𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 ( 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐎𝐧𝐞)

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲-𝐒𝐢𝐱 -𝐋𝐢𝐚 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐱

𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐰𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐳𝐲, 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐯𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐚 𝐝𝐮𝐝𝐞 𝐠𝐨 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐚𝐲 "𝐧𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬."
~𝐏𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭~

𝐋𝐢𝐚

Tell me your dream, both secret and public. Your deepest secret, a longing—something that seems so far from your grasp but sometimes so near you can touch it, smell it, hear it. I have two, or perhaps I should say I have one of each.

My deepest public dream was to be a Hollywood star, famous, a household name, the secret one was to be Luc's. I feel like I've longed for both for as long as I can remember.

****************

The buzzing of my phone wakes me up. At first, I'm too disoriented to remember where I am. My body feels languid, feeble, like im living outside of it. Barely dragging myself out of sleep, my brain is fuzzy, and my vision blurry. I have not been feeling well since last week. I did not want anyone to know so I had to coax Dev into silence.

Still half asleep, I pull my phone from the top of my bedside table, it has stopped ringing because I took time picking it up. With my eyes half opened, I key in the password to check who was calling to find I have ten missed calls, most of those from my family.

Oh God! I mutter, sitting up to call my mom. "What's wrong?" I hear the panic in my tone, pushing my hair from my face.

"What do you mean what's wrong? We saw the trailer of the show. Oh, sweetheart, we are all so proud of you. You look great in the show. And Siena says you're trending on Twitter under hashtags; who is the new girl, pretty redhead, and Blackeyed girl.

I feel my body relax, my heart settles into a normal beating rate, and I exhale loudly, throwing my head back into the pillow with a thud. Then I get up again quickly after registering what my mom has just said.

"I'm trending?"

"Yes. That's what Sienna says, she showed us, and people already have memes and great images of you from the trailer. I can't wait for the first episode."

I can't wait for it either. My heart picked up a speeding tempo as I reached for my iPad to log on to Twitter, my hands are trembling, my stomach is in total chaos as I clicked on trending topics.

Oh God! It's true. I was trending under three hashtags.

"Oh, mama. I'm so happy. I did it! I actually did it. I thought it would take years before I could get such an opportunity..."

"Honey, you are so talented, so hard-working, and while the others might be as talented and hard-working, you wanted to do it your way, on your own terms without your dad's connection, and he does have some in LA.

"Thanks, Mom," I mumble, crying at the overwhelmed feeling of success. This was just one season, I wanted more, I wanted to star in a movie too.

"Lia, are you okay?" my mother asks her tone concerned. I know I can't say I'm fine because I will have to explain why I was still asleep, and not answering any of their calls, so I settle on a lie that she would certainly believe.