by Nora Crystal
The anchor continued to talk, but I didn’t hear another word. I was falling all over the room, jumping up and down. He had been true to me. I was too excited for words. My mother hugged me tightly and I could see she was crying. “You’re getting your rock star,” Mom cried. She was beside herself. We hugged and then I broke away to call Travis back.
The Skype buzzer went on forever as Travis ignored me. I was waiting and waiting for him to pick up, but nothing happened. “He won’t answer,” I said as I crashed back down to Earth. The truth hit me. I hadn’t believed him, and I had turned my back on him, he was done with me. I fell back into the bed. My mother tried to get to me, but I rolled myself under the covers.
“It’s not over,” Mom said as she popped under the covers to talk to me. “You are hopping in the shower and then we are going to see him. That’s all there is to it. I will explain to him that I was the one who told you that he cheated.”
“And what if he doesn’t believe you?” I asked.
“Then you’ll at least be glad that you tried,” Sheila said looking me right in the eyes. “I don’t want you to have any regrets. Sometimes for love you just have to lay it all out there.”
“And blame your mother?”
“Sometimes,” Mom shrugged.
I got into the shower and let the water run over me. My body was exhausted, the day had been an emotional roller coaster. I felt better about so many things, but then I thought about how I had shut Travis out and I hurt even more than I had before. He had cancelled his tour today, and I hadn’t been there for him to help him pick up the pieces.
“I feel horrible,” I mumbled as I got out of the shower and I found the perfect thing to wear back to LA.
“Why are you dressed as Wonder Woman,” Sheila asked as she fixed my hair.
“It’s a long story.” I took a deep breath and started thinking about what I was going to say the next time I saw Travis. I had to apologize, for everything, but I needed to make sure that he understood why I reacted the way that I did.
I was working it out in my head when I heard a knock at the door and went to answer it. I opened the door and Travis was standing in front of me. “I’m so sorry,” we said it at the same time and then he threw his arms around me. I could feel the tears streaming down my face. I almost didn’t belief that this was real.
Ch. 18 – Travis
“I hope you don’t think it’s rude of me to pop in, but I have been trying to call,” I said as I hugged her tightly. I could feel her crying against me. I had tried to be mad for a while now, but I just couldn’t. As soon as I saw her standing there in her Wonder Woman costume it was all over.
“What’s with the superhero costumes?” Sheila asked, but neither one of us said anything. I had been wearing mine since I finished calling every media outlet in LA. I was committed to making sure that Gil never worked in LA again. I knew that he was going to make a ton of money off of my cancellation of the concert. My backing out was the equivalent of handing Gil the keys to my house, but I didn’t care. I was done with him.
“I am so sorry that I fell for Gil’s bull shit,” Jean said as she continued to squeeze. I wasn’t ready to let go either. I had had a very long day. “I’m sorry I didn’t take your calls, are you okay? How was your day?”
Waking up to find yourself on the cover of tabloids and your face all over the TV and the internet was not exactly new to me, but I was used to doing the crazy stuff they were talking about. This time I didn’t remember anything. Anything except getting poisoned. I remembered that distinctly. I was back in my bed, but I could tell from the pains and aches all over my body that I had been carried all over the house.
I scanned through a couple websites and saw pictures of me in all different rooms of my house. The pictures were claiming that these were different clubs, and trying to build this story about a wild night out. I tried to think of a reason why Gil would be doing this to me. We already had buzz going. We didn’t need any more hype. Tickets were selling well. There was really no reason to release this crazy story.
I had decided as soon as I saw the pictures that I was going to call Bobby and take the song writing deal. I was tired of the limelight. I was done with the tour, and maybe touring altogether. Before Pete had his heart attack, that show in the house was the best show that I had played in a long time. Jamming, feeling in tune, and playing loose like we did, it was an amazing show.
“You’re out,” Bobby said when I called and told him the news. “I’m glad to hear it. I want you to go get Jean back and be happy. You just keep writing music.” Bobby laughed as we exchanged faxes and sealed the deal. I took every copy of the contract and then I walked through the house. I was looking for my possessions, I had a house full of stuff, but I only wanted to take the things that meant something to me. I walked through each room asking myself, could I live without this?
I ended up walking out of the house in my Spiderman costume, and an overcoat, that I was using to hide my Spiderman costume. The only other thing that I brought with me was my favorite guitar, Lucy. I figured I needed to bring at least one.
“You’re taking off?” Philly looked concerned as I was heading out the door.
“Yeah, I don’t think I will be able to keep the place after what I am about to do.” I offered Philly and Manse a weak smile. “But I gave you guys a month’s salary, and I want tonight to be the biggest party that anyone has ever seen. I want the house to be unrecognizable when you’re done.” We shook hands with both of them and headed to the garage.
There was one other thing that I thought that I might miss, and the chances were that even if I tried to take it, Gil would take it from me. It was my lambo. I would’ve puked if I thought that Gil was driving around in it and not me. I thought about a million things that I could do with it. I wanted to send it speeding off of a cliff, or drive it off of a pier. I was going to destroy it, but then I saw a homeless man on the sidewalk.
“Do you have a driver’s licence?” I asked. The man shook his head. I gave him the car, and signed over the pink slip. I also wrote out a letter of authenticity verifying that it was my car, and I let him have it, in exchange for a ride to the airport. I drove, and as he pulled away, I realised that I had made the right decision.
I had asked the media outlets to wait until I was in the air to deliver their story, and I was pleasantly surprised when they waited until I was at least in the airport. I was sure that they were all going to run with the story immediately. I got on the plane with much less hassle than I thought about walking into the airport in a bright red body suit and an over coat. I probably would’ve been shot if I was wearing the mask. I saved that for my walk across the college campus.
“That’s amazing,” Sheila said when I finished my story. “If I get all the laundry done it feels like a good day.”
“So what are you going to do about Gil?” Jean asked. She was still holding me tight. I didn’t mind in the least. It was a huge change from not taking my calls.
“I don’t know,” I said as I realized that Jean had just showered and gotten dressed in her costume. “Where were you guys headed?”
“I was headed to California to win you back after you didn’t answer your my call,” Jean explained. “I felt horrible, I had to explain to you what had happened. I am so sorry.”
I was about to accept her apology when my phone rang. “It’s Gil,” I said as if the words were stabbing into my rectum. I could feel how wide my eyes were as I looked over to Jean.
"Speaker phone," Jean said as she got her phone ready to record the conversation. Jean looked over at Sheila and hushed her. I was nervous, it was a weird feeling. I had done so many awful things to Gil. Why was I afraid of him now? I guess in a way, I knew I deserved this fate.
"Gil," I said in an awkwardly formal tone. He's going to know something's wrong, I worried. "How are you doing? How's your day going?" I smacked my palm into my forehead. Jean was keeping me calm. I tried to look into her eyes and absor
b some of her focused energy.
"What are you talking about?!" Gil yelled, "My day is going perfectly. This is exactly what I wanted. I already moved my stuff into your house."
Jean bumped my arm, she was holding up a piece of paper that said, "When you drugged me."
I read it for a second and then it clicked in what she wanted me to say. "You mean you got what you wanted when you drugged me?"
"I got what I wanted every time I drugged you," Gil bragged. I wanted to jump right through the phone at the creep, but Jean was smiling so wide it threw me off.
Jean grabbed her paper and wrote, "That was perfect." She made a signal for me to keep talking so I decided to see what else he meant.
"So you got me to do other things while I was drugged?” I asked. I was trying to sound natural, but it was not a question that I normally asked people. I didn’t know the protocol, and none pf my awkward phrasing or speaking was throwing off Gil. He seemed happy to talk about all of the horrible things he had done to me.
“I made you do things that I will haunt you with to the end of your days.” Gil laughed, “Just like that contract we had you sign. The one that gave me your house.”
“Where are you right now?” I read off of Jean’s paper. She put her thumbs up after I read it, and I felt kind of insulted. Was she impressed that I managed to read a little note?
“I’m coming to see you good buddy,” Gil said with a smile that I could hear coming through the phone. “I am already on campus, and I’ve been using your phone to track you for months. I proved to the agency that I am the only one who can handle difficult rockers like you. I handled you even better than Bobby did. I mean with all of the lawsuits and nonsense this last tour is the only one that the record company actually will make money on.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had helped Gil prove that he was the only person who could handle me. I was so pissed. I could feel the anger rising in my face. I was turning bright red. Jean put her hand on my arm and pointed to her pad.
“You don’t need to track me I am in the Vanderbilt Dormitory, room 2E.” Jean took the phone and hung up. I looked at the phone and wondered how he was using it against me. I grabbed Jean’s hand. It seemed like everything in my life was pushing me closer to Jean.
Ch. 19 – Jean
“I am so proud of you,” I said as I hugged Travis when he set down the phone. He was so upset and I could feel the anger flowing through him. “You need to calm down, Gil said some fairly incriminating things on that recording.”
“We didn’t tell him that we were recording,” Travis complained. “That recording is inadmissible as evidence. I have watched enough TV law shows to know that. You’d think your fancy law degree would tell you that.”
“In New York that is true, but Connecticut is a single consent state,” I explained. “We got Gil to admit that he was in the state, so there is no way that he can get around using this tape in court.” I saw Travis’ face brighten up. I could also see the same impressed look on my mother’s face.
“The problem as I see it is that he said he has a life time of stuff to haunt you with,” Sheila had been trying to be quiet, but she made sense. This made the problem a lot worse.
“I don’t know, what if I want my public persona to be destroyed.” Travis looked depressed. “I think I am done with the whole rock star thing. I want to play music, I don’t want to be a star.”
“It isn’t about that,” Sheila said. “It’s about your reputation. You don’t know what this guy will pull.”
“Well then we need to get him with something that will make force him to give up the information he has and leave you alone forever.” I said the words and suddenly it came to me. I need to make a contract. I had all of this knowledge stuck up here, and this was the perfect time to use it.
“How are we going to force him to sign a contract?” Travis asked. “He has me by the balls, or at least he thinks he does, so why would he sign a contract?”
“I have a plan,” I said as I quickly drew up the contract and told the others to get under the bed. When I finished writing the contract I left it out and went to go take a shower. I was sure that it would take enough time. I took the shower and I walked back to the Gil was in my room. “Help!” I yelled at the top of my lungs.
Gil was in a panic. He didn’t recognize me at first, but he saw the girls run to get campus security. “What is going on?” He asked. Then the recognition kicked in. “You’re the girlfriend, is he too cowardly to meet me?” Gil laughed to himself.
“You sound awful confident for a man who is about to be picked up for sexual assault,” I said to Gil as he started look out the door to see if anyone was coming.
“It usually takes a while, but they will come, and if you don’t want me to cry you’re going to need to sign this contract.” I said as I passed the contract over to Gil. He sat down in the seat across form me. Gil looked shocked that I was capable of something like this. “Did you know that being a sex offender would make it impossible for you to manage any band big enough to do international tours? And generally speaking companies look down upon their sex offender employees.”
Gil signed the contract, and laughed a bit. “You of course know there is a cooling off period. I will be able to get out of this contract and release those stories whenever I want.” Gil really thought that he had beaten me.
I started playing him the tape of our last conversation with the slime ball. “If you start trying to weasel out of this contract, this tape goes public and people will know the kind of person that you really are.” I tried to sound demonic, but he was already signing, and I didn’t have the vocal range to sound devilish.
“This isn’t over,” Gil said as he headed out through the door.
“Yes it is,” I said freezing Gil right in his tracks. “If you try to go after Travis again, I will use this recording to ruin you and take all of Travis’ stuff back. You admit to enough that we will be able to attack you criminally and civilly. ”
“I can’t believe that worked,” Travis said as he climbed out from under the bed. Mom was also impressed. I had just used my fancy law degree for the first time and it felt good. “What’s that?” Travis asked as my phone started going off.
“Theresa, the girl who ran to get the campus police,” I explained. “She sent me the pictures she took of me screaming and Gil looking really angry. He is actually scared, but his scared looks angry.” I shrugged as Travis looked at me questioningly, “Insurance.”
“Remind me not to cross you,” Travis seemed impressed. He leaned in and kissed me on the cheek.
“We could probably go and fight this contract,” I offered as I looked at Travis. I wanted to help him feel better. I was willing to do anything that I could.
“I just want this to be over,” Travis said as a smile broke across his face. “I am just a song writer now, I don’t need a mansion. In fact, I wanted to go with you and find a home. A home right here in Connecticut.”
I grabbed onto Travis and squeezed him tight again. I was so crazy about him that even the thought of buying a house together didn’t scare me. I wanted to be with Travis, and he wanted to be with me, and we were going to make this work. It didn’t matter where to me either, so when he said Connecticut it didn’t bother me at all. We left my mother sitting in my room to look for a new place.
We looked at a few, but in the end we let Bobby pick the place. We told him we wanted a nice house, secluded and in a rural setting. Travis wanted to be away from people and I wanted an old brick farm house. It was a match made in heaven. Bobby had the house taken care of in three hours. “That’s what I do for my stars,” Bobby said, and I watched Travis almost break down in front of me.
“I’m still one of your stars,” Travis almost choked on the words. He had been dealing with Bobby since he was a teenager and I could tell the relationship meant a lot to him. I put my hand over Travis’ hand and we snuggled together in the car as we drove to check out our
new house.
“It’s been vacant for a month now,” Bobby explained. “The old owners bought a house but hadn’t sold theirs, so you can move in right away. They didn’t even bother to lock it, 1479 Norfolk Rd, Litchfield, Connecticut, you can move in tonight.”
We typed it into the GPS and headed out to stake our claim. “I just needed to hear him say it,” Travis tried to explain his reaction to what Bobby had said. “It was like his catch phrase, and I heard it all the time when I was young and successful, and then I messed up too much and it all stopped. I wasn’t successful and I wasn’t one of Bobby’s stars.”
It was so weird to think about the different places that we were in in our lives. He had made his mark on the world, and now he was retiring from public life, and I was still waiting for a chance to make my mark on the world. We were only two years apart.
As we found the house we got out and looked around. It was hard to tell, because it was so dark, but it seemed like we were all alone out here. The house looked great, everything seemed perfect. The door was open just like Bobby had said. “Moment of truth,” Travis said as he put a finger on the light switch. He flipped it and the lights came on.
“It’s so empty,” I said when the lights came on to reveal that the house was empty. The last owners had taken everything out of the house. It was a very normal thing to do, but it wasn’t helping us right now.
“We have a couch!” Travis yelled from the basement. I walked down the stairs and found him sprawled out on the spacious couch. “The note says that it is too wide for the renovated door, and so they left it here.”
“Make room,” I said as I snuggled up against his body. It felt so good to be this close to him, just relaxing, especially after the day we had had. I put my head against his chest and just listened to his heart beating.
