I did what I did best, and I did what I was told, getting in and taking the ride to the studio.
“So … it’ll be Thanksgiving when we wrap up for the season in New York, and I was thinking maybe you could fly up there and then we could go see my parents in Scranton,” Mary said, her voice slightly squeaking.
I didn’t even look up from my computer screen. I was refreshing my email to see if Stan had emailed the latest Billboard music chart and if “Broken Hearted” was number one.
“Uh huh, yeah, babe.”
Mary sat down on my desk, putting one of her black heels on my thigh. “Eddie, are you even listening to me?”
“Definitely,” I replied, hitting refresh and finally seeing an email from Stan. I opened it, scrolling through the attached list. I expected to see my name at number one with “Congratulations” in the subject line, but of course, some pop star who did a remake duet with a rapper had beaten me out of the top spot and I had fallen to number two. Why in the hell did I think a pop crossover was a good idea?
“Dammit,” I grumbled.
“Eddie!” Mary whirled my chair around and stared at me with her eyes wide and her lips pouted.
“Babe, I was just waiting for that email from Stan, but now you have my full attention.” I softened my eyes and gave her a dimpled smile that usually made her melt. Instead of smiling back, she sighed.
“Never mind, Ed. I need to finish packing.”
Packing? What was she packing for? Oh, right. New York.
“Need any help?” I asked, putting my arms around her waist as she bent over the bed.
“Yeah. That would be great. Could you grab some of my heels from the closet? The red Gucci ones for sure and maybe the black Louboutins?” She perked up.
“Right away.” I mock saluted and headed toward our walk-in closet.
Before I could even get to her shoe rack, my phone buzzed in my pocket. Pam’s number crossed the screen, and I swiped to answer it. “Hey, Pam, what’s up?”
“So I’m thinking Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade performance, then I’ve arranged for you to hang
out with some of those guys from that hot musical everyone’s talking about. I’ll leak some info to the paparazzi, maybe have you do some videos of you guys singing together, have it go viral, and then you should knock down that pompous prick rapper from the number-one spot in no time!”
“That sounds like a great plan,” I replied, thinking I had something to do in New York and for Thanksgiving, but I couldn’t remember.
I chatted with Pam for few more minutes then turned around to see Mary in the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest. “Get my shoes?”
I turned and grabbed the first two pairs of heels I could find. “Yep. Sorry, just had a quick call with Pam. She had some great ideas.”
“I know. I heard the entire convo. So you’ll be in New York?” Mary asked, cutting me off.
“Yeah. It’s going to be great. Parade, then hanging with some guys and doing music. I might even have some time to swing by the set. Isn’t that great?” I smiled, walking forward and wrapping my arms around her waist.
She opened her mouth then sighed as if she thought better. “Yeah. That sounds awesome for you, Ed.”
Was I always an asshole?
I didn’t think I was, but the Eddie Justice of the last ten years wasn’t the same Eddie Jahid in Friendship, that was for sure.
The studio was right off music row, and I remember the first time I drove down that street that I’d now passed one hundred times. My eyes lit up, thinking I was in the place that so many other music stars had stepped in before me. Now, instead of feeling like I was where I belonged, it was like I was taking the long walk on the green mile.
The driver dropped me off, and I made my way inside, barely flashing my credentials at security before taking the elevator up to the top floor.
I’d been in this office so many times; it started to feel like home—more of a home than the very empty place with my name on the title.
I remembered so many nights during my first few years in music. I’d be in the studio all night trying to lay down a good track while the interns constantly fueled the producers and me with coffee.
I didn’t even knock on the large oak doors. I just threw them open, looking at the big table surrounded by different men in suits. Instead of glancing over them and staring out the window, as I usually did, my eyes were drawn to the elephant in the room, literally. Jeremy Lafayette was a newer guy on the country scene, and not only did his breakout song hit number one on the country music charts, but now he was sitting at the head of the table in a bright yellow shirt with a big elephant on it.
“Hey, you finally made it! Thought you were gonna stand me up!” Jeremy said, getting up from the table and racing around all of the suits to give me a firm handshake.
I’d never met the guy before and always thought I hated him from his media presence, but something about the long-haired Californian guy made me smile.
“Eddie Justice. Glad to meet ya, Jeremy.”
Jeremy went back to his spot at one head of the table, and I took the empty seat at the other end.
“Now that introductions have been done, let’s get down to business,” Randy, one of the producers, said, steepling his fingers together.
Usually, when we had these meetings with producers and my agent, they wanted to talk about a new record. I figured that maybe they were bringing in the young blood to give my career a jolt and maybe some sort of Brooks & Dunn aspect. I didn’t know how I felt about all of that, but I’d trusted Stan with everything in my career so far, so I was at least willing to listen to what he and the producers presented.
“As you know, Spring Break is coming up then summer vacation. Everyone will be flocking to the beaches of California, Texas, then round Alabama, and Florida,” Randy said.
“Yeah, Cali,” Jeremy said, raising his fist.
Randy nodded before continuing. “The execs came up with an idea to do a Beach Tour. We’d take two artists, put them in an old Airstream, and they’d travel to different beaches, doing small shows at the local beaches and bigger shows in Malibu or Key West. With the success of your show in Austin, Eddie, we thought you’d be a perfect fit, and with Jeremy’s California roots and new single, we thought you two would work well together for this new tour concept.”
Randy looked back and forth between all the men at the table, then to Jeremy and me.
Jeremy was all smiles and so was his agent. “All right, man, sounds awesome.”
It was February now; Spring Break would be March then go through a break in April maybe and start up for the summer. I could probably go back to Friendship during the time off, or maybe I could even convince Brooke to go with me. She worked on the computer anyway, so it would be perfect.
All the thoughts of approaching Brooke with traveling and having her help me write some new songs while we traveled the coast together filled my brain. That was until Stan knocked me out of my daydream.
“Okay, so we have it set up for you two to announce this on one of the big morning shows tomorrow. The plane’s all ready to go tonight. We’ll touch down by dinner and be ready to go in the AM.”
This was it. Things were falling into place. I’d get my comeback and get my girl back.
Things were finally looking up.
The only time I’d been out of Texas was for choir competitions in high school. We rarely took family vacations, and the only time I got to see the bright lights of music row was on TV.
Randy, the music producer I’d be working with, rambled on about the different sights and the things we’d be doing that day, but all I could concentrate on was the view of the looming building.
What if I wasn’t good enough for all of this? What if I choked the first time I tried to record?
“Nervous, Eddie?” Mom asked, squeezing my hand.
“Of course, he’s not! He’s excited to be country music’s next superstar!” Stan, my new agent, said. Mom literally found him doing an Internet search so he could help negotiate my contract. I didn’t know much about agents or really anything with the music business; I was just happy to finally get out of Friendship and really make something of myself when all of the kids at school mocked me.
All except for my best friend, Brooke.
I shouldn’t have been a dumbass when I said goodbye last night. I wanted to tell her so badly that I’d had the biggest crush on her for years. I didn’t want to mess up our friendship, but now that I was leaving, I should have just given it up and kissed her. Figured out if her lips tasted like the raspberry ChapStick she always wore. But it would have just made it harder to leave. Harder to give up my dreams. I just hoped if I failed, she’d still be there for me.
I stared at the giant building as the car dropped us off at the front door. Mom insisted that I wear the only suit I owned, and I was pretty sure I already sweated through my pin-stripe shirt and even onto the bolero tie.
This was it; this was my big break and my first day of recording.
“Well, Eddie, you ready to show the world that golden voice of yours?” Stan asked, opening the glass door for Mom and me.
Forcing a smile, I looked over at Stan. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
***
“Take twenty-two,” the bored-sounding guy called from behind the glass wall.
I’d practiced the songs over and over the night before, but my nerves were getting the best of me, and everything came out flat.
Stan was shaking his head and talking to the guys behind the mixers while my mom gave me a small smile. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I could guess it was probably that they thought they were making a big mistake.
I reached into my pocket for my lucky pick, and then I remembered I gave it to Brooke. Instead of feeling the cool plastic against my fingers, I grabbed a crumpled piece of paper. Pulling it out, I stared at my chicken scratch. Sometime in the middle of the night, an idea came to me, and I wrote it down on one of the hotel notepads. Even though I was half-asleep while writing it, it wasn’t half bad when I looked at it in t
he daylight. That was when I got an idea.
“Hey, y’all, can I try something new?” I asked, yelling at the guys behind the glass.
They all stared at me then one of the guys pressed a button on the mixer. “Whatcha got, Eddie?”
I licked my lips then closed my eyes, feeling the words in my head before they spilled from my mouth. The words came without me even having to think about them. All I could picture was Brooke standing in front of me with her eyes shining in the moonlight and reflecting off the pond. I sang about the girl next door, the girl I’d always wanted and could never have. I sang with everything in my heart and put it out there for the guys behind the glass. If they hated it, I would give it up and try to do the song that wasn’t calling to me. But I at least had to give this one a go.
When I was done, I opened my eyes to stare at the open-mouthed people behind the glass.
“Did you just come up with that?” the producer asked.
“Yes, sir. Well, last night,” I replied; my knees were shaking so badly, I put my hands on top of them.
The producer released the intercom and the group whispered amongst themselves.
I held my breath, waiting for what seemed like forever before I finally saw them smiling and turning back toward the glass.
“Eddie, I think you just found your first single.”
I sat in my New York rental, staring at the half-empty rocks glass. A few months ago, I was drinking my sorrows over another girl, but this was a different feeling.
I thought I loved Mary. Hell, I asked her to marry me, after all. But maybe, as shitty as it was to think, it was a convenience thing. She was what I thought I needed in my life; the successful actress with a rocking body.
Even as I thought back on the last two years with Mary, I never smiled with her like I did with Brooke. She didn’t make me laugh. She didn’t know the real Eddie. And now, I knew I’d fucked up with both girls.
