Behind The Scenes

Chapter Six

The crashing waves, and cool breeze drift me away from my thoughts and stress. My eyes are closed, and my breathing as slowed down for the first time in a long time.

I really should do this more often, I just forget all the things I could do in LA. Just when I'm about to doze off, I hear the crunching of tires hitting gravel. I open my eyes wondering if it was just my head making it up, or if it was something in the real world.

The noise continues so I turn around, and see a corvette pulling into the small gravel parking lot. The windows are tinted, so I don't know who it is. I can only assume it is Robert but I can't really picture him to be the type to drive a corvette.

The door opens and sure enough, Robert stands up with two cups in his hand. One is a Jack in the Box cup, and the other is a Starbucks cup.

I jump off the rock, and walk over to him, "Your drink my lady."

"Thank you." I smile and grab the cup out of his hand.

"So, this is the secret spot?" He asks looking around.

"Yeah, I haven't been here in a while, and thought this was a good place to clear my mind." I climb back up onto the rock and look at him, hoping he will follow.

"Hah," he chuckles, "no thank you, I don't rock climb."

"This is only a six foot rock, this does not qualify as rock climbing rock climbing." I frown, and sit down where I was before.

"Well technically, I would be climbing a rock, so I would be rock climbing." He takes a drink of his drink, I'm not sure if it's coffee or tea.

"You're such a baby." I say and turn around to look at the water.

"No, I'm not a baby-

"You don't even want to climb up a six foot rock." I sigh.

He pauses and looks up at me as I have my puppy dog look on my face, "Okay, you got me." I turn around and see him starting to come up here. I scoot over as he plops down next me.

He is definitely the first man I've ever come to trust. As little as we know eachother, it just feels like we have a connection. I never felt that with my dad, or brother, or any relationships I've been in.

As soon as he looks down, his whole body tenses up. Right below us is a gift foot cliff drop. He takes a deep breath as I say, "Afraid of heights?"

"Yeah." He takes several deep breaths, "I always have."

"You know, I'm not afraid of heights, I'm afraid of falling from the heights." I chuckle and remain calm as Robert freaks out.

"Same thing." He doesn't realize what he is saying because he is thinking too much about the edge.

"Not really. I could look over a ledge, and not be afraid, but if I jump of the ledge, I'm gonna be scared." I say with a chuckle.

"Oh, I see." He chuckles with me, trying not to seem so afraid. "So, why did you want to come here?"

I think about it for a second. Should I tell him that I heard from my long lost brother about my dying mother, or just that I haven't been here in what seems like ages?

"Do you want the truth?" I ask looking over at him as he starts to calm down a little bit. 

He thinks about it, "Why would I ask you something if I didn't want the truth?"

"Because some people are afraid of the truth, they hide from it, and never want to see it. So I figured I would ask to see if you were just asking to be nice." I take a deep breath after the mouth full of words.

"Okay, from now on, when I ask a question about something that makes you, you, I mean it. I know that this spots seems to mean a lot to you, that's why I ask." He says it with a lower tone than normal.

"Okay." I nod and look at the ocean, I get uncomfortable when I tell personal stories while looking into someone's eyes, it's not something I do often. "My brother, who hasn't contacted me in at since my father died, called me this morning saying that our mother is dying of terminal cancer." 

"Oh, were you and your mother close?"

"Oh, god no, she was high all the time, sleeping with ever guy she came in contact with. As much as I hated my dad, and being at his house, I would never in a million years spend an hour with her." I explain. The waves from the water cool me down from not getting too angary.

"Oh, so you came here to think about whether you see her or not?" I can sense him looking at me but I refuse to look at him.

"Yeah." It gets silent after I say this one simple word.

Within about a minute or so, he realizes that I won't say any more, and starts to talk, "Were you and your brother close?"

"No." I pause, I know it's time that I let all of these things out, but it's hard. "He was my dad's favorite. They did everything together, and I was pretty much the disappointment."

He stays quiet for a little, then speaks up, "Well, now that you have shared all of this personal stuff with me, do you want ask me a few questions? I don't want to be the one asking all the questions."

"Sure, so," I pause thinking of a question, "your dad is Robert Downey Senior, right?"

"Yeah." He says nodding his head.

"How was he like?" I ask as I look over at him.

"Well," he pauses and looks down at his hands, "He shouldn't have been a father. He gave me drugs at a very young age, and we drank together. The only bonding moments we ever shared was when we were either high, or drunk."

"Do you have any siblings?" I ask as I change my seating position to where both of my legs are straight in front of me.

He shakes his head, but then corrects himself, "My mother took my sister when she left, so I grew up as an only child," He pauses for several seconds, "We have shitty parents."

"Yeah, I'm glad I moved out as soon as I could." I laugh, and he laughs as well.

"Yeah, same." After that, we just sat in silence as we admire the beauty in front of us. It's nice to not have to worry about anything, and to just sit in silence.