The Rock Star Next Door, a Modern Fairytale (36 page)

They sat in the chic liv
ing room of their rented home
, stunned by her news that the wedding was off, and worse, the entir
e relationship with Lex was off. She told them how
he’d just walked away from her wh
en she suggested they slow down and
take some tim
e to clear their heads.

“He’ll come around.” Jack assured her. “Give it a week. He’
ll be back
.”

Jessie nodded
in acknowledge
ment of her brother’s words. I
n her heart she knew it was over
. A rock legend
courted her and asked her to marry him.
She said no, and he persisted.
He won her heart. She said yes
and then all hell broke loose.
So, you asked him to take it slow,
and he blew up at you
and walked away
.

“Yeah . . . .” Darrell interrupted her dangerous thoughts as he crossed the room to bestow a brotherly hug upon her. “It’s just his pride, Jess. He was proposing the big M and you rebuffed him. That’s gotta hurt. Give him a few days to lick his wounds
, like Jack said. He’ll be back. H
e’d be crazy to let you go.” 

His gallant gesture brought
a deep ache
. Jessie knew she
had to be pretty bad off for Darrell to
refrain from flirting with her
or making some disgusting
re
mark
about
being her lover.

Tears came, ignoring her steely resolve to be st
rong, to not give in to the pain.
The three males surrounding her seemed to wince with each pained sob that escaped her lips.

“Look, I don
’t see what the big deal is
.” Jack began, grimacing at her tortured sobs. “You love the guy, he asked
you to marry him. Just stop running away from him
and tell him about mom’s mental illness. If he’s serious about you, it won’t matter, if not, he’ll bolt, either way, you’ll have the--”

The
house
phone ran
g and
the gather
ing
hel
d its breath
with anticipation.

“I’ll get it
.
” Steve held out his hands while everyone remained frozen in place.

Jessie straightened her spine, unconsciously thinking of curt and rude remarks she should say to Lex for walking out on her in such a huff three days ag
o. She wiped her eyes, sniffled
and even cleared her throat to give every impression that she wasn’t the least bit upset about his behavior, only angry with him for his childishness.

“Okay . . . .yeah . . . we’re finished as far as the lyrics and stuff. Wait . . . I’ll ask, they’re all here except for Kyra.” Steve put his hand over the phon
e
and offered Jessie an a
pologetic look
. “S
orry, Jess. It’s Max, he
wants to know when we can start in the recording studio. StarSign wants to book time, are we ready to lay the instrumental tracks?”

Everyone sighed
and looked at everyone else. It was their third album, after two previous that had reached the top ten of the music charts.

“Yes
.
” Jack affirmed. “Tell ‘em we’re ready.”

His enthusiasm buoyed them up once again as they faced the moment of decision, going into the studio with their roughly sketched songs and making them into something salable for the music industry.

Darrell gave a thumbs up
and Jessie nodded gravely.

Steve relayed
their decision to their manager. Max
informed them that they would be expected
to start
recording
in the studio at the beginning of next
week.

“Wow
.
” Steve
set the phone down with a sigh. “Tha
t’s it. Grab your weapons, guys. N
o one gets out of the basement until we get it wrapped to final copy
.
You know how Charlie Zands is about having screw ups that delay his production schedule.”

They looked at one another,
laughed
and hugged collectively before rushing down the winding iron staircase single file to their makeshi
ft jam studio in the recreation room
on the basement level.

“What a
bout Kyra
?” Steve asked Jessie.

“She won’t
return my calls.”

“S
crew her
.
” Jack snorted. “Some friend, taking your
ex-
boy
friend’s side
.”

“She’s engaged to Mike, who just happens to be Lex’s best friend.” Jessie defended. “And she was responsible for getting us together.”

“Yeah, but---” Jack slipped his bass over his shoulder and adjusted the strap as Steve keyed up the microphones so they could record their jam session and play it back for their own proofing before they went into the studio with their newest work.

“
Yeah, but
. . .
” Echoed throughout the room in a synthesis of modulated sound waves that sounded like a bad soundtrack for B-grade horror flick.

“
Yeah buts live in the woods
.
” Steve sp
oke ominously into his mike and then grinned
.

Their antics b
rought a smile to Jessie’s face
as Steve’s voice with
spooky
sound effects came out sounding like Bela
Lugosi
. Steve lo
ved the technology of sound. He
doubled as their sound man in the early days, before they had an entire crew hired by record execs to set up for their concert appearances.

“Ye--ee-aah!
” Jack improvised, playing out dark, driving chords to emphasize his word
s. “If Kyra doesn’t give a damn
she’s
out of
the band
. N
ow, crank it up
, dudes
, we’ve
got some refining to do before Monday
.
”

Jessie swallowed the ache in her throat and gave her full attentions to their music.

They had a few scratched out songs on scrap paper each one had thrown together, mos
t  with  incomplete chord riffs
and lots of work to do before they’d be presentable for the studio
recording. She closed her eyes and
offered up a faint hope that Lex would call tonight or tomorrow as she turned on her amplifier and started tuning her guitar.

*    *    *    *

Lex stared at the computer screen, seeing nothing, only feeling the sting of rejection.

What was it with him? The celebrated King of Se
duction, yet he couldn’t get a
woman
to
accept his offer of
marriage? Some Don Juan he was
in real life.

If news of his defeat got out in the press
, he’d be the mockery of the decade.

Lex had
been serious about comm
itting his life to Crystal. He imagined
grow
ing old together as they held
their grandchildren on their
knees. He proposed at least twice a year for
ten years, and she refused him, year after year.

We don’t need a piece of paper to define our relationship.
Crystal would say,
  It’s old fashioned. We’re free spirits, Lex. Marriage would ruin things. Think of your career. The Sex God being married? Think of the complications . . .

He saved his wor
k and closed his computer program
as Crystal’s well worn speech echoed in his ears
. It was useless to try to work
. He could only think of Jessie. He kept re-playing her refusal, trying to understand what it was he’d missed. 

Mercy
.
 
He let out a long sigh, and gazed at the picture he had tacked up over his computer. The Rolling Stone cover of Jessie sitting with her knees drawn up, her hair blowing out wildly in a brilliant red swirl, her eye
s so vulnerable, so full of emotion
.

I need for us to step back, take a breather . . .
there’s no need to rush to the altar . . . we barley know each other.

When your
souls meet you’ll recognize each other
, Ravi
told him.

So, w
hy the hell didn’t she recognize him?

This week had been
hell. He hadn’t slept.  Lex couldn’t
stop arguing with Jessie in his mind. She made it plain; she wanted him to step back, stop chasing her.

The soul remembered. That was what Ravi and other New Age Shamans taught. The soul remembered even if the mind did not. Jessie’s soul remembered something, and that was why she was running. Had he hurt her in the past? He didn’t think so, but maybe he was blocking this all out, maybe there was a reason Jessie was running
away
from him.

Or
was it
immaturity or
obstinacy
on her part, a refusal to accept that they were desti
ned to be together?
Hell, h
e had no intention of forcing himself upon a woman who didn’t want his attentions. I
t might have worked in the middle a
ges
but not here
in the twenty first century. With a snarl, Lex ripped Jessie’s picture from the bulletin board abov
e his computer. He wadded it up
and tossed it into the garbage.

Best to move
on with his life. That’s what she was doing. If the girl wanted him, she’d not play so hard to get, not run the other way as if she were trying to escape a monster. He sank back down in the padded desk chair, pondering the kaleidoscope screen saver, uncertain for the first time about his belief that they were destined to be together.

Was this some
cosmic test? The waves of color on the screen
saver
were m
esmerizing, soothing, and
hypnotic. Patterns ever changing, like waves crashing on the surf, molding, shaping the shoreline.

Had he been wrong about Jessica Kelly?

Rolly’s file sat on his
desk. Lex picked it up, thumbed through it, and was tempt
ed to toss it out, too. He didn’t. Instead
he closed it, opene
d his drawer and threw it in on top of
the print
copy of his firs
t novel. Rolly was in Wisconsin
checking out Jessie’s fam
ily. He’d be back soon with a report
and a bill for expenses.

Strange
, he thought, propping his chin in his hand as he stared once more at the screen saver. Very strange
i
ndeed. Jessie ran
away at sixteen and h
er parents never reported
her
or her
brother
as
missing. Stranger still, any mention of her
family sent Jessie into a panic
as if some deep dark secret were about to be exposed.

He needed a walk to clear his head. Lex turned out the light in his study a
nd closed the door. It was almost midnight. T
he moon was high in the sky. Not quite full.
He shrugged into a sweatshirt jacket
and meandered out on to the patio.

Music came from next door. Live music. They were
jamming
.

Deadlines.
The irony of success. Once you made it to the top, you had to work endlessly to stay there. There were always hundr
eds of hungry, desperate musicians knocking on the studio doors,
hoping to take your place when you slipped a notch.

Lex moved dow
n the moonlit path to the shore and stared at the rolling
surf.

He was glad he was leaving the music business behind. It was all about image, and just like the kaleidoscope on his screen saver, the image was ever changing. Few rock idols had the staying power to work past forty. Madonna was an exception, but she, too, had learned to change and modify her image a
ccordingly.
David Bowie had a natural class, which made him seem timeless.

Yet,
for each Madonna or David Bowie who brought
classic grace to their own image as they aged in the spotlight, there were countless others who possessed neither the grace to c
hange with the times
or the good sense to retire and fade from the spotlight. Aging men who never seemed to grow past the wildness of the
ir teen years, gray-
haired
has
-
bee
ns who
wanted to party down as if they
were still twenty-five
.