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“Fabiola, over here!” Parker Wyatt shouted to his wife as she exited the terminal.
Nearly two years had passed since Wyatt had gotten the lead role for the play. By now, the production was over and so was filming for Hans Stafen’s movie. He was now meeting Fabiola – who was coming from the Bahamas – to see the premiere show in Los Angeles. This had been their home ever since they came there from Sin City.
In these two years, Wyatt decided to keep his original name instead of using his stage one. And for a good reason to – he wanted the Deuce to know he had made it in show biz without him. Little did Parker Wyatt know, the Deuce had died within these two years as well. Fabiola and Wyatt never got around to getting a divorce though, and this was something that amazed both of them. Well, they had cheated on the other but that’s entirely beside the point.
“How crowded is this even supposed to be?” Fabiola asked as they walked to get her luggage.
“Pretty busy. Surprisingly, this has got a lot more publicity than Hans had expected,” Wyatt explained. “Mrs. Torrance will be there,” he added with a smirk. “I saw Oran the other day. He wanted me to say ‘hi’ for you, Croft.”
Fabiola rolled her eyes. Mrs. Torrance and Wyatt had to spend a lot of time together during shooting since they were in a few scenes. Their touring schedule was still pretty low-key. For the time being that is. The movie would gain them tons of fame.
Little did they know, someone else was also landing in Los Angeles.
“Movies have gotten terrible in the past few years,” he muttered. “I mean, look at this! The cast sucks! Just look at who’s in....” his voice trailed off.
“What?” I came over and looked at the screen and so did Edan. We both stared blankly at the screen.
“Good god,” Edan muttered, “Parker Wyatt? It’s gotta be him.”
We had not forgotten the names of these people after the whole incident with James Wallace’s will nearly two years prior to this moment.
“Holy shit,” I pointed at the screen. “It says here that the band Mrs. Torrance wrote a lot of the music for the movie and was signed on to Kade & Riley Records!”
“What a crazy coincidence,” Edan said in awe. “Kade and Riley actually knew the Wyatts this whole time and never told us?”
“Apparently,” I said grimly. “Well, we don’t know for certain that Kade and Riley know Fabiola and Parker Wyatt. They just signed on the band that wrote a lot of the music for the movie that Parker Wyatt stars in.”
“It says right here that the cast will appear at the premiere in LA which is tonight,” Tassels said, looking at other websites having to do with the movie. “But we can make it if we leave now since there’s a time change.”
“Oh yeah right,” I said. “It’s definitely sold out.”
“So? Haven’t you ever heard of stalking?”
I shrugged. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but let’s go to the airport,” I stood up from the computer and straightened my shirt out.
Tassels nodded. “I’ve been waiting two long years for this moment,” he laughed darkly and stroked his fists. “Ah, the glory of dé-ja vu,” and he also stood up. “Only take a backpack with the least amount of things possible. In fact, we probably don’t even need an extra pair of underwear, after all, you can always turn it inside out.”
In less than fifteen minutes, the three of us were in Tassels’ infamous hatchback speeding to the airport once again. I called Grear on my cell phone, but she wasn’t home. Grear and Erik weren’t really part of this anymore. Tassels, Edan and I actually hadn’t seen them for almost a year now. We weren’t very close. Grear’s dad died shortly after Camden did and after that she and Erik became hardcore recluses. They didn’t live in Spain anymore, but in some unknown hideout which I’m pretty sure is in upstate New York.
“I can’t believe this,” Edan said as we got off the plane. “It will be interesting to see whether Kade & Riley Records don’t just sign on pussy indie bands like—”
“Okay, it’s really late,” I said looking around at the sunny sky.
“Damn jet lag,” Tassels said as we made our way out of the gates. “How are we doing for time? Can we still make it to the show?”
“Yeah,” I checked my watch. “It doesn’t start for another two hours. We can get to the theater in that time.”
The three of us ran the entrance to the airport so we could get a cab and head to the theater. Surprisingly, the taxi ride took a lot longer than I had suspected and we got to there with only about forty-five minutes to spare. We would have sat outside, but people were already swarming around.
Just then a man standing in line collapsed. His wife bent down frantically and shook his shoulders. “Henry? HENRY!” she shrieked. “Oh my god! He’s having a heart attack! SOMEONE CALL 911!!!”
I pulled out my cell phone and handed it to the shaken woman. She thanked me absently and a friend she had with her, carried the woman’s husband out of line. The friend turned to me, thanked me again and handed the three of us tickets.
“Oh no – you don’t have—”
“No, please take them!” she shoved them in my hands, those lovely free passes to Fabiola and Parker Wyatt. And this couple were standing very close to the start of the line so we wouldn’t have to wait that long.
But things were about to take a turn for the worse – just then we saw someone that we had been plotting against for two long, long years.
Melvina got out a limo in a strapless pink dress that she obviously couldn’t afford to wear – in the sense that it looked like she had put on thirty pounds since we had previously seen her. She was laughing and shaking people’s hands, but then she saw Tassels. His tall stance over towered everything else. The little color from her pale face drained out.
“Since when was Melvina associated with show biz?” I muttered to Tassels and Edan. They both shrugged; their eyes were fixed evilly on Melvina.
“We will take care of her later,” Tassels whispered to me.
Just then, a bunch of people began cheering and music began to play. “Wait a second,” Edan said touching his chin with his forefinger thoughtfully, “isn’t this that one song...that I can’t think of the name to?”
“Obviously,” I said, craning my neck to see if I could see where the music was coming from.
“Take Five,” Tassels said.
“What?”
“Take Five – it’s the name of this song,” Tassels explained. “I played it in wind ensemble. Man, I kind of miss playing saxophone now.”
“Too bad,” Edan said. “Mom and Dad still have it, I think.”
“Yeah they do.”
This is one thing that had not changed – we still weren’t on speaking terms with our parents.
“Gross!” Tassels exclaimed when a guitar came in with the solo instead of a saxophone.
“Eh, I kind of like it,” Edan said. “It sounds better than when you played it,” he added laughing.
Tassels didn’t defend himself.
We stood and waiting in line for a long time until the doors opened. Once they did, we didn’t go to our seats, but rather sneaked in a random back door. Everyone except for us were dressed up in fancy to casual clothes so we made it a point to stay low key. None of us obviously had any idea of where the actors were. Unfortunately, a psychopathic janitor saw us. He yelled something at us, then pushed us back into the main lobby of the theater.
“Let’s just go in,” I said. “Chances are, everyone is already in there, including the actors.”
Tassels and Edan agreed, so we headed into the huge movie theater. However, once we got in and took our seats, we noticed that Melvina was two rows in front of us and cattycorner to Edan. He gave me a “now what?” look and I shrugged.
“Get an unwrapped straw and blow spitballs at her,” I laughed. “What is this movie even supposed to be about?” I asked Tassels who was to my left.
“I think it’s like suspense with bits of comedy and romance thrown in,” he said, trying to remember what the website had said.
“Man, I don’t even remember seeing any previews for this,” I said.
“That’s because all movies run together after awhile,” Tassels said, laughing darkly.
The lights dimmed and the director, Hans Stafen, stood up and blabbed for a long time. You know, the same cliché speech that everyone gives at their premiere movie. Since every one has a premiere movie.
Then a bunch of other people spoke, but I couldn’t concentrate because I was keeping my eyes on Melvina. Suddenly the star actor went to the stage to give his speech. This, was Parker Wyatt. His speech was slightly more creative than the others.
“...Above everyone else, I’d like to thank my wife, Fabiola, for wanting to climb to the top of the Eiffel Tower. And I would also like to give many thanks to the person who decided to play with deuces wild, because in a game where deuces are wild, there is a better chance you’ll end up with a lovely royal flush.”
People paused and then applauded. Tassels, Edan and I, however, fully understood his speech; except for the Eiffel Tower part, or course.
“You know how Grear said that before the Deuce died, he was going to tell her something?” I whispered to Tassels. “Maybe he had something to do with getting Parker Wyatt into show biz.”
He shrugged.
I thought that all the speeches were over, but then another guy ran up and shook hands with Parker Wyatt.
“One thousand bucks, buddy, pay up.”
Then it dawned on him – back in the Bellagio when he and Fabiola asked a waiter to tell them where Melvina was and he told them about Father Tilbrine’s Drive-Thru Chapel.
“We never found her,” he muttered.
“Then you won’t worry if I have Melvina come and congratulate you?”
Wyatt didn’t say anything. The whole theater had their eyes on him. He couldn’t afford to have his bank robbery publicized for the sake of himself and Hans and all the rest of the people who had worked on the movie.
The Waiter looked at him.
“Later,” Wyatt muttered, his heart pounding with fear as he walked back to his seat.
“Now,” the Waiter blocked his way.
Too much time had passed.
“So be it,” the waiter let him go. “But just beware of the footage. The feds have been after you a long time and wasn’t until now that we were able to track you down.”
Wyatt tried to let it roll off his back and he went back and took a seat next to Fabiola.
The movie began to play. But it wasn’t the movie – at first I thought it was some bizarre commercial, but it wasn’t. It was footage from a bank. And there was dialogue. I recognized the two at the counter to be none other than Fabiola and Parker Wyatt. I could vaguely hear that the girl helping them, asked for an ID, but Wyatt said something about not having any, then Fabiola burst into tears. The thing that blew me away was the fact that they told the girl that her – Fabiola’s – name was Melvina Wallace.
Then, the real Melvina Wallace stood up and ran down to where Fabiola and Parker were sitting. “This woman!” she shouted “And her husband robbed my bank account nearly two years ago and stole my father’s will! It was the last thing he wrote to me!”
I half suspected Tassels to run down and beat up Melvina, then say that the will belonged to us. But he didn’t, thankfully, because at that time two guys that looked like they were feds walked into the theater.
Pandemonium raged throughout the whole building it seemed. These guys probably weren’t even feds, and knowing the artlessness of Melvina, they were probably hired by her.
“I’m very, very sorry to break all of this up,” one of the feds said, “but bank robbery is strictly against the law. Please continue on, but we will have to take Mr. and Mrs. Wyatt Parker to court.”
Silence.
Tassels, Edan and I stood up and decided to slink out. We didn’t want to get anywhere near involved when the FBI intervened. If that was even the FBI to begin with....
Kade and Riley stood up. “Wait! You must understand that both of these people are guilty! In fact—”
“He owes me a thousand dollars!” the one guy said. “I helped them find Melvina!”
Fabiola and Parker remained quiet while this dispute went on.
“Melvina Wallace here is guilty of,” Kade jumped back into the conversation and the three of us froze in our footsteps and turned around to hear what he was going to say. “Melvina took the will from her father that was not legalized. In this will it said that three of his young friends were to get his fortune.”
“Please,” the other fed said, “we don’t have time for your pity parties.”
Kade and Riley looked at the two FBI agents and then I caught Kade’s eyes. “You work for Nek. Put a sock in it.” Then he whispered something to him.
By this time, everyone was lost and confused. The two guys left with Melvina and the other guy who first ran up to Parker Wyatt, but he only left just after Parker wrote him something. It was most likely a check.
And then things calmed down as if nothing had happened. Hans Stafen went up and made some crazy excuse that the people who had just been there were old colleagues of his and never got a break in Hollywood.
Well, I assumed that the journalists and the media would help him cover all of it up.
Tassels, Edan and I decided to stay and watch the movie. Our lives felt incomplete and we were depressed.
One thing was for sure...well, nothing was for sure. I slumped down in my chair and watched halfheartedly.
After two minutes, I whispered to Tassels, “Let’s just leave.”
He nodded.
When we left the theater, a car was pulled up at the side of the curb. On the side it said, UDC. Three guys who I assumed were in cahoots with the Wyatts. They were pushing Melvina and the two “feds” into the car. The other guy laughed when he saw us.
“I’ve got the will now,” he smirked.
Melvina glared. “One thousand bucks, pals and right in front of you! That’s what you’ve been trying to get this whole time.”
He waved it in Tassels face – he seemed to be a little too happy – and he snatched it away from him.
Tassels ripped the check in tiny pieces and let the sidewalk have it. “That’s what’s left of the Wallaces,” he said and the original group exchanged looks with one another.
We soon came to the knowledge that the Underdog Coterie had won. However, the moral of the story is not that underdogs win. In fact there is no moral to this story.
A cab pulled up and we headed back to Atlanta with two years of heavy duty story telling on our resume and a ripped up check being tossed around in the gutter.
A time well spent, I thought. Hah, right. I suppose it's a good time if an entertaining story can come out of it.
Not that an entertaining story could come out of something like this.
