I’m still thinking about it. I admit, I’m pretty paranoid of what happened behind that trailer. What if whatever had been exchanged was deadly important? Could it break us apart? Could it ruin Henry?
I pursed my lips as I watched Henry act out a scene with Keith. Although he hated Keith, he had put it aside to act. A smile grew on my face as I realised something. Henry really loved acting.
I had just assumed he acted for the sake of it, or for the money and the girls. I know it’s judgemental and I really regretted thinking that, but it seemed like he had never really cared. For example, Henry hadn’t really chosen to take part in this film. Steve had pushed him to do it.
To see him actually acting was truly something else. This made me realise that Veronica and the media really needed to go down. I then vowed to myself that whatever happens, I will still make sure Henry will be able to act. Henry seemed to be always protecting me and now I would do the protecting. I would make sure Henry’s reputation won’t be stained … somehow. We’ll just have to wait to see what happens.
As I sat there absentmindedly watching Henry, I felt someone sit next to me. I turned and I found Natasha smiling softly at me in a grey business suit with her blonde hair straightened and pulled back in a high ponytail. Clara came next with her with a ruffled appearance. I guessed this was what they were going to wear in their next scene.
“Hey Lainie!” They both chirped.
I smiled back at them. “Hey yourselves.”
“How have you been? I haven’t talked to you in ages!” Natasha exclaimed.
“I’m good thanks,” I replied.
She then gave me a sly grin and nodded over to Henry’s direction, making my insides squirm. Was she going to interrogate me on our relationship? “So … Henry seems to be quite romantic with you.”
Hey, what do you know? I got it right. Under both Natasha and Clara’s scrutiny, I ended up blushing. Ugh, I hated the side effects of being in love with someone. Stupid cheeks.
“Yeah. We just had a little misunderstanding before but now we’re alright,” I explained carefully.
“Oh! That’s great Lainie!” Natasha squealed, jumping up and down on her seat. “How is he making it up to you?”
I thought for a moment, and then came up with something. “Well, he’s taking me out …”
“How romantic.”
You’d expect that to come from Natasha or Clara, except it came from someone behind us, accompanied with a sarcastic tone. Veronica was staring down at us and standing with her a hand on her hip. I clenched my fist and felt like spitting at her. She really thought she was ‘all that.’
“Jealous?” I shot back. I think after following her and finding out she was up to something made me more bitter towards her. “I’m sure you don’t have a romantic life, what with trying to break my engagement with Henry and taking him for yourself.”
“It’s not like you deserve him, you whore!” Veronica hissed. “There’s only one obvious way in which you got Henry.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Natasha watching us with eyes as wide as saucers, and slowly backing away. Clara meanwhile, looked torn between choosing whether to break up our verbal fight herself or to go and get help.
“Well, I have news for you! You don’t deserve him either!”
Veronica’s eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. Before I knew it, she reached forward with blinding speed and slapped my precious cheek. Oh she was going to get it.
Breathing deeply, Veronica gave me a smirk. “Hah! That shut your little -”
I couldn’t help myself. There was such a big temptation. Yes people, I slapped her pretty little face and I really hoped that red handprint lasted on her left cheek forever.
As I looked at Veronica, I felt anger but also a tinge of pity. Even though I’ve done a few bad things in my life, I would never stoop as low as her. She viewed herself as superior and I really hoped some common sense would knock into her one day. If you thought about it, she could get any guy she wanted but her horrible personality ruined everything. If she wasn’t such a plastic, maybe guys would actually take a liking to her.
Correction: maybe everyone may actually take a liking to her.
“You’ll pay for that!” She screeched, lunging for my hair. I felt her pull violently on my hair and I yelped, surprised. To make things even, I grabbed a fistful of her silky hair and yanked hard on it, causing her to howl. After getting out of my grip, she tried to claw my face but I kept her at bay. I ended up getting a scratch near my nose so I tried to push her away.
I could hear Clara calling for help and the sound of footsteps coming over to break apart our little catfight in the background.
I finally ended up succeeding with pushing Veronica away from me and she nearly fell backwards since she was in ridiculously high stilettos. If not for Henry, she would have fallen on the ground. As I watched him lock her arms so she couldn’t do anything, I felt the same thing happen to me.
“She’s not worth it, Lainie.”
It was Keith. I slowly started to relax and decided to stop, even though I still felt Veronica still needed to be taught a lesson or two. I could feel my heart pounding fast from the exhilaration of our fight and tried hard not to like it.
While Keith had an easy job of keeping me back since I was now motionless, Henry meanwhile, was struggling. Veronica was screaming at him to let go of her and was trying very hard to step on his poor foot.
“Veronica!” Peter boomed. “Stop NOW!”
After a few more seconds of flailing around, she finally realised the person who had spoke was practically her boss. She stopped and looked up, her eyes wide and her dark locks looking very much like a haystack. I secretly took a bit of satisfaction in that because she prided herself on her looks.
“I don’t know what’s going on here but it must stop now and it will NEVER happen again. Do you two understand?”
I bit my lip and felt slightly upset that Peter was not only angry, but disappointed in me. He clearly hadn’t expected something so outrageous from me. I kept my eyes on the floor as I answered quietly, “Yes Peter.”
It felt like I was in elementary school again and the teacher would say she was disappointed in me for something like not sharing food with my classmates. She would give me this look and I would feel so unworthy of myself.
“Good. Now everybody, back to work!” He barked, obviously irritated with the people who had stopped working to watch the fight between Veronica and I.
When I looked up, I saw Keith give me a soft smile. “If you ask me, I thought you were pretty badass,” he informed before walking away. Despite the situation I was in, I couldn’t help but laugh.
Henry then came over to me after having a few words with Peter. “Come on, we’re leaving,” was all he said.
My heart dropped as I followed him to the car. He was mad at me for sure. I slowly got into the passenger’s seat and sat there, staring ahead. Would he give me the silent treatment or would he go ballistic? I’d rather him shout at me. It was better than keeping his thoughts to himself so I wouldn’t know what he was thinking and die slowly. Henry didn’t say anything so I decided to start.
“So … I heard guys like watching catfights,” I started off in a conversational tone. “Did you like it? It is some psychological thing or -”
“If you want to know if I’m angry at you Lainie, just ask.”
Damn. He knew me. “Fine. Are you angry?”
As Henry made a right turn, he clenched his jaw. “Yes I am,” he answered simply.
I sighed loudly as I realised that he was not going to elaborate. “Look, I’m sorry, but she’s trying to break us up along with some weirdo and she’s got something on us. When she insulted me and slapped me, I just kind of lost it ok? Isn’t it ok to ‘lose it’ sometimes?”
I sat there fuming for a few seconds before Henry finally responded. “It is, but you could’ve gotten hurt …”
I blinked as I registered what he had just said. He had been worried about me? So his main intentions were to protect me?
“I'm sorry,” I murmured. “I promise it won’t happen again.”
Henry’s gaze softened as I promised not to get into a fight and he reached for my hand to squeeze it gently. “I know. But you know want to know something?”
“What?”
He smirked at me. “You were pretty badass. Other than worrying about if you got hurt or not, I was thinking … that’s my girl.”
I stared at him with incredulity until his cheeks became slightly pink. “You know, that’s what Keith said,” I commented, realising the strangeness of both of them using the same word. “He said I was badass too!”
“Well forgive me for stealing his word … he says it, I take it.”
Something then clicked in my brain. “Wait … did he talk to you?” I asked slowly. I needed time to comprehend this. Henry wasn’t even gritting his teeth in disgust as he talked about Keith!
“Yeah well, even though I’m still jealous, I’ve put that aside …” I raised my eyebrow at him and he groaned. “Fine, maybe not entirely, but I know now Veronica’s actually the one who’s been snooping around so I guess I could give the guy a chance.”
I snorted. “More like he should be giving you a chance. You’re the one who’s been rude to him.”
“Well maybe he shouldn’t have tried to get cosy with my fiancée.”
“We’re not really engaged, genius,” I reminded him.
After a bit of bantering, we finally reached the hotel. As Henry and I stepped onto the elevator, he suggested that we should tell Steve about Veronica. I agreed in a heartbeat. Maybe Steve could fix this mess.
Once we reached the right floor, we walked out and headed down the hallway until we reached the right door. I was about to knock, but Henry tested out the doorknob. It worked. I frowned as he wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me inside. Henry had left the door to our hotel suite open most of the time too. What was wrong with theseHollywoodpeople? Didn’t they fear for their safety? I wouldn’t be surprised if they were killed one day by a chainsaw man.
We walked further inside and found someone’s luggage by the shelf. I frowned. Was Steve leaving Curacao? As we came into view of the couch, I found my answer. Arianne was sitting on the couch … lip locked with my uncle.
It wasn’t R-rated or anything, just a simple kiss, but all the same it made me uncomfortable. Who would want to witness your uncle and your boyfriend’s mother kissing?
“Get your hands off my mother,” Henry suddenly growled. Steve and Arianne immediately sprang apart and looked at us guiltily.
“Henry, I can explain -”
“You don’t need to explain,” Henry spat. “You were all over her. How long has this affair been going on huh? Why would you not tell me?!”
Instead of pleading for Henry’s forgiveness, Steve snorted. “It’s not like you’ve been wholly honest with me.” He nodded his head to Henry’s arm around my waist and I felt my cheeks flush. Oh man, we had some explaining to do.
“Your relationships last shorter than my showers!” Steve continued, as he hopped up from the couch. He then strode over to us and I blinked from the fast movement. I immediately stepped back, afraid of what would happen. Would he get into a fight with Henry? “I don’t want you anywhere near my niece. She’ll end up heartbroken like all the other girls you’ve dumped and I’m not tolerating that.”
“He’s not going to do that!” I protested, feeling upset with Steve for saying that.
“How do you know, Lainie?”
I gritted my teeth but before I could answer, Arianne rushed forward, teary-eyed. I felt my heart go out to her. “Steve, Henry, please stop this! Let’s just talk rationally!”
“I would never hurt Lainie,” Henry said darkly, totally ignoring what his mother had just said. “But you! How could you have an affair with my mother?! After what my father had done to her?!”
I turned to Henry, who looked absolutely furious and tugged on his arm. “Henry, please stop. Steve and Arianne weren’t having an affair – they actually have feelings for each other!” If you ask me, the word ‘affair’ just makes it seem so...callous.
Henry turned and glared at me. “You knew?!”
I flinched at his raised voice but I didn’t back down. “I knew that they’ve had feelings for each other since high school! They probably just decided to act on their feelings now! They’re not playing around with each other!”
The room was silent until Arianne spoke up. “Now Steve, I don’t know why you are suddenly disapproving of Henry and Lainie but … Henry,” she then turned to her son and her lips parted. It seemed like she was looking for the right words to say, but she couldn’t think of any. “I … I know it seems absurd, but I really do love Steve. I’m not asking for you to celebrate, but I just want you to be happy for me. You know that I was never happy with your father … just please; will you be happy for me?”
The three of us stared at her, awed that she was saying all this. She didn’t seem to notice Steve and me though, as she was focused on her only son. She looked so vulnerable and I really hoped Henry would accept the fact that Steve and Arianne loved each other.
“We won’t be exclusive or anything,” Arianne assured. “We don’t want the media to talk about how strange Steve and I together would be …”
I peeked up at Henry out of the corner of my eyes to see how Henry was taking it. His eyes were locked with his mother’s and the weird thing was, their eyes held the same emotion. Even though they were two different colours, they looked like the same. It gave me goosebumps.
“Alright,” Henry murmured with his head down. This made Arianne beam and she came forward to hug her son.
“Thank you,” I heard her whisper.
I suddenly felt intrusive to be witnessing this, so I decided to go and sit on the couch. As I stared at my hands, I felt Steve sit himself next to me. I looked up and found him staring at me sadly. “Hi,” I murmured, unsure of how he would respond.
“I know he loves you,” Steve said outright with a small sigh. “There’s no doubt that he cares for you and I’m sorry for blowing up like that … I was just surprised. I always knew he cared for you, but I always ... put it away in the back of my mind. I hoped you two wouldn't get together.”
I bit my lip and slowly, a smile came to my face. At least my uncle approved. “It’s ok, I understand. But I want you to know that Henry will never hurt me intentionally.”
I said the last bit with confidence. Deep down, I had always known he would never want to truly hurt me.
“I know, and I just want to say that … I’m happy for you Lainie. You’ve always lived with Hazel and I know that she’s never really cared for you properly. I’m the worst uncle. I should have had you come to live with me after your father died.”
I blinked in surprise of this. Steve thought he was a bad uncle?
“I shouldn’t have bribed you to be Henry’s fiancée. I should have willingly given you that money for college,” he continued, looking regretful. “I’m sorry Lainie. I’m really sorry.”
I smiled at his apology and leaned forward to hug him. He was startled at first, but then relaxed and returned my embrace. “You are the best uncle,” I whispered.
“I’m your only uncle,” Steve muttered.