Reluctantly Famous (3 page)

The girl huffs and stalks back to her
friends. Certain I can’t hear her, she complains, “What guy that
hot turns down a no strings fuck?”

“
He’s probably gay,” one
of her friends says.

The girl responds by laughing. “He thinks
he’s smart or something, highly unlikely. The hot ones never are.”
They laugh as they pick up their books and take off.

My fists clench on my thighs in anger. I
turn on some music before I do something stupid. An hour later, I
still can’t focus on studying. Pissed that I let her get to me, I
throw my books into my bag and stomp out of the library. The walk
home in the bitter cold numbs my anger. By the time I get back to
the apartment, I’ve almost forgotten about the rude girl’s nasty
comments.

“
Yeah! Go. Go.
Go.”

“
Wooooooooooh!”

Loud cheers accompany the music that pours
out of my apartment and into the musty hallway.

“
Fuck,” I mutter, pressing
my forehead on the front door. All I want is to take a shower and
crash. It seems that one or both of my roommates have other
plans.

I close the door behind me, hoping I can
make it through the crowd in the living room without being
spotted.

“
Dex!”

“
Hey man!”

Crap. No such luck.

“
Dex, we’re having a
pre-finals party! Join us.” My other roommate, Seth, throws his arm
around my shoulders.

I wince at the blast of stale beer from his
breath as it hits me like a Mac truck. “Nah, I got work tomorrow.”
A double shift at the store, plus drive time and my day is going to
be long.

“
Come on!” He pulls me
over to a group of girls, refusing to release his tight grip.
“Ladies, this is my roommate, Dex. Dex,” he slurs, “these are the
ladies.”

“
Oooh, Seth. You didn’t
say how hot your roommate was.”

“
Dex, hi.”

“
Hey.”

The girls smile and preen and their eyes
scan me up and down like a piece of meat at a market. The incident
from the library comes back full force, pissing me off all over
again. I twist out of Seth’s hold and beeline for my room, shutting
and locking the door behind me.

My heart is pounding against my ribcage.
“Shit.” I rub a hand over my chest, unsure of what just happened.
Whatever it was, I don’t like it. I take a slip of paper off of my
nightstand and stare at it for a long time. Frowning, I tear up the
phone number that I got from the Cute Blond yesterday at work, and
let the pieces fall to the carpet.

Fuck.

Allie – now

“
So you’re going to the
UK?”

I try so hard not to roll my eyes. It
actually physically
hurts
to hold back, that’s how badly I
want to do it.

“
Well, we
are
on a
plane to Heathrow.” I tilt my head towards my seatmate. He’s around
my age, twenty-five, and cute, but too stupid for my
taste.

“
Yeah, I didn’t think
about that. So, what’s in London?”

Fuck, really dude?
All I want to do
is close my eyes and try to get some sleep. Genius over here wants
to chat. Wonderful.

“
My brother’s girlfriend.
I’m going to visit her.”

Why would I tell this guy about Sydney? I
must be more tired than I thought. It’s going to be a nightmare
dealing with the media in London that’s been hounding her and Drew,
but getting away from the hospital for a while will be worth
it.

“
Cool. I’m going to be in
a movie.” Genius leans over into my space.

That wakes me up. “Movie? What movie?”

Genius smiles. In his mind, my change in
attitude is because I’m impressed that he’s going to be in a movie.
Fat chance. When your brother is Andrew Forrester, one of the
highest paid actors in the world, things like that don’t impress
you. Unless you’re Ryker Bancroft. I’m looking forward to hanging
out with him.

“
The new
Quantum
Stranger
film. I play Elliott Stryker.”

Great.
So I’m probably going to run
into Genius at some point since Sydney’s best friend is dating
Ryker, the star of that movie.

“
Interesting.” That’s all
I can come up with to say to him.

“
My name’s Jeremy. Jeremy
Morales.” He sticks out his hand and I reluctantly shake it. I
can’t ignore the guy. I’m stuck next to him for the next seven
hours.

“
Hi Jeremy. I’m Allie.” I
don’t give him my last name. He’s in the industry and might make
the connection between Drew and me.

“
Allie, niiiiice.” Jeremy
smiles his perfectly straight, white smile again. His dark eyes
shine with lust, or maybe just superficial interest. Either way, I
don’t care.

Ew! That’s just too bad buddy.

“
Well, I’m going to listen
to music now, Jeremy. Nice to meet you.” I pull out the
noise-cancelling headphones that Drew bought me last Christmas and
plug in my mp3 player. With a dramatic flick of my fingers, I hit
play so there’s no doubt that Jeremy saw me do it, and let the
acoustic sounds of Boyce Avenue surround me.

From the corner of my eye, I can tell that
Jeremy is shocked that I’m not into him. Figures. Good-looking,
actor, sitting in first class… he’s probably used to girls tripping
over each other to get to him. He’s barking up the wrong tree then,
because none of that crap impresses me. Not since it bit me in the
ass.

Allie – then

“
What Beth! I’ve had a
really bizarre morning. I’m not in the mood to talk.” I flop down
dramatically on my bed and pull a pillow over my face.

The pillow is whipped off and my roommate
sits down next to me. “It’s important, Allie.”

Ugh! “Fine.” I swing my legs around and sit
next to her. “What’s the big deal?”

All of a sudden, Beth looks nervous, like
she’s afraid to ask me something. “I heard some gossip today.”

“
Oh thank God. Can you
tell me what the hell is going on? Everyone has been acting like
they’re from another planet and it’s really freaking me out.” I
patiently wait for her explanation, but all Beth does is stare at
her hands. “Beth!”

“
Sorry, I’m sorry. It’s
just a stupid sounding question, I guess.”

“
Listen, I’ve held your
hair back while you’ve barfed up a kidney. I’ve slept in the common
room so you could hook up with that lacrosse player. I watched you
fall in the quad in a skirt with no underwear on. I think we’re
past all that.”

“
Brad. That’s the lacrosse
player.”

I glare at her and she wilts a little.
“Brad, right. Anyway, just ask me the damn question, Beth.”

“
Are you Andrew
Forrester’s sister?”

I freeze up, unable to answer. My mouth
gapes open and suddenly it feels as though I can’t get enough air
to my lungs. I think Beth is still talking to me, but I can’t quite
hear what she’s saying. I’m too busy focusing on taking in deep
breaths, gulping down each one as if it’s my last. Drew said not to
tell anyone, but he didn’t say I couldn’t confirm other people’s
suspicions.

“
Allie! You’re scaring
me!”

I snap my mouth shut, forcing myself to
concentrate long enough to answer Beth.

“
Where did you hear that?”
My voice is faint, raspy, probably from the shock of her question.
I never told anyone here about Drew. Not one single person.
Whenever anyone asked about my last name and if we were related, I
laughed it off.

“
Everyone.” Beth fidgets
uncomfortably. “I guess at that party Saturday night, at Rafael’s
place, you showed a bunch of people some pictures on your
phone.”

My head is spinning. I don’t remember doing
that. Honestly, I don’t remember doing anything that night. One of
the many dangers of drinking way too much alcohol.

“
Tina, you know, Rafael’s
girlfriend, said that you were snapping pictures of the party and
she asked to see one. But when you brought up the picture roll, it
was of Andrew Forrester and
you
, like… a selfie with
him.”

The coffee in my stomach roils, threatening
to make a reappearance.

“
Well, she freaked out and
then took your phone and showed everybody at the party. And I mean
everybody. Now the entire campus is talking about it.
So…?”

Beth stares at me, eyebrows raised, waiting
for a response.

“
I don’t think… I mean…
I’m not sure…”

“
Al, I’m your roommate and
best friend. You can tell me.” She throws an arm around my
shoulders and hugs me tight.

“
Yes, he’s my brother.” My
voice is barely audible.

“
Holy shit,” she
mutters.

“
I know.” Drew is gonna be
so pissed, that’s why I’m not telling him. I don’t need that kind
of shitstorm in my life.

Then my roommate’s serious expression
brightens, her scowl becomes a wide grin. “That’s the coolest thing
I’ve ever heard. God, Allie, you’re like, a celebrity or
something.”

I smile back, enjoying Beth’s excitement.
“Not really, well, sort of. He’s the celebrity, not me.”

“
Well, I have a feeling
that’s all going to change, Al.”

After the shitty day I’ve had so far, the
thought of everyone on campus adoring me, knowing who I am, sounds
wonderful. Like my tiny group of friends just expanded to include
the entire B.C. campus.

“
Yeah, it is.” I’m so
giddy I might explode from the exhilaration of it.

Like they say, hindsight is 20/20.

Allie – now

Okay, so Ryker Bancroft is just as hot in
person as he is on the screen. Plus, he’s a really cool guy. I can
say that because I just got back from spending an entire day
watching him film the new
Quantum Stranger
sequel.

“
God, Allie. You’re not
even in London twenty-four hours and you’ve fixed Syd’s
relationship and helped her get her head on straight. Now, if you
can just figure out who’s recording her.” Leah stares at me in awe
as we take the elevator up to mine and Syd’s suite at the
Warren.

“
True,” I say. “If only I
hadn’t lost that magic wand I used to have, imagine what I could
do?”

Sydney laughs while Leah scrunches her face
up, unamused.

“
The guys will be back
soon, so we need to get ready,” Leah says sternly. “Especially
Allie, since Dex and her were making lovey eyes all day at the
set.”

I scoff. “Lovey eyes? What the hell is
that?”

Syd and Leah share a look. “You couldn’t
stop drooling over each other,” Syd points out. “It’s okay. He’s
hot.”

“
He’s really smart too,”
Leah adds. “Like super smart.”

“
Huh, I like smart guys.
Well, I think I would. I wouldn’t know. Every single guy I’ve ever
dated was a total tool.” Not that I’ve dated much.

Leah chuckles while Syd stifles hers in an
attempt to be polite.

Leah puts her hand on my arm, her eyes
serious. “I can tell you without hesitation, that Declan Foster is
not a tool. We’re all going out tonight and you can see for
yourself. He told me he was discovered while working as an
Abercrombie model in New York. That’s how he got into acting, but
he went to college for something else, I just can’t remember
what.”

I really hope she’s right. Between every
idiot I’ve dated and Genius on the plane, I’m pretty fed up with
tools.

The VIP area of club whatever-its-called is
a welcome respite from the crowded dance floor. Dancing body to
body is fun, but sweaty.

“
It’s so hot in here,”
Leah whines, holding her frozen beverage up to her
forehead.

“
That’s because you
haven’t stopped dancing since we got here.” Ryker puts on a fake
pout, crossing his arms over his chest.

“
Awwww, did you miss me,
Ry?” Leah asks.

“
You know I can’t go down
there with you, I’d get ripped to shreds.”

Okay, so maybe not a fake pout.

“
Where’s Syd?” I ask, not
addressing anyone in particular.

“
Still dancing with Rachel
and Leslie.” Declan slides into the booth next to me. His thigh
ends up pressed right alongside mine. I clench my teeth and breath
deep to control my desire to sit on his lap and devour his mouth. A
mouth that is closing around a beer bottle and sensually drinking,
lips tasting…
Ugh!

“
Airplane girl! I thought
that was you!”

I turn to find the source of the drunken
shouts only to see Genius, my seatmate on the flight here,
approaching our table.

“
Hey Jeremy,” Dex
says.

“
Dex! How’s it going? I
see you’ve met my friend.”

My eyes just about pop out of my head.
“Friend? No, he sat next to me on my flight,” I explain to Dex.

Genius, sorry Jeremy, shoves one of the two
glasses he’s holding right under my nose. “Here, I bought you a
drink.”

I push his hand away. “Sorry, I don’t accept
drinks from men I don’t know.”

“
C’mon, don’t be uptight.
You know me!” Jeremy holds out the glass again, spilling some over
the side and onto my dress.