Absolutely Famous (4 page)

“Okay, that sounds great,” I agree, and I’m able to pull a hesitant smile from his gorgeous lips. He gives me one more tender kiss and heads out, leaving me to fall to pieces without an audience.

****

“We’re almost there, Sydney. Try to remember to stay right next to me, okay?”

I roll my eyes and giggle at Robbie in the front seat of the car. He always worries about me so much. I’m in third grade now, so he doesn’t need to treat me like such a baby.

Mommy and Daddy say that I need to listen to Robbie when they’re not around, because he’s here to protect me. I don’t need him, though. No one else has to have someone walk them into their classroom every day. It’s so embarrassing. Especially since Amber Clayton said that he scares everyone in my class because he’s so big and muscled and mean looking. I told her that Robbie’s not mean, but she doesn’t believe me. She said I just think I’m more important than everyone else because my parents are in the movies. She knows that’s not true, lots of kids at our school have parents that work on movies. But none are as famous as mine, at eight years-old, I’ve figured that out.

Our driver parks the car in the Visitor’s space out in front of my school just like every other day. My Daddy used to bring me to school when he was able to, but then all those people with cameras ruined it by following us. Daddy called them Poppo-razzis. The school asked Daddy to try not to bring them around anymore, so he can’t come with me like he used to. Those dumb Poppo-razzis ruin everything! They ruined my birthday party, my vacation to the beach, and now my Daddy can’t even bring me to school. I hate them.

The car stops
and I jump out and run across the grass on the center quad of the school, laughing my head off as Robbie rushes out of the car to follow. It’s funny making him hurry after me.

“C’mon
Robbie! You’re being so slow!” My Mommy’s friend Robbie never races me into school. He always tries to walk so carefully, looking around the parking lot all the time. Probably looking for the bad camera people.

“Stay with me, Syd,” he calls out, sounding a little angry, as usual.

“No way slowpoke! You gotta catch me!” I run faster, because I know it makes him go faster to keep up with me.

I’m looking back at Robbie as I run toward the school, so I don’t see the woman until I smash right into her and fall backwards. She grabs my arms tigh
t to keep me from falling down.

“Sydney, baby, I’ve been waiting for you,” she says. Something isn’t right with this lady. She smells bad, and her clothes are really old. She pulls me into a hug and starts dragging me toward an old beat up car.

“Let go of me!” I scream.

“Don’t talk to your mother that way, Sydney,” she says, smiling at me. Her smile is weird, like she’s not really smiling but twisting her mouth up.

“You’re not my mother!” I yell, trying to hit her with my tiny hands.

Suddenly, I’m jerked backwards, my sleeves ripping because her grip on me was so strong.

“Get on the ground, lady!” Robbie is shoving the scary woman to the pavement, pushing me behind him with his other arm.

I see the school policeman, Officer John, running towards us with his hand on his belt. Is he going to shoot this lady?
Now I’m scared, like maybe I’m going to pee my pants or something.

Our car s
creeches to a stop next to me, and our driver Brett jumps out and opens the back door. He picks me up and throws me in as I scream in terror. I look out the window as we speed away and see Officer John kneeling on the crazy lady as she thrashes around on the ground, shrieking for me to come back. Robbie is standing there watching as people from the school office run towards them from the front door of the school.

Shaking, I realize how much trouble I’ll be in for running away from Robbie. My parents won’t let me go back to school after this, and it’s all my fault. Tears run down my face and soak my white uniform blouse. I don’t want to be homeschooled. Mommy talks about it all the time. She says I can be on the movie sets with her all day and have a private teacher. I don’t want a private teacher! I just want to be normal, .like Amber Clayton. Everyone thinks it’s so cool to that my parents are so famous, I hate it! I hate them!

****

I wake up and have no idea where I am. Shit, that dream seemed so real. I didn’t even remember that day until now. I forgot about the woman who kept trying to get on the campus of my school, and eventually tried to take me. I don’t even know what happened to her after that. I was too young to be involved. I’ll have to ask my mom the next time we speak. Or maybe I shouldn’t, it’s better to just forget it.

Disoriented, I realize I’m in Drew’s trailer at the studio. I recall lying down on the bed after taking a couple of ibuprofen for my hangover. I must have fallen asleep. Shaking off the nightmare, I get up and walk into the little kitchen and grab a bottle of water out of the mini-fridge. I drink half of the bottle because my mouth is so dry then dig my phone out of my purse.

I skim through the contacts and dial.

“Syd? What’s up?”

“Hey Leah, you packing for London?” I ask my best friend, trying to hide the stress in my voice.

“A little, I don’t leave until Saturday so I have a few days. Mostly, I’ve been shopping my ass off.”

“Like you need to do more shopping, if they ever make it an Olympic sport, you’re guaranteed a gold medal
.”

“Yeah, I know,” she laughs
. “So, is everything alright?” Suddenly serious, my best friend can hear the worry in my voice.

“Not really.
” I explain the website to Leah, and how since we’ve left New York they always seem to have eerily accurate inside information, even when Drew and I are having conversations alone.

“You need to tell Drew, Sydney. Something’s not right. Someone is spying on you guys. Are you sure it’s not the muscle-head that follows you everywhere?”

“I’m positive, Leah. He’s worked with Drew before and there’s never been a peep in the press about anything. This is new. I don’t want to bother Drew with this, Leah. He’s so unbelievably stressed out that it’s going to affect his film. I can’t bring down a 100 million dollar movie production just because I’m paranoid.”

“Syd, it’s not paranoid if they’re actually spying on you,” she responds sarcastically.

“No, it’s not up for discussion. I’m not telling him until I’m sure that something is going on. I just wanted to see if you thought it was as strange as I think it is.”

“Well, it is Syd. I hope you change your mind and tell him though. Call me anytime if you find out more about that website.”

“Okay Leah, I will. Have a great time in London.”

“I’m sure I will.
” I can hear the suggestive innuendo in her voice and laugh, hanging up the phone.

Could my life get any weirder?

Chapter
6

A week passes without any more stories about me and Drew on
CelebCast
, so I’m able to start relaxing. We did end up having to switch hotels after the press found out where we were staying. A huge crowd of fans and paparazzi and just plain old weirdoes parked themselves on the sidewalk outside, making it impossible to leave without going through them. Coming and going through the laundry entrance got old fast.

Two blocks over at the L’Hermitage Hotel, it’s been peaceful and
calming. The suite isn’t as big as our old one and doesn’t have a private patio, but I’m satisfied just being away from the hordes of fans and reporters.

Drew
insists that I go to the set every day and hang out in his trailer while he’s working. I don’t argue because I don’t want to stay at the hotel by myself and Drew doesn’t want me going around the city without him until the press backs off.

I’ve watched some of the filming, but there are so many breaks between each ta
ke that I’m going nuts waiting around all day to see twenty seconds of actual acting. Instead, I’ve been sketching design ideas on my iPad.

Today, however, is Kiera Radcliff’s first day on set. I’m not looking forward to seeing her, or having her anywhere near Drew after what happened at
the big launch party at Verve.

She was the one who told me that my Drew was
‘Andrew Forrester’ superstar. She also acted inappropriate to me when she found out I was at the party with her ex-boyfriend, musician Adam Reynolds. She was jealous that I was on a date with him which was ridiculous, especially since I wasn’t ‘with’ Adam as a romantic date. It was just as friends because my boss forced me to go with him for publicity.

Drew can’t stand Adam Reynolds. He told me a week after the party that he and Adam have a history of ongoing mutual
hatred for each other. Drew wouldn’t give me any details. He just kept saying that Adam is a douche and left it at that.

When Drew found out that Adam Reynolds wanted to go with me to the launch party at Verve, he was
pissed, but couldn’t tell me that he knew Adam since I didn’t know that Drew was a celebrity at the time. He still thinks Adam wants to get in my pants, to which I just roll my eyes.

A
fter I left the nightclub party, upset because Kiera told me Drew was famous, he and Adam nearly came to blows; something Drew said had been a long time coming.

My boyfriend, always hot-tempered and quick with the fists.

Of course, this was all caught by someone on their camera phone and leaked to a gossip site. Kiera stood front and center in the photo, all smug that two of Hollywood’s hottest men were fighting because of her. I’m sure it doesn’t matter to Kiera that they weren’t fighting
over
her, but rather fighting because of what she said and did.

I have no idea why I’m doing this to myself, but here I am in Drew’s dressing room waiting for him to head over to the soundstage to film scenes with Kiera. For some masochistic reason, I’ve decided to watch today, probably because I can’t stomach the thought of her alone with Drew.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Syd?” Drew says to me from his makeup chair where he’s getting the final touches on a bunch of fake scrapes and bruises placed all over his skin.

Sighing, I respond, “Yes, I’m sure. It will be fine. I’m not worried at all.” I paste a fake smile on my face, determined not to let him see how much she bothers me. I’ve already put him through too much to add yet another burden to his plate, stacked high with shit from my life.
Plus, there’s no way I’m talking about this in front of the makeup artist.

Drew jumps up from the chair and bounds over to me, smiling
playfully. “Do I look all messed up?”

I take in the scabs and black and
blue marks on his gorgeous face. “No, you’re just as handsome as ever.”

He grins and gives me a big kiss
. “No one’s as beautiful as you, Syd. Ready?” He extends his hand and helps me up from the couch. Steeling myself for whatever lies beyond this room, I accompany Drew to the set.

The soundstage is buzzing with activity today. More so than usual it seems. They’ve made one area look just like the inside of a Depression-era home. Another section is a factory floor, and yet another is a reproduction of a small 1920’s speakeasy.

Out of the corner of my eye I catch sight of a blonde head surrounded by fawning assistants. I think about how very Kiera it seems for her to need people flattering her all day long. Drew heads over to talk to the director, so I grab my usual seat behind the camera crew and settle in, ignoring her.

It only takes Kiera a few minutes to spot me and walk over, that damn condescending smirk on her face.

So much for keeping my distance
.

“Hello Sydney, so
nice
to see you again,” she purrs. I don’t miss the fact that she says the word nice as though she sucked on a lemon.

I smile at h
er as genuinely as I can manage. “Hi Kiera, so good to see you again!” No way am I going to let her think that she can get under my skin. Kill her with kindness is my plan for now.

It works because she seems a little lost for a second, anticipating hostility from me. But, being the actress that she is, she recovers
. “You didn’t mention that you were Sydney Tannen or who your parents were when we met.”

“Yeah, it’s not some
thing I spread around very much.” I wonder where she’s going with this.

“And here I thought you
didn’t recognize me or Adam …” She narrows her eyes at me, “Or that you really didn’t know you were dating Andrew Forrester.” Kiera stands there with her hands on her hips, challenging me.

I keep my sweet smile on my face
. “Well, Kiera, it doesn’t matter what you thought now does it? The fact is that I don’t follow gossip, Hollywood, or other entertainment matters. So whether or not you believe me is irrelevant. And you didn’t tell me who
your
parents are, so I’m not sure how it’s any of your business who
mine
are. But it’s really nice of you to be concerned about my wellbeing, thanks for stopping by to see me.” I dismiss her with a polite smile and return to checking my email on my iPhone.

Kiera huffs and stomps back to her entourage of eager toadies, glaring at me as she sits down in her chair. Great, so much for being
civil and keeping the peace. Well, whatever. I can’t worry about Kiera Radcliff’s ego; I have way more important things to worry about besides her.

Filming goes okay by most standards. They fit in all of the shots that they had on the schedule. Kiera seems to stretch out any scene that she has with Drew that involves touching him or kissing him, smirking at me knowingly in between each take. Drew of course, is oblivious to her games and being the good girlfriend that I am, I keep it to myself and smile for him.

Bitch
.