Behind The Scenes

Chapter 7 (Part One): She's like a one way ticket, 'cause you can't come back

That was it.

Alyssa was holding the phone, trying to drown out any external sound, but her hands were shaking. It wasn't Matthew's thing to deal with girlfriend's parents, especially when the whole thing was fake. He always jumped out of relationships shortly before being forced to meet the family of any girl, so his first reaction was to paralyze, in panic. Alyssa shook the phone in front of him.

"Answer it", she whispered, barely audible.

Matthew shook his head vehemently.

"Tell him I'm driving." He said using the same tone, but to his surprise, he heard a deep, male voice out of the device, too high in the absolute silence.

"I don't care if he is driving; that's what the speakerphone is for!" Aly's father said, and the girl almost threw the phone on the car ceiling.

"Don't-" Matthew said, in a low voice, watching Aly move her finger to put the device on speaker. The girl covered her face with her hands instinctively and Crawford squinted, as if he could do that moment magically disappear.

"You can talk now, dad." The actress said almost whispering. "He's listening."

Matthew had stopped the car in a supermarket's parking lot because Jack Hayes was talking non-stop for over twenty minutes. Alyssa seemed to want to die at any moment, and Crawford was frankly scared of the men's reaction. Where did he got himself into? He should've letLittle, that bastard, deal with this completely insane father.

"This is outrageous!" Jack was still screaming. "Especially in these days, in what world do you two live in, for God's sake? Alyssa, this guy is all over the worst tabloids. TABLOIDS! What the hell were you thinking?"

"Dad-" That was, by Mathew's account, the eighteenth time Alyssa said dad, in another failed attempt to say something.

"Mr. Hayes." He heard his own voice say, but didn't got time to ask himself why in the name of hell he did that. Suddenly he realized that the men with a southern accent had gone silent for the first time, just to listen to him. "We didn't planned this, sir... it was an accident."

Alyssa widened her eyes and stared at Crawford, but before the actor could even think, Jack Hayes seemed to erupt a dormant volcano using all the swearing words he possibly could on the other end of the line.

"SO ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT MY DAUGHTER IS LIKE ANY WHORE IN YOUR BED?"

"DAD!"

"No, no, Mr. Hayes, that's not what I meant!" Crawford rushed, but got interrupted.

"YOU TWO ARE COMPLETELY IRRESPONSABLE!"

"Jack, stop, please." They heard a timid voice on the other end.

"Stop, Cheryl? LOOK WHAT HAPPENED!"

"BUT YOU SCREAMING WON'T CHANGE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING NOW, WILL IT?" The woman finally yelled, and Matthew glanced at Alyssa, who look like she was about to cry.

"Hi, Mom." She said, her voice cracking.

"Hi, Princess." The woman said in the same tearful tone. "Hello, Matthew. Sorry for Aly's father. He haven't took the news well, not that any of us have, but it's worse for him, you know..."

"We understand." Crawford said, quickly.

"OK." Jack said, after an audible sigh. "We will discuss it better in person."

"In person?" Matthew and Alyssa said in unison, stunned.

"Exactly, Alyssa. Bring the boy on the 4th of July."