I Don't Need Anything Else

43: Not User Friendly

Valentino

As I walked to Elena's for my shift, a crowd was already gathered.

Usually there is a crowd around the gate to her mansion in the evening, the time she leaves to get to the studio.

But when I step up to the gate, it's me they scream for.

Awkwardly, I try my best to smile but they look actually repulsed when I do. "Seriously," I mumble.

I push them aside as I enter the mansion. It wasn't only after I closed the gate did I realize someone took my tie.

Elena stands patiently, where she always does when she knows it my shift, at the entrance.

"Hey handsome," she smiles, leaning against the brick entrance.

She gets a laugh out of me. From the moment I see her, I can feel it. Something happened. She's a ticking time bomb. "You saw the newspaper."

She puts a hand on her forehead and feigns being sick. "You mean this handsome young man is my bodyguard?"

Rolling my eyes, I move her out of the way and go inside.

Elena closes the door behind her and runs up to me. "Did William send you my schedule?"

"Not today," I reply. "I'm supposed to be in a training all day."

She frowns. "You won't be with me then?" I shake my head. "Then I'll just stay here today."

"But you have to work."

"Work's no fun without you." She stares down at her shoes.

Something about seeing her genuinely upset because I won't be at her side today makes my heart hurt. Maybe I'm just as upset. "I'll see you after."

Her eyes light up. "Really?"

"Yeah, I'll take you for an ice cream."

She smiles. "Okay, you promised!"

Elena runs up her stairs and disappears into the room.

"Valentino."

I turn to find a fellow bodyguard. He's one of the few I actually get along with, despite the age gap. "Hey Richard." He wears a short cut beard and black shades.

"Stop gawking at Elena and go to the training." He starts toward the training room.

Suddenly, I cough up a storm. "I-I wasn't gawking at her." With a few quick steps, I catch up to him. "What's this training even about?"

"We started doing it every 6 months after Elena was shot on the red carpet."

My breath catches. "Shot?" Vaguely, I remember seeing something in the news about it months ago.

He nods. "Some random girl pushed her way through the crowd and shot her. In the stomach."

A dread so thick makes my stomach roll. A terrible image of Elena lying on the floor, clutching her bloodied abdomen. My mouth feels dry as I speak. "Why? Why would anyone do something like that?"

He throws a look at me. "You'll see."

All the security guards in their black and white suits, sit around a conference table, facing the huge screen at the front. I sit down at an empty chair towards the back. William and the security manager, Pippa, a tall, lanky woman with her hair cut sharply at her jaw, walk up towards the front.

Then an image flickers on the screen. It's Elena's social media.

William starts, "65% of these comments are user friendly." The comments all tell Elena she's gorgeous, that they love her music, they ask for the new album, and compliment her voice. "That leaves 35% of comments to be not user friendly." The comments start to get progressively vile. They start telling her she's ugly, she's untalented, she's all fake. Then they get worse. They tell her to kill herself, to go die, and that if she doesn't do it, they will. A heavy rock drops in my heart, weighing it down.