“I have no idea where you are getting your nerve from right now, but because I have nothing to hide, I’ll tell you. We came back here and he sat up front while I took a shower. Then, we went out to dinner. The whole time, stupid me…I thought it was just two old friends hanging out. We talked about my parents and his mom. We told old stories from high school and caught up on people we haven’t seen in a while. He told me about his girlfriend and his new job…”
“What about you, Elly? Did you tell him about your boyfriend?”
“No, Tristan, because what was I going to say? I was supposed to tell him that I did have a boyfriend for a very short time but I’d just found him with a naked chick on his bus…”
“Fuck that, Elly! Is that all there is to me? Really? I honestly thought that you were the one person who saw something in me a little bit deeper than that.”
“I thought I did,” I told him. “That all went out the window when I found you with her. Now, you’re following me around like some creeper…only you suck at it. You missed the best part. After dinner, the kiss you saw was when he showed his true colors. He’s a stinking punk like every other man I know.”
He crossed his arms and with a smug look he said, “You didn’t seem to mind. I didn’t see you pulling away.”
I wanted to throttle him. I wanted to pound my fists into his chest. Thank god for my impulse control.
“Really, Tristan? Seriously? I swear you’re the worst stalker in history. You followed us, sneaked around a restaurant for what…an hour and a half? Then you see him grab and kiss me and miss the part where I tried to push away and he grabbed my ass? Or the part where as soon as he grabbed my ass I slapped him hard across the face? Why did you leave? You’d waited that long.” He looked like he didn’t want to answer that question. That made me want an answer even more. “Come on Tristan, tell me. Why did you leave before the final show?”
He mumbled then and he didn’t look at me as he said, “I didn’t want to watch you kiss him.”
I hated my fucking ability to feel empathy for anyone sometimes. He sounded so sad when he said that I had this crazy urge to fling myself into his arms and say that I’m sorry. I was a frigging idiot. I took a deep breath and fought through that crazy thought.
“Whether I have a boyfriend or not, Cole had no right to kiss me or to put his hands on me. I gave him no indication today that would be okay and I’m sick of men thinking I’m just there for the taking. I’m sick of men period. You had no right following me, and the only thing worse than what I saw between you and Brooke the other night would have been if you caught me with a dick inside of me. So fuck you, Tristan! I’ve had a long day and I’m going to bed.”
He was standing there like the idiot he was with a confused look on his face as I brushed past him and went into my bus and slammed the door. I swear I must have had smoke coming out my ears I was so pissed off. I hated them all! I swear if one person with a penis had walked in the door right then, I may have been tempted to cut it off.
Chapter Eight
Tristan
I stood there next to the bus for a long time after she walked away. I felt like shit. I felt worse than before I came to talk to her and I wished that I could press rewind and start over. I’d really fucked up that conversation. I’d completely forgotten that I came to clear my name in the first place. All I could think about was seeing that guy with his hands and his lips on her. For the first time in my life I gave a shit and it hurt. I finally realized that I needed to walk away from her bus before one of the other girls came back…or security walked by and saw me. I’d really get the reputation of being a creepy stalker then. The people on these sets loved nothing more than gossip; I figured that shit out when I was just a kid.
As I walked back to my own bus, I didn’t know what the fuck to think. She seemed genuinely pissed at me. I wasn’t sure if it was because of the stalking or the accusations or both. Knowing Elly, I don’t think she would have been that pissed if she’d really fucked that guy. She was pretty genuine most of the time…shit…all of the time. It was the thing that attracted me to her in the first place. At first it had only been about sex, but the reason I’d wanted her so badly had been because she’d been so enthusiastic about it. She moaned and groaned and shuddered at all the right times. The little mewling sounds she made when I licked her…fuck, I was getting a boner just thinking about it. Then I actually got to know her and I found out that she lived her life like that. If she was happy about something, she showed it. If she was pissed, she showed that, too. I’d be willing to bet that she hadn’t lied to me about anything; hopefully that wasn’t just wishful thinking. But now I really wanted to kick the pretty boy’s ass.
I was almost back to my bus when I saw the two security guys that had dragged Brooke out. I remembered when Tony was talking about Brooke earlier; I had thought about the cameras on the lot and wondered if that was how he’d known. He said it was from the security report, but that doesn’t mean the cameras didn’t catch some of it. I looked up at the camera mounted on the light pole above my head and then towards the backs of the security officers as they continued on their path.
“Hey!” I called after them. The bigger one, Brad, turned around and said,
“Yes?”
I walked over to where they’d stopped walking and said, “How are you guys doing tonight?”
“We’re okay; at least it’s not raining.”
“I hear that. I don’t know whose brilliant idea it was to book a bunch of outdoor concerts in the middle of fucking fall, huh?”
Brad said, “I haven’t had a chance to talk to you since that night, but I had to write a report about Brooke. She clawed the shit out of my arms.”
“Yeah, I saw Tony today, he told me. That sucks man, I’m sorry about that.”
He shrugged and said, “One of the hazards of our job. I wanted to get a tetanus shot, though, so I had to report it.” I could tell he felt guilty, or he was worried I’d be mad.
I decided it was a good time to ask him what I wanted to ask. “It’s really okay. She was the crazy one, not me. I was wondering, though, if I could ask you guys another favor?”
“You don’t have another naked girl in your bus, do you?” It was the little guy and he actually looked a little too hopeful about that.
I laughed, “No man.”
“Damn!” he said, with a grin. His partner was grinning too. Good, because I knew that what I was about to ask them for was pushing the boundaries of their jobs. I wanted them in a good mood.
“Yeah,” I said, “But I found out the hard way that one naked chick isn’t necessarily as good as the next.”
“Or as sane,” the bigger one said. “Crazy bitch tried to bite me and I’m pretty sure that some of my skin is probably still underneath her fingernails.”
“I’m sorry, man. I really appreciated your help though.”
He shrugged again and said, “Yeah well, it’s our job. What is it we can do for you?”
I pointed up at the camera trained on my front door and said, “Any chance at all you could get me a copy of the security tape from the other night?”
The officers looked at each other and the bigger guy said, “I don’t think we can do that.”
“Aw come on, man. It’s really important. If I had any damned money, I’d even be willing to pay you to help me out here. But, they don’t give me my million until the tour is over. I could be convinced to part with some of that then though, just to show my gratitude for a job well done.”
“I think you just offered us a bribe,” the smaller guy said. I wasn’t sure if he was offended or amused.
“I’m sorry, shit! I just don’t know what to fucking do. My girlfriend thinks I slept with that skank; she thinks I lied to her. I don’t want to lose this girl. I can’t believe I’m even saying that out loud because it is so not like me, but I fucking do not want to lose her…please help me.”
They looked at each other again and the bigger one said,
“Is Elly your girlfriend?”
“Yeah man, she was before this. Now she thinks…”
“She thinks you cheated on her with this Brooke chick?”
“Yeah. I have lied to her before, so I have priors there. But I’m not lying this time, and she doesn’t believe me.”
“I like Elly,” the big guy said. “She’s a nice girl. She’s got a lot more class than that other chick, that’s for sure. It’s too bad she thinks you would choose a girl like that over her.”
I smiled and said, “Yeah, she is a classy lady and I would never do that to her. I swear. But she thinks I did, and with good reason. If you won’t do this for me, will you do it for her? She needs to know that I wouldn’t cheat on her. This isn’t just about me; it’s about how it’s made her feel.” I was playing it up a little for their benefit, but as I said it, I realized it was actually true. I hadn’t really considered how bad it must feel to her to think I’d choose that slut over her.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Brad told me. “I can’t promise anything. The CEO may already have them. I’m sure he’ll go over them because of the report. If he didn’t take them already, I’ll try and get a copy before he does.”
I felt relief wash over me and I shook his hand and said, “Thanks man! Seriously, just the fact that you would try means a lot to me.”
I gave him my phone number and went inside the bus at least feeling a little better. I still felt like shit about the fact that Elly would think I did that to her…but then I’d thought the same thing when I saw her with that pretty boy…fuck! This relationship shit was jacked up!
It took me a long time to quiet my head enough to fall asleep. It was the first time in months that I wished I had just one little sleeping pill. I told myself that I’d come too far to even think about that. I thought about Elly instead, and the good stuff….
I slept in the next day and woke up to the bus moving. I knew we were pulling out early, but it was still a little disorienting when they did it while I was asleep. We were on our way to Santa Fe, New Mexico. We were supposed to pull in there around ten or eleven in the morning for the six o’clock show that night. I looked at my phone to see what time it was and realized I had a text. It was already almost ten, which meant we were almost there. I looked at the text and saw that it was from Brad, the bigger security guy.
Hey Tristan, I got those for you. I’ll come by with them when we pull into Santa Fe.
I texted back.
Thanks, man.
Then with a self-satisfied smile, I went back to sleep.
I got woken up not long after when I heard the bus stop and then the commotion of the crews outside setting things up. I looked out the window, hoping to catch a glance of Elly, but no such luck. I showered and ate a bowl of cereal while I waited for Brad. He didn’t disappoint. By noon I had a copy of the security tapes in my hand. It was two DVD’s. I sat down and watched one, happier than shit to see that it was date and time stamped, too. I also realized as I watched it that the camera’s panned every so often and caught every angle of the bus. There was a perfect shot of me answering the door in my towel and Brooke standing there in the robe with the six pack in her hand. I saw myself let her in and close the door. Shit! That didn’t really prove anything other than what Elly already knew: I was in a towel with a naked chick on the bus. From the looks of the tape, I could have invited her over. I popped that DVD out and put in the other one. As soon as it started running I said,
“I’ll be a son of a bitch!” out loud. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I watched it, happy because it looked like what I needed, and pissed because I couldn’t believe the controlling bastards actually did this.
I called Brad. “Hey, Tristan,” he answered.
“Why the fuck didn’t I know I was being videotaped. One of these DVD’s was taken inside the bus. What the fuck is that about?” As I talked to him, I looked around the bus. There were little tinted boxes in the front corners that I’d never paid attention to. Fucking surveillance cameras.
“Um…you asked me for the tapes so I just assumed you knew. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“I knew there were tapes of the outside. I had no idea they had fucking camera’s inside the bus, too. What the fuck? Does Tony watch them and get off on seeing me naked?”
He snickered; no one liked Tony. Then in a calm voice he said, “It’s just for security measures, Tristan. No one even watches them unless there’s a problem, a break-in or something like that, or something like what happened the other day. It’s good they were there, not just for Elly’s sake, but what if that crazy bitch did try to say you tried to force her into something? I promise you, no one is trying to invade your privacy. You’re a star now man. You can’t be too careful.”
I knew he was right, but I was still pissed. I didn’t like the thought of them thinking they had a right to watch me without my permission. “They should have at least told me. That way I’m not walking around naked and shit. It’s a fucking violation,” I told him. He was quiet and I suddenly realized I was yelling at the guy who did me a huge favor. He actually put his job on the line for me, or at least for Elly. I said, “Shit, man, I know it’s not your fault. The fucking producers act like they own us and it pisses me off. I’ll take it up with them. The rest of this is golden though, thanks.”
“Sure, Tristan. And hey man, I really wouldn’t worry about those tapes. I’ve been doing this job for three years and the first one I’ve watched was this one, and just because you asked me to. Like I said, Jake will probably watch the part where we carry Brooke out if she contests what we’ve said, but that’ll be the end of it, I’m sure. ”
“Yeah, thanks man.” I hung up, still watching the clear ass view they had of everything that went on in the front of the bus. There was a shot of the sliding doors that led to my bed, but at least they didn’t seem to have a camera in there. I went in there and into the bathroom and looked around just to make sure. I didn’t see anything that looked like a camera.
Arrogant mother-fuckers really did act like they owned us, though. It was different than just being a star. They thought because they had a hand in making you a star that they had the right to control your life. That was bullshit. I thought about this Jake guy and Tony; neither one of them liked me, no matter how hard they tried to pretend that they did. I started wondering if the whole point was to try and catch me doing something I wasn’t supposed to. As pissed about it as I was, I was smart enough to realize that I should wait until I had my money in my hand before I said anything. They could bet that I would, though, as soon as I got it. I wasn’t their fucking property. They were the ones who would be nowhere without me and I couldn’t wait to tell them that.
I spent a few hours with the band again that afternoon after all of that. The one thing that always helped me, always calmed me, was music. No matter what kind of shit I was dealing with, the music drowned it all out. We played through the songs for the show that evening, changed up a few things at the last minute, and then I went back to the bus and got ready for the show. Elly and the other worker bees were setting things up for the show all day. I was going to give her the tapes that night. I kind of wished I could get her to agree to watch them with me, so I could see her face. I knew she was too pissed off for that, especially now that I’d accused her of fucking that preppy guy. I’d done a lot of thinking about that and I had got myself ninety-nine percent convinced that she was telling me the truth.
I was happy to see that she was working the room that we had to pass through to get to the stage. We hung out there until it was our turn and it would make it easy for me to give them to her. I sat in the back and went over my songs in my head, watching her without letting her know I was watching. I used to do that a lot when the show first started, after that first time with her in the bar. It was weird; that seemed like a long fucking time ago. So much had happened since then. She still made my cock twitch in my pants every time I looked at her.
Finally,
all of the other singers had done their thing, and we did our group song. I was supposed to stand next to Brooke, but I didn’t want to be anywhere near the skank so I mixed it up. She knew what I was doing and tried to give me one of her ugly, “You’ll be sorry” glares. I was not sure what she meant when she said that, but I really didn’t give a fuck.
It was a huge fucking stage and the place was packed and after the group song I couldn’t wait to get back out there and do my thing again. I fed off that shit. Before I did that though, I stopped next to Elly where she stood at the door. She looked at me with wide eyes, wondering what the hell I was up to, I’m sure. I smiled and handed her the DVD’s. Then I winked at her and said, “Watch closely.”
She looked down at them, confused. She started to say something but I ran out on stage then. I wasn’t going to tell her what they were, or she’d probably just be stubborn enough not to watch them. I left it all at the curtain and went out on stage and did my thing. It was rock night and I was doing a Guns N Roses song. I was in my element, rocking out to tens of thousands of screaming fans. It only made it that much sweeter to know that in a few hours, Elly would be watching the tapes.
Chapter Nine
Elly
I stood there holding two DVD’s in my hand and wondering what the hell Tristan was up to as I watched him own the stage. He was so damned amazing out there. Sometimes I wished he sucked up there as bad as he did in personal relationships, then maybe it would be easier to walk away from him when all of this was over. I was sure that’s what I needed to do…for my own sanity. It wasn’t something I had a good history of doing. I usually stayed until every ounce of feeling I had for the guy was used up, wasted on the shit he put me through. I looked down at the DVD’s again. They were marked on the outside with a date and time…four nights prior. That was the night I caught him with Brooke. Even more curious then, I opened the case and the inside said, “Surveillance, Bus 2014.” That was the tour’s name for Tristan’s bus.
Dirty Maverick (The Maxwell Family) Page 105
