Almost Famous |h.s|

Epilogue: The First Meeting

June 3, 2018

It was 7:50am and I was already in a mood.

My manager, Jeffrey, had called me a few days ago to tell me that I had been given the "perfect opportunity" to finally step out of the shadows of my former band and step into the music world as Harry, just Harry. Little did I know that that entailed being interviewed not once, not even just twice, but an entire tour's length of interviews by a Rolling Stone journalist.

I was not only hesitant....

....I was quite literally pissed off.

I have always done my absolute best to remain neutral when it comes to journalists and the media in general. I've always tried to put my best self forward and somehow I've always come across to them exactly the same...

A womanizer.

Arrogant.

A ladies man.

I mean, you name it, I've been called it.

As I parked outside of the coffee shop my agent told me to meet the journalist at, I took in a large inhale of breath and exhaled all of it out. Taking deep breaths was going to get me through this...I hoped. Glancing down at my phone I pulled up the picture Jeffrey had sent me of the journalist I was to meet. If I weren't so annoyed at the situation and were it not 7:50am, I might have taken the time to see that she was beautiful, breathtakingly so, but my mind was all over the place and I was not in the market for looking at other women anyways.

I felt a sharp pang in my chest...guilt sweeping into stomach like a poison.

"Let's take your mind off of it baby."

I shook my head to clear it of the memories of last night's mistakes. This was what I wasn't going to do. I wasn't going to let last night effect me this morning. I wasn't going to make that mistake ever again so there was no point dwelling on it.

Except my mood was effected...horribly so.

Scoffing at myself and my idiocy, I pushed open the door to the cafe and began to look around the room. The picture of the girl was still on my phone so I kept glancing between it and the chorus of people in the room. Finally, I found her.

She was sat at a booth in the very back corner of the cafe, a small coffee cup sat directly in front of her, and her eyes were on me as well. Even from here I could see that her eyes were a peculiar color, something I hadn't noticed from her photo at all. She had long wavy hair, her nose a long slope, a pointed chin giving her face an oval shape, and skin that glowed. I felt awkward just staring at her so I gave her a small wave so that she knew that I knew who she was, and then pulled my sunnies off to order my drink.

I felt my pulse rise. Deep breaths were going to get me through this for sure.

When I finally got my coffee order and headed towards the booth I had just seen the journalist at...she was gone. I placed my coffee on the table and looked around. Her things were still here so I knew she was coming back but this made me feel uneasy. I awkwardly sat down and waited for the girl with the interesting eyes to reappear.

After several minutes, footsteps clicked on the floor and I looked up to see her approaching but looking disheveled and her formerly glowing skin now a sickly pale contrast.

"Hi! I'm Rue um...I'm so sorry. I felt ill and had to run to the rest room..." She dropped her eyes from mine the moment she began speaking and placed strands of hair behind her ear in what looked to be a nervous gesture, "I hope you weren't sitting here too long." Finally, she looked at me and I was able to get a clear view of those eyes. They were an interesting shade of yellowish brown, not something I'd ever seen before and they were transfixing.