♫Erica♫
What was he doing here? my logical mind thought. Did he follow me or something…?
But to my honest, my heart was singing Daniel’s name.
I walked up to him, as calmly as I could, even though my cheeks flushed as I got closer, and noticed how good he looked in his jeans and plain t-shirt. Flecks of seawater had splattered his shirt, making little patches see-through, and very, very sexy.
I stopped, at about arm-reach from him, and suddenly I remembered. The last time he’s seen “Erica” was when I was peeking at him through a hospital door.
His face was hard to read. Damn actors.
I coughed, to clear the lump that had suddenly swollen up in my throat.
“Hello.”
Wow. That was such an anti-climax.
“Hi,” he replied, mildly.
“Hey.”
I looked behind Daniel, and finally realized Tyler was here as well, as well as about five other hot guys. How did I miss that?
“Oh, hey, Tyler,” I said, my voice all high. I was kind of trying to avoid him as well. It’d been really awkward after what’d happened. “What are you guys doing here?”
“It’s my birthday,” Tyler said, smiling at me. My heart sank, which was probably the opposite reaction it would’ve had with any other girl in America. “So we took the weekend off to come to my summer beach house.”
“Oh. Well, happy birthday. I’ve got to go, um…away.”
“Where’s Eric?” Daniel asked, suddenly. I frowned, wondering why Daniel had brought him up.
Shit. That stupid note. I’d told him me and Eric were on a family holiday.
“Eric?” I said, my voice going incredibly shrill. “Um, he’s just…scuba-diving.”
“Really? I just wanted to say something to him.”
I tried to keep my poker-face on.
“What? I could pass the message on.”
“No, it really has to be a face-to-face thing,” Daniel said. Oh god, what the hell was I meant to do?
Tyler gave me a look, and I knew he understood. I tried to signal “help me” with my eyes.
“I’ll just go…get him, then.”
***
╣Daniel╠
“This is your room,” Tyler said, pointing me room that was the same to all the other rooms his friends had chosen.
“Thanks, man.”
We were both quiet for a minute.
“Tyler, that day I saw you with Eric –”
Tyler looked up with me, and smiled.
“Yeah, I kind of need to talk to you about that,” Tyler said. “Eric is mine. I don’t want you to room with him, okay? I just think it’s kind of awkward.”
Tyler was…gay?!
I don’t have a problem with gays, but it was just…so hard to tell. How did I never notice?
I just nodded.
The doorbell rang, and Tyler’s brother opened the door quickly, probably expecting Erica.
“Daniel, there’s a guy here for you!”
“Why don’t you tell him?” Tyler said.
“Yeah…yeah I will.”
***
♫Erica♫
Okay, I went back to the hotel I was staying in, found my wig and my school uniform, and got it on, before getting a taxi to Tyler’s house. Whoa. It was massive, even for a beach house. I think you could fit a hundred or so of my apartments into it.
My lonely, empty apartment.
One for reason I had to do this movie. To show Ben.
I closed my eyes and strengthened my resolve.
I pressed the doorbell, and it swung open quickly. It was a guy that looked kind of like Tyler, but older. His eager eyes kind of dimmed.
“Um, hi. I’m Eric. I need to talk to Daniel. Or something.”
The Tyler-lookalike yelled up the stairs, “Daniel, there’s a guy here for you!”
He turned back to me.
“Tell your hot sister to come to the boat party tonight.”
And he just turned away.
Wow. I was hot? I had no idea. Ben had sheltered me from the entire male population.
Daniel came down the stairs, an inch of sexy-muscle at a time. I couldn’t help but drool at little. No, Erica! Right now, you’re being Eric! You don’t want to seem gay.
Daniel’s face looked kind of solemn. My heart skipped a beat. Did something happen? Was he okay?
He looked me in my eyes, and smirked. Suddenly my heart was pumping was a different reason.
“Let’s go talk outside.”
Before I could reply, he just walked past me, outside the door. We stopped in the front yard, which was basically sand. From here, I could see the ocean. I waited for him to talk. There was something wrong about the way he was acting. You know, for an actor.
“Once we go back, I want you to move out of our room.”
“What?!”
“I don’t want you to live with me anymore.”
This was a joke, right? Daniel, tell me this is a joke. Why would you do this to me?
“I thought we were becoming friends,” I said, my voice quivering. My vision blurred, and I realized that tears were forming in my eyes.
“Well,” he said, still smirking. “You thought wrong, didn’t you?”
He turned, and he was about to walk away.
“Why?”
His head turned back, and for a second I thought there was a flash of sadness in his eyes, but it was gone, as he smothered the emotion with a mask.
“No reason. I just don’t want to be seen around someone like you.”
He was gone.
I collapsed into the sand, sinking slightly. My heart had been ripped out of chest. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. I was in so much pain.
This was nothing compared to what Ben did to me.
And I wasn’t even dating Daniel.
You should never fall for an actor.
***
╣Daniel╠
As I walked away, it kind of hurt.
Why…?
***
♫Erica♫
I sat in my bed, curled up into a little ball. My heart was breaking. How did Daniel have the power to hurt me this much? The tears wouldn’t stop coming, and I knew I looked like crap. But what did Daniel mean by he didn’t want to be seen around someone like me? Was it because I was an utterly crap student? No, it couldn’t be. When Daniel let down his guard, and acted like a normal guy, I realized he wasn’t the type to judge people by their talent. Right?
My phone rang. It was Cris.
I pressed reject. I didn’t want to talk to him right now.
He called again, and again, until eventually, I picked up just to tell him to go away.
“Go away, Cris,” I hissed, my voice hoarse from crying. “I’m busy.”
“Erica? I just wanted to tell you something.”
I waited.
“Tell me, then!”
“Oh, right. Well, darling, I just gave your hotel room number to a guy. He said he knew you. Tyler Anderson…?”
“Shit! Why the hell would you do that without asking me?”
There was a knock on my door.
“Erica? It’s me, Tyler.”
“Fuck,” I muttered to myself, hanging up on Cris, who was still apologizing profusely. “Coming!” I called out, going to the mirror, and trying to fix my hair, and make my eyes look a little less puffy. I gave up, and just shoved my shades on. I opened the hotel door.
“Hey,” Tyler said. “Can I come in?”
“Why?” I asked, my hands not leaving the doorknob. “I’m kind of preoccupied right now.”
“Oh. I just wanted to invite you to my boat party tonight.”
The Tyler-lookalike had mentioned that.
“I can’t make it, Tyler.”
He looked quite sincerely sad.
“Well, if you change your mind, just come to the Cayman Islands pier, where my boat’s parked.”
I won’t change my mind.
“Sure, Tyler.”
He smiled, and turned away.
“And,” he said, just before I close the door, “you can stay in my room. Back in school, I mean.”
Daniel’d told him. That just made it so much more real, somehow. Tears formed in my ears again, hidden by my sunglasses.
“Thanks,” I choked out, closing the door before I could really break down.
I leaned against the door, sliding down, suddenly losing all of my energy. I didn’t want to see Daniel ever again.
But after raiding the minibar, and drinking anything in there with an alcohol content larger than 0.5%, I kind of changed my mind. I was so smashed, I wanted to go to the party, to give Daniel a piece of my mind.
Because I was alcohol intolerant (like, seriously intolerant. As in drunk after one glass of beer intolerant), I don’t think I should be held accountable for what happened next.
***
Author's Note: If you know me, then you know I used to live in England (which might be why some of my stuff sounds English. I mean, I only moved to America a year ago :P). I just wanted to ask the people of London, what's going on there? Anything new? LOL XX
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