Chapter 8
Eighteen Months Ago—Ellery
Ellery sat in the makeup chair. The lights around the vanity were at full wattage, so bright it was impossible to see anything. Shouldn’t she be able to feel their heat? Shouldn’t the lights at least warm her?
“You look gorgeous,” Maria, the makeup artist, said. The fine bristles of the brush scraped her skin like sandpaper, but Ellery didn’t move. Couldn’t move.
Logan Groff, her agent, stood beside Maria, his expression displeased. Not that that was unusual for Logan. “Let’s do more eyeliner. And Elvie, we really need to dye your hair. I think blond shows up better on stage.”
She didn’t nod. She would go along with whatever they said. She was their doll, their puppet.
And she didn’t care enough to change that. She could be Elvie, if Selene and Lorraine had okayed it. The other her was gone. Lost. No, not lost, trampled in an avalanche of grief and stampeding fame.
Logan’s phone rang loudly, and he tapped her shoulder twice, the touch percussive. “Be right back,” he mouthed as he moved away.
Ellery stared at her reflection, not recognizing the girl in the mirror. Her hair was a long tumble of russet curls, her eyes tinted green with contacts, her mouth stretched in a thin line. At least her eyes were dry. She had cried away all her tears a long time ago.
Maria stood before her and put her hands on her shoulders. “Are you all right? You know, you don’t have to go blond if you like the red. And maybe the color contacts aren’t for you.”
She wished she could feel the warmth of the woman’s hands.
But she hadn’t felt warmth in a very long time.
She knew the role she had to play if she was going to be allowed to make the music that was the only thing reminding her she was alive.
The only way she had found to process her grief.
“I’m fine. Thank you. Everything is fine. ”
* * *
“Whatever Happened to the Vendetta?” IndieMusicRoxx
…No one in the band ever confirmed anything, but the evolution of the edgy, kickass band the Vendetta into the more culturally mainstream Elvie happened pretty suddenly to those of us who were watching.
The official line from music agent Logan Groff was that drummer Selene Huynh and pianist Lorraine Delarosa wanted to take smaller roles.
But that makes no sense. When the two of them sang, they brought the entire club to their feet.
Maybe it was the rumors about a relationship between the two of them, as Groff has a famously strict no-fraternization policy.
Though if rumors are true, that doesn’t mean they can’t fraternize with Groff…
Maybe it was their difficulty finding a bassist, someone to compliment Ellery. Should-be-more-famous Dante Baker played with them for a while, during the height of the band, but he got cut to the wayside. Groff again? Maybe. There were those photos…quickly hidden but those of us who know, know.
So was it Ellery? Was she the catalyst, driving her supposed friends into the background? They were there, singing backup on that season of “America Sings!” Ellery seemed like she was giving them their due.
So maybe it was the tragedy, the one that everyone talks about, that consumed Ellery’s life and career.
Whatever it was, bring the Vendetta back. That sound, man, that sound…