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Chapter 50: Going Native


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"You need to calm down!" Heath used the harshest voice he could, which really wasn't very harsh. The truth was he could hardly bring himself to raise his voice to her, so it really was ridiculous to think of him being harsh to her in any way. He put his hands on her shoulders to stop MJ from hopping from one foot to the other.

MJ nodded, while chewing the side of her thumbnail and looking out at the crowd as Meredith sang. She could see her father and his brothers, like four matching Stalins, sitting in the roped off VIP section, mustaches practically bristling as they watched, arms crossed, expressionless and unmoving.

Tasos had gotten the whole story about the stolen song from Heath and Meredith, though Heath's contributions, colored by all the ouzo he'd drunk, were very incoherent, impassioned, and kind of funny. Tasos had then told his brothers all about it, probably adding a few embellishments of his own, so who knew what they'd actually heard. All MJ knew from talking to her uncles very briefly before the show was they all hated Meredith and had even prevailed on one of the toothless Greek grannies from the church to cast some weird curse on her.

MJ had told them in no uncertain terms that they had to be at least respectfully silent after she sang the song.

"Uncles? UncleYanniUncleSpiroUncleCostas?" MJ looked from one face to the next as she said their names, rapid fire, from years of practice. "I let you come, so please, please, don't do anything embarrassing, okay? Please?" She turned to her father. "Dad? Promise?"

He looked at his brothers, then his daughter. "Yes, I promise."

"We're dealing with it legally," she repeated for about the tenth time. "Heath knows all about this stuff, and he has the best lawyer in the world, and we're taking care of it, I swear."

She put an arm around Heath, who nodded and smiled.

"And you got Yaya Agathi to put the evil eye on her, too, right?" MJ continued, mentally rolling her eyes. "So it's all good, so please behave?"

And that was the best she could do. So she was now standing backstage, fidgeting with Heath, Archie, and Poppy, watching her father and uncles, just hoping they didn't start throwing tomatoes at Meredith during the song.

When the end of the show came, Meredith didn't introduce Jason, and MJ realized that she hadn't seen him around that day. MJ looked out at the crowd and was surprised to see quite a few empty seats, which was weird, since the show was very sold out, to the point that scalpers were asking exorbitant prices out front.

"So, I'm going to try something different with my new song, Meredith said to the nearly silent crowd. "I've been playing it really modern and uptempo, but I'm going to slow things down a bit, try it out as a ballad, what do you think, guys?"

There was tepid applause that started somewhere in the back of the arena.

"Oh, for fuck's sake," Archie said, folding his arms in disgust.

MJ, too, was surprised into standing still.

"Sawyer? Come on up, buddy, you're on," Meredith called. Sawyer, one of her guitar players, moved forward and picked up an acoustic guitar and strummed it, making sure it was in tune.

Meredith perched atop a stool, much like MJ and Heath did, a few feet away from Sawyer, who'd done the same thing. The only difference between what she was doing and what MJ and Heath did was that she didn't have a guitar, because of course Meredith didn't play.

"I thought this might be nice, because of course a 'lament' is a passionate expression of grief or sorrow, usually about someone's death, right?" Meredith made her voice quiet and low as she spoke to the audience. "I thought a more quiet, thoughtful version might speak to you more."

She looked over at Sawyer. "Ready?"

He nodded.

"Okay, here we go. Hope you like it."

MJ could tell, from the first few chords, that it was the same, or nearly the same, as her version. Sawyer was off on a few chords that she'd changed from the written version, so some of the inversions were wrong, some of the chords were stressed wrong. And of course none of Heath's part was there, because there was only one guitar.

MJ's hands hurt, and she looked down and saw that she'd balled them into fists, and was digging her fingernails into the palms of her hands. Only the fact that she kept them cut short to play had kept her from really hurting herself.

Next to her, she heard Heath mutter, "That fucking cunt."

Poppy put a hand on her brother's shoulder. "Shh, brother, stop, it can't be helped now. And no one's buying it, anyway, listen."

The crowd was growing restless, and, while there were no actual boos, there were plenty of hisses and people simply not paying attention to her. It was very disrespectful, and MJ felt bad for Meredith. Her voice was actually kind of nice when it didn't have all that crazy stuff done to it, though she didn't have the training, breath control and range of someone who'd actually taken lessons.

by the time Meredith finished the song, she really wasn't very into it, and the smattering of applause was perfunctory at best.

How awful.

She left the stage and walked into the arms of her LA posse, the three girlfriends who were with her now.

Heath's road crew went to work immediately to make the few changes necessary to the stage for Heath to perform, and MJ, Poppy and Archie went to the VIP area to watch with MJ's uncles. MJ introduced them, and there were happy hugs all around.

While they were standing around talking, one of the security guards approached MJ and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Sorry, miss, but there's a young lady here who's desperate to meet you, says she's been in line for days to get your autograph? Would you consider it?" He looked very apologetic.

"Oh, you must have the wrong person," MJ told him, turning back around to her uncles.

The tap came on her shoulder again.

"I'm so sorry, miss, but it's definitely you she wants to meet," the bald security guard said. He gestured toward the barriers that had been erected, and there was a girl there, waving madly, holding a picture of MJ onstage.

A PICTURE OF MJ ONSTAGE?

MJ was over at the barrier in two strides. "How did you get this?" she asked the girl. She didn't even bother to ask her name first.

"I live here in LA, but I have cousins in Mexico City, and they were at the show, and took pictures of you, so they emailed them to me, and I printed the best one, and brought it tonight, hoping I'd get to meet you and get the chance to ask you to sign it, and I did!" the girl shrieked all in one breath, nearly taking MJ's ear off.

She was darling, maybe all of five feet tall, a round, happy girl with curly hair and vivid brown eyes who could have been MJ's darker haired sister.

"My name is Marissa Conchita Alvarez, and I play the guitar, just like you, and I want to take voice lessons to learn to sing like you do, and I write my own songs, and I'm kind of a big girl, too, but I'm going to try to make it, you know? You didn't let anything stop you, and you're up there, and you're beautiful and proud, and just so wonderful and amazing--so would you sign my picture?" she gasped, holding it out, along with an uncapped Sharpie.

Archie and Poppy were flanking MJ, with huge smiles, just taking it in, as MJ's father and uncles stood farther back and watched the exchange. Their smiles were just as huge, though theirs were obscured by their mustaches.

"Well, of course I will," MJ replied. She was overcome with so many emotions that she didn't know what to feel. She reached for the Sharpie and signed her name across the bottom, trying to do it with a flourish. After all, this girl was looking forward to this.

"Could we take a picture together?" the girl asked, her voice becoming timid.

"Really?" MJ asked before she could help herself. Archie punched her in the arm.

"I'll take it for you," he declared with a huge smile. He took the camera from Marissa and took a couple, with Marissa radiating joy in both of them.

"Oh my goodness, no one's going to believe I got this!" she babbled. "And I want you to know that me and all my friends think that it's just awful what Meredith Renner's trying to do you, how she's trying to steal your song. We came to this concert late on purpose so we wouldn't have to see her. Lots of people are doing that."

So that explained the empty seats.

The lights flickered, indicating Heath's show was about to start.

They quickly said good bye to the delightful Marissa Conchita Alvarez and turned to enjoy Heath's show.

As usual, MJ found herself getting turned on watching her boyfriend perform, there was no avoiding it. All the seats were filled for his show, and he fed off the crowd, turning into a sexy, performing showman.

Tonight, in addition to Meadow Rain, he performed Cake and Frosting and Under the Shooting Stars, which of course made the crowd go wild. Poppy nudged MJ when he sang about the shooting stars, and MJ was glad it was dark. And of course she had to leave before it was over, because she was going to perform with him.

And even though she'd done it so many times, it never got old, and tonight her father and uncles were here, which made it even more special.

She was careful not to look her father's way, but even so, she knew he would be crying, and as the last notes died down, she did look, and saw Poppy hugging him, holding his head to her shoulder as she smiled at MJ.

Lovely Poppy.

As soon as the show was over, and everyone was backstage talking about going to a bar and grille they'd gone to the last time they'd been in town, Sally raised her voice and said, "Sorry, guys, that place closed."

There was a general sound of disgust and disappointment, as this place had the best chicken and beef skewers in town, not to mention a wide selection of beers.

"Meredith mentioned some club?" someone suggested. "She and her friends were going there? I think they've already left, actually. Said it was really exclusive, dancing, some new DJ, lots of stars?"

There were even more sounds of disgust, as no one felt like going anywhere "exclusive" with lots of stars.

"Why don't you come to our diner?" MJ's dad boomed.

MJ whirled to look at him. "No. Dad. Just no."

"Why not?" he asked his daughter. "It's closed now, we have plenty of food and drink, we can cook plenty more, lots of room for these people, it's private, no one complains about noise--" he turned to the assembled people "--you like some Greek food? Souvlakis and beers and ouzo?"

"That sounds awesome!" some called out.

"Okay, so let's go!" One of MJ's uncles called out.

"Oh, dear god," MJ moaned, face palming.

"Come on, MJ, it'll be fun," Heath exclaimed.

"I think it sounds ace," Archie agreed.

"Me too," Poppy agreed with a smile.

"I think there are only about fifty of us, we'll all fit on one bus, guys," someone suggested. "Call Gary, will ya?"

Gary the bus driver was called, everyone piled on, and they headed for Santa Monica, with Costas in the front giving directions.

Yanni called his wife and told her they were heading over with some people. Yanni and his wife Cristina lived next to the diner, and their back yard shared property with the diner, so there was plenty of outdoor space as well. She had matters well in hand by the time the bus arrived, and the left over food from the day at the diner was plenty to tide everyone over until the fresh food was ready.

Beer and wine flowed freely, as did ouzo and other spirits, and of course other people in the neighborhood heard that the Jassemoladas were having a party, and many people came and joined, just because it was a fun time. No one knew or cared that there was a bona fide celebrity in their midst.

The impromptu party at the Greek diner was an unmitigated hit, and everyone ate and drank like there was no tomorrow.

A few hours later, a hot and sweaty Heath found MJ sitting on a chair with a glass of wine in her hand.

He took the glass from her hand and swept her up and around a few times.

"First I danced with Minadora," he announced. "Then bampás danced. Then I danced. With Cristina. Then Tasos danced. Then Archie danced." He twirled MJ a few more times, nearly twirling them into a tree. "Now I'm dancing with you," he said with a smile.

MJ smiled at him while managing to detach herself and sitting down. "I danced," he told her, driving his point home.

"Oh my god, Heath, why don't you just sit for a minute, okay?" MJ said, laughing and shaking her head.

"Okay," he agreed, nodding his head, sitting, missing the chair completely and hitting the ground.

"Oops, chair moved," he laughed.

"Right," MJ agreed, helping to actually sit.

"I love you, MJ," Heath announced.

"And I love your family, too," he added.

"And I want to be with you forever, okay?" he said, scooting his chair closer to her and putting the leg solidly on her foot and causing her to let out a yelp of pain.

"Oh god, darling, I'm sorry," he said.

"It's okay, Heath," MJ said, patting his leg, you're drunk, you won't remember any of this in the morning."

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