Behind The Scenes

Chapter 8 (Part One): Things are sweeter in Tennessee

"Hello, Memphis!" Matthew stopped in the middle of the airport hall, holding the suitcases. "I never thought I'd meet Elvis' city. Neither that you would be so cool to be born in the city that he made his."
"You are oddly excited for someone who almost jumped out of the plane when we took off. Seriously, I'm never stepping inside a plane with you again." Alyssa sneered, making him laugh.
"I'm not excited, girlfriend. I am, however, trying to be a little positive, since I'm going to die soon with a shot."
"My dad doesn't have a gun." She rolled her eyes, and stared at him. "And we're not staying in Memphis."
"No?" Aly saw the actor wilt like a child, which was almost funny. "Where are we going?"
"To Collierville." The girl smiled sincerely, like the town holds some gold mine or something pretty incredible that only the people who go there can find out. Crawford frowned.
"To where?" He asked and Aly laughed.
"You drive, baby." She smiled, throwing the keys of the rented car in his direction. "I want to enjoy the view."

Matthew felt the wind on his face through the open windows and, for a few seconds, really forgot what he was doing in Tennessee. The warm breeze of July, the cloudless sky and the view were really breathtaking. He loved to drive without a destiny, without a reason, only for the pleasure of the trip. Of course since he moved to Los Angeles, he barely could do that, and didn't even had the time to. However, that good feeling of freedom felt to overlap to any crazy family that he was about to meet.
As the boyfriend of a girl he wasn't dating.
And as the father of a child that wasn't his.
Oh, my God.
When he looked to the side, he saw Alyssa hugging her legs and staring at the horizon with a completely lost look, glazed.
"Hey!" He said loudly, making her jump.
"What the fuck, Matthew!" She put her hands in her heart, then started to patter her fingers on her legs, going back to glazing at the horizon.
"Wow." Crawford laughed, ironic. "You're really great at calming people down."
"I'm not trying to calm anyone down." The girl snorted.
"Then you should calm yourself down." He shrugged, looking at her from the corner of the eye.
Then, Alyssa took a gigantic Toblerone bar from her purse and started to attack it in a not so polished way, or sexy.
Matthew laughed at it.
"What the hell are you doing?" Matt asked her, trying not to laugh, but Alyssa didn't seem to bother answering - she kept attacking the bar completely enraged and he widened his eyes. "Damn, you're looking like a weasel." He laughed aloud and received a slap on the forehead, which didn't stop him from laughing.
"Shut up!"
"You're going to get sick, you know that, right?" Crawford shrugged. "It seems like we're reliving the tragic kiwi ice cream incident."
"CAN YOU STOP?"Aly screamed way too loud, scaring her costar. He stared at her with a completely weird expression, but didn't had time to come up with a phrase. "I CAN'T EVEN RELIEF MY PANIC IN A FUCKING TOBLERONE BECAUSE YOU CAN'T SHUT UP! URGH!"
Crawford went back at staring at her, holding the impulse of covering his ears. Aly took a deep breath, squeezing the bar harder than the adequate.
"How am I going to introduce you to my family? HOW?" Aly was shaking. "You're on the police pages, goddamn it! THEY'RE GOING TO KILL ME!"
And then Matthew abruptly stopped the car, in the middle of nowhere, making her Toblerone bar hit the dashboard and, of course, making Alyssa shut up, completely scared.
"I should've pictured this shit." He said quietly, more to himself, and Alyssa stared at him.
"Are you crazy? We could've died!" The actress bellowed, before splicing. "And what the fuck, Crawford?"
He laughed.
"You're never going to be able to lie to your parents about us." Matthew cackled, skeptical. "Fuck, where was I with my head when I accepted this shit? YOU COULDN'T EVEN LIE TO DONNA!"
Matthew saw Alyssa's eyes fill in with tears and her hands instinctively going to her mouth, a few seconds before she pull out the seat belt and run to the middle of the bush to vomit.
He hit his head on the steering wheel twice, until hitting the horn, and shaked his head.
"Fuck." He growled, also leaving the vehicle.
He ran over to where Aly was, but she got up with the approximation.
"I know how to lie, okay?" She said with a red face, and Crawford rolled his eyes.
"To your family?" He offered a smile, but Alyssa was way too worried staring at nowhere to notice.
"To whoever I want. I'm an actress, for God's sake!"
"Yeah."
"I've lied to them other times, I'm not a saint." The mention of this fact made Crawford raise his eyebrow and come closer.
"Really? Tell me your big lie then, daredevil." He laughed quietly and Aly made a pout.
"When I was a teenager, I used to lie so I could go out with my boyfriend." She said, simply, making the actor laugh really loud.
"Right. Because our lie is the exact same thing." Matt said, getting a slap, which only made him laugh more.
"You're a dick." She growled. "Can we go now?"
"Is your crisis over?" He teased and Aly showed him the middle finger, laughing. "Yup, it seems like you're back to normal." Crawford said, going back to the car.