Celebrity Status
Chapter Four
"Ross?!" Laura shouts as she opens up the door to the her best friend's humble abode. Although, at the moment she's not feeling very friendly towards the boy.
"Ross!" She screams angrily, sprinting down the hall toward his bedroom. He's not in there.
"Ross!"
"Ross!"
"Ro-"
"He's in the basement sweetie. Him and his sibling are practicing," Stormie calls to her. She assumes it's probably from the kitchen.
"Oh...okay.." Laura says bashfully as her cheeks turn a pinkish hue and she timidly steps over to the door leading down into the basement.
Laura wouldn't exactly call what's happening in front of her "practicing". Goofing off would be a more accurate description. Rocky and Riker are slamming away on guitars while Ross, Ryland, and a very pissed off looking Rydel throw paper balls at each other.
"Ross Shor Lynch!" Laura snaps. Speaking of pissed off girls.
Ross spins around at the sound of his name being uttered in such a harsh tone and then grins boyishly, blissfully unaware of his friends seething anger. "Hey, Laur."
"Don't you "hey, Laur," me!" The thirteen year old brunette hisses at him and he steps back from her. Looks like she's in another one of her moods today. "Where were you?!"
"W-Where was I when...?" He stutters innocently, but the quick change of look on his face is enough to give it away. He already knows why he's in trouble.
"Oh, I don't know! Two hours ago when my piano lesson was over with! I asked you yesterday to see if it was okay with your mom to give me a ride back home since my mom's car was in the shop and I'd have no one else to get me!"
"Yeah, I... Uh... Kind of forgot..." He runs the back of his neck nervously. "I'm sorry."
"You're sorry?!" She repeats back to him incredulously. As if that'll b enough. As if just one look at those puppy dog eyes of his and she'll melt into a puddle and forgive him. She's knows that's what he's expecting, because it's normally what she would do. He'd screw up and she would forgive him. They were Ross and Laura, that's how they worked.
But not today.
He'd been screwing up a lot more lately than he had been in the past and she was getting really freaking sick of him, an his lousy behavior, and his lame excuses.
"I don't think you realize that I had to walk all the way back home while it snowed! I didn't even bring a coat with me, just one of your stupid hoodies that you left at my house again!" She shoved the hot pink article of clothing in his face, and he takes it and throws it into a corner somewhere.
"I would've had to walk myself there, but luckily I was Mr. Ryder's first student of the day so he was able to pick me up."
"Why couldn't he just drive you back home?"
"I don't know, Ross. Maybe because he had other students to teach!" She huffs angrily. After all this yelling her throat was starting to get sore.
"Uh, look, Laura," Rocky goes to stand in the middle the two tweens before Laura goes to cut his little brother's throat, "Ross is really sorry, but he's kinda been busy with rehearsals all weekend and-"
"You stay out of this!" She snaps and points an accusing finger at the older boy.
Rocky backs away, hands raised up in the air as a gesture of surrender. Maybe it seems pathetic because he's two years older than her and a boy, but he's known Laura for a long time. She's not someone you want to make angry, and she's not afraid to kick some ass if she needs to.
"I'm getting really sick of having to deal with Ross! This is the third time this month you've forgotten when I asked you to do something and you've let me down."
Ross frowns at those words because having Laura be disappointed at him is definitely worse than have her be mad at you.
"I'm sorry. I really am. We were rehearsing and I lost track of time. I swear, you can beat up if you want to. I deserve it," he offers her a small smile and outstretches his arms as wide as they can go. "Can I hug you now?"
She rolls her eyes at the boy. "You're lucky I love you, you little piece of poop!" She comments before letting him embrace her in a hug.
"I know! I'm the luckiest!"
"But you better not forget my birthday!" She break away for the hug to look him dead in the eyes.
"Come on, Laura. How could I forget the day my favorite person in the whole world was born?"
"Aww," all three of his older siblings chorus from behind them.
He smiles smugly at her, then jokes with a look of fake seriousness, "November 27th, right?"
She slugs him in the arm.
"Ow, gawd, I was just kidding!" He rubs his arm tentatively. "Damn, babe, you must be a wild one." He teases and winks cheekily at her.
She sometimes wants to barf at his flirtatious and sometimes suggestive nature. It's one of those things about him that she's not necessarily a huge fan of. She's kind of a prude and he loves to tease and make her blush since its such an easy thing to do.
"Real smooth, asshat," she mumbles under her breath as she begins to walk away.
"What was that I heard?" He inquires with a raised eyebrow and a smirk on his face.
"I said "Don't forget to wear your party hat!" She calls over her shoulder, already halfway up the flight of stairs.
…
Laura knows she shouldn't be doing this. Her mom would, no doubt, shit a horse if she found out where Laura was headed right now, but something's were just more important than attending you're great grandmother!a funeral.
After all, the woman had lived in Italy. She'd never even met her before. Except for once when she was like four or five years old.
So she shouldn't be feeling guilty about this right?
She shouldn't be feeling guilty about asking to go to bathroom at the funeral parlor, but instead leaving the building, running to the nearest bus station, and catching a ride to some park she'd never heard of that was located in the middle of Colorado Springs just to see her best friend and his band perform in a talent show.
Was it crazy? Yes. Laura had never done anything so reckless in her entire life.
Was it dangerous? Of coarse! She was a thirteen (almost fourteen) year old girl riding a public transportation bus by herself. Luckily it was just her, two older women, and some guy who was caring around a chicken in a dog cage.
The old buddies at the front of the bus would certainly give her no trouble and from the looks of it, Old McDonald was about to get kicked of the bus sometime soon since his accomplice wouldn't keep his beak shut.
Was it going to have repercussions? Hell yes it would! As soon as Laura's parents got suspicious about her taking so long in the bathroom and figuring out she wasn't there anymore try would already be thinking up ways to execute her murder, in fact they probably already were. It had been a whole half hour since she'd "excused herself to the ladies room". They'd probably already found out the inevitable.
But was it all going to be worth it?
That was the question that Laura couldn't seem to find an answer for.
Somehow, after being friends with Ross for so many years, the logical part of her brain seemed to he working less and less with the rest of her.
Or maybe she was just choosing to ignore it. Maybe for once in her life she was saying "Fuck it! I'm gonna do something wild and cray and unlike me because I feel like it!"
After all, Ross was her best friend. He and his siblings were basically family to her and this was a very important night for all of them.
So she ignored the nagging voice in the back of her head.
She ignored the millions of thought of what was going to happen once she got back home to her parents.
She ignored the fact that Ross may have been forgetting to do important things for her.
She ignored the fact that it felt like Ross had been ignoring her for the past few weeks.
She ignored the fact that it felt like he'd been disregarding their friendship.
To anyone else, it looked like Ross didn't care. They saw him as a horrible friend. They sometimes didn't understand why Laura put up with him all the time, but that's because they didn't know Ross like she knew him. She knew the real Ross Shor Lynch and she knew that he really was her friend no matter what. He would always be there for her when she needed him the most.
Which is why she needed to be there tonight. For him. Not even for his sibling or anyone else. Just for him. She needed to be there, cheering him on the whole time.
With a new burst of excitement, Laura started bouncing in her seat. She looked out the window into the clear night sky. All the stars were out tonight, but most of them got washed out by the lights of the city. They were playing second fiddle to the many street lamps, light up signs, and car headlights that distracted from the beautiful balls of energy up in the sky.
Laura relaxed, a smile etching it's way onto her face. She smoothed out her dress over her knees and leaned back into her seat. She was gonna enjoy this while she could.
Once the bus reached its destination, Laura still had to walk several blocks to get to Spring's Park where the show was being held.
It was hard to mid it really. It was noisy and rowdy. Colorful lights shone brightly... well, everywhere, on the lawn, up in the sky, in any general direction really. The grass park area was littered with people dancing to the music that was blaring at an ear shattering volume.
Laura pushed through the crowd, which was a really tough task since people were squeezing in pretty tight together. She's sure her hand had accidentally graze over someone's butt in the process and probably many other places too, but hand placement wasn't exactly her main priority when she was trying to find the few people here she actually knew.
She finally managed to make it to the front and she notices Stormie and Mark are standing by a tree just a few yards away from her.
She lets out a sigh of relief and runs toward them, but before she can make it very far, her arm is yanked by a rough hand.
"No ones allowed back there," a man says gruffly. He's tall, an very built, and his hair is so obviously died its not even funny.
"But my friends are back there, and I just wanted to say hi to them."
"Well, say hi from right here because you aren't getting behind the rope," he responds coldly, still grilling onto her arm very rightly.
"It's okay, man. She's with us," Laura looks up at the sound of a familiar voice. She sees Mark pulling the rope up for Laura to get underneath of it.
"No ones allowed back there." He states once again. It seems like that the only sentence he knows.
"Just let her back here. She's family," Mark insists, getting slightly irritated.
The security guard groans loud and frustratedly, before releasing Laura from his hold.
She brushes her arm off and skips happily under the rope, sending an appreciative smile Mark's way.
"Laura!" Stormie says happily. "I didn't know if you were gonna make it or not! I'm so happy you could join us!" She hugs the girl.
"Yeah, I'm here. Sorry I'm a little late," she says.
"Nonsense. You're right on time. The show's just about to start."
Laura nods and stands next Stormie, leaning against the tree.
"It's almost time to go on," Riker says. He and the rest of the group have seemed to appear from out of nowhere.
"Okay, guys. Look who came to cheer you on," Stormie grabs Laura by the shoulders and shake her.
Everyone's smile brightens. "Hey, Laura" "Glad you're here" "Thanks for coming" and so on and so forth. The band all expresses the gratitude in some form before they are all whisked away to the stage.
The announcer introduces the group as R5 and they begin their performance. The whole time Laura claps and cheers. She has a good time singing to the parts of the song that she knows, and even rocking out a little bit.
When there performance is over, they leave and Stormie tells Laura to go off and find them, but after several minutes of looking she has no idea where they've seemed to disappear to.
She pouts, returning to Mark and Stormie and their cozy little tree.
"Couldn't find them?" Stormie asks. She has to shout over the sound of the current performer.
Laura shakes her head. "Uh, no... I don't know where they are.." She tries her best to hide the disappointment in her voice, but she thinks Stormie catches a little bit of it.
"That's okay, sweetie. They'll show up eventually."
But they never do. Not until the end that is.
Almost three hours and 27 performances later and they still don't show up until the very end of the night when suddenly they reappear on stage and are announced the winners.
Laura smiles knowingly. They had killed it that night. The other acts were good, but not as good ad R5.
When everyone returns back to the tree, Stormie begins to interrogate them.
"Where were you guys? We didn't see you all night?"
"We had the best time!" Rydel says giggling. "After we performed were all so high from the performance that we just run around town for a few hours."
"We ended up on the other side of town and found this ice cream place, so we decided to eat there," Riker adds onto the story, breathing heavy and sweating.
"It was awesome!" Ross shouts and he and Rocky high-five. "We ran all the way back here and Rocky and Riker were singing Jonas Brother's songs. Eventually we all were singing them."
"Sounds like you had a fun night." Mark says dryly.
"Why didn't you invite Laura to come along?" Stormie asks innocently, but she's got a harsh undertone to it.
"Oh," Ross says quietly. He sees the girl his mom's her arm wrapped around. She's wearing a smile on her pink lips, but he can see that's just a facade. The smile doesn't reach her eyes and she looks pretty upset.
"Laura, I'm really sorry."
"It's okay, Ross," she shakes her head. She prays that he couldn't her the crack in her voice during that sentence as she swallows down tears. "Really it's fine."
But she doesn't look fine. Ross runs a hand through his hair, feeling like the worst person in the world.
"I just kind of... forgot..." He says lamely.
'Of coarse you did, Ross. Of coarse you did.' Laura clenches her hands tightly into little fists. She lets out a sigh. "It's fine," she lies through her teeth. "I'm a little tired. I just wanna go home."
"Do you need us drive you home, Laura?" Mark asks nicely.
"No, no. That's okay. My parents are gonna come pick me up... I just have to... uh... call them."
Without any other word, Laura rushes off into the night in search of a pay phone. She finds one right next to an old gas station that smells like car oil and greasy hot dogs.
Laura inserts four quarters into the machine, all that's left of her bus money and with a shaky hand dials her mom's cell number. It rings a couple times and she brings it up to her face.
"Hello, hey mom, this is Laura. I need to pick me up. I'm in Colorado Springs..."
…
Somehow, even though she's still incredibly mad at her daughter, Mrs. Marano doesn't cancel her fourteenth birthday party.
This is something Laura is incredibly grateful for, because it'll be a chance to hang out with Ross for what seems like the first time in years.
Ever since that night at the talent show they haven't seen each other very often.
They don't hang out after school as much because Ross always seems to have band practice an even at school they don't see much of each other.
It's not his fault entirely, he's making a lot of new friends lately. Ever since kids at school found out about the talent show, he'd been gaining a lot of new attention and popularity.
Ross was never one to care about if people liked him or not, but now he seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it.
"Don't you get tired of people always coming up to you and talking to you?" Laura asks him one day as they walked home from school.
"Nah, it's kind of cool. It's like I'm a celebrity or something." He laughs.
Laura rolls her eyes. "I don't think you've reached celebrity status quite yet," she jokes. "This is still Littleton. Not Hollywood."
"Who knows," he shrugs. "It could be Hollywood one day."
"Well, I think it's annoying."
"What is?"
"All the attention you're getting. Those people won't give you a moment alone. They followed you to the bathroom even!" She crosses her arms over her chest. "Besides, it's giving you a big head. Your ego certainly didn't need anymore stroking."
"Aw, you're just saying that cause you're jealous." Laura scoffs at his ridiculous assumption. "Don't worry, LaurLaur. You'll always be my favorite friend." He wraps an arm around her shoulder as they continue to stroll down the sidewalk.
"I sure hope so," she murmurs almost in audibly. Laura glances to the side of his face, wondering if he heard her but apparently he didn't because he's got that dreamy look in his eye. He's too far gone into Rossland to be paying any attention to what she's saying anymore.
"You wanna come over to my house and hang out? I haven't seen you in forever!"
"What do you mean? You saw me at school. You're seeing me right now."
"You now what I mean." She swats his chest playfully. "We haven't had any Ross and Laura time in so long."
"Yeah, I know," he replies. Laura smiles. "But I can't today. James is coming over."
"James? Who's James?" The smile wipes off her face.
"He's my friend. We started talking today and he's really cool so he's coming over and we're gonna play video games," Ross says.
"So, you'd rather hang out with your new friend James, than your childhood best friend Laura?" She asks, slightly angry.
"Not 'rather'," he assures her, patting her head gingerly, "it's just that I told James I would before you asked."
"What about my guitar?"
"What guitar? You don't know how to play guitar." He laughs.
"Yeah," she responds dryly, "that's why you were gonna come over. So you could teach me."
"Oh," he says nonchalantly, taking his hands off her shoulder. "Sorry. I forgot."
Laura freezes into her place. Her feet become part of the concrete as Ross continues on eating head of her.
Forgot.
She was really starting to get sick of that word.
That was five days ago. Now it was the night of her birthday and she stood anxiously in front of the full length mirror in her bedroom, looking over herself.
She's wearing a simple black dress and her hair is curled. She's even wearing make-up which is a very "un-Laura" thing for her to do, but she thought "Why not? You only turn fourteen once."
Laura rubs her hands on her knees. For some reason her palms are sweaty and there's a strange feeling in her stomach, but she brushes it off. She's just excited that's all.
"Laura?" Her mom calls from downstairs. "Your guests are arriving."
Laura checks herself over once again and, satisfied with the way she looks, bounces downstairs.
Her living room is full of family members: aunts, uncles, cousins, even two of her grandparents. A few people she knows from school are there too, but Laura doesn't have that many friends. Most of them are more friends of Ross than friends of hers.
Speak of the devil, where is that cray blond she calls her best friend?
She looks around, but his mop of familiar blond hair is no where to be seen. She begins to panic, thinking he's not gonna show up, but soon calms herself down.
"Stay calm," Laura tells herself. She goes into the kitchen in search of a drink. "He'll show up. He's Ross. He's not exactly known for his punctuality."
Laura grabs a bottle of water out of fridge and drinks half of it in one gulp.
She returns to the living room where people come up to her, hugging her and wishing her a happy birthday. She smiles back appreciatively, but there's only one person that she wants to see right now.
Laura slips outside through the front door. The cold autumn air hits her all at once as she opens the door. She's really wishes she had one of Ross's hoodies at the moment.
However cold, Laura sits on one of the rocking chairs on the front porch. She can smell the delicious fragrance coming from the barbecue in the back and it reminds her just how hungry she is.
Laura watches as cars pass by her house. She sighs, slumping in her seat.
A single tear rolls down her cheek, but she wipes it away quickly with the back of her hand.
"He won't forget this time," she whispers into the night air, reassuring herself. She rests her hands on her cold knees and continues to wait.
…
Laura rushes upstairs to her bedroom. She doesn't care if there are a bunch of people downstairs who came there to see her, she doesn't feel in a very party mood anymore.
She almost trips up the stairs in the process, but she manages. Even though she's choking on choking on tears and sobbing uncontrollably. She rushes into her room and slams the door behind, sliding down the door as hot tears run down her cheeks and neck.
She sniffles, hiding her face in her hands and resting her head on her knees.
How could he? How could Ross forget her birthday? After he promised her he wouldn't!
Laura wipes her eyes and nose. Black smudges from her mascara are smeared on her hands and face but she couldn't care less. She gets up off the floor and walks to the mirror.
Staring back at her is a girl she barely recognizes as herself.
She sits cross legged on her bed, the only sound she can hear is the muffled noises from downstairs and her occasional sniff and sob.
She reaches over to her bedside table for a tissue. Sitting on the surface of the table is a picture frame. It's a picture of her and Ross when they were five years old. It had been their first day of kindergarten and they were hugging the life out of each other with huge smiles on their faces. The picture is on a frame that has the words "Friends Forever" on it.
"That couldn't be anymore of a lie!" Laura screams before she throws the picture frame at the wall and watches it shatter to pieces. She breaks out into sobs again and hurls herself into the pile of pillows at the top of her bed, crying loudly until she finally drifts off to sleep.
…
"Laura! Laura wait up!" Ross yells as he chases after the brunette.
"Go away!" She growls back.
"Laura, please! I need to talk to you!"
"I don't want to speak to you, Ross!" She trudges up the front porch stairs and up to the door where she shoves her key in the lock.
"Laura!" He catches up to her and grabs her arm before she can run away.
"Let go of me!" Laura jerks out of his grip and pushes her way inside the house. Ross follows her in quickly.
"Laura, come on, please don't be mad at me," Ross pleads. He follows her into the kitchen where she throws her book ah onto the counter and grabs a go-gurt from the fridge.
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't be mad at you?" Laura desperately tries to get away from him, but he refuses her attempts.
"Because I'm sorry."
"Because you're sorry? You're sorry, Ross? Is that all you have to say!?"
"Isn't that enough?" He swallows thickly.
She shakes her head. "Not this time." Laura runs up the stairs to bedroom and, as she expected, he follows after her.
"Laura, I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry too Ross!" She crosses her arms over her chest and gives him a glare. "I'm sorry I ever thought you were my friend."
Ross gasped. He can't believe she just said that to him. It feels like someone had taken his heart and ripped it in half.
"Laura I know you're mad, but please, just listen to me, okay? I have a good reason."
"You have a good reason?!" She shouts. "You have a good reason for missing my birthday?! My freaking birthday Ross!"
"Laura, I'm getting a record deal! Some record producer saw us perform at the talent show and he wants to sign us!" Ross grins at her and then steps closer to her.
"That's great, Ross." Only she doesn't sound like she thinks its that great.
"Aren't you happy for me?" He asks.
She doesn't say anything, just looks down at her shoes.
"Why are you being such a bitch?"
Her head snaps up at those words. "What did you just say to me?"
"I asked why you were being a bitch." Ross's gaze has hardened. No longer is he apologetic.
"I'm being a bitch?! I'M BEING A BITCH!?"
"You're suppose to be my friend and you're not even happy for me at all! My dreams are coming true over here and all you can think about is yourself!"
Laura shakes her head.
"Get out," she says quietly.
"What?"
"Get the hell out of here, Ross!" She screams, picking up a book off the bookshelf and and throwing it at him.
"You have no idea what a good friend I've been to you for these last few months! I snuck away from my parents just to go to your stupid talent show! I got in serious trouble for you that night and you didn't even pay me any attention! I've been forgiving so much lately. No, screw that, I've been forgiving you my whole entire life because I'm your best friend and I out up with your shit, but I just decided that I couldn't take it anymore! Dot you dare tell me that I'm an awful friend!
"You're the one who forgot my birthday. You're the one who started ignoring me to hang out with people you barely know. You're the one who's been treating me like crap and being and awful friend. Do you even care about our friendship anymore? Do you even care about me anymore?"
"Of coarse I do!" He yells. "You're my best friend in the whole world. You should know that by now. I'm sorry that I've been busy lately and forgot to ask my mom to pick you up, and forgot to teach you how to play guitar, and forgot your birthday."
"But I'm not sorry that I got a record deal. I'm not sorry that I made other friends and I'm definitely not sorry that I get to move to LA so that I never have to be around you again!" Ross shouts at her.
Neither of the two teens can believe what just came out of his mouth. Laura's angry glare turns into a sad gaze as tears well up in the back of her eyes.
Ross has a look of shock on his face, but soon enough it's replace by anger.
"If you were really my friend you wouldn't be jealous of my success. You'd be happy for me no matter what! You're a jealous bitch and I never want to see you again!" He screams.
Laura doesn't even have to push him out of the door because before she has the chance to, Ross walks out of the room, slams the door and runs out of the house as soon as he can, leaving a broken hearted Laura to cry in peace and privacy.
That's the last conversation the two teenagers have before he leaves for Los Angeles.
A/N
It took me all day to write, but it's done!
I don't really know what happened to me today, but it was just kind of one of those days were you're just really upset and frustrated with people and yeah. Basically I just needed to do some therapeutic writing to help me out, but I'm all better now I think. :)
Thanks guys for the reviews. I didn't get very many on the last one, but something's better than noting. Please reviews though because if only a few people review I'll assume you guys don't really like this story. So yeah. If you want me to continue then review.
Kthanxbai!
Morgan :)