“Thanks for inviting me,” Cole replied politely, shaking Ms. Clipboard’s hand. “This is my friend, Melrose Morgan.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said to me.
“Happy to be here.” I smiled. Apparently one minute I was Cole’s girlfriend, the next I was downgraded to being his friend. I knew he was only doing it to protect me so that word didn’t get out to his fans. But it still hurt.
It was painfully obvious our relationship would never be normal or usual or standard. Cole came with complications that other guys didn’t. I was either going to have to get over it, or walk away and not deal with it at all.
I didn’t want to walk away. I felt closer to Cole than I had with anyone other than Dallas. I was sure I could tell him things I couldn’t tell anyone else and he would be okay with it. He wouldn’t use my words against me or judge me. I needed to learn to be okay with it.
While I was stuck in my own head, Ms. Clipboard had led us into the main tent. She set Cole up behind a table with a security guard. An orderly line was already forming in front of it. He was to sign autographs, meet the kids, and pose for photos for the next three hours.
“Why don’t you come with me?” It took me a few moments to realize Ms. Clipboard was talking to me. I glanced at Cole, making sure he knew I was going. He just gave me a reassuring smile.
Ms. Clipboard, who I later found out was actually named Penelope, took me to a group of children who were making animals out of craft supplies. The kids were patients of the hospital, their fragile little bodies were devastating to see.
“This is Melrose, everyone,” Penelope introduced me to the table as we took a seat. “Katie, will you help her make a koala?”
The little girl sitting next to me nodded and pulled out some grey pipe cleaners as everyone else went back to their own animals.
“Koalas have big ears, right?” Katie asked as she started twisting the pipe cleaners into loops.
“Yeah, they also have a big black nose,” I replied. She nodded and grabbed a black pipe cleaner. We worked together to make the animal, talking the entire time her little fingers crafted away.
Katie told me she had leukemia during our conversation. She hadn’t been home in close to two months while undergoing her therapy. My heart absolutely broke for her and all the kids there. They were so brave and determined to beat their disease. It made all my problems seem petty in comparison.
I caught a glimpse of Cole a few times during the morning. Each time he was hugging another kid while waiting for their parents to take a photograph. He spent time talking with them, he didn’t just move onto the next one in line like they were in a bank queue.
Out of all the cameras there, none of them were professional photographers. The media weren’t represented at all, which meant nobody would know how Cole gave up his entire day to spend it with sick kids while raising money for the hospital. Knowing him, he probably preferred it that way.
All the paparazzi cared about was getting a scoop on a scandal, they didn’t want to portray him as the caring and sincere person he really was. Cole could have been taking the Sunday off, spending it with the brother he missed, but he was there instead – bringing some joy to sick kids.
If it was at all possible, I fell further for Cole while catching glimpses of him across the tent. He was completely content amongst the kids, probably enjoying the meet and greet just as much as they did. Me and my heart were in serious trouble.
Chapter Six
They say what goes up must come down. Using that same logic, I knew what flies into Philly airport, must also fly out again. Still, I really didn’t want to get back onto the death trap. Even if it was a private jet.
“Thank you for coming,” Cole said, brushing the hair from my face.
Perhaps it wasn’t so much as getting on the plane as going further away from Cole that was making my innards tie in a knot.
“Thank you for inviting me. And sending your jet to pick me up.”
“It’s not my jet, it belongs to the record label.”
“It’s still a private jet, Cole. It’s still awesome. I’m going to miss you,” I confessed. I wasn’t planning to get all emotional and girly about it, but apparently I couldn’t stop myself.
“I’m going to miss you too.” I believed him, those green eyes wouldn’t lie to me. I was pretty certain of that by now.
We held each other’s gaze for the longest time. We were standing almost nose to nose, well within the kissing zone. I considered planting my lips on his just to get it over and done with but I couldn’t, I wasn’t that kind of girl. Dallas, on the other hand…
“I should let you go,” Cole said, drawing in a deep breath like he had just made a big decision.
“I guess so. I wouldn’t want to make my pilot wait around for me.”
Cole pulled me closer into a hug. Gosh it felt good in his arms. I snuggled in closer, trying to remember every second of it for later. I never wanted to forget what it was like in his embrace.
When he let me go, it was too soon. I wasn’t ready to leave but I guessed no amount of time would have been enough.
Cole stood back and let the flight attendant take my bag. It was time to leave. “Goodbye, Cole.”
“I’ll call you later, make sure you got home okay,” he replied.
“Already looking forward to it.” I blew him a kiss, the closest I could come to actually kissing him, and walked the stairs to the plane.
Even sitting inside, I watched Cole as he walked behind the safety barrier. He didn’t move for the takeoff, he waved me away until I couldn’t see him anymore.
I leant back against the headrest and closed my eyes. If I was really doing this with Cole, this whole relationship thing, I was going to have to get used to saying goodbye to him. I had a pretty strong feeling there would be a lot of those between us. Hopefully one less than the ‘hello’s’.
I gripped the seat for the entire flight. Not even listening to music or playing with the on-board entertainment could distract me from the fact we were thousands of feet off the ground.
After a few heart stopping bumps, we landed and I was taken to my waiting car. It wasn’t a limo this time, just an ordinary black sedan. Mr. Driver – a different one than last time – took me home.
My dad was at work but Jemma gave me a great, crushing, bear hug the moment I was through the front door. Considering her babysitter was younger than me - good one, Dad - I let her go for the night and put Jemma to bed myself.
Looking around the empty house, it felt empty. Cole was never alone, not even when he was at home. It seemed like a better alternative. I went to bed before I started to get really depressed.
The next day at school I was wishing for some alone time. The moment Dallas saw me, she had latched on and demanded to know every little detail about my weekend. Considering she was the only one who knew where I was besides my dad and Jemma, it did kind of feel good to talk about it. Kinda.
“…and then he dropped me back at the plane,” I ended the tale. I hadn’t left anything out because if there was something Dallas loved, it was the details.
She stared at me for a few seconds, eyes wide open and mouth gaping, as she formulated an appropriate response.
“Squeee!” I’m pretty sure only dogs heard the last of her squeal.
“It was just an ordinary weekend with my boyfriend,” I teased, rubbing it in further. She pushed me, making me topple over from my sitting position on my knees.
“Shut up! I can’t believe he called you his girlfriend… twice.”
“He said he wanted to be my boyfriend.” Even saying the words out loud sounded wrong to my ears. I had no idea how Dallas was taking it all in when I couldn’t.
“So you’re all official and everything? You can tell people? We can tell people?” I shook my head as she slumped her shoulders at the news. “Why not?”
“Because he thinks his fans will go nuts and send me death threats. Apparently it’s what they
do when any of them get a girlfriend,” I explained. Except I wasn’t all that convinced. When Cole had told me, I had believed it without question. But now, I worried it was only an excuse to keep me in the shadows.
“Two Dimension fans can be pretty crazy,” Dallas said. “He probably would want to protect you from them.”
I pursed my lips, wondering whether I wanted to say what I was really thinking.
“Spill, Rosy, you’ve got that shut-up-or-else look on your face.”
I let out the breath I was holding. “What about if he’s keeping me a secret because he’s embarrassed about me? Maybe his fans have nothing to do with it.”
“And you’re basing that on…?”
“The fact he still hasn’t kissed me. We spent the entire weekend together, he had ample opportunity, and still he did nothing.” I waited for the sage advice to pour from Dallas. She always knew what to do in any given situation. I expected to have the magic answer in less than twenty seconds.
“Did you let him know you wanted him to kiss you? ‘Cos sometimes guys can be shy.”
“We’re talking about Cole Newton,” I reminded her.
“Some guys can be clueless,” she noted. She had a point, but I knew Cole had made a conscious decision not to kiss me. We had come so close on several occasions and each time he had chosen to pull away from me.
“Cole isn’t clueless, he just didn’t want to kiss me. Do you think it could have been my breath? Maybe I had something in my teeth? Ugh, it’s driving me crazy not knowing what he was thinking.” I threw my hands in the air like I was giving up. If I wasn’t so smitten with him, I might have decided to.
Dallas patted me on the shoulder. “I’m sure it’s nothing to do with you.”
“But why doesn’t he kiss me? Am I that terrible?”
“No, Rosy, there’s nothing wrong with you. The problem is boys, they’re all messed up in the head.” She gave me a reassuring smile. I could always count on Dallas to cheer me up, she was always on my side – even if I was wrong. That was a best friend. “When are you going to see him again?”
“Who knows? Oh, Dallas, what am I doing? He’s only driving me crazy and then he’ll dump me. I’m going to get my heart broken.”
A cheeky smile spread across her face. “But you’re going to have fun first. I command you to have fun, Melrose Morgan. I won’t hear another word in protest.” She held up her hand to shush me when I opened my mouth.
She had a point… again. Perhaps I needed to get out of my head more and just let things flow. That sounded like a good plan. The inevitable would come soon enough and then I would have to pick up the pieces of my broken heart. Perhaps I would even become a recluse like my dad. My mom used to say I took after him.
The rest of the day passed by painfully slowly. It was hard going back to my mundane life when I had spent the weekend flying on a private jet and avoiding the paparazzi. No matter how many times I checked my phone, Cole never messaged me. I tried to put him out of my mind as I resumed my regular life.
I picked Jemma up from her school and we headed home. Still no messages. I made dinner and ran a bath for Jemma. No messages. My dad came home and we sat around the dinner table eating. Nope, still no messages from Cole.
Stacking the dishwasher was supposed to take my eyes off my phone but it wasn’t working. Dad helped me, matching me dish for dish.
“Is everything okay, Mel?” He asked. “You don’t seem yourself.”
“Boy trouble.” I shrugged, unsure whether I wanted to talk to my dad about it. He probably wasn’t the expert on the subject I needed.
“Did that singer do something to hurt you? If he’s putting pressure on you about something, I want to know about it. I’ll kill him if he lays one finger on my little girl.” My dad had issues with me growing up. It wasn’t just Cole he had a problem with but any guy that looked my way. It was the reason I had never brought a guy home before – only the first time anyway, never again after that incident.
“He didn’t do anything, Dad. He was a perfect gentleman.”
That seemed to calm him down a little. “Good. You have no idea how much I worried about you this weekend.”
“Dad, how does a girl know if a guy likes her?” I asked. It was worth a shot. I never knew when my dad would come out with some pearls of advice. I normally took an average of what Dad and Dallas said, it usually kept me out of trouble.
“Well, when I was at school we used to pull the pigtails of the girl we liked.”
“I’m not in elementary school, Dad.”
“Okay, okay. So when we were older, I guess I used to get all tongue tied and act all weird around a girl I liked.” He paused to think about it a bit more. “When I knew I liked your mother, I showed her by always turning up wherever she was. I didn’t know if she liked me but I wasn’t going to let her forget about me.”
“So you stalked her?” I teased.
“Not technically,” he said defensively, but with a grin on his face. “But I made it clear I liked her. My theory is that if a guy really likes a girl, he’ll make it obvious in his own way. Does that help any?”
I laughed. “Not really, but thanks for trying.”
“Melly, come help with my homework,” Jemma called out from the living room. It sounded like a great distraction for a while. Especially considering there were still no messages on my phone.
I helped Jemma with her Math homework before insisting I had my own to do. I left my dad to take over and retreated to my room. My phone was still painfully silent.
I logged onto my laptop and started with my homework. It was helpful to take my mind off Cole, but I had to use all my focus not to let my mind wander off on a tangent. If he liked me as much as he said, why couldn’t he send me a text message? It would have only taken a second.
But that wasn’t what I should be thinking about. I needed to work on my History project or I was never going to get it done before the due date. Especially considering I had spent all weekend not doing homework.
I worked away for more than an hour before my laptop beeped. Someone was calling me on Skype, someone named… Donald Duck? I considered hitting ignore but my curiosity got the best of me. I accepted the call.
Chapter Seven
I didn’t even think to check my hair wasn’t all crazy before answering the video call. My mind was too preoccupied trying to work out who on earth Donald Duck was. All my friends’ screen names were saved in my Skype directory, it definitely wasn’t one of them.
Cole’s face filled the screen, instantly smoothing out the worry wrinkles on my forehead. I relaxed, actually smiling. “Hey, Donald,” I started.
A wide smile spread across his face. “Hey, Daisy. I was hoping you’d answer.”
“I haven’t heard from you all day.” And I was annoyed about it, I added in my head.
“Sorry, it’s been hectic. We were doing interviews all day and then we had a show tonight. I only just got back to the hotel. I was thinking about you though… a lot.” He said it so honestly and happily, all my anger dissolved into nothingness. Those green eyes did something to me, even if they were only on my hazy, old laptop screen. “Forgive me?”
“Sure. Did you have fun at the show?”
He nodded enthusiastically. “It was a great turnout. Dylan almost fell off the stage into the audience, it was hilarious.”
His happiness was infectious. I found myself giggling along with him. “They probably wouldn’t have let him go if they got their hands on him.”
“I think we might have let them have him for being so stupid. How could he not see the edge of the stage?” He chuckled to himself. “It was classic, definitely one for the DVD.”
“Did he hurt himself?”
“Nah, he’ll barely have a bruise.” Cole calmed down while he regained his composure. “So, I’ve been thinking a lot since the weekend-”
“Which was all of one day ago…”
“It’s been a long day,” he defended himsel
f. “As I was saying, summer is only a few weeks away. I was wondering what you were planning on doing over the break?”
I shrugged, I hadn’t given it much thought. “I guess I’ll be working, serving burgers and cleaning tables. I know what you’re thinking, ‘gee, that sounds like fun’, but it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”
“If you keep talking it up, I’m going to want a career change,” Cole joked. At least I hoped he was joking. The time delay on the screen made him pixilated, it kind of helped to lose things in translation.
“Why do you ask, anyway?” I turned the question back on him.
“No reason, I was just thinking. I love summertime.”
“Me too.” I wasn’t lying either. Summer was my favorite season, mainly because it meant I had a break from school. Balmy nights, barbeques, sleeping in, and extra money from the additional shifts. Practically paradise on earth.
The door behind Cole opened and Luke entered. At least I think it was him, it was definitely a guy and not a girl. Cole turned around and mumbled something before turning back to me. “I’ve got to go. Thanks for talking, Melrose. I’ll talk to you again soon?”
“You better. And I really like texts too.”
“Got it. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
He gave me a wave before ending the call. My screen went black. I refused to analyze every part of our short conversation. It would only send me down the rabbit hole and into a land where there was no end.
Instead of obsessing like I normally would have, I disconnected from the internet and returned to my homework. I would not think any more about Cole that night, I vowed.
Ha, that was never going to happen. I did my best with my homework and then went to bed. Cole was still on my mind when I awoke the next day. He still consumed my thoughts when I went to school. And my thoughts still echoed his name when I started my shift at Burger Nation.
My manager, Creepy Pete, was the only thing that could take my mind off him. Mainly because he kept hassling me that the floor wasn’t clean enough.
The Star Kissed Collection Page 8
