Part 27: -
Elianna’s POV
Twenty-Sixth May
I wish today hadn’t come, I really didn’t. I know I had to announce my return to show business but I just didn’t want to do this photo shoot and interview with the magazine. It seemed pointless, I could just become the unknown actor and work my way from there, but Ian wanted to do it a different way. He wanted people to know my story and whatnot. Seems pointless if you ask me.
Greg and I were finally on our way there by taxi. But as were arriving, memories of my past began haunting me. The last time I did something like this, I had announced that I was leaving. That I didn’t want to be a child actor anymore. I wanted a normal childhood and normal friends. I was thankful that no one recognised me at my new school, but Katie found out eventually. Especially, when I took her back home to my house and she saw all the shoots from my commercials.
I still felt numb after the whole ordeal with the assaults, I still felt like my whole world was falling apart, even though they were behind bars. I just still felt vulnerable. Oh well, I see my psychiatrist tomorrow and then maybe we’ll know what’s happening, I don’t know. I could just be talking a load of baloney like usual.
When we arrived at the building, I noticed that they were just setting up so we were early. At least we were early, rather than late like most would be.
We walked in and we were greeted by Ian stood there. I know he’s my manager and all but sometimes, I think over everything. I think about whether or not I’ve made the right decision. And the more I think of it, the more I think I did. No one would really hire someone who’s dating a celebrity, causes riots and gets herself kidnapped. Yes, it wasn’t my fault for that but some employers think like that.
The interviewer came and told us what was happening. A six page spread on both of us. Separate interviews, but all featured on the one article. Of course, Ian had briefed them on what was happening.
“I’m freaking nervous,” Greg whispered.
“And you think I’m not?” I questioned back sarcastically.
“I know you are. You’re grabbing my hand like nothing else”
“Sorry” I said, detaching my hand.
“It’s fine. I just don’t know what to do anymore”
“Me neither. However, it’s something that needs to be done. I need to tell them that I’m back and for them to hear my story. If one person can change the world and help people speak up, then I’m all for it. There’s many others out there who’re struggling with day-to-day life because of what’s happening to them. Whether it is in a relationship or just in the street or a kidnapping. I need them to know that there are people out there who can help. Who are willing to listen. Who are willing to care. I just need to start the conversation”
“Why did you leave show business? You’re too damn caring about others, you want to help and show people that although you’ve been hurt, you’re still managing daily”
“What can I say? I’m a miracle woman”
“Sarcasm not needed Elianna,” Greg said, rolling his eyes.
“I’ll be as sarcastic as I like, Mr I’m Not Horny”
“Elianna” He said sternly.
“What?” I said cocking an eyebrow.
“You’re impossible”
“And you love me for it”
“That I do” He smiled.
“Greg West and Elianna Borthwick?” A voice shouted towards us.
I put my hand up to indicate that was us. The person who shouted us came forth and introduced themself as Melanie, the person who was conducting our interview for the magazine. Of course, the magazine was high end, Ok! Magazine for the rich and famous. I sometimes wonder what I really saw in the film industry anyhow, I wasn’t exactly the stereotypical person you’d likely see in the industry.
Melanie told us that she was going to conduct my interview while Greg was getting his pictures taken, and then he’d get his interview while they were photographing me. Then it’d be couple shots. Apparently, they wanted a lot of photographs so they had their fair share to pick from.
I sat down with Melanie in a concealed room, away from all the action of the photographer. And of course, I’d distract Greg from doing a serious job. Not that he’s never not serious, he’s always serious.
“So Elianna, why now do you want to make your comeback to TV?” Melanie asked.
“A lot of things have happened in my life, more so than before and I just want to help people. To provide a famous person who has been through it all to show some support. To give the voiceless a voice and someone they can look up to. I might not be that person just yet, but I want to be”
“Is there any other specific reason?”
“Not that I can think of” I responded.
“So you’re with the one and only Greg West from Dsitrict3, how did you both meet?”
“Honesty? We met in the most cliché way possible. He was my neighbour, hated each other, and then Greg set a challenge for us. Well, he set the challenge for me to fall in love with him in a month. Of course, it took an unexpected turn and we kind of admitted the feelings earlier than expected. It was in the worst way we admitted them though,” I admitted.
“Do you love him?”
“Until the ends of the earth. He’s my one and only.”
“What makes him so special?”
“He just understands me. We can have good and bad days. We can fight and scream but we make it work, we can hurl insults at each other but we can do it in a joking manner and a playful manner. He just makes me feel fuzzy inside. He just makes me feel loved, something I didn’t really experience.”
“Have you ever thought of marrying him?”
“Not yet. We’ve only been together for 3 weeks nearly. I know you’re probably thinking ‘how can you fall in love so quick?’ but we’ve always just liked each other but masked it with the hurtful comments sometimes.”
“I wasn’t thinking that at all. So why now?”
“Why now what?”
“Why now are wanting to come back?”
“When I was a child, I wanted a normal childhood. I wanted to have cuts, bruises, and scars to show that I wasn’t just a puppet. I wanted to be able to have normal friends, not the ones who were manufactured. Probably not nice to say that but most of the people I knew as a child were so far up their own butt. They were egotistical and ignorant. They didn’t care about you, only themselves so I wanted time to figure out whom I could really trust and whatnot.”
“Have you figured out who you can trust?”
“I have one very important person in my life, other than my boyfriend. She’s my best friend. She’s stuck by me for the last 5 years of my life and I commend her for putting up with my moods and my nastiness.”
“Are you friends with Ella Parsons?”
“Ella and I are close, yes. We’re gonna be living together soon so of course I know her.” I said.
“How do you feel about everything that’s happened to you?”
“Honestly? Broken. I was sexually assaulted over 100 times, you expect me to be fine? I’m not. Never will be to be honest. I’m always going to have those nightmares, those feelings and I’m always going to feel as if someone’s trying to hurt me again. I was hurt to find out that it was my own friends who asked for the attack to take place, all because one was jealous. How would that make you feel? You’d be devastated. You’d be hurt and confused. All I have to try to do now is forget and move on. Try to live my life as normal as it could be. Yes, it’s going to be painful but I have to try,” I sighed.
“Of course. What are you looking forward to doing when you book that first film or TV appearance?”
“I honestly don’t know. I’m scared but excited to be going back. I’m scared of all the horrid questions and the accusations that are going to be around. A bit of a hypocritical statement.”
“Are you receiving help?”
“I see a psychiatrist, yes, so you could say I’m getting help. I’m back at her soon so yeah. I wish I could just mask the hurt and the pain but it’s hard and being with Greg, he makes me be open. He has to know how I’m feeling in order to help me that day. Sometimes it gets annoying but I know that I have to speak up in order to be helped” I shrugged.
“You were a child star, why did you change?”
“Personal issues. I was in commercials and stuff back in the day but I had a personal conflict that I had to quit”
The interview kept going back and forth for the next half hour. I was getting bored of the same questions but I knew I had to go through it in order for me to be open with everyone. It was hard but I had to do it. I know you can keep your private life private, but I wanted to be open in order to be able to help people. It was a pretty stupid reason to get back into show business for but it’s me. I’m allowed to be idiotic.
Greg’s POV
I was tired of being a puppet. I know that’s what you are at photo shoots but this one felt so bad. They had me doing one thing and then another. They should’ve just attached a set of strings to me and made me do what they wanted me to do. Stupid idiots.
Finally, Elianna was finished her interview but she looked exasperated by it. I know she agreed to do it but her expression right now, is horrid.
I walked off set and got back into my own clothes, it’s not that I hated these ones. I just felt comfier in my own. As I got changed, Melanie came and told me that it was time for my interview. Oh yippee! Believe it or not, I was actually terrified for this interview, especially because of the questions she’d likely ask me.
As I was seated in the back room where Elianna had just been, Melanie began bringing out new essentials. Had Elianna used up all the other stuff she had? Strange.
“So Greg, how are you feeling about Elianna going back into show business?” Melanie asked, opening the questions.
“It’s her life, not mine. I don’t really have a say in it. I may be her boyfriend but I’m not a dictator. She has the right to express her life the way she wants too”
“Do you have any restrictions on what she does?”
“She has a head on her; I think she can tell what she wants to do and what she doesn’t. As I said before, she’s comfortable on what she’s able to do. There is probably some things I would draw the line at, but that I’d just be contradicting myself”
“So you’re in the band District3, what’s it like?”
“Working with your best friends? Amazing. Of course, there is the odd fight about songs and recording but we work through them and come out stronger. Well, I like to think that we come out stronger. But having to work with the people you’re so comfortable around? It’s perfect. We know what we enjoy doing and what type of songs we like to write and record.” I smiled.
“If in five years’ time you’re still with Elianna, would you think of proposing?”
“Honestly, I have thought about it. We’ve only been together three weeks but it feels longer. I love her and I honestly don’t see myself without her in my future. We may have had a lot of major bumps this month but we’ve come out fighting and cherishing every moment together.”
“How do you feel about what’s happened this month? Especially because of the widespread media attention.”
“The media attention is fickle to me. It means nothing. All I’m interested in is helping Elianna and making sure that she’s not suffering. However, in retrospect, how am I feeling? Rubbish. I keep having nightmares of the attack, I keep feeling them hitting and kicking me endlessly. I don’t eat, I don’t sleep and I can barely think on my own. I have to try to keep my head level but it’s honestly hard. I have to try and make sure that my feelings don’t counteract onto Elianna because she went through worse than me. It’s a struggle at times,” I admitted.
“What made you interested in music? We know you went to Sylvia Young’s theatre school, but what got you so interested in doing it?”
“Music is a way to let your feelings be known. It’s a way to get your anger out without physically hurting someone, you can put so much anger in to a song and it can be a relief but you can also use it to show your love. Music is a way to describe things that are hard to explain normally. Music can also help people you don’t know, a message in a song can mean just one small thing to someone. Music to me is an escape. Well, right now it’s an escape. It gives me the pleasure of not thinking of things. It helps me be me in a weird way. Music is a life saver to myself and to many other in the world.”
“Lovely description. In all seriousness, have you ever tried to or thought about committing suicide because of everything that’s happened?”
“I haven’t as much thought about it, just had random thoughts of it in my head. I’ll never follow through on it, I’m far too scared to even try but I have had small thoughts of it. Unfortunately” I admitted.
“If you were alone in the world with no one, would you ever try it?”
“Possibly, I don’t know. Can we move onto something else? I’d rather not talk about suicide, it’s a horrible thought,” I asked.
“Of course. If you weren’t in District3, what would you be doing?”
“I don’t have a clue. I’d probably still be in Essex doing god knows what. Probably working in McDonalds or something, or busking. I don’t know” I sighed.
“What does the future hold for you and Elianna?”
“We’re just taking it one day at a time. She’s amazing and she understands that I don’t want to take it too fast but we understand everything”
“She seems so lovely. Explain a really funny moment of your lives so far?”
“It was just the other day actually. Lately I’ve been living with Elianna because of fears but I walked in one day and she was moaning my name in her sleep and when I asked her about it, she said she was thinking of humping a cow. Let’s just say she was embarrassed from there on out. And she’ll likely castrate me now for saying that” I laughed.
“I think that concludes our interview for now. We’ll go and get your joint photographs taken now,” Melanie said. I just nodded and smiled, thankful for the strange interview being done.
Melanie walked me out, and called to everyone that it was time for the group photographs. I was honestly scared but I had to suck it up. I needed to be strong for Elianna, even though she looks the stronger one right now. I look like the wimp.
The photo shoot was finally over finally and we were finally making our way back home. It wasn’t awkward but I think both of us was just enjoying the quietness, especially after being pushed from pillar to post for being interviewed and photographed. It’s been a strange morning.
“So how was it?” Micky asked as we entered the flat.
“Strange” I answered.
“Strange how?” Ella asked.
“Normally when they interview groups of people, they do it all together. However, this one we were interviewed separately. And then they had us photographed separately and then group ones at the very end. It was very weird,” I explained. Elianna was very quiet. Too quiet, but I knew not to pester her; otherwise she’d have my head on a plate.
“Every interview is different though. None of ours have been the same so you can expect things to be done differently.” Micky spoke. “What’s up with Elianna?” He then mouthed. I shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t know and I wasn’t for shoving my nose into her business. She was sat on the couch with her head in her hands, shoulders moving slowly. I knew she was crying but I was scared to hold her.
Unable to take her crying any longer, I placed my arms lovingly around her, trying to calm her down but it wasn’t for working, it just made her cry even harder. What was going on? Had I done something? No one knows.
A/N: -
I'm sorry there's not been an update in 2 months and I'm sorry that this is crap. I've hit a mindblock with it and every other story I'm writing, aside from one. This story is coming to an end soon so I think that's why I'm having trouble. The first chapter to my Dan story, the third in this series has been posted too :) so go check that out xD also there's other stories on my profile, if you wish to read. Again, I'm truly sorry. This isn't up to par for the long wait and I'm sorry about that. I also just didn't wanna ramble on in this chapter and make things awkward so yeah. I'm gonna leave now haha :) enjoy xD