"Being a teen heartthrob, you must have a lot of girls throw themselves at you. Have you ever been in love with anyone though?
The insufficiently-dressed reporter, who was wearing way too much makeup, waited eagerly for Austin's response to her question.
We had twelve media outlets come in to interview Austin for his press junket. This reporter wasn't exactly a reporter, she was the president of Austin's fan club in New York, so she was invited to do an interview with him for the benefit of her fan club members.
C'mon Austin, you know what to say. We've only gone through this question a trillion times…
"Nah, I haven't met the one yet. I'm still keeping my options open, y'know?" he said, spreading his arms out on the couch and winking at the reporter.
Perfect.
You would think that I would be heartbroken by that statement, seeing how I wanted to be Austin's One. Well, I already knew that I was but he hadn't asked me out so we weren't officially a couple. Hopefully we will soon, though.
Anyway, Adam decided that Austin had to portray himself as a single man in order to be more appealing to his female fans. Every celebrity had their fair share of pretending to do in order to create their own image and repuation. Some had to fake their sexual orientation, some had to hide the fact that they had their own booty calls and pretend to be America's Sweetheart, some had to pretend to be drug addicts… It was all part and parcel of being famous.
Honestly though, who would be a fan of a cute guy who was taken? Odds are, they would lose out to the 'single' guys. Being publically in a relationship was a step one was allowed to take only after their career was stabilized and had a strong foundation. Seeing that Austin was still dubbed a 'one-hit wonder' and he didn't even have a proper studio album out yet, it was too big of a risk for him to take.
Hence, he had a lot of pretending and lying to do for now.
"We had your fans make a scrapbook for you to welcome you to New York. Wanna take a look?" she asked, scavenging her beige Kate Spade purse for the scrapbook.
After browsing through the scrapbook, Austin thanked her and promised to tweet everyone who had contributed to it. That was genuine. Austin genuinely cared for his fans.
And then there were the archetypal interview questions like "What is your favorite color?" and "What's your favorite sports team?" and "Who would you like to collaborate with?" I know those questions are important, but can't the interviewers phrase the questions in a more fun and intriguing way? I could tell that Austin was getting bored with answering the same old questions with the same old answers.
Some reporters over-extended their stay at the press junket. Guys, I know Austin is an amazing guy and yes, he's definitely dreamy, but fifteen minutes means fifteen minutes. We only had three hours for the press junket and Austin's schedule was really tight.
Because of reporters arriving late and taking too much time, everything was pushed back and we only checked in to our hotel at one in the morning and we had to get up for the sound check at six a.m.
Thanks a lot, everyone.
Our entire team was visibly exhausted the next day. It had been exceptionally hard on Austin. Between memorizing interview answers and rules, dance moves, lyrics and juggling rehearsals and long meetings, he was both physically and mentally drained. The show was taking place that night and he was going to meet his biggest fan, AKA the promoter's daughter AKA Chantel, right before the show. We had to cancel the dinner date due to the delays the previous day but we made it up to Chantel by giving her backstage passes, where she could not only meet Austin, but also big-name stars like One Direction and Selena Gomez.
Austin and I were back to normal. After the hug we shared upon our arrival to New York, all the tension between us just went away and we were back to square one: being BFFs. I've never been so relieved to be just friends with Austin. Sure, I really wanted to be his girlfriend, but the threat of losing him as a friend was more painful than the pain of not getting to be his significant other.
"Is it just me, or is the moon actually out in broad daylight?" Austin asked groggily, pointing up to the sky. We had a long break – after a tiresome sound check in the morning, we got eight hours off to explore New York before we had to send Austin to hair & make-up for the show. We had two more days to explore New York so we decided to just walk back to the hotel for a nap.
Everyone tilted their heads up to the sky to look for the moon but we couldn't find it.
"Yeah, it's just you, mate," Adam said, pinching his twin's arm to wake him up. If Austin was fatigued to the point that he was hallucinating, how on earth was he going to play the show? That was exactly why we needed to get back to the hotel ASAP for our nap.
"Oh, sweet relief!" Austin yelled as he entered our six-star hotel through its revolving doors, clinging on to the door handle for dear life.
I chuckled and shook my head as I watched him go round and round the revolving doors.
Ladies and gentlemen, presenting to you the guy I'm in love with.
I woke up at four p.m. to find Trish gone from our hotel room. She was probably over at the guys' room with her boyfriend. Austin's limo was scheduled to arrive at five p.m. so we were well ahead of time. We were going in separate batches – Austin, Trish and Adam were going first as they were needed for pre-show stuff and Dez and I would be going at six p.m., just an hour before Austin's set began.
After going into the bathroom to freshen up, I proceeded to the dresser to check my phone. It was then that I noticed a small velvet box lying on top of the dresser.
There was a post-it stuck on top of the box with the word 'ALLY' neatly imprinted on it. Curious, I opened the box carefully as if it would blow up anytime. Hey, I was in New York, I had to take extra precautions.
I gasped when I saw a silver necklace with a heart-shaped pendant hanging down from it. The pendant was silver on the outside and bright red on the inside and I noticed that it was glowing in the sunlight that was coming in from the window next to the dresser.
It was breathtakingly beautiful. I thought necklaces like that only existed in films.
And that's when I noticed that engraved on the heart-shaped pendant was: 'A&A'. Oh, Austin…
Underneath the lid of the box was a note, which I hastily picked up to read.
Dear Ally,
I hope you read my diary. I'm really sorry for blowing up at you the other day, my emotions just got the better of me. Just in case you didn't read my diary, here goes:
I'm in love with you.
I love you so much, you don't even know how much I love you. It's… ugh I can't even find the words to say it. I don't think the word 'love' alone can do justice to the magnitude of my feelings for you.
I got this necklace specially made for you when we were 14. I was going to give it to you on our birthday that year and ask you out, but I chickened out. I've been meaning to give this to you for ages but I never really got the chance to. I guess I'm just a gutless loser who can't even tell the girl he loves that he loves her face-to-face…
I hope you like it and I'll see you at the show!
Love,
Austin
I turned into an emotional wreck again after reading Austin's note. That was the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for me! He just… I can't… He… Well, Austin Monica Moon has left me speechless once again.
When I arrived backstage at the venue, I was immediately ushered into the green room, where Austin was having a meet and greet session with Chantel. I was to keep an eye on them to make sure that everything went smoothly and Chantel didn't do anything she wasn't supposed to do.
"And I was like, bitch, how can you not know who Austin Moon is? Like hello, he's the hottest guy to ever walk the planet!" Chantel shrieked, recounting an encounter with someone who clearly did not know who Austin was.
Austin nodded and smirked, obviously enjoying Chantel's attention and loving the way she fawned over him just like all his fans did.
"And that's when I reached into her shirt and pulled out her fake boobs."
Well, I did not see that something. Austin was stunned as well, his eyes went wide as he stared at her in astonishment for a few seconds. He turned towards me and mouthed, "Save me!"
I smirked as I pointed to my watch and gestured to let him know that he had fifteen minutes left with Chantel.
Fifteen painful minutes later, Austin was finally called onto the side-stage to get ready for his show. I had fallen asleep while watching over them but I vaguely recalled Chantel telling Austin about how excited she got when he followed her on Twitter and also telling him about how she dumped her boyfriend for him.
Cool.
"I'll talk to daddy about the favor. I'm sure he'll want to help out," Chantel promised as she hugged him before leaving the green room.
What favor? Huh? What'd I miss?
Austin beamed and waved goodbye to her.
As soon as the door was closed, he turned towards me and made an expression with his face that resembled the man in The Scream, earning him a laugh from me.
He was about to say something to me before Adam came in and instructed Austin to go to the side-stage. I bid him goodbye and good luck with a hug. I stayed in the green room to start up my laptop and stuff (I was in charge of live-tweeting Austin's show) and settle some final things before the show.
I heard two knocks on the door before it swung open to reveal my favorite Latina, Trish. "Five minutes to show-time Ally, let's go," she reminded. I nodded as I gathered all my stuff and proceeded to the side of the stage.
When I reached the side-stage, I saw Austin peeking at the audience through the stage entrance. He had just finished his entire plate of pancakes (that's his pre-show ritual – he says that he shoots some hoops as a pre-show ritual in interviews but really, all he does is eat five pieces of pancakes with a hundred grams of Grade A Canadian maple syrup and a slap of butter and sugar on the top) and he was doing some last-minute vocal warm-ups.
"Austin Moon, you're on!" the producer said as he pointed Austin to the stage.
"Good luck, liger. Knock their socks off," I said with a smile as I hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. He thanked me and everyone subsequently wished him good luck. He glanced at Chantel for a moment and he looked extremely relieved when she winked and gave him a thumbs-up and an a-okay sign.
"You know him from Youtube, where his first single "Double Take" went viral on the internet. The overnight sensation – or rather, the over-two-nights sensation, as he likes to call himself – will be performing exclusive tracks from his self-titled debut EP which was just released last week. Please join me in welcoming to the stage our first performer of the night, Austin Moon!"
Show-time.