Lovebug

Chapter One

“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the very cute, very handsome Rhys Whitmore,” Kelly Rippa said.

Meredith rolled her eyes and snacked on her Captain Crunch. She cuddled into the couch, her jammies and zebra blanket keeping her warm in the cold winter month. The fire place was dimly lit and the smell of bacon and pancakes filled the entire main floor. Meredith watched as her brother, Ryder, walked out and hugged Kelly Rippa and her co-host Michael-what’s-his-face.

“Daddy, Ry’s on now!” Meredith called.

Her small hand grabbed the TV remote and dialed the volume up just a few notches. Misty, the family cat, pranced across the couch and snuggled into Meredith’s lap. Mr. Whitmore walked into the family room and sat in the recliner by the window. He brought his cup of coffee to his mouth and took a sip. Meredith leaned forward as Kelly began to talk.

“You’re so cute,” She complimented him. “How old are you?”

Rhys smiled, “I’m seventeen.”

A few girls in the audience cheered and he blushed. Meredith giggled. Her brother was good looking, and she would admit it. She didn’t sexually lust for him…that would be weird. Meredith yawned and covered her mouth, knowing her dad hated when she didn’t.

Michael asked, “Do you play any sports?”

“Well back home I was on the baseball team but I never really liked it. During practices I’d hide out in the drama room reading Shakespeare…” Rhys laughed. “That made me sound like a nerd.”

“You probably shouldn’t have said that dude,” Michael laughed.

Meredith laughed remembering the time Rhys tried to read her a Shakespearian play. It didn’t work. He had trouble pronouncing words and making sense of it himself. So in turn, Meredith couldn’t understand it either. She was only eleven at the time and hadn’t even heard of Shakespeare, but Rhys read it to her every night. So in the eighth grade when they read Romeo and Juliet in class, Meredith had heard it about four times.

“So Rhys,” Kelly nodded. “You became very famous, very quick. Do you wanna give us a little bit of a background of like before you were ‘discovered,’ or whatever?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rhys rubbed his hands on his pants and resituated himself in his chair. “Well I come from a small town in Georgia. Um…I mean I have a family. My mom and my dad are great. They were super strict, growing up. Uh…”

“Like how strict?” Michael asked.

“Uh well like they would put us in time out if we didn’t use our manners or if we didn’t do our chores,” Rhys said.

Kelly looked straight into the camera with a blank expression that had everyone giggling. The funny thing was, Mr. and Mrs. Whitmore  were a lot more strict than Rhys made them sound. From the hours of three to five you weren’t aloud to make any noise because you were supposed to be up in your room studying. After nine o’clock you weren’t supposed to talk to Mr. Whitmore, he didn’t want to have to deal with whiny children, but that shouldn’t be a problem because the children’s bedtime was 8:30 on weekdays and ten o’clock on weekends. But they did lighten up some when Mrs. Whitmore had to be miles away in New York or L.A. with Rhys for his acting career.

“Um, anyways,” Rhys laughed, “I did my first play when I was eight years old. I played Tiny Tim in a Christmas Carol at our community theater and then I just kept it up. I was in about every show they had there every year. Um the next show I did was Charlotte’s Web and I played Wilbur, so that was my big moment to shine. I was eight.”