Outlaws // Taron Egerton

Eight

IDRIS

     My laptop is on my coffee table with the television on the special program so I can catch up with the show. My Twitter is exploding with comments that would be hurtful for others, but I can shrug off. I'm trying to look for Taron's fans on my mentions. I've already tweeted something regarding an award show and other incomprehensible cryptic and shady messages.

     Commercials pop in and I hear my phone ring. It's Taron.

     "Hey, what's up? How's the show so far?"

     "Commercial break, but the host is hilarious. Aren't you watching?"

     "Of course I am. I should be able to catch up whilst ranting so I know what exactly is happening."

     "Oh shit," he chuckles. "How's it going with you?"

     "Nothing remarkable, to be honest. It's all just usual stuff for me."

     "Any hates?"

     "As usual. Anyway, I didn't think that this whole idea would flop. I'm sorry."

     "No, it's fine. The show's coming back on so I have to go. Just update me, yeah?"

     I turn to my laptop with my exploding mentions and say "there's not much to update you about to be honest, but I will if something bizarre happens, which I doubt."

     "Alright then. I'll talk to you later, Marge."

     "Fuck, don't call me that," I laugh. "It sounds wrong." It sounds like a Simpsons character.

     "Whatever, Marge," I hear him giggling before he hangs up.

• • •

    I went unnoticed with the drama I started and the outcome was the exact opposite of what I expected it to be. Taron says he is going to come here after he gets dressed in casual clothing after the show since he feels tired enough not to get drunk on the afterparty. I check my Twitter to see if I'm being attacked but it's loads of trolls with their sexually impossible tweets and haters with their usual 'go fuck yourself, drama queen' tweets.

"Sad you're not dating Greg anymore. You don't have someone to show you off like that anymore lol" says one fan of Gregory Iris, one of my clients a year ago who was a star of a very popular TV show about a day in life of high school kids that had already ended a while back. He's really famous so to this day, I'm still getting hates from his fandom for 'breaking his heart.' If anything, he's the one who 'broke my heart' because he's one of the people that forced his way out of the contract we signed.

"Are you really dating Eggsy? Holy shit. Poor Eggsy." I find it funny sometimes that people refer Taron to as Eggsy because of his character in Kingsman. And poor Eggsy, indeed. I'm expecting him to give up on me any time now and I'm impressed he's actually trying to befriend me. I'm brought to shock by the way he acts around me. I thought his noticeable awkwardness would stay until the time he wants to end the contract.

"Is this about Taron Egerton? Lol he don't love you, gurl!" Of course he doesn't. I love how they think I'm going to get hurt if they say that. Although there are theories that the relationship I get in are PR, some people don't want to buy it. They just assume I hop from guy to guy to drain money off of them and that I'm a 'gold-digging slut.' Ironically, those people who call me by that derogatory term are the ones who call themselves 'feminists.' They can call me out without telling me that I'm a whore but here they are.

     The bell rings and I run to the door to open it. I already know it is Taron.

     "Hi! Come in," I greet and he gives me an unexpected embrace before walking in the house. "Want anything? Water? Beer? Tea? Wine?"

     He sighs. "Not really."

    I lead him to the couch and he sits beside me. I bite my lower lip, smiling, whilst dragging my laptop close and placing it down my lap. 

     "Did something happen?" He asks, and I'm just giggling.

     "Taron, your fans are something else," I say, stunned with the result of the attempted online scene. I glide two fingers on my trackpad upwards and my screen starts to drop through my mentions as he watches.

     "Is that good?"

     I shrug. "I honestly don't know. T, some might hate me, but I literally can count on my fingers how many hates I've received from your fandom. I was ranting, and you know what they said? 'Are you okay, Margaux?' 'Hope you're well, Margaux' 'It'll get better, Margaux.' Holy shit. Some of your fans are defending me and they've been called ass-kissers because of it." I stop scrolling and look at him. "T, I feel so bad."

     I'm breaking character. Margaux is supposed to be heartless, and currently, I'm Margaux. He's not supposed to hear me say something like that. I shouldn't care but I do. Probably, because I've never had people respecting me like this no matter how shitty I can be.

     I shake my head. I tap in to add another tab on my browser and I type 'Taron Egerton and Margaux Ellis'  on the search bar and hit enter. The Google results are overflowing and none of them are...negative? At least that's what it looks like so far.

     "Oh, Taron. I think I know why you're fans are not against me." I transfer the laptop to his lap. "Read the headlines."

     "'Taron Egerton's rumored girlfriend Margaux Ellis defends him from the abusive paparazzi,' 'Kingsman's Taron Egerton and Margaux Ellis, dating?' 'Margaux Ellis fights off the paparazzi for Kingsman & Eddie The Eagle star, Taron Egerton,'" He reads as he scrolls through the first page of the search results. "Is that it?" He clicks on the next page. "'Gregory Iris' ex-girlfriend now dating  Kingsman star Taron Egerton,' wait you used to date Greg Iris?"

     "Do you actually believe that? Of course not. Also a PR stunt."

     "But have you actually dated an artist?" He asks as he continues to read through the headlines silently.

     "I have never. Every artist I've ever dated are all PR. No one would actually dare to date me, and I wouldn't want to date anyone."

     "Why not?"

     "I'd lose my job in an instant. That's one requirement for me, you know? I have to stay single. It's shitty but whatever. At least I'm treated sweetly in public like what my character wanted to show-" I slip.

    "What character?"

     Fuck. I fucked up. Fuck.

    "My character," I laugh nervously. "Y'know. The other definition of character. The one that makes up you. Characteristic. Yeah. I don't know." I'm talking too fast. He's going to hint something, isn't he?

    He looks at me puzzled. He shrugs and shakes his head before turning his focus back to the articles. Oh my god, he actually bought it. "You're weird, Margaux."

    Idris is weird. Margaux isn't.