Rock Idol (Reality With a Twist Series) (14 page)

“Wow,
Rick!” Jonathan King enthused. “You had me dancing on the side of the stage
over there. You are on
fire
tonight! I wouldn’t have expected you to be
a Creedence Clearwater Revival fan.”

“Thanks,
Jonathan!” Rick said. “You know I have a brother who’s almost twenty years
older than me and since he made the switch to CDs when I was a baby, he left
all of his old vinyl record albums at home when he went away to school. That
means he left behind a lot of great music for me to fall in love
with—everything from Creedence Clearwater and The Who to Ms. Ember Blaze who’s
sitting over there at the judges’ table.”

The
audience cheered and Ember permitted herself to half stand and wave.

“That’s
wonderful, Rick!” King said. “Your love of the music really shone through
tonight. Let’s see if the judges had as high an opinion of your singing as I
did. Mitch?”

“First
a point of order, if I may?” Mitch asked. “Jonathan, are you certain you were
dancing over there? From the way you were twitching, I thought you got a jolt
of bug spray or something.”

King
clutched his chest in mock agony at Mitch’s comment and the audience booed.
Mitch acknowledged them cheerfully. “Okay, okay, I was just joking. Rick? I’m
really not certain what to say to you. You know I don’t like your singing, but
Jonathan is right. You were moving on the stage and there was something
infectious about it. Ember was actually dancing in her seat with you and I
found my foot keeping time to the music. I’m beginning to think a Rick Rogers
concert might be worth the price of admission—not because you sing all that
well but because tonight I finally believe you truly love what you do.”

Wild
cheers erupted from the audience.

Mitch
raised his voice. “Now don’t get me wrong! I still think you all should vote to
send him home. But I think tonight I’m forced to admit you’re a serious
contender in this competition. I still don’t quite understand why, but you’re
in it for the long haul.” He turned to speak past Fawn to Ember. “Now that I’ve
finally said something nice about him, America
will probably vote him off.”

“I
certainly hope so,” Fawn said. “Rick, you simply butchered that rendition of
Proud
Mary
. One of the all time great songs and well … it would be unladylike to
tell you what I really thought of it.”

“Oh,
come on, Fawn,” Mitch said. “Don’t make me defend the young man. He did an okay
job. It was his first credible performance!”

Fawn
shook her head. “I’d expect that sort of nonsense from Ember, Mitch. But you
have always had standards.”

King
stepped in to keep the two judges from fighting. “You know, Fawn, it looks like
the more America is sold on Rick Rogers, the
more you want to send him back to the manufacturer. It’s unlike you, so I have to
ask. What’s going on here? Is it something personal?”

Fawn
shook her head and smiled. “I’m just a simple professional trying to do her
job. If you want to talk about personal feelings getting in the way of good
judgment, you’ll have to talk to Ember.”

The
crowd erupted in hoots and hollers and Jonathan King’s eyes bulged. He was
about to ask a follow up question, which Ember acted quickly to cut off. She
didn’t need Jonathan bringing up the rumors that she was dating Mitch and she
certainly couldn’t afford to give Fawn a chance to start spreading new stories
about her and Rick.
 
“Personal feelings
usually go hand-in-hand with good judgment,” she announced. “I really like Rick
Rogers and I am grooving on his music tonight. I think most of America will agree with Mitch and me on this, Fawn. I
would definitely pay money to go see him in concert!”

The
audience went wild!

Ember
settled back in her chair wondering just how far Fawn was willing to go.

Her
former friend turned to glare at her. “Almost got you,” she mouthed.

A
furious Fox Atwood snagged the three of them as they walked off the stage after
the show. “In my office!” he snapped before leading the way down the hall to
the elevator.

Once
in his office, he slammed the door. “Someone had better tell me exactly what is
going on!”

Fawn
was the first to speak up. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“Yes,
it is, Fawn,” Ember agreed, cutting the woman off. “Fawn is angry that I didn’t
tell her about our little chat with you about the drug testing. She thinks it
makes it look like I wanted her to fail so she’s trying to pay me back by
making me look unprofessional.”

Clearly
this was not the answer Fox had been expecting. “But you’re the one who
convinced me I had nothing to worry about,” he said.

Ember
spread her hands. “So I tried to tell her.”

Mitch
intervened. “You know Fawn had a problem a few years ago. So did Ember for that
matter, but I think Fawn is more sensitive about it now. She doesn’t feel that
drug addiction fits the sweet image she’s always tried to foster to America.”

Fox
kicked a wastepaper can across the room. “Neither does picking a fight with you
and Ember on national television!”

He
raised his finger threateningly to Fawn. “I want this crap over and done with!
What did I tell you all on the first week of the competition? I want a scandal
free season! You screw up like that again out there and I’ll yank your
contract!”

“But
Ember is sle—”

“I
don’t want to hear it!” Fox shouted. “Ember and Mitch are bringing in the
viewers! Giving great commentary! And helping to keep things lively! What the
hell have you done for us this season?” Without waiting for a response, he
stormed out of the room.

Fawn
immediately turned on Ember. “Don’t you think this is over!” she shouted. “I’m
going to get rid of you both!”

She
ran out after Fox, shouting his name as she ran down the hall.

Confusion
fogged Mitch’s face. He obviously thought Fawn was after him as well. “What the
hell is going on?” he asked Ember.

“When
you figure it out, make sure you explain it to me too,” Ember told him.

Week Nine

“Hey,
Sexy,” Rick whispered, “want to make it with a final six contestant on
Rock
Idol
?”

Ember let Rick nuzzle her neck for a few moments before
steeling her resolve and pushing Rick away. “I’m sorry, sweetie, we can’t do
this again during the competition. Fawn’s out to get me and…”

Rick
immediately stop kissing her and backed away. “I’m sorry, Ember. I know you’re
under a lot of pressure. It’s just when I see you all I can think about is
holding you in my arms again.”

“I
know, sweetie,” Ember assured him. “I want to hold you too. It’s just Fox
pulled us all aside last week and—”

“That’s
right!” Rick said. “I’ve been meaning to ask you about that all week. Gina
forced us all back to the house right after the show and no one is talking about
what happened.”

Ember
took a deep breath and decided that Rick needed to know. “Fox balled us out for
fighting on stage and Fawn tried to tell him you and I are sleeping together.”

 
Rick got angry fast. “That hypocritical
bitch!”

“What?”
Somehow that was not the response from Rick that Ember had expected.

He
strode away from Ember and pounded his fist on the wall. “Of all the utter
nonsense!”

Ember
couldn’t figure out what was bothering him. “Rick, what happened?”

He
took a deep breath. “I suppose I could be wrong, but I’m pretty certain she
made a pass at me a month ago.”

“A
pass?” Ember asked. “Fawn?”

“Yeah.”

“How
certain?”

“She
put her hand on my ass and asked if I’d ever done it with a rock star.”

Ember
grabbed him by the t-shirt collar and pulled him toward her. “She did not!”

“Why
would I make that up?” Rick said. “It was embarrassing. She’s got to be close
to forty years old.”

This
justification struck Ember as the height of inconsistency. “But I’m forty-two!”
she protested.

Her
announcement seemed to fluster Rick for a moment. Not that he hadn’t known her
age, but that he realized—as she had—that his two statements didn’t fit
together. “Yes, I know, but Ember, she’s not
you
. You could be
ninety-five and I’d want you! But Fawn,” he shivered, “there’s something really
wrong with her.”

“But
she made a pass at you,” Ember repeated. She couldn’t quite wrap her mind
around that. She wondered if Fawn had done this before or after they’d started
fighting—if Fawn had actually been interested in Rick or if her first idea
about punishing Ember had been to steal Rick away from her.

Upon
reflection she rejected this idea. Rick and she might have been attracted to
each other back then but they certainly hadn’t been fooling around. She found
the situation utterly fascinating. “What did you say to her?”

Rick
looked embarrassed. “Look, I’m sorry I brought it up. Just forget I said
anything.”

Ember
couldn’t accept that as an answer. “I really need to know what you said.”

Rick
backed further away from her. “You don’t think I took her up on it, do you?”

If
she had, one look at Rick’s face right now would have convinced her otherwise.
“No, I just want to know what happened.
 
I mean, she is pretty, right?”

“I
guess so,” Rick agreed. “She’s not you, but I guess there’s nothing technically
wrong with her. It’s just—”

Rick
was either unwilling or unable to explain what had scared him away from Fawn
and Ember decided to try and turn him toward more useful information. “So what
did you say? Did you let her down easy?”

“Can
we forget about this?” he asked.

“No!”

“It’s
just, I’m not proud of myself. I tried to make a joke of it, but it came out
very wrong.”

“Just
tell me!” Ember commanded him.

Rick
nervously licked his lips. “I said:
Not yet but I’m working on it.
”

Suddenly
Ember saw the problem between Fawn and her in starkly different terms. “And
what did she say to that?”

Rick
licked his lips again. “She said:
Well, you’re in luck. Today your dream
comes true.”

“Oh,
no,” Ember whispered.

“And
I said—you realize she took me by surprise, right? I wasn’t prepared for this.
I just said the first thing that came into my head:
Sorry, Fawn, you’re not
the star I’m hoping for.
”

“Oh,
damn,” Ember said. “No wonder she has it in for us.” She eased up next to Rick
and slipped her arm around his back, wondering what this rejection must have
done to Fawn’s ego. “When exactly did this happen?”

“Week
Three,” Rick said, “Just a few minutes before I kissed you for the first time.”

“No
wonder she hates us,” Ember repeated.

Rick
looked miserably unhappy with himself. “I’m sorry I didn’t handle this better.
I know you two were friends.”

“We
were friends on the show,” Ember corrected him. “Obviously we weren’t much more
than that or none of this mess would be happening now.”

“Well
it doesn’t have to come between us, does it?” Rick asked.

Ember
wasn’t so certain. “We can’t pretend it doesn’t affect us.
 
Fawn is out to get us. She wants you out of
the contest and me out of a job.”

“Well,
should I tell someone what happened?” Rick asked.

Ember
did not like the sound of that. “Absolutely not! That will just attract more
attention. And we’re the ones who’ve been making out. You and she didn’t
actually do anything so she can always claim she’d been misheard or she was
joking.”

“This
really sucks, Ember! How is it right that Fawn can get you in trouble for
actually doing what she tried to do first?””