Reluctantly Famous

Reluctantly
Famous

By Heather
Leigh

Copyright © 2014 Smashwords for Heather
Leigh

All rights reserved.

ISBN:
978-1310939365

First Edition, License Notes

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters,
businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of
the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any
resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is
purely coincidental

Allie – now

I swear, if I were my brother, I’d have
murdered every single tabloid reporter by now. Literally murdered
them. I’d be sitting in jail in my hideous orange jumpsuit with a
big ol’ smile on my face because it would have been totally worth
it. Those intrusive bastards would have had it coming to them, each
and every one.

“
Miss.”

My daydream vanishes and I’m back in line at
Logan airport, waiting to board my flight to Heathrow.

“
Sorry,” I tell the
ticketing agent. “I was spacing out.”

“
No problem. I need your
passport.”

I hand it over the counter and wait for it.
It’s coming, it always does… in 3, 2, 1…

“
Forrester? Any relation
to Andrew Forrester?” The agent’s eyebrows lift and her interest in
me perks up.

“
Nope. If only, right?”
That’s my standard line for that question. Turn it into a joke,
laugh, smile, and pretend it’s funny so she’ll let it
drop.

“
Yeah, that would be
something,” she says, laughing as she hands me back my
passport.

It works every time. It helps that we don’t
look too much alike, just hair and eye color. Otherwise, my life
would be a nightmare.

Just like it was in college.

Allie – then

“
C’mon Allie! I don’t want
to get there so late that all the hot guys are taken.”

“
I’m coming, I’m coming.
Geez, Beth, I can’t speed walk in stilettos you know.” I scowl at
the back of my roommate of two months. She is steadily pulling
ahead of me as we make our way from the freshman dorms at Boston
College to an off-campus party nearby.

Beth turns around and glances at my
footwear. “You know we have to walk everywhere, Al. Why on earth
you insist on wearing those things is beyond me.”

I throw a pout in her direction, annoyed by
her dig at my shoes. So what? I like designer shoes. My brother
knows I like them, so he sends them whenever he gets a chance.
Well, he probably has his bitchy assistant, Kelly, send them, but
still. I left most of them at my parents’ house. If Beth knew how
many pairs I really had, she’d shit a brick.

I haven’t mentioned my super-famous brother,
actor Andrew Forrester, to anyone at B.C. yet. One, it’s nearly
impossible to casually work that into regular conversation. Two, my
roommate, who has also become my best friend, is obsessed with
celebrities.

Drew made me promise not to tell anyone at
college that he’s my brother. He threw a freaking hissy fit until I
agreed to his stupid overprotective demand. I don’t really get
that, I mean, I went through four years of high school with
everyone knowing who he was. He said it’s different when it’s the
people you grew up with, that they don’t see him as a celebrity.
Whatever. I’ve followed his stupid rule and kept my mouth shut and
my family photos hidden, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Being famous looks like fun, I don’t see why he cares if I get a
little attention out of it.

“
Don’t make fun of the
fashion, Beth.”

She laughs. “Allie, I swear you’re gonna
trip over those things and get run over by some asshole Boston
driver.”

“
I grew up here, Beth.
Don’t forget that I know exactly what drivers around here are
thinking. I’m well aware that they’d treat me like a speed bump and
never look back.”

“
Here it is.” She stops in
front of a six-story brick building.

“
You know this guy,
right?” I check out the apartment complex. Nice-ish area, well lit,
not run down… it’s as okay as it gets for student living in a town
as expensive as Boston.

“
Yep. He’s in my econ 101
class. We’ve hung out a bunch this semester.”

“
Okay,” I shrug. “Let’s
go.”

If I only knew, that’s the last thing I
would remember from tonight.

Holy freaking God!

Someone needs to stop poking my brain with
an icepick. I attempt to move, but the icepick becomes an enormous
sledgehammer that smashes into the side of my head.

“
Unnnghh!”

My limbs are too heavy to shift them, so
instead I try to look around to see where I am. Tiny shards of
glass stab into the backs of my eyeballs when a sliver of light
filters through.

Struggling to keep my stomach from heaving,
I force my eyes open to find myself on the floor of my dorm
room.

“
Thank God.” I whisper so
I won’t hurt my own head.

“
Shhhhhhh, stop
yelling.”

I would turn towards the hoarse voice that
just spoke, but I recognize my roommate Beth, even in her
post-drinking state. Plus, it’s just too damn painful.

“
What happened?” I groan,
rolling over onto my back, wincing when every inch of my body
protests.

“
Beer, shots, party…”
Beth’s voice is raspy.

“
We shouldn’t do that
again.”

“
I agree. Crap, Allie. It
feels like I swallowed an entire bag of cotton balls soaked in
tequila.”

Despite my excruciating headache, I laugh.
“Oh shit, don’t make me laugh, Beth. I’m gonna throw up!” My arms
flop to my sides uselessly.

“
Thank God it’s Sunday,”
Beth groans. “There is no way I’d be going to class
today.”

“
Me either.” Too weak to
get up, I snatch a sweatshirt off the floor and cover up with it so
I can curl up and go back to sleep.

“
Al. Al. Allie.
Allie!”

“
What?” I sit up and my
head spins briefly, then thankfully stops.

“
It’s getting late. The
cafeteria is going to close soon. We should eat something to settle
our stomachs.”

I look up from the floor at Beth and
grimace. “What time is it?”

“
It’s seven.” She slides
off her bed and quickly changes into jeans and a loose
shirt.

“
Seven? Wow. We slept all
day.” I press the heels of my hands into my eyes. “Okay. Yeah, we
should eat.”

“
Get dressed then
sleepyhead.” Beth giggles and throws some clothes at me.

Amused, I pull on yoga pants and a tank top,
quickly yanking my hair up into a ponytail. “Let me brush my teeth
first. No way can I eat with this nasty taste in my mouth.”

Beth chatters about a guy she met at the
party our entire way down to the dining hall at Corcoran Commons.
“… so then Nate asked me if I wanted to see him again and we traded
numbers.”

“
That’s cool,
Beth.”

I had so much to drink last night, I don’t
remember Nate or if he’s cool. Hell, he could have two heads for
all I know. To disguise my lack of memory, I pretty much agree with
everything Beth says, nodding my head as she talks.

My stomach lurches when the scent of food
hits me. “Let’s just get bread or something,” I tell her as we
enter the cafeteria.

“
Good call. I think I’d
barf if we got anything else.”

We get our food and a couple of Sprites to
settle our stomachs before we grab an empty table. The large room
goes quiet around us when we put our trays down and sit. Glancing
around the room, I notice quite a few students staring at us or
speaking in hushed tones.

I slide into my seat and whisper to Beth,
“Is it me or is everyone in here acting weird?”

“
Huh?” Beth snaps her head
up from her phone. “Sorry, I was texting Nate. What did you say?”
She sips on her Sprite and stuffs a hunk of bread in her
mouth.

“
The other students… are
they…” I peek up from my lowered lashes, “staring at
us?”

Beth scans the room and shrugs. “Who gives a
shit? Maybe they think we’re hot?”

I make a face and she cackles like a
maniac.

“
Okay, so we look like
crap. Whatever.” She continues eating, completely unconcerned with
the rest of the student body.

“
You’re right, I’m being
stupid.” I finish eating my bland meal, wondering if I’m
overreacting. A nagging voice in my head won’t let it go, but I
pretend everything is fine as Beth regales me with stories about
Nate all the way back to our dorm.

We both still feel a little tired and out of
it the next morning, but I haul my butt out of bed anyway. It feels
like I’m moving in slow motion as I shower and get dressed. Once
I’ve had some coffee, I start to feel more human and less like
something the dog spit up.

As I trudge across campus to my first class,
I wish I had remembered to wear my gloves. November in Boston is a
crapshoot. You could get a rare snow dump or you could get
temperatures as high as sixty degrees. Today is just mind-numbingly
cold.

“
Right there, that’s
her.”

“
No way!”

“
Yes, I told
you.”

The crisp air and the residual hangover must
be messing with my brain, because I keep hearing people whisper
whenever I walk near them. It’s creepy, almost as if everyone’s
stopping and staring at me. I shrug it off and hurry to class, not
wanting to be late. My chemistry professor is a real dick if you
show up after class starts.

I open the door to the huge lecture hall
that houses freshman chemistry. The room falls completely silent. I
mean
completely silent
. I can feel my cheeks turning red.
The hot burn made worse by the frigid temperature of my skin.
Humiliated, I keep my eyes down and climb the stairs to my usual
seat near the top.

The whispering starts the second I sit in my
chair. People keep spinning around, sneaking glances at me. One or
two people looking at me I can handle. A three hundred-seat lecture
hall filled to capacity? My heart begins to race with anxiety. I
don’t like being the center of attention.

Dr. Shen enters the classroom and flicks on
the machine that projects her computer onto the large screen. The
class quiets down immediately. Dr. Shen is an intimidating force of
nature. She’s been teaching freshman chem for years. One look from
her has even the bravest student wilting in humiliation.

No one talks, but the quick glances continue
throughout class. If I wasn’t so far from the door, I’d have left
halfway through. Unfortunately, I’m stuck feeling the eyes of my
classmates crawl on my skin for an entire hour. Once the hour is
up, I jump out of my seat, ready to bolt for the exit.

“
Allie?” I look up and see
an unfamiliar girl talking to me.

“
Yes?”

She smiles. “I thought so. I’m Karen, do you
want to hang out?”

“
Ummmm, maybe some other
time, Karen. I have another class.”

“
We could exchange
numbers, that way we’re friends.” She pulls her phone out
expectantly.

“
Uh, okay.” I reluctantly
give her my cell phone number and she immediately texts me so I’ll
have hers.

“
Great! I’ll see you!”
Karen bounces down the steps, meeting up with a group of girls that
are noticeably waiting for her. They all glance up at me, then back
to Karen and giggle.

What the fuck is going on?

The icy air smacks me in the face as I run
out of the building. I have half an hour until my next class, so I
decide to grab a coffee at the Hillside Café to warm me up. Within
seconds of leaving chemistry, the creepy feeling I had earlier
comes back. It honestly feels like everyone on campus is either
talking about me or staring at me or both. Head down, I double-time
it to the café, determined to get my skinny venti mocha, regardless
of these assholes.

It’s so warm in the coffee shop that I sigh
with contentment. The welcoming smell of brewing coffee draws me
right in. I’m about to get in line when several girls approach
me.