Glamour.

ONE

CHAD tried to rivet his attention back to the door he'd been assigned to guard, but watching Nat climb over the piles of dated Townhouse newspaper shelves did wonders to his focus, or lack of thereof. Her naturally wavy brown hair were tied up in a bunch over her head, save for a few rebellious strands that framed her face. It was a good look on her. Though as far as he was concerned, everything was a good look on Natalie Amherst. She flipped through the dates on the top shelf and slowly turned to look at him, as though sensing his stare.

"Chad?"

Blinking, Chad tried to act nonchalent, as though his best friend hadn't just caught him staring at her behind. Not that it mattered, Chad realised when Natalie didn't notice anything amiss. Instead, her face twisted into a scowl as she flicked her eyes to the stack of newspapers and threw up her hands in frustration."I can't find the November 17th issue!"

"2015?"

"Twelve", she said waving off her hand and swung her legs toward the adjacent shelf. He looked at the watch and muttered a curse under his breath. Two minutes to six a.m. Natalie had snuck into his apartment half an hour ago and dragged him to the newspaper post house, no questions asked. One would think spending half his lifetime with Natalie would have made him wary of her antics but he knew better than that. Not to mention, he always ended up being the dutiful watchgaurd irrespective of whether it was an inconsequential college prank or breaking into the Townhouse at five-thirty in the morning.

"C'mon Nat, let's go. It's going to open any minute."

She squealed in delight and he presumed she found what she was looking for. With an impressive agility, he latched open the back window and decided to reprimand himself later for getting good at something which might potentially put him behind bars. Pretty sure breaking and entering the Townhouse wasn't something that would look good on the resumè of a Law student.

With quiet resonance, they slid out of the back window and Chad latched it close. Natalie made her way into the passenger seat and Chad clicked his belt shut, revving the car engine. It wasn't until they hit the first red light on the main road that Chad turned his head to her, with his eyebrows raised. There is only so much one could do without explanation and Chad had crossed that threshold the second they were out the window. He found her squinting at the article on the top page, as though she was trying to read between the lines.

"Is the vocabulary too advanced for your comprehension?"

Natalie swatted his arm with one hand, still concentrating on the paper. "Don't be such a wanker, it's too early in the morning."

The overhead redlight turned green. Chad snorted and switched gears, turning into Natalie's neighborhood. She shared her posh apartment with her older brother, David, who had sworn himself off from the public's eye when he stepped down from his A-list position in Hollywood. Now, David Amherst owns a small business which he plans to expand when Natalie graduates from Emerson College of Performing Arts next year. "Are you going to tell me why you dragged me halfway across the town to steal an old newspaper or am I going to have to make you?"

Natalie grinned and swiveled her body in his direction, slamming the newspaper on his lap the minute he entered the driveway and parked the car. The happiness in her eyes were clearly distinguishable from the perpetual mischief it glinted with. He lifted the newspaper and looked at the article on top and his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "I don't understand."

The report was dated to four years ago and addressed Catarina Carrington, an actress who had succumbed to stress and was found dead in her suite due to drug overdose. The death was still something people talked about, she was America's Sweetheart after all. It had launched many campaigns against cyber bullying and criticizing people on social media. Infact, Catarina's death was the reason David had sworn himself off from the big screen. David and Catarina had been involved once and her death had hit home. Chad couldn't understand why Natalie was so interested in this now.