The Rock Star Next Door, a Modern Fairytale (46 page)

Lex stayed true to his promise
.
He didn’t p
ush her.
She wanted to test his word
and her free
dom to come and go as she wished
.
His earlier zeal
struck a dee
p chord within her, one she hadn’t
want
ed to acknowledge before
as it smacked of
control, emotional control.  She had enough of that
with her crazy
mother. His
obsessive pursuit of her, while thrilling on the the one hand, was also a little scary. After a month apart, Jessie realized her reluctance to give in to his demands of a quick marriage had been an instinctive act of self-preservation.  His ‘marry me quickly or I’ll walk’ routine
--which he did
--smacked too much of the games her mom played
when Jessie was a kid, games the woman was still playing to this day
.
Do what I want
or
I’ll kill myself
--or I’
ll run away
and you’ll never find me
.
That was mom’
s M.O., jerking hard on the chains to keep those about her in a perpetual state of fear that they might lose her love.

While Lex may not have been quite that dramatic, having him simply walk out on her because she wouldn’
t give in to his demand
to marry him ‘right now’
was too close to the nightmare of her childhood. This time, she’
d take her own sweet
time
.
She wasn’t about to marry a control freak or a d
rama queen--er King.

The nasty break up of Tom and Katie was all over the news and it was a glaring
example of how letting an
uber-famous celebrity male call the shots and take control in the relationship could turn a f
airytale into a
nightmare. Poor Katie had to literally run
away from Tom and his entourage
just
to keep her sanity. And while Lex might not be a member of that particular organization, he
was also
famous
, Rock Star Royalty
and a lit
tle too accustomed to having it his way.
Well, this was one chick
that
wasn’t jumping onto the Crazy Train, not even if Ozzy himself were the conductor.

*     *      *

Kyra made i
t back for the MTV shoot the following week
. The stage set was a gothic
castle, complete with chains on the walls, tall
iron
spires of candelabra
everywhere
,
cobwebs
and jack-o-lanterns
--
the
typical Halloween atmosphere
.
Jessie was enthralled. It was like being on an old horror movie set. All that was missing was Bela Lugosi popping out at them from an empty casket.
The band had been decked out i
n their gypsy costumes. M
ost of the dialogue lines were assigned to Jack and Jessie
. It bothered Jessie
immensely.
She tried to talk to Max about it, but he s
imply waved her protests away
saying the producers knew what they were doing.
It seemed
the die had been cast, they w
ere no longer calling the shots. T
he record company was determined that Jack and Jessie were to be marketed as much as possible during this crest of popularity.

Their
new
CD was receiving rave reviews.
Within two weeks of its release
they had three
hits on the billboard charts.
Sorcerer’s Kiss
was number one, a romantic
ballad
Jessie wrote before the breakup with
Lex
. It was a
full four minute work, complete with whining guitar solos and an eerie, haunting keyboard riff composed by Steve to evoke the sensual and
hypnotic power of the sorcerer. T
he song was being played
in
its
entirety on the radio stations, a rare event as most songs that went over the usual two and one half to three minute slots were cut off to accommodate the station’s length requirements.

Jack’s mournful
ballad,
Fatal Beauty
, inspired by his loss of Lilly earlier in t
he summer, was number four on the charts.
Max was negotiating an offer for Jack’s song to be used as the soundtrack for an upcoming movie by the same name. It wa
s a done deal, according to Max
as the song was already a hi
t before the movie was released. All that remained
was
the setting up a time for a music video
to augment the movie release. 

The d
ark, ominous work
Steve and
Jessie had written
while i
n the throes of despair,
Soul
Torture
was number ten.
They were one of the few bands
in rock history to have three hits on the top ten charts simultaneously,
all
from the same album.
T
he record
company was pumping
the publicity machine, negotiating appearances for Jack and Jess
ie on every talk show
an
d
pushing the video
of
Sorcerer’s Kiss
on VH1 and MTV.

They were
about to perform that song in the next sequence for the taped special. Jessie and Kyra were in
make-up at the
moment. Jessie sat in the makeup
chair
next to Kyra’s
as the hairdresser teased her hair and continued to spray luminescent hair spray into the tangled mane to make it
shine even more for the cameras. The
make-up artist
next to Jessie worked expertly on Kyra’s
eyes to create the
same
mysterious, bewitching qualit
y portrayed on the
album
cover. It was the first time Jessie and Kyra had been alone together, away from the group, since Kyra’s late return from her inconvenient and impromptu vacation. The tension between them was nearly unbearable. Neither spoke as the artists worked their magic. Jessie turned the pages of a magazine on her lap, uncertain as what she should or could say to her old
est
friend--the friend who had betrayed her in another life. Too quickly, the makeup artists
finished
the transformation
and left the women
to prepare for the upcoming segment.

“I’m leaving
for Vegas
as soon as this is done.” Kyra remarked, a pout on her heavily painted ruby lips. “Mike and I
have decided to get married there on
Frid
ay. I hope
you and the guys
will come.
Mike’s counting on Lex
being the best man.”

Jessie lifted a black lace encased hand to smooth the stiffened hair from her left eye. “Friday?” She repeated with exasperation. “That’s tw
o days from now. How do you
know we’ll
even
be finished with this shoot?
”

“Don’t start.” Kyra snapped. “
Some of us have a life beyond the recording studio
.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“All you do is nag me abo
ut how I should be at this gig or that interview. You constantly bitch because
I missed
this jam session or
that meeting
.
You need to ease up, stop acting like a drill sergeant leading the troops
into battle
.
W
e h
ave three albums cut
. The money’s coming in. I
t’s time to
have fun.
Be spontaneous, Jessie,  for once in your
miserable life, drop the militant diva bit
an
d fly to Las Vegas
to
be my maid
of honor
.
”

“Why can’t it wait until the MTV shoot is finished?”

“I’m pregnant--”

“But a
few days or a week won’t matter
.
”

“
I’ve decided to drop
out of the band
.
I’ve had enough of this crap. It’s time to move on to something else. Mike wants me to try modeling.
”

Jessie dropped a high-heeled boot from the chair to spin it around, facing K
yra instead of the mirror. “Yeah? And just when
were you
planning on telling
us
?
”

“I just did
.
You can talk to Max
. H
e’s a pain in the butt. And
tell him and the guys
that I’m
not taking any of their bullshit--
”

“Kyra
,
you have a contract. Y
ou can’t just waltz off the set to get married and then hop a cruise ship to the Caribbean or God knows where else
.
”

“
You and Jack are all tha
t matters to the big boys
.
I’m tired of all of this
.
”

“O
kay
. J
ust quit.
I hope Mike has a damned good contract lawyer in line, because the record company won’t just roll over for you.
Kyra
, what are you thinking
?
”

“I’m thinking about
me
, not you or the guys
.
I’m sure StarSign doesn’t want me prancing on stage when I’m eight months pregnant. You know how grueling tours are, how exhausting it is to be in a different city eve
ry night for months.
I’m sick of it.
”

Jessie stared at the garishly painted woman befo
re her.
Kyra
left their band a lon
g
time ago.
T
he guys knew it,
Max knew it,
and even the vice preside
nt of StarSign knew
Kyra didn’t want to be in the game
any longer
. Jessie was the
only one who didn’t want to see
the truth
.
“You’re le
aving because of a man?
”

“Yes. W
hat’s wrong with following your heart? You lost Lex because
you are a coward.
What do you have to look forward to in the next few months? What do you pl
an to do
between
interview
s
with
Rolling Stone
and
wiping Jack’s crack sodden nose?
”

It was a low blow.
Never mind that
Kyra didn’t know she and Lex were on again, in a very
causal way. No one knew, aside from
Jack and
Steve
.
It was a shaky
reconciliation
at best, and they didn’t need any attention from the media right now.
Still, Kyra’s accusation cut pretty deep. She had some balls, blaming Jessie for the difficulties between her and Lex. Kyra was supposed
to be
her
friend.

Jessie stood up.
“
Some of us have worked pretty damned hard to get noticed. Now it’s paying off.
We can’t
just step down from the stage
and
go
sip Pina Coladas on th
e beach. Staying on top is work and I, for one, plan to honor
our contracts.”

“There you go again;
it’s always about
your
plans
, your dreams and
your life
.
”

Jessie practiced the
deep
cle
ansi
ng breathes Madame Aria
taught her. She was seeing double right now, hearing double. The
distant
past was colliding with the future.

Lucy was standing before her
as she gazed into the mirror. Lucy waved
her arms with exasperation as she ranted abou
t how it was
so selfish of Jessie/Julian
n
a
to leave her behind
to pick up the pieces
while she ran off with the
handsome
singer to Paris to become his wife.
Julianna
just
wanted Lucy to be happy for her. Instead,
Lucy was
accusing Julianna
of abandoning her.
Lucy was
also
secretly fucking her future husband
behind her
back and laughing about it--all the while accusing Julianna of being
the
selfis
h
one
for
m
aking plans to leave,
abandoning her
in Normandy
.