Very Important Person

Chapter 2

Elsa's return visit didn't happen right away. Thanks to morning-after-regrets and her usual anxiety, it took the poor, lonely actor a week or so to return to LenzLaydeez because she was in heavy denial. That she needed it, that she was already hooked on Kim... lots of reasons. Though she did have to take a thirty-minute shower to cool herself down.

Instead, she immersed herself in her work, which was easy to do. Most of her friends — which was a term used loosely in this case, since they were more like "connections" that she used in the industry — would be the first to assert that she was a workaholic. When she wasn't on the set of the soap, she was doing press tours, appearing on morning shows, and doing assorted other silly things like ribbon-cuttings at local strip malls. Even if she did want to slow down, they had to finish taping the big Christmas special before they could go on break for a while.

Sometimes, she hated her life. Despised how little time it left her to form real bonds of friendship with the people around her. Even having just one friend would feel like a miracle at this point. Her parents were big name actors themselves and had expected such great things of her and she felt like she had no choice. She had been in commercials when she was a baby, Nick and Disney sitcoms when she was a preteen. Straight into the child star machine with no room to learn how to be a human.

The last straw was actually a two-pronged attack on her sanity. Firstly, she had to do yet another kissing scene with Matthias Shaw, the chiseled ebony beefcake with whom throngs of her fans were thrilled to see her in any scene. Brixton wasn't even a bad kisser but she still didn't want to kiss men regardless. But the second thing... it was the real gut punch.

The BMW dealership was closed for renovation when her engine started knocking and pinging. Of course it was. So Elsa checked her phone for a fairly reputable garage in the area and dropped by to get her vehicle sorted out. The bespectacled man at the counter assured her that it would be ready within the hour, so she caught an Uber to go do a little shopping.

When she came back two hours later and it still wasn't ready, having nothing else to do, she decided to poke around in the shop itself. Seeing the denim-covered legs poking out from under the car, she asked, "Sir?" No response. "Hi. I'm the owner of this vehicle, and I was wondering... how soon do you think it will be finished?"

Still no reply. Perhaps it was her fault for interrupting and sticking her nose in where it didn't belong - except it was her car. Her nose belonged there. And she might have accepted a gruff reply to go and wait, but not even deigning to reply to her?

"Listen," she sighed, "I think it's a little rude you refuse to acknowledge me at all. I'm not invisible, and I doubt you would treat a male customer this way."

That earned her a laugh. And when the mechanic wheeled out from under the car, she understood.

"You'd be wrong, flaca," the grease-smeared Latina chuckled up at her. This girl was cute - and definitely a girl, she couldn't have been more than eighteen or nineteen. Luscious lips, mischievous dark eyes, and even pulled back by the hat she could tell her waves of black hair would be fun to run her fingers through. "I talk to eeeeeverybody like that. You ain't special."

"Oh." Still taken aback, she cleared her throat. "M-my apologies." When the girl started to roll back under the car, she asked, "Wait, what's... 'flaca' mean?"

"You, America's Next Top Model. Tall, skinny, white as a blizzard, pretty much."

"I thought 'gringo' meant 'white'."

"Noooo, no. You would be a 'gringa' - and that just means you're not Latina. 'Blanquita' would be me calling you a white girl. But you're a flaca. If you want the rest of the Spanish lesson, it's nine ninety-nine."

Chuckling slightly as her cheeks pinkened, she decided to confess. "I only know a little Swedish and German from my parents. I'm terrible at other languages."

"Fine with me." A couple of seconds of silence before she sighed. "Okay, okay. Your car will be ready in about thirty minutes; I'm almost through."

"Okay. Th-thank you so much."

"De nada, flaca."

And that was it. That was the other incident.

Why did that destroy the soap starlet so much? Simple; she liked the girl. The man at the counter informed her that her name was Audrey, but that would be all she ever learned about the adorable mechanic. Because she didn't have the confidence to ask her out. She listened to her studio, to her sort-of-friends, to her parents. Just because some Hollywood types were flaunting sexualities like fashion statements didn't mean just anyone could do it. And since the Into The Unknown writers had expressly forbade her from coming out as long as she wanted to remain employed, she had to stay in the camp of those who could not.

Therefore, she would never know what it was like to keep sweet Audrey's company outside of that single car repair. Poor Elsa was even tempted to sabotage her Beamer purely to see her again. But that really was stupid; it would just be more of the same story, even if she went back. And clearly the mechanic had no interest in her as a friend.

So... back to LenzLaydeez she went. But she was in for a shock.

Kim was gone. In her place were dozens and dozens of other girls. She clicked between a few of their feeds aimlessly, trying to tell herself they were all the same. They weren't. Her need to hunt kicked in, and she found herself deep diving into every corner of the site. She turned up a couple Kims, but they were both Asian. The so-called "archives" didn't even display her at all.

Where did the object of her affections go?

To Be Continued...