Shooting Star (4 page)

Sean and I went back to the screening room. We watched the film for about another twenty minutes before Sean stood up, yawned and stretched.

“I’m going to bed,” he said. “Maybe tomorrow I’ll feel OK enough to audition.”

“That’s a good idea,” Anne-Marie smiled at him. And then he winked at me when he walked out. Which wasn’t all that out of the ordinary. Sean winked at me probably four or five times a day, but just then, just when we were about to sneak out and go and track down his dad in total secrecy, he might as well have had a neon sign on his head flashing “ME AND RUBY HAVE A SECRET!”

I waited for another ten minutes and then tried out my yawn.

“I’m off to bed. Gosh, I am tired!”

Immediately Anne-Marie spun around in her red velvet chair and looked at me.

“That was such a fake yawn, Ruby Parker. What are you trying to cover up?”

“Cover up? Me?” I stared at her for a second. It’s well known that lying is not one of my best things. “I am just going to bed, really,” I protested weakly. I knew I had “guilty” written all over my face. Thank goodness the screening room was so dark.

“Yeah, yeah. So are you going to cave in and phone Danny, or Hunter, or both?” Anne-Marie teased me. “Do you have a direct line to Sherwood Forest? Hey, maybe there is still a slot for the young Maid Marian…”

“I am not going to phone Danny or Hunter or anyone!” I told her.

“I knew it,” Anne-Marie said to Nydia. “I
knew
she still fancied Danny…”

Anne-Marie stopped in her tracks as she noticed that Gabe and Nydia were holding hands.

“Yes,” Nydia said, looking sideways at her. “Gabe and I are holding hands. Get over it. And leave Ruby alone. If she wants to phone Danny, it’s up to her. You should know it will be about two in the morning at home though, Rubes.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter, because I’m
not
phoning him,” I said as I made my way out of the room.

“Great, so now I’m a gooseberry,” I heard Anne-Marie
say through a mouthful of popcorn. I was pretty shocked that both of my friends thought I was still pining after Danny. But at least I could leave the room without any more questions.

Sean and I had agreed that we should dress up a bit to seem like we were going somewhere, which after all we were. I wasn’t sure what Sean’s definition of dressing up was, but I decided that mine was to wear a dress instead of trousers. I picked a light lilac knee-length dress that I had packed just in case we got invited to any parties and a pair of silver sandals with a low heel that Mum let me wear for special occasions. It was warm outside so I didn’t take a jacket. I just brushed my hair, put a little bit of lipgloss on and waited for Sean’s secret knock that we’d agreed. One slow, two quick, one slow.

As it was he forgot to knock and just walked in.

“Sean!” I hissed.

Sean stood there and stared at me.

“What?” I said, looking down at myself. “Has it got a stain?”

“No, it’s just…” Sean put his hand in his pockets and shrugged. “You look really nice.”

“Oh, well, I’m sorry that it’s such a shock to you,”
I said, feeling irritated and oddly pleased, and then irritated again. I closed the door behind him.

“That’s not what I meant. I meant…”

“It doesn’t matter what you meant, Sean,” I said, sounding more cross than I intended. “It’s gone nine already and we have to get to this address, talk to your dad, if he’s there, and get back before anyone notices. Are you sure you don’t just want to phone him?”

“No, I have to go there. And anyway – you always look nice, it’s just tonight you look even prettier than normal.”

I felt my cheeks burn, my tummy screw itself into a tight little knot and my heart start to race.

“Just don’t do that, OK,” I said to Sean as I went to the door, opening it a crack to check that the coast was clear.

“Do what?” Sean asked.

“Don’t notice me or say I’m pretty.”

“We’re friends, aren’t we?” Sean asked. “I was paying a compliment to a friend. I must have told you that you look nice a hundred times.”

“No, you haven’t actually,” I said.

“Well, I should have,” Sean said.

“No, you shouldn’t,” I said, peering down the hall, first one way and then the other.

“But why?”

“Because.” I turned round quickly to find that Sean was
standing right behind me and that if he hadn’t been a few centimetres taller than me we would have been standing nose to nose. As it was we were standing my nose to his chin. Reluctantly I looked up at him and he smiled down at me.

“Let’s just go,” I said, backing out into the hall, because despite the high likelihood that I would bump into an adult or a friend, it seemed like the safest option just then.

The adults were all outside sitting around the pool, and Nydia, Gabe and Anne-Marie were still watching the film, so it was easy enough for us to sneak out.

Sean had called a cab company and asked them to pick us up on the corner of the street. As we walked down the road the whole of Hollywood was laid out beneath us, as if the world had turned upside down and the sky full of stars had been laid at our feet.

“One of those twinkling lights belongs to your father,” I said to Sean.

“I know,” Sean said quietly.

“Sean, he was really,
really
horrible to you,” I said. “Are you sure you want to see him?”

“I think so,” Sean said, and just as the cab pulled up to the curb he picked up my hand and held it, not letting go for the whole of the journey.

“Can you wait for us?” Sean asked the driver. He’d been careful not to be Sean Rivers superstar in the car. He switched that part of himself off, like I’d seen him do so many times before. People would walk past him and look at him, and they might think they knew him from somewhere, but they wouldn’t know where. But Sean wanted the taxi to wait, and taxis don’t wait around for just any old teenager, so I watched in awe as he switched Sean Rivers back on when we got out.

“Sure, I’ll wait for you, Sean,” the driver said. “My daughter loves you. Will you give me your autograph?”

“No problem,” Sean said.

He’d let go of my hand briefly as he gave the driver some money and his signature, but as we turned to face the offices of the Pat Rivers Talent Agency he grabbed it again. It felt strange, my hand in his. Sean and I had been friends for ages now. He often put his arm around me or gave me a hug. It never once seemed strange, or made me feel funny. Of
course
he was holding my hand. He was nervous about seeing his dad and he wanted the support of a good friend, of me. Sean didn’t know that for some reason holding hands with him was making my stupid heart race at a million miles an hour. And as long as he
never
knew that I supposed it didn’t matter. I’d just have to hope I didn’t die of a heart attack before we’d finished visiting his dad.

Sure enough the lights were still on in the agency and there was even a very tired, bored-looking receptionist sitting behind a glass desk in the foyer.

“Sean.” I pulled him back just as he was about to walk into the office.

“Yes?” He looked at me.

“Well, your dad’s been right here all along, this address has been in the
Yellow Pages
all along. You could have looked him up on the Internet, or phoned him any time. But you didn’t. So why now?”

Sean looked up at his father’s name displayed in pulsating lights over the doorway. “I miss him, Ruby,” he said almost apologetically.

“He bullied you!” I said.

“I know, and I hated him for that, but he’s my dad. We were together a long time. I hate him, but I love him and I miss him. I want a dad around. You get that, don’t you?”

I nodded. I did get that. When my mum and dad split up, the worst thing about it was Dad not being at home any more. His shoes weren’t at the bottom of the stairs; his toothbrush wasn’t in the bathroom. It took a really long time to get used to the fact that he was still my dad, only he didn’t live in the same place. He told terrible jokes and wore clothes that were far too young for him, but he’d never hit me, or forced me to do something I didn’t
want to. At the end of the day, I supposed, a dad is a dad, and you love the one you’ve got even if he’s not very nice.

“Come on then,” I said, squeezing Sean’s fingers. “Let’s go in.”

“Hi,” Sean said to the receptionist, who barely glanced at him over the top of her magazine as we walked up. “Can I see Pat Rivers, please?”

“By appointment only,” she said gruffly. “And we don’t represent kids any more.”

“OK,” Sean said, “but I’m not here for an agent. I’m his son – he’s my dad. I’m Sean Rivers.”

The receptionist dropped her magazine. “Oh my…” She looked from Sean to me, and then back at Sean again. Holding eye contact with Sean as if she were afraid that he might vanish if she blinked, she picked up the phone and pressed a button.

“I know you didn’t want to be interrupted, Pat, but your son
Sean
is in reception.”

She put the phone down and smiled at us, her lips stretched wide across at least twice the amount of teeth that an average person has.

“He says go right up,” she said. “Second floor, turn right.”

“Son!” Sean let go of my hand the instant he saw his dad, probably mostly because Mr Rivers enveloped him in a huge hug. He held Sean pinned to him for quite a long time. When he let go, Sean was red in the face.

“I knew you’d come back to me. I knew that soon you’d realise all that business, it was nothing really. So I got a little obsessed, I know that now. I worked you too hard. I tried to get you to your full potential before you were ready. But I knew that once you’d had some time to think you’d see that you need me.”

Sean blinked. “Hi, Dad,” he said.

“Well, let’s not stay here,” Pat Rivers exclaimed. “There’s a place down the street that does the best ice-cream milkshakes in California. Let’s go celebrate!”

He looked at me as if he’d only just realised I was there.

“Ruby Parker,” he said, his smile fading just a little bit. “Can I buy you a milkshake too?”

“Yes please,” I said, even though I just wanted to jump back in the cab and go home.

“Well, come on then, kids,” Pat Rivers said.

We got in the cab that was waiting for us and drove around the corner to the diner. Sean’s dad didn’t stop talking the whole way. Sean still hadn’t got a word in edgeways by the time we arrived.

“So how is this going to work?” Pat said as we all sat
down. “How do you want to relaunch yourself? To be honest, son, there are so many things that you could do – the world is your oyster. I must get ten calls a week asking me if you would consider a project. All you have to do is say what you want and you will get it, no questions asked.”

“Actually, Dad,” Sean took a sip of his chocolate milkshake, “I didn’t really come over because of work. I made out that I was coming over to screen-test for
Spotlight!
…”

“I heard that!” Mr Rivers exclaimed. “But I knew it couldn’t be true because if you were ready to start working again you’d have come to me first. Still, you’re here now and that’s what counts.”

“The thing is,” Sean went on, slowly stirring his straw through the thick shake, “I’m
not
ready to start working again. This year has been great. Getting to know Mom again, acting for fun and going to the Academy has been a blast. I get to hang out with friends, and I go to the movies without having to walk down a red carpet. People go past me in the street and they couldn’t care less about who I am. I’m not ready to give that up, not yet.”

“You know,” Mr Rivers said. “This
Spotlight!
movie is going to be huge. That would be the perfect way for you to come back.”

My jaw dropped. He was sitting across the table from Sean, staring at him and apparently listening to everything his son said, and yet he couldn’t have heard a single word.

“Dad,” Sean paused, trying to find the words he wanted to say. “The reason that I came to Hollywood was to see you, not to get work, but because…because I miss you. I don’t want a part in a movie or anything else. I just wanted to see you.”

I held my breath as Sean and his dad looked at each other across the table. Sean’s smile was so sweet and so hopeful that I wanted to fling my arms around him and kiss him. Definitely best not to go there, I decided.

“Does your mother know you’re here?” Pat asked after a moment. It was the last thing I expected him to say and by the look on Sean’s face he was thinking the same.

“No,” he replied. “I didn’t want her to try and stop me. It’s just me and Ruby.”

“I’m glad you came, son,” Mr Rivers said, softening his voice. “I’ve missed you too, of course I have. And, well, if you don’t want to work any more then I’m fine with that. Like I said, I know I worked you too hard in the past. I know I drove you away. I don’t want to lose you again.”

His face sort of crumpled as if he were trying not to
cry and I realised then exactly who it was that Sean inherited his acting skills from.

“Really?” Sean asked, his face lighting up. “You miss me too?”

“Of course,” Mr Rivers said, sniffing. “You’re my only son.” He reached a hand across the table and clapped it on Sean’s shoulder. “It’s probably best you don’t tell your mother for a while though.”

“Why?” I asked, speaking before I remembered that I was only supposed to be there for moral support and was not to get involved.

“Because, Miss Parker,” Mr River said, narrowing his eyes slightly, “Sean and I need some time to get to know each other again.” He looked at Sean. “He needs to know he can trust me. Sean, we will tell your mom, it would be wrong not to, but after we’ve had some bonding time – right, son?”

I resisted the urge to shove my fingers down my throat and took a large slurp of milkshake instead.

“Right,” Sean said happily.

“So have you taken the screen test for
Spotlight!
yet?” Mr Rivers asked after a couple of seconds.

“No,” Sean told him. “I mean, I was never going to take it. I only said I would to get Mom to bring me over here.”

“But you still could if you wanted too, right?”