IMAGINES: Celebrity Encounters Starring You (46 page)

You walked to the window and inhaled deeply. “And here are your—
oh, holy fu
—”

Emma fucking Watson
looked up just in time to watch the contents of her Coke and then her sundae splatter all over her and her car.

She gasped, her eyes widened in complete and utter shock—literally in icy-cold shock. “Oh my God,” she puffed, sitting there with ice cream in her lap.

You couldn’t speak—you physically couldn’t do anything other than stare at her with your mouth hanging wide-open. Maybe, just maybe, the ground would open up and swallow you.

“What’s going on back there?” Kim shouted.

“
Nothing
!” you half shouted, half spluttered back, only for
Emma fucking Watson
to glare murderously up at you. You could’ve sworn it was the same look she gave Draco Malfoy in
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
when Buckbeak was about to be ex—

Shit—
you should probably say something to her—anything, say anything—
anything
!

“I am a really huge fan!”

Her glare intensified.

Fuck
. “Um—” You stuttered as you began to throw fistfuls of napkins through her window in an attempt to help. “Just drive to the back and I’ll help you out—really, I promise—I just want to h—”

“No, really, it’s fine,” she muttered as she pulled a napkin from her face and started dabbing at the mess in her lap, which also happened to include very soggy money.

You mentally added that to tonight’s tab.

“It’s like nine degrees out there, you’re going to freeze and your car’s going to be ruined—please, it’s the least I can do,” you said, desperate to not leave such a horrible impression on
Emma fucking Watson
.

She looked at you, and you could mentally see her debate with herself, and while she did, you couldn’t help but notice just how beautiful she wa—

“Okay,” she finally said as you snapped out of your reverie.

“Okay!” you exclaimed a little too excitedly, and watched as she fidgeted in her seat before slowly pulling around.

You briefly glanced at the monitor and thanked all the gods in the world that nobody else was in the drive-thru. You then turned on the spot and jumped at the sight of Kim, watching you suspiciously.

“What’s going on?” she asked curiously.

Instantly, you gripped your stomach and moaned. “I don’t know,” you murmured. “I just—I ate a few mouthfuls of the ice cream over there—I just—I didn’t realize it had been sitting out there for . . . so . . . long.” You said with groans here and there.

Kim sighed. “Really. It being melted wasn’t reason enough for you to not eat it?”

“But I love milk-shake ice cream!”

Kim sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Fine, you’re
lucky it’s been a quiet night. Swap with Alex,” she barked, then marched back to the registers.

Your insides swelled with joy.

“
Alex
!” you hissed as you stormed into the staff room.

Alex was lying back on a beanbag, probably texting his girlfriend. “What?” he asked as you frantically approached your locker. You pulled out your winter jacket and wallet, then started going through all the unlocked lockers trying to find a pair of pants. “Seriously, what’s going on?”

“Fucking
Emma fucking Watson
pulled up to drive-thru—and I spilt everything on her,” you explained quickly.

“She what? You
what
?” he gasped.

“Ssssshhh!” you hissed. “I need you to cover me on drive-thru while I help her clean her car. You can’t tell Kim—please, Alex, I’ll cover your morning shift tomorrow and Christmas and New Year’s?”

Alex stared at you with wide eyes. “I would have done it for free, but all right.” He nodded to the lockers nearby. “You’re not going to find any pants in there, but maybe one of those jumpsuits?”

You ran to the locker and pulled out a barely used alien-themed UtoPia jumpsuit. The big bosses had tried to introduce it into the system, but nobody wore it because sweating in a thick, fluffy onesie for multiple hours just wasn’t appealing.

“Yes!”
you erupted before lunging at the large pile of hand towels by the kitchen and running toward the back door.

“Wait!” You turned quickly to see Alex in the maintenance cupboard grabbing a bucket and filling it up. “You’re going to need water.”

“Perfect!” you practically sang, and grabbed it, bursting outside with your shoulders wrapped in towels, a terribly ugly jumpsuit hanging over one arm, and a bucket of sloshing water. Your eyes had to adjust to the darkness before you spotted the dark
blue Audi with its front door open. You bolted over to find Emma Watson sitting there with a hell of a lot of scrunched-up wet tissues in her lap.

“Here.” You gave her three of the towels before placing the bucket on the ground before you. She glanced at you, then at your name tag, and then to the UtoPia jumpsuit. “It’s clean,” you insisted, and placed it on the hood of the car. “Seriously, no one’s really worn it—at least not in the last four months. It’s just not the best to work—”

“Thank you,” she said with a small smile—your heart did a somersault. “Can you help me up?”

You offered her both your hands, which she took with her cold ones and slowly lifted herself out of her car. Melted ice cream flopped to the ground.

You handed the outfit to her. “You can change in the staff room. There’s a bathroom in there, and more towels.” She nodded her head hesitantly, so you added, “Everybody’s on deck, so it should be empty,”

She smiled at you again, and again you felt yourself swoon.

“Thank you.”

“Oh, and here.” You paused and pulled out the money you now owed her. “I utterly destroyed the money you were about to give me, so please—”

“No, no, it’s all right,” she said quickly. “Really,” she insisted. “I feel bad enough that you’re cleaning icy liquids in this weather.”

“
You
feel bad?” you gasped incredulously.

“Thank you, but no thank you.” She chuckled, and you inwardly groaned at the sound. She scurried off toward the staff room.

You watched her as you stood there with about five towels hanging off your shoulders and random bits of your money in your pocket. You stood like that until she disappeared inside, with the
door slamming shut behind her, which snapped you out of your trance. Quickly, you got to work as you pressed one of the towels into her seat, absorbing as much liquid as you could. You did the same with another towel, then dunked a fresh one into the bucket and started wiping down her door. You couldn’t help but notice how nice her car was and how absolutely you had ruined it.

You almost laughed though. “I’m wiping ice cream and Coke off of Emma Watson’s car—now that’s a sentence I never thought I would say.”

No, this is fine,
you quickly thought.
You are just wiping ice cream and Coke off of a customer’s car
 . . .
a customer who also happened to play Hermio—

“I am standing in an alien jumpsuit at a UtoPia. Now
that’s
a sentence I never thought I’d say.”

You jumped, spilling water all over yourself as you turned on your heel. And you don’t know how, but Emma Watson actually pulled off the alien-onesie look. You didn’t even know what to say. You sort of just stood there staring at her. She held up your jacket—you didn’t even realize you had given it to her. It was momentarily silent as you stood there looking like the biggest idiot, finding it very hard to look away from her. Finally you laughed nervously and took your coat from her.

WHEN THE DOOR
of the staff room closed behind you, you couldn’t help but sink against it and pinch yourself a good couple of times. It was an idiotic thing to do, but you really, really couldn’t believe what was happening. Quickly, you shed yourself of your jacket, then went back on deck looking as sickly as you could. Kim was chatting to the trainee and Alex; the restaurant was close to empty.

“Feeling better?” Alex asked with a knowing look.

You rubbed your stomach and shook your head. “Worse,” you answered. “But I came to tell you there’s a customer out back complaining that we forgot her nuggets. I checked her receipt and it looks like we did.”

“Oh, crap, that was me.” Alex slapped his forehead. “Sorry, Kim.”

“It’s not me you have to apologize to. Just get her her nuggets,” Kim said in her most officious, best managerial voice.

Alex nodded, and you walked over with a devious smile. “You really are a gold star,” you said, and tapped his name tag.

He snorted. “So, what’s going on?”

You were practically humming as you pulled on some disposable gloves and started packing a fresh box of nuggets and chips. “Let’s see. Her car is a mess, I’m being very awkward around her, I can’t stop staring at her, and she’s dressed in the UtoPia onesie out back.”

Alex laughed aloud before quickly muttering, “Trust this shit to happen to you.”

You sighed. “I won’t be surprised if I wake up in a few minutes and realize it was all a dream.”

Alex pinched you hard on the cheek, causing you to cry out more in surprise rather than pain. “Well then, I guess you’re not dreaming.” He shrugged before passing you another cup holder. “And this time, I made sure the lids are on properly.”

When you got outside, Emma had her sleeves pushed up and was cleaning her steering wheel.

“I told you I’d take care of that.”

She turned to you and shrugged with a smile. “I know, but I want to help.”

“You can help by eating your food.” You held out her meal to her. She smiled brightly and you recognized the look in her eyes. “Hungry? Skip dinner or something?”

“Just hungry.” She took the food from your hands with a gracious smile, then sat on the hood of her car. “You’re welcome to join me, you know.”

You shook your head. “No, that’s all right. I’d rather continue living out my apology to you. I am so sorry by the way; I didn’t mean to ruin your clothes and car . . . and money.”

She chuckled. “It’s fine. I once spilled coffee all over my old car and truly wished I could do magic.”

You laughed aloud. “I really am a big fan.” You adjusted the front seat to wipe away the liquid that had fallen underneath it.

“Really?” she questioned with amusement.

“Hell yeah, I even have your wand at home,” you said, and immediately regretted it. You probably sounded like the world’s creepiest stalker right now.

“You do not!” she gasped with bright eyes.

You cringed and sighed and felt your insides die a little. “I do, I bought your wand and fiddled with it for a week, but then I broke it because I accidentally sat on it. I was crushed but refused to throw it away, so I taped it back together. It now has a special place on my shelf beside the rest of the
Harry Potter
merchandise I’ve spent my savings on.”

“Oh, that’s so—”

“Pathetic?”

“Sweet.”

You were both silent as she dug into her nuggets and you continued cleaning.

“Thank you, though,” she said after a moment.

“For what?” You glanced up at her.

“For being a fan. I don’t think I got used to the term until a few years ago. It was quite strange growing up in the
Harry Potter
world.”

You smiled, then pursed your lips. “I don’t know if I could
cope with all of that.” You wiped her dashboard down. “All the attention . . . and then the bullying.” You quickly added, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring that up.”

She shook her head. “No, it’s okay. . . . Well . . .” She paused and licked her lips. “Most people just assumed everybody would love me, what with it being such a massive series. But the majority of the time, I just got teased for it. I got called all sorts of names with all sorts of insults ranging from ‘you’re so gay’ to ‘you’re such a whiny little bitch.’ ”

“That’s brutal.” You paused to watch her as she spoke.

She shrugged. “It was, but I never took offence to the gay comments, I never thought being gay was an insult.”

You smiled.

She murmured, “But the sexist comments . . . This one time a boy in my class tried to stick up for me, and he got called all these horrible names, and he never said anything again. That really . . . it really disturbed me more than anything else that had happened to me.” She scooped a bit of ice cream into her mouth. “With all that fame—I wanted to make a difference, you know? I don’t think I could forgive myself if I had all this influence and did nothing with it. I guess that is part of the reason why I’m such a huge advocate of HeForShe.” She cast a look at you. “Have you heard of it before?”

“A little,” you answered sheepishly.

She smiled. “It’s okay if you haven’t. It’s a movement to encourage boys and men to support gender equality, hence the name HeForShe.”

“Oh, I see. That’s pretty great, actually.”

“I think so too. I just think gender equality is an issue for men too. Many think that the word
feminism
is only for women, but really it just means you stand for equality. If you stand for equality, you are a feminist, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with a man
being a feminist.” She paused. “And every time I make a speech for it or educate others about it, I think about that boy from my class.”

As she spoke, you could hear the passion rise in her voice, and you couldn’t help but watch in awe at just how powerful this woman was. You felt so small beside her.

“You can change the world, you know?” she said as if reading your mind. “Anyone can. You are a person after all, and it only takes one person to say something.”

You grinned brightly. “You really are the brightest witch of your age.”

Her laugh was musical and infectious, and she smiled at you with such warmth you could barely feel the cold anymore.

She then glanced at her watch and sighed. “I better go. I have a lunch fund-raiser tomorrow and need some sleep.”

You couldn’t deny the sudden deflated feeling you felt. “Okay,” you said lamely.

“Thank you, for everything—you really didn’t have to help me out like you did.”