The Obscure Downsides of Fame (New Edition)

3 || sarcasm

"Do you realize how lucky you are to get back to normal? Did the doctors in Amsterdam tell you?"

They told me to talk to a psychiatrist as soon as I got back to California. In fact, they preferred it if I got on the earliest flight back, but Stellar didn't want me to cancel the remainder of the tour. I also didn't want to disappoint anyone or worry my parents, and I was feeling better already. Even now, months later, things were still normal. I was sure I was gonna be fine.

"If anything happens, I promise you the first thing I'll do is call my doctor, alright?"

"Fine," she said. "How is your sister? The last time I talked to her she seemed a little down."

"She's tricking the makeup artist to do her makeup. And I told her to fix her hair as well, so it'll probably take a while."

Gen's name was called from somewhere around the white backdrop.

"I gotta get back, I'll see you later, right?"

"Yeah," I said, watching her walk back to the rest of the group. They were already filming part of the dance, and just seeing all that made me hungry.

I looked over at the crafty, and there was only one person standing there, fumbling with an apple in their hand. It wasn't until he started looking around and turned his face in my direction that I recognized him as a well known actor. I walked toward him, as he was still fumbling with the apple until I asked him, "You still gonna eat that?"

He seemed surprised by my sudden appearance, and quickly started explaining himself as to why he wasn't eating the apple he'd just grabbed. Maybe I had scared him a little, even.

"Hey, it's fine. I just saw you fumbling with it and I wanted one too," I told him with a smile. "If you're not really hungry, I'll just take it."

I held out my hand and slowly handed me the apple. His face had turned a deep red in the process, and he seemed stuck in thoughts with his narrowed eyes and his bottom lip between his teeth.

"Are you good? You kinda look like you're reevaluating all your past life choices."

I bit into the apple. It was the perfect kind of apple, sweet and sour with a good bite.

"I am," he said. "Fine, I mean. I'm fine. Not... reevaluating my life choices." He had a little bit of a stutter, which I hadn't expected. I couldn't help but laugh at him trying to explain himself once again, but his face had turned a little more red as he stuck out his hand. "I'm Nolan."

Right as the words left his lips, his name was called. He looked at where his name was being called from, and quickly back at me.

"Nice to meet you, Nolan."

He walked away quickly. Maybe he didn't like me as much, but I honestly didn't care enough to make it a big deal. I had bigger things to worry about.

I turned back around, and upon doing so, I found my sister dipping some strawberries in the chocolate fountain, some of the chocolate running down her fingers as she tried to catch it with a plate.

"What?" she asked.

I just shook my head and I took another bite of the apple.

•••

Trisha decided the next day that she wanted more chocolate, so we went back to the studio where Gen had already started filming another portion of her music video.

"Can you drive me to the movie theater afterwards?" she asked.

"Why?"

"I'm going out with friends."