Chapter 10
And I will make sure to keep my distance
Say "I love you" when you're not listening
And how long can we keep this up, up, up?
-"Distance" by Chrstina Perri
When I packed my bags to move into this mansion, I didn't think I would be doing anything that required me to wear a dress, based on previous seasons, but since Peyton's charity was a formal event, I had no choice.
After looking through all my clothes three times, I finally decided that I would find nothing of my own.
I thought about my choices. Emma was at least two sizes smaller than me, so she was out, Peyton was maybe my size but she was taller than me and her clothes would all probably look too long on me, then finally Aubryey. Aubrey was about my size but I doubted she had brought any dresses with her.
Peyton it was.
I walked out of my room, down the hallway, and opened the door to Peyton and Matthew's rooms, not bothering to knock.
"Hey, Peyton do you have anything I could wear?" I asked before looking up.
Matthew was sitting on his bed, wearing dress pants, a dress shirt and a tie. His hair, usually perfectly messed up, was now a little more tamed; he looked good.
"Wow, someone's doing the most," I teased.
Matthew looked up at me, a half smile on his face. "Wow, someone didn't try at all," he said back.
I rolled my eyes. I was still wearing shorts and a t shirt from when I woke up this morning. I looked like a hot mess compared to him. "Whatever, where's Peyton?"
He nodded his head to the closet and I walked over to it. "Peyton?" I called, poking my head inside. She was bent down, rummaging through shoes, I think, then she looked up at me.
"Which one's are better?" She asked and stood up. She held up two pairs of shoes, that to me looked identical, but obviously not to her.
I raised my eyebrow. "Uhhh, that one?" I said, pointing at one hand randomly.
Her shoulders slouched. "Really? I thought these would go better with this dress."
I stepped a little closer. "Okay, then that one. I just wanted to know if I could borrow a dress. I didn't pack any."
She tilted her head to the side. "Didn't they ship your closet like they did mine?"
Now it was my turn to be confused. They got their closets shipped to them? What happened to equality in America? "No..." I said.
Peyton shrugged, then turned back down to her shoes. "Go ahead and wear whatever you want."
I smiled then looked at the closet. That was when I noticed the true enormity of this closet. First things first: the closets they provided us all were unnecessarily huge. My own closet had barely any clothes, with mile wide spaces in between each hanger, but Peyton's was the exact opposite. Although neat, every inch of the closet was occupied with clothing. I don't know how I didn't realize when I first walked in.
I opened my mouth to ask Peyton how she navigated this maze, when I realized that all her dresses were in one section. I walked over to the section and started rummaging through, not really paying attention to the design of the dress, only paying attention to whether or not it would fit me. I found a blue dress that would probably be minuscule length on Peyton, so just right for me.
I took it off the hanger then went into the bathroom to change, passing Matthew on the way in. I took my clothes off then slipped on the dress easily. It had no zipper either so I didn't need assistance.
Then I looked at myself in the mirror.
The dress was tight. And by tight I mean really tight. I barely had a shape, but this dress made me look like I could be the missing Kardashian. Okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating a bit but still. It was too tight for me to pull off, and there was no way I was leaving the house like this.
I cracked open the door and poked my head out to make sure Matthew was gone; I couldn't let him see me like this. Luckily, he had left the room. I hurried out, my clothes in hand, then ran back into the closet. Or tried to, as I bumped into Peyton along the way.
Peyton was wearing a similarly styled dress as mine (tight and sort of short) but hers was black in the middle and white on the sides. Plus hers didn't make her look slutty, it made her look sophisticated and put together. How she managed to pull that off I would never know.
"Oh, you look good. Now let's go, the limo's here."
My eyes widened at the word limo, then I remembered the problem at hand and cleared my head of all limo thoughts.
"I can't wear this dress, I need to find another one," I said and started towards the closet, but Peyton pulled me back.
"We have to go or we'll be late," she said. "You look great, especially since you don't even have makeup on. Grab some shoes and we'll go."
I started panicking. I did not want to leave the house like this. I could not leave the house like this. I looked at Peyton, who was giving me puppy dog eyes, and sighed.
I went back into the closet and picked back up a random pair of shoes and slipped them on. When I did, I glanced back at the dresses and ran over. If I could just change really quickly-
"Avery!"
Dang it she must've heard me.
I walked out of the closet with my head down, and followed Peyton out of the room. As I walked down the stairs I thanked God that I had managed to pick up what was probably the shortest pair of heels Peyton owned. If only I'd had that same luck while picking a dress. How had I managed to choose this one?
"Matthew, you ready?" Peyton called from the bottom of the stairs.
He appeared in front of her, baby in hand, and when he saw her, the biggest smile appeared on his face without Peyton even noticing. Peyton might say that there was nothing going on between them, but I doubted Matthew felt the same way. Behind Matthew came Bryson, Aubrey and Sage, looking like they were heading upstairs. They stopped when they saw us.
"Where are you going?" Aubrey asked, smiling at us.
"Looking like that," Bryson said then wolf whistled. Since Peyton was halfway out the door, he was only looking at me.
"A charity," I answered ignoring Bryson. He would be the one to like this dress.
I glanced over at Sage to find him staring at me- or more like my dress- with an unreadable expression on his face. I almost looked away, then I saw him half smile.
Why? I have no idea.
"Um, Rose is in her crib. She'll probably wake up in thirty minutes and be hungry, so keep the baby monitor on you," I said, then handed it to him.
He took it without a fight, which I wasn't acustomed to. He only raised his eyebrow at it, as if he didn't know what it was, then he looked back up at me. "Have fun," he said, with his everyday voice.
I blinked and stood there. There was literally no way I could tell what this guy was thinking. Then I realized how weird I probably looked and cleared my throat. "Yeah," was the best I could think to say.
"Someone is gonna have fun with her if you know what I-"
I walked out before I could hear the rest of Bryson's sentence. Peyton and Matthew were walking to the limo and I hurried to catch up. The limo driver opened the door for all of us, and we stepped inside.
It was beautiful.
I've never been in a limo before, so this was a totally new experience for me. And it was probably the best experience of my life. I was almost sad to get out when we reached our destination.
"That was so fun," I said as we stepped out.
"Shh, shh, we have to look professional," Peyton said, stifling giggles.
I nodded then wiped the smile off of my face. I already looked ridiculous enough in this dress, I did not need to make a fool of myself even more.
The charity was an outside event. However, there was a stage that came off of a building, probably housing the backstage area. Outside, there were chairs set up in front of the stage and tables with various assortments of food. The people milling around were dressed like us- formally. In all there were about seventy-five people milling around, and a bunch of people came to greet Peyton as soon as they saw her.
I slipped away from all the commotion and cameras and made my way to the food table. Everything looked really good. I picked up an exotic looking fruit and popped it in my mouth.
Not a good decision.
It was extremely weird tasting, and even a bit spicy. I didn't even know fruit could be spicy. I hurriedly grabbed a napkin and spit the food out. With my luck there were probably a truck load of cameras on me right now. I shook my head and threw the napkin away, then picked up a normal looking grape. Nothing unknown for me anymore.
"Hey, we're going backstage."
I turned around, with a mouthful of grapes, and looked at Peyton and Matthew. I hurriedly chewed the food then swallowed. "Yeah, okay I'll come."
I followed them backstage, then Matthew and I watched as people bombarded Peyton as she got ready to give her speech. After about ten minutes, she turned, gave us a thumbs up, then walked on stage. We moved to the strip between backstage and the actual stage, making sure no one on the outside could see us, to watch the speech.
I watched as Peyton stepped up to the podium, all smiles. Everyone in the crows quieted down and she began, captivating the audience.
"She's great," I said to Matthew.
He nodded, still watching her in awe. "She is."
I studied the way he watched her and smiled. I was definitely right about him liking her. There was no possible way that was a platonic look.
"Matthew?"
"Hmm?" He replied absentmindedly, still not looking at me.
"Do you like Peyton?"
He turned to me, an surprised expression on his face. He opened his mouth like he was about to say something, then closed it back and looked at the floor. Then he did the last thng I would have ever thought he'd do in that situation.
He kissed me.
It was awkward and weird.
"Why would you do that?" I said when we pulled away. I was in complete shock. This type of stuff wasn't in my domain.
"I don't know, I thought I could prove..." he trailed off with a sigh. He looked back down at he floor, closed his eyes then opened them back up at me. "Maybe I do sort of like her."
I frowned, my heart breaking for him. "Aw, Matthew."
"You can't tell her though," he sad urgently. "Promise me you won't."
"Matthew...." I said, trailing off. I was almost positive that Peyton liked him too. She just didn't want to admit it.
"Promise, Avery."
I sighed, then reluctantly said, "Fine."
He breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you."
"Hey guys."
I jumped and turned to find Peyton standing behind us, but from the looks of it, it didn't seem like she heard anything we were talking about.
"Did you like it?" She asked, smiling widely.
I cast a look at Matthew and he gave me one back, then I turned back to Peyton and told her, "It was amazing."
She gave me a big smile. "Thanks!" She said. "Now we can just hang out."
We left backstage, and went back to the main area. Peyton was quickly wisked away by people who wanted to tell her how good her speech was and comment on some of the points she'd made in it. And as soon as Matthew realized that we were alone together, he made sure to either bring someone over to us, or leave me.
I shouldn't have even said anything.
At the moment I was standing alone, a fancy cup filled with white grape juice in my hand, wishing I didn't leave my phone back at the house.
"Avery Fisher, Milton Moore."
I looked up to find an older man of about fifty years of age looking at me. He was a little on the short side, with white hair and a scrunched up face that made it seem like he was seeing something he didn't like. Aka me. But he had his hand out for me.
I took it and shook it. "Hi," I said, confused as to what was going on. With the way he was looking at me, I wouldn't be surprised if he'd just come here to insult me.
"I've seen you on your show, and I just wanted to offer my managerial services. I think I could be of some use for you." I was confused, because it seemed like he was offering some sort of help, yet he was still looking at me like I was dirt. And what did he mean by managerial services?
"Uh, managerial services?" I asked, hoping I didn't sound too stupid.
"I'm offering to be your manager," he explained. "I would help book your events, sightings, anything really."
"Why would I need that? I don't have any sightings or events or whatever you're talking about," I told him, backing up from him without meaning too.
"Look, whether you like it or not, you're famous now, and you're gonna need someone to keep track of all the things you'll be doing once this show is over, and I could be the one to help you do that," he said, and he actually rolled his eyes at me.
I honestly didn't know what to say. I was stuck on him calling me famous. Sure the average person had a lot less twitter followers than me, and sure I would probably be recognized at least once on the street, but I refused to be famous. After Stars Unedited was over, I was done. This would be a chapter in my life that I would acknowledge, but that would be it.
"I am not famous," was all I got out before I basically ran from the man, not once looking back.
For the remainder of the event, I avoided Milton Moore the Manager, opting to spend my time hiding behind conveniently placed plants, tables and people.
"Thank you guys for coming," Peyton said after the event was finally over, and we were back in the limo.
"No problem," Matthew said with a smile.
"Yeah, there was good food," I added, not mentioning Milton Moore. They didn't need to know about my freak out.
Peyton smiled at us. "I love you guys."