My Rock (The Rock Star Romance Series - Book #1) (4 page)

“Elly, are you
ready?” Keith had stuck his head in the door and brought me out of my reverie.

“Yes, I’m sorry.
Send me the first three, okay?”

Within a few
minutes, Molly was walking in with two girls and a guy following her. All three
looked really young, and so nervous that I was afraid they were going to puke.
Molly gave me the sheet with their information on it and I attached it to my
clipboard. Then, I did my best to put them at ease.

“Hi, I’m Elly,” I
said, then looking down at the clipboard to make sure I remembered their names
I asked, “And you are, Gary, Hannah, and Violet?”

They nodded and the
girl named Hannah said, “I feel kind of sick.”

“Here, sit down,” I
told her, moving a chair over close to her. “Lean forward and put your head
down on your knees. I’ll get you some water. You’re third, by the time Gary and
Violet finish, I’m sure you’ll be good to go.”

I got her the water
and I explained to all three of them how this was going to work. They would go
in and sing one song. The judges would stop them whenever they wanted, and
they’d tell them either “Yay or Nay” right then and there. Then they would go
out the other side where the show’s Emcee was waiting to interview them. When I
said that, Violet gagged a little. I found a small trash can and sat it next to
her as I ushered Greg through the curtain that separated us from the judges. I
radioed Kevin and told him to send me another.

I had my back to
the door and I heard Molly come in; she was speaking to someone quietly. I
heard her telling them where to have a seat and that I’d be with them soon. I
felt an arm brush against mine and I looked up to see an array of tattoos. I
followed those up and I was suddenly looking into Tristan Roger’s face. He
looked a lot cleaner and better groomed than he had the night at the bar. He
grinned at me and in spite of myself I felt my stomach flip. He went and took
the seat Molly had directed him to. Wow, was his career really this bad?

“Are you okay,
Elly?” Molly asked me. I realized I was still gaping at him.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m
sorry, Molly. I’m fine. Thanks.” She raised an eyebrow as if she doubted it,
but she was too busy to ponder it further. I took a deep breath in and walked
over to give Tristan my spiel. To his credit, he didn’t let on that he knew me.
To my chagrin, I realized that could be because he really didn’t remember me at
all.

CHAPTER
SIX

TRISTAN

On Monday, I had a hellacious hangover. I’d stayed
out at the club until two that morning and then I had a couple of girls I’d met
there at the apartment, until I finally remembered how early I had to be at
this fucking audition. It was after four before I finally kicked them out. I
slept for about an hour, which I think did me more harm than good. Then I
dragged my tired ass out of bed and into the shower. While I was shaving, I
looked at my hair and realized that I really should have gotten a haircut. I
forgot sometimes that I looked like shit. It never really seemed to matter
anymore.

When I finished shaving, I spiked my hair up with
some gel and looked at it. It still looked like shit, but it was better. I
opened the new package of t-shirts I’d bought and pulled one on. It
was a little wrinkled
, but there was no fucking way I was
pulling out an iron. I had to dig to the back of my closet to find a pair of
jeans that looked halfway decent, and, after I pulled them on, I put on my
boots and looked at the final product in the full-length mirror. It would have
to do because it was already after six and I was afraid that I was going to end
up at the back of the line. That was exactly what happened, and, by five that
evening, I still hadn’t even made it close to the doors. I stayed as the line
thinned out some, the people not hardcore enough to brave the streets of
Burbank overnight. My fucking head was throbbing and I could have really used a
joint. But I dipped down deep and found a shred of the determination that I
used to have, back when I was a kid, and I stayed.

By about three in the morning, most of the
contestants that had stayed were asleep. I spotted a girl, just barely over
legal sitting about three people away from the door. She looked lonely, so
being the good guy I am, I went forward to keep her company. I ended up
spending the rest of the night in her sleeping bag. We fooled around inside the
bag, and, when the sun came up on Tuesday morning, I was suddenly contestant
number four, right behind my new girlfriend…Veronica? Valerie? Fuck, something
that started with a V.

Around eight a.m., I was finally shuffled into a
room with about fifty other losers and then, sometime around nine, taken
backstage by a chick with a lisp but a nice rack. Imagine my surprise when I
got back there and saw that
Sweet Lips
from
Huggys
was on the production crew.
Sweet Lips
was the perfect nickname for
her. God, were they magnificent.

From the way she looked at me, I could tell that she
recognized me. I had to give her props for staying professional and not letting
on. Now I had three reasons not to blow this: a million bucks, a record
contract, and Elly. Shit! I even remembered her name.

I walked through the curtain when they called my
name. It had been a long time since I had to audition for anything. I wouldn’t
have admitted this to anyone, but I was nervous as fuck. My hands were shaking
so bad that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to play my guitar. In all honesty, it was
probably more that I needed a drink or a smoke than nerves. Whatever it was,
I
stood under the spotlights, staring at these three famous
people feeling like I wanted to throw up.

“Tristan Rogers, wow!” Diva in the center yelled as
soon as she looked at the paper in front of her. Of course, she didn’t
recognize my face.

“Yeah, it’s me,” I said, trying to sound braver than
I felt.

“Where have you been?” the soft-spoken country
singer on her right asked.

Fuck! How do I field that one?

“After the band broke up, I did some traveling, and
since then, I’ve just been spending time with my family…playing a few gigs here
and there…”

Family?
Yeah right, but it sounded better than the truth.

“Wow,” Diva with the big, fake tits said again.

“Okay, let’s hear it,” the guy who got famous off
his mother’s name to her left said.

I sat down on the stool in the center of the small,
makeshift stage, took a deep breath and tried to go to another place in my
head, a place where I was a superstar and not a loser. When I opened my mouth
actual music came out. I was impressed with myself.

They stopped me about half-way through. Diva had
tears in her eyes. “That was…wow!” she exclaimed.

Shocking.

“Fabulous,” Country Boy said.

“Amazing,” was Mama’s Boy’s comment.

I walked out with a golden ticket. I had to field
the same, “Where have you been?” comments from the Emcee, and then I actually
got asked to sign two autographs on my way out. I made my way back to the other
room, the first one I’d waited in, and found the girl with the lisp.

“Hey, I’m sorry. Can I go to the back again, real
quick
? I forget something in there, I think.”

She sighed like it was taking everything in her not
to say no and then she said, “Okay, but quickly, I’m busy.”

“I can find my way,” I told her. She started to
protest, but the guy at the door called her name. I went through the other
door, walked up to Elly, and took her pen from her hand. I wrote down my number
on her clipboard, smiled and left without saying a word. I was going to treat
myself to a drink…and a smoke…and maybe a line or two.

CHAPTER
SEVEN

ELLY

“Pass me the dip,” I told my roommate, Susie.

We were supposed to be studying for the final we had
coming up. Our summer classes were coming to an end, and I was actually looking
forward to having a couple of weeks off before the fall semester began. Susie
handed me the dip, I grabbed a handful of chips and put them on my plate, and
Susie said, “So, are you going to call him?”

“Who?”
I said, facetiously. I knew exactly whom she was talking about.

She rolled her eyes and said, “You know who, don’t
act dumb. Are you going to call him?” I had broken down and told Susie
everything. I told her about my crush and about going to the seedy bar and,
Lord
help
me, I told her about the sex in the
bathroom. God bless her, she didn’t seem to judge me at all. She actually told
me that when she was a kid, she had the
hots
for the
lead singer of Blink 182 and, given half the chance, she’d do him in the
bathroom too.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea, do you?”

“It’s not up to me,” she said. “But just for
argument’s sake…why not?”

“Because, he’s not exactly the guy I had the
hots
for all of those years ago. He’s hardcore now, Susie.
He drinks like a fish, and I suspect he does a lot of drugs too.”

“Do you want to marry him?”

“What?”

“Marry him! If not, then why not just screw around
with him some more?”

I had my reasons for worrying about the outcome of
getting into any kind of relationship with an addict, but I didn’t feel like
expounding on them at the moment. Instead I said, “For one thing, he’s a
finalist on the show now, and it’s against the rules. I could lose my
internship.”

“If they find out, but if you’re just having fun
with the guy, you can do it at our place or his. No one else needs to know.”

“Yeah, but I’ve heard that the press goes out of
their way to try and find these things out.
Especially
because of the big scandal last year.
I don’t think I should risk it.”

Susie was looking at me with that look that said I
didn’t take enough risks, as she said, “You’re not going to be young forever,
Elly. One of these days, you’re going to wake up and be fifty years old and
you’re going to wish that you had taken a risk or two when you were young. It
might be too late then.”

She was probably right, but what I might also regret
at fifty was losing the job opportunity of a lifetime for a night of hot sex
with a virtual stranger. As good as that was, I doubt it was worth all that.

“I’ll think about it,” I told her.

She rolled her eyes and said, “
Gimme
some of those chips.”

CHAPTER
EIGHT

TRISTAN

We finished our set at the most recent dive bar
Mitch had booked for us. He was on cloud nine when he heard I had made it
through to the finals of
Fresh Voices
;
little did he know that the first thing I was going to do when I won all that
money was fire his ass.

“Hey,
you going
out
tonight?” Les, our bassist asked me as we packed up the equipment.

“I was thinking about heading over to the Gold Mine
for a while,” I told him. Besides the fact that it was the only strip joint in
the city with women who looked like they were under the age of forty, I had a
guy who lived close to there that sold me the best coke I’d ever tasted. I
planned on hitting him up on my way to the club.

Les was curling his lip. “I think I’ll hit the Mayan
tonight. I feel like dancing, and maybe taking home a real girl.”

“Alright dude, keep it covered, I’ll see you
tomorrow night.” Les took off, and Billy drove Brad home to the old lady. I got
on my old, ’95 Harley that I’d bought cheap off some
tweaker
a few years ago and headed out to Santa Monica Blvd. I turned off two blocks
before I got to the club and pulled up in front of Marco’s apartment building.
I’d already told him I was coming, so he met me out front. It was a quick sale,
and as he headed back inside, my phone rang.

“Yeah,” I answered it.

“Hi,” a sweet little female voice said. I had no
idea who it was, but maybe it was someone who was looking for a party.

“Hey there,” I said.

She laughed. “You have no idea who this is, do you?”

“No fucking clue,” I said.

She laughed again and said, “It’s Elly.”

“Oh, hey…I was just about to guess that.”

“You’re full of shit,” she said.

“Yeah, that’s true. How are you?”

“I’m good. I thought you might want to hang out
sometime.”

I looked at the vial in my hand.
I
wanted to see her, but tonight I also wanted to get fucked up. I didn’t know
for sure, but I had the feeling that wasn’t something Elly would be up for so I
said, “
Yeah,
sounds great. I can’t tonight though;
I’m…practicing with the guys. How about you come by my place Sunday night?
We’re playing again tomorrow night, but Sunday I’m all free.”

“I can do Sunday,” she said. “Where do you live?”

I gave her the address. When I hung up, I had a
twinge of regret that I had to wait two days to see her. I did one spoon of the
coke…damn! That was some good shit! I put the pretty, professional girl in the
back of my mind and headed on to the Gold Mine.