Authors: Carlene Love Flores
Time to head back to the
dressing room and set some of this stuff down so she could call and check on
Ben.
If he was still at the hotel he was going to
have to make his own way here.
Soon,
Stefan, Will and Jaxon would line up like good little boys for their
makeup.
Black guy-liner and hair
gel.
It was a part of the show.
Part of the magic and
fantasy.
If girls thought Stefan
looked more brooding with runny eyeliner from all the sweat dripping off his
skin, then that’s what they’d give them.
Marion didn’t fancy the makeup but he paid her regular visits for
sideburn trims.
Apparently she did them
“wickedly even.”
She sat down on a backless stool and
dialed Ben.
He answered but sounded
frazzled.
“Ben, where are you?
Did I leave you?”
“I’m on my way.
And no, you didn’t leave me.”
Had he just shushed someone in the
background?
“Well, what’s going
on?”
“Oh, it’s a long story.
I’ll have to tell you later.”
Ben groaned.
“Is everything okay?”
“Oh yeah, everything’s…great.
Look, my…driver, doesn’t know where he’s
going.
I have to help him with
directions.
I swear
,
GPS was invented for this region.”
“Okay, well good luck.
Do you need me to ground guide you?”
“No, I know where I’m going; I just have
to be phone free to tell
him
.”
“Okay, I’ll let you go.
See you soon.”
They hung up.
Her makeshift cosmetologist station was ready
for business but she was momentarily without clients so she sat there and
fiddled with her dress.
And then with her hair.
And then with her makeup.
It was the most attention she’d paid to
herself in a long time.
The end result
was that she looked like a pretty groupie.
She’d kick Stefan if he teased her.
The thought of getting lucky with anyone other than Lucky gave her
heartburn.
She crossed her arms at the
wrists and then pressed the “x” to her chest.
* * * *
Lucky sat on the familiar worn upholstery
of his truck, proud his new engine had done so well getting all the way out
here.
“Do I turn here?
Look, I’m sorry; I’ve never been here before,
Ben.”
“I know, really I understand.
We’re on the right road now.
Just follow this all the way down until you
see a hoard of stopped one-way traffic.
That’ll be the sign that we’ve made it.”
“Okay, so you don’t have like a badge or
something to show to get us past it?”
“Dude, I actually do have a badge, but
um, the problem with this place is that there’s only this one entrance.
The rest of it is tree line and so it’s
pretty much our only option, to wait with the masses.
Once we get up to the entrance, yeah, then
I’ll be able to get us VIP treatment.”
“Are we gonna miss the show?”
“Probably miss like, half of Lonerby’s
set.
I’ll give you the CD if you
want.
They’re pretty good.
The lead singer, Erby, she’s totally gorgeous.
I think she loves me but is afraid to say anything,
you know?
She’s always watching me.”
Ben definitely had a way of stoking
people’s curiosity.
He didn’t know if
this young lady, Erby, was acting out of love, but Ben certainly thought
so.
“Yeah, I’m not too worried about
that…So where is Trista gonna be?
Do you
know?
Was that her on the phone?
Does she know I’m with you?”
“Okay, cowboy, slow down.
By the time we get there, she’ll probably be
working on getting the meet’n’greeters email addresses to send them their
photos with the guys later on.
She
usually heads out and catches the last couple songs of the opener.
Then she stays there for the rest of the
show.
And no, she doesn’t know you’re
with me.”
Neither of them knew how that was going
to go over.
They didn’t talk about it
except for to say that Ben thought he was crazy for driving up there in this
old beat up truck of his and that he should have given her a call.
A long time ago.
He wiped an apprehensive and sweaty hand
across his jean-clad thigh.
“So she goes
where to watch the show?”
“To her seat.”
“Like on the side of the stage?”
“No, like in the seating
area, with the fans.
It’s
always different but she’s usually on Jaxon’s side, not too close but not too
far away.”
That figured.
This was a mistake.
Wasn’t it?
He should have stayed back at the hotel and waited for her there.
He’d have been able to practice the speech
he’d decided to go with.
The one where
he apologized and hoped she’d give him another chance.
And he could definitely use more time with
the guitar he’d bought.
The song was
bare bones and minimal, sounding even rougher for his rusty playing ability.
But it came from his heart.
The one he
knew belonged to her.
He had to show her
what she brought to his world.
The way she gave it color and adventure.
He hoped she’d understand that she was the
only person he could play for.
She was
the only one he loved that much.
They pulled around the short wooden
barricades once they’d made it to the front of the line.
The security waved them around and to the
back.
As
this
happened, curious onlookers
gave them a second of consideration,
wondering who they were.
But his dusty
old windows didn’t have a shred of tint and it was quickly easy to see they
weren’t in the band.
They passed to the
back lot without chase, parking near the loading docks.
Ben started with a quick low-down on the
various passes he was rifling through.
“All right, this is your pass that says
it’s
okay for you to be back here.”
He eyed it quickly.
It had the band’s logo, the letters D.C. and
the year printed on it at the bottom and in all capitals, ALL ACCESS.
It looked important but he wasn’t sure what
to do with it until Ben handed him a wadded up lanyard from his bag.
“Just slide it in here and wear it around
your neck.
I know it probably looks a
little goofy but it’s the easiest way not to get questioned every two
minutes.
Just trying to save you the
hassle, partner.”
“
Ben,
thanks.
You do know I’m not actually a
cowboy, right?”
He rolled his big eyes. “Okay, so are you
ready?”
Ben didn’t believe him.
He supposed he probably was the closest thing
to a cowboy Ben had ever known.
“Am I good to go?
I mean, do I need to stick with you, as my
escort, or am I free to roam around?”
“Nope, you’re a free man.
But I have to get going.
So, I’ll see you around then.”
Ben opened the heavy metal door to leave.
“Hey man, hold up.
Seriously, thank you, Ben.
I really appreciate it.”
“Good luck, bro.”
It was as if they both knew how badly
he’d need it.
He slid the lanyard over
his head and let it lay down the center of the opened buttons of his red and
black shirt.
Ben disappeared.
So, there he sat, behind the wheel of his
baby blue pickup.
Not sure about how to
reconcile with the woman he’d hurt.
He
realized something, sitting there watching people, mostly men, as they went
about from place to place, all with the familiar lanyard around their
necks.
Trista didn’t belong there.
Maybe she had at one point in her life.
But she didn’t need to be the center of their
dude universe anymore.
She was everything in this world to
him.
He had to get her back.
But showing up here, unannounced, while she
was working, might feel more like an ambush than an apology.
He’d do his best to stay out of sight.
He would have left and gone back to the hotel
right then and there but curiosity to see Trista in her world egged him to
stay.
Sure, he hoped to take her away
from all this, but still.
He walked the venue until settling for a
temporary spot along an aisle.
With his arms folded across his chest and
his hair tied back snugly in its usual ponytail, he did his best to blend
in.
A few young girls eye-balled him and
then giggled when he turned their way to scan once more for Trista.
He smiled at them and they turned away
quickly, their red faces huddled in teeny bopper seclusion.
He was surprised that such young girls would
be allowed to attend a Sin Pointe concert.
Had their parents heard the band’s music?
He wondered what it would do to these teens
if he were to tell them he was Jaxon’s cousin.
And then he wondered what it must be like for Trista to constantly be in
that situation.
Always
attached to someone else’s fame.
Hopping down off his high horse, he quit
worrying about where the girls’ parents were.
Their attendance here was nothing compared to Trista’s stint at the same
age.
She’d been adopted into the beast
and had lived it.
What all had she
seen?
From what he gathered, her life so
far had hinged on unhealthy sexual exploitation.
It had stolen her childhood and then lured
her away from college.
The process most
went through of dating, finding a lifetime mate and then settling down had
passed her over.
No wonder she’d been so
forward with him that very first night.
It was all she knew.
For the first time in a handful of weeks,
he was grateful things had worked out the way they had.
This was his chance to make it right with
her.
He scanned the crowd again.
A second time, starting at the center of the
aisle and working his gaze to the far left.
There in the twelfth row, was a mess of golden blonde curls.
Her back-lighted silhouette shone through
the hundreds of people enjoying the warm up music in a gentle sway.
From the tangled bun dipped a neck that held
a black lace choker so intimately, he was instantly jealous.
Her feminine shoulders framed a black and
silver print dress that he was sure she’d made.
A sleeve slunk down lower on her left shoulder and settled happily at
the bends of her elbows.
She wore a belt
tonight, something he hadn’t seen before.
Its black fabric swirled around her waist like his arms should’ve.
He couldn’t see past her hips. She was just
too short to see anymore.
As he took in
her appearance, it tormented him that he had to keep the distance between them
like this.
But it had to be this way.
Lonerby finished up their set, ending on
a rampant round of applause.
They may
have even garnered a standing ovation but everyone was already on their feet so
it was impossible to tell.
The lead
singer, Erby, a pixie-like, spirited young woman with a shock of banana-yellow
hair, blew a kiss out to the crowd before she hopped on the back of her bass
guitarist and was trotted off into the waiting side wings of the stage.
The applause died down and chatter picked up.