Fame | A Tomdaya Romance

Chapter 23

Now

It feels like it's been months, rather than just one by the time I'm moving back into the Atlanta house that feels so familiar. It's had a renovation, all the furniture had been replaced with newer, more modern versions of what was there before.

My bedroom in particular has undergone quite the glow up, it looks like an adults now - rather than what felt like a teenagers room before. It's all beige tones and expensive looking upholstery. The old TV replaced by a massive one that spans almost the entire wall. I wonder if that's because they knew that we're less able to go out now than the previous time, and those trips were rare even then.

'Wait to you see what they've done with the place... I've not got a very big bed ;) x'

I'm on edge at the prospect of finally having her in my arms again, despite the fact that Jacob will be living here too - I know he'll be incredible at giving us alone time. We're still not sure whether we tell the Marvel team yet - we know we will have to at some point but then we will be pulled into weeks of meetings about it and I want to focus on filming the movie right now. I don't want us to be taken away yet.

I know Z will feel the same. Neither of us are doing this because we want to be more in the limelight. And I know what this will do, people are already shipping us, obsessed with the idea that we could be like the spidermen before us - always dating one another. I hate that there is that legacy to worry about - the cliché to follow. But then had it been anyone but her I think I would have got out okay.

I won't complain about it, I remember how it felt to think that she wasn't going to be the one they casted - and how I was thinking how would I still find a way to message her and conjure up a friendship. Thankfully I didn't need to find out.

Her response is quick.

'Better put it to good use before we have to be mindful of our housemate.... See you shortly x'

Jacob's arriving tomorrow, we somehow managed to wangle an earlier arrival date to what I hope is little susipicion. Although knowing Amy like I do, I feel like she'll know the moment she spends anytime around us. I used to feel her eyes on me when I laughed too loudly at Z's jokes or when my eyes were distracted when she'd walk passed me when I was being briefed - if anyone would know - Amy would.

I try and avoid the thought process of that properly, of what we'd have to go through if we did tell them. Probably something 1000 times greater than the meeting we've already had to have with our own people. The ones closest to us were over the moon, the ones that aren't involved in our day to day seemed a little annoyed at the need to be in such contact with one another over schedules and locations.

I lie back, thinking back to the memories the room holds. This house has huge sentamental value to me, so much so that I wonder if it would be weird to find out if I could buy it to add to my collection - I've been advised to buy property as my main form of investment. Would a random surburban house in Atlanta be a good addition to the mix?

My thought process is disrupted by the sound of the front door opening and Daya's voice thanking someone for helping her bring her suitcases in. I didn't realise how on edge I was, but suddenly a sense of overwhelming calm hits me. We're going to be back together for a long long stretch, save the work in between - I may never get this chance so easily again. I'm going to savour it.

I watch her move some of her hair in the mirror at the bottom of the stairs before I go down and engulf her in a hug.

She's home.

Then

So we're just pretending it didn't happen then, that's what I've taken from our evening tonight. The acting that we were both doing to be like the trio we were in only yesterday - before I ruined it by giving into my desires.

I throw myself onto my hotel bed out of frustration, remembering how this morning I left it on cloud 9. How did I get it so fucking wrong?

It hurts, of course - the ego that Z promised me that she wouldn't build - she's well and truly ensured it isn't there.

She doesn't want me.

I was in the friend zone all this time, making stories up in my head that there was anything more than that.

God she'll never come and visit me for a late night DMC will she? Or place her hand on my shoulder whilst I'm showing her my favourite meme?

I feel like I'm mourning us already. Because surely if she wanted to continue that direction I would have seen it in her eyes today, or in her body language? All I saw was a wall instead.

I open my phone again, I need to text her - I need to somehow figure out how to get over this. But I don't want to, I guess that's the issue. I wish this was something we didn't have to move past - I want to drown in it. I want to take last night and make it last a lifetime.

I take the fools route out, calling Theo - and within thirty minutes he's dropping a gift off at her room. It's a tacky light up version of the Eiffel tower with a postcard that reads 'We'll always have Paris. Tom x'

I thought perhaps it was a good way to end it, you know - the tiny little beacon of hope that I opened - referencing it for just the one time so that she knows that I know it's in the past, but that I'm still glad it happened. Will that mean we go back to normal? I don't know - but it's better than nothing.

It's less that a few minutes later that her name fills my phone.

'My first Paris souvenir - thank you. Ready for Tokyo?'

And just like that, we've shifted gears.

Am I that easy to forget?