The Rock Star Next Door, a Modern Fairytale (23 page)

“Yes.”

“Yes
.
” He repeated, shouting the word over and over as he lifted her in his arms and whirled her about in a circle. “Yes
.
Yes
.
”

Duncan and Ozzy
came rushing in to see what all the excitement was about. Both
dogs
barked happily as they danced in circles and jumped about, seeming to capture the spirit of Lex’s exuberance.

He stopped shouting his victory just long enough to capture her lips in a possessive kiss. Jessie wrapped her arms about his neck and devoured him with her mouth.

Yes
, Jack was right. She
had to just embrace the moment
and follow her heart. She was going to marry Elvis--albeit the 21st century equivalent of the King.

Yes
.
Lex was her dream, her fantasy, her friend, her lover, her dark, blue eyed angel.

Jessie loved e
verything about living here
. Only in Malibu could you become engaged to the rock star next door.

*   *   *

“Lex is
evil, Jes
s.” Michelle, Jessie
’s
older sister insisted as Jessie paced the confines of the living room with the cordless
land
-
line phone
in her hand
.

Jessie
had
called their parents, who were less than exuberant about the affair, and now she had just informed her sister of her impending nuptials.
It would be a small affair, just a few friends and family. Lex agreed to keep it low key.

“Our pastor
cautioned us against such lurid music for years. It has sublimina
l messages in it.”
Michelle continued.

“
Al
ex
ander Coltrane
is nothing
like his stage persona.
It’s an act, duh?
”

“God loves you
. He has someone better for you, someone who isn’t involved in Satanism.”

“Lex
is not a Satanist.
”

“
Have
you ask
ed
him
about his religious beliefs
?”

Jessie rolled her eyes at the ceiling and tried really, really hard not to swear. Her religious sister was nothing if not persistent.
“I
don’t need to ask him
.
”

Jessie resisted the urge to hang up on her delusional sister. “Hold
on,” S
he growled and put the phone down on the counter for a second so she could take deep, cleansing breaths. This was changing from a pile of dog shit to a mountain of elephant crap faster than she could spell manure. After counting to ten, she picked
up
the phone again and asked,
“
Okay, Michelle, nice to chat, but what I really need to know is this: a
re you coming to my wedding or not?”

“
Don’t you think this is all a bit rushed?”

“No
.”
Yeah
, but she wasn’
t about to admit it to her quirky
sister.
She walked around the granite top island in
the kitchen t
o the fridge, pulled out a
cold
Frappuccino
, twisted the lid
and too
k a deep swig of the
cold coffee
beverage
. “Where do you get all this
stuff? Why do you say my fiancé
is a Satanist?”

“I heard it on Dr.
Richard’s Christian Family Today
program
.
And Pastor Marty talks about these celebrities and their secret societies
all the time in our Bible Study group.
They
even
know thing
s about
the President that would shock
most
--”

Damn it. I had to ask
.
Jessie fumed. She set the glass bottle on the granite counter and winced at the near splinting clink. She picked up the bottle again and inspected the bottom. Yep, there was a crack.
“Still addicted to the same old con
spiracy theories, I see.
News flash;
They
sai
d the same thing
yea
rs ago about Alice Cooper,
Gene Simmons and
Ozzy
Osbourne
. And
it’s not true.
Hello
, I know, be
cause I’ve actually met them
. Geez,
Michelle
, stop drinking the Purple Kool-A
id, would you?
B
ack when I was
in grade
school your
group
claimed
Amy Gr
ant was a devil worshipper, and she was a Christian singer
.
Are you
coming to my
wedding?”

Silence answered her.

“Okay
.
Nice talking to you.
” Jessie spat with sarcasm and pressed the off button.
She slammed dow
n the phone, missing the cradle
and swore when it hit the floo
r.

“T
old you.” Jack stumbled into the kitchen, shuffling the contents of the table in search of his lighter. “Don’t invite the relatives. Spare yourself the pain.”

“She thinks Lex is holding satanic rituals. She read somewhere that he drinks blood on stage or something.”

“Scary, ain’t it.” Jack chuckled, lighting up.
“We’re related to that twit
”

“Stupid is more like it.”

“No, Jess, it’s damned frightening to believe that we’re related to those people. Thank whatever gods are out there that we escaped when we did.”

“You’d thin
k I told them I have HIV
?
Why can’t they just say, ‘Oh, Jessie, that’s wo
nderful, congratulations?”
She waved her hands out expansively.
“Is
that
so much to ask? Really,
f
or once to pretend we’re a happy family?
”

“You’re looking for something that was
never there,
Jess. Forget them.
”
Jack insisted and left her standing alone in the black and white Euro style kitchen.

Jessie swallowed
the tears
. Jack had been right all along. Still, she couldn’t get past the hurt. It felt
like there was hole in her chest
, right there above her ribcage in the vicinity of where her heart should be.

Michelle called again and again in the days that followed, pleading as
Jessie refused to take the calls and Jack was forced to hang up on their religious sister
time and again
.

“Satan has the power to change himself into an angel of light, and deceive if possible, even the elect.”
Michelle cautioned her brother on
e
morning.

“C
ool.” Jack responded. “You wouldn’t happen to have his
cell
number, would you?” Jack grinned as the response provided
even
more shock value than he’d anticipated. He held the phone away from his ear to share
with the rest of the band
the he
ated scriptural rebuke from his
sister
and
then said, “No, sorry, Jessie’s not here. I’ll tell her you called, though.”  With that, he pushed the off button and set the receiver down on the counter between the kitchen and living area.

“You aren’t helping a
ny
.” Jessie remarked,
in
spite of her amusement.

“Yeah, but
it i
s
fun to get her going.
”

“If you aren’t careful, she’ll be flying out here with a team of church pe
ople to lead an exorcism on you.
”

Jack’s turquoise eyes took on a preternatural glea
m. “Hey, now that’d be a hoot
.
Probably make our CD sales skyrocket, too.”

“Spare me.
” Jessie waved her arms in the air dismissively as she went to the fridge for a cold
Frappuccino
to soothe away the disturbing call.

Mich
elle’s c
alls were not the worst
. T
hey were a source of amusement, when compared to the ones from Mrs. Kelly. The voicemail messages
from Jack and Jessie’s mom
grew more des
perate and downright chilling when Jessie didn’t return her calls
.

Jessie was ready to take up smoking just to relieve the stress.

When Jessie and Jack returned to the house after the Fen
der photo shoot, the phone rang again
. Jack pressed the button to listen to a message, hoping for more fun with their sister.  Instead, it was their f
ather’s
stern baritone
echoing in the kitchen, all the way from
Wisconsin. Jessie picked
up before the message finished, hoping the
ir sane
parent could be dealt with
in a reasonable fashion
.

“Hi Dad. We just got in
from a photo shoot in L.A
.”

“Have you done something to be ashamed of?”

“
What
. . . Dad?” Jess
ie sputtered, shocked by
his cool, accusing tone.

“You haven’t returned
any
of
your mother’s calls. She’s upset, trying to find out about this wedding business, h
er friends are asking her about the details
and she doesn’t know. How does that make us look?”

“Dad--listen--”
She pleaded as she walked into the living room and stood at the windows overlooking the ocean.

“I’ve been doing a
bit researc
h on
this fiancé
,” Her father paused dramatically, “And you
should
be ashamed
.
I know
I am.
”

“Dad, he’s not like that in real life
. W
hat he does on stage is
called
acting
--”

“I read in the Celebrity
Reporter that you
r boyfriend was arrested in 2002
for raping a fourteen year old girl
.
”

“That
was not Lex, Dad. It was a roadie,
a person hired to set up and take
down his stage equipment
.
And the guy was fired
, prosecuted and
he went to prison
.”

She gave Jack an exasperated look. He swore aloud and stuck his tight fists into his leather bomber jacket. “Let me talk to him.” Jack said, his lips tight and his voice raw.

Jessie shook her head. The last thing she needed was Jack flying off the handle and telling their father to go to hell. They’d all regret it later, and that was exactly what Jack would do if she handed him the phone. His tolerance for this kind of drama was nil.

“And the barten
der down at the Legion Hall told me
he masturbate
s on stage.” Her father continued
. “His so
ngs are nothing but filth
. This is the man who will father my grandchildren?
”

“Of co
urse,
your bartender
knows Lex better than I do, living in Altoona
, Wisconsin, sure Dad. I only live next door to
Lex, but
what do I know? And Dad, you might want to consider that the
Reporter makes weekly claims of women
giving birth to ali
en children.”

Jack nodded his approval of her calm rebuttal and gave her the thumbs up sign.

“We’re not coming to the wedding.
” Their father said in a cold, rational tone. “
I’m not walking you down the aisle and g
iving you away to a pervert and a
child molester.”

“Daddy,
it’s
not true.
Lex is wonderful
, those
newspapers
print lies
to create scandal
. The headlines sell the magazines, it’s a racket. Y
ou don’t understand--
”