Backstage

by Mandy Bee

  “I need five minutes of your time, and don’t worry I’m not asking to come back to the band.”

  “Justin, you two could talk in the guest room.” I whisper to him. He hugs me and without a word points for John to follow him.

  I look at Chris who looks like he is ready to murder something, well someone that is. I ask Scot to go take a walk with him but to take his phone with him, they agreed and left a minute later. I couldn’t hear any voices so I guess that means they aren’t fighting right? I know Justin would yell at me for calling his mother about this but I still did it anyways.

  “Happy Thanksgiving Flower, how are you dear?” She answers so happy like. Crap, this is going to mess up their day too. But I have to tell her.

  “Rachael, John showed up at my house just now.” I wait but she says nothing, but I can hear her breathing. “Chris told him to leave, as did I, but he said he needed to talk to Justin. They are in our guest room right now. I know they will both be pissed that I called you but I didn’t know what else to do! I don’t even know how he knew where we lived!” I’m starting to shake now.

  I hear her call Mike’s name then she tries to tell him what is going on, he takes the phone from her. “Flower are you okay? What did John say? Did he threaten you?” Mike’s worried voice is scaring me to death.

  “No, he didn’t threaten me. He just showed up and said he needed to talk to Justin. They are still in the guest room but I can’t hear anything because I’m in the kitchen. He really upset Chris, I made him take a walk to calm down while your sons talked. Mike I hate to say this but I really am scared of John. I don’t know why but he scares me to death!” I take a peak out if the kitchen door and can’t see anything.

  “Flower I need you to hang up and call the police. John has talked about hurting Justin and you in the past. I don’t know why he would need to talk to him, and why he would show up at your house like this but I think he has lost his mind. Please call the police and tell them you have a man in your house that is scaring you, and you think he will hurt you. Do it now!” He hangs up on me.

  I dial 911 and tell them what Mike told me too. They said they would send a car out right away. I’m standing by the hallway trying to see if I can hear something. It’s too quiet, and they have been in there way longer then five minutes. When I see the police car pull up I run to the door and all but drag them inside. I point out which door it is and watch them go in and come right back out.

  “Ma’am there is no one in there.” The officer says. I run down the hall and into the room. I watched them both walk in here! Where are they? I look over and the window is cracked, oh my God he kidnapped Justin!

  I start screaming and crying. I start telling them everything that happened. What Mike told me about John talking about hurting us, and to call the police. I tell them that John was kicked out of the band by Justin. I tell them anything and everything I can. When Chris gets home and sees the police car he runs in screaming my name. I run to hug him, oh God I’m so scared.

  “John kidnapped Justin!” I scream still crying. I see Tammy standing behind Chris, and I’m so glad she is here.

  Chris and Scot take over talking to the police, I have told them everything I could. Tammy walks me into the kitchen and starts fixing me some tea. I see my phone laying there and I speed dial Rachael. Mike answers.

  “What happened?” He sounds worried, well he should be.

  “John kidnapped Justin. They weren’t in the room when the police got here. The window was cracked, he must have left through there. Oh Mike I’m so sorry.” I start sobbing.

  I hear him say that they will be on the next flight out. I curl up in a ball at the edge of the kitchen. Tammy sits next to me and holds me. I can’t stop crying, he took Justin! Oh please don’t let him hurt my sweet Justin! I open my eyes when I feel Chris pick me up. He takes me to the living room and lays me on the couch, covering me up with a blanket. I can see the door from here. I just stare at it wishing it to open and for him to walk in.

  The next three days were the longest days of my life. Rachael and Mike couldn’t get a flight out until the next day but Chris and Scot kept them updated. The police said they found out John had been staying in a hotel close by and could have been watching us. They searched his room but didn’t tell us anything about what they had found. They have tapped all of our phones because it is unclear who he would call, if he called at all.

  On the third day there is a knock on the door around noon. Rachael and I sprint to the door to answer it. A teenage boy looks at us like we are crazy then hands us an envelope. When he tries to leave I grab his arm and make him come inside. We all open the envelope in the living room. It is a picture of a badly beaten Justin laying on some type of cot and written on the back was a note to us.

  This is payback for everything he did to me. You can find your precious golden boy at Skully’s Bar. And to my parents, you will get a gift in due time.

  Skully’s Bar? That’s the same bar the guys went drinking at, the night they all went to the strip club. It’s only three blocks from the house. I’m in sweats and a nasty tank top, and barefoot. But I jet out the door and start running down the street. I can hear the others behind me but I’m not stopping.

  I bust into the doors of the bar and the bartender looks at me like I’m crazy. Wow two people in one day, but again I don’t care. “Where is Justin?” I ask him as I walk behind the bar not caring if he stops me or not. The others have walked in now and Chris and Mike are now standing next to me.

  “Hey, his brother said he got into a fight and was too upset to go home. So I let him sleep here. He is still in the back.” This guy must be an idiot to buy whatever shit John told him.

  “His brother was the one who beat him up after kidnapping him!” I scream at him while walking into the back room. There is a room to the right, a curtain is covering the door but there is a light on in the room. Chris, Mike, and I walk slowly to the curtain and peak inside. There he is! “Justin” I gasp and drop down beside the bed.

  He lets out a moan and tried to move. I hold his hand and tell him not too. His father is on the phone and tells me that an ambulance will be here in a few minutes. Scot brought Rachael in and I moved over so she could sit with him too. We each have one of his hands and we are both crying. His poor face is so messed up. You can tell that John either punched or kicked him in the throat repeatedly. But the only thing I can think is Thank God he is alive. His wounds will heal, but if John would have taken him from me, my wounds would have never healed.

  The EMT’s make Rachael and I leave while they put Justin on the stretcher. Mike rode with them in the ambulance, while we all followed in the car. The next few hours were hard on all of us. The doctors wouldn’t give us hardly any information and would only let Mike and Rachael go back. Finally around midnight we got an update.

  John had broken Justin nose, cheek bone, and knocked three teeth out. He bruised his vocal cords with the beating to the throat, which is, I’m guessing, what he wanted to do. Five cracked ribs, a fracture in his right wrist, and over twenty cuts on his legs. The police came and talked to the doctors after that and then to us. They said that John must have cut his legs after the beating because someone would have heard Justin scream if he wasn’t knocked out. They still don’t know where John is but said they would keep a police car on our house for the next few days. The kid that delivered the picture was taken to the police station after we all ran out of the house. He confirmed that John was the one who paid him to deliver it to us.

  Justin had to have four surgeries. Two to fix his teeth, one to fix his nose, and another for his vocal cords. He didn’t get to come home until the second week in December. Mike had to leave the same day Justin came home because of work, but Rachael stayed with us. Scot decided to stay to help out, and Dave asked if he could come stay with us too, of course we said yes. Justin needs his whole family with him.

  Tammy has been a godsend. After work and school she comes over and cook
s dinner for us, and has every night since this all started. If we do eat lunch we order out, I haven’t felt like cooking. The most I will make is oatmeal for breakfast. Chris and the boys have been great about keeping the house clean, and not getting too loud when they play their games. I love having everyone here, but I hate the reason we are all here.

  They set Justin up in my room, I had Chris go buy an air mattress so that I can sleep on the floor. I won’t sleep with him because he is in too much pain, but I’ll be damned if I’m leaving him alone at night. The first night he got home he was out of it. I didn’t sleep at all, I just kept watching him. The swelling in his face has gone down but he is still badly bruised. There are bandages on his nose and a few on his face and neck. The cuts on his legs weren’t as bad as we thought. The doctors were able to use skin glue on all of them.

  We had strict orders to not let him talk for one week. This is so his vocal cords could heal. His doctor agreed to come to the house and check on him so Justin didn’t have to go through the pain of traveling to his office. One full week of keeping Justin from talking, is like asking us to stop him from breathing. Every time we turned around someone was telling him to shut up. I finally told him that if he didn’t shut up I would put duck tap over his mouth. We gave him his computer and cell phone, so he could type stuff out to us or text us what he needed.

  As I was helping Justin to the bathroom, after he had been home for about three days, Rachael came in and yelled for me to stop. We both looked at her and didn’t know what to think. She said I couldn’t help him use the bathroom. I asked her why not and she said that would be awkward for him for me to see his ‘male parts’. I laughed and let her take him but after he was back in bed I decided to tell Rachael that I have seen those ‘male parts’ before.

  We sat on the bed, me on one side of Justin her on the other. “Rachael I need to talk to you about something.” I take Justin hand in mine. “We have seen each others ‘parts’ already and if you don’t mind I can help him to the bathroom without the awkwardness you were worried about.”

  She looks from him to me a few times then asks “So you two have already had sex?”

  “Yes, we have. Are you mad?” Luckily for us Justin isn’t trying to talk, even if he could I don’t think he would want too.

  “No, I just didn’t think you two had taken things that far yet.” She looks at him and then smiles up at me. “I’m very happy for you both. But if you two are sleeping together, then why are you sleeping on an air mattress?”

  “Because he is still healing and I don’t want to hurt him.” I feel him squeeze my hand.

  After having to tell my boyfriends mother that we have had sex, and that I have no problem taking him to that bathroom, it’s safe to say the rest of the week was a piece of cake. Nothing could have topped that conversation.

  The doctor came one week later to check Justin’s vocal cords. He said that they looked good and that he could slowly start to talk again. He had him say a few simple sentences but his voice was horse and grainy. It didn’t even sound like him. Rachael and I held hands and tried not to cry.

  It is now two days before Christmas. Justin is healing nicely and the only thing we have to worry about now is him over using his voice. His fractures will heal themselves, and everything else is better. The doctor cleared him to fly yesterday so we are packing to go to his parents house. Rachael left last week but the boys are still here. Justin’s private jet is ready and waiting for us, it is so much nicer then booking a regular flight.

  We are standing at LAX waiting for Mike to pull his car around. All of the guys have on ball caps and sunglasses and I have on an oversized sweatshirt and sweatpants. I keep looking around thinking someone has figured out who we are but when Mike pulls up I let out a deep breath and get in the back seat with Justin.

  Justin’s parents don’t have a house, they have a freaking housing community! Along with the main house, more like the mansion, there are five guest houses and a pool house that has a bedroom and bath. They have four golf carts that we have to use to get to each others houses. I’m in awe at all this, I have never ever seen anything like it!

  Rachael meets us at the door to the main house and hugs all of us. Chris, Scot and Dave are going to be sharing a guest house, she thought it would be best because they are always together anyways. I remember Justin telling me once that he had his own guest house in the back of the house, well that wasn’t really true. He has a complete wing of the mansion all to himself, but it is still connected to the main house.

  He shows me around his part of the house and I still can’t believe I’m here. Along with a master suit, he has a movie theater, a mini studio, a game room, and a hot tub room with a sauna! I wonder away from him and walk back to his bedroom. After flopping down on the bed I let out a huge grunt. Then I hear him laughing.

  He comes and lays beside me. “What was that grunt about?” He is still laughing.

  “I feel like I’m in a freaking mansion. This is crazy shit. You have a movie theater in your house Justin, I have a DVD player in my room.” I let out another grunt.

  “Well to be honest we have two movie theaters, the one I showed you is my private one.” I turn over and glare at him. “I don’t see why any of this should bother you. My dad works hard for his money and my mom knew what type of house she wanted. When I made it big I added this wing on so that I could stay here with them but still have my own place, well kind of.”

  “I’m not used to being around people with this kind of money. I never in a million years thought that your house would be like this. Your parents don’t act rich at all, they are sweet, caring people. I just don’t know how to wrap my head around it all.”

  He pulls my onto his lap and I go willingly. “Sweetheart don’t look around and see the money, look around and see our house, our family and our love for everyone. That includes you now.” He kisses me softly.

  I guess he is right. I mean I have spent a lot of time with his parents and they don’t act like snobs. Why should them having a house like this change any of that? I decide to let it go and just enjoy my first holiday with my new family. We walk back to the main part of the house and find everyone in the kitchen.

  Justin’s brother Jeff is here with his wife Sara. Rachael’s sister Marie is here, along with Mike’s brothers Ken, Paul, and Jake. I’m being introduced as Justin’s girlfriend and I blush every time, it’s not new to me but I still love it. Everyone is so nice and the house is decked out to no end with Christmas lights and trees everywhere.

  The house phone rings and Mike goes to answer it. The look on his face after a minute tells us that something is wrong. Everyone stops talking and just stares at Mike. He just keeps saying okay, yes, or no, into the phone. After he hung up he just stared back at us.

  Rachael was the first to speak. “Mike, what’s wrong? Who was that?”

  He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, without opening his eyes he says “They arrested John about an hour ago, he had two guns on him and a suicide note.”

  I cover my mouth with my hand to stop me from screaming. Justin puts his arms around me, Rachael goes over to Mike and does the same thing. John’s in jail? They caught him? Oh thank God! We all stand there in silence for a few minutes.

  “I have something to say.” Rachael says bringing us all out of our own thoughts. “I love all my sons, no matter what. But what John did he did to himself. For right now we are going to go on with our plans, and after the holidays we can deal with him.” She wipes a tear away from her cheek then smiles at everyone. “Now I think everyone should go get cleaned up because dinner is in one hour.” She walks out of the room with Mike following her.

  We all leave without saying a word to each other. Once back in Justin’s room we talk about how crazy this is. He said he was glad they caught him, as was I but it is still his brother. We talked as we got dressed for dinner and once we were back with everyone it all seamed to have faded into the past.

  I
went shopping with Rachael, Sara and Marie the next day. Every store was having a Christmas Eve sale. I already bought all of my gift. Chris is getting autographed Aerosmith poster that I found on eBay. Justin is getting something very special, I had a photo book made using only pictures from the tour. But there is one gift I’m giving him in private. I had a key to our house made, and with Chris’s permission, I’m giving it to Justin. Our house is now his too.

  Some of the Crow’s family traditions are a little odd. On Christmas Eve they always order pizza and watch cartoons. It was fun don’t get me wrong, but not something I would have thought them to do. Everyone is sitting in the living room laughing at the TV. The last show just ended and Justin jumps up and tells everyone to shut up. We all look at him like he is crazy.

  He comes and stands beside me. “Flower you will never understand what you mean to me. And I will never be able to repay you for all you have done for me, my band, and my family.” I can feel the tears running down my face. He drops to one knee and pulls out a little blue Tiffany’s box! “But if you will let me try, I will spend the rest of my life doing anything and everything I can to make you happy. Flower will you marry me?”

  The whole room starts screaming and laughing. In a weak voice I choke out “Yes” I know Justin heard me but I’m crying so hard I don’t think anyone else did. He sweeps me up into his arms and kisses me!

  My life has finally started. At seventeen years old I’m now engaged to a rock star! Now we aren’t getting married until I turn eighteen but I don’t care. He is mine and I’m his. Nothing in the world could make me happier then to be with Justin. Chris was thrilled for us and said that Justin had to move in with us now because he wasn’t letting me move out until I was fifty!

  In less then a year I found a family, friends, and the love of my life. I can’t wait to see what the next year holds, but for right now I’m just loving life.