Fame has a dark side that doesn't always show through the sparkly smiles of glossy magazines. Austin is tired of keeping it in. You just can't continue with your normal life once you've made it to the top.
When Austin finally got home after the "Fan Fun-day", he collapsed onto his bed. Surely 7 hours was overdoing it a bit?
And it wasn't even a proper meet and greet. They just got a picture, and autograph and herded back into regular society. You didn't get to meet anyone, not really. They were just screaming people who happened to like his music well enough to come and "meet" him.
They all had stories that he would never know.
They would never know the real Austin Moon. To them, he was a picture on the wall, a distant star whom they would never know.
He hated to say it, but he was way out of their league now. They put him on a pedestal with a spotlight as the perfect picture of a human being. The magazines they read would never tell them how he totally messed up his History exam or how he broke promises and ignored his parents.
He was the photoshopped version of Austin Moon, with the gritty bits taken out and the good bits polished until they shone. He wouldn't be anything without the people who stood behind him and did all the heavy lifting.
They didn't know who Dez was, whose camera work and amazing editing skills got Austin's big break in the first place.
They didn't know who Trish was, who booked all the events that the fans met Austin at.
They hadn't known who Ally was, until she starting thinking about what she really wanted to do.
Austin was only the cover of the magazine that was his career. The people who really put it together were never seen nor heard.
The whole story about who he was and how he got to be where he got to be would be scripted for late night talk shows, not told with all the bits like how he pooped on a bench when he was two or how he wished to get stuck in a freezer full of ice-cream and actually did.
His life was edited and simplified down to his viral internet video and amazing musical ability. He was so much more than that. He was a real person and he had more dreams than the ones that they talked about on TV.
He wanted to be recognised as a person rather than just a celebrity.
Austin sat on the counter in Sonic Boom. He glanced at the clock on the wall. It was 9:30pm and Ally was still working. Austin didn't really understand why, since there was no-one in the store, but Ally didn't seem to mind.
"Does it bother you that your fans will never really know your story?" he asked.
Ally turned and looked at him strangely. "What?"
"Your fans will never really know the real you. They'll never know you the way your friends will. Doesn't that bother you?"
Ally looked in his eyes like she was looking for something. "I can't really be best friends with everyone, Austin."
"But they'll never know who you are. They'll know your name and every lyric to your every song, but there'll always be a gap between them and you because you were lucky enough to make it in the big bad industry of music that chews out brilliant people everyday."
"Where is this coming from, Austin?"
Austin slouched onto the bench. "I don't know, Ally. I just lay there one night after an event and realised the space between us. Don't they realise that I'm not everything I'm chalked up to be! They'll never know that I talk with my mouth full or that sometimes I pick my nose. They'll never really know me.
"Ok. First of all: ew. Second of all, that's kind of how it happens, Austin. You can't know all your fans personally. That would be draining. You could waste half your life visiting and talking to and helping your fans and still only know a tiny percentage of them. You'll just have to learn to know them when you can and let the others go. You're not obliged to be a friend to all your fans. They like your music, and sure, some of them think that means that they like you, but the truth is, they'll never really know if they like you because they'll never really know you. And you're just going to have to accept that."
She put her hand on his shoulder. "And yes, it's going to be hard, but it will be easier as you consciously remind yourself of that. You don't have anything to prove, Austin. You'll never enjoy life if you keep obsessing over whether your fans know you. Because most of them don't and most of them won't."
"None of my fans know me, Ally"
"I know you, Austin. Learn to value your friends, now that you've realised how special they are."
Ally hesitated, like she wanted to say something more, but she just patted him on the back awkwardly and then continued setting up the store for the next morning.
Austin was left alone with his thoughts once again.
Austin felt guilty after that. He was famous! He should be grateful! He didn't live in an unsafe home or have a shortage of food; he had hundreds of thousands of fans screaming his name, and he had the nerve to complain about it?
This didn't help his problem with being annoyed much
"Austin? Are you okay?" Ally's voice pierced through his thoughts.
He briefly shook himself out of his daze and looked up. "Yeah...Kinda...I guess..."
Ally pushed herself up onto the bench next to him. "You're not a bad person just because people don't know you."
Austin sighed. "I know."
"You don't know everyone at school personally, and that doesn't make you a bad person, so you're not a bad person just because you're not exactly what people say you are. You're you, and that's what's really important."
"I don't want to disappoint people. I don't live up to the expectations they have of me, Ally"
"People will say what they want, Austin. The only expectations that should matter should be the ones that you know that you can achieve and that you set for yourself. And you're not going to achieve them every time, but it's much easier to achieve things because you want to rather than because other people want you to. Other's expectations don't matter, Austin."
Austin considered this for a moment. "Thanks Ally. I feel a lot better now."
Ally smiled and laughed. "Bring it in," she said, opening her arms for a hug.
Austin smiled and complied.
Sure, he wasn't exactly who the fans thought he was. But he was who he wanted to be and who his friends cared about.
He wasn't perfect, but he was enjoying life.
And that's a lot more important.
So that's the story folks! Just a little one, and only minor Auslly, but this was about the side that's not on the TV show, that's a little sadder.
I might add another chapter later about other parts of fame that don't live up to expectations.
Thanks!
-Lexiconicy :-)