Star Crossed Collection

by Campbell, Jamie

  Cole was actually pretty good in the kitchen. He told me stories of the food the boys lived on when they were on the road. Sometimes they would have to grab food whenever they could, which meant cooking two minute noodles on the tour bus at three a.m. in the morning.

  Time flew past, and before I knew it, we were sitting around the table eating dinner. It was lasagna with vegetables, one of my favorites.

  “So, Cole, how long do you plan on staying with us?” Dad asked. I was curious to know the answer too. They’d obviously already had the discussion about sleeping arrangements.

  “Only a few days, sir. I promise I won’t outstay my welcome,” Cole replied.

  “The study is yours. Make sure I never find you in any of the other rooms, okay?”

  I wanted to bury my head so I didn’t feel as embarrassed as I did at that moment. My father was never what you’d call subtle. He said things like he saw them, especially when my boyfriend was involved.

  “No, sir, of course.” Cole looked at his lasagna like it was suddenly very interesting.

  I shot Dad a look that hopefully conveyed how appalled I was that he was asking questions like that. We were having dinner, he didn’t have to start talking about what Cole and I might get up to.

  Jemma looked on, her head moving between us like we were all playing a game of tennis and she was the ball girl. She was still a little star struck to join in the conversation.

  Dad continued, completely ignorant of my purposeful look. “Good, good. I wouldn’t want to have to turn you out. What are your intentions with my daughter?”

  “Dad!”

  “It’s a fair question.”

  “We’re not in the 1950s. We don’t need to be talking about this.”

  “No, it’s okay,” Cole said, interrupting what would have been a big lecture. “Sir, my intentions with your daughter are to be someone to listen to her when she needs to talk, to give her a shoulder to cry on when she feels sad, and the person she can count on when she needs someone.”

  His answers were like song lyrics. My heart skipped a beat as he spoke. If I was standing, my knees would have given out on me.

  All I wanted to do was kiss him and tell him how much I loved him. But it would have to wait for later.

  Dad cleared his throat. “Okay then.”

  I smiled at Cole as he stole a glance my way. The conversation drifted to other things so we could all breathe a sigh of relief. I loved my father for being protective and everything, but he didn’t need to embarrass me so much.

  After dinner, we loaded the dishwasher and cleared things away. Dad settled in front of the television with Jemma.

  I grabbed Cole’s hand. “Come with me.”

  He followed me outside to the backyard where we sat on the edge of the porch. The sky was shimmering with stars, all twinkling and alive, bright and beautiful.

  Cole’s arm rested on the floor behind me, just far enough away not to infuriate my dad but close enough that I could snuggle into his embrace.

  “Thanks for visiting me,” I started. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

  “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I’ve missed you so much. A weekend here and there just doesn’t seem to be enough.”

  “I know what you mean.” Silence drifted over us again but it wasn’t awkward in the least. I could sit for hours with Cole and not need to say anything. Our souls connected without words.

  “It’s been really hard this week,” Cole said quietly while his gaze was still on the sky. “It feels like Luke betrayed us and left us hanging without an explanation.”

  “Have the media been really terrible?” My memory from that morning made me shudder. I hoped they wouldn’t return again tomorrow.

  “The worst. They keep telling all these lies and just making up stories. It’s upsetting our fans and that’s the last thing we want. Scott is trying to get rid of all the false stories but it’s practically impossible.”

  I placed my hand on his leg and squeezed his knee, letting him know I was there for him. The weight of his problems were weighing on him heavily, like a burden he wore on his shoulders.

  “Are you still going to make the new album?” I asked. Making music was Cole’s favorite thing to do in the world. Anything that threatened his time in the studio was epic.

  “I hope so. The record label isn’t happy about Luke leaving so we can’t do anything until they agree for us to continue on with just the four of us.”

  “They will though, right? I mean, they wouldn’t just cancel it, surely.” As a fan, I was panicked. As Cole’s girlfriend, I was angry.

  “I hope so. If we lose our record label it will be more bad publicity and another label might not be game enough to take us on.” Cole sighed and I could tell how his thoughts must all be churning in his head.

  I placed my head on his shoulder and we looked up at all the stars. Maybe if we wished on the right one we’d all have our dreams come true.

  Chapter Nine

  The next day I had to go to school. It was extremely difficult not telling anyone that Cole was visiting me. The only person I let it slip to was Dallas and she swore not to tell anyone.

  Cole stayed home all day, insisting a day watching daytime soaps on the television was exactly what he needed. I didn’t believe him but I had to go to school so I left him to it.

  Thankfully, the weekend arrived and I finally had a day off to spend with him. When breakfast was done with, I took his hand. “Today you’re getting a tour of Meadowbrook. It’s going to be amazing.”

  Cole’s eyebrows arched upwards. “Amazing, hey? That’s a pretty big call.”

  “Oh, you just wait and see.” I couldn’t get the smile off my face. Having Cole all to myself for a week was enough to make me giddy. We’d already wasted one day with school, the next two days I was going to make count.

  The media had stayed away from my house since the visit from the cops so we could leave without anyone recognizing Cole. I drove downtown, which was really within walking distance but I didn’t want to risk it.

  Cole had shown me around his hometown once before. I’d seen where he lived, where he went to school, and his favorite places to hang out. He’d already been to my school so I wanted to show him everywhere else.

  I started with the church because it was probably the nicest building in all of Meadowbrook. The spires were taller than most places and the gardens were spectacular, thanks to a team of volunteers.

  “I was christened in that church, Jemma was too. My parents were married there,” I said while Cole looked suitably impressed.

  “How long were your parents together before they split?”

  “About eight years.” I shifted with discomfort but tried to hide it. I didn’t like talking about my mother in any capacity. As far as I was concerned, I would rather erase all traces of her from my memory.

  Cole squeezed my hand and we continued on. His parents had died in a car accident only a few years ago so he was trying desperately to hold on to his memories of them.

  Families were tough things to be a part of.

  We explored the town on foot for the remainder of the tour. Cole was wearing a baseball cap but had refused the dark sunglasses, claiming he didn’t want to be a stereotype and that it was always the sunglasses that gave away a hiding celebrity.

  Nobody really paid that much attention to us so we could move about without hordes of people chasing Cole for a photo or autograph.

  He remembered Burger Nation, the place we had first met. I did not miss working at the burger bar. I was still to get a new job since I quit but I was trying to. Nobody much in Meadowbrook was hiring at this time of the year.

  We rounded a corner because I wanted to stop for an iced latte but we didn’t get very far. I grabbed Cole and took off in the opposite direction. “We need to get out of here,” I muttered.

  Cole was confused but I didn’t give him any room to protest. I practically ran out of the line of shops and did not turn around.<
br />
  “What’s wrong?” Cole asked repeatedly. I zipped my lips until I was satisfied I was far enough away from the reason I had fled.

  I was puffed by the time we stopped – a good four blocks away. “I saw someone I didn’t want to.”

  “Who? Is everything okay?” He was concerned, which was so cute. Unfortunately, I couldn’t fully appreciate it in the moment.

  He kept asking the same questions, I wasn’t going to get out of answering them. “I saw my mother.” She had aged since I last saw her so long ago but her image was burned into my head.

  I would have recognized my mother anywhere.

  “Your mom? I thought she left and disappeared.”

  “She did. She contacted my dad last week, I guess she decided to show up out of the blue, too.”

  “Are you okay about this? I know your relationship with her is pretty much non-existent.”

  I didn’t want to talk about it, but I did at the same time. A part of me wanted to keep everything to do with my mother in a tight little ball at the back of my head. I wanted to wrap a chain around that little ball and throw away the key.

  On the other hand, I wanted answers. I wanted to know why she left us, what I’d done that was so awful that she didn’t want anything to do with me anymore. Me, her own daughter.

  I’d kept her locked up so tightly in my mind that it was hard letting it out now. A part of me really did want it out, it was painful holding on to the hurt and anger inside of me.

  I walked a few more steps to reach Centenary Park and slumped onto a bench. Cole sat next to me. “You don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to. I’ll understand.”

  “It’s not okay,” I replied. “I’m not okay with anything related to my mother. I don’t understand why she wants to talk to us after all this time. I don’t know what she wants to do with us. She’s only going to leave again, that’s what she does.”

  “You don’t have to see her, Mel. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.” It was nice having that reminder. Nicer still knowing Cole was on my side, no matter what I decided.

  “I don’t think I could handle losing her again.”

  Cole pulled me into a hug and I let his warm arms around me take away the pain. It had been a shock seeing my mother in a place that she had no right to be. This was my town, she lost the right to be here when she walked out and never came back.

  “Oh my God.” Why was I hearing Dallas’s voice?

  I pulled out of Cole’s wonderful hug to see my best friend standing just a foot away, one hand covering her mouth. “What are you doing here?” I asked. “Cole, you remember my best friend Dallas?”

  “Hey,” Cole said.

  “On my God,” Dallas repeated. “Fancy running into you two here? I can’t believe it.”

  “Really? You’re pretending you didn’t trace my phone?” Dallas had thought it was a really great idea to be able to track each other down with our cell phone apps. So far she had only used it for evil instead of good.

  Dallas wasn’t really paying me any attention, her eyes were stuck on Cole. “It’s really you.”

  She’d met Cole before, briefly. She hadn’t exactly played it cool then, either. She took a step forward and actually poked Cole with her finger just to make sure he was real. I was used to having people faint when they met Cole, but I wasn’t used to having my best friend go all fangirl over my boyfriend.

  “Did you want something, Dallas?” I asked, trying to prompt her into speaking like a normal human being. Cole was being good about it.

  Dallas’s eyes flicked to me before going back to Cole. She seemed to get back to her usual self again. “I’m so glad I ran into you two. Do you want to grab some lunch or coffee or anything else together? Have you looked around town, because I can show you? I’ve lived here my whole life and I know where everything is.”

  “Melrose has been my tour guide this morning,” Cole replied jovially. “But thanks for the offer. It’s good to see you again, Dallas.”

  “Oh, right.” She blushed, her whole face turning a shade of red. “I’m doing great, Cole. It’s so good that you’ve come here to support Melrose during this trying time. All those internet trolls have been awful to her. It’s so bad and a girl needs to be able to go online, you know?”

  Panic mode locked in. “Maybe we’ll see you later, Dal. We have to go.”

  I tugged on Cole’s hand but he was standing like a brick building. “What are the internet trolls doing to Melrose?” he asked Dallas.

  Come on ground, open up and swallow me whole. Just this once, please?

  “They’re blaming her for the breakup of Two Dimension. It’s horrible the things they are saying about her.”

  Chapter Ten

  “Dallas!”

  She finally realized she had said too much and her big mouth was about to get her into trouble. “I should go. Talk to you later, guys. Melrose, call me.”

  Dallas walked backwards before she slipped around the corner. I wanted to strangle her for telling Cole about the trolls. I didn’t want him worrying about me when he was going through so much himself.

  I knew the chances of Cole dropping the subject were about zero to none. I went on the defensive. “It’s not as bad as she’s making out. Dallas likes to exaggerate, really.”

  “How do they think you’re to blame?” Cole asked. His tone was a mixture of anger and hurt.

  “The general theory is that Luke and I don’t get along. Because you and I are together, they think it’s causing problems and the band has to split up,” I confessed.

  “None of that is true. We aren’t even breaking up.”

  “I know, which is why I never said anything. When they see the band still together, they’ll stop blaming me and get over it.” The chances of that happening were also about zero to none. Luke wasn’t coming back, which meant I would always be blamed for Two Dimension only having four members.

  Cole pulled out his cell phone and started tapping on the screen. “I’ll get this sorted out. Scott will need to release a statement that will state you have nothing to do with our current situation.”

  “No, Cole, don’t. It will only feed the trolls. The best thing I can do is just ignore all the comments. I’ll stay offline, they can’t hurt me if I don’t see the remarks.” I gently placed my hand on his arm and pulled away his phone.

  “You shouldn’t have to stay offline, Mel. They have no right to hurt you.”

  “If I get upset, then they’ve hurt me. I refuse to let them get to me.”

  Cole pulled me into another hug and kissed my forehead. “I hate the thought of them being nasty to you. If it wasn’t for me none of this would be happening.”

  “Hey, don’t blame yourself. I’m tough, I can handle it, okay?”

  He sighed. “You shouldn’t have to handle it.”

  “You’re worth it.”

  We hugged for a long time and it felt like I was strong enough to handle it all. Being with Cole was easy, I loved him with every piece of me. But dealing with all his fans were another story.

  “I’m still going to release a statement,” Cole said. I pulled back from his hug. “It will help, Mel. And I’m always going to do something if you’re being bullied. I’m never going to let anyone hurt you.”

  I nodded and gave in. Maybe it would help, perhaps the trolls would listen.

  Maybe miracles happened.

  Cole released the statement that night. It wasn’t so much an official band announcement, more a blog entry on their website. Cole wrote it himself and Scott approved it and then put it up on the website.

  Within minutes, there were hundreds of thousands of views. Cole’s plea to understand that I had nothing to do with Luke’s departure went viral. It circled around the world in record time.

  Only time would tell if it had any effect or not. I wasn’t planning on going online to check. Social media sites were my enemies unless I was feeling resolutely strong.

  By Mond
ay, the media had caught on that Cole was in town. Cameras and reporters were camped out on our street waiting for the magic picture of him. If we were together, then they’d get bonus points.

  We had to sneak over the back fence and cross through our neighbor’s yard if we wanted to go somewhere. No matter how many times we called the police, the media wouldn’t leave. They were technically on public property so they could apparently stay as long as they wanted.

  By Wednesday, they worked out we were escaping through the back fence and started camping out in the next street over, too.

  The only time I braved the cameras was to go to school. Cole was never in those pictures so they didn’t really bother to take photos of me with the same backpack every day.

  Cole largely remained at home while I was at school. He kept insisting it wasn’t boring because he never got to laze around normally but I didn’t see how it could be anything but boring.

  Still, Cole was happy to have a rest and he was always waiting by the door for me when I came home. It was one of the best weeks of my life. To know Cole would be waiting with open arms made me count the hours until school finished.

  By Saturday it was time to say goodbye. The week had passed so quickly. No amount of time with Cole would ever truly be enough. One week was a miracle so I cherished every second of it.

  Dad shook Cole’s hand. “It was good to have you. You are welcome to stay with us anytime.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Cole replied. He would never admit it but I think he was a little choked up with the invitation. My dad didn’t openly offer our house up to just anybody.

  Jemma held on to Cole like a koala, wrapping her arms around his torso and refusing to let go. “Come on, Jem. If Cole doesn’t leave he won’t be able to record another album.”

  She thought about that for about two seconds before releasing her bear-like grip. “Okay. See you, Cole.” She waved and took off.