Reluctantly Famous (7 page)

Beth flinches back as if I slapped her. The
wounded look on her face nearly has me apologizing. Nearly. I grab
my coat and purse and stalk out of the room without saying another
word.

“
Hi Troy.” Ever the
gentleman, Troy opens the car door for me, helping me up into his
tall SUV before going around to get in behind the wheel.

“
Allie, you look
gorgeous.” Troy smiles. He’s all wholesome good looks and tousled
blond hair. “I was so glad you finally agreed to go out with
me.”

“
Well, I figured since you
were persistent enough, you deserved a break.” He asked me every
day for over a week before I finally relented during a party at his
teammate’s place.

Troy grins over at me, his blue eyes burning
with something I can’t quite put my finger on. I shiver as a chill
ripples down my spine.

“
Cold?” Troy asks as he
maneuvers the large vehicle onto the road.

“
Yeah,” I say with a weak
smile, “well it is November in Boston.”

We chat about useless stuff for the
thirty-minute ride to the restaurant. Troy mostly talks about
himself, since it’s football season and all. He pulls up in front
of an upscale place that I’ve been to before with Drew and my
parents.

“
The Chart House?” I’m
surprised that a student can afford a place like this. He’s really
going all out to impress me.

Troy gives his keys to the valet. “You’re
worth it, Allie. I wanted to do something special.”

He flashes that perfect smile again, making
my insides turn to mush. He’s really freaking hot, tall, fit,
beautiful face… I can’t believe I get to look at that all
night.

We have a great time at dinner. I tell him a
few stories about growing up with Drew. He tells me about his two
younger brothers who are still in high school. For some reason,
they don’t card me for alcohol and I’m able to share the bottle of
wine that Troy orders for us.

“
How come they don’t ask
for my I.D.?”

Troy laughs and puts his hand on top of
mine. Liquid warmth spreads throughout my body, giving me a
wonderful tingly feeling all over.

“
Because they know me. I’m
famous around here.” His gaze bores into me, “You should know what
that feels like, seeing who you are.”

I’m about to protest, explain to him that
people
don’t
know who I am. They know who my brother is, and
since I never tell anyone about Drew, no one is the wiser. Then I
remember that everyone on campus
does
know me now, I am
famous… to them anyway.

“
You’re right, it’s pretty
cool. Getting what you want just because of who you are.” I give
Troy a coy smile. “I haven’t had to pay for Starbucks in a while.
There’s always someone willing to give it to me for
free.”

Troy’s eyes darken. His beautiful smile
turns into a sort of leer. “Yes, that’s exactly what I’m talking
about.”

I would have noticed that his words and his
expression carried a hint of what was to come, but my judgment was
impaired. I was too caught up in the attention, the feeling of
being better than everyone else, the wine. Then the drink back at
Troy’s apartment… God, I should have just said no to that
drink.

I wake up to the worst hangover I’ve ever
had in my entire life. I barely make it to the trash can next to my
bed before heaving into it for the next ten minutes.

“
Jesus, Al. Have fun last
night?”

Beth’s irritated voice slams into me like a
fist to the face. God I was such a bitch to her.

“
I don’t know.” I pull the
covers up over my head, ready to wallow in my misery when my
roommate sits on the side of my bed.

“
What do you mean, you
don’t know?” she snaps angrily. “I’ll tell you what happened. Troy
had to bring you home and help you into bed. You were so fucking
drunk, Al. You could barely stand.”

Even though my brain feels as if it’s
shattering in my skull, I try to go over the events of my date. I
remember dinner, the ride to Troy’s apartment. He offered me a
mixed drink that he said he perfected, then… nothing.

“
I don’t remember that.
God, I must have had a lot to drink.”

Beth gets up and leaves the room. I hear her
mutter, “Learn to limit yourself, Al,” as she shuts the door.

Now that I’m awake, nature is calling,
desperately. I sit up and am nearly blinded by the sharp pain in my
head. Holy shit! This is a thousand times worse than any hangover
I’ve ever had.

After resting a moment to stop the room from
spinning, I get up to use the bathroom. “Ugh.” My body hurts so
badly, like I was battered and bruised in a boxing match.

What the fuck did I do last night?

When I sit to use the toilet, I wince in
pain. My crotch is on fire. I dab the toilet paper carefully so as
not to make it worse and notice blood.

Oh God.

I check my panties only to find more blood
there. There’s a deep ache inside me, an unfamiliar ache. A safety
lecture from freshman orientation rings familiar. A lecture about
date rape drugs.

Horrible hangover even if you didn’t drink a
lot.

Unable to account for a period of time.

Feeling as though you had sex, but can’t
remember it.

Of all the ways I imagined losing my
virginity, this wasn’t one of them.

I’m barely able to turn around fast enough
to throw up into the toilet right before I break down in tears.

Declan
–
now

I’m pretty sure I’m about to wrap up the
strangest week of my life. Most of my time was spent with a
gorgeous, intelligent, fascinating girl. We slept together every
night, usually with my arms around her, but never had sex, not even
a kiss. Countless hours were spent talking. I told her everything
about myself and listened to her do the same, swapping stories
until late at night or sometimes early in the morning.

Allie and her friends finally figured out
how the tabloids were recording their conversations. Fucking room
service, who knew? On top of all that, I almost received a beat
down from
the
Andrew Forrester.

Like I said, strange.

The ride to Heathrow is quiet. Allie has to
head back to Boston for work. She’s nervous about how her coworkers
will react to finding out she’s Drew’s sister. There were pictures
in the article along with her name and where she lives, so there’s
not much chance of hoping no one saw it. She wouldn’t tell me any
details, but apparently some bad shit happened in college after a
similar situation exposed her identity.

“
You know I want you to
stay, right?”

Allie turns her focus from the window to me,
her green eyes shimmering with despair. It kills me to see her so
broken. It’s so fucked up. It’s wrong in so many ways. “I wish I
could say it’s going to be okay, but…”

“
I know.” Allie puts her
hand over mine, threading our fingers together. “It’s not your
battle to fight. I’m just glad you were here. I don’t think I would
have made it through the week without you.”

“
Maybe you should tell
Drew.” I don’t think her brother has a clue as to how broken his
sister really is.

“
No.” Her voice is firm,
unmovable. “He doesn’t need that shit in his life. Plus, honestly
Dex? His solution would be to either offer me a job so I can be
near him all the time and he can ‘protect’ me…” She makes little
air quotes and rolls her eyes at the word protect.

I smile. Glad she can still joke around. It
means that fiery personality is still in there somewhere.

“
Or
,” Allie
continues, “he’d want to storm the hospital and personally threaten
every single person who even twitches the wrong way in my presence.
Nuh-uh. Drew is better off not knowing anything. He thinks I’m
strong and I like it that way. It gives him peace of
mind.”

“
You are strong,” I
whisper, our eyes still locked.

Allie’s gaze drops to my mouth, then flicks
back up. A rush of emotions floods me, urging me into action. I
can’t let her go without at least a small taste of how amazing I
know we’d be together.

I tilt my head slightly and lean in, my lips
brushing across hers in a gentle kiss. She moans softly, shifting
so she’s facing me on the seat. When her lips part, I dive in,
sweeping my tongue over any available surface, reveling in the
taste and feel of her.

It goes on and on. Our teeth clash as we
greedily try to get enough before we have to stop. I slide an arm
around her back and pull her onto my lap. Allie grinds
instinctively, searching out that delicious friction we both crave.
Her hand ends up in my hair, tugging and petting and I relish every
single second.

Too soon, the car stops in front of the
departures terminal at the airport.

“
I have to go,” she
murmurs. I devour her words, needing one last kiss, one more
taste.

Finally, we separate, our foreheads pressed
together as we catch our breath. “Call me?”

“
Yes. Let me know if you
can come to Boston.” The fundraising ball for her brother’s
charity, I’ll move mountains to make sure I’m there.

“
I will. I’ll miss you.” I
put it out there, raw and unrestrained. I’d regret anything less if
I can have a chance with her.

“
Me too. You’re…” Allie
sniffs, her eyes getting watery. “I’ve never met someone like
you.”

“
Me either.” I want to
help her out, carry her bags inside, but we decided that with all
of the press and the insane paparazzi presence at Heathrow, I would
stay in the car. Our driver opens the door, waiting for Allie to
exit.

One last quick brush of our mouths and she’s
gone.

Allie – then

“
Mom, just go away,
okay?”

I can hear the loud sigh from the other side
of my bedroom door. Hmph, it doesn’t even feel like my bedroom.
Drew made us move this past summer, right before I left for
college, when his fans wouldn’t stop ringing the doorbell of our
old townhome. He said it wasn’t safe. That a deranged lunatic could
be waiting on the other side of the door, that people would use us
or try to get near us however they could.

I should have listened, but I was too busy
thinking Drew was full of shit.

“
Will you at least come
down for dinner?”

Jesus, she’s going to give me the five-star
guilt treatment. Granted, all I’ve wanted to do since I got home
from school last week is hide in my room and cry.

“
Fine. Just tell me when
it’s ready.”

I snuggle back down under my covers and
pretend that my life isn’t falling apart. The buzz of my phone
interrupts my sulking.

Beth

My roommate is the only person who knows
what happened with Troy. She found me sobbing on the floor of our
bathroom and sat with me until I was calm enough to speak. I
couldn’t manage to tell her everything, but she got the point, and
damn was she pissed.

Me

Beth

Beth doesn’t realize that he’s already won.
My trust is zero, my faith has been wiped out, and I never, ever
want anyone to know who my brother is again. Besides, Beth is still
pissed that I didn’t press charges, but with everyone knowing who
he was and me being who I am, the story would have made national
headlines. There was no way I was doing that.

Me

I turn my phone off and shove it under my
pillow. There’s no way I can deal with all that shit right now.
I’ve already applied to a pharmacy school nearby. If I get in, I’ll
live at home, go to class, and study. No friends, no socializing,
no worries. And no men.

A soft knock on my door wakes me out of a
light sleep. “Allie, dinner’s ready.” My dad sounds kind of sad,
not the loud, happy guy he usually is.

With a groan, I get up and trudge down the
stairs to a dinner I don’t want to eat, just to make my mom happy.
The powerful scent of my mom’s special baked ziti fills the hall. I
hear voices in the huge kitchen. One in particular sounds angry,
the volume getting louder and louder.

Fuck, Drew’s here? They must have called
him, told him I won’t leave my room and won’t go back to B.C. This
is going to be so awful. I can’t deal with Drew’s overbearing
bullshit right now. I can’t even deal with my own bullshit right
now.

The discussion comes to an abrupt halt the
second I step into the room. Flashbacks from school send a shiver
down my spine.

“
Are you cold?” Drew
hurries over and wraps me up in a big, warm hug.

“
No.” I let him do his
thing. His near obsessive need to take care of others when they’re
hurting has been a part of him for so long, I’ve given up on
questioning it anymore.

“
Let’s eat.” Mom starts
dishing out food onto big plates. I pull away from Drew to take my
seat, but he doesn’t loosen his hold.

“
Drew…” I can’t do this
right now.

“
Allie,
please…”

“
Not now. I want to eat,
okay?”

Drew presses his mouth into a tight line. I
recognize the expression well. It’s his ‘I don’t have to like it,
and I’ll make you do what I want later anyway’ look. He lets me go,
so we can have dinner.