Chapter Eight
Elly
It was Saturday and I had the day off, thank God. I was exhausted. It had been a really long week of sixteen hour days. On top of that, I had to study for my exams every chance I got. I’d gone to see Jake again and he wanted to tell me that it was looking good for me getting hired on to travel with the top ten contestants. He wanted to know if I’d considered it at all and I told him I had and that I’d be willing to do the rest of my classes online and take the job.
I’d spent most of my day off running errands. Susie and I didn’t have any food or anything to drink in the apartment so I’d went shopping. I paid bills while I was out too and stopped at Starbucks to meet Molly for coffee. She wanted to talk about Tristan.
“So, any new developments with you and the Wild Child?” That’s what they started calling Tristan after his fit in the waiting room.
“No. I haven’t talked to him, but I’m not going to see him anymore.”
“It was just a little tantrum. I’ve seen worse. He redeemed himself on the results show.”
I laughed, “It’s not because of that, although that was not very becoming at all and only children think they can throw a fit like that and then come back and act like nothing happened. The reason I’m not going to see him again though is that I can’t risk my job. Then there’s the fact that he has a real chance at winning this thing. I like myself, but I don’t think I’m worth giving up a million bucks and a record contract for. Hell, I’d sell myself out for a million dollars and a record contract.”
“You’re worth it if he loves you,” Molly the romantic told me. She wanted so badly to see something there that wasn’t.
“Molly it’s not like that between Tristan and me. It was always just my infatuation with him and then the sex…really good sex.”
She smiled at that and said, “You don’t have any other feelings for him than that, really?”
“No, I don’t, really,” I had told her, confidently. She didn’t look like she believed me, but she didn’t push the issue. The truth was I did have feelings beyond that. I was defensive when it came to him and I felt bad when he was hurting. I was feeling his pain for some reason. I barely knew him though, so it most definitely wasn’t love. To call it like would even be playing it fast and loose with that word. No, for now it was just sex and unless he suddenly became communicative…and nice, that’s all it will ever be.
I’d just gotten home and started cutting up chicken for stir-fry when my phone rang. I looked at it and saw that it was my mom. I’d forgotten it was Saturday and time for her weekly call.
“Hi Mom,” I answered as I turned the heat on underneath the rice.
“Hi Elly. How are you, sweetie?”
“I’m good, Mom. I’m just tired. It’s been a long week with the show and all.” I had the phone tucked under my chin as I finished cutting the chicken into cubes.
“We’ve been watching it. I told your father the first night that the kind of hippy looking boy…Trent or…Tristan, that’s it, he looked so familiar to me. It took me until last night to realize where I knew him from. He was in that band you were so crazy about.”
“Yeah, that’s him,” I told her. “I’m surprised you recognized him.”
“Well, he was all over everything in the house for a few years. I would be a terrible mother if I hadn’t recognized him after all that.”
“You could never be a terrible mother,” I told her, honestly.
“I bet you were so excited when you saw him there! Do you get to talk to him? Did you tell him about your crush?”
“I was excited at first,” I said, “But after a while you just realize that even though we think they’re stars, they’re really just like everyone else. Yes, I have to talk to him and no, I didn’t tell him about my crush,” I lied just a little.
I finished cutting up the chicken and put it in the pan to brown while I mixed up the glaze for it. I put the soy sauce, brown sugar and corn-starch in a bowl and whisked it up.
“Well, that’s a good attitude to have honey,” my mother was saying, “If you’re going to be in the business. You can’t be getting starstruck….it wouldn’t be fair to the other contestants.”
She cracked me up when she said things like, “in the business.” I didn’t laugh at her though, I let her think she was cool and hip. “Very true, Mom. How is Dad?”
I poured the ginger, garlic and red pepper into the bowl and whisked it again while she talked.
“Oh, you know your father. He’s as ornery as ever. Last night when we were watching the show he kept saying, ‘Where is she? I don’t see her.’ I said, ‘Hank, she’s a producer not a performer. She’s behind the scenes’.”
I laughed as I dropped the chicken into the glaze. I mixed it up and then set the bowl in the refrigerator. I could hear my parents having that conversation. They were so funny together. Someday I wanted to have a relationship just like them. They’d set a really good example for a girl who made such really bad decisions. I missed them, some days more than others. I had given a lot of consideration to how far away from them I’d be when I moved out to California almost four years ago, but being a producer was something I’d wanted to do so badly I could taste it. I had pretty much two options, New York and California. I was from the Midwest, so I had been hoping California wouldn’t be such of a culture shock. I also have to admit that living in the same city as most of the stars in the U.S. was also a draw. I will honestly say that bumping into Tristan had crossed my mind. I wasn’t thinking it would quite go like it had. I’ve adjusted to L.A. now though, and I can’t imagine working anywhere else.
“Are you enjoying your work, honey? Are they nice people to work for?”
“I am. I like it a lot. They are super nice people, and as a matter of fact, the Executive Producer of the show has offered me a position touring with the top ten contestants next year. I’m seriously considering it. I’ve already checked into taking my classes online for my last semester.”
“Wow! That’s great, honey. Maybe you can stop by and see us.”
I laughed again, “Maybe, Mom, we’ll see.”
“How is Susie?” she asked. On my parent’s trip out here last summer they’d met Susie. They had both fallen in love with her. I think if they were asked to choose between us, it would be a difficult choice for them now. I’d gotten lucky finding Susie to room with. She and I had a few classes together our first semester and we both lived in the dorms. We weren’t really friends, but I heard her talking about finding her own apartment one day and I asked if she needed a roommate. We talked about it for a while and found out that we had a lot in common. We were both neat freaks, neither of us were party girls and we were in the same program so we could study together and help each other out with our classes. It’s been over two years now since we shared our apartment and it’s still working out great.
“She’s good,” I said. “Working hard at school. She got a part-time job too on one of the Nickelodeon shows. She only works a few hours a week right now but they tell her it can work into something more. Her parents pay for her school and bills, so she doesn’t need the money. She was just looking for the experience. She likes it.”
I dropped the vegetables into the hot oil and they made a loud sizzling noise. I could picture my mother grabbing her heart as she said, “Oh my goodness! What was that?”
“Just stir-fry, Mom. I’m making dinner.”
“Oh wow! You work sixteen hour days, go to school and cook? There’s some really lucky guy out there that’s going to find you someday. What’s that Hank? Your father says, “And beautiful too.”
“Aw, thanks guys,” I said. Sometimes, when I was in a blue mood I would wonder if that would ever happen. I imagined sometimes that I would be alone forever. It was a fact that my judgment in men was questionable at best. Maybe I would be better off staying single. I could be like my Aunt Sally…she never got married or had children and now she spent her time traveling the world. I could see myself as a world traveler. It would break my mother’s heart though. She can’t wait to be a grandmother.
“I should let you get back to making your dinner, Sweetheart,” my mom said.
“Okay, Mom. I love you. Tell Daddy I love him too.”
“We love you too; call us if you need anything.”
“I will, Mom.”
Then suddenly, “Do you need anything? Do you have enough money?”
I laughed. “I’m fine, Mom, but thank you.” My parents had worked and saved their whole lives for my college education. I was extremely grateful to them for that. Their sacrifice was another huge reason I couldn’t blow this internship or screw around with my education. The money I made working was all for me right now, but I was also saving some of it so when I went on for my Master’s life wouldn’t be so hard.
“Okay honey, tell Susie we said hello.”
“I will.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.” It was the same thing every Saturday. I could always hear the worry in my mom’s voice even when she was trying to stay upbeat. I wondered if all moms were like that, even worried after their children grow up. I didn’t mind it, I actually kind of appreciated it and I would miss it if it ever changed.