Reluctantly Famous (5 page)

“
I know. You graduate in
what, a week? Corporate doesn’t need you there until the twentieth.
That’s plenty of time for you to finish up and make the
meeting.”

“
But…”

“
Dex, from what I
understand, the pay is unbelievable, for very little work. Go, see
if you like it and if you don’t” she shrugs, “no harm done. You can
come back to Philly afterwards and get the job you studied for,
hopefully with a fatter bank account.”

Kathy stands up and opens the door to her
office. I follow her out instinctively, my mind whirling through
all of the options she just presented.

“
There’s contact
information on that paper. At least find out what they’re offering,
Dex.”

“
Sure.” I nod, letting my
feet take me to my car without paying any attention to my
surroundings.

Somehow, I get home without crashing my car
and immediately hole up in my room. This offer, it goes against
everything I’ve spent the last few months hiding from.
Not
using my looks, wanting people to see
me
, not my face or my
body. But the money, my parents could use it. Hell, I could use it.
I’m going to graduate with nothing but a shitty bed and a rusty old
Honda.

I’m so confused I honestly have no idea what
to do.

Declan – now

“
Holy shit, Andrew
Forrester.” I’m sure I look like a complete idiot in front of
everyone, but hearing that Allie’s brother is one of the most
recognizable actors in the world, and actually having him in front
of you while you’re eating breakfast, are two very different
things.

I’m too stunned to listen to everything, but
it seems as if Sydney and Drew are having some sort of reunion. If
I were more coherent, I’m sure I’d feel like I was intruding on a
private moment. Instead, I sit there with my mouth gaping open in
the kitchen of Syd and Allie’s suite.

“
Unclench Drew.” Allie
gets up from the table, crossing over to the entryway to give the
big, angry looking guy a hug. “It’s so good to see you big
brother.”

I blink back my surprise and notice that
Andrew Forrester is shooting daggers right at
me
. My gaze
drops to Allie, who’s still in her sweats, hair all messed up, and
I realize that
I’m
disheveled, wearing last night’s
clothing, sitting at his sister’s breakfast table where we had just
been discussing a tabloid article that depicted him cheating with
his costar.

Allie’s words come back to me.
“He’s only
scary if you’re threatening to someone he loves.”

Oh shit.

His dark stare never moves from my face.
“And who’s your
friend
, Allie.”

Allie rolls her eyes, giving a loud,
dramatic sigh at the same time. “Drew, this is Declan Foster, Dex,
this is my brother
Andrew
Forrester.” She uses the same
irritated tone of voice that he used to ask about me. Sydney smiles
as if it’s funny, which it probably would be, if I weren’t shitting
in my pants.

The only way out of this is to pretend I
didn’t do anything wrong.

Because you didn’t, asshole!

Andrew, no Drew, doesn’t know that though.
Clearly, he thinks I spent the night molesting his sister. He has
no clue that I gave up casual sex earlier this year, tired of being
used by women. I stand up and offer to shake his hand, eager to
make things less tense.

“
Nice to meet
you.”

“
Hmph,” is all I get in
return. But he does shake my hand. I consider that to be a good
sign.

Allie huffs and turns to me. “Real charming
isn’t he?” She takes her finger and digs it right into his chest,
hard. “Don’t be a jerk.”

Holy shit, talk about poking a sleeping
bear. I try to keep the situation light by making a joke. “No
worries Al. If I had a sister I’d want to beat up everyone she went
out with too.”

My words prompt the larger man to take a
step towards me. I flinch back in shock at his furious expression.
“So, you won’t mind if I pound you into next week then?”

Okay, so jokes are the wrong way to go with
him.

“
Whoa!” Sydney jumps in
front of the Andrew Forrester freight train and quickly leads him
out of the room, calling out her goodbyes as their bedroom door
slams shut.

She doesn’t have to tell me twice to get the
hell out of here.

“
I think should head back
to my room. Are you feeling better?”

Allie frowns. “No. Let me throw on some
clothes. We can go for a walk.”

“
Sure. I’d say take your
time, but I’m not inclined to be here when your brother comes out
of that room. Not scary, huh?” I raise an accusatory eyebrow at
Allie.

She laughs at me. “Maybe a little.”

After wandering through St. James Park for a
while, Allie asks me to buy one of the local tabloids. She wants to
read the article for herself.

“
Oh my God.” Her face goes
pale and she nearly drops the tabloid on the ground.

I take it out of her shaky hands so I can
scan it for myself. “Wow. They really are listening in, aren’t
they?” Allie curls up into a tiny ball next to me on the park bench
as I read.

The article goes into great detail
describing Sydney and Allie’s worries that people use them to get
close to Andrew Forrester. I’m surprised that there’s a brief
mention about how Allie met me on the
Quantum Stranger
set
and we all went out to a club the night before.

“
Yeah, they are.” Her
voice is a whisper.

“
Hey,” I pull her close to
me again, that strange urge to protect her rushing back full force.
“We’ll figure it out. Ryker has that MI6 guy on it and your brother
probably knows a lot of people who can help.”

“
I know. That’s not what
has me worried.”

“
What is it
then?”

“
I- I don’t really want to
discuss it now.”

“
Okay, you don’t have to.
Let’s get back to the hotel. I need to go to my room to shower and
change my clothes. You can catch up with your brother and we can
meet back up later if you want to talk. Does that sound
good?”

Allie smiles, not a big one, and certainly
not enough to make me think she’s doing any better. “Yeah. Sounds
great.”

Allie
–
now

Beep beep beep

Beep beep beep

One little beep, actually, three beeps from
three different phones. That’s all it takes to plunge a fun,
laughter filled moment with Syd and Drew into one of total
horror.

Sydney and I immediately stop laughing and
freeze. All three of us pull our phones out at the same time.
Drew’s face instantly turns a hideous shade of purple. I swear he’s
going to bust a blood vessel someday.

I check mine.

Google Alert
- Declan
Foster

I forgot I set that up last night after we
found out about the article.

“
Do you have an alert set
on one of us Allie?” Sydney’s brow is scrunched down, her eyes
filled with concern.

“
No, it’s Declan. I set
one for him out of curiosity.”

Syd looks confused. “So whatever it says is
about all three of us?”

Drew still hasn’t said a word. One fist is
clenched at his side while he squeezes his phone with the other. I
click the link and read the title of the article.

Andrew Forrester Has
Confrontation with Declan Foster Over Dating His Sister

It describes everything that happened this
morning during breakfast. Drew threatening Dex, Sydney breaking it
up… everything. Drew storms out of the room. While Syd is reading
the article, I sneak off to get dressed. I need to get the hell out
of here. This shit is just too much. I’m not famous, I don’t want
to be famous, hell, people at work don’t even have a clue about my
brother. Until now, that is.

I’m not going to be able to go back to
work.

I worried about it this morning, but now
it’s a reality. I can’t go through that shit again. It was so awful
in college, I just can’t.

After a quick shower and change of clothes,
I hurry to get out of this room. Dex said he had night shoots the
next few days, so I’m going to hide in his trailer while I sort out
my life.

“
Where are you
going?”

“
Drew, don’t. I can’t talk
about this right now.”

His angry posture relaxes and he carefully
winds an arm around my back. “You don’t have to say a thing, Al.
Agent Wilson is on his way and I’m going to fix this.”

My voice cracks and I sob into my brother’s
shirt. “It’s not fixable, Drew.”

He wraps me up in a comforting hug. “It is,
Al. I promise.”

I pull away, wiping my eyes. “I’m going to
the set with Dex. I’ll call you later.”

Drew’s eyes narrow but for once in his life,
he doesn’t say anything. He nods and lets me go.

Dex is one floor down, so I take the stairs
at the end of the hall, forcing myself to keep it together as my
feet pound down the metal staircase.

Drew might be able to stop the tabloids, but
the damage is done. It’s my freshman year all over again. Just
thinking about it makes me sick, a horrible, gut-wrenching feeling
in my stomach that refuses to calm down.

I sit on the bottom step and bury my face in
my hands. I can’t go through that again, I’m not Sydney. I’m not
strong like she is. They think I’m this loud, brash go-getter, but
really, that’s just a mask to hide the damaged girl inside.

Allie
–
then

“
Al, you coming to
class?”

I bury my head under my thick flannel
comforter, nice and warm despite today’s freezing temperatures.

“
No. It’s too
cold.”

“
C’mon, Allie.” My
roommate Beth sounds closer. I can hear her giggling.

The nest of blankets I made is suddenly
gone, ripped off of me in one cruel motion. “Beth! What the
hell?”

“
Get up, Al. You can’t
just party and skip classes. Finals are a few weeks away and you’ll
never pass if you don’t get your ass out of that bed.”

Grumbling, I throw my feet over the side of
the bed and glare at my roommate. “I hate you.” A shiver wracks my
body when I lower my bare feet to the icy cold floor. “Holy
crap!”

“
You’ll thank me when you
don’t fail out of school,” she says with her hands on her hips just
like my mom used to do when I was in trouble.

“
God, Beth.
Fine!”

“
Fine!”

I dress quickly, too cold to take my time,
and find myself following Beth down to the cafeteria. The turning
heads and subtle whispering has become so commonplace, that it
doesn’t bother me anymore. I figure, if they want to think I’m
special and treat me like I’m special just because of Drew, then
that’s fine by me. It gets me into all of the awesome parties so I
could care less.

Beth and I chat about the guy she met last
weekend when she went with me to a party at a football player’s
apartment. We no sooner sit down, when the first of a never-ending
line of eager students approaches us.

“
Hi Allie.” The girl beams
proudly from where she’s standing, way too close to my seat. “You
should hang out with me and my friends. We’re going to a great
party on Friday.”

I take in the girl’s fake, over-friendly
expression then flick over to meet Beth’s eyes. The girl does
something to annoy my normally calm friend. She grits her teeth and
addresses the girl herself. “Go away.”

“
What? Who the hell are
you?” The girl snaps. “I’m not talking to you.”

“
Allie doesn’t know you,
okay? Get your stupid ass away from us.”

I cover my mouth with my hand, smirking
behind it gleefully. The stunned girl snorts and walks away,
clearly very unhappy. This continues all throughout breakfast.
Students approach our table, try to befriend me, and Beth tells
them off, sometimes rudely, sometimes not. Either way, I’m grateful
to have someone on my side running interference. It’s fun being
popular and all, but sometimes I just want to be left alone to eat
my bagel.

“
I’m not going to be with
you all the time, Al. You have to learn to tell them to go to
hell.” Beth watches me out of the corner of her eye as we trudge
across campus.

“
I know. I just…” I sigh,
feeling sorry for myself. “I just don’t want to upset anyone. Plus,
sometimes they’re really cool.”

“
They’re using you, Allie.
They want you to introduce them to your brother.”

I narrow my eyes at my roommate. She’s been
angry at my newfound popularity. Sometimes I think she’s just
jealous, but I include her in everything I do, so I don’t know why
it would bother her.

“
They are not. The only
thing that sucks is that my phone number got out. I had to turn it
off after it blew up with calls and texts all day Friday. By
Saturday, my voicemail was full.”

We walk across campus, students smiling and
waving to me. Different people stop to say hi or ask how I’m doing.
It’s pretty cool to be so liked, so recognized. I can see why Drew
does what he does, the attention is addicting. Why he gets so pissy
about being well known is beyond me.

Beth puts her arm on my hand before heading
off to her class. “This is going to end badly, Al. I don’t know
how, but it will. These people are not your friends.”