HDU (18 page)

Amanda smiled with confidence.
 
“Don’t worry, I know exactly what I’m
doing.”

- Chapter 6 -

VIDEO:
LIAM BRODY’S GF BEING ADORABLE ON THE PLANE TO NYC

January 13th

Posted by FilmFreak

HDU
via Pop Dinner

This morning, Pop Dinner received an exclusive video
shot earlier this week when Amanda Nathan boarded her first flight to New York
City.
 
Seated next to new beau,
Liam Brody, a naïve Amanda is clueless about being watched until Liam gives her
the heads up! Before realizing she was on camera, the small town girl gazed out
the window at the sunset and chatted happily with her boyfriend.

Upon realizing she was on camera though, Amanda froze
up and looked completely nerve-racked! Luckily, Liam acted as her human shield
and comforted her until she calmed and was able to enjoy her flight.
 

Here’s to hoping that she’ll start getting used to
the limelight soon – she’ll need to!

(
Okay, gotta admit that that video was sooo cute. I
love how innocent and out-of-place this poor girl is.
 
She kind of seems too good for Liam! Though actually, I’m
starting to like them as a couple… PLEASE DON’T KILL ME, PRETTY! YA GOTTA ADMIT,
THEY’RE QT!
– FF)

TOP
COMMENTS:

PrettyKitty29
(Moderator)

… idk this is a weird couple. he’s supposed to be
with a bitchy model not a normal human. i’m…
 
confused. so no comment.

thisismyusername

hold on. YOU of all people can’t change your mind
about Liam!!!

PrettyKitty29
(Moderator)

i’m not! i know he’s supposed to be a model-chasing
douchelord

mrstylerchase

except this girl is far from a model so your argument
is invalid

thisismyusername

lol at you falling for this act

mrstylerchase

lol at your cynicism. how do u enjoy life

bailey21390

who cares about liam – why is there nothing about
her hanging out with my queen casey mulreed? what’s going on there?
L
L
L
i need deets plz thx

The morning after the June Magazine party, Amanda awoke to a
rather varied array of emotions.
 
First, there was the disappointment over the fact that her lovely night
had been a dream.
 
Then, of course,
there was pure joy over the realization that no, it hadn’t been.
 
Everything that happened had been
entirely real, and Casey Mulreed’s number in her dinky cell phone was a
testament to that.

With that realization in mind, Amanda happily floated like a cloud
through her morning routine.
 
Despite
a mild hangover headache, she did a dance into her robe and laughed for no
reason while brushing her teeth.
 
Her
bliss continued uninterrupted till after she’d finished her breakfast and
shower, emerging from the bathroom to find five missed calls on her phone
– two from Liam and three from Ian.
 
What the hell
? She didn’t know
whose number to dial first, but Ian quickly saved her a decision by calling
back again.

“Hey, what’s up?” she asked hastily, feeling a strange sense of dread.

“Oh, nothing much, aside from you
going viral
.”

Amanda froze in place.
 
“What? What went viral?”

“Your blog entry from last night? I mean it’s the first one so I
think your subscribers were all kind of waiting on it.
 
I didn’t even realize it was up till I
saw you trending on Twitter.”

“Wait – Twitter…
what
?”
Amanda racked her brain as Ian continued, trying to process everything he was
telling her.
 
  
 

Then suddenly, a wave of memories came flooding through her head,
filling it with images of the night before.
 
She recalled returning from The Strathorne, stumbling into
her hotel room and calling Ian a few times just to be greeted by his
voicemail.
 
Only with those clues
in mind did she remember it – going on her computer and typing out
everything that she had wanted to tell Ian.
 
At least everything she could manage before passing out in
bed, clearly more drunk than she had realized.

“Oh God,
what did I say
?”
Amanda gasped, immediately dropping her phone and sprinting into the bedroom.
 
She knocked over everything on her desk
as she reached for her laptop.
 
Her
trembling fingers still moved like lightning as she typed in the URL to her
website.
 
Her legs bounced
impatiently as she waited for her homepage to load.

Amanda held her breath once it appeared onscreen, her eyes darting
about crazily as they tried to read the words as quickly as possible.

Ahhhsdflksdjfsl!
Disclaimer: I kind of made a fool of myself last night but I’m entirely too
embarrassed to think let alone write about it sooo… moving on to just the good
stuff!

I really never
would have expected to have so much fun at the June Mag party yesterday.
 
I was a little (lol, a lot) intimidated
going into it.
 
Mostly because in
my observations thus far, the sidewalks here often look like an effing runway
at Fashion Week so I had suspicions that a June Magazine party might look like
the Oscars or something.
 
I don’t
know.

Anyway, since
the looking-much-less-glam-than-everyone-else ship had already sailed going
into this thing, I just had simple hopes of not tripping/falling or speaking in
that weird, high register that happens to my voice when I’m crazy nervous.
 
The second part did end up happening,
but honestly, it was the less important of the two goals and I ended up meeting
a lot of cool people who didn’t mind the falsetto, so I can kind of live with
that.
 
Though if/when that footage
comes out (yep, I was lucky enough to be filmed while acting like a freakshow),
I’ll have to brace myself for Liam making fun of me to no end because I think that’s
his new favorite hobby.
 
The little
turd.
 
But it’s okay, I’ll give him
a pass because of the very pretty gift he bought me for no reason yesterday
that helped me feel less grotesque and fashion-challenged going into the party.
 
I’d say that it’s a style victory
anytime you stand next to Casey Mulreed for most of the night and avoid being
called a frumpy yeti in comparison!

So, yeah.
 
That concludes my first 72 hours in New
York! I have to say I think I kind of adore it here.

“Holy shit,” Amanda exhaled, one hand clasped to her heart and the
other glued to her forehead.
 
A
wave of relief washed over her as she took a seat at the desk.
 
It’s
okay.
 
It’s okay! I didn’t blow our cover
.
 
For having been rather tipsy, the entry actually summed up
her feelings pretty well without revealing any important secrets.
 
She could live with the fact that she’d
revealed her insecurity.
 
It had
probably been assumed anyway.
 
Only
after that realization did she remember to retrieve her phone and talk to Ian
again.
 
“I’m here! Sorry,” she said
breathlessly.
 
“I just panicked
because – ”

“You did an Ian Marsh and blacked out after drinking?” he asked
with a laugh.
 
“Don’t worry.
 
Just calm yourself and read the
comments and the tweets and everything going on right now.
 
I mean, there are obviously some
dumbass comments here and there, but mostly everything is good.
 
Everyone thinks you’re funny and cute.”

Amanda grasped her forehead and laughed to herself in utter
disbelief.
 
“Okay,” she said, in a
daze as she returned to her laptop.
 
She scrolled and clicked around to see that there were almost two
hundred comments on her blog entry and her subscribers were now well into the
thousands.
 
She checked her Twitter
as well.
 
Though she had only one
tweet – a photo put up by Ian – her followers had gone from a
thousand to nearly ten.
 
She
refreshed once more.
 
All sets of
numbers increased again.
 
“Holy
shit
,” Amanda murmured.
 

“‘Holy shit’ is right,” Ian said.
 
“Are you reading the comments?”
 

“I am now,” she breathed, her hand covering her mouth as she scanned
through the words, which were by a large majority rather kind.

“You looked fab
last night and you are totally adorable! Please keep writing!”

“I have that
same exact dress in lavender!! Definitely wearing it out tonight!”

“Wow,” Amanda breathed.
 
Overwhelmed, she decided to do one last check before taking a breather
to process it all.
 
She Googled
herself.
 
“You’ve got to be kidding
me,” she murmured, eyes widening at the staggering results.

At the top of the page was a news section with headlines like
“Girl Who Tamed the Beast” and “5 Facts To Know About Liam Brody’s New
Girlfriend.”
 
There were various
articles on The Huffington Post that had been written about her – about
the unlikely girl to break Liam’s chain of supermodels and what it said about
American standards of beauty.
 
She
was sparking social analysis for goodness sake.
 
It had become officially surreal.

“So… I’m guessing you weren’t expecting this reaction when you
drunkenly wrote a blog entry last night,” Ian said.

Amanda let out a huge breath in the form of a laugh.
 
“Of course not!” She pushed away from
her desk to forcibly separate herself from her laptop.
 
“I just wrote it because your phone kept
going to voicemail and I needed someone to talk to!” she sputtered.

“I’m sorry, I was out.
 
And my hangover’s a beast right now.”

“It’s okay.
 
Tell me
about your night, I need a distraction.
 
Where did you go?”

“Uh, places in the LES but I don’t really remember.
 
I blacked out and then passed out on
the floor of my living room,” he said, sounding actually sheepish.
 
“Wasn’t quite as classy as you were
last night.
 
I mean, Casey Mulreed,
huh?”

“Oh my God, yes.
 
I
need to tell you about that.”
 

To give him the full details of the night, Amanda invited Ian over
to have lunch.
 
He looked decently
hung over upon arrival and she suspected that his striped long-sleeved henley
and wrinkled jeans had been the outfit he’d passed out in.
 
As usual, he managed to bring a chic
element to the disheveled look, but she could tell that he truly
felt
like crap.
 
Though through his hangover, he was
still able to express his usual robust joy at the various points of her story.

It wasn’t until after their room service arrived that Amanda
remembered to call Liam back – though only because she heard his
footsteps in the hallway, so of course, there was really no point in calling
him when he was about to barge into her room yet again.
 
Only Ian jumped when Liam pushed
through the front door in his pea coat and shades.

“Sorry, he does that,” Amanda said, unfazed as she rolled her
eyes.
 
Ian quickly gathered himself
in Liam’s presence.

“Did you see the blog entry, Liam?” he asked brightly.
 
Liam barely looked at him as he took
off his sunglasses and turned to Amanda.

“My phone’s been blowing up since I woke up this morning.
 
Because of you.”

“Good thing or bad thing?” she asked, trying to determine if the
expression on his face was happy or mad.
 
There seemed to be a half smile curving his lips.

“I don’t care, as long as you don’t say anything revealing,” he
said, plucking a waffle from her plate.

“Okay.
 
And sure, go
ahead.”

“Thanks,” he said insincerely, ruffling her hair as he took a
bite.