Buck

by Tasha Black

  “Hey what are friends for?” Kate asked, handing out wine glasses.

  “Here’s the thing, all jealousy aside,” Bea said slowly. “I think maybe this is for the best.”

  “What do you mean?” Cecily asked.

  “My career is taking off, I hope,” Bea said. “Or at least it has a chance, which is more than I’ve ever been able to say before. Meanwhile, Buck wants privacy. I’m not saying I don’t care about him, but… the timing is all wrong. And with these guys it’s now or never, right?”

  “Oh, Bea,” Kate said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder.

  “Maybe he’s better off with Angel,” Bea said, though tears blurred her vision. “He likes the gladiators. And her life seems so much simpler than mine.”

  “At least he’d be in no danger from prowlers,” Cecily quipped. “Did you see those muscles?”

  “Cecily,” Kate hissed.

  “Sorry, Bea, that was low-hanging fruit,” Cecily said. “But truly, I hope you’ll sleep on this. Things may look different in the morning.”

  Bea nodded, wiping tears from her eyes with the heels of her hands.

  She didn’t want to disappoint her roommates.

  But her mind was made up.

  18

  Buck

  Buck stood behind the audience at the Intergalactic Gladiator tournament’s opening round.

  The audience sat on bleachers in the gym where the gladiators had been working out for the last two days. The crowd looked pretty excited, at least as much as Buck could tell from behind.

  He wished he could locate Beatrix among the faces, but the lights were already dimming, soon it would be his turn to go up and joust.

  She’d been asleep on the sofa when he came in from the party.

  He felt bad that she had waited up for him, but he hoped it meant that she had felt jealous, and was ready to be honest about her feelings for him.

  Rather than waking her, he’d left a note inviting her to come to the tournament.

  If luck was with him, he would win, and between the jealousy last night and then seeing him victorious in her honor today, the interest she had felt would be rekindled.

  If not, he didn’t know what he would do.

  As he watched her sleep last night, her soft cheek pressed to her hand against the sofa cushion, his heart had been full. The pull he felt had nothing to do with the glow of her skin or the luster of her dark hair in the lamp light.

  It was Beatrix he loved. She was small and fierce and strangely shy at times. Her personality refracted like starlight playing on the south bay of Aerie. He was fascinated by her changeability.

  But there was a core of loyalty in her. She had waited up for him. In spite of the jealousy, in spite of the fact that he knew her feelings might have been hurt, just as his had been when she left with Dirk Malcolm.

  Some part of her knew what he had been trying to tell her. They were meant for each other. She was his mate. It was no longer a choice.

  “Thank you for coming out everyone,” Adam was saying into the microphone as the lights on the audience went completely out. “I would make a big speech or something, but we all know what you came here for!”

  “Joust-ing, joust-ing,” the audience roared.

  “You asked for it,” Adam said. “First up is Alexander the Great Guitarist. His axe shredded in Vegas and he’s here to rock and roll in Baltimore.”

  From the other side of the gym Alex waved to Buck and then jogged up to the stage. He was wearing rock star clothing with his hair teased up. His guitar-shaped weapon shimmered in the stage lights.

  “Facing off with Alexander the Great is our newest gladiator,” Adam continued. “He’s new to the joust but he’s not new to the world of finance. Meet The-Buck-Stops-Here!”

  Buck jogged up with his sword as best he could in the suit they had given him to wear. The enormous golden plastic dollar sign necklace around his neck kept bouncing up to hit him in the chin. He felt very fortunate that it wasn’t real gold.

  On the stage there were two pillars, each about two feet off the ground. On each pillar was a small round platform.

  Alex had already climbed onto his platform. He stood there, gazing down ominously at Buck with a terrible sneer.

  This was odd, because Buck had just been at his party last night, where Alex had wrapped an arm around Buck and declared that they were brothers. This guy, Alex had exclaimed, shaking his head. Buck had assumed that was a good thing.

  Buck climbed onto his own platform.

  “Oh, ladies and gentlemen, you can see the animosity between these two fierce warriors already,” Adam crooned into the microphone. “This promises to be a serious fight, and serious entertainment.”

  It suddenly occurred to Buck that Alex might be pretending to be angry in order to stir up the crowd’s emotions.

  He fixed Alex with a mighty glare.

  Alex lunged toward him slightly. But he also winked at Buck with his upstage eye, which was out of sight of the audience, as if to say it was all in good fun.

  “Bow to each other,” Adam said.

  Buck and Alex bowed.

  “And to the audience,” Adam said.

  Now was his chance.

  Buck scanned the audience for Beatrix.

  He almost missed her because she wasn’t sitting in a seat at all. She stood in the aisle near the back bleachers, watching him with a blank expression on her beautiful face.

  Alex cleared his throat.

  Buck bowed quickly to the audience, then turned back to his rival.

  “Okay, gentlemen, time to gooooooooooo,” Adam roared.

  Alex instantly thrust at Buck with his sword.

  Buck was so surprised he didn’t think to block. He managed to lean out of the way at the last second.

  The crowd cheered.

  He thrust his sword immediately at Alex, who blocked so hard Buck nearly fell.

  He managed to stick to his platform, but it was Alex who attacked next with a mighty jab.

  Buck gathered all his strength and blocked as hard as he could, hoping he could loosen the weapon in his rival’s hand.

  He realized the moment he had gone too far, but it was too late.

  While Buck was extended outward for his block, Alex stepped forward sideways and tucked his blade under Buck’s, pulling him slightly forward.

  The platform beneath him began to tilt as his weight came forward to compensate for the pull.

  And he slid off onto the stage.

  His part in the tournament was over before it had really begun.

  The crowd cheered for Alexander the Great as Buck looked for Beatrix.

  But all he caught of her was her retreating silhouette exiting through the back door of the darkened gym into the bright hallway.

  Buck felt his heart drop into the molten center of the earth.

  He had not won her favor after all.

  19

  Beatrix

  Beatrix sat behind a plastic folding table up on the stage of the biggest hall in the convention and looked out over the audience in the chairs below.

  It was a surreal feeling to be part of the group on stage, with a sea of smiling faces observing her.

  She’d been down there in the audience so many times.

  At the table beside her were some of her heroes - writers, artists, directors and producers of some of the coolest art and films to have been made in the last twenty years.

  But somehow she didn’t feel the bubbling happiness she had expected at this moment.

  She took a sip of the bitter coffee in the paper cup in front of her, hoping she was just tired.

  Cecily waved up at her from the audience and Kate grinned and winked. Solo and Kirk were there too.

  Only Buck was missing.

  And she already knew where he was.

  It had been hard to run out the moment his fight was over but she’d had to get here fifteen minutes early for the sound check.

  Besides, things weren
’t going to work out with them anyway.

  Kate had pulled her aside this morning to tell her that according to Kirk, Buck had not shown any sign of being romantically interested in Angel or anyone else last night. Kate suspected, though Kirk would not confirm it, that Buck might have only been going to the party to make Bea feel jealous.

  But none of that mattered, not really.

  Buck wanted privacy.

  As she sat at the table, cameras flashing in her eyes every few seconds, Bea knew that if things went the way she wanted them to, privacy was the one thing she couldn’t give him.

  Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday someone would see his picture with her and connect the dots about who and what he really was.

  And Bea couldn’t live with that.

  Though she was beginning to feel like she might not be able to live without him either.

  Focus, Bea, her inner mentor told her.

  So she turned her smile back on. And when the moderator began asking questions of the panelists, she paid attention to the answers.

  “Beatrix Li,” the moderator said turning to her at last, with a big smile. “This is your first time up here, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, this is a pretty amazing feeling,” she said. Her newfound confidence allowed her to hold her head high in spite of all those eyes trained on her. “I never realized this room was so big.”

  The crowd laughed and she felt herself relax. It was okay, they were on her side. She had this.

  “We’re all fans of Door to Everywhere,” the moderator said.

  There was applause from the crowd.

  “Where did you come up with your idea for a portal to another planet?” he went on.

  “I think every kid wants to escape,” she said carefully. “Whether you’re escaping something difficult in your life, or just the everyday struggles of being a teenager. I was a junior in high school when we moved into a mid-century modern apartment building. My closet door had a kind of campy modern look to it that made me think about what might be on the other side if I opened it at just the right moment. I had a cool dream about it one night, and that was the seed for Door to Everywhere.”

  “Very cool,” the moderator said.

  “I’d always been a fan of Sci-Fi and fantasy,” Beatrix went on. “So I wasn’t very surprised about where my imagination took me.”

  Someone in the audience whooped.

  “I don’t think I’ve heard this mentioned,” the moderator said. “But the planet where Shayla finds herself seems a lot like Aerie, the home planet of the aliens who recently arrived in Stargazer, Pennsylvania.”

  “That’s true,” Bea said. “I’ve often thought the same as I watched the newscasts about those aliens. But of course, Door to Everywhere was published long before the aliens in Stargazer came to Earth. So, unless they were sending me signals…”

  She trailed off, thinking of things like cosmic destiny and coincidence as the crowd chuckled.

  “True,” the moderator said. “Well, I guess I’ll say what we’re all thinking. It’s so cool that you’re in talks to make Door to Everywhere into a film.”

  The immediate applause and whistles from the audience made Bea smile.

  “I can’t say too much about the project, since we aren’t fully funded quite yet,” she said. “But with Kate Henderson and Dirk Malcolm attached, I’m sure we will have all the support we need soon.”

  She snuck a glance to the center of the table, where Esther Martine sat as the audience applauded their approval of her casting choices.

  Esther’s snowy white hair was always styled just-so, plus her make-up and jewelry were spot on. She looked like an elderly fashion model.

  More importantly though, Esther was a huge investor and she produced with a light touch, allowing artists creative freedom. If Bea could get Esther involved her funding worries would be over.

  Bea had hoped they might chat after the panel.

  Esther met Bea’s eyes, smiled slightly, then looked back to the moderator.

  “Well, I think I speak for everyone here when I say that I hope you’ll get your funding,” he told Bea.

  After that he took some questions from the audience for the panel members.

  But Bea’s mind was racing about the look Esther had given to her.

  Could it mean what she hoped?

  At last the audience stood to applaud and the panelists waved and followed each other off the stage and into the corridor to the green rooms.

  “Beatrix,” Esther said in her clear, quiet voice.

  “Yes, hi,” Bea said breathlessly.

  “Walk with me,” Esther said.

  She walked surprisingly quickly for someone so short.

  Bea picked up her pace to keep up with her.

  “You need funding for your film,” Esther said. “And I’ve got money and clout. Enough clout not to be bothered by that silly Carson and his smear campaign.”

  Bea’s heart began to pound.

  “But I’m not interested,” Esther continued. “I didn’t want you to think it was Carson, because it isn’t. I’ve got a full docket and a lot of money on the street. And though I liked your book, I think there’s a bigger book in you.”

  Beatrix bit her lip.

  Esther stopped walking.

  “When you write the next one, call me first,” Esther said, pressing a cream-colored business card into Bea’s hand. “Don’t waste your time with the boys’ club.”

  “Th-thank you,” Beatrix said.

  “Don’t worry, kid, I know I just disappointed you,” Esther laughed a dry laugh. “You don’t have to pretend to be grateful. But still call me with your next project. I’ll make it up to you if it’s any good. And I wouldn’t have made it as far as I have in this godforsaken business if I didn’t keep my word.”

  It was a better promise than any Bea had gotten from any other investor. She really couldn’t complain.

  “I appreciate your honesty,” Beatrix said.

  “Thanks, love,” Esther replied, then turned on her heel and marched back toward the convention hall.

  Beatrix saw Cecily, Kate, Kirk and Solo nearby, waving at her excitedly from the hallway.

  She didn’t have the news they all wanted, but she did have good news.

  But somehow, it didn’t feel like it would be as much fun to share it without Buck there.

  20

  Buck

  Buck dashed out of the auditorium the moment the battles were completed.

  He was still wearing his suit, but he ripped the dollar sign necklace off and stuffed it in his pocket as he ran.

  Beatrix’s panel was probably over by now, but if there was a chance that he could catch the end of it he didn’t mind jogging through the crowds.

  On Aerie his hurried movements and muttered apologies for breaking through the crowd would be an unspeakable offense.

  But he was beginning to believe that because these humans’ days were numbered shorter than those of the citizens of Aerie, they forgave each other’s rushing.

  He made it to the center of the hall and saw that the stage was empty, except for a couple of teamsters breaking down the table and sound equipment.

  He came to a halt.

  He had missed it all.

  As he stood there, downhearted, a small woman with short white hair and dark blue glasses marched past chattering to the taller, more awkward woman who walked beside her.

  The woman with the glasses was Esther Martine, the investor who Beatrix had hoped would make up her funding gap.

  “I’m going to pass on it,” Esther was saying to her companion as they approached Buck.

  “But the graphic novel has such a big following,” the other woman said.

  Buck’s heart sank as he realized that Bea hadn’t gotten her funding after all.

  “The book was good, but I still don’t think it’s a blockbuster,” Esther said crisply as they passed Buck. “Now that. That’s going to be the real money maker. I’d
fund ten of Beatrix Li’s art house projects just to get an exclusive on one of those aliens.”

  Buck turned to see that Esther Martine was pointing at a booth.

  It was a humble table with homemade signs. The proprietors had been at the Philadelphia Comic Con, too.

  Their whole booth was dedicated to the aliens back at Stargazer. Blurry photos of Bond, Rocky and Magnum studded the posters hung on the wall behind the table. In spite of all the very beautiful artwork and interesting displays in the convention hall, this modest table was always humming with activity.

  Suddenly Esther’s words echoed in Buck’s head again.

  I’d fund ten of Beatrix Li’s art house projects to get an exclusive on one of those aliens…

  The producer had no idea how close she was to a deal that Beatrix could actually strike.

  Or one that Buck could.

  If he said he had escaped the Stargazer lab, he could give that woman the exclusive story she wanted and she could fund Beatrix’s project.

  It wouldn’t make Bea want to be with him.

  But at least she would be happy.

  He spun around to go after Esther and her friend, and bumped into someone hard.

  “Whoa there, buddy,” said a familiar voice.

  Dirk Malcolm.

  “Not you again,” Buck said, letting his exasperation get the better of him.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Dirk asked.

  “I don’t have time to talk,” Buck said. “I have to go.”

  “I’ll walk with you,” Dirk suggested.

  “Suit yourself,” Buck replied, heading through the crowd again to try and catch a glimpse of Esther.

  Dirk jogged along by his side.

  “Who are we trying to catch?” Dirk asked.

  “The woman who is supposed to fund your movie,” Buck replied.

  “I don’t think she’d be interested in Bea’s project,” Dirk said. “She likes blockbusters.”

  “Well she’s going to be interested,” Buck said. “I’m going to drop the funding and the girl right in your lap.”