Fanemies {Coming... Later?}

2 || Fanning the Flames

She doesn't have to expand. I warn myself not to, but still I glance past her. The office that Mrs. Schneider had pointed me to this morning is situated behind the counter with two entrances. One leads directly to the counter. The other, which Vivi entered through, lets out near the storage rooms. From this angle, I can just barely make out a handful of bodies clustered together.

The signing starts in another thirty minutes. Mrs. Schneider had decided not to open her shop until then. Despite this, I managed to see people outside the door a little over two hours ago. My part of the window was twenty feet back from the door.

This is insane. For a moment, I am back to six months ago when I first heard the news that Garrett's story would hit the small screen. It was a fast process for a young writer, one accelerated by my online success.

That online fame hadn't prepared me for the physical copy of my published book in my hands.

It had definitely not prepared me for said book getting a television show.

Even now, sitting at this desk, looking past Vivi's shoulder, I experience how surreal my reality is. My book is published. My book is becoming a movie.

People love my book.

The thought steals my breath yet leaves me feeling lighter than air all at once. I am floating over the clouds while grounded by the sheer gravity of it all. My emotions are lost in a void and all-consuming at once.

My eyes drop, and once again, I see the screen. Reality—the true reality that I have come to know, not the dreamy haze that I dwelt in for much of my author career—crashes back down on me.

And that small, searing ember deep in my gut that I do all I can to ignore flickers to life.

"Tris?"

I blink. The flame eases, warm but no longer blisteringly hot, and the world comes back into focus. Vivi stands in front of me, hands resting against the desk, forehead wrinkling with concern.

I swallow hard. "Yeah?"

"You zoned out there pretty hard for a second. You alright?"

"Oh, I'm fine. Just didn't get much sleep last night is all." I put on a show of stretching, and I even manage a real yawn. Maybe I'm not fully lying after all.

Her worry eases, but it doesn't leave. "Are you sure you're up for the signing today?"

"Of course. Anyway, I can't let down all the people who have been waiting for hours." Saying that almost brings about the sense of surrealness again, but I push it back this time. The flame, however, licks just a little higher.

Forcing a grin into place, I save my progress on my laptop—though I doubt I'll keep it there later—and turn off my device. "How're things going for you? I feel like I've not gotten to talk to you much since I've returned."

Finally put at ease, Vivi settles down in one of the other seats in the room. I edge closer to her, both to escape my laptop's accusatory and to make those from the window are less likely to see me.

"That's your fault, Tris," Vivi says, waving a jokingly angry finger at me. "Everyone in this town has been working to the bone to get it ready for you."

I kick her shoe. "No, this is your fault for putting this entire idea into Mom and Nan's head."

She kicks my shoe right back. "Which the mayor wouldn't have agreed to if you weren't doing so well. Come on. Just accept it, Tristen. You're famous now. Honestly, I should be shocked you have time for little ole me."