The Limelight

Chapter 2

Callie’s POV

I watch Rebecca’s face as she sees them. Her mouth opens into an ‘O’ shape, with wide eyes as she stares at them. Finally she blinks, spins around and starts walking quickly the other way. I run to catch up with her.

“What are you doing? Where are you going?” I call after her.

She spins around and faced me, her face panicked. “No, not going to talk to them, I can’t! I’ll be stupid, sound stupid.” She pauses and runs her hand through her loosely curled hair frantically. “I mean, they’re like, the biggest band ever! I can’t talk to a celebraties! You know that.”

“Oh, I thought you were fine when we met Josh!” I give her a big smile, and she just glares at me. One time, we met Josh Hutcherson at an interview and Becca was freaking out. She started talking really fast and laughing at everything Josh said. Once he was talking about when his dog died and she was just laughing like a mad man. By the time he, left, Becca’s face was bright red and she was laughing hysterically. I think that’s the reason why we never had any more interviews with famous people.

“Well, even with that, this is different! They’re.... Them! You know?” I just smirk at her.

“Yes, we are... Us.” A deep voice with a thick British accent says from behind us. I see Becca freeze, her body refusing to turn around.

“Hi!” I say cheerily, while on the inside I’m freaking out like Becca. I mean, really, if One Direction was standing there right in front of you, I think you would freak out too. Becca still hasn’t turned around so I shake her shoulder. She turns around slowly, her face blushing slightly and her eyes darting frantically around, trying not to look at the guys standing in front of us.

“So, we were watching the show, and we would just like to say we thought  you guys did absolutely amazing. We actually thought you guys should’ve won.” Says Louis. Rebecca just stares off into the distance, her face now a bright crimson.

“Thanks! That means so much, but Alyssa really is great, so we’re happy for her.” I say smiling. With Rebecca still staring to who knows where, and the guys not knowing what else to say, we all stand there in awkward silence.

“Ahh! There’s mom! Ohmigosh! She brought Amanda!” Rebecca says excitedly, breaking the silence. “MOM! MANDA PANDA!”

She sprints over to them with her arms wide open and a giant smile on her face. When she reaches them, she pulls them into a huge hug and starts talking, a lot, which is just like her when she hasn’t talked to someone for a while and needs to catch them up on her life. She actually talks quite a lot when she knows you well, otherwise she’s pretty shy when she first meets you.

I turn to face One Direction, “Sorry, my mom and our best friend are here, and we haven’t seen them for about three months. You know how it is.” I start to walk over to where Rebecca is, still talking excitedly, when a strong hand grabs my arm. I spin around a bit annoyed. I mean, I’d like to go talk to my friend for the first time for months.

“Well, like we said we really think you’re amazing singers and we were wondering if you would ever like to ever do a collaboration or something with us sometime?” Niall says quickly, his eyes darting around and an expression on his face of sort of mix of embarrassment and another emotion I can't quite place, but why would he be embarrassed? I ponder on this for a while, and forget that he said anything. Now there’s a hurt look on his face... Crap.

“Oh, sorry, um, yeah that’d be cool. Sorry, I’m just going to go over and yeah.” I stutter out. Why am I stuttering? I never stutter, not when we met Josh Hutcherson, not when my math teacher accused me of cheating on a test, not ever! There’s just something about his amazing, blue, gorgeous, blue, amazing eyes... God, I’m staring at him, so I turn around and jog over to Becca and everyone.

“Hey! How are you guys? How was the plane ride?” I ask Amanda and Mom, pulling them into a big hug.

“It was great sweetie, I’m sorry you guys didn’t win though.” my mother says. I shrug, and she goes on. “Who are those boys over there that were talking to you? Rebecca won’t tell me.” Becca rolls her eyes, she hates it when people use her full name.

“Oh, that’s One Direction Mom, they’re a boy band from the UK.” I say. Then I turn to Becca accusingly, “You ran away before they said it, but they want to do a collab with us sometime! Isn’t that amazing?” She just stares at me.

“Yeah, for you maybe, but I can’t even talk to them without freaking out or laughing, how do you think I could sing with them?” My face falls, but she’s right, I don’t know if she could handle a whole recording session with them. Heck, I don’t know if I could handle that.

“Right, sorry. Maybe we should go tell them that.” I say, looking back at them. Louis is jumping on Harry’s back and yelling at him to run. I laugh a little and turn back to Becca who is glaring at me. “What now?”

“Really? Okay, let me say this slower so your tiny brain can comprehend it.” She says rolling her eyes. “Me no good with talky-time, to world wide known boy bands.” She finishes with a whiny baby voice.

“Well maybe if you talk to them now you’ll get used to it and then we can do the collab with them! Don’t you think that’d be fun? This is a once in a lifetime chance Becca. Do you really want to pass it up?”

She’s still glaring at me, but less intensely. “Fine, but if I make a great big fool of myself, I will hate you forever.” She starts walking towards them and I just smile, because I know she doesn’t hold a grudge for long. Skipping to catch up to her I start humming a song. Becca turns back to me, an accusing look now on her face. “Where did you hear that? Have you been going through my songs again? I told you never to go through my songs!”

“Umm... Oops?” I say squishing my face up apologetically. You see, Becca loves writing songs, like, a lot. Actually, she’s REALLY good at it too, but she doesn’t think so, so she hates when I listen to the ones she records to see what they sound like. The one I was humming has been stuck in my head for DAYS.

It goes like this:  *As I stand there waiting, for the storm to pass, I’ll stand there holding, your face in my hands. I look up towards the sky wonderin’ if you’ll do the same. And you can’t help thinking that I’m the one to blame.*

I didn’t even realize I had been singing it out loud until Becca started pinching me. “Why. Why do you hate me so much?” She says with a pleading look on her face.

“I’m sorry! It’s just so catchy! It’s been stuck in my head for a while and I really think more people should hear it.” I say which just gives me another glare.

“It does sound very good.” a thick British accent says from behind us for the second time today.

“UGH, well you wouldn’t know that if SOMEONE hadn’t been singing it now would you? I DON’T WANT ANYONE TO HEAR IT” Becca half yells, causing stares from around the room.

“I’m sorry, I thought you just might want to know that your singing is greatly appreciated.” A hurt look is on Harry’s face when I turn to look at him.

“How long have you been here?” I ask.

“Long enough to hear you sing.” He says raising his eyebrows.

“Well you should forget you ever heard it and go.” Says Becca, now glaring at Harry. “I don’t like people hearing my songs, I’m sorry, but just please go.”

He turns on his heel and walks the other way. “Well. Nice going dumbass, you probably just ruined our chances of ever doing a collab with them. Thanks, thanks so much.”

I start walking down the hall and I hear Becca calling after me, but I ignore her. She jogs up to me, “I’m sorry okay? Maybe we can work it out with them? It’s just tha-”  

“Shh!” I say turning to a noise I heard coming from the doorway. “Do you hear that?” We press our ears up against the door.

“No. Fucking. Way. He did not just do that.” Becca says. I can’t believe it either. Through the door, we are hearing Becca’s own original song, being sung by Harry Styles. I look at Becca. Shit.