Music: When You Were Young - The Killers
"You sit there in your heartache waiting on some beautiful boy"
The guitar playing stopped a few hours later, and Alex wondered how she had gone so long. Continuous playing must really hurt your fingers, especially when you're pressing hard on the fret board.
He sat on his bed, wondering what his next move should be. Ethan was coming here. Chances were he wouldn't do anything. He wouldn't be able to claim any money if Lia didn't die on stage. Her house wasn't a stage. So Alex didn't think he'd be armed, or be ready to hurt Lia. As far as he knew, she still believed him to be innocent in all of this.
A car pulled up outside: Alex could hear the crunching of the gravel. He got up and looked out of his window. It was a long black limousine, and Alex had to stop himself from scoffing. This guy was pretty sure he was the greatest. Nobody would ever suspect that he was willing to kill a fourteen year old girl to get money.
A knock on the door pulled Alex's gaze from the car, and the man now getting out of it. "You can come in!" he yelled.
The door handle turned and the door opened, revealing Lia. She had tied her hair back and taken all of the stage make-up off. "He's here. Alex, what am I supposed to do?"
"Act as normal as you can," Alex shrugged.
Lia looked shocked. "I know that my manager wants to kill me, and you're telling me to act normal?"
"We have to. You have to. Otherwise he may just kill you now," Alex tried to explain.
"Great reassurance Alex. Act normal and die later, or act suspicious and die now," Lia rolled her eyes.
"I didn't mean it like that..." Alex began, but a call from downstairs interrupted him.
"Lia! Ethan is here!"
Lia looked at Alex. "Can you come down? In about fifteen minutes? Unless you hear a gunshot and me screaming before that, obviously."
Alex didn't know what to say. He hadn't been briefed on how he should act in front of Ethan; they had never considered the fact that there might have to be a meeting. But he just had to look at Lia's face to know that he had to. She didn't know what to do; was less experienced than him. Sending her down there was like sending a untrained puppy to get the newspaper. It would go, but it wouldn't know what it was looking for.
"Alex," Lia asked again. "Please. I promise he won't hurt you, and I can take care of it. Tell him you're a friend staying with us. I can hold him for fifteen minutes, but not much longer than that. Not on my own anyway."
Alex nodded. He didn't feel like he had any other choice. "Okay."
Lia smiled weakly, and then walked towards the door. "If you hear him yelling "exterminate" in a weirdly computerized voice, give The Doctor a ring for me. He should be on speed dial in the Tardis."
Alex laughed, and watched as she left the room. He listened to her footsteps going downstairs, and then heard a man's voice booming from one of the many rooms below.
He sat down heavily on his bed, thinking about the surprises of the day.
It was pretty late by now, but Alex didn't feel tired. He looked at his watch, making sure that he knew when he had promised to go downstairs.
Lia hadn't been what he'd expected. He'd thought she'd be a diva, who demanded everything; who made the rules and then let others follow them. A girl who didn't know what some people had to do to earn the money that she did. A girl who had everything she wanted, and more, because she bought whatever she wanted. And in a way, she was. Painted on the mask that she wore everyday was that girl. Everybody else in the world believed she was that girl. But she was so much more than that girl.
Lia was normal. She wasn't the type of person who'd do the above things, yet she let people believed she was. Either that, or she figured that everyone would have their own perceptions regardless of how she acted. She had been given a character and she had to play it, in order to keep everyone happy. Only she was losing herself as she tried to keep others satisfied.
Alex shook his head. Why were his thoughts consumed mostly of Lia? They didn't need to be. He was on another mission. There was no need for the thoughts on who Lia Hartford actually was. She was another person to save. That was all. There had been dozens of people he had had to save. None of them had entered his head as much as Lia had been able to.
A glance at his watch told him that it was almost time to go downstairs, and so he got up and walked out of the room.
He didn't know what to expect from this manager guy. But he didn't care. This guy was just another warped villain, who thought that the law didn't apply to him. That he was allowed to kill people if he wanted to.
Alex walked slowly down the stairs, not wanting to draw attention to himself. Not yet.
He could hear snippets of conversation.
"Yes, Lia is having a friend to stay. His name is Luke. Very nice boy. A bit quiet though..." Lia's mother was talking.
He knocked on the door, not wanting to barge in.
"That's probably Luke now!" Lia's voice sounded relieved. "You'll like him Ethan. Honestly."
The door was flung open, and Alex almost laughed at the relieved look on Lia's face.
"Thank you," she mouthed at him, and then turned back to her manager.
Alex caught his first glimpse of "Ethan", and he had to admit, he was exactly what he had expected. A balding man, in his late thirties or early forties, wearing designer sunglasses that he should have kept on the shelf, and a suit that was fashionable ten years ago.
"Hi there Luke," he smiled, and got up, holding his hand out.
Alex took it begrudgingly. Knowing what he was planning meant that he wasn't exactly Alex's best friend at that moment.
"So, are you Lia's friend, or special friend?" Ethan asked, smirking. Alex almost wanted to hit him.
"Actually, we only met tonight. He saved my life on the stage. Otherwise that psycho could have killed me. Aren't we like, so grateful?" Lia asked, a smirk on her face.
Alex either wanted to kick Lia, or kick Ethan. Ethan's face had dropped when he had found out that Alex was the one who saved Lia's life, but he had now resumed smiling.
"Well, well..." Ethan muttered.
Alex studied his face for a while longer, trying to read what the man was thinking. He wasn't very happy, Alex could work that out.
"Um..." Ethan looked at his watch, and then smiled at Lia's Mom. "Well, would you look at the time?"
Lia looked at the clock. "Yeah, it's midnight."
"And I have to go. Lia, you'll have to attend a press conference tomorrow. Bring..." Ethan looked at Alex for a moment, his eyes narrowed.
"Luke," Lia offered.
Ethan nodded, and tore his gaze away from Alex. "Yeah. Bring Luke if you want. You have to be at the Plaza Hotel tomorrow, and we'll release a statement saying that you shall not be cancelling the tour."
"Wait. She won't be cancelling the tour? Isn't that like, dangerous?" Alex asked.
Ethan shook his head. "It must have been a one-off. Who wants to kill Lia?"
Alex resisted answering. He knew exactly what kind of person would want to kill Lia, and he was standing in front of him.
"Yes, but what if it wasn't?" Lia's mother asked. Alex almost felt sorry for her. She didn't know the truth. She had no idea that the man who she trusted so much, was the man to trust the least.
"I'm almost positive it was," Ethan reassured her. "And just in case, we'll increase security by double the amount there already is. Nobody will get into that arena with a weapon."
Lia's mother nodded. "Well, we'll try it. And if I'm not happy, we can pull her out, can't we?"
Ethan nodded. "Absolutely."
"Well okay then," Lia's mother beamed. "Are you okay with that Lia?"
Lia looked at Alex, panicked. "Um...not really...Mom..."
"Lia, don't be silly. Only at dinner you were talking about not disappointing your fans, and how you wanted to stay on this tour, and now you're telling me the opposite," Lia's mother laughed.
Ethan looked at Lia, almost a sneer on his face.
"Mom, I got shot at. I had time to think upstairs. And I almost died, Mom," Lia tried to convince her.
"But Ethan is convinced it was a one-off," Lia's mother insisted.
Alex didn't know what to say without letting on that he knew. Lia had the same problem. She turned and looked at Alex, pleading with him to do something. They hadn't bargained on this. Alex shrugged lightly, so nobody else saw him.
"Um...fine," Lia sighed. "Can I skip tomorrow though? I'll be beat."
Ethan clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Sure honey. See you bright and ealry tomorrow, okay?"
"It almost is bright and early tomorrow," Lia muttered, as she walked out of the room, refusing to say goodbye to her manager.
"I'm gonna go after her..." Alex said, and pointed in the direction that Lia had gone.
Ethan held out his hand. "Nice to meet you Luke. I'll see you tomorrow?"
There was almost a menacing tone to his voice, but Alex forced himself to smile. "Sure. Well, goodnight."
Alex exited the room as soon as he could, and found Lia waiting for him outside.
"Alex, what do we do?" she hissed.
He looked around, and gestured upstairs. "We can't talk here. Plus you just called me Alex in earshot of your manager and your mom."
Lia ran upstairs, and Alex followed her into her bedroom.
"Alex, what the heck am I supposed to do?" Lia asked. "I can't get back on stage, knowing that he's paid someone to kill me."
Alex was pacing the room. "I'll have to get in touch with MI6. They'll put guards in that concert; they'll be more effective than the security Ethan involves. No encores. I'll be in the wings. Hopefully you'll be okay."
"Hopefully? There's some reassurance," Lia cried.
Alex sat next to Lia on the bed. "We have someone in there. Investigating your manager. Hopefully he'll have some evidence soon, and we can get you out of there."
"You've changed your tune," Lia sighed. "A few hours ago, you hated me more than I hate Brussels sprouts."
"I know. And I don't know why. You're just... different from the girl I expected. And I suddenly want to help you. So that's what I'm going to do," Alex said.
Lia looked at him. "Thanks. I guess I made judgements on you as well. It must be tough, having to do all this when you're fourteen. And I'm presuming you don't have a choice."
"They're blackmailing me," Alex admitted.
Lia bit her lip. "What with?"
"My friend who moved, and now lives in America. She wants to come and visit and they're threatening to stop her," Alex confessed.
"You like this girl?" Lia asked, a hit of disappointment in her voice.
Alex shrugged. He didn't know any more.
Lia smiled at him. She could tell he didn't want any more questions. "Okay. Well, I'm not dropping it, I'm just letting it go. For now."
"Good to know," Alex laughed.
"There's a conjoining door. Want me to leave it open, just in case some nut-job comes in?" Lia smiled.
Alex shook his head. "You're alright."
"Why I know. You are too," Lia laughed, and then smiled as Alex got up. He walked through the door, and Lia closed it.
She padded across the other side of the room, and pulled a pair of pyjamas from her drawer.
A knock sounded at the conjoining door. She rolled her eyes, and went to open it. "Yes?"
"Goodnight," Alex smiled. "And I may need some pyjamas."
Lia rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to be looking at you, boy. Get your act together." She closed the door, but left an inch open. "And Alex?"
"Yeah?" Alex asked, peeping through the crack.
"Goodnight," Lia whispered, closed the door fully, and padded over to her bed.
Her eyelids felt heavy. Jeez, it had been a long night.