by Craft, Maggi
Living with a celebrity was starting to wear on Milly and me. Slayde hadn’t changed one bit, but the way we had to go about life sure had. The paparazzi knew where we lived and showed up all the time, whether Slayde was in town or not. What med student wants to come home to that after class all day? Milly and I started spending more time in our dorm to escape the madness.
One particular day was really bad. Milly and I were going to have a huge test the next morning, and we had been in the library for hours the night before, so we were exhausted. We had decided to stay at the house and were almost home when this freak jumped out of the bushes and started asking where Slayde was and were we still together. He followed us, getting into our personal space and taking pictures, until Milly and I went inside. It was so strange — nobody cared about us.
When we got inside, Milly looked at me. “You think this is going to last forever? Maybe we should move.” She shot me a sincere look of concern, and I had to admit I knew where she was coming from.
When Slayde called on his way home that night, I was already feeling grumpy. It wasn’t that this was his fault, but it was because of him that this was happening. He said, “I think I am just going to stay at my parents’ tonight. I just drove by and it looks like there are paparazzi outside. I’m tired and don’t feel like dealing with that tonight.”
I had already been close to my boiling point, and that was it for me. “Are you freaking kidding me?” I shouted. “You don’t want to deal with it? What about me? What about Milly? We didn’t ask for this, Slayde, and we don’t have the luxury of going to stay at our parents’.”
“You can stay at the dorm.”
Oh my gosh, is he that stupid? “You’re right. That’s exactly what we are going to do. You just do what you gotta do, and I’ll see you around.” I hung up.
Milly came in. “What was that about? You guys don’t fight.”
I looked at her like she was nuts. “Yes, we do. We just don’t usually do it that loud.”
“So, what did he say that made you get that loud?” I summarized our conversation and she laughed. “OK, he deserved that. But maybe he has a point. Maybe we should stay at the dorm full-time for a little while. I’m tired of this shit every day.”
I was too, but I felt like I was leaving Slayde, and I didn’t want that. I loved living with him. “I don’t know what I want to do, but tomorrow night I am definitely staying there.”
I felt my phone vibrate on the bed beside me. It was Slayde, and I cut it off. I wasn’t in the mood for this, and I knew he would eventually get me to forgive him if I had to talk to him, so I just chose to stay mad.
I should have known that he wasn’t going to let it go, and about two hours later, when we were reading in my bed, he came home.
“Thought you were staying at your mommy and daddy’s,” Milly said.
He ignored her sarcastic tone. “I changed my mind.”
“How nice of you to decide to slum it here with us,” she said.
“Shut up, Milly,” he said and went to take a shower. I never looked up from my notes until he shut the bathroom door.
Milly started laughing quietly and rolled over on her back. She whispered, “I knew he’d come home.”
I rolled my eyes and just shook my head. I had known he would too, which was partly why I hadn’t answered his calls. “Well, since he’s staying, let’s go to your room and study.”
We gathered all the books and notebooks that we’d spread out on my bed and carried them to Milly’s room, where we began to reassemble our workspace on her bed. We had just gotten it all back the way we had had it when Slayde opened the door. “Can I talk to you for a minute?” he asked.
“Sure, what do you need?” Milly asked.
He ignored her. I could see he was pissed, and I got up and followed him to our room. “What’s your deal?” he asked, once I’d shut the door.
“My deal? Seriously, I know you aren’t that dense.”
“I just didn’t want to deal with it, Arden, that’s it. It wasn’t personal.”
“Well, I totally understand, and Milly and I have decided that we don’t want to deal with it either, so we won’t be staying here for a while.”
I started to leave and go back to Milly when he grabbed my arm. “Are you serious?” He wasn’t trying to fight anymore; he was upset, and he had started chewing on his cheek. “So, you’re leaving me? Moving out?”
Taking a deep breath, I said, “No, I just need some space. We — Milly and I — just need some space.”
“From me?”
“From your life, Slayde.”
“Well, that worries me, because you are my life.”
“Well, right now I feel like an accessory to your life, and I really don’t like it.”
“But you said you were OK with me doing this. I thought you supported me.”
“Supporting you and being harassed because of it are two different things. I don’t like not being able to walk into my house.”
“OK, then stay at the dorm a while. Can I come stay too?”
“They will just follow you. What would be the point?”
“So, what then? We aren’t living together anymore?”
“Let me get through these tests, please, and then I’ll stay here when you’re here. You can come get me.”
“What about Milly?”
“I don’t know. That’s up to her, but right now she’s got to make a B on this test, so we have to study.”
“Are you sleeping in there with her?”
“I doubt we will be sleeping at all. The test is tomorrow.”
“Well, good luck.” He pulled me to him and kissed me. “Good night.” I went back to study.
*****
For the next few months, that’s what we did. Milly and I stayed at the dorm unless Slayde was in town, and he would come and get us.
I was getting ready to start my internship, and I was completely stressed out. I had no time for anything. Slayde was home less and less often, and it was beginning to bother me. I knew that he missed me and would rather be home with me, but he had a commitment to his career and couldn’t do anything about it.
He was flying all over the world, promoting his movie and doing interviews and talk show appearances, and sometimes he would be home for less than twelve hours at a time. I supposed that was better than nothing, but I wondered how much longer I could live like this. Of course I joined him whenever I could, but I only had so much free time, and tagging along with him down a red carpet while people screamed his name and took photos was about as fun as a bad day in hell.
I was in a bad place. I couldn’t imagine life without Slayde, but at the same time, I felt like I was already living my life without him. I had put more than eight years into school, and I wasn’t going to stop now, no matter how successful Slayde became. I still had my own dreams. He had mentioned more than once that he wished I would take a break from school and go with him, but he didn’t push the issue. He knew how important my future career was to me. However, sometimes I wished I could do just that.
We had a big test to study for, and I decided to pull an all-nighter at the dorm. Our normal little group showed up, and we buckled down for a long night of studying. When we were about an hour into it, Eric showed up. “Hey, is there room for one more? I’m having a hard time and need some help.”
Everyone looked at me. He looked so humble — I couldn’t tell him no. “Of course you can.” I shot him a genuine “glad to see you” smile. He smiled back but quickly looked away. Eric and I were still in many of the same classes, but we hadn’t spoken since the night I saw him in the bar.
I had gotten so into the study session that I jumped when my phone rang. It was Slayde. When I stood to go into the bathroom to talk, Eric cut his eyes at me for a second and then looked back at his notes.
“Hey, babe, what are you doing?” Slayde asked.
“Studying, what else?”
“Where are you?”
�
��What do you mean, where am I? Where are you?” Slayde wasn’t supposed to be home for three more days, and I couldn’t remember which city he was in.
“I’m at the house. I’m coming to get you.”
“I didn’t know you were coming home tonight. But I told you I had a major test to study for. I can’t come home right now. I’m in the middle of an all-night cram session.”
“Baby, you don’t need to study — come home. You can study here with me. Is it anatomy? We can start there.” He laughed. His offer sounded very tempting, but it would be totally crappy to leave everyone hanging.
“You know I can’t do that.”
“I haven’t seen you in a week, and I miss you. Please come home.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to, but this test is important. I just can’t do it tonight. I’m sorry.”
“All right, but I’m leaving in the morning. I guess I will see you in a few days. Have a good study group.” As he hung up, his disappointment rang in my ears.
Great, now I wasn’t going to be good for anything. How could I study, knowing Slayde was less than a mile away? I hadn’t seen him in a week, and I really wanted to see him. Maybe I could just run to the house for a minute.
Milly came to the bathroom door. “Is everything all right? We need you in here.”
I paused. “I guess so. Slayde’s at the house, and he wants me to come home.”
“Are you going?” she asked.
“No!” I knew she would know how disappointed I was.
“Maybe we can take a break in a little while, and you can sneak off to see him.” Giving me a big smile, she pulled me out of the bathroom.
We studied for about another hour before we decided to take a break. As soon as I got to the house, I ran into our room and jumped on the bed. Slayde must have heard me come in, because I didn’t scare him. He smiled and pulled me under the covers and kissed me.
“Are you surprised?” I asked.
“Delightfully. I was just lying here, pouting.”
“I figured you were. It was kind of hard to study knowing you were so close. I had to come see you.”
“I guess I should have told you I was coming home. I just wanted to surprise you. I wish you would hurry up and finish school already,” he groaned.
“Well, baby, as soon as I finish school, I will be an intern and have even less time. I will spend up to seventy-two hours straight at the hospital sometimes.”
“You know you really don’t have to work. Why isn’t being a trophy wife good enough for you?” He was laughing. He knew what I thought about that.
“Why don’t you stay home and let me take care of you. Huh?” I started tickling him. He was so ticklish, and I loved to torture him. It never took him long to overpower me and get away, but I still enjoyed it while it lasted.
Once he got away, he immediately pulled me back to him and started kissing me. We made love before I went back to study, and I really wanted to stay and sleep next to him.
I thought he was asleep when I got up to leave, so I tried to sneak out.
“Hey, baby.” I stopped and looked back at him. “I love you. Good luck on your test tomorrow,” he said.
“I love you too. Call me when your plane lands.” Kissing his head, I headed out the door.
On the way back to the dorm, I couldn’t help but think about how easy life would be if I just quit school and went with him. I wondered if we would get sick of each other. We hardly ever fought about anything big, and we couldn’t keep our hands off of each other when we were together. But would that still be true if we saw each other every day? Those were things I really didn’t want to change.
Everyone had gone back to studying when I got back to the dorm. I guess I had been gone a little longer than I expected. I tried to slip in, but Milly and Eric both looked up. Milly gave me a knowing look and winked at me. Eric, on the other hand, gave me a cold stare and dismissed me. The others hadn’t even noticed me come in.
We crammed in another few hours of studying before we finally decided to call it a night. The sun would be up soon, but I still had a few hours before my test, so I decided to go get in bed with Slayde if he was still there.
Slayde was in the shower when I got to the house, so I lay on the bed to wait for him, and I fell asleep there. I woke up to him shaking me. It was daylight. “What are you doing, baby? Don’t you have a test?” he asked.
“Oh, hey,” I yawned. “Yeah, but I have a little time.” Yawning again, I put my hand over my mouth. I felt something heavy on my finger. I held my hand up to see what it was and almost passed out. It was a huge diamond ring. When I looked up at Slayde, he was down on his knee.
“A, I know we haven’t always had the easiest relationship, and I’m sure it will get more difficult at times. But I don’t care how hard it gets — I just want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me?”
I started crying — big surprise. I couldn’t speak. I looked from my hand to Slayde and back to my hand again. I guess the time I was taking was making him nervous.
“Arden?”
I remembered he was waiting on an answer.
“Of course I will marry you.” I jumped off the bed and wrapped my body around him, and we fell to the floor.
I made it into the classroom just as the professor was handing out the test, so I didn’t have time to tell Milly or Karen about Slayde’s proposal. I raced through my test — I knew I would ace it — and then sat outside to wait for Milly.
She came out of the class a few minutes after me and ran right up to me like she knew what had happened. She put her arm around me. “So, how did you do on the test?” She gave me a big smile. She didn’t care about the test; she was bad at pretending.
I picked up my hand to show her my ring. I knew she had seen the ring before I had. She squealed, and we jumped up and down. “I love it, Arden. It’s the most gorgeous ring I have ever seen.”
“I know it is. I love it.” I couldn’t hide my excitement. “You knew, didn’t you?”
“Me? No — OK, maybe.” She laughed. “After you came back so quickly last night, I wasn’t sure what had happened. I thought he had decided to wait. He was so nervous. As if you would have said no.”
“Geez, Milly, how long have you known about this?” I asked.
“A month or so, I guess. Can you believe I was able to keep a secret from you that long? It was exhausting.”
“What exactly did you know? When and what did he tell you?” I wanted to know every detail.
“A month ago, he came home when you were studying, and I met him for supper.”
“And left me at the house?” I asked.
“Duh!” She looked at me like I was stupid. “Anyway. I knew something was up. He asked me if I thought you would freak out, and he showed me the ring. I thought if you did freak out, I would marry him so that rock wouldn’t go to waste. He said he was planning on taking you back to Paris for a weekend to do it, but your schedules never allowed for it. Last time he was home, he came into my room when you were in the shower and said he couldn’t wait any longer. He didn’t know what he was going to do yet, but he would figure it out. He was still scared you might say no. So, how did he do it?”
Milly and I went to grab some lunch, and I told her the whole story. I was happy about the way he had done it. I didn’t need Paris. I was totally surprised and delightfully happy.
Once word got out that Slayde and I were engaged, it was all over the tabloids. Every time we went to lunch or on a date, we were hounded by the paparazzi. It seemed like everyone had an opinion on everything that was no one’s business but ours. They said that my ring was too big and flashy and that we were too young, and people wondered if he was going to make me sign a prenup and if the marriage would ruin his career. Those people were relentless. It was like a sickness. I was going insane.
It got to where I wasn’t able to go anywhere at all except class and back. Campus security wasn’t having any of it, so the pa
parazzi usually stayed away from campus. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when Milly and I went out for groceries and came out to find her car surrounded. We had to go back inside, have someone let us out the back door, and drive us home. I couldn’t believe this was happening. I didn’t understand why they were there when Slayde wasn’t even with me. It was starting to scare me a little. This was worse than them coming by the house. They’d multiplied and were all up in our faces. At least when we were just dealing with them at the house, we could still get in the house. Being blocked from our car was not OK.
When I got back to my dorm, I called Slayde to tell him what had happened. I knew he was going to feel bad, but I didn’t care. I was sick of all of this.
“Baby, I will send someone to walk with you to class and go to town with you and stuff until this dies down,” Slayde said.
“That isn’t a solution. I didn’t sign up for this. Why do these people give a crap what I do? Or what I look like with no makeup on? I’m no one special. I’m not the celebrity here — you are. Don’t people have lives of their own? I’m minding my own business, and I just want to be left alone. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.” I felt like my life wasn’t my own anymore, like I was always being watched. It wasn’t fair, and it made me angry. I hadn’t signed up for this.
“Are you saying you want me to leave you alone?” He sounded a little snappy, but I didn’t care.
“You know what I’m saying, Slayde. Don’t put words into my mouth. I can’t talk about this anymore. I’m late for class.” I hung up.
Milly and I didn’t go to the house anymore if Slayde wasn’t there, and Milly wouldn’t have gone at all if I hadn’t guilt-tripped her into it. It wasn’t all working out the way we had planned when we first moved in together. I had envisioned getting to play house and test the waters on all of this marriage stuff he always talked about, while still having my best friend right there. I thought we would have friends over to study and cook out. But now, no one wanted to come over and deal with all of this mess. None of our real friends, anyway. Apparently that was just the price we had to pay for being a part of his life. I loved him with all of my heart, and I knew I didn’t want anyone in this world but him, but sometimes I wondered what our lives would have been like if he hadn’t become “Jake Brandon,” if he hadn’t become famous. I had thought he was pretty special before anyone knew who he was, and now that the whole world thought he was special too, it didn’t seem so great anymore. I would never let him know that I felt that way, but I hated sharing him with everyone else. I wanted him all to myself, and he would have felt the same way if he were me.