I wake up to a phone call and I jump out of bed worried its Brian. I look at the caller I.D. “Hey dad.”
“Hi, go to school today, I went to the lawyers early, I didn’t want to wake you up.” He says. My father went to the lawyer to try to stop the media from getting to me. He says I don’t deserve the world knowing my business 24/7 so he’s trying to get his agent to help him with that.
“Okay, I have to get ready.” I hang up and call Luke to tell him I’m going in today. I get dressed up and leave to school.
I get there and everything is back to normal, so this day should be good. I get to school and Luke parks next to me and walk with me just as my phone rings. “It’s Brian. I don’t even know why he’s calling he knows I’m done with him.”
“Go ahead answer it. But if he says anything to hurt you I’m talking to him.” He says and I answer it.
“Hello?” I say looking at Luke and walking to a quiet corner. Luke follows, as always.
“Why the hell would you go to California without telling me?” He asks concerned.
“You should know exactly why, okay, you’re not my boyfriend anymore, I don’t have to tell you anything, go find somebody else to torture. Brian, just stop fucking calling or I’ll get the cops involved.” I say and Luke starts to reach for the phone but I refuse.
“Could you at least tell me why you moved without telling me, I at least deserve that?”
“I don’t need to tell you anything, you’re not my father, and you’re not my boyfriend. If I wanted to leave, you don’t need to know that. You don’t deserve anything from me.”
“No, I do deserve an explanation, because one minute you’re in my house and the next you get a fucking plane ticket to California. Why did you leave without at least a goodbye.”
“Like I said a second ago, you are not my boyfriend and you don’t get an explanation on why I left because you are the worse person to be around. Maybe if you weren’t such an asshole, I would love to explain why I left. Just stop fucking calling or I swear to you I’ll get the cops involved. We’re not together anymore and I could easily get you arrested.”
“Don’t you dare fucking threaten me, if I want to talk to you, I will. What are the cops going to do? Arrest me for wanting to talk to my girlfriend?”
“No, you’ll be arrested for stalking me, because the last time I checked, you’re not my boyfriend. You’re just somebody I used to know. I fucking regret ever meeting you. ” I say starting to get loud. Luke looks at me and forces the phone off my ear. He hangs up hoping Brian would call back so he could answer. We start back to class and I just smile to myself realizing I don’t want him in my life for good. My phone vibrates in Luke’s hand and he sees the name, he puts the phone on speaker letting me hear the conversation.
“Hello?” Luke says with a huge smile.
“Who is this, give me Brittany, I need to talk to her, who the fuck are you?”
“I’m Luke, Brittany’s new friend.” He says and I just laugh.
“Give the phone to Brittany.”
“First, you have to give some respect to the ones you love, so obviously you don’t love her, so no, you can’t talk to her.” He says and I start to laugh.
“I said give the fucking phone to Brittany. Don’t make me go to L.A.” He says starting to get loud. “I swear if I don’t talk to Brittany in five seconds someone’s going to get hurt.”
“Too bad, you’re all the way in New York, if you really wanted to hurt me you would have the guts to come and find me in L.A, Brittany doesn’t want to speak to you.” Luke says with a smile. “Don’t call back, because she won’t answer.” He says hanging up the phone. I take the phone away and I start cracking up. He calls again and Luke grabs the phone and starts cursing him out. “Stop calling this phone you bitch.” He says hanging up turning off the phone. We walk into English and I put my head on the desk. Luke pokes me and I look at him. “Fuck him, he’s not worth it.” He says and I put my head back on desk ignoring him.
Class ends and I walk out and Luke runs after me. “Brittany, listen to me.” He says and I turn around. “Don’t let him do this to you, you’re better than that. You can’t live your life miserably.” He says.
“It’s not because of him.” I say getting to my class. “I can’t live a normal teenage life. I can’t have a boyfriend with out it being in all over the country. I can’t go out and have fun without rumors spreading about me getting drunk when I don’t even drink. The whole country knows about me. The whole country will know when something happens to me, now everybody is going to start talking shit. I’ve seen it before with all the other famous people.” I say and he starts laughing.
“Even you said you weren’t famous. Live life the way you want to live it, don’t live it by an act just to prove to the media. You’ll regret it later on.”
“The real me isn’t what people want though. Everyone expects me to be spoiled and snobby. I’m not.”
“That’s perfect, you’re perfect the way you are. Don’t let anybody change you. Not even the media. Please.”
I give him my phone because I don’t want to hold it. “You could deal with him.” I say walking into class.
The past few classes went by so slow. I can’t think of anything except for the fact that Luke has my phone and could be fooling around with it, or maybe Brian calling and Luke flipping out. What he said earlier about living life the way I want not caring what the media thinks is true. I want to be a role model. I don’t want to be like other celebrities where all they try to get is attention. The bell rings and Luke meets me outside of my class and hands me the phone. “I’ve done a few things to make sure he stops calling you.” He says walking into the cafeteria.
“Like what?” I ask taking a seat next to him. We’re the first one on the table and wait for everybody to come.
“I blocked him, now he can’t call you or text you, and you can’t call or text him.” He says.
“I didn’t know you’re a phone expert.” I say hugging him. “Thank you. I don’t know what I’ll do without you.” I say.
“What’s going on?” Chloe asks looking at me.
“Brian found out my number and called flipping out. Luke blocked him.” I say with a smile. “I don’t know how I would make it without him.” I say and he kisses me on the cheek.
“What are friends for?” He says giving me a wink. We get up to get lunch and he get’s his wallet out. “I wanted to ask you something the whole day.” He says.
“Yeah, what is it?” I ask confused, what kind of question would he want to ask.
“I was just curious if you would like to go out with me.” He says and I look at him, not all the angry, but not happy either.
“Out on a date?” I say shocked about his question.
“Yes on a date.” He says and I just to laugh to myself. “What’s so funny, you don’t want to go?”
“I do, don’t get me wrong, I know you want this to be more than a friendship, trust me, I want the same thing I just need time before jumping into another relationship.” I say and he walks away into the hallway. “Please Luke, I really don’t want this to turn into a fight, you’re the only one I could trust.” I say.
He turns to look at me but doesn’t smile. He walks up to me and takes my hand. “If you like me the way I like you, why do you want to take it slowly? Why do you not want to go out with me? I can’t sit around and wait for you.”
“You made your move at the wrong timing. It’s not that you’re waiting it’s the timing. I have an annoying ex boyfriend who won’t leave me alone. He’s telling people we’re still going out. If this get’s out, the media will say I cheated on him. It’s not that simple for me.
“We’ll take things day by day, just tell me right now, am I going to waste my time or is it going to work out?”
“It’s going to work out I promise, just not today, or this week. Just until my life calms down a little and the media forgets about me.”
“Okay, so later this week we’ll go out with my friends and we’ll do that for a few weeks until you’re ready to step out as my girlfriend.”
“I like that.” I say and he kisses me on the lips, hard. When he lets go he takes my hand and walks back into the cafeteria. Chloe looks at us confused.
Crystal walks up to the table and sits down. Luke looks at her and back at me to see if I would say anything to her. I don’t, “What are you doing on our table?” Luke says and everyone starts to laugh. “When you learn how to treat a human being you could be our friend.” He says and she storms out grabbing Chloe’s arm on her way out.
Chloe doesn’t come back to the cafeteria all period so I’m guessing this is serious. Luke walks me to class, I sit down in my seat and for once, there is nobody looking at me. Jen texts me asking why Brian can’t call me and I tell her I blocked his number.
The day went by so slow, maybe because I tried to keep my distance from Luke. Every time Luke saw me, I would walk the other way hoping he doesn’t see me. I just don’t want him to keep telling me how he really feels about me because right now I need a break from that. Luke barely knows me. He doesn’t know what I’m capable of doing.
The end of the school day finally comes and instead of going home I just drive around town to find myself a new hideout where nobody could find me, not even Luke.
After a few miles with the music blasting, I realize that just driving around makes me feel a lot better than just being at home. No, wonder why my mother was never home. My phone rings and I look at the caller I.D the only person I am willing to talk to right now is Luke. Even though I am avoiding everybody I feel like Luke is the only one, I can actually talk to who knows how to make me feel better.
I park the car at the beach and decide it’s the perfect place to relax. I get out the car, walk along the water, and watch all the little boys splashing each other. My phone rings again and I don’t recognize the number. It is a California area code so maybe it’s someone I know. “Hello?”
“Brittany, why aren’t you answering any calls? I was calling you all day.” He says and I smile to myself.
“I just want to be alone right now. I don’t want to talk to anyone.” I say.
“Well too bad, because I’m walking to you right now.” I turn around to see him getting out of the car. I put the phone in my pocket and walk away from him. Jen calls me and I answer trying to have an excuse not to talk to Luke.
“Hello?” I say and Luke pokes my shoulder so I could look at him. I look at him and keep walking away without saying anything so I could listen to what Jen has to say. She tells me Brian is starting to save a ticket to come.
“He says maybe you’ll listen to him in person, rather than on the phone.” She says and I roll my eyes.
“I’m not going to listen to him no matter what, every time he talks to me, all he does to me is yell and fight, I’m done with it. So tell him don’t even try to come because I’m not going to talk to him, and he doesn’t even know where I live.”
“He’s not afraid to look for you, if that’s what it takes for you guys to talk. I’m telling him it’s not worth it, that you’ll never forgive him, but he doesn’t want it to end.” She says.
“Well it’s over. He’s not part of my life anymore.” I say about to hang up. “I don’t want to talk about Brian anymore, so I’ll call you back, I’m busy right now.” I hang up and Luke is still walking behind me. “There’s a reason why I didn’t tell you where I am. I want to be alone.” I say not looking at him. “How’d you even find me?” I say turning to look at him.
“This is where I love to come to be alone.” He says beginning to walk with me. “I think this is where all teenagers come to be alone. It’s the perfect place to escape from everything.” He says. “Why are you so upset? I don’t remember you being this upset from the last time we talked.” He says.
“I’m not upset. I just need time to think my life through, I feel like I have to rush through everything I do, I feel like nobody knows what I go through everyday being the daughter of Joe Calasto.”
“You don’t have to rush through anything. When I say I want you as my girlfriend, do I expect you to feel the same? Not right now, because I understand that you need to think about what you want to do.”
I sit in the sand and he follows. “Jen told me that Brian is saving up for a ticket to come look for me.” I say looking away from him.
“If he comes near you, I’ll do something to stop him.” Luke says and I look at him. “For now, don’t worry about him, and don’t answer any of their calls because even you know the only thing they’re going to talk about is Brian wanting to talk to you. Even I see that every time you talk about him it breaks you down. I don’t want to see you like that. You have a smile on your face when you’re not thinking about it.”
“You’re right, but every time Jen calls me she only talks about Brian, she never calls to just talk to me about how much she misses me, or never asks me how my life is. It’s always about how Brian wants to talk to me.”
“So just don’t answer their calls. If you know it’ll cause trouble don’t talk to them till everything gets better.” He says and I get up to get back to my car. He follows me and before he walks to his car, he gives me a quick kiss on the cheeks. “I’ll see you later on.” He says starting his car.
As soon as I get home, Chloe calls me up and tells me that she’s taking me out for lunch. I let my father know and he tells me not to be home late. We go to one of the hottest diners around, as Chloe introduces it. “Thanks for inviting me out.” I say actually feeling appreciated by a girl since I moved here.
I’ve been here for a few weeks in this city but not once invited out, besides her party. When our food comes, Chloe starts to list all the places she recommends. “You can’t go to them alone, it’s meant to go with a group of people so we’ll go one of these days with all our friends.” She says taking a bite of her salad.
“How’s Disneyland? I always wanted to go there.” I say and she smiles. “Do you like it? Would you recommend it for me?”
“I recommend it to go with a family. It’s nice and all, but its all kiddy rides. If you want a theme park, we should all go to Universal Studio’s, one of these days.” She says and I agree.
“I loved the one in Florida, I’ve been there a few times but it never gets old.” I say taking a bite of my food.
“We should all go as a group one of these days. It’ll be great.” She says paying the bill. I give her some money back for my food as she gets in the car.