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.
Son of a bitch! This was the security tape from outside his bus. I looked back out onto the stage. He was killing it that night, spot on perfect. The women in the audience were going crazy and, as usual, throwing him their undergarments. I suddenly realized that if the tape I had in my hand proved what I thought it must…I’d have to get used to women throwing themselves at him. I doubted seriously that he would have given me them if they didn’t clear him of my accusations. I sure hoped that was the case. I’d much rather hate Brooke than Tristan. I would have to learn to trust him, though. I tucked the DVD’s into my pocket and watched the end of the show. He had a VIP meet and greet afterwards; some sixteen year old girl who’d won a contest. I watched for a minute while he schmoozed her and her mother with his charms. He was something else, that’s for sure. Shaking my head, I headed out to help clean up.
Tammy and I worked in the singer’s room first. Tammy asked me about Cole, she’d seen him and me at the fair the day before. As we cleaned, I told her what happened with him and about Tristan stalking us. She laughed, and then apologized for laughing. Then, she laughed again. Finally she said, “You told me the other night that you didn’t think he really ever cared about you; don’t you think he must or it wouldn’t have bothered him to see you with Cole?”
“I don’t know. He’s got a big ego. Maybe that’s what’s wounded and not his heart.” I told her. I didn’t like the thought of him being hurt, but after what he’d put me through, I told myself that he probably deserved a little bit of what he was dishing out. Then I patted my pocket where the DVD’s were and wondered how bad I was going to feel about that thought if it turned out he was telling the truth.
After we finished cleaning up, the girls invited me out to get something to eat. I declined, wanting some time alone to watch the tape. Hannah offered to stay back with me, but I encouraged her to go and asked her to bring me some take-out. As soon as everyone left, I stuck it into my laptop and watched. The tape started early that morning so I fast-forwarded until I saw Brooke show up and knock on the bus door. A few minutes later, I saw Tristan answer it in a towel. I couldn’t see his facial expression because the camera was too far away. I saw him let her in though, and then that was it until I showed up. That didn’t prove a damned thing other than what I already knew. She’d gone over in her robe, whether that was to seduce him or not, he should have kicked her out. If this was all there was to it, this wasn’t going to help him at all. I watched it all the way through, though, knowing that he must have had a reason for wanting me to see it. I saw myself go inside and then run out crying and stand there like a fool in the front of the bus. Then a while later, Tristan went out in a pair of pajama bottoms and then came back with security. I finished watching it and I took a lot of pleasure in watching security carry her out kicking and screaming. She looked like a naked maniac. If America could see her then. That part made me happy, but none of it proved anything. Confused, I took it out and popped the next one in. I was surprised at what I saw on that one.
I’ll be damned they didn’t have a camera inside his bus, too! I thought about how he must have felt about that when he found out. I could almost hear him ranting about how the motherfuckers were violating his privacy. I smiled at the thought and went on watching.
I saw Brooke hand him the beer. The camera was closer inside the bus, so I could see the look on his face. He didn’t look like a guy who had been expecting her…or was happy that she was there. I saw him turn around to put the beer on the counter and that was when the stupid, skanky bitch dropped her robe. When he turned back around, his face didn’t look happy at all. He actually looked pissed. He was pointing at the robe and then the door as he talked to her. I didn’t need audio to know he was cussing. Against my better judgment I looked at her body and thought, if he was telling her to get out while she was standing there looking like that…shit, I was so fucking wrong. He was more than just faithful to me, he was ready for sainthood.
He did have a hard on, but I really couldn’t fault him for biology, could I? Hannah had said, it: “He’s a man, after all.” Everything happened fast, then. I think he sat down to hide the tent and again, I couldn’t help but feel proud of him, and guilty as hell for doubting him. Then he pointed at the robe again while he was talking. She bent down...that nasty ho! Her ass was in his face and then the next frame shows her dropping it onto his lap and him trying to push her back while she tried to kiss him and rubbed her tits all over him. I saw red after that as I watched me come and go and then Tristan get dressed while the naked slut just sat there. They had words again before he left. While he was gone, she sat there, smiling. She was really a whack job. I watched security come in with Tristan and I saw him step on her robe. I laughed aloud at that; good job! I reveled in watching security toss her out, kicking and screaming and I suddenly wished that I had pulled the bitch’s extensions out of her head that night. I looked at the clock: it was after midnight. I didn’t give a fuck, I was having this out with her right then even if security ended up having to haul me away.
Brooke shared a bus with Rosa. I found my way across the lot and when I found her bus, I banged on the door. Rosa answered it. Trying to keep my composure I said, “Hi Rosa. I need to talk to Brooke.” From the look on Rosa’s face, I could tell that Brooke must have told her something about that night. She actually looked a little scared and I wondered what my own face must have looked like. She grabbed her jacket and said,
“I’m on my way to go hang out with Ethan. Come on in, she’s in the back.” Rosa left me standing inside the doors of the bus. I looked around and saw that there was a section like the one in Tristan’s bus that partitioned off the sleeping area. That must be where she was. I walked over and beat on that door.
“What?”
“Brooke, it’s Elly. We have some things to talk about.” My voice was shaking.
“Get lost!”
“Brooke,” I said, trying to steady my voice. “I suggest you get the fuck out here, now!”
A few seconds later she pulled the door open. She looked pissed. I didn’t care.
“What the hell do you want?”
“I want to tell you what a nasty skank you are. I saw the security tapes of you dropping your robe and trying to force yourself on Tristan. How pathetic are you that you can’t get a guy to fuck you without jumping naked into his lap? You missed your calling, you should be working in one of those places where they give lap dances—then at least you’d get paid for your troubles!”
“I’m the skank? You’re the one who slept with him knowing he was only fucking you to get a good spot on the show.”
“Fuck you! I had nothing to do with him getting a spot on the show and you know it.”
“So you say,” she said. Then she looked me over and said, “I can’t see any other reason he’d want to fuck you. My little brother has bigger tits than you do.”
I had my fists clenched at my sides, but I was still in control…kind of. Unfortunately for Brooke, she didn’t know when to quit,
“I know you saw the boner he had for me the other night. Mmm…it felt good when I was sitting up on it, too, rubbing my pussy back and forth. I felt it growing underneath me. If you hadn’t have come in then, he would have fucked me, and he would have loved it. He’d have never gone back to your old, nasty…”
I stopped her there with a fist to her mouth. I’m not sure who was more surprised: her or me. I’d never raised my fist to anyone in my life, but God, she needed it right then. She stumbled back and fell onto the bed. I was still standing there, wondering if I should go or hit her again, when she touched her bleeding lip and then jumped up and ran towards me like a crazy person, screaming and cussing. I stepped back and she hit the door frame instead of me. I reached out and grabbed that fake blonde hair, confirming once and for all that she did have extensions as I shoved her face into the wall. She reached up and put her hands on my arm, but I had a tight grip on her hair and every time she moved, I pulled a little tighter.
“Let go of me, you crazy bitch!”
I tapped her face into the wall. It wasn’t hard enough to do any damage, but just enough so she knew I meant business. “Stay the fuck away from Tristan…and me. Got that, skank?”
“Fuck you!”
I twisted my hand up tighter in her hair and she screamed. I had an arm against the wall in front of us and the little bitch went after it then, with her teeth. I just used it to hit her in the part of her lip that was already bleeding from the punch. She cried out again and said, “You’re going to be sorry.”
“You’re a mouthy bitch, Brooke. I’m sure that gets you into a lot of trouble doesn’t it? Say you heard me and that you’re going to keep your distance, otherwise your pretty face goes back into that wall and these hair extensions come out in chunks. I’m not sure any of that will look too good up on stage.”
“I heard you, bitch!” she said.
“Aw, you were so close,” I said, tapping her face back into the wall. I really felt like I was having an out of body experience. “I don’t care for that name-calling,” I told her as I twisted tighter on her hair underneath.
“Stop! I heard you, okay? I’ll stay away from him.” Using her hair, I turned her to face the bed and threw her down on it. I started to leave and she started to come after me again. I shoved her back down and said,
“Are you really that stupid? You haven’t got your ass kicked enough for one day? Come at me again and I swear you’ll need plastic surgery on that pretty face when I’m done with it.”
She sat there this time and without turning my back to her, I left. She had a fat lip and tears in her eyes. I had a strange sense of self-satisfaction and I wondered what I was turning into.