What About Now
The Search For What Is Missing
She was so beautifull, so smart, so famous and so loved. But that wasn't enough. Something was missing in her life, something real she didn't have but had to have. What it was, she wasn't sure. She was sure of one thing, if she didn't find what was missing in her life, a part of her would feel empty forever.
She was setting in her dressing room. The make-up artists had just finished with her and now she was putting a small neckless of a cross on her neck. A silver cross, one she had gotten from her father, right before he died, 3 years ago.
There was a knock on the door, followed by a woman who was wearing a microphone, who opened the door.
"You're on in 5, Miss. James." The woman said, Haley nodded as she stood up and walked out of the room. She was standing backstage, waiting for her name to be called.
She watched as a young blonde woman with wavy long hair walked up the stage. The audiance stood up and gave her a big welcome.
"Welcome back to the 2nd season of Celebrity Visits. My name is Peyton Sawyer, and I'll be your host for the night and the whole season. we have a special treat for you." She said as she walked around, speaking, looking at the crowd, they loved her.
"Today we have 2 very special guests. Let's welcome our first guest." She said as the whole crowd waited to see who would come on stage.
The audience never knew who they would see on the show, but they knew one thing, whoever it was, Peyton Sawyer could always keep things interesting.
"She started her carreer as a singer, some of her more famous songs are 'Feel This', 'Halo', and 'When The Stars Come Blue'. Those songs earned her fame over the entire world. Now she had added acting to her long list of achievements. Please welcome, Haley James!" Peyton introduced her. The audience went whild as Haley walked up the stage, shook Peyton hand and sat down. They had been waiting to see Haley since the last year, when the show started.
"Hello Haley. Thank you so much for coming on the show." Peyton said, smiling at Haley. She had gone through a lot of trouble to get her on the show.
"It's my pleasure.' Haley said, she felt a little akwurd, she almost never gave interviews and always refused to go on shows. But since this girl wouldn't stop persuing her for almost a year, Haley caved in.
"So, Haley, this is the first time you appeared on a live show. Why do you think that is ? Since it's known that you get dozens of offers for talk show every day." Peyton asked, getting right into the questions section. Haley had hoped they could do some small talk first.
"Euh, I guess I just don't feel so comfortable giving interviews that aren't just work related." Haley confessed, she knew she couldn't lie, she was like the worst liar in the history of liars.
"What made you decide to come on my show ?" Peyton asked, she was starting with some easy questions before she headed to the big stuff.
"Well, you were very persistant. If I recall you called me every day for about 6 months. I like that in a person, it shows you have passion in your work. So I decided, if I ever was gonna do a talk show, it might as well be with someone who shows great passion and dedication to her work." Haley replied, Peyton thanked her for the compliment, before continuing the next question.
"You started your carreer as a singer, a rather famous one too, now you're a movie star, how does that feel ?" Peyton asked, Haley was relieved she was asking her things about her work and not her personal life yet.
"I wouldn't exactly call myself a movie star. I'm still a singer first, I just happened to star in a movie. It was a great experience, but I wouldn't trade my singing for it." Haley said.
"So you don't want to act again ?" Peyton asked, hoping she'd say no, because she really liked seeing Haley on the big screen and wanted to see more of her.
"No, I love acting, I think since I did the movie, it became my second life's passion. But singing is and will forever remain my number one passion. And I'm not planning on giving that up for acting. Besides, I think I still have a lot to learn before I can be a good actress. Honestly, I had no idea what I was doing when I shot my scenes. I'm still waiting for people to realize how bad I am in that movie." Haley confessed, letting out a faint smile.
"Bad ? Why do you think that ? There's already talk about an oscar for you part in the movie." Peyton said as she tried to figure out Haley, but couldn't.
"Oh, that, yeah, I've heard about that too. If it happens, good, but I'm not expecting an oscar for it. I think people are slightly overreacting. I wasn't what made this movie a hit. It were the cast and the directors and just the story itself made this movie work. I was just fortunate enough to be a part of it." Haley said, she wasn't trying to come over insecure, but that was what she thought, so that was what she said.
"Tell us more about your role." Peyton said.
"I play the main character Casey Stewart in the movie Second Chances. Casey is this young teenage girl who had lost her mother to cancer when she was 14. Now she's 16 and heading on the wrong path. She steals, drinks, even does a little bit of drugs. When she witnesses a murder one night after going home from a party, she has to run for her life. When she finds out the killers are after her next, she goes to the pollice, but they don't believe her. So she sets out to make things right herself. And that all I'm giving away, or you'd know the entire storyline and if you've not seen it yet, that's not so cool." Haley said, Peyton nodded.
"How did it happen that you auditioned for the role ?" Peyton asked, she was just warming Haley up for the big questions.
"I just got the call one day asking if I wanted to read the script and audition for the leading role. I thought it was a joke, I had never acted before. But they said they saw something in me that they hadn't seen in anyone else yet and that they desperate wanted me for the role. So I read the script and loved it from the first page. I auditioned for it and now I'm on the big screen." Haley said, Peyton smiled at her.
"I think we can skip the questions about your singing carreer, since you've talked about that enough in regular interviews." Peyton said, Haley aggreed and waited for the next question.
"Now on to some more serious stuff. You're 24, hot, smart, famous, why are you still single ?" Peyton asked, Haley sighed, she knew this would come up at some point.
"I'm just waiting for the right person, I guess." Haley said, not wanting to elaberate on it.
"What about Chris Keller ? You dated him for 2 years, wasn't he the right person ?" Peyton asked, Haley was boiling inside as soon as she heard Chris's name. She hated him for what he did to her.
"No, I guess he wasn't the right person." Haley said, trying to keep her calm, she almost never got angry in public, except when it came to Chris.
"Is it true that he cheated on you several times before you guys broke up ?" Peyton asked, she knew she was getting Haley angry, she always knew the right question to do that to a person.
"You should have to ask him. Anyways, that was 3 and a half years ago, not really relevant now, right ?" Haley said, catching Peyton off guard, no one ever had the nerve to shut her down like that, usually they got angry and walked of stage.
"I guess not, waw, look at the time, I think our next guest is ready to come out." Peyton said as she stood up, Haley stayed on the couch. It was a habit that all the stars stayed in their seats untill the show was over.
"He's 23 years old. He's an athlete. He HOT as hell. He's Nathan Scott!" Peyton yelled, making his entrence on the stage even more exiting than Haley's entrence. Haley had heard of him on the news, but knew not much about him.
He walked on the stage with a big attitude, Haley thought. As all the girls in the audience started to whistle, she rolled her eyes. Her first impression of Nathan was that he was a spoiled brat.
Instead of shaking Peyton's hand, he hugged her and as he softened his grip on her as he pulled back, he kissed her on the lips. The crowd went wild. They didn't even quiet down when he let her go.
"Cherry. Nice." Nathan smirked as he sat down next to Haley. He looked at her for a brief moment, nodded and looked back at Peyton. But before Peyton had even sat down, Haley found Nathan looking at her again.
"So, Nathan Scott, I guess I don't have to ask you if the rumors about you being a skirt chaser are true. You just proved that to me and my audience." Peyton said as she still had to contain herself from laughing.
"Just giving you a warm welcome." Nathan smirked, by which Haley fake coughed. Peyton looked at her curiously.
"Nathan, have you met Haley James ?" She said, introducing Haley, Nathan shook.
"Never heard of ya. No offense." Nathan said as he looked at her, Peyton was looking at Haley now too, waiting to hear her reply.
"Non taken. I've never heard of you either." She said as she smirked. She didn't know, but Nathan was slightly intreged by her. Would she be his next conquest ?
"Looks like we have a fisty pair sitting here. So, Nathan, basketball, what's it like to you ?" Peyton asked as she looked into his eyes.
"It's my life. I love it. I just happen to be famous because of it." Nathan said, winking at Peyton, Haley shook her head, Nathan didn't notice. Peyton was going to ask some easy questions first, but she had no choice, he had opened a door for her she couldn't close.
"But you didn't exactly become famous because of basketball, did you ? All though you're great." Peyton said, Nathan looked at her confused, not knowing what she meant. Haley was curious now too, as she looked from Peyton to Nathan.
"What's that supposed to mean ?" Nathan asked, not understanding. Haley could feel his heart beating faster as he looked at Peyton. She didn't know how she felt it, but she just did.
"Well, when you were 16 you got emmancipated because your father was convicted to serve two life sentences for the brutal murder of your pregnant mother." Peyton said, she enjoyed agrivating celebrities like that. Haley was shocked, she had never heard of that before.
Nathan didn't say anything, he had to use all of his mental power to stay quiet and not storm out and cause a scene.
"The press had a field day. You testifying against your father kept it in the media even longer. How do you feel about the fact that you helped throw your father into prisson ?" Peyton asked as she had this evil smile on her face. Haley was disgusted on how much she was enjoying this. If she had known this, she would have never come on the show.
She looked at Nathan, who was completely sillent. His eyes shot fire at Peyton as his hands were formed into fists, shaking because it probably took all the controll he had to keep his calm. Haley didn't know why she did what she did next, but she did it.
She opened her mouth, not knowing what she'd sing, when the words just flowed out of her mouth.
'Don't Cry, Boy of mine.
I'm right here by your side.
I'll stick with you,
if you let me to.'
When she stopped singing, the audience clapped, Peyton was shocked, as Nathan looked at her, stunned. Why did she do that ? He didn't know why, maybe she was just crazy, but whatever reason she did it for, it helped him. He was much calmer now.
"What was that ?" Peyton asked, a little offended that Haley brought the attention of Nathan back to her, but a little suprised at the same time too.
"Oh, I suddenly had these lyrics in my head and I just had to sing them to heard if they'd make a good song. I do that a lot." Haley said, as she smirked at Peyton.
"Oh look, isn't it about time ?" Haley asked next when she looked on her watch, Peyton looked at the clock on the wall in the back and sighed. Because of Haley, this show turned out completely different then she had imagined.
But she nodded, smiled and stood up. She walked to the center of the stage and started to speak.
"Well, I guess that was it for tonight, folks. Hope to see you again on the next episode of Celebrity Visits. Goodnight!" She smiled and waved as the audience clapped and the curtain closed.
"If you ever cross me like that again, on my show, I'll kick your ass." Peyton adressed Haley, threatening her before walking of stage, pissed of.
"Issues..." Haley said to herself when Peyton was out of sight. She had always thought of her to be a nice person, appearantly she should have watched her show first. She was about to walk of stage herself when she heard her name.
"Haley ? Is it ?" Nathan asked as she turned around, she nodded.
"I just wanted to thank you." Nathan said as Haley raised an eyebrow at him.
"You're not gonna kiss me now too, are you ?" Haley asked, taking a step back. Nathan laughed.
"Oh, no, deffinately not. Not that you're not kissable, but no, I just wanna thank you." Nathan said, Haley had to try not to blush when he told her she was kissable.
"You're welcome." Haley said as she was about to turn around again, he stopped her again by asking another question. Haley turned around again.
"Do you wanna go to dinner ? Just as a thank you, you really saved my but out there. You can even bring a friend, I'll bring a friend too." Nathan said.
Haley thought this was just some pick up line of his, but since she could bring a friend, she was safe, so she accepted.
"I'd like that. Call me with the details. And don't forget your friend." Haley said as she gave Nathan the note with her phone number on it. Nathan didn't think anything romantic of her, sure she was hot, but this was just a thank you dinner, he thought, before walking of the stage himself.
TO BE CONTINUED