Just Like Me (11 page)

Cameras were set up all around us. A few talked to us and told us poses they were particularly interested in. I tried to pay attention, but everything seemed fuzzy.

Before I knew it pictures started getting snapped. Taylor was pretty much moving me like I needed to be. One shot I stood kind of behind him as he looked back amused. One shot I was out front, glancing back at him.

The cameramen grew bored of the casual poses quickly though.

“Taylor, can we get a few intimate ones?”

“Sure.”

I turned quickly to face him, away from the cameras.

“What?” I hissed, not moving my lips. I felt as if I had just tasted the sourest of lemons.

“It’s not that bad. They just mean body contact.”

Since I was already facing him he pulled me close to him, wrapping his hands around my waist. No. No. I don’t do body contact.

“Put your hands up around my neck.” He suggested. I forced myself to, feeling awkward. I could feel my stomach pressed up against his. The term ‘abs of steel’ came to my mind.

“Great! Now, Taylor, could you put one hand up to her face?”

And on and on it went, I was struggling to keep from grimacing. At one point they had him swing me up in his arms for pictures.  They had me take my shoes off and get our footprints in the sand. I hoped they didn’t notice when I decided to leave them off. One shot of us walking toward the sunset, holding hands. They asked me to look like I just heard the funniest joke of my life; my face probably reflected more that I had just found out Lisa was dead. Lisa, oh man, she’d so love this right now. I wish it was her here instead of me.

You want to talk about uncomfortable? I don’t make physical contact with people I talk to on a daily basis. I mean, I don’t even hug Mom. I’m not a hug person. The one person I make physical contact with really is my little sister, and that’s only when I’m carrying her around or holding her hand.

“These are looking great; I think we got about 220, which is over our quota. That’s great. We’ll have them printed out and bring them to you during dinner, alright? You can pick out the ones featured on Star Gaze tonight, and also the ones they’ll put in their magazine.”

“Great, thanks.”

Taylor waved them off and the camera men started exiting toward their vehicle.

“So, that’s it? No more pictures or video?”

“No, they’ll be taking pictures of our reactions during the movie along with some video. Same at the restaurant, they’ll do some recording there too.”

“So movie’s first, we heading there now?”

“No, not yet.”

I had started walking up the beach toward the steps, but he had caught my arm. Little sparks went through where he had touched. I yanked my arm back.

No.

I didn’t want sparks.

“What?” I said, probably a little too sharply.

“Man, you’re touchy. Have you ever even had a boyfriend?”

“Yes!” Ah, defensive. That looks great, now I’m acting defensive. He held his hands up.

“Ok, ok. You were just…really uncomfortable.” He smirked. Evil, he is pure evil.

“It wasn’t that, it was the cameras.” I muttered. I crossed my arms.

“Fine.” He put his hands in his pockets. I sat listening to the ocean for a second, waiting for him to say something else. When a few seconds passed, I caved and talked.

“What are we doing now?” I asked, not looking at him. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him pull out his phone.

“According to the schedule Jerry set up, we’re taking a stroll on the beach.” He took in a deep breath. “Great.” He muttered.

“What’s the point of that if there aren’t any cameras?”

“Well, they probably stuck around. Trying to catch us off guard.”

“They’d do that?”

“Yea, Kale, they’d do anything for a good story.” I swallowed at him mentioning my name. A flight of butterflies went through my stomach involuntarily, and I hated myself for it. I cursed myself inwardly.

“That sounds pretty harsh.” I bit my lip; I didn’t want this guy thinking that I cared about his feelings or something. Taylor didn’t seem to notice my comment.

We started walking, slowly but surely. I watched the froth of the waves wash up and down shore. The waves selfishly took shells back into the ocean with them, but at the same time gave new shells to share with the sand. I glanced back at the white shoes I had left on the beach.

“Don’t worry; no one’s going to take them.” Taylor glanced back to see what I had been staring at.

“Not that I’d mind. I think they were cutting my circulation off. I’ll have blisters for days.”

He chuckled. We caught sight of some cameras behind some brush beside the sand, trying to cleverly hide themselves. This tiny bit of honesty he had displayed washed away completely. Taylor stood straighter, a cocky grin on his face.

“It’d figure that’d be all you worried about. Not the shoes, but yourself.”

I shrugged it off. If the volume was on those cameras, he’d look like the douche. Not me. It seemed to irk him that I didn’t give a smart reply.

“What, you don’t want to hurt my feelings or something?”

“I signed a contract.”

“Meaning?”

“I have to be nice to you tonight, whether you’re nice to me or not.”

He frowned.

“Be mean, I can take it.” He said.

“Well, tell that to your agent.”

“I can. So for right now, talk how you want. What did you really want to say about the shoe comment?”

“I wanted to say I could find a nice place to shove them once I put them back on.”

He grinned at that.

“Yea, I like that better than being nice.”

The local theatre was a lot nicer than the one I worked at back home. While our theatre was all purple and orange looking, this one was red and black, retro looking. It had silver and red chairs and old fashioned looking clocks. I loved it.

“What’re we seeing?” I whispered as he pulled out our tickets.

“It’s a private showing. Just you and me. And the cameras.”

“That didn’t answer my question.”

A cameraman came right up to us, a red light blinking, recording.

“We’re watching one of my movies, of course.” That arrogance annoyed me, but particularly when the cameras were around. What, did he have something to prove?

“Which one?”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s got me in it.” He winked at the cameras.

At the concession counter Taylor asked what I wanted. I asked for bottled water. He asked for a large popcorn, layered butter, and a diet drink caffeine free. They had our order right up. When he went over to the various salts to put on the popcorn, he glanced over at me.

“You work at a theatre, don’t you?”

“Yea.”

“What salt is good?” I shrugged.

“It depends.”

“Which one is your favorite?”

“White cheddar.” He nodded and began sprinkling the salt on top of the popcorn. I shook my head sadly. He looked up sharply.

“What?”

“Nothing, you’re just an amateur.” He slit his eyes, annoyed.

“Why is that, Ms. Del-…Kale?” He said, continuing to shake salt on the popcorn.

“Well,” I took it from him; he glared, but allowed me to. I started shaking the container, letting the salt fall throughout the different layers instead of just on top. “To get the best popcorn, you have to piss the conessionist off. You would have to ask them to fill it up halfway. Then you take it and get salt put on it. Then you take it back and ask them to fill it the rest of the way, then put the rest of the salt on. But…you had already ruined that.”

I stopped shaking and added a little more to the top, shaking it a little more before handing it back to him.

“Impressive.” He remarked, and we walked over to the usher. He handed him our tickets and we made our way to the end of the hall.

“Are you going to tell me what movie we’re watching?”

“No.” He answered firmly.

I sighed as we entered into the auditorium, it was getting dark.

“Are we late?” I whispered. He shook his head as we got to the end of the hallway and looked up at the seats.

“We’re the only ones watching it, Kale. Where do you want to sit?” He asked, shoving a handful of popcorn in his mouth. I shrugged.

“You’re the movie star; do you want to sit so far upfront so that I can see the pores in your face when you show up on screen?”

He snorted.

“You couldn’t handle my close ups.”

“And what do you call this exactly?” I said motioning from him to me. He ignored me, walking to a seat towards the middle. I sighed and followed after him. He plopped down, setting his drink in the cup holder and eating more popcorn. I uncapped my water and sipped from it.

Cameramen started coming around the corner, getting a few pictures and videos. Taylor ignored them, staring at the screen as it started previews.

“How can you just ignore them?” I asked, glancing over at them.

“You get used to it.”

“You’re not worried you’re going to show up on their fat segment? Slow down on that popcorn.”

He rolled his eyes and shushed me. And wouldn’t you know it, a preview for Zombie Grave came on.

A dark scene was on, a guy stood at the end of a hallway. A zombie guy, actually. The camera slowly zoomed in on him, anticipating music in the background. Finally, when the camera got right up close, I saw Taylor’s head shoot up and look at the camera.

“It’s time.” He said, and the camera shot to a girl running through a graveyard. The screen then went to a zombie army outside the gates and some little village.

“If I have to be a zombie.” The girl was saying to Taylor “I’ll become one.” It flashed to Taylor, running through a swamp. “For you.” She said.

“I won’t let that happen.” Taylor’s voice said on the screen. There was a scream as the actress went falling down some dark looking hole. The last shot was of Taylor doing a slow-mo turn toward the camera, looking determined to take the camera out. Then the title played across the screen along with the actors and the date it was coming out next month. I laughed.

“I think I’ll miss that one.” I heard Taylor whisper. I turned and whispered in his.

“I think that’ll be a bust.”

“Ya think?” I heard him crunch on more popcorn. I settled back into my seat.

Another commercial came on for some kind of love comedy. An actress was sitting with her family at the table, talking about morals. Then a hot guy came on the screen. Taylor looked over at me, and I realized I was leaning forward. I quickly sat back.

“Want to take a road trip?” The hot actor grinned at the actress on screen. “Sure.” She said as a picture of a red convertible appeared on screen, going really fast down a long winding road. Different pictures of different tourist attractions came on screen. Forests, deserts, wild life looking places, then the hot actor said “You know, we could get into trouble.” You heard the girl actress giggle as the title came on the screen-Tourist Trap-with their names. I made a mental note of the actor so I could show Lisa when I got back.

“That guy’s a douche.” I heard Taylor whisper. “If you don’t like me, you definitely wouldn’t like him.”

“Huh, maybe you could introduce us sometime. So I could see for myself.”

“Yea, right.”

Finally the movie came on. The opening credits revealed to me that this wasn’t a film with Taylor in it at all. I glanced over at him, surprised. I had totally expected him to want to show off. He was still eating popcorn, bored looking as he observed the screen. I reached over and grabbed a handful; he looked at me then, raising an eyebrow. I popped a few pieces in my mouth and smiled back. No, he hadn’t layered it right, but it was still pretty good white cheddar popcorn.

“I can get my own door.” I muttered as I scrambled out of the limo. In the final stop (I hoped) on this date, we were at the restaurant. It was a cute little seafood place that looked out over the ocean. To my surprise, he hadn’t rented out the whole place.

“Yea, yea.” He said, slamming the door behind me. He placed a hand on my lower back and guided me to the door. I jumped at the initial contact, but allowed him to keep his hand there.

You know.

For publicity purposes.

He opened the door and led me in; I’m sure making a show for the cameras he knew were inside. I tried to keep my guard up, remembering he was faking it for the cameras. I put a smile on my face as I looked from camera to camera. Taylor greeted the hostess and she dazedly led us to our table. Taylor pulled my chair out for me. Glancing around it was sea-themed. Not very original, but beachy nonetheless. Aquariums were everywhere, kids gathered around looking at the exotic looking fish. We got stares from around the place as we sat down, but eventually they went back to their own business. Every once in a while I would hear a pop as a picture was taken.

Taylor was glancing at a menu. I noticed that he looked tired, more exhausted than anything else. He glanced up lazily at me.

“You just going to look at me, or do you plan on eating?” He snapped.

I ignored the comment, sipped on water, and glanced at the menu. It took a lot not to spit my drink back out. As quaint as this place seemed, it was extremely expensive. I glanced up at a T.V. in the corner. Of course it was on Star Gaze. Joe was showing a video of some star in the subway. I glanced at the body guards that were stationed around exits. I spotted Hector standing near an aquarium. He looked uneasy as he stared at the T.V.

“I’m tired of this whole fake I’m-such-a-big deal act. And those cameras are going to catch the real you one day, you can’t act like a Hollywood bad boy when you’re sixty.” He looked taken aback, looking anxiously at the cameramen who were talking about hamburgers, not taking video of us any longer.

“Stop acting all big and bad, I know it’s all just fluff under that hard exterior.”

He leaned across the table, almost in my face.

“Then what is it you want from me exactly? You’re such a damn princess, what will make you happy?” He hissed. His hostility surprised me.

“You want a hint?” I snapped. “Why don’t you be real? You’re a fake. A phony. I don’t understand why girls are so attracted to you.”

He backed off, sighing as he leaned back in his booth. Drumming his fingers on the table he met my eyes.

“What do you want me to do? Spill my feelings about a bad childhood and how nobody loves me? Or talk about the weather or some shit like that?” He raised his voice as what appeared to be a manager walked by. “Hey, can we change the channel please?”

“Poor, poor rich boy. He must have it so bad.” I muttered.

He was getting pissed and the cameramen were picking their cameras back up. Taylor’s demeanor changed when he noticed the camera guys were back in the game. His facial expressions vanished and he wouldn’t look at me, just went back to looking like he didn’t care.

“Why did you agree to do this contest?” I asked, trying to give something light for the cameras, because that seemed to be all he cared about. As soon as I put on this fake, flirty girl façade maybe they’d leave and I could leave too.

“I did it for publicity.” He said, studying his hands. Shocker. I thought he’d give the camera some sob story about wanting to help the girl who found him or something. “Zombie Grave is coming out and it was great publicity for it.”

“Wow.” I mustered. “What would have happened if a guy had found you?”

His eyebrows knit together; I don’t think he had considered that.

“I think there were guys who would have wanted to make this a date night.” He said, and a whisper of a smile touched his eyes.

“I think some guys would have run me down if they knew you were in that room.”

“Yea, probably.” He considered me for a second. “If they were straight we might have just called it a guy’s night out or something. If he was gay…” He couldn’t seem to find an answer.

“You would have had a great new role to play.” I said, teasing him. “You know, publicity.”

We both laughed. The camera men got bored again and put their cameras down. They wanted to see Taylor’s temper obviously. Wanted to catch bad news, not good.

“They really want to catch you in a bad position.” I said trying to keep a low tone and nodding towards them. He nodded.

“The media loves it if I lose my temper.” His eyes were back on his hands.

“For the record,” I said and he looked up. “That conversation? Being real? That’s nice. I don’t care about abs, or how much of a god you think you are. Conversation. Laughing. That’s what I look for.”

“So the fact that I have abs of steal and am really sexy doesn’t faze you?”

“No.” He cocked a grin. “Well, not when you act like you know you are. Subtle. Subtle is sexy.”

“I’ll be right back.” He tossed his menu onto the table and stood up, walking over to the restrooms. I glanced up at the T.V. in time to see my picture on the screen.

“Turn that up!” I yelled at a guard standing under the T.V. “Please.” I added, as an afterthought. He hesitated but did so.

“Kale Delaney is in the middle of her date with Taylor Jett. While we’ll give you inside into that later tonight and tomorrow, we have breaking news today about the two spotted yesterday.” The video I had seen on the T.V. earlier in the jet popped up on the screen. I hadn’t been paying attention, but the guy being tackled was the guy with the gun to my back.

“You can see Taylor Jett clearly tackling a robber who had a gun to Kale’s back. Isn’t that scary? Taylor cooperated with police and the guy was taken away. For Taylor to be out in plain sight like that, it must have been important. We happened to have cameras there to ask Taylor about the accident.” Taylor’s face popped up on screen.

“I had come out tonight to make Kale feel more at ease about our date tomorrow, to talk her through tomorrow and let her know what all was going down. Imagine my surprise to see a robber holding a gun to her back.”

Oh my God.

Yea, too big of a freaking coincidence. That’s why all those vans and cars were there yesterday. It was like the cars and vans with video equipment today. It was a big act. It was planned. It was all planned. That robber was nothing more than a paid actor. He got confused when I threw the purse because he wasn’t sure to take cameras away from where I was standing. If he stayed where he was, how would he pull off the act? He was just about to crack when Taylor tackled him.

And Taylor. If Taylor was really checking up on me, he would have worn that hoodie the whole time. But he didn’t, because he wanted the cameras to see it was him.

“After the event, we see Kale getting quite cozy with a guy in the parking lot. Maybe she wasn’t that interested in Taylor after all, because whoever this cutie is obviously has her affections.”

They showed video of when Taylor got close to me and I was backed up against my car, his hoody and sunglasses keeping his identity a secret from the world.

“You better watch out, Kale Delaney. If you don’t appreciate what you’ve got going with Taylor right now, those fan girls will be breaking down your door.”

Anger flushed through my veins. I could feel my face heat up. Most hated girl in the world, yea, that would be me.

Hector was quickly over at the table I was sitting at. I saw the cameramen hesitate, cameras halfway pointed at me.

“Kale…” He whispered. I held my hand up. I stood up, walking quickly through the restaurant, not caring to hide the anger on my face. I kept my expression as harmless as I possibly could, I hoped the cameras might just catch a side of viciousness. Why not? Hector was on my heel.

“Kale, wait.” He whispered. “Just stick around a little longer, please,”

“Why, so you can humiliate me more?” I hissed, shoving the doors to the restaurant open and stepping outside. I let my anger start to bubble. Taylor Jett obviously didn’t care about what I looked like in the media, why should I care about his damn publicity tonight. “And you were in on it the whole time. That’s why you didn’t follow me to my car. Because you couldn’t be there or a robber wouldn’t have pulled a gun against me. That didn’t even make sense anyway! It’s too big of a coincidence for someone to pick on me because they think I have money, it’s all because of this stupid competition. All for publicity for Taylor freaking Jett.”

“Please,”

“Hector! I thought you were on my side!” I was somewhat pleading with him. I could see sadness on his face, disappointment in himself I’m sure. I could tell he was hurt, that they made him do this. But I couldn’t make myself care. I was so upset. I had been used. I would now be the most hated girl in America because Taylor put on a hoodie and acted like someone else. All the while making himself look like the hero who was about to get his heart broken.

“If I have to walk back to North Carolina, Hector, I will.” I snapped. I looked in and guards seemed to be keeping the cameramen at bay, inside. Hector sighed.

“Right, of course, but Kale I’m not sure if-“

I watched Taylor push open the glass doors with a concerned expression. He walked over to where we were standing; I kept backing up every time he took a step closer.

“Kale-“ He started. But I stopped him.

“Don’t talk to me.” I yelled. “If you want me to keep what calmness I have now, you had better not say another word. Don’t start pretending now like you give a damn about how I’m feeling.”

Taylor looked helplessly at Hector, trying to figure out why I was upset. A limo pulled around and Hector went for the door. I stepped up first though, opening the door and slamming it behind me.

Angry tears filled my eyes under the cover of the car. I was stupid. So, so stupid.

“What’s going on?” I heard the muffled voice of Taylor outside the limo. “Hector, what the fuck happened?”

“Star Gaze was on the T.V., sir.” Taylor put a hand up to his mouth, taking in Hector.

“Ok…” He was being careful. “And obviously something was on that upset her?”

“The segment was on about the robber last night, sir.”

“God, I knew she’d be pissed. That upset her that bad?”

“Well, no. They added a bit to the end of the segment this time.”

“What did they add?”

“They threw up video of you in a hoodie, your back; they couldn’t tell it was you.”

“Yea?”

“They told the world that the mysterious man in the hoodie must be her real interest, and that she should pretty much watch her back. They made her look real bad.”

I didn’t hear Taylor say anything. I waited, listening for more muffled voices as I rubbed at my eyes. Then I jumped when I heard the limo door open. Taylor swung himself inside. I wrapped my fingers quickly around the door handle, planning on getting right back out if he were to stay inside. He snatched my fingers quickly away though.

“Drive.” He barked at the driver. The doors locked and the limo was in movement.

“No!” I yelled, still trying to reach for the handle. I could jump out if it was going slow enough.

“You don’t want to do that.”
“Oh the hell I don’t!”

“The media is already going to have a firestorm with what happened in the restaurant, you don’t want to jump out of a car. Not today.”

“You did this!” I was hysterical, I knew I was. I was past the point of upset.

“I know.” He held his free hand up, trying for mutual ground. I was about to start yelling again when he started speaking before I could get it out. “Hold-on-hold-on-hold-on…wait until we can get back to the hotel. Then you can scream your guts out. Ok?”

“Yea, because you’re so damn worried about the media, right? I’m just freaking ruining your image, aren’t I?! Why should I care about helping you at this point?”

“If you just hold on,” He was gritting his teeth, trying to stay patient. “I can fix this. Just hold on until we get to the hotel.” He finally released the death grip on my wrist. I yanked it back anyway, rubbing at it with my other hand. I was breathing hard the whole car ride, screaming at him in my mind. He kept his eyes on me, probably afraid I’d still be willing to jump out of a car going 50 miles an hour down the highway.

We got to the hotel and I was out of the door before it made a complete stop. I yanked at my purse, pulling out my card key before I even reached the elevator. There were pops and flashes as media tried to surround us. Taylor was right behind me, pressing the button for us to go up, body guards keeping paparazzi at bay. I kept my anger under control as we entered the elevator. I stepped over to the controls and he did too, reaching past me to hit my floor. The doors closed. We listened to the pings as it went through all the floors. Finally reaching my floor, I stepped off and stormed down to my room.

I shoved the card key into the door and opened it, planning on slamming the door in Taylor’s face. I went to do that, but he caught it.

“Think you’re quite clever, trying to slam a door in my face, don’t you?”