Quest For A Popstar

by Katie Hamstead

“I thought you were someone trying to break in to rape and murder me.” She unloads the gun, her spaghetti strap falling from her bony shoulder.

  “Really?” I shut and lock the door.

  “It’s not exactly a safe haven in this neighborhood.”

  “True.” I drag my belongings toward my bedroom.

  “Are things okay between you and Tom?” she asks, following me but stopping at my doorway.

  “Yeah, why?”

  She shrugs, folding her arms as she leans against the wooden frame. “You just came back so quick, that’s all. And it’s been a while.”

  “Yeah,” I say on a sigh.

  She yawns, the complete opposite of the murderous woman I arrived home to only moments before. “All right, I’m going back to bed. Too bad about the elimination. I thought you had it in the bag.”

  I watch her go. She doesn’t realize how I could have had it. But trading my self-respect wasn’t an option.

  I sleep late the next morning, not rising until eleven. I try calling Tom, but he never answers and I don’t want to leave a voicemail. He has classes and work, so I decide to surprise him that evening.

  Around five, I head over to his apartment. I feel nervous and a little giddy. Weeks have passed since I last saw him. I decide against telling him about the reasons behind my elimination. He’d freak out and prevent me from going back for the finals.

  As I park my car, I spot Anthony climbing out of his own sedan. I honk and he glances across. Tilting his head, he takes a moment to recognize me, then waves.

  I hurry over to meet him. “Hey.”

  “Did you get eliminated?” He offers me his elbow as we walk toward the apartment.

  “Haven’t seen the episode yet, huh?”

  “Nope. Busy day.” He pats the laptop bag slung over his shoulder. “Classes then a long shift at work. I was supposed to work for another hour, but they let me off early.”

  “Lucky.”

  “It was quiet.” He tilts his head toward the door. “You got back quick. Tom should be home. I’ll let you in.”

  We walk to the door. He pulls his keys out. “TV’s on. He’s here.”

  My stomach fills with butterflies. I don’t know how to feel or how Tom will react.

  Anthony pushes the door open and steps in. I follow, and Tom’s head shoots up from the other side of the couch. “Anth…Hailey!”

  Anthony shoves me out the door. I turn and see Karen’s head appear under Tom right before Anthony slams the door shut in my face. “You backstabbing prick!”

  “Hailey!” Tom’s voice resounds.

  I back away from the apartment door, feeling sick. This couldn’t be happening. I’d been so faithful, fought off all of Isaiah’s advances…

  “Don’t you dare go out there!” Anthony yells. “You dirty cheats!”

  “Hailey!”

  The sounds of a tussle ensue, and a moment later, Anthony bursts out the door, pulling it shut behind him. He grabs my arm firmly, but not harshly, and pulls me away. “Let’s get you out of here.”

  Every inch of me trembles. “What…what…”

  “Don’t ask.”

  The tears come, forcing themselves out as my heart crushes under the weight of betrayal. “I was…I tried…”

  “I know you did. I’ll take you home.”

  “I can…”

  “You can’t drive like this. I’ll get a cab back.”

  “But you…”

  “I’m kicking him out. Don’t worry about me.”

  “Hailey!” Tom’s voice slices into my heart like knives.

  Anthony pulls me closer, speeding up our gait.

  “Anthony, don’t you keep her away from me!” Tom yells.

  Anthony gives him the finger and continues onward. “Where’d you park?” he asks gently.

  I point, words eluding me, and he alters our course.

  “Hailey, let me talk to you.” Tom appears beside me, shirtless. I shudder. He’s not wearing a shirt because…because…my breathing becomes ragged. My vision blurs. The pain prevents any of my senses to work or my thoughts to function.

  “Go pack your things, Tom. You’re leaving tonight,” Anthony snarls. “And make sure Karen knows she can’t come back as well.”

  “Hailey, please.” Tom grabs my elbow. I flinch away, images of those hands just touching Karen making me almost vomit right on him. I should.

  “Hailey.”

  We reach my car and Anthony opens the door for me on the passenger’s side. Tom swings me around to face him. His touch draws a yelp from my lips, but he grips me tighter. “Hailey, let me talk. I can’t lose you. You know you’re everything to me.”

  Anthony punches him across the jaw. Tom stumbles back into the car parked beside mine, making the alarm go off. Anthony stands like a raging bull between Tom and me, his chest rising and falling. “Get in.”

  I shoot into the car and he shuts the door. Tom rubs his cheek, then his gaze falls on me. He rushes at the car. I hit the lock. He pulls at the handle. “Hailey. Hailey, please.”

  Anthony slides into the driver’s side and I hand him the keys. I can’t be here any longer. “Please, go. Fast.”

  Anthony starts the car and we speed out of the parking lot.

  We drive in silence. I can’t get a grasp on my feelings, so I stare out the window, shocked. How could Tom do that? After everything I’d done, how much I’d resisted…Pain sears my heart, making me wince.

  “Hailey?”

  I glance at Anthony. “I…can’t believe…”

  He frowns. “I know.”

  “How are you not losing it?”

  He shrugs. “I need to get you home first, then, oh, then he’s going to get it.”

  “And Karen?”

  He purses his lips. “Karen? Dead to me.”

  I wipe the tears from my cheeks. “I’m going to call my mom.”

  He nods.

  I pull out my phone and call. “Mom?”

  “Sweetheart, you sound terrible.” Her familiar voice tugs at my heart.

  “Mom.” I sob uncontrollably.

  After a long silence, Mom says with a crack in her voice, “Hailey, talk, please.”

  Anthony grabs the phone from me. “Mrs. Gomez? Anthony, Tom’s roommate. You need to head to Hailey’s.”

  Mom says something, but I can’t make it out.

  “No, I don’t think it’s that. She needs you, that’s all.” Pause. “Okay.” He looks at me. “She wants to talk to you.”

  I take the phone. “Mom?”

  “Sweetie, I’m on my way. Can you tell me what happened?”

  “I…Mom…” I can’t stop crying.

  “I’m on my way. I love you.”

  “I love you too.”

  She hangs up. I hug my phone, since it’s the closest thing to hugging her. This has to be the worst twenty-four hours of my life.

  At my apartment, Anthony walks me to my door. He unlocks and opens it for me. “Do you want me to stay until your mom gets here?” he says softly. His level of kindness in light of what’s happened blows me away.

  “No, but thank you.” I shake my head. “I don’t think I can even look at him again.”

  “Don’t worry about anything. I’ll take care of it.” He grasps my arm and places a kiss on my temple. “Get some rest.”

  He pulls the apartment door shut and I shuffle to my room. Collapsing on my bed, I bury my face in the pillows and cry my eyes out. I didn’t know I could hurt so much. My head feels swollen from all the emotions, throbbing like a sledge hammer is pounding on the inside of my skull. I need someone. I can’t be alone. I need a friend. I need…I need…I grasp my phone. “Answer, Clarissa.”

  “Hailey!” Her bright voice sends a tingle down my spine. “Long time, no see! Couldn’t live without me, huh?”

  “Tom cheated.”

  A long silence follows. I stare down at my lap at my frayed jeans and worn flip-flops. How far have I fallen in just a day? This time yesterday I w
ore a beautiful dress, dolled up to the nines, ready to perform to thousands, no, millions of people. Now, I sit on my bed with tears rolling down my cheeks as a woman scorned.

  “Hailey…” Clarissa says softly. “Hailey, I’m…I don’t know what to say.”

  “Tell me I’ll be okay.” My voice comes out choked.

  “You’ll be okay.”

  “Tell me I made the right choice.”

  “If you dumped his ass, then yeah, you made the right choice!” Her sympathetic tone changes in a flash to pure indignation. “I should go out there and kick his butt. Where’s Lucas? He’ll help me. Hang on.”

  Panic hits me. “No, Clarissa! Don’t—”

  “Lucas?”

  “What?” he answers her.

  “Come with me.”

  “Clarissa!” I yell, about to hang up the phone. They sound like they’re walking, then a click sounds of a door shutting.

  “What is it?” Lucas asks.

  “Hailey’s deadbeat boyfriend cheated on her!”

  I slap my forehead, mortified she’d drag him into this.

  “He what?” Lucas sounds just as indignant as Clarissa. “She’s on the phone?”

  “Yeah. Talk to her.”

  “No!” I say. “Clarissa!”

  “Hey, Hailey.”

  My stomach somersaults at the sound of Lucas’s voice on the line. “Hey.”

  “What happened?”

  I hesitate for a second but answer, “I went to see him and he…” I break down in tears again, the flashes of memories too raw.

  “Hailey, listen to me,” Lucas says in a calm voice. “Please don’t cry. Don’t waste your tears on him.”

  “You know what I went through,” I sob. “You know what I did for him.”

  “No, you did that for yourself.”

  I stop crying abruptly. “What?”

  “That wasn’t about him. You wouldn’t have been able to live with yourself, relationship or not. I think you know that.”

  “Yeah,” I whisper, my hands trembling.

  He sighs. “You deserve better than this.”

  Clarissa’s voice rings out. “Tell her we’ll—”

  “Clarissa,” he says firmly.

  “Give me my phone back.” Her voice suddenly sounds clearer. “When we get back, you and me, we’re going to have a girls’ night and deface all your photos of him. Then, we’ll egg his place, key his car—”

  “Clarissa!” Lucas snatches the phone back. “Hailey, don’t do any of the things she just said. Just forget him. He doesn’t deserve your time or energy.”

  A deep ache swells in my throat, preventing me from speaking.

  “Everything will be okay.”

  I burst into sobs again.

  “Hailey, please don’t cry,” he whispers, his voice tense.

  The doorbell to my apartment rings. I snap my head up to face toward it. “My mom’s here.”

  “Good,” Lucas says, his voice steady again. “She’ll look out for you.”

  “Give me the phone.” Clarissa had to snatch it back because her voice grows louder again. “Hailey, we’re here for you. We love you.”

  “Thank, Clarissa.” I smile. Her friendship is exactly what I need right now. “I gotta go.”

  “Call me in the morning, okay?”

  The doorbell rings again. “Okay. Bye.”

  I toss my phone on the bed and hurry to answer the door.

  As I pull it open, a male voice says, “Hailey.” I gasp and try to shut it again, but Tom catches it. “Hailey, please! Let me talk to you.”

  “No!” I practically scream, all the pain Lucas and Clarissa had eased returning with a vengeance.

  “Hailey!” Tom pushes the door open and wraps his arm around my waist. I lash out, hitting him to make him let me go, but he squeezes tighter. “Don’t do this. Please, please let me talk to you. I’m an idiot. I’ll do anything.”

  Again, I sob uncontrollably. All fight dissolves out of me and I go limp. I can’t stand him touching me, but I hurt too much to force him away.

  He swears and brushes my hair back from my face. “Hailey, I know I did this, and I’m so sorry.” He pushes me toward the living room and shuts the door.

  “I don’t want you here,” I say between sobs.

  “I know, I deserve this, but I can’t lose you.”

  “Please, just go.”

  “I won’t.” He clasps my face. “I want to marry you. You have to understand. Let me talk to you.”

  I don’t have the strength to fight, so I motion at the couch. He leads me over and sits me beside him. “Hailey, I’ve missed you so much.”

  I scoff, rubbing my eyes.

  “I have.” He clings to my hands. “It was an accident.”

  “Yeah, you just fell out of your clothes and into her.”

  He punches the couch. “Come on, Hailey! You’ve been gone for weeks! Months! I had a moment of weakness.”

  “So this is my fault?” I ask shrilly.

  “No…” He growls. “But I’m only human. It was a mistake. A huge mistake. You know you’re the one for me.”

  “You’re such a hypocrite,” I whisper, the ache in my throat making it hard to speak. “You get all possessive and crazy when I talk to another guy, and then you do this. Never once did I allow anything to tempt me, and then you…”

  He clasps my face. “You’re the better person, no one can argue that.”

  I push his hands away. “Stop touching me.”

  His brows lower, knotting together. “You’re my girlfriend, Hailey, but that was just sex. Nothing more. Do you realize how frustrating it was when you wouldn’t put out? I was dating this cute little thing, and you were a frigid prissy. It made me crazy. And when you finally did put out, you complained about it hurting, or you just wanted it to be over, and then when you finally got over all that, you go off with those Murphys and I just know something was going on there—”

  “Nothing happened with the Murphys!” I yell.

  “There were enough pictures of you with them!” he yells back.

  “They’re my friends. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

  “Uh-huh. Just friends. I saw the way you looked at that one. What’s his name?”

  I point at his face. “Shut up. Don’t you dare make this my fault.”

  We glare at each other. Then something clicks in my brain. He said I frustrated him when I wouldn’t sleep with him. “How many times, Tom?”

  “That was it.” He purses his lips. Then he does the one thing that always tells me he’s lying. His thumb strokes the base of my thumb while his hand tightens. He does that when he’s done something he knows I’ll be upset about.

  I pull my hands free of him. “It’s been going on for months!”

  His eyes widen. “I just told you that was the only time.”

  “I think I’m going to be sick.” I jump up and hurry to the bathroom.

  “Hailey.” He follows, preventing me from closing the door. “Let me fix this.”

  I kneel over the toilet as my stomach clenches.

  “Hailey.” He kneels beside me, touching my hair.

  I push him away.

  “We can work this out.”

  “Do you even love me?” I whisper.

  “Of course I do!” He rests his hand on my back.

  I glare up at him. “Then say it.”

  His eyes widen as his jaw wags. “I say it all the time.”

  I shove his shoulder. “Just say it!”

  “I want to marry you! Doesn’t that say enough?”

  The bile burns in my throat. He doesn’t love me. Bending over the toilet, I throw up.

  “Hailey!” He wraps his arms around my shoulders.

  I cough and spit out the last of the bile. “Get away from me! Get out!”

  “I’ll wait out here for you to freshen up.” He leaves me alone in the bathroom.

  I curl up over the toilet and sob. My heart feels like it’s been torn from
my chest, the pain excruciating. How could I have fallen for whatever he was doing? How long had he been sleeping with Karen as well? I want to talk to Anthony, ask him what he knows, but I stupidly left my phone on my bed.

  Forcing myself to my feet, I peek out the door. Tom stands staring out the window in the living room. I shudder. He looks creepy to me now. All tall and dark-haired. Like that stupid Slender Man urban myth. Ugh. Silently, I slip out and dart unnoticed to my bedroom. My phone lies on my bed, so I snatch it up. I hurriedly type a text to Anthony.

  Me: Tom’s here. Did you talk to Karen at all?

  It only takes a moment for him to respond.

  Anthony: That’s where he went! Karen begged me to forgive her.

  Me: Tom’s working at that now.

  Anthony: Don’t let him. I’m looking into it, but I think they’ve been cheating for months. Karen said something about Christmas. Get him out. Where’s your mom?

  I wonder the same thing.

  Me: Thanks, Anthony.

  The doorbell rings, then a click sounds. “Hailey?”

  I swing around. Mom.

  “Hi, Tom. What’s going on? She called me and was very distraught.”

  No, don’t talk to Tom!

  “I think she’s upset about being eliminated,” he answers.

  Oh no he didn’t! I see red and march out. “Get out, right now!”

  He raises his hands. “Hailey, calm down.”

  “Calm down?” He’s kidding, right? I stomp my foot. “You need to leave. Right now.”

  He grabs my shoulders. “Stop it!”

  I flick his hands off me. “We’re over.”

  Mom gasps from behind him.

  “No,” he says firmly.

  “No?” I shove his chest. “Since Christmas. Christmas! When I didn’t feel ready to give myself as your ‘Christmas present’ at Vic’s party, you went off and screwed her instead?”

  His eyes darken as his grip tightens. “Now you’re just getting crazy.”

  “Crazy?” I push him, trying to get him away from me. “You cheated! For months!”

  His chest rises and falls rapidly. “It’s not like you didn’t cheat on that show!”

  I meet his gaze, dead in the eyes. “I never once cheated. Ever.”

  “Shut up, liar!” He grabs my hair by the roots. I let out a squeal as he yanks me toward him. “Stop it right now!” he snarls in my face. “We’re going to work this out and get married. Whatever has gotten you so crazy is going to end this second! I knew that show would be bad for you.”