story of a 60s icon

Chapter One | Date

While The Enfields plays on my record player, as the record spins, I run my cherry coloured lipstick along my lips, and mouth the words as my favourite song plays. I pull up my headband as it hits my bump clip and throw myself onto my bed and slip on my ruby red ankle-strap high heels. As I push the straps into the small buckles, I hear the door ring and I run down the stairs and as my eyes lock to my dad slurping a beer dripping adding to the green pit stains leaked all over his tank top, he yells to me as I go to open the door, "get over here." I feel my stomach drop and I slowly back up to see him look at me dead in the eyes and say, "why you so glammed up? You goin' to Hollywood or sum'n?" I feel so relieved. "oh, dad I wish, no no I'm going out to get some food with Johnny '' he grins "oh Johnny Darlington! He's a good kid, ain't he.." The doorbell rings again and my dad peeks through the blind and pats me on my back "go have fun" I give him a distanced hug and quickly slip away from him, blowing out all of his smell out of my nose walking to the door with my coat hanging over my arm. "See ya dad, love you"

I hurry to the door and I see him, Jonathan Darlington, my boyfriend. His one arm leaning on the door frame with a rose in his hand, his slicked-back hair, his tucked in rugby top in his flare jeans, "Hey babe" I jump into his arms and tug him outside, pulling the door shut, I lean back, his back being my harness, staring into his warm, hazel eyes. "Where are we going, John?" "dunno doll, anywhere you want". We walk, arms linked to his red Ford Galaxie, the warm lights reflecting off of my dad's car. He holds my hand, guiding me to the passenger's seat and bowing while saying "madame" and closing the door softly after me, making me giggle. He runs around the front of the car arms following, like he just won a game of football. "So, where are we going?" The car slowly starts clicking, and it slowly bounces off the driveway onto the street, "Hellens Live Bar?" he slowly turns to me and we link eyes. "Of course!" he speeds off the ledge of the driveway and dabs the centre of the steering wheel, letting out a loud yelp. And we sped off while the Collection of Elvis cassettes played on the radio as we rushed to the bar. And when we pulled up to the front of the bar, you could already hear the inside of the people chatting and the glasses clinking. We step out of the car and link arms once again to enter the bar. Once the door closes behind us, the warm air hits us and the chattering gets much louder. "Hey Lisa I need to go pee real quick" Johnny says as he slowly walks backwards, "alright" he turns to shuffle through the crowd into the bathroom and I sit on a stool and the bartender turns to me and asks, "Hello, what can I get for you?" While I look at the board on the wall, I tell him I'm not getting anything right now. As I finish answering I turn to the stage in the corner of the room, where almost 50 people surround it, a slim blonde lady in a mesmerising gown gazes across the crowd and wraps each of her fingers around the microphone pulling it off the stand "Hello everybody how are you all doing?" As the crowd goes silent, everybody replies with mixed answers overall being positive. "We are going to be doing a small talent show! Whoever has the most talented voice will win a 100 dollar prize, as well as a part of them in the local newspaper!" Everybody exclaims with whistles and cheers. She then raises her hand quickly silencing the room. "Whoever would like to perform can come to the stage and sign the waiver and we will read out the names" she waits a while and then says with a small smile "enjoy your night" then suddenly the whole bar explodes with sounds of glass and talking, and out of nowhere a pair of hands cover my eyes, and then i smell Johnny's cologne and I fall back into his chest. "Hi" he wraps his arms around my waist and lays his chin on my head. Why'd it all suddenly go quiet out here before? "A lady came and announced some singing talent show" he turned my seat to his face, with his jaw dropped. "You know I've heard you sing before. You're literally amazing," he practically begs me to perform. I roll my eyes and step off my chair and scoff, "fine.." I walk to the 4 pieces of paper and realise that I'm only the second person to sign the waiver. I look back at Johnny. He's staring at me with two big thumbs up, and I can't help but smile. As I scribe down my name I drop the pen to the table and go back to the stool where my Boyfriend was sitting and I go to sit down and ask the bartender to make me a Shirley Temple. He smiles and turns around, grabbing the ginger ale. And I watched the first performance. He's a man holding a beer bottle, and he mumbles into the microphone something along the lines of a song title and he starts to sing so off-key he makes the feedback sound good. The bouncer then came onto the stage and escorted him to the back door of the building, and the Blonde lady came up to the stage after the crowd chuckled and applauded and the microphone slightly "sorry about that, umm.. Next is Lisa Davis?" Johnny puts his hands on my shoulder and slightly shakes me, "your time to shine baby.." and I drop my jacket over the chair, "okay." as I stand up and waddle to the stage everybody stares at me and the lady helps me up the steps. "Go ahead" she whispers "Hello everybody," I can't help but give a smile "I'm going to sing you a song from a beloved singer of mine, Brenda Lee" "I'll be singing her song, Im Sorry" As I slightly sway my hands I sing out the start of the song with soft hums the crowd is mesmerised by my voice, once I was finished the crowd applause timesed by 3 filled with whistles, claps and the sound of people drumming their tables. The lady with the blonde hair came to the stage and took the microphone,

"I think we have our winner."