My Rock #7 (The Rock Star Romance Series - Book #7) (2 page)

“I have a problem,” I said. “This chick, one of the
singers…Brooke…”

“The hot blonde one with the big
tata’s
?”
the smaller of the two asked.

“Yeah, that one,” I said. “She’s parked her ass naked
on my bus and she’s refusing to leave. She even threatened to cry rape if I
hauled her out myself.”

“Seriously dude?” the big guy asked. “What’s her
problem? Is she drunk?”

“Nah, I think she’s just crazy,” I said.

“Um, I’m not being nosy but just in case she says
something stupid, did you have sex with her?”

“No, I didn’t touch the bitch. If anything, she
violated me.” The two guys snickered at that and I said, “Glad I could fucking
amuse you tonight as I stand in the fucking rain. Are you going to get her off
my bus or not?”

“Yeah man, sorry.” They followed me over to the bus
and as much as I was hoping she’d left on her own, she was still sitting there,
big as life and naked as the day she was born. When she saw security come in
with me she reached down for her robe that was still lying on the floor at her
feet. I stepped on it. She jumped up and said,

“What the fuck, Tristan? Get off my robe!”

“Get off my bus!” I said.

“Um, miss…we’re going to have to ask you to leave,”
the smaller guy said to her tits.

“He did things to me!” she said.

“Then why didn’t you put on your clothes and run
while he was gone?” the bigger guy said.

“Fuck you!” she screamed at him. Then she pushed me
in the chest and screamed, “Get the fuck off my robe!” The bigger guy grabbed
her arm and I stepped back. She turned to wail on him with the other arm, but
the smaller guy grabbed it. I bent and picked up her robe and tried to put it
across her back but she was twisting and turning and fighting them like a
banshee. “You’re going to be sorry, Tristan! I swear! You’re going to be
sorry.”

I stood and watched them carry her out. The chick
obviously has mental issues. Fuck! Now Elly was all pissed off at me. She was
never going to believe I didn’t fuck that crazy bitch. These were the kinds of
things I never wanted to deal with, which was why I’ve never had a fucking
girlfriend. Fuck!

CHAPTER
THREE

ELLY

I stayed up late, swapping bad relationship stories
with the girls that night. As stereotypical as it sounds, trashing men made me
feel a lot better. Hearing that Tammy, and even sweet little Hannah, had the
same kinds of problems that I did made me feel like less of a loser magnet.
Maybe they were just all losers; who knew?

It was after one in the morning before I finally
passed out for the night, so when my alarm went off at seven a.m. I was in a world
of hurt. The first thing I did was look outside. The sun was shining brightly.
Too brightly! I shut the blinds again right away and considered pulling the
covers back over my head, but I didn’t. I looked over and saw that my bunkmate
Lori was already up and out…or maybe she’d stayed out all night? She wasn’t there
when I went to bed and I didn’t hear her come in. Anyways, she was a big girl
and I didn’t care if she wanted to stay out all night. Maybe she met a guy who
wasn’t a loser; I had my own problems to deal with. I pulled myself up out of
the bunk and headed in to see if the shower was free. I could hear the other
girls talking and smell the coffee brewing. By the time I got out of the shower,
I felt almost human.

After I was dressed, we all went over to the
cafeteria on the lot for breakfast. I didn’t see Tristan or Brooke there; I
wondered if they were sleeping in after having marathon sex all night. I tried
to tell myself that thinking like that wasn’t helping anyone. It actually made
me sick to my stomach to think about it. I did my best to enjoy breakfast and
then we headed out to the amphitheater to set up for the show that would be the
replacement for the one we’d cancelled the night before. That day and the next
were supposed to be days off for us, but the rain stole one. I really wanted to
see a little bit of Colorado. I hoped that we didn’t get tomorrow taken away
somehow, too.

As I was having that thought, I looked up and saw
Jake. He was standing about six feet away and looking right at me. When I
looked up, he smiled. I didn’t smile back; I just turned my head quickly and
pretended that I didn’t see him. I could definitely see how he sucked the young
girls in. He was so damned good-looking, like a GQ model. As I did my best to
ignore him, I couldn’t help but wonder what I was doing to my career. I decided
that it didn’t matter though; I wasn’t sleeping with the old pervert or anyone
else in order to keep my job.

The morning passed in a rush of setting up the stage
and checking sound. I thanked God that I didn’t draw getting the singers in
order. I wasn’t ready yet to face either Tristan or Brooke. We went back to the
bus around two to get ready for the night. It was quite an adventure to share
one small bathroom with five other women. I spent half an hour on Facebook and
twenty minutes on the phone with Susie before it was finally my turn.

“So how is it going with the new roommate?” I asked
her.

“He’s a boy and he smells,” she complained. I
laughed and said,

“Yes, but does he pay his part of the rent?”

“Yeah, he does that much at least,” she said.

“Better than Tristan,” I said, spitefully.

“Are you two still angry with each other over all
that?”

I considered telling her what he’d done recently,
but I felt like I’d talked it to death the night before. It could wait until I
had more time to catch up with her. “I’m still angry with him, yes. He’s just a
big, lying jerk.”

“Well, I hope you’re not letting it ruin your trip.”

“No, I’m having fun, except for having to wait on
the bathroom. Even you didn’t take as long in there as these girls do.”

“At least you’re sharing your bathroom with girls. Why
is it that a boy can’t hit the toilet right in the center every time?”

I loved Susie; she had me in an even better mood by
the time I hung up. I called my Mom next and after she asked me if I was eating
and sleeping okay, she said, “And how is Tristan? Is he thrilled to be the star
attraction?”

“Yeah, there’s nothing Tristan loves more than
that,” I told her.

“You sound like you’re upset with him. Did something
happen?”

With a sigh I said, “I’m just not so sure it’s going
to work out for us, Mom.”

“Oh honey, I’m sorry. You two are so cute together.”

“I have to go now, Mom. I love you.
Kiss Daddy for me.”

I hung up after she sent her love back, wishing that
I hadn’t called her at all. It wasn’t her fault, but I was thinking about him
again and wishing we really had been cute together.

It was finally my turn in the bathroom. I dressed
warm because in spite of the beautiful, sunny day, Colorado was still no
California in the fall. Finally dressed and feeling better about myself in my
new jeans and Roxy sweater, I pulled on my black leather boots and headed out
with Tammy to get the ball rolling.
The show was set to begin
at five and would go until about eight.
All the way over to the theatre,
Tammy chatted, but I didn’t really hear what she was saying. I was trying to
convince myself to stop thinking about Tristan. I hated to admit it, but I’d
half expected him to call me and tell me that he really didn’t sleep with
Brooke. When he didn’t call, I started trying to tell myself that maybe he
really hadn’t slept with her and I’d accused him unjustly. I really was an idiot.

Just as I was about to check my headset before the
show began, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I pulled it out and looked at
it, still hoping it would be Tristan with a totally believable explanation. It
was a text and it wasn’t from Tristan.

Hey,
I’m here at the show too!

I stared at the number for a while. It looked
familiar to me but I couldn’t remember
who
it belonged
to. Whoever it was knew I was at the show, unless it was just a random coincidence.
I started to ignore it, but then I got another right after that.

Maybe
we could hang out after the show? I’ve missed you. It’ll be fun to catch up.

Finally I had to answer.

Who
is this?

The response came quickly.

Cole.

Shit! How did he know that I was there? I hadn’t
talked to him in at least a year. The last time was right before I went to
rehab. He was drinking heavily back then and I told him it wouldn’t be good for
me to be around him. The truth really was that once you crossed that line
between friendship and sex, there was no going back. He didn’t seem to care
much back then. All of a sudden he misses me?

How
did you know I was here?

Facebook!

I decided it was time to turn off location services.
That’s another thing, if he missed me so much, why the hell hadn’t he ever
messaged me on Facebook? I decided to politely decline.

I
have to stay and clean up after. I don’t think I’ll have time.

Tomorrow?

Shit! I guessed it wouldn’t hurt to just hang out
for a while, although it was probably going to be as uncomfortable as hell.

Yeah,
we have a day off tomorrow so I have some things to do in the morning. Maybe we
can get a cup of coffee or something.

He sent back a smiley face
.

I’ll
text you tomorrow.
Can’t wait.

Shit! Cole and I were good for one thing…helping
each other deal with the tragic loss of a man we both cared
about
.
No, that wasn’t really true. We had been good friends once, a long time ago.
After my boyfriend, who was also a good friend of his, died, all we did was
help each other get high and drunk and then we had wild sex so we didn’t have
to think about it. I guessed a cup of coffee wasn’t going to kill anyone. We’d
be back on the road right afterwards and Cole and I could go our separate ways
for another year…or more. I put him out of my head for that night and
concentrated on my work. If anything did come up later down the line with Jake,
I wanted to have the fact that I did a great job to fall back on.

I watched as each of the singers did their thing.
Brooke was fifth on stage and she seemed a little off that night. She looked
gorgeous, as usual. I should have given her a black eye at least. It would have
been nice to see her up there with a ton of concealer, trying to cover it up. I
shook off that nasty thought and moved onto my next when Tristan came out. As
usual, he was amazing. It was country night and he did a song called
Burnin
’ it Down
by Jason
Aldean
.
I stood there trying not to let it get to me as he sang about lying naked in
bed and making his woman feel like an angel as he sang to her. Argh! Stupid
bastard was probably thinking about Brooke while singing it.

When the show was over, he must have went straight
back to his bus. I went in to clean up the equipment in the green room and
Brooke and Ethan were there, but no sign of Tristan. I got a glare from Brooke,
but the fact that Ethan was there kept her mouth in check, I think. It kept my
mouth in check too. I had plenty that I’d liked to
have said
to the skank, but not in front of mixed company. I kept to myself, and by the
time I finished wrapping cords and unplugging systems, they were gone.

The girls and I worked until after ten cleaning up
and packing up. When we finished, we all went out for something to eat.
Afterwards, since we had a night off, most of
them
went out to a club. Hannah and I begged off and went back to the bus. We talked
for a while, mostly about the show and everyone that had anything to do with it.
Hannah was really well-informed about everyone. I guess it was because she was
one of those people that felt safe to talk
to
. I told
her about my plans the next day and that I wasn’t really looking forward to
seeing Cole.

“Why not?” she asked.

I didn’t talk about my boyfriend that had overdosed
to anyone other than family or Susie. I’d never even really told Tristan all
about him. I finally just said, “We both lost a good friend and because of
that, while we were grieving, we crossed that line friends aren’t supposed to
cross. Things got weird and uncomfortable. I haven’t seen him since.” I didn’t
tell her that we didn’t only have sex once; it was several times. It was also
drug
and alcohol fueled. Those were details that Hannah
didn’t really need to know.

“You know, sometimes you can get that friendship
back, and sometimes things and people are in the past because that is where
they belong. You won’t know, though, until you see him again.”

“True,” I said. “And it’s only for tomorrow. I doubt
he’ll be expecting much.”

CHAPTER
FOUR

TRISTAN

I thought I did another great job that night, but I
was restless as hell after the show. I went back to the bus after turning down
about five offers to go out and party; what the hell do people think being
clean and sober means? I didn’t feel like going out, anyways. What I wanted to
do was
go
and talk to Elly. I wanted to make her
listen to me and make her believe that I didn’t fuck that skank Brooke. I knew
that she wasn’t going to listen at that point, and I didn’t want to just go
over there to her bus and fight with her, so I didn’t do that either. I thought
about calling her, but I didn’t want to fight on the phone. Fuck! I finally
settled on doing the one thing that I actually needed to do, and that was
writing another song for the record. I had a few of them finished. If I
disciplined myself, I could have the twelve that the fuckers wanted so that I could
get my money when we finish the tour. Then I was going to tell Jake and his
little, fat minion Tony to go fuck themselves.