John, Matt and I were sat on the train heading towards London. The sun was fresh in the August sky and everything seemed so chilled that I found myself drifting off into a trance whilst admiring Matt. That was, until, I heard a very loud, very high pitched squeal from the seat next to me. John looked down as his iPhone gleefully.
"Well, isn't this just the cutest thing?" He said, gushing with happiness. I peered over to what he was looking at, but couldnt see properly until he wrapped his arm around me and pulled me close. He was on his Twitter and had been sent a fan made video. I smiled,
"Aw, that's lovely." I said.
"I bet you have some fan girls and boys on the internet. Have you got Twitter?" He asked. I nodded.
" CharlieHowardsUK. But I haven't been on it in a while. It was set up on my old phone and I have been too busy to set it up on this one." I said. I was very doubtful I had anybody paying attention to me. I wasn't as striking or as impressive as the other companions. And only a couple of episodes in? The fandom would be having their heartbroken by Matt's cheeky attraction to notice me.
"Well, we can easily se how much people are obviously adoring you. I can type your name in the search box. There's a new episode tonight so there's sure to be a lot of hype." John punched in my name. I couldn't help but look as the top tweets began to load.
" TARDISfan890: Alex Whitehall and The Doctor are my new OTP! Lovin Chalie" Was at the top with 100+ RT's
" MolsBols42: Charlie Howards has sass #GoGirl" was underneath. John pointed to that one, then turned and grinned at me. But I had began to see the tweets underneath.
" BadwolfRosie: What even is this? Script's fine but Howards can't even act! #InterestLost"
" artieconanwhat: Nice one Moffat, choose a girl who's killed #DoctorWho for me! Have to come back when Charlie's gone"
" Pondfever: I want Amy back!"
" WhutsernameWay: The Doctor's married to River! Stop flirting with the Northern trash that is Charlie Howards" I was shocked at the last one. I wasn't even from the North! I was from Derby! John had obviously read them too as he scrolled past quickly. Sure, there were tweets from people saying they liked me, but the majority seemed to hate me.
Matt looked up from his newspaper when I sniffed. I would not cry. I would NOT cry. He looked at my face and realised something was wrong.
"Hey, what's up?" He quickly came and sat next to me with his around my shoulder. His hand was on my hair, sroking it softly as I fought back tears.
"That Doctor Who fans hate me!" I choked, failing on keeping my voice emotionless. It wasn't the only thing I had failed at. Obviously, I had not managed to persuade the public to stick with me. They said I had 'sass' but that wasn't a sign they liked me, or even true. I was a massive Doctor Who fan myself and couldn't cope with the idea of being a hated companion. I turned my head into Matt's shoulder, not crying, but only by a fraction.
"They will come around. They don't hate you. They hate change and probably miss Karen. It happened to me. I had to replace David Tennant! The man who made Doctor Who a success again! A fangirls one true love! People thought I was just a kid! I bet that is you logged onto your Twitter account, you will find a mountain of messgaes about how amazing you are. I think you are amazing." He leant into my ear before whispering "You're my favourite companion ever." I looked up at him, turning bright red.
"Really? Even more than Sarah-Jane or Rose or River or even Amy?" I sniffed, sounding as unsexy as humanly possible.
"Yes, even more than all of them. You want to know why? You are the perfect British girl. You don't just jump onto the TARDIS, you think its a hoax. You are even more of a crazy scientist than the Doctor himself, which is exactly what he needs. You're the best of all the companions."
"And you wear some great clothes!" John addded.
"Sometimes the audience don't know what they want until it's spoon fed them." Matt said.
"But how do I make them like me?"
"Just be yourself." John and Matt said in unison.
They had so much honesty in their eyes that it was impossible not to trust them. So, when the time came to do the questions in the interview room, I was calm, collected and confident. There was no reason for these people to judge me on a character that someone else had come up with. Now was the time to sell myself. Charlie Howards, not Alex Whitehall.
I took my seat, next to Matt, in front of the journalist. They all raised their to ask questins and my manager chose one. A lean man carrying a camera began to speak.
"Charlie, how long are you planning to stay on Doctor Who and what would you like to do in the future?"
I thought for a minute before answering.
"I'll stay as long as people want me. I haven't had any offers at the moment, but I would really like to branch out into alternative comedy. And, of course, work with Matt again. Or maybe stick with a perminant role on Torchwood instead of Doctor Who?"
Matt's manager then picked a question for him, but the panic from earlier had set into my gut. Nobody really new how close Matt and I were and probably wouldn't until the DVD's of the series was released with all the behind the scenes banter on. What if the journalists thought I was being possessive or obsessive? My knee began shaking purely out of nerves and I began to feel faint. Matt must've felt something was wrong because he held my hand tenderly under the desk as he listened to the question he was being asked.
"Mr. Smith, you have been romantically linked to Billie Piper, Daisy Lowe and Karen Gillan over the past few years, are you still single or are any of the rumours true?" I accidently squeezed Matt's hand out of shock, fear and anticipation. Did we count as a relationship? He squeezed my hand back.
"Well, I am in the early stages of a relationship, not with any of those you mentioned though. We are still sorting things out, but it looks promising." He grinned and I felt my insides melt. I probably went bright red because the cameras started flashing and people were scribbling down extra notes. I felt my confidence come back again and the rest of the interview went smoothly with Matt's reassurance and support.
At the end of the day, Matt and I were snuggled up together on the train back to Cardiff. Matt was reading his new part of the script as I set up my Twitter account on my new phone. As soon as I clicked 'sign in', my phone was buzzing with notifications. I clicked on interactions, expecting some awful messgaes, but what I got was;
" PondlifeGal: CharlieHowardsUK was laughing and crying along with you! You're my new idol"
" StarGirl97: Shouldn't be crushing on CharlieHowardsUK as much as I am!"
" JohnlockSmith: Matt Smith and CharlieHowardsUK make a super cute couple"
" GallaghrDW: MarkGattis CharlieHowardsUK BBCDoctorWho WOW! Omg can NOT wait for next week! #BringIt"
Matt read a few and smiled.
"Told you so." He said smugly. I gently smacked him before kissing his cheek and settling down to reply to the kind messages from my new fans.
