Not Another Diva

4 - Side Eyed

Fire Away // Niall Horan

"What's your ETD, bro?" Jacob asks through a mouthful of cereal. I wonders if the guy can talk without food in his mouth, or if it's some kind of requirement.

"My what?" I laugh as I ask him.

"Estimated time of departure, bonehead." Jacob doesn't laugh. He's too busy inhaling his Lucky Charms.

"The driver should be here in five to ten. So anytime now." I'm still packing my gear into the duffel bag. Char wasn't sure which scene we'd start with, so she told me to be prepared.

"Damn, you're moving up in the world. A driver taking you to the set? Damn." Jacob shakes his head then shoves a spoonful of cereal in his mouth. "Imma want details. You know that, right? I need to live vicariously through your tongue." He sticks his own tongue out at me for emphasis. Disgusting.

"Dude, put that nastiness away. You've still got food on it. And I'm not telling you anything, so don't even bother."

"What? Come on! I've got nothing but this, let me live!" His hands fly up in his dramatic plea. I gotta say, Jacob's acting is getting better. He could probably score a soap opera or something.

"Two words: nondisclosure agreement. If I tell you..."

"Right, you gotta kill me." Jacob shakes his head and turns back to his bowl of soggy mush.

"No, idiot, I'll have my ass sued. I'll never get another job and you'll have to support me. I will literally be blackballed in Hollywood." For real. I spent almost two hours going over the contract with Char asking questions before I signed the dang thing. Signed it. Done deal. Brianna went off someplace while I sat in an office on the tenth floor with Char. But almost the second we emerged, Brianna appeared, nonchalantly asking how things went. She even smiled at me. Well, almost.

"Oh right. I forgot. Not that I've ever had to sign a nondisclosure agreement, but whatever. You da man." He brushes me off with one hand and shovels more cereal with the other.

Just then my phone buzzes with a text. I pull it up to check the message.

Char: pulling up now.

"Gotta go. Do some dishes today." I call out as I start to leave.

"No effing way, man. I keep work at work, douche bag."

Being a bus boy has ruined him in so many ways...

I leave the apartment wondering when I should tell him I was moving out and into Brianna's estate. Since I can't tell him any details about the deal, I'm going to have to lie. Lying to the general population is one thing; I'm okay with that. They don't need to know about Brianna's personal life just because she's famous. But lying to my friends, my family...that is harder to wrap my head around.

Char insists that the more people who know what's up between us, the greater the danger of it all blowing up in our faces. According to her, it is strictly between myself, Char and Brianna. That's it.

Char is awfully bossy for being an assistant.

Just as I make it to the sidewalk, a black SUV with tinted windows pulls up. Jeez, if they wanted less public speculation, they should have gone with a less obvious mode of transportation. Every dang famous person in Hollywood uses the same freaking car.

Maybe they figure there's safety in numbers, or it's some kind of Where's Waldo conspiracy: You can't find the one you're looking for when they all look the same. I'll probably be getting a crash course in this kind of thing soon enough.