The Moonstone Starlet

Chapter 24
Whereas the first two boats were just a ways from Wahweap Marina, the third boat had been driven up the lake, through twists and turns and around peninsulas to a fuel station called Dangling Point Marina. It was the closest dock to the Rainbow bridge. It was a wise location, a midpoint to the lake and outfitted with supplies and fuel.
It was a much different scene, and a much different boat, smaller than the other two. The first floor was broken into three sections. At the front of the boat was a small bar with a loveseat and some stools. In the middle were four small rooms, each with king sized beds, and to the back a lounge area and kitchen. The top deck was much smaller than the men's boat, but had much nicer sofa benches along the sides. After securing the jetski Elia and Chaunette found the other women sitting in the lounge watching a movie and eating dinner. Elina, Dayna, Abby, Stamkos' girlfriend Sandra, and Sylvie were the ones brave enough to make the expedition. During the Bruins Lightning series Elia had spent a lot of time hanging out with Sandra Porzio and Stamkos.
“You're watching Black Swan? Nooo,” Elia booed jokingly as she walked in. Darren Aronofsky had beat her out for Best Director for the film and Natalie Portman had won Best Actress.
“We should be watching 127 Hours, it takes place really close to here I think,” Elia suggested.
“Nobody wants to see that.” Elina said disgusted. They didn't have any internet connection so they were only watching dvds they rented at the fueling station mart. Elia poured herself a glass of wine from the table and sat down with Abby.
Elina hushed everyone and said no talking until the movie was over. She had not been having the most fun on the trip. Outdoor activities weren't exactly her thing. Abby held up her phone at Elia, making typing gestures. "I don't get service out here!" Elia mouthed back. Abby shrugged, thought for a moment, then pointed up.
The two quietly walked to the top deck, bringing the wine with them, and Sylvie and Chaunette followed. Now that the sun was down the temperatures had dropped, and the girls sat together with a blanket on one of the couches. Abby leaned over to a table and lit a citronella candle. The boat rocked gently back and forth. Another boat left the marina, passing them slowly and jostling them more in their wake. Abby had been throwing up in the morning since they got there, but wasn't sure if it was another sign she was pregnant or from sleeping on a boat.
It turned out Abby was also angry that Elia was dating Brad, but not for the same reason as the guys. She had to read it online and hadn't heard it from Elia. How could she have been hooking up with a hockey player and not told her? Elia didn't think being a hockey player counted because he had been in the minors the first year. She told the girls about their talk before the last game. Chaunette and Sylvie were adamant they would kick their boyfriends asses if they ever suggested something like that.
"But he wasn't my boyfriend, we were just...I don't know. We haven't even been on a real date yet. It started out as just hooking up, and then we started hanging out after, and then sometimes we were hanging out and not hooking up, and then, you know how it goes." Elia said.
Actually, none of the girls knew how that goes. Their relationships had started out by the guy asking them out and then they were asked out again, and so on and so on. The three agreed that if the two of them had been seeing each other regularly since at least February that was plenty of time to figure out if they wanted to get more serious.
That night Elia shared a bedroom with Abby. It reminded Elia of being in a college dorm room again. Would they ever grow out of boy problems and girl talk? Just before drifting to sleep, Abby said one more thing, “El, word of advice if you plan to follow through with looking the other way? Never, ever, google 'Brad Marchand' again.”
In the morning Elia woke just before sun rise. She was used to being on eastern time and had trouble sleeping in. Quietly she made some coffee in the kitchen and went upstairs. Sitting on the top deck of the boat she watched the sun come up over the canyon. It was always the same moon going down and the same sun rising, but it never felt the same as it did when she watched it over Lake Michigan. She thought about the mornings in Boston watching the yellow sun come up from the deep black ocean, foreign and cold. The hours passed by, and the boat slowly started to come alive. One by one the other girls woke up. Bloody Mary's were made, breakfast was started. Idle chit chat filled the void of absent morning birds. Plans were discussed, options voted on.
It was decided that after breakfast they would head up to the Rainbow Bridge, then boat to Davis Gulch after lunch. The bridge was a large red arch, which turned out to be a little disappointing to Elia and Chaunette because they weren't allowed to climb on it or anything. It was the largest naturally occurring bridge in the world. They ended up staying an extra twenty minutes when Elia was recognized by a group of hikers and stopped to chat and take pictures with everyone. Davis Gulch was a more exciting hike. Elina stayed on the boat while the other girls trekked further and further into the narrow canyon, at some points having to turn sideways to fit through. Looking up the walls of the canyon stretched to the sky, looking ahead or behind they only saw more canyon wall winding back and forth. Everything they said echoed through the sandstone. They used rocks to carve their names into the side of wall, drawing a large heart around all of them and high fiving.
That night they anchored in the lake just outside the gulch in Lagorce Arch. It was a large sheet of rock overhanging the water like cave mouth with a window at the top. Elia and Chaunette caught some crappie off the back of the boat that they cleaned and cooked for dinner, in addition to the potato casserole Elina had made. They played “Never Have I Ever,” and Cranium late into the night, falling asleep on the couches in the room on the first floor. Abby woke them all up eventually to go to their rooms.
With all the hiking and drinking from the day before Elia slept in past the sunrise. The boat was quiet until almost eleven, when Elia's phone grabbed a bar and started spewing text and voicemail notifications. She checked her missed calls and voicemails quickly before dialing back.
“Aww, did you miss me already?” She cooed into the phone. Abby raised her eyebrows next to her.
“Uh...yeah. No....Where are you guys?” Jonathan replied.
“We are up at the Lagorce Arch, where are you?” The guys were still down at Wahweap. She explained to Jonny how they had gotten to the Arch, but said they would probably return to the nearest marina for fuel in the afternoon.
After hanging up with Jonny Elia listened to her other voicemails, turning on the speaker phone. The first was just a loud bar, with music playing in the background. Disappointing. The next one started out with another loud bar. The Wiz Khalifa song “Black and Yellow” was playing in the background.
“Yo, baby, why aren't you answering my calls? What's,” another voice cut in, repeating “Black and yellow black and yellow black and yellow” over and over.
“Seguin.” Elia said, laughing as she listened. The call ended. The next call was from an hour after the first. It sounded like it was outside on a street, the sounds of cars going by, an ambulance siren in the background. People talking.
“Hey girl.” The was a pause. “I'm not talking to you, girl, I'm talking to a girl on the phone.” Pause. “Dude, I said I wasn't talking to your girl, I'm trying to talk to my girl, on the phone, that's why I said Hey girl.” They heard shuffling, arguing in the background.
“Bro, I'll beat your ass.” Another voice said.
“Seguin,” Elia said, laughing with Abby but with a concerned look on her face. In total there were six voicemails from Brad that made little to no sense, and one heartwarming message about how much he wished she was there with him. The girls almost started to get sentimental when they checked Elia's texts from Brad. There was a picture of him with his shirt off and a new tattoo.
“That's pretty sexy...” Elia started to say, looking at the ink on his ribcage. “Wait...” She zoomed in on the picture. The words were backwards because it was in a mirror so it was a little hard to read, but it looked like it said, “Stanley Cup Champians,”.
“Champian, is that French Canadian or something?” Elia asked aloud, showing it to Abby.
“Yeah, I think it's french for 'our tattoo artist was drunker than we were,'” Abby replied.
Elia felt bad for laughing but couldn't help it. Once she could keep a straight face she ran up to the top deck of the boat to try and call Brad. If he was awake this early he was probably in the middle of the Bruins' parade. It went to voicemail.
The girls were midway through a pancake brunch when two jetskis came in to their cove, with the other two boats following. Elia and Sylvie watched from the top deck as Brent came aboard with Patrick Sharp and started talking to Dayna and Abby. Dayna stood with her arms crossed as Brent tried to hug her but she shrugged it off. Elia and Sylvie looked at each other then turned back to watch and eat their pancakes. The stand off didn't last long, and soon the guys were all infiltrating the boat.
“Such a shame.” Sylvie said.
“It was so nice and peaceful without them.” Elia agreed.
Kaner and Jon came up to the deck and Patrick started helping himself to Elia's breakfast. Elia watched disgruntled as her food disappeared. She stood up to put her plate away, and Paul had come upstairs when she returned. He stood with his arms open, looking at her.
“El, I'm sorry I hurt your feelings. I didn't mean to.” He said, looking at her sincerely. She walked up to him and put her chin on his chest, looking up. “I accept your apology.” She said, as he put his arms around her. They stood on the deck hugging, Elia looked tiny standing next to him.
“I just worry about you.” He said. She didn't say anything back. “But I'm not going to worry about you anymore,” He continued. She leaned back looking at him perplexed. “Actually, I'm more worried about Brad now.”
“What, why?” Elia said.
“For starters, I don't think the guy realizes what a high maintenance pain in the ass you are.” Paul said, laughing.
“I'm not high maintenance,” She insisted.
“Paul, I'm hungry. Paul, I can't eat this, it has MSG in it. Paul, why don't you have a tempur-pedic mattress, I can't sleep on this.” He started to say, mocking Elia. Kane started laughing.
“And then she's like 'Let's go to Taco Bell' and forgets about her food ingredient obsession,” Pat added.
“Oh yeah,” Paul agreed, laughing. “On top of that El, you have friends on basically every team in the NHL, and if he ever breaks up with you, he's going to be getting his ass kicked all season long.”
Elia doubted that would happen, but was glad they could all finally drop the subject. With the group rejoined together the day was spent swimming and hanging out. After another day of hanging out on the boats part of the group left to drive to Las Vegas, while a smaller group consisting of Elia, Jon, Andrew and Chaunette drove farther up state to hike and camp in Bryce Canyon for a couple days, stopping at a store on the way to buy tents and supplies. The foursome was more than happy to pass up partying in Vegas for just a few more days away from city life. The drive north took them through much different terrain. From the empty sand plains through fields of shrubs and into forests. Bryce Canyon was more wooded than Glen Canyon, and full of ridges and rocks standing up like columns. They hiked through paths that led down into the canyon between the tall, sparse, narrow trees and the rock spires. The ground sloped down between the rock in places forming a long natural ampitheater.
They camped in a drive-up site, spending the night having a few beers and cooking hot dogs over a fire, playing music out of the rented Ford Escape. A group of Utah college kids came over from another campsite to join them, bringing the game Cards Against Humanity with them. It was over an hour before the visitors realized they were sitting with Elia Downs, and the change in their demeanor afterward was palpable. At first there was awkward silence, as it sunk in. They wondered what they should do, or say. Then they would try to be cool about it. That was the worst part, Elia thought. She wished people could just relax and realize she wasn't that much cooler than they were. Next somebody would ask a probing personal question, and when Elia answered they would start a mini interview. They would start to feel comfortable, and maybe ask something or say something as if they were friends, which they weren't, but Elia had to play along, because if you don't they write about what an asshole you are on the internet. This time was a typical commentary on Elia's love life, which happened frequently. The girl in the group, Katie, offered her input, “I never saw you as someone that would date a hockey player, but I have to admit you two are such a cute couple,” she said as she gestured to Elia and Jon sitting next to each other in lawn chairs. Jon glanced at Elia quickly before staring into the campfire. Elia furrowed her brows, confused by Jon's reaction and addressed the question.
“This isn't actually the hockey player that I'm dating, so...” Elia started to say. She didn't really know how to respond. Elia considered herself a closet nerdy fangirl so she understood the passion of character shipping, but she was a person, not a character. That was the strangest thing about being a celebrity, people projected so many feelings on to her. It was a lot of pressure to live up to someone else's idea of who she was. Chaunette saved Elia by saying it was getting late and they needed to head to sleep. Andrew and Chaunette were sharing a tent, and Elia and Jon had a separate tent.
They hadn't bought large tents, and Elia and Jon were lying next to each other in sleeping bags. Elia was tossing and turning, complaining that it was too hot in the tent. Jon told her to sleep on top of her sleeping bag but she just moaned that she had to sleep under a blanket or she wouldn't be able to sleep. They had the side panels zipped down on the tent but there was hardly any air flowing through. She stripped down to her underwear in her sleeping bag, throwing her shorts and shirt around the tent. Jon lay on top of his sleeping bag wearing shorts and a t-shirt, perfectly comfortable. Elia kept making exasperated noises.
“Tazersaurus, I can't sleep.” She said finally, lying on her stomach.
Jonathan sighed.
“Will you tell me a story? A true story. Or a secret.” She said.
“Is this what you and Kaner do when you sleep together?” He asked.
“Yes, Pat always talks until I fall asleep.”
“No wonder Bisonnette says you are high maintenance. Ohhh,” He groaned as Elia hit him in the stomach. He relented, and slowly said, “Ok, fine. I'm in love with someone but I don't know how to tell them.”
“Is it me? Cause we're such a cute couple.” Elia said nonchalantly.
“Yeah, it's you.” Jon replied, keeping his voice steady. Elia rolled onto her back, “Good one. Ok, tell me a real story.”
He thought about telling her the truth, but instead he told her about the time he cheated on an algebra test in high school so he wouldn't be kicked off the hockey team for bad grades. Elia was quiet for a while. She was surprised he would have to cheat to pass math because he seemed very left-brained and logical. It wasn't that he couldn't understand it, he just hadn't been studying or doing his homework because he was practicing so much.
“Do you ever think about the things you've missed out on because you were trying to play hockey?” Elia asked. Jonathan thought about it for few minutes. His entire life he had one goal: to make it to the NHL. He had never thought about anything else. It was something that had been on his mind a lot since winning the Stanley Cup. What else was there in his life? What was he going to do when his time as a player ended? “Yeah. Of course.” He replied a while later. He looked over at Elia, but she was staring up through the tent mesh, looking at the stars and the moon. They lay in silence for several minutes.
“Do you think Shaw and Chaunette are doing it right now?” Elia asked, grinning. Jonathan snickered silently, “Why are you thinking about that?”
“Have you ever tried to bang someone in a tent? No matter how quiet you think you're being, it's like, everyone knows what you did when you come out in the morning.” Elia laughed, drunkenly.
“How many times have you done it in a tent? Damn it now I'm saying 'done it',” Jon said, holding back a laugh. He paused. “What does your boyfriend think about you sharing a tent with another guy?” He asked.
“He's technically not my boyfriend.” She answered so quickly they were both a little surprised by the reaction. She continued, “Bradley is not the boss of me Jonny.”
“I don't really know why I'm giving you advice about it, but if you were my girlfriend,” He thought about how to phrase what he was trying to say, “Let's just say you should be a little less friendly with other guys. Like, standing around and cozying up with Bissonnette all the time? I would have punched him in the face if you were my girlfriend.” Elia was pretty sure that Jon hated Paul Bissonnette for some reason, but she did sort of see what he was saying. For some reason, her natural instinct was to resist commitment. If she wanted to be in a relationship with Brad she had to accept that some things needed to change.
In the morning Jon and Elia did a run on the Mossy Cave trail, a path around the north end of the canyon without descending into the canyon. It followed a small stream to a rock overhang where a waterfall fed into the stream. “This cave's not so mossy,” Elia said when they arrived at the end. The moss only grew in the winter. “This cave's not so cavey,” Jon replied, “Utah is being really liberal with the definition of cave here.” Elia laughed. They walked around under the rock cliff, taking pictures behind the waterfall. On the way back they made up new names that were better suited for the cave, such as “Not So Mossy Slightly Inward Curving Rock Formation.” They did one more hike together as a group before packing up camp to leave. The closest airport was in Las Vegas, so they would meet up with the other guys and then head home. Elia had to go back to Vancouver to collect her dog, and would then fly back to Chicago.
After spending a week without cell phone signal, being back in civilization was overwhelming. As soon as they were within an hour of Las Vegas Elia was bombarded with emails, phone calls and texts. The next 12 hours was an endless series of travel and phone calls, flying to Vancouver, flying to Chicago. Chicago offered no rest.
She had to attend a ground breaking ceremony on a massive urban community investment project in Englewood she had been planning for almost five years. Along with several other wealthy philanthropists she had purchased many vacant lots and foreclosed homes in the troubled neighborhood and was starting construction on a several new businesses. With Rahm sworn in as mayor they were finally able to push through the permitting and rezoning procedures. The hope was to create jobs and bring money to the region, making drug dealing a less appealing alternative. Elia hated pointless publicity events but when politicians were involved everything had to be overblown. There was no harder acting performance than holding a shovel with Rahm and smiling sincerely. Following the seemingly everlasting photographs the procession moved to Kusanaya Cafe for coffee and snacks. Abby, Sharpie and Jon had come, and pledged to donate time and money to future projects. Missing in action was Kane, who had promised Elia he would come. He wasn't answering his phone. Between speaking to the press, and networking there was no time to try and figure out what he was doing.
She was only in the city for a few days before having to fly to London for a short trip. Her agent had arranged for several meetings and a read-through with a few cast members from the show “Game of Thrones.” Elia hadn't auditioned for a role in a long time, but was often asked to do a table read before officially getting a role. Especially with an existing cast, it was important that actors have a chemistry with each other. If it seemed like she would get along well with the other cast members, she would hopefully be offered a role.
Finally, two weeks after leaving, she was heading back to Boston to reconnect with Brad. It was a twelve hour flight from London to Boston, and Elia had planned to take a Xanax and sleep the whole way. Once the plane had taken off Elia ordered a glass of champagne and reclined her seat back and the foot rest out. Just as she was about to lean back she glanced at a computer screen across the aisle ahead of her. The passenger was on the website Deadspin, reading an article titled “136 Bud Lights For Only $680! An Unscientific Analysis Of The Boston Bruins' Epic Bar Tab From Foxwoods”. She froze half leaned back on her chair, staring. Probably better just to forget about it. She laid back and closed her eyes.
The stewardess came by with her champagne and Elia found herself looking over again. “Damn it.” She muttered as she sat up. “Hey,” she called over to the man. He didn't respond. It was like breaking an unwritten law to speak to someone in another seat in first class. She stood up and walked over to the seat. A thirty-something man with auburn hair looked up at her. “Hi, I'm sorry to bother you, but could I just see your computer for a minute?” “Are you Elia Downs?” He asked, dumbfounded. “Yes, yes I am. May I?” She knelt down next to his seat and started reading. The team had bought a one hundred thousand dollar bottle of wine. Tons of Red Bull, disgusting. She kept reading, “The team soon devolved into reeling anomie, all semblance of human decency absent. Women hip-danced on the bar. As did half-naked men.” “Half-naked men?” Elia asked aloud, “Click on that link,” she pointed on the screen. It opened up a Boston stoolie website with multiple pictures. Guys drinking out of the cup, that was fine. Brad sitting on a couch, surrounded by women. Okay, that's...whatever. Brad on a bar shirtless dancing with the blonde from the couch. “Is that your boyfriend?” The man asked. She looked at him, realizing she forgot to ask his name and reintroduced herself. His name was Greg. She looked back at the pictures, and pointed at the girl, “I mean, that doesn't mean they hooked up, you know? They're just dancing.”
“Yeah...” He replied, trailing off. “On the bright side, look, he's holding a whole bottle in one hand and another drink in the other. Even if they tried to have sex I doubt it would have worked.” Greg continued. Yes, because whisky dick stopping your man from sleeping with another woman is so much better, Elia though. “Are you a lawyer?” She asked. “Yeah, actually, how did you...Are you okay?” Elia was blinking a lot and her head kept falling forward. “Thanks Greg, I've got to go lay down, the xanny is kicking in.” She walked back to her seat and fell into her pillow. Her body melted into the chair.
A hand was shaking her shoulder when she woke up. It was the stewardess. It was time to fasten seat belts and prepare for descent.

Notes