Gravity

I

c h a p t e r   o n e

"No, Carlee, I haven't seen him yet," I laugh into the phone, "He just landed, like ten minutes ago."

"I can't wait to hear about all of the celebrity gossip, it's so much better than watching TMZ," my best friend gushes.

I roll my eyes in mock annoyance, despite the fact she can't see me, "Why? I could think of much better things to do than listen to divas being divas and guys acting like they own the world just because they have money or talent."

"Some of us aren't immune to the glamorous life of the rich and famous because of our family, have some sympathy." I could practically see her dramatically pouting.

"Trust me, once you've seen the 'rich and famous' scrambling to finish their obligations while running on an hour of sleep you'd realize there's nothing glamorous about it." I laugh, referring to the week before my brother, Dylan, realized his first album, barley managing to pull it all together with his crew before it's release date.

Yes, Dylan, as in Dylan Lockhart. Also known as my annoying older brother.

To the rest of the world, he's a 17 year old with a voice as smooth as velvet and a boyishly handsome face that could make any girl melt to a puddle at his feet. To me, he's the boy who used to sing me to sleep every night when I had a nightmare, and who revealed to me his dream of singing for real nearly two years ago.

Within those two years he went from a boy with a dream, to one of the biggest names in the music industry. Life as his sister quickly became complicated as his fame grew. No longer was he a normal teenager who's time was spent at school and home, he was now Dylan Lockhart, a pop star who's time was valuable within his busy schedule, leaving me behind in his shadow.

Quickly, I noticed how more and more people would go out of their way to be nice to me. They'd compliment me on my hair, walk with me in between classes, and try and start as many conversations as possible, most of which ended with an interrogation about the life of my brother.

It was easy to ignore at first, but as he grew in fame more and more people came to me wanting to know every single detail of his life. Some tried to get close to me and become friends, most likely realizing through boring old Scarlett there was Dylan, who was the talk of our town for months, eventually becoming the talk of every girl between the ages of 13-18.

It was almost laughable how oblivious I was to how people tried to use, but that quickly diminished when a girl named Carlee came up to a group of fangirls that surrounded me and went off on them about how pathetic it was to harass a girl just to get information about some up and coming celebrity who didn't even know they existed.

Suddenly it all clicked.

After that, Carlee quickly became my friend, seemingly being one of the only girls in the entire school that didn't use me to get to my brother.

It was pretty lonely in the shadow of Dylan, but with Carlee by my side since freshman year, it hadn't been unbearable. This year, however, I wanted to make up for my so far failed high school career. After being poked and prodded for just being related to someone of importance, I had given up and isolated myself, not wanting to fall into the trap of yet another fake friend who would ask about Dyl every time we were together.

This year, my senior year, was going to be different. I wasn't going to be known as only Dylan Lockhart's sister, I was going to be Scarlett, your average high schooler just trying to get into the university of her dreams.