Girl of Mine

Chapter 16 - Alarmed

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Narrator POV

October 19th, or rather the early hours of the 20th, marked the beginning of several calls waking Sal up in the middle of the night every week—if not every day. Elvis called at all hours, and as a testimony to Sal's neverending kindness, she never mentioned she had to get up for work early the following day.

The days they shared the past summer had only let Sal see a fraction of the pressure Elvis was under.

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Rosalie POV (Sal)

The main themes of our conversations were always either the Colonel, his career, or June. He was promised a part in Love Me Tender that didn't involve him singing, as he hated musicals and wanted his acting to shine. He would tell me; how awkward isn't it when you get into an intense scene with great dialog build-up, then they just unnaturally break out into song? Aggravated, he told me about going to see a movie with June and actually storming off at the end, where the lead role broke into a song out of the blue—it wasn't even a musical! I hadn't seen much of Elvis getting mad before, at least not like this type of passionate anger. More and more, though, I had noticed the guy was a hothead at certain times.

Agreeing only to have a soundtrack played during the movie, they broke their promise at the end, leaving him to make the role less serious—being put on a stage with a guitar at the end singing Love Me Tender. As this was his first motion picture, though, he had hopes of getting more experience to get the parts he desired later on—he knew he had a long way to go, as he kept missing the Director's cues in a room of professionals. He wanted to be like James Dean. I remember going to the movies with Patty and my cousin last year to watch Rebel without a cause, just one month after Dean passed—taken too soon at 24. He was a heartthrob, but I didn't think that was what Elvis meant when he said he wanted to be like him. No, he wanted to get parts that touched someone's feelings, important movies with heavy themes—like Deans' coming-of-age movie, critiquing and exploring the differences and conflicts between generations.

When it came to June, he was far less angry and more saddened. He talked about how he disappointed her while he, on the other side, felt frustrated with her. Asking her to wait for him—had, over time, given him the inclination of her not being happy to be with him. They rarely saw each other. In fact, they only made phone calls for the time being, except for one visit to Memphis, where Elvis had bought her a ticket to have her flown out to him.

I tried explaining that a girlfriend seeing him kissing his fans and numerous articles with him plastered on the front pages with other ladies could break any girl's heart. Especially his relation to Natalie Wood, an actress he had been seen being tight with.

What made me mad at him—was his constant infatuation with the pretty girls surrounding him. He said he didn't touch them and that the fans and the girls loved the idea of him, not him. Those were the words he told June as well. Elvis did, in fact, go out with Natalie, but he assured me that it was the Colonel's wish for him to keep his relationship with June on a down low.

I warned him that he would one day lose June. He didn't believe me, which made me realize that he was quite dense when it came to women, even if he was called the «lady-killer» by the press.

No matter what I told him, Elvis had a mind of his own—that had a set of other opinions. He simply could not differentiate between what his career needed and what June needed—The girl who loved him and would wait forever because he was Elvis Presley. It reminded me of when the Colonel told him that his ego didn't suit him.