Chapter Seven
Tristan
I lived through dinner with the parents. I was twenty-eight years old and it was the first dinner with the parents I’d ever had—that included my own. It wasn’t bad, really. Mike and Carol Brady were nice and amusing. Susie was a crack-up and Elly’s obvious discomfort made it all worthwhile. Plus, I had some damned good steak and shrimp at no cost at all to me. Not bad for a homeless guy.
“So, Tristan, how long have you been singing?” Elly’s mother asked me at dinner.
“Um…pretty much as long as I can remember,” I told her.
“Did you have any formal training?”
“No ma’am, my mom entered me in a contest when I was six. Everything just kind of happened after that.”
“Why did that band break up…the one you were in, what was it called?”
“Mom, give the guy a break from the questions so he can eat, will you?” Elly said.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to interrogate. I was just trying to get to know you.”
“It’s okay,” I told her. I was really hoping she was finished though. From the band on forward, there was nothing much I wanted to talk about with Elly’s mom.
“I’ll bet your parents are proud of you,” she said.
I glanced at Elly. She looked like she wanted crawl under the table. I said,
“They are, they could almost bust.” I could see Elly’s amused expression out of the corner of my eye.
“Where do your parents live?” Elly‘s father got in on the interrogation then.
“They’re island people,” I told him. “They only come back here to reality a couple times a year.”
Elly was losing it. She had to excuse herself and go to the bathroom. By the time she came back we had changed the subject to football. It was another thing I didn’t know or give a fuck about, but I bullshitted my way through that one as well. Overall, I thought I did a pretty damn good job.
I got another middle finger from Elly when I just so happened to have tickets to the results show. I thought Donna Reed was going to cry and Father knows Best looked pretty damned happy about it himself. Susie ditched us for a date. I had to wonder what kind of being would date Susie. She was hot, don’t get me wrong, but she was an ornery one. He must be one of those submissive types.
I got to the results show early and I saw Elly’s friend Molly in the back.
“Hey, I thought I saw Elly in the audience last night. How is she? She won’t return my calls.”
“She’s great,” I said. I figured she was embarrassed and that’s why she didn’t want to talk to anyone from the show. I also knew that it was mostly my fault. I still wanted to kick that little prick’s ass.
“Oh good, I’ve been worried about her.” Molly said. “Will you tell her I’d like her to call me?” I suddenly realized this girl was talking to me like me and Elly were in a relationship. Dinner with the parents and now taking messages for her…I was going to have to put a stop to this shit before it got out of control. I was not boyfriend material.
“You might want to just keep calling her,” I said. “I don’t know when I’m going to talk to her.”
She raised up her eyebrows like she thought I was an ass all of a sudden. Good, that’s better.
As I sat on my bench on the stage next to the crying girl and the guy who was actually competition, I could just make out Elly’s face in the audience. She looked nervous for me. I wasn’t at all. I felt really good about my performance the night before and the judges had loved it.
The other two contestants and I did our song together and then the MC started his dramatic bullshit. When all was said and done, the crying girl went home to Bum-Fuck and I was left with the real competition. I was going to feel those nerves. I had to win. I needed that money.
When I got back to Elly’s, her parents were just leaving to go back to their hotel. Elly’s mom hugged me; that was weird for me, but nice.
“I wanted to congratulate you again. I’m so excited for you. I’ve been telling my husband since the first night that you were going to win. You know, back when Elly had her crush—“
“Mother!”
“I know you had a crush on me, Elly,” I told her.
She narrowed her eyes at me and her mother said, “I’m sorry honey.” Then back to me she said, “Anyways, I just never really listened to you sing back then. I had no idea just how talented you were.”
“Thank you,” I told her. I bid them a good night and headed for the kitchen to grab something to drink.
Before I made it in there, Elly’s dad said, “Tristan, will you be joining us at Elly’s concert tomorrow night? My girl has got a set of pipes on her that would make an angel cry. I know that you know that or you would have never taken a chance on having her sing with you the other night.”
I cut my eyes over at Elly who was standing behind them. She had a horrified expression on her face. She was almost imperceptibly shaking her head no. She didn’t want me to go. She still didn’t have faith that I wouldn’t screw it up. I guess I couldn’t blame her.
“I think I’ll have to beg off. I re-scheduled those plans from Tuesday night for tomorrow.”
“Are you sure?” her mother said, disappointed.
I could still see Elly’s face. She really didn’t want me to go. I didn’t want to be there if she didn’t want me. “Yeah, I’m sure.” I said to her mom and dad. Ward and June Cleaver were disappointed in me. I did my best Eddie Haskell and acted as if I gave a shit.