Hollywood Heartthrob

by Clarissa Carlyle

  ****

  Tanya watched on from a distance, feeling her sister’s pain and wishing she could do something to help.

  In her hand she jangled the keys which would take them away from all the awkwardness but she hesitated over approaching the feuding couple, not knowing if it was yet the right moment to call time on their heated discussion.

  “Just let me leave,” Amy said, shirking Josh’s hands off her face.

  “No!” Josh was trying to hold everything together but he knew he was on the verge of tears himself. He couldn’t let Amy leave, not like this.

  “I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry but you must trust me when I say that I’m not cheating, I’m just filming a scene.” he begged Amy to believe him.

  But she just looked up at him with cold, indifferent eyes. The love which had once been there was gone. It sent a shiver of panic down his spine to see her look at him that way. He wanted the tender moments back, the time in her apartment when they existed in their own little bubble. How could he have been so stupid to have ruined everything?

  Amy backed away from Josh and leaned against the car. She glanced behind him and saw Tanya hovering anxiously, the keys in her hands and beyond her was the tall, slender figure of Caroline Demure, smirking happily at the unfolding drama.

  “Your girlfriend is waiting for you,” Amy said, gesturing to Caroline.

  “She’s not my girlfriend!” Josh declared angrily. “You are!”

  “No, I’m not!” Amy declared. “I was foolish to have ever gotten involved with you! There is no difference between Josh Roberts the movie star and Josh Roberts the man, and I was stupid for ever thinking there was!”

  Tilting her head Amy looked passed Josh and at Tanya.

  “Can we go?”

  Tanya took her cue and quickly headed over to the car and opened the doors. Amy immediately slid into the passenger seat, grateful to be finally getting away.

  “Please don’t go,” Josh begged again, leaning against the passenger window as Tanya started up the engine preparing to leave.

  “Goodbye, Josh,” Amy answered coldly, glancing at her sister to confirm that she was ready to go.

  “Amy, please, I love you!” Josh declared, his eyes becoming moist with tears.

  “Do you?” Amy enquired with mock shock. “Or are you just acting right now?”

  With those parting words the car roared to life and began to back down the driveway, away from the ranch. Leaving Josh helplessly looking on.

  ****

  They drove in silence for at least twenty minutes. The unchanging landscape passing by their windows in a blur as Tanya raced to return to the city, to home, and to a waiting bottle of wine which would hopefully ease some of Amy’s pain.

  “Are you okay?” she asked her sister at length, worried by the prolonged silence.

  “Not really,” Amy sighed. Glancing over, Tanya saw that her sister’s hands were now bunched in a ball on her lap and shaking.

  “I shouldn’t have taken you there,” Tanya said, feeling guilty.

  “No, we did the right thing to go,” Amy answered firmly. “I needed closure. I needed to know what was going on. And now I do.”

  “I’m sorry, Amy.”

  “I just don’t know what’s wrong with me. Why do I only attract guys who cheat?” the question was partly rhetorical but Tanya attempted to answer.

  “So you don’t believe what he said about filming a scene?”

  “Do you?” Amy turned the question back on her sister.

  “I don’t know,” Tanya shrugged. “I mean, the guy is an actor, so it’s possible.”

  “But it’s more likely he was just making out with his ex,” Amy said sadly. “Am I an idiot for ever believing that he could truly care for me?”

  “Aimes, of course not! You are not an idiot!”

  “I feel like one.”

  “Well don’t! With guys, you always follow your heart and I admire that.” Tanya told her sister proudly.

  “My heart only leads me into trouble.”

  “But at least you are strong enough to follow it.”

  “I feel like crap,” Amy sighed, her hands still shaking.

  “I know.”

  She couldn’t stop thinking about the time in her apartment. How perfect everything had felt. How comfortable she felt with Josh. How she had been so quick to let him into her home…and into her heart.

  Now she just felt betrayed and broken. Had any of what they shared been real? Or had he been carrying on with Caroline behind her back the whole time?

  The worst part was that the whole world now knew about her dating Josh; which meant that her shame over him cheating would be global news when she’d rather it be private.

  And next week school sessions started up again. No doubt all her students would know about her and Josh and she’d have to face them and deflect all their excited questions. It would mean reliving how horrid she felt that moment at the ranch when she saw him all over Caroline over and over again. Amy felt sick at the thought of it all.

  “Do you still have that bottle of wine at your place?” she asked Tanya as the lights of Los Angeles sparkled on the horizon before them.

  “It’s got your name on it,” Tanya smiled warmly.

  “Good, cause I need it.”

  “It’s going to be alright you know.”

  “I know. It’s just…breakups suck. Every time I go through one it’s as if I’m fifteen again, back in my old bedroom crying my heart out about Shawn Collins, feeling as if my heart would literally break and that the world would end.”

  “Oh God, I remember that!” Tanya laughed. “You played your Alanis Morissette album over and over. It drove us all mad! In the end Mom just trashed it and pretended you lost it.”

  “She didn’t!” Amy laughed.

  “She did, Aimes. We were saving you from yourself!”

  “True,” Amy admitting, smiling.

  “How about tonight we go back, drink wine, and I’m sure I’ve got that old CD lurking somewhere in my collection. We can put it on if you like and help you work through your pain.” Tanya suggested.

  “Sounds like a great idea,” Amy tried to put on a brave face even though just as her fifteen year old self felt, she thought her heart was literally breaking and that the world was ending. Her world anyway.

  The car entered the busy streets of Los Angeles, the open plains of the desert now a distant memory but the pain of the encounter there still burning bright for both sisters.

  ****

  “I say good riddance to bad rubbish,” Caroline said as she approached Josh who remained glued to the spot, focusing on the departing car.

  He ignored her words, so she wrapped a hand over his shoulder and leaned against him.

  Josh immediately brushed her off and stepped away from her.

  “Why so hostile?” Caroline asked, batting her long, fake eyelashes.

  “You know you could have spoken up back there!” Josh shouted angrily. “You could have backed me up when I explained we were just filming a scene!”

  “But where’s the fun in that?” Caroline asked teasingly.

  “You’ve just cost me the best thing that ever happened to me!” Josh cried, on the verge of tears.

  “Stop being so over dramatic, save it for the cameras,” Caroline replied coldly. “There’s plenty more trash in the sea for you to have fun with.”

  “Amy isn’t trash,” Josh said sternly, his voice low.

  “Oh give it up, Josh, she’s gone. She had her fifteen minutes and can now go back to her monotonous little life and tell people all about that time she once dated a movie star. You need to be with someone equal to your stature.”

  “Like who, you?” Josh almost choked on the words.

  “We were so good together,” Caroline purred seductively.

  “You are the last person I’d want to be with.” Josh declared, storming away from Caroline. “Amy was the first person I’d ever loved and you helped chase her a
way. You don’t care about me, as a friend or anything else, you care only about yourself!”

  Josh stormed back to the ranch, shaking his head in frustration as he went.

  Caroline watched him leave as silent tears fell from her eyes, creating dark shadows of smudged mascara. In all their years together, he had never said he’d loved her. She always just assumed he did.

  It pained her to realize that ultimately she had been outdone by a lowly teacher. She, Caroline Demure, world famous actress and sex symbol had failed to capture the great Josh Roberts’ heart, but lowly teacher Amy Prince had succeeded in just a few days.

  Chapter 14

  Amy was dreading the first day back at school.

  As she predicated, when she walked down the corridor all eyes were on her. Her every move was accompanied by hushed whispers. Normally she drifted through the college unseen, it felt surreal and horrible to suddenly be the focus of so much attention.

  “Can I ask about him?” Jenny asked hesitantly as she walked down the corridor with Amy, equally aware of all the various pairs of eyes staring at them.

  “I’d rather you didn’t,” Amy admitted sadly.

  “That bad?” Jenny exclaimed, her eyes wide.

  “Yep, that bad,” Amy confirmed.

  “Actors, huh?”

  “Yeah, actors.”

  Amy knew that Jenny would be desperate for all the juicy details and she didn’t like holding out on her friend, she just didn’t yet have the strength to discuss it all openly. The wounds from Josh’s betrayal still felt open and raw and being back at school was only opening them up further.

  “Don’t let the students give you a hard time about it,” Jenny advised. “Just be firm with them.”

  “It’s easier said than done though.”

  “Just be tough. Imagine it’s Josh sitting there looking up at you. Would you go easy on him?”

  “No,” Amy laughed. “I’d be extra tough!”

  “Well, there you go then.”

  The two women reached Amy’s classroom and it was time to part ways. Normally when Amy arrived at her class barely any students were there, but today everyone was already in their seats. Not because they were eager to learn but because they were eager to probe their teacher for gossip.

  “Just be strong,” Jenny said warmly. “And remember to imagine it’s Josh Roberts up there looking up at you.”

  “Will do,” Amy smiled, thinking to herself that the last thing she needed to do was pretend Josh was around.

  She took a deep breath before entering her classroom.

  ****

  As she walked in, all the excited chatter amongst friends and peers suddenly ceased, making the vast room eerily silent.

  Trying to gather up all her confidence Amy strode bravely to her desk and began to take out her notes and text books for the upcoming lesson.

  “How are you doing Miss P?” Emily Smith asked kindly from her usual front row seat.

  Amy turned to address her student and smiled.

  “I’m good. Thank you, Emily. Did you have a nice break?”

  “Yeah, it was good, thanks,” Emily replied politely.

  All of the students scrutinized Amy’s every move as she prepared for her lesson as though hoping she would somehow give them some signal about what happened between her and Josh through her body language.

  “Okay, so if everyone can open their text books to page 219,” she instructed, her voice loud and clear.

  Most students began to open their book to the relevant page but from the back of the room Donna Clark piped up-

  “Does this mean that we aren’t going to discuss Josh Roberts?”

  A few students giggled at the boldness of her question.

  “And why would we do that?” Amy asked, folding her arms across her chest angrily.

  “Because you’ve been dating him!” Donna laughed.

  “This is English Literature,” Amy answered, her tone hostile. “We are not here to discuss who I am or am not dating. We would not sit here and discuss your dating history, Miss Clark, but then my lesson only lasts one hour so we would not have the time.”

  The class laughed at this and Donna Clark went bright red, lowering herself in her seat in embarrassment.

  “We are here to learn, nothing else,” Amy told her class, pacing around before them as she spoke.

  “The only man I am willing to talk about today is Heathcliff, because he is the central character in our current text. Did everyone finish the book over the holidays?”

  Some students nodded and some remained motionless implying that they’d failed to complete their assignment of completing Wuthering Heights.

  “I think we should talk some more about Josh Roberts!” a male voice cried out from the back of the room.

  “Excuse me?” Amy turned and looked up towards them, feeling outraged. She tried to discern the speaker from the collection of guys wearing caps and hooded tops at the back of the classroom.

  “I think I’ve made myself perfectly clear!” Amy told them all defiantly. “And you know about the college dress code, caps off!”

  All of the guys along the back row dutifully removed their caps and matted down their ruffled hair. All except one.

  “You, at the back, cap off or leave the classroom!” Amy ordered, pointing at the guy still wearing his hat, signalling him out.

  “But I want to talk more about Josh Roberts,” he declared and Amy almost bubbled over on fury.

  The guy stood up and began to walk down the rows of desks, towards Amy.

  “I want to talk about what an idiot he is, and how he managed to screw up the best thing that has ever happened to him.”

  As the guy neared Amy he removed his cap and all the students gasped in shock and began to talk excitedly amongst themselves.

  “It’s Josh Roberts!” girls giggled, hastily getting their cell phones out to take a picture of the Hollywood celebrity amongst them.

  “He’s really here!”

  “Oh my God, oh my God, take a picture!”

  Amy stood staring in shock as Josh approached her. He looked amazingly handsome even dressed casually in jeans and a hooded top emblazoned with the college’s logo, fitting in with the other students around him.

  “What are you doing here?” Amy whispered as he came and stood in front of her.

  “You wouldn’t take my calls,” Josh explained simply.

  “For good reason!” Amy hissed, blushing profusely and hating the fact that she was making a scene in her own classroom when all she had wanted to do was delve straight into a hassle-free lesson.

  “Just hear me out,” Josh pleaded.

  “Hear him out!” someone heckled from the back of the room.

  “Yeah! Hear him out!” others joined in and Amy sighed, accepting that her lesson would never be able to resume unless she listened to what Josh had to say.

  “I know I’ve been an idiot,” he began.

  “A huge idiot,” Amy interrupted.

  “Okay, a huge idiot,” Josh smiled and Amy felt herself melt a little at the sight of his grin and hated herself for doing so.

  “But I simply cannot exist without you.”

  Amy thought her heart might stop beating as she stood listening to him.

  “You and me, it was the greatest thing I’ve ever known. Amy Prince I love you, I love you more than anything. I should have told you sooner. I should have shouted it from the rooftops but I’ve never been in love before, I didn’t know what to do.”

  Amy fought the urge to just fall into his arms. The image of him kissing Caroline still burned bright in her mind and she refused to let his declarations of love erase all the pain that she felt over that.

  “I know that my coming here and saying I love you won’t be enough,” Josh said, suddenly seeming extremely nervous, his confident smile and demeanour faltering.

  “See, I know you, I know how stubborn you are.”

  “Just forgive him” a student cried out but Amy
ignored them, focusing all her attention on Josh. She couldn’t understand why he suddenly looked so uneasy.

  “You make me so nervous,” he admitted, sounding jittery. “I never know what you are thinking, or how you are going to react to things.”