The Stelter City Saga: Ultranatural (5 page)

“
Um,” Lotus began
hesitantly. It wouldn’t be right of her to talk highly about her
boyfriend only to break up with him later that day. Fortunately for
Lotus, she had a wall of Oscar awards on a shelf in her Heleow
penthouse. In other words, she figured that she was skilled enough
to improvise a conversation that would lead her away from the topic
at hand.

“
Oh, gosh you know what?
Michael Caster is great.” Lotus began, “But you know who else is
great?” She lowered her voice to captivate the audience and leaned
into the host slowly. “You are.” Then she over exaggerated a wink
as if she were mimicking Dylan’s familiar gesture and the house
audience chuckled.

Lotus blew a slow sexy kiss at the host
to keep the audience entertained then said in her most comically
seductive voice. "Come and get me apple candy. I want me some Dylan
Dade loven'."

The whole audience irrupted with
laughter. Even the host rolled his head back with amusement.
"Actually,” Lotus continued when the house had died down some, “I
say those lines in my latest comedy film. It comes out this summer
just so you know."

"You say you want some Dylan Dade
loven' in it?" the host inquired.

"Well the candy apple part." Lotus
laughed, mostly to cover up the smile she was giving herself. It
had worked! The audience had forgotten about her relationship with
Michael Caster and was now more interested in her latest
film.

"What's your movie called?" asked
Dylan.

"
Stuck
, actually," Lotus hesitated for
a moment. The trailer for the film hadn't fully dropped yet so she
still had to avoid spoilers. "Basically a group of dorky kids fresh
out of high school decide to party at a lake house. But it turns
out that all the cool kids rented the house across the lake. Now,
I'm not going to spoil anything, but essentially they get stuck at
the house with the cool kids for several weeks and the movie is
just about the wars that they have with each other."

Dylan nodded with a finger pressed to
his lip like a goatee. "Now are you one of the cool kids or the
nerds?"

Lotus laughed once more then replied,
“I play one of the dorky kids. I find it kind of ironic that I came
out on the top twenty ugliest celebrities list and then right after
that, the casting crew felt like I would do better as a nerd. Does
that say something about me?” She knew the audience saw the humor
when they started to laugh and she beamed right back at them before
clearing her throat. "But my co-star is quite a looker." continued
Lotus, "I think he's adorable even if he's five years younger than
me... And we had a kissing scene."

"Ohh, so it's a romantic-comedy?"
inquired the host leaning in.

Lotus shook her head, "Definitely not.
My character lost a bet and I had to kiss his
character."

Dylan raised an eyebrow. "Who is this
hot actor child?" he asked scooting toward the edge of the
seat.

"Adorable." Lotus corrected.
"Um, surprisingly this is his first film and he’s a lead so yeah; I
hope
he
becomes a
rising star after this movie premieres."

"Ok, you're killing us now Lotus, who
is this guy?"

Lotus pinched the corner of her lip
then slid her fingers across her sealed mouth. "Nope, I’m not
spilling. But I'll tell you how we met. It’s a very interesting
story."

The host leaned back in his seat then
glanced up at the timer to make sure he had time for her tale
before the next commercial break.

"I was just tanning in Honolulu and I
saw this crowd. At first I didn't care, but the crowd got bigger,
then I noticed they were laughing, so I walked over there to
investigate and I'm listening to this kid doing standup comedy
right on the beach. I mean, who does that, you know? So I’m
listening to him and I realize this kid is really good. Then it
dawns on me- I've seen him before. I watched as he stole some bread
then lied to the baker, and he was such a good liar! So I knew this
kid had some acting talent. I mean, what is acting? To me it’s
getting other people to think what you want them to
think.

"So after the crowd dies
down I talk to this kid. Tell him
hey I'm
making a movie we're having casting calls for a part I think you
can nail. Wanna come with
?" she sighed,
"And that was that."

Dylan beamed. She finished talking just
in time for him to sign off. The lights faded and the camera crew
scurried across the stage to re-fluff the scenery. Dylan stood up
to grab some snacks, and in the audience turned to chat with their
neighbors. Lotus leaned back in her seat and stared up at the mess
of lights and wires over the set. She hoped no one would come to
talk to her. When a camera was to her face, she could be anything
she wanted. When she was alone, she liked to keep it that way.
Today was just another day in Lotus Stelter's mostly quiet
life.

As her head stayed flopped
against the cushion, she reached into her pocket and whipped out
her one-of-a-kind, Stelter- DiAchi Tec cell phone and sent a quick
text to one of her only friends. Mirage hadn't texted back in
months. Lotus knew her as one of Michael’s cousins. One of
his
distant
cousins
since they looked nothing alike. She and, who Lotus thought was her
brother, Shadow were some of Lotus’s few but close friends. They
were never around much, because they were constantly traveling, but
she enjoyed the few moments she had with them. Especially Mirage.
She was the only girl Lotus felt close enough with to share
secrets. But of course, she hadn’t revealed
all
of them. Kasper, her manager, was
the only person alive that knew her inside and out.

The question of Mirage’s whereabouts
was constantly nagging in the back of Lotus's mind. She had meant
to ask Michael about it, but conversations never tended to be aimed
in the direction of relatives.

"Ready, Lotus?" Dylan asked flopping
down on the couch beside her.

Lotus looked up just in time to see the
host wipe off a dribble of cream cheese from his lip before saying,
"Show starts in one minute."

Once more, the camera man
began his countdown and Lotus sat up looking prim and proper. Her
red lips formed the sweetest smile by the time the camera
man
c
ounted back
to
one.

"Welcome back!" Dylan
exclaimed, "I'm here
w
ith Lotus Stelter
and
international rock sensation: Michael
Caster!"

Lotus's smile dropped. She
managed to keep most of the puzzled expression from flooding her
face when she glanced back at the host. But the crowd had already
begun cheering.
She had thought this
segment was going to be solely about her.
A
spotlight appeared over Lotus’s head and fell into the far corner
of the stage. She knew he was coming before she even saw
him.

When Michael Caster stepped
out from behind the wall, he waved at the excited audience then
blew a kiss at Lotus. She watched as the superstar marched in his
pompous swagger to the center of the stage. His olive colored skin
seemed darker than usual as if he had just been to the beach. The
ends of his straight bangs had been freshly dyed a lively red and
flung diagonally across one eye, while the rest of his almost black
hair curled around in a messy carefree way. His red checkered
button up matched the color of his bangs and clung to his lean
torso. Aside from his black ripped skinny jeans, the only break in
the redness was his cotton candy blue boxer shorts protruding above
his metal belt
when he bowed to the
house.

"Lozey!" he exclaimed with
his
heavy
Australian accent
b
efore
finally
t
aking
a seat
beside her. That was his nickname for her. At first Lotus thought
it was cute, until she realized he had given a nickname to almost
everybody he knew. "Miss me?" he slid a toned arm around her
shoulder and expected her to cave into him.

Lotus wasn’t sure what to say. Her wide
eyes stared into his chocolaty ones with an expression like he had
just come back from the dead. "I didn't know you were going to be
here." she mentioned after Michael gave her a quick
kiss.

"That was the point." Dylan
noted. "You've just been
Flabbergasted
Lotus
Stelter!"

Lotus should have known. It was a
common thing for the Dylan Dade Show to ‘flabbergast’ the
interviewee. Lotus wasn’t sure what to do at this point. She knew
without a doubt that they would have to talk about their
relationship. But she couldn’t act like her love life was wonderful
in front of a camera only to tell him later that she wanted to
break up.

"I like the red." She smiled, running
her fingers through his hair quickly. “It’s for the new album
right?” He had already told her about the hair change but Lotus was
hoping that she could steer the conversation away from their love
life and more to their music.

Michael beamed; his big singer lips and
mouth almost consumed his face. “Yeah,” he replied not taking his
eyes from her, "Thanks, Lozey."

"Speaking about your new album," Dylan
cut in, and a wave of relief rushed through Lotus when he turned
the flow of the conversation to their music. "How many
Caster-Stelter combo's does it include?"

"One." answered Michael and the
audience gasped. "Yeah, it’s crazy."

Lotus shrugged and opened
her mouth to
a
dd,
but Michael beat her to it.
"
We like to change the theme behind every
album we drop, and this one doesn't break the trend. Last album we
featured Lozey Stelter, this one;
we found
us a
new
voice."

Lotus and Dylan both raised their
eyebrows as they waited for him to explain.

"My bass mate has quite the talent."
Michael explained.

"August
Matthews
?" inquired the host leaning
forward, "His eyes are beautiful. I mean that in a heterosexual
way."

The house audience chuckled as Lotus
and Michael nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, but the bloke is a brilliant
rapper-" then he stopped and gazed at the nearest camera wide eyed
as the audience sucked in a breath of surprise.

"Did you say rapper?" asked Lotus with
her mouth just as agape as anyone else in the studio. She had hoped
that since she was his girlfriend, Michael would have told her the
theme behind their newest album rather than finding out the same
time as the entire world. "You guys are rapping in your new
album?"

Michael shrugged and leaned back in his
seat. As he sat there nervously nibbling on his lip, Lotus could
hear the phone in his pocket vibrating madly. It was probably
August watching this show as it broadcasted live to the states. Or
someone even angrier- his manager. "Well, I've never been the best
with secrets." he confessed then cleared his throat and glanced
over at Lotus. “So while I’m spilling, I might as well confess you
something.”

While sitting on the couch, they were
roughly eye level and when Michael flung his hair, Lotus could see
into those dark mocha eyes. She had seen this look before. From
Michael and from lots of other guys, mostly other famous actors who
shared the lead role with Lotus in romance movies. Even for her
music videos, right before she was supposed to kiss a supermodel,
they would gaze at her with that admiration. Every look was the
same as if every guy shopped at the same store for facial
expressions. She wished she could say that there was something
different about Michael’s expression of love, but there really
wasn’t. She wasn’t in love with him.

"Lozey, you know how horrid I am at
keeping secrets." he began in that voice she had heard too many
times.

True. Too true. Lotus had
known Michael for years now. She of all people knew how bitterly
blunt Michael could be. It wasn't that he was bad at keeping
secrets; it was that he didn't know how to consider others. Caring
Diaz always had a different surprise in each new album, and
Michael's little comment about August just stole all of
h
is bandmate's
thunder. August was never going to bask in the
glory of being the star of their latest album now and Michael had
no idea. Lotus wasn’t even sure if he cared.

"So let me just confess to you," he
began taking Lotus by the hands, "on live TV, how much I love
you."

Lotus was an
a
ctress
, a darn good one too. But even as she kept her face straight,
she couldn't keep her stomach from cringing. Was he about to
propose a
marriage?!

Not now. He couldn't be
doing this
now
! Not
on live television. Technically they had been dating for nearly a
year now. But sometimes they would go months without seeing each
other. Either Lotus was off filming, or Michael was on tour again.
But regardless of the length of time, whenever they did see each
other, Michael always had a way of picking up right where they had
left off. She loved that they could still have a good time even if
it had been a while since they last spoke. But it wasn’t enough to
make her fall in love.