Reach the Stars, page 2
“You were right,” I heard her say. “I owe you one. Let me go buy you a coffee?”
I only stopped and glanced back for a second once I pulled open the studio door, just a quick look to see Emmy surrounded by a small crowd all laughing with her. I needed someone to slap me. Was she some kind of hyper-celebrity I’d somehow never heard of, or was she just making friends at lightspeed?
Bribing people, probably, from the sound of things.
I’d accept my bribe, though.
I bit off a piece of my bribery Snickers as I shut the studio door behind me for my damned interview.
∞∞∞
When I got back to the hotel, I felt completely drained. Interviews were exhausting. Having to play sweet and cute pop idol, even a little, was exhausting. Of course, they still left me lines like I’m going to crush whoever I’m against, and they applauded my acting the role, but, well—I wasn’t acting. I wasn’t sure if any of them knew that or not.
Either way, there was me, completely exhausted, dragging myself back into the hotel lobby, ready to get upstairs and do some yoga for an hour until I was physically exhausted enough to forget about my mental exhaustion, and then stopping dead at the sight of goddamn Emma Montford at the desk, leaning over and talking to the receptionist, in what looked like a cordial chat the front desk woman actually wanted to be a part of. They were laughing together over something on Emmy’s phone, and I must have stopped for too long after the doors, because Emmy glanced over at me and lit up like a deadly weapon ready to fire.
“Rina!” she called, standing up and waving. “Hi! Oh my god. I heard from Liam you killed your interview! Congratulations!”
I was ready to kill, just not an interview. I shot her a look. “If you’re going to blather about how I just had the interview, there’s no point hiding my name,” I said. “And Rina isn’t even a subtle name.”
“Joyce, Elizabeth, Liam, and I were going to go out for pizza,” she said, talking with her hands. I didn’t even know what she was doing with them, just waving them around. “I was trying to get Helen to come with me, but she said she’s got work, so I told her I’d just bring her a slice or three, because hotel work is hard work. Point is, do you want to come?”
“Not on my life. Bye, Emmy,” I said, hunching my shoulders and storming past her, towards the elevator, and I checked over my shoulder this time to make sure she wasn’t going to bowl me over. She waved and called to me.
“All right! See you later. I’ll save a slice in case you want it! You can come to my room and grab it later!”
That sounded like the worst thing I could have done. I didn’t even look at her, letting the doors shut and take me up to the fifth floor, still hunching my shoulders all the way to my room, where I flung my day bag onto the bed and squatted to peel my shoes off.
I was good at moving quickly, so I took a quick shower and got changed into yoga pants and a loose shirt in a matter of minutes, but I’d barely gotten into downward dog before the lights switched and went out. The heat flicked off, and the digital display on the alarm clock went dark. I stared at all of it, waiting for it to come back, just blinking slowly.
When it didn’t come back, I checked my phone, looking for weather alerts, anything to make an entire hotel lose power, and sure enough, there was nothing.
“Son of a…” I muttered to myself and pulled on flats, stepping out of my room and storming down the hall. Lights on in other rooms and the sounds of televisions in some told me I was miraculously the only one without power, and I was ready to tear apart front desk staff, but when I got back to front desk where Emmy was thankfully gone and told the woman there about it, she looked mortified enough I didn’t have to yell.
“I am so sorry,” she said, genuinely looking it, which was a surprise from an employee at all of this damn event setup. “We’ll have someone up there as soon as possible to get it fixed. Of course, we’ll give you a full day’s refund for—”
“Yeah, I don’t care about the refund, I’m not the one paying. I just don’t want to sit in the dark all day. Thanks,” I said, and I stormed back to the elevator.
And of course, what else to see when I got back to the hall than Emmy standing in her doorway, looking halfway out the door, paused to squint at her phone, texting up a storm. She had her tongue stuck out one side of her mouth while she texted. If she weren’t annoying, I’d say it was cute, but as it was, I tried to just walk past her, which obviously didn’t work, not without—
“Hey, Rina!” Emmy said, just as I was grabbing my keycard from my pocket. I sighed. “I thought you went up ahead of me?”
“My room doesn’t have power,” I said, icy enough to kill a flower. “I had to go complain to front desk. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
“Oh!” She put a hand to her mouth, eyes wide. “That’s awful. It’s all cold and windy today. You can stay in my room!”
“I refuse,” I said. “Have a nice day, Emmy.”
I slid the keycard through the lock, turned the handle and went to push the door open, and slammed my face into the door when it didn’t open.
“Son of a…” I rubbed my nose. Right. Of fucking course. The door lock was electric, and wasn’t going to let me in.
“Um…” Emmy’s voice next to me was the last thing I needed right now. “You can… you can stay in my room.”
I pinched the aching bridge of my nose, and I sighed. “Great. You know? Sure. Why the hell not. Let’s see what other kind of crap I can stir up in this godforsaken day.”
She beamed. “Do you want to get pizza first?”
“No.”
She shrugged, handing me her keycard. “Here you go. Give me your number so I can text you when I’m coming back? I don’t want to get locked out of my own room, and stuff.”
This girl was just handing me her keycard. Carte blanche to go through her room and do whatever I wanted with her stuff.
What an overly-trusting…
I took the card. “Sure,” I said, pulling out my phone. “I’ll add yours, too.”
Chapter 3
Emmy
Kat rubbed her forehead, sitting there cross-legged on the loveseat across from my bed, her phone pressed between her shoulder and her ear and a paper plate with a slice of pizza on her lap. “You’re not serious,” she said. “A day? You can’t get the power back on for the entire day.”
I shouldn’t have, but I admired the way she looked in her casual style—wine-red yoga pants and a loose tank, no makeup on, her hair up in a messy bun. She was one of those incredibly gorgeous girls who could pull off any look.
“Right. I’m not going to sleep in a medieval room with electricians coming in and out. And it’s freezing out tonight. I don’t want to get hypothermia in my own...” She took a bite of the pizza, chewed and swallowed, and then she sighed. “No, I get it. Yeah. Whatever. Just let me know once you at least get the door open. Even if the power’s still off, my things are all locked inside.”
When she hung up and dropped her phone down on the seat cushion next to her, I expected her to explode at me—she’d been waiting on it to get fixed the entire time I was out getting pizza with Joyce and some new friends I’d met today, and it sounded like now she wasn’t going to be able to use her room until tomorrow. I wouldn’t have blamed her if she’d taken her anger out on me.
But instead she just sighed and she looked up at me and she said, “Well, it’s going to take until tomorrow.”
I pursed my lips. “That really sucks. I’m sorry.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Huh,” was all she said, which gave even me and my never-thinking brain pause for thought.
“Huh, what?”
She gave me a wry look, shook her head. “I expected you to say something like be positive, you can focus on the good in the situation. Just smile and be happy.”
I laughed. “Are you pleasantly surprised to find I have tact sometimes?”
She furrowed her brow. “No. Well, I mean… yes. Yeah, actually. Expected you to be more annoying.”
I covered up a giggle, leaning back on the bed. “I contain multitudes. Anyway, you can use my room instead of whatever replacement they’re offering you. That way, you’ll be right there once they get it fixed.”
She shot me a look. “Okay, Emmy. Square with me. Why are you doing this?”
I cocked my head. “Well, because you don’t have a room to stay in now, I guess. Wouldn’t you do it, too?”
“No. I told you, I’m not a nice person.”
That hardly seemed likely. I knew Katarina Jackson had a bit of a tough image, the bet to win the Sea and Stars Song Contest, known to be a little cutthroat, but everyone knew she was secretly a softie. Joyce told me about the volunteer work she’d done through the winter, and of course all the donations—she was a sweet person. But I knew she had an image to uphold, so I just shrugged and I said, “I think you’d still do it, but all right.”
“Point is, why are you sucking up to me? Cut it out. I’m not going to be your friend.” She jabbed a thumb at the Kindness Board. “You’ve got me pinned up to your wall, with… what, a list of ways to try sucking up to me? Are you a sycophant?”
“Isn’t that just a sick elephant?”
She didn’t laugh. In fact, I don’t think she reacted at all. She just stared at me, like that response didn’t even process in her brain.
I shrugged. “I like making people happy. That’s all. Oh!” I jumped out of bed, hurrying over to one of my bags. “Do you want to see my Smile Jar?”
“I… don’t,” she said, but I’d already pulled out the Smile Jar—a big plastic jar filled with scraps of paper, and I thrust it out to her.
“Take a lookie! I try to do at least one nice thing for another person every day. Then I write down what I did on a piece of paper, and I toss it in the Smile Jar!”
She rubbed her forehead. “Are you five years old?”
I put the Smile Jar down. “Have you met a five-year-old? They’re mean as hell.”
That one actually got a laugh out of her, but I think she felt weird about laughing at my joke, because she cut herself off just as quickly and frowned. “Okay. Point taken. So you’re just a big sap.”
I clasped a fist in my hand. “Exactly! That’s all it is.”
She put a hand to her forehead. “It wasn’t praise.”
I laughed, sinking down onto my bed. “I don’t mind being a sap. There’s worse things to be. Anyway, I stuck some more pizza in the mini-fridge, in case you want it. You can hang out here anytime you like.”
“Thanks,” she said, mumbling the word into her pizza as she picked up the slice. I did my best not to just explode into a shower of joy seeing Katarina Jackson thank me. Talk about a thrill.
I’d have to put pizza on the Kindness Board. Even if she was a hard sell on getting around to it, seemed like Kat was a fan.
∞∞∞
“Just because I stayed in your hotel room last night does not mean we are friends,” Kat said, dropping her arm by her side as she turned to me in the studio hall with a pointed sigh. “Stop stalking me.”
I put my hands up. “I had no idea you were here,” I laughed, and I gestured to where Liam was still laughing from one of my jokes. The guy was too sweet to me, always laughing as if my jokes were actually funny. “See, Lammy and I were just having a walk-and-talk. You know the event’s stressful for a camera guy!”
Kat gestured around the studio, the back hall that was quiet right now, still in the lull before the competition’s first round started next week. “The event’s stressful for me. I thought I’d made it clear I wasn’t the extroverted type, so why on earth everyone wants to talk to me or engage me in public-facing roles, I really could not tell you.”
Liam—he was one of the camera guys from the feature interviews, a scrawny blond guy with a big grin and a penchant for polo shirts, who had attached to me immediately after the interview and gotten all chatty—gestured me back to the conference room. “Forget about the haughty princess,” he said, with a convivial glance at Kat that I think might have had more luck being thrown to a wall. Poor Lammy was a bit dense sometimes, and that was me talking. I interrupted before Kat tore him a new one.
“We can go and do some meet-and-greets,” I said. “And we can catch up with Sonia and Jason and see if they want to join! You don’t want to come, Katarina?”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “You take one look at me and tell me I might want to do meet-and-greets. Do I look like I want to sign people’s crap? I want to go rehearse and do my damn job.”
Liam scowled. “Part of the damn job is interacting with the fans, Miss Jackson. Don’t give Emmy a hard time just because she doesn’t have a stick—”
“Rehearsal is important!” I cut in. “I’m rehearsing with Joyce in an hour, actually—”
“You’ve been slacking off,” Kat said, rolling her eyes and turning halfway back to the practice room behind her. “We’ll see how you fare once we’re out on that stage, Emmy. See if the judges will care how many fans’ hands you’ve shaken or how many autographs you’ve given when you can’t give a note any color.”
“Good luck with the rehearsal! I can’t wait to hear your performance. You’re going to be amazing.”
She gave me a look. Liam moved closer. “Come on, Emmy. Don’t talk too much to Jackson.”
“I can talk to Katarina,” I laughed. “She’s nicer than she lets on.”
He put a hand on my wrist, and I pulled away instinctively, heart jolting. That was fine, but when he reached for my wrist a second time, it made my stomach turn, and I didn’t get to pull away in time before he grabbed my wrist and tugged me. It felt like my whole body was restrained—as much as I might not have generally had boundaries, that was one and I felt dizzy and a little sick when he tugged and said, “Let’s go. Meet-and-greet.”
What I was not expecting, though, was for Kat’s expression to turn molten, and for her to grab Liam’s wrist. He let go of me and it felt like I could breathe again, stepping quickly back and trying to put on a smile even though I felt my pulse racing. “Liam,” she said, her voice heavy. “That’s your name, right? You do not touch a woman without her consent. Especially not a performer. Do I need to report this to someone?”
My heart flopped. I was pretty sure that was Katarina Jackson coming to my rescue. I blinked fast as I watched Liam pale, stepping away. “Emmy’s my friend,” he said, shooting me an intense look. “Right, Emmy? You don’t mind that.”
“Oh, I, uh,” I blurted, looking between them. Kat spoke before I could find something to say, though.
“You do something like that again, and there are going to be consequences. Now, get out of here. Both of you.”
Liam rolled his eyes, and he gave me a knowing look. “Ugh. What did I tell you about the haughty princess over here? Let’s get out of here, Emmy.”
He went on ahead, back towards the conference hall. Once he was out of earshot, Kat snorted and turned back to the practice room.
“Um,” I started.
“Don’t bother saying a word,” she said.
“No, uh—thank you.”
She didn’t answer me, though, just opening the door and pulling it shut behind her, the soundproof door swallowing up every trace of her, and I rubbed my wrist looking at where Liam disappeared into the conference hall ahead of me.
Huh.
Chapter 4
Kat
The sun was shining brightly, a glare that made my eyes hurt even through my sunglasses, but it wasn’t as glaringly bright as the way Emmy grinned at me, clasping her hands at her waist and leaning against the railing around the studio.
“Hey, Rina,” she called, and I just shook my head, walking past her, down to the street where the wind kicked up the salty air of the sea over the town.
“Don’t talk to me,” I said in a murmur as I passed her.
“Okay,” she said, and she turned and followed in lockstep with me. I turned and shot her a look I knew she could tell was a scowl even through my sunglasses.
“Are you following me?”
She nodded, beaming wide. I rubbed my temple.
“You can talk when I address you. Don’t be an idiot.”
“Yeah, I’m following you.”
I sighed. “Don’t. I can get there by myself. And we don’t need to feed rumors about us.”
Her smile faltered, but she kept it up. “I, uh, wanted to talk to you.”
“That makes one of us,” I said, turning away and walking down the street with long strides. There was a driver ready to take us to the place, but it was only twenty minutes away and I preferred walking when I could help it, but maybe it would have stopped Emmy from following me.
“I just wanted to say, uh—thank you,” she said, keeping up next to me.
“There’s zero reason to thank me. Leave me alone.”
She sighed. “Okay. That’s fine. I got you another of your favorite candy bars, though. I thought you’d probably be stressed about this.”
I turned to face her, stopping in front of a little boutique with fluffy and frilly clothes in the street-facing window, and I folded my arms looking at Emmy. “An amusement park is not that stressful.”
She cocked her head. “Are you not stressed?”
Ugh. Dammit. I dropped my arms. “Fine. I’m stressed. What’s the point of these damn publicity stunts, trying to make us all look all cute and fun by playing in an amusement park on camera?”
She laughed, tossing a few strands of hair from her face. “It’s fun! Just enjoy it and be yourself.”
I rolled my eyes. “If I were to be myself, I’d walk out. We’re here to sing, dammit, not play-act cute. Although I’m sure you don’t have to play-act.”
She clasped her hands at her chest, lighting up bright enough the sun probably had to squint. “Katarina. Did you just say I’m cute?”
“What?” My brain fizzled. “I don’t mean it like that—I mean you’re overbearing, obnoxiously saccharine—”
