I was sitting backstage with Prince and his band, waiting on them to go on. I felt an air of tension in the the room. Lisa is sitting in the corner fidgetng, and I could see her casting sidelong looks to Prince. He was sitting at his vanity apart from the group, deathly silent, playing with this weird monkey puppet, locked in thought. I was sitting on the couch next to Prince's vanity. It was kind of awkward sitting there let me tell you. I was ready for someone or something to make a noise or a sound or something and as if on cue, Wendy walks in. She casted a side look at Lisa, and took a seat.
"Hi...." she started with a smile. "I uh heard through the grapevine you had a new tune written by two great girls. By chance did you hear it?" Her face full of concern. He stares at her through the mirror and if looks could kill Wendy would be dead.
"I knew it.." Lisa scoffed. "he didn't listen to it. He probably dropped it under his bike and rolled over it."
Prince grunts and turns away. I looked back over to Wendy to see what her reaction was.
"Wow....Okay...you think about this. I'm going to be real honest with you. You're being full of shit." Prince turned his head quickly towards her.
"Forget about it, Wendy. Let's get out of here" Lisa tried to calm Wendy down. But Wendy was agitated, and silences her with a wave of her hand.
"Every time we give you a song, you say you're going to use it, but you never do. You always think that we're doing something behind your back. You're just being paranoid as usual."
"Wendy..." Lisa tried to break in.
"Shut up, Lisa, please!" She retorted and turned her attention back to Prince. "You should know by now that we wouldn't hurt vou. We're not out to put a dark cloud over your head. It's just to make you feel good, Prince... that's what it's all about. You've been this way with us before, remember!?"
"The nominees for the best actress are..." Prince replied. I mentally face palmed myself. What the fuck Prince.
"Fuck it, Wendy....let's break!" Lisa said getting up. Wendy is shaking, tears start filling up hereyes. Wendy got up to leave with Lisa but she turned around.
"You know you can really, really hurt people? Doesn't that mean anything to you? I mean doesn't that make you feel like shit?" Well damn....
"C'mon ..." Lisa pulled Wendy out of the room.
"I'm tired of this ... I'm really tired..." Wendy said as she was leaving and she slammed the door behind her. I looked at Prince and Prince looked over to Bobby, Mark, and Matt
"You tired, too?" He sounded plain.
"God got Wendy's periods reversed. About every 28 days, she starts acting nice. Lasts about a weekend." Matt said, seemingly to ease the tension but joke hung suspended like a ball and chain in the air. No laugh, no smiles, no nothing, just a ton of passive aggressive feelings. Bobby gets up, the others follow him to the door
"What difference does it make, Prince. We're still a group, right?" They cut out the door, but its so quiet you can hear everything going on in the hallway outside.
"Headcase. Telling you...'effed up headcase."
"People with talent usually are."
"Of course, there are a number of headcases without great talent too." and then their voices faded away.
I heard everything they said and I know for a fact he heard it too. I looked up at Prince and he was staring at a cassette on the counter. It was the same tape I gave him a while back, it had Lisa's and Wendy's music on it. He looks over to me and places his hand on my ankle and sighed then looked back in the mirror. He sat there rubbing my ankle, and up my shin. We just sat there in silence but it wasn't as awkward as before. It was a more calming, enjoying each other's presence type of thing. To be honest it almost put me to sleep. But all good things must come to an end because suddenly the door opens.
"Prince...five minutes." A stage hand peeked in and left. He looked up at me and smiles a little. Which made me smile. He chuckled slightly and got up to put on his jacket and grab his guitar. I watched him the entire time. He walked back over to his vanity and blew out the candles. He looked over at me and looked down with a slight smile.
"Good luck." I said quietly and he kissed me on the forehead and cut out the room.