Fame's Revenge

Chapter 1: Now

Liz

Gavin sat on my plush sofa, playing a video game, while I watched. It was our normal activity, but I had long grown tired of it. I've always preferred playing my guitar and singing to doing this sort of thing, but my manager said we had to spend some time together. At first, I tried to play, but he said it distracted him, so I didn't do it again. Instead, I just sit here. Watching.

It wasn't but just a year ago and everything was different. Looking just at the money and the fans, one could say I've come a long way. But when I look at it all, all I can see is how awful it all feels. In some ways I'm set, in other ways I'm worse off now than I've ever been.

I won't lie and say I miss what I had every single day, because I don't. Some days go by that I don't think about or even remember my life before. It's not that it's not important to me - it's just that life gets busy and I get comfortable and focus on the now. Everyone does that. But during these quiet moments when I could get lost in my own thoughts, I think about I never wanted any of this. I miss my parents. I miss their house. I miss my mother's cooking.

I miss my best friend.

My thoughts shifted to her. Her name was Shay and she was the same age as me. We literally graduated high school together. Everything I could ever think of that was exciting, I did with her. We were closer than sisters if that's possible.

"Liz," Gavin said loudly, nearly shouting.

"What?"

He held up the presumably empty can. "Another one."

I pressed my lips together, but I didn't say anything else. I wordlessly stood, took the can, and went to my kitchen. I probably had someone somewhere in my house that could fetch another Dr. Pepper for him, but I didn't feel like trying to find out. It felt like too much effort for just this simple thing. I mean, simple to me. My manager would probably argue that it wasn't fitting for me to do things for other people unless they're fans.

Sometimes I hated her.

I walked back into my living room, carrying the can with me. I plopped it down on the coffee table in front of Gavin and took my spot in the chair once more. Funny how this was supposed to to be our 'alone time' so we could 'get to know each other as people' when we were both kind of forced into this arrangement. Neither of us really liked the other person, but apparently we looked good together. Every tabloid wrote about it, as well as our various 'dates' that were put on the cover of every magazine. We were making our marks in our own ways. I was a singer and songwriter, he was a YouTube gamer that hit it big. We were about the same level of famous so we wouldn't shock the world, but he's not the person I want. I never wanted him.

I closed my eyes and tried to put thoughts of this stranger out of my mind.

Shay

Yet another cover. It was almost like that girl paid them to publish these. She turned away from the magazine stand so she could make my purchases.

"Did you find everything okay, hun?" the nice lady at the checkout asked when Shay put her stuff by the register.

"Yes ma'am." She mustered up as genuine of a smile as she could for the lady. She smiled back and Shay took a deep breath. It was something she'd been finding herself doing more often than not lately. She seemed to always be either too angry or too excited and needed to calm down. She wasn't sure which was worse at this point.

The woman silently scanned my items, placed them in bags, and took her money. Once she had her stuff, she walked out, trying to push down everything she was feeling until she got home. The grocery store wasn't the place to let everything spill out.

She walked into her empty house, choking down her excited anticipation of adding to her collection. The walk upstairs to her room felt longer than usual. When she finally got there, She walked over to her desk and added the tabloids to the stacks of other magazines with her former friend on the cover.

On top of one of the stacks sat a disk. It was Liz's first album. She sighed as she stared at it. Shay hadn't heard any of the songs on it yet with the exception of the one the radio played all the time. That girl had made it big in just the past year. She almost wished she could figure out how.

Shay opened the plastic and removed it from the case. After tossing it, she put the CD into her player and hit the button. Within a few moments Liz's voice streamed into the room for the first time in almost a year. The last time she was in here, things were so different and she was so excited. Shay's eyes slid closed as she remembered.

Liz

Sometimes I wondered what ever happened to Shay, where she is, what she's doing, how she's doing. Time and distance worked against us and I lost her. I hated that, but there was nothing I could do about any of it. All I could do was try to move forward with my life and hope that we see each other again.

Those were my thoughts as I felt myself fall into a dreamless, restless sleep.

Of course, Gavin being Gavin, I didn't stay asleep long at all. His shouting at his game woke me up, followed by him questioning if I saw something and he asked for my opinion.

Since it's not a game I ever play and I was asleep, I had no idea, so I just smiled a little and said, "Oh ya, that was amazing, Gav. How did you do it?" I assumed it was a good thing, and I usually assume right.

This time was no exception, apparently. He animatedly explained the fantastical jump and punch or whatever combo he used to defeat his opponent. I was never going to play, so none of it made any sense to me. Still, I let him talk at me until he was satisfied that I appreciated it.

Why couldn't he just leave already? Truth be told, Gavin was cool and I didn't mind him too much most of the time, but there were just times when I needed a break.

After what felt like forever, but was actually about fifteen minutes, he checked his phone and stood. "I gotta take this one," he said. "I'll be back." He gave me a smile and in that moment I wondered what I always wondered: did he actually like me? It made the guilt I felt at first come back. Did he know this was only for show? Did he know I wasn't into him? Did he know this was the result of our managers deciding we look good together and we'd help pull each other up the fame ladder?

Did he know nothing about this was real?

I sank into my chair, pulling my knees to my chest, and waited for him to come back. Why did people knowing your name have to be so hard? Why couldn't I go back to being a nobody? I was used to it. This was so different.

Before I could spiral too far, Gavin came back. "Everything okay?" I asked him, trying to be nice.

He was frowning at his phone, but looked up at me when I spoke. "That was my manager. He said he needs me to meet up with him right away. I gotta go now. Sorry." He seemed to hesitate before walking determinedly over to me and kissing the top of my head. "Later, babe."