Cowboy Casanova

3 - Me

When I pulled it out, I felt like someone had just punched me in the guts. It was a letter from another girl telling Dave that she had a good time on their date. It was dated in April of 1987 while they were on tour. I reached in again and found several more. One was dated last week. I threw the letters back in the bag and pushed my hair out of my face. I couldn't believe me. All the times he said "I love you" and "You're the only one for me" were fake.

Making sure I didn't wake him up, I got out of the hotel room.

"Elyssa?" I turned to walk away. A hand grabbed my shoulder.

"Elyssa. What's wrong?"

I just started crying. Richie hugged me close and stroked my hair. I let him. I didn't care who saw me cry anymore. I was just so hurt. When I calmed down, he took my hand.

"Come with me." He said.

He led me to his hotel room. He told me to sit then sat next to me.

"What's wrong?" He asked, wiping some tears off my face.

"Dave cheated on me. He's been cheating on me for months now." I said.

Richie looked shocked.

"Are you sure?" He asked. I nodded.

"Yeah. I found a bunch of letters from some girl. She said that she had a great time on their date and she couldn't wait to have another. Every single letter said that she enjoyed the date and that he should finally dump me and come to her." I said.

Richie shook his head and hugged me as I cried some more.

"Hey. Look at me."

I looked up at him as he wiped some of my tears off of my face.

"Don't cry over David. I love David like a brother, but he made a stupid fucking mistake breaking your heart. Don't show him that you're hurt. Honestly, the only reason guys like to hurt girls and make them cry is to feel power. Don't let him feel that. Show him that you're better off with someone else than you ever were with him. Show him that you're fine and that you can be happy without being with him. I understand that it'll be hard to do that, but trust me. You'll feel so much better about yourself and you'll feel a lot more confident."

I smiled slightly. "Thanks Richie."

"No problem." He said.

"Mind if I just hang out in here? I really don't want to go back to my hotel room."

"No problem."

For an hour, Richie and I just sat there, talking. Finally, there was a knock at the door. We both stopped talking. Please don't let that be David ... he's the last person I want to see right now.

"Who is it?" Richie asked.

"David. Is Lyss in there?" David asked.

I shook my head, letting Richie know that I didn't want to see him or talk to him.

"No." Richie lied.

I heard David sigh and walk away.

"Thanks, Richie." I said.

"No problem. But you really do need to talk to David eventually. You can't end the relationship without him knowing."

I sighed. He was right. Later in the day, I bumped into David.

"Oh! There you are. Hi, sweetheart."

He went to go give me a hug but I backed away.

"Don't touch me." I said lowly, feeling a lump forming in my throat and tears coming to my eyes.

"Lyss ... what's wrong?" He asked, putting his hand on my arm.

"I said don't touch me." I snapped.

The rest of the band had appeared behind him. I didn't care what they thought. I didn't care if they were standing there. I didn't care if we weren't having a private conversation. I wanted them to know how bad David had hurt me. I wanted them to see David as I did at that exact moment. I wasn't going to yell, though. Yelling gets you nowhere. He put his hands up in defense.

"Okay. Seriously. What's wrong?"

"You know what's wrong." I said.

"No ... actually ... I don't." He replied.

I shook my head I can't believe he actually doesn't know.

"Tell that to Rachel." I said.

He bit his lip. "How'd you find out about that?" He asked.

"Be careful about where you put things in your suitcase next time." I said and walked off. I was probably red in the face. I didn't care though. All I knew was I needed to get away from him before I did something I regretted.