Original Work: You'll Always Find Your Way Back Home, Chapter 5, Part 3

thefinalgirl (62)in #writing • 8 years ago

Chapter 5, Part 3

Outside the hotel I was faced with more eager and incredibly enthusiastic fans, all holding out things for me to sign or requesting a picture. I felt like I was asking “What’s your name” a million times a second, autographing everything from blank pages, to CDs to not exactly flattering photographs of my sister. I was getting practice in perfecting a fake smile as I posed with little girls and their mothers, a few shy younger boys and even a couple, teenage boys who weren’t shy at all.

After one picture with a family of five who were visiting from Georgia (I had to resist the urge to bond over a shared home state), who’s life story I became very intimate with, I sighed and relaxed my posture. There didn’t seem to be anyone left, hanging around, so hopefully I could go home now, slip into my pajamas and spend the rest of the day chatting on the phone and watching cheesy made for TV movies.

“Miss, can I get a picture?” A man’s voice asked from behind me, chipper and as hopeful as the rest.

Even though I wanted to make a run for the car, I forced myself to straighten up, pasting an approachable smile on my face as I turned around. “Sure-” I fell silent when I saw who I was looking at.

Standing there, not five feet away from where I stood was Joshua Beckett, drummer for The Retrievers, eye-candy for millions of girls across the world. I was sure that even my good friends would shoot me in the back to be in this position. I was caught completely off guard and I know that it showed on my face, though I hoped the open-mouthed expression that I was mentally picturing was a little more flattering in reality than what I had in mind. I was trying to force myself to remember that I was supposed to be Emilia, that turning around finding myself face to face with celebrities was a common thing, especially attractive, musically talented celebrities who wanted my attention. I know that I’ve given Jordan and all my other friends a hard time about their crushes on Joshua but I was mentally taking it all back now. Those magazine photos had not done him justice.

First of all, Joshua Beckett was much taller in person and made me feel even more remarkably short than I usually felt. Emilia and I hadn’t inherited our dad’s height, leaning more toward Linda’s five foot three inches stature, but Joshua was obviously not lacking in that department. His hair was cut short and had that just-rolled-out-of-bed-and-walked-out-like-this look that I was sure took a little longer than it suggested. But it was his smile that I couldn’t seem to look away from, a genuine gesture that seemed to light up his entire face.

“Uh…sure.” I cleared my throat and tried to give Joshua a confident smile. Let me tell you, it’s very hard to appear confident when you’re pretty sure that everyone within ten blocks of where you’re standing can hear the way your heart has suddenly started beating erratically.

Joshua pulled a phone out of his pocket and handed it to Linda with a brief explanation of how to use the device. Linda caught my eye and winked when she was sure that Joshua wasn’t looking, which didn’t really make things better for me because it made me even more flustered and worried that everyone really could see just how flustered I was. It wasn’t a good cycle. I went to stand beside Joshua and he slipped his arm around my waist, the nation-wide photo-taking stance. “If I don’t get the proof, none of the guys will actually believe this.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Believe what?” Linda cleared her throat and I returned to my now-well-practiced picture-taking pose.

“That you’re actually standing beside me, taking a picture.” Joshua moved away from me once the picture had been taken, turning so that we were face to face again. “Though they might think I photo-shopped it.” He smiled.

“I could give you an autograph.” I suggested teasingly. “Put your name on it and everything.”

Joshua laughed. “I might have to take you up on that offer for my brother, he’s a huge fan.” He paused. “But seriously, this is great Emilia, I’ve never seen you like this before.”

Briefly I wondered how much history Joshua and my sister had. I’d read the largely (I was sure) fabricated article in Jordan’s teen magazine, but now I wondered if they’d ever spent much time together outside of running into each other on Rodeo Drive. Of course, I couldn’t exactly ask him to fill me in, so I hoped that specifics wouldn’t come into the conversation. Though by the way he’d phrased his sentence, I figured it was pretty safe to assume that they’d had a few run-ins in the past.

I wasn’t entirely sure what to say. I felt guilty and I hadn’t even done anything wrong. “I know I’ve made some mistakes. I’m just trying to make it right.” It was the best thing I could come up with at the moment, because it wasn’t exactly like I could dig deep into Emilia’s mind and explain what she was thinking throughout her various public relations disasters.

But that seemed to be enough for Joshua because he smiled. “Well, I think it’s great. Everyone seems really happy to have you out here, taking pictures, signing CD’s…see, it’s not so bad.”
I had to admit, he did have a point; even though I was tired and my mouth was probably going to be stuck in a smile for days, it was fun to see how everyone had come out, just to see me. Or Emilia. I didn’t understand why my sister, of all people, didn’t love basking in the attention. “Sure beats a drunken cat fight.” I laughed and then stopped short, wondering if he’d see the humor like I did. I doubted Emilia would ever say anything like that about herself, but I couldn’t help the way I felt about my sister’s antics.

But, again, Joshua just smiled. “Who knew there was more to life.” He joked, though I could tell his words were tinged with seriousness and again I tried not to feel guilty. It wasn’t like I had done anything wrong, I never did anything wrong, so it was a little weird to feel like I had.

Something on my face must have given my inner thoughts away because Joshua quickly added, “But yeah, we all make mistakes,” in a way that was sure to be sympathetic and comforting. So Joshua Beckett, teen-heart-throb, was comforting me. No one would ever believe it.

Before I could say anything more, Joshua interrupted my thoughts with, “So, I don’t know if your mom’s gotten a chance to talk to you yet, but apparently our managers think it would be a good idea if we went out to dinner.” I couldn’t decide if he was being truthful or just trying to come up with a clever way to ask me to go to dinner with him. My speculation was quickly answered when he said, “They say it would be good for our image, good for you, for the band, you know, the whole one-big-happy-musical-family-thing.” He shrugged and I couldn’t tell whether he enjoyed the idea or was just doing his band-duty by bringing up the idea. “A little good publicity, you know.”

“Oh, uh, no she didn’t mention it.” I replied truthfully and wondered if Linda had been trying to set this whole thing up since before I showed up or if this was something new she and Schapelle had cooked up behind my back.

Joshua gave a little half shrug. “I didn’t know if you were still interested in recording with us…” He let the sentence hang there, a sort of unanswered question that I had absolutely no idea how to answer.

So I responded the way any normal, almost-but-not-quite-self-sufficient teenager would: “I’ll have to ask my mother.” I paused. “But I’d like to.” Or, I assumed Emilia would. Who wouldn’t want to record a song with The Retrievers? Or be in the same room with them while they were recording? Or even wait outside? I wasn’t picky.

“Cool.” Joshua nodded, sticking his hands in his pockets and shifting in a way that suggested he was worried the conversation was about to turn awkward. Maybe this was around the time when Emilia started to get bored and switched into lunatic car-mirror-breaking mode. I wasn’t sure what her record for polite conversations was. “Well, think about it. I know the guys would love to have you sing with us. And think about dinner too, I’d love to take you out, Emilia.”

That was what brought me crashing back down to reality. Of course, he didn’t want to take me out, he wanted to take out Emilia. And maybe he wasn’t even interested in her like that, but in a well-if-it-will-make-the-band-look-good-I’ll-go-out-with-Emilia-Thompson® way. But either way, it wasn’t me he was interested in going out to dinner with.

I smiled. “Sure, that’d be great.” It was only after he said a final goodbye and turned to leave that I realized our entire conversation had been captured by cameras and video cameras and would probably be replaying on countless television stations all night. Suddenly I felt very self-coconscious and wanted to tell all the eager journalists to take a hike. But instead I flashed a hesitant and slightly anxious smile before returning to Linda and Schapelle, who were both looking pleased with the whole thing.