Hated (Rock Star Trilogy) (11 page)

“No, she didn’t,” Stephan tells me.

“Yes. She said so. I asked her when you first started dating if she was okay with it, and she told me that,” Ethan says.

“Why would my mom tell you that?”

“Because she was drunk.”

“I told you!” I tell Stephan. “Your mom totally hates me.”

“Anna, why don’t you go play on the X-Box?” Stacy tells her.

“But it’s just getting good!” Anna protests.

Stacy gives Anna a stern look.

“I’ll go play with you,” Mona says.

“Me too!” Ethan jumps up, and the three of them leave the room together.

“What are we going to do?” I ask Stephan.

“I don’t know…” He runs his fingers through his hair, which I’ve noticed is something he does when he’s upset. “I mean, on one hand, she is my mom. But you’re my wife. And if she can’t accept you, then it’s her loss.”

“You can’t just abandon your mom,” I say. “There has to be something we can do to make her hate me less.”

“I’m not abandoning her. I love her, but I love you more. If she can’t accept you then I can’t be a part of her life — simple as that.”

“It’s
not
that simple,” I protest.

“Wow,” I hear Alec say. He turns to Bridgett. “Is your family going to be like this once they find out we’re dating?”

“Dating?” I ask. “Wait, so it’s official?”

Bridgett gives me a
duh
look. “Two weeks now. I thought you knew…”

“I so didn’t. I mean, I did notice you two were fighting less and making out… a lot…” This makes me smile. “But I’m so happy! Finally. And
I totally approve
.”

“I need a boyfriend,” Stacy says. “How is it that both of my little sisters are going to be married before me?”

“Whoa,” Bridgett says. “Who said anything about marriage? Alec and I are just dating.”

Alec puts his arm around Bridgett. “I don’t know… I think we’d be good married.”

“After a few years, I’ll
think
about it. And don’t even think about asking me before I’m twenty-one,” she says sternly.

“How long has it been since you’ve had a boyfriend?” I ask Stacy.

She coughs. “Umm… Like… Five years…”

“Five years? Why so long?”

“Anna didn’t like him…”

I did the math in my head. Anna was four year old then. I look at her.

“Fine, I didn’t like him with Anna. He just wasn’t good with kids.”

“Wait, wait, wait…” Alec holds up his hand. “You’re telling me you haven’t had sex in five years?”

Stacy’s cheeks turn pink. “Actually, we didn’t date long enough to get to that point. It’s been about ten years now.”

“I would die,” Alec says dramatically. “Bridgett is making me wait, and it’s killing me.”

“You’ll live.” Bridgett rolls her eyes at Alec.

“We have to get you a boyfriend,” I say. I too can’t believe she’s gone ten years. I can’t even go a whole day without sex with Stephan.

“Is Chris Hemsworth single?” Bridgett asks dreamily.

“Seriously? Again with Thor?” Stephan shakes his head. “What is it with your family’s unhealthy obsession Thor?”

“He’s married,” Stacy says, almost sadly. “If he wasn’t, I would have already asked you to introduce me.”

I can’t help but laugh at Stephan’s expression. “You’re a boy. You can’t possibly understand.”

“What about Channing Tatum?” Bridgett asks.

“Married,” Stacy answers.

Alec rolls his eyes. “Seriously, I am out of here if you guys keep talking about
hot guys
.”

“I’m with you.” Stephan gets up from the table, and he and Alec go into the living room where Mona, Ethan, and Anna are playing X-Box.

“Have you used online dating sites?” Bridgett asks.

“No way. No telling what kind of creeper I would meet online.”

“You don’t need an online dating site,” I say. “You’re twenty-six. You are still young and hot… You know, California guys are hotter. I just lucked out with Stephan. You should totally move to Cali.”

“It’s so expensive,” she answers. “Besides, I’m in the middle of a school year. I can’t just quit my job, and pack up Anna…”

“Wait until the summer,” I say. “You can get a job teaching out there, and you can live in my pool house.”

“Her
pool house
is bigger than this house,” Bridgett tells her.

Stacy considers my words. “I’ll think about it. But I thought you were coming back here after your tour…”

“I’ll probably be in LA for a while. I really enjoy my job a lot more now that I’m not being bossed around,” I say. “I’ll probably slow down a bit so I can enjoy some time with Stephan, and you two. But I am not sure I was to live next door to the devil… Sarah would become a problem if we lived here.”

“So what’s the deal with you and Alec?” Stacy asks Bridgett. “From the commercials of the documentary, I was under the impression that you two hated each other. I guess things have changed.”

Bridgett grins at the mention of Alec. “He is different than what I thought. And I don’t know if he’s
the one
, but I do know that I never felt this way about Martin. I really think I’m starting to fall in love with him.”

“Is it sad that I am jealous of two nineteen year olds?”

Bridgett and I laugh.

Stacy pushes her plate away, puts her forehead on the table, and groans. “
Not funny
.”

My mission:
find a boyfriend for Stacy
. And fix this thing with Stephan’s mom.

Yeah, I really don’t want to do that second part.

7:23 PM

Not very popular with “moms”

After the failed brunch, Sarah never came out of her bedroom, so everybody migrated to my house. We ordered Chinese takeout for dinner, and now everybody is watching a movie. Well, everybody except Stephan. He’s staring out the window. I know he’s upset about his Mom, and I wish there was something I could do about it.

“Want to go outside for a minute?” I whisper.

He nods his head, and follows me out the back door. We sit on the edge of the pool, and dangle our feet in the water. He doesn’t say anything, but I wait for him. I know he just needs a few minutes to think.

“I’m sorry for the way my mom acted today,” he finally says. “I don’t know what has gotten into her. She was more upset about having you there than having Mona there, which makes absolutely no sense.”

“She probably feels like she’s losing everybody she’s ever loved. First your dad, and now you…”

“She knew I would get married eventually. Certainly she didn’t think I would live with her forever.”

“Not forever, no,” I say. “But I’m sure she didn’t expect you to leave before you even graduated high school. And we jumped straight from boyfriend and girlfriend to husband and wife. We were never engaged, and she never had time to adjust to the idea.”

“You’re defending my mom.” Stephan sounds surprised.

Wow. I guess I am. “Well, she is my mother-in-law. Plus, I’m kind of used to not being very popular with moms. I think you’re forgetting my own mother hated me. And of course Bridgett’s mom… Who also happens to be my aunt…”

“You’ve had it pretty rough. I’m sorry. I’m going to talk to her. I can’t believe she said that about you. It’s not like her.”

“Whatever,” I say, brushing it off. I am trying to pretend like it’s not a big deal, but it is.

“No, it’s not alright. Mom or not, she’s not allowed to say stuff like that about you.”

“Thank you, Stephan. I’m not used to having other people stand up for me. I’ve always just stood back and let the people I care about walk all over me. Since meeting you, that’s all changed,” I say. “You’ve given me courage. I guess I’m just scared because she’s
your mom
. What if you listen to her? What if you decide that I’m not good enough for you?”

“I don’t care what my mom says about you, Scar,” he says. “Like I said, if I had to choose between her and you, you would win — hands down. If I loved my mom more than I loved you then I’d be with the wrong girl.”

He’s so totally right.

Stephan stands up, and holds his hand out. “Come on. Let’s get back in there, and enjoy the rest of our Thanksgiving.”

He helps me up, and we walk back inside.

Even though I love everybody in this room, I can’t help but think that my dad isn’t here. Even though I know he has done me wrong, I still want him here.

Hopefully he will be next year.

Monday, November 31

8:37 AM

The bitch is going down.

Monday morning is back to work as usual. Part of me is disappointment that my time off is over, but the other part of me is excited to be back to work. I love my job. I just wish that I didn’t have to work such long hours. Today I am in the studio. I’m excited because I only have three more songs to record and I know that they will go fast. As long as I stay on track, I will get two weeks off before the tour.

The documentary airs next Tuesday, and I’m a little nervous. I haven’t seen the episode yet. MTV said we have to come film some commentary and do some voice-overs before it airs, but I haven’t had time. They said as long as we come in by Friday, they’ll have time to edit it before it airs. I just hope that there isn’t anything embarrassing on it.

Alec walks into the studio an hour late. He has black circles under his eyes, and he looks like he hasn’t slept in a few days. “Sorry I’m late,” he tells Otto.

Otto nods to acknowledge him, and then asks, “Ready to lay down some more vocals, Scarlett?”

“Wait…” I say to him, and then walk over to Alec. “What is wrong with you?”

“Nothing. I’m fine.” Alec is lying. I can tell by the way he’s avoiding eye contact with me.

“No, you’re not,” I say sternly. “Now tell me what’s wrong.”

“Bridgett broke up with me.” He is finally looking me in the eyes, and I can see the pain. My heart is breaking for him.

“What? Why?” It doesn’t make sense. Why would Bridgett break up with him?

“I don’t know. I thought we were happy. But after we went to see her mom, she started acting different. Last night I finally just asked her what was wrong, and she said that she didn’t want to be with me anymore. I tried to talk to her… to see what I did wrong. She then told me that I didn’t do anything wrong, but she doesn’t feel the same way about me as I do about her.”

My thoughts go back to what she said on Thursday. “No, that can’t be. She told me on Thanksgiving that she was falling in love with you. She can’t just… fall out of love that fast. Something had to have happened.”

“Well I didn’t do anything, so I don’t know what happened. All I know is that I can’t fix it.”

“It was her mom. She… is a controlling, manipulative bitch. She probably said something to Bridgett.” I massage the temple of my head with my fingers. I seriously think I’m getting a migraine. “I have to do something.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he says. He’s trying to act like he doesn’t care, but I know better. “If she really wanted to be with me, she wouldn’t let anything come between us.”

“That’s not true, Alec. She’s damaged.”

“Scarlett,” Otto says. “We need to get started. I really want to finish this by Wednesday night so I can go back home to my family next week.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry,” I tell Otto. I go into the recording room, and take a deep breath before putting on my headphones. I promise myself right there that I won’t let Bridgett’s mom ruin her life. I will do everything in my power to stop her. She already tried to ruin my life once.

The bitch is going down.

7:17 PM

She does suck.

My day is spent recording and trying to cheer Alec up. Everything with the album is going well, but trying to cheer Alec up — not so much. I am completely frustrated with Bridgett. Why is she still letting her mom affect her when she’s over one thousand miles away? I’m also frustrated with her
love drama
. And as hard as I try
not
to get sucked into it, I always do! It’s like the harder I try, the further I sink. It’s a never ending battle with the two of them.

The good news is recording will be done tomorrow morning.

The bad news is that I’m set to start a radio promotion for my new single Wednesday… That’s on top of the promotions for the documentary. I think on Wednesday I have five radio interviews, and two television interviews. When I mentioned how much I was dreading it, Bridgett said something like
“You get to talk about yourself all day. How hard can it be?”
This made me laugh, because it
is
hard. Especially doing so many in one day. You don’t want to say the same things over and over again, but sometimes you just can’t help it. I hate sounding like a broken record.

Tonight, the tutor is coming over to try and catch Stephan, Mona, and I up on our school work. We’ve fallen pretty behind. Or, at least I have. I think Mona and Stephan get time to work through the day when I’m not there. Keeping up with school is harder than I thought it was going to be.

On my way home from the studio, I get a phone call from Stacy. I already miss her and Anna, so talking to them is exactly what I need.

“Hey, big sis,” I answer.

“You won’t believe what happened today.” I can hear excitement in Stacy’s voice.

“What?”

“Today at school, Mrs. Parker was out sick, and they couldn’t find anybody on such short notice… So they got one of the substitutes from a nearby high school to come,” she tells me. “So I’m walking to class, when I see the most gorgeous man I have ever seen in my life. He’s tall, maybe 6’4”, he’s got spiky blonde hair, and the most gorgeous gray-blue eyes… He kind of reminds me of Eric from True Blood… I stop in my tracks, and just stare at this super sexy guy. And I know it’s stupid, but I couldn’t help it. I was like some kind of lovesick teenager in a trance. So he walks up to me, and introduces himself. His name is Matthew Thorne. And then he asked me out.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.” She lets out a squeal of excitement.

“Wow! That’s so awesome, Stacy! I told you that it would happen!” I can’t help but be excited with her. “When are you going out?”

“Friday night,” she answers. “I just had to call and tell you. I’ve been dying to share the news with somebody.”