CHAPTER
9
Perfect
“Ready?” Paulo asked, sitting on the
beanbag chair in my room.
“Yes” I said taking my peach bag. “We’re already in Hawaii, right?”
“Yes.”
Dylan, I thought. “Wait, I’ll
just need to call Dylan,” I said the exact time Troy walked out his room and
walked right before us.
“Who’s Dylan?” Paulo asked his tone interested.
“Well, Dylan is my best friend since I was eight,” okay, so Troy was my
best friend when I was seven. “And he’s really the best. Even when he didn’t
return from Hawaii, he never forgot me. We always keep in touch and even though
we both reached our dreams, we never forgot who supported us when we we’re just
dreaming,” I emphasized the word ‘never’.
Troy walked past us, as if in a hurry. I guess he heard it. Good. He
should.
“Why don’t you go ahead? This’ll just take a minute,” I smiled.
“No, I can wait,” Paulo flashed the same smile he did yesterday. I guess
that’s his smile every morning.
I took my phone and called Dylan.
“Hey, talk to me...” he said. I miss his voice; it’s been about a month
since I last heard it.
“Hey Dylan, I forgot to call yesterday to say that we’ll be in Hawaii
today,”
“Really?”
“Yes,”
“How long?”
“Until tonight or tomorrow,”
“Oh. But I’ll be teaching the
beginners today,”
“Oh,” I felt my face drop.
“No worries, I’ll try to watch
your concert. Tell the security guards that I have a backstage pass, okay?”
“Of course,”
“Bye, break a leg,”
“Bye,” I shut my phone.
“C’mon,” I said to Paulo and walked toward the others.
“What took you so long?” Troy
asked, as if he didn’t hear me back there.
“Just called Dylan,” I
murmured.
Fans welcomed us warmly as a
few guards came to our side. We didn’t have a chance to stop since we were
brought straight to the hotel. The hotel was fantastic; it was simple but
elegant, grand but welcoming, and the infinity pool, palm trees, I can probably
say that this is truly one of the most beautiful white beaches in the world.
I had a third floor ocean
front suite in the third building. It was very clean, and exceptionally quiet,
as if I’m just in a vacation. The room is in different varies of beige, with a
large painting of a rose garden hanging on the wall. I very much appreciate the
fact that I can’t hear people walking above us.
They gave us two hours to
relax; but it was not enough. It’s like I just breathed and Stacey and Colbie
did my hair and makeup, and the next thing I knew, we’re in stage again. The
concert was fine, but I was a bit disappointed that Dylan couldn’t make it. But
I know that it’s more important for him to be there and help others than have
my selfish greed.
***
“What do you mean we’re staying
here until Monday?” I shrieked. “We
need to wait for the yacht. The cruise ship already left if you mind realizing
it, than flirting,” Troy muttered. So yeah, every after our sweet performance,
we’re always back to normal.
I heard my phone ring before I
could say a thing. “Hello?” I said.
“Taylor, it’s Zoey,”
“Oh hey,”
“Is everything fine?”
“Kinda,” except for the part
where I almost freak out because I’m gonna stay another day in Hawaii. Why am I
freaking out anyway? Hawaii is great, and I have nothing to do except have
fun... with Paulo.
“Is Troy doing his job?”
“What job?”
Then all of a sudden, Troy
took the phone from my hand.
“Hey!” I muttered.
“Yes... Yah sure... I know.
Bye,” he said abruptly then gave the phone back to me.
I didn’t bother asking since
I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t tell me anyway.
Paulo and I snorkeled,
snorkeled, and did I mention snorkeled? It’s such a wonderful day that we can’t
let it pass. The ocean was in its perfect condition, not too hot, and not too
cold. There are not much people in the beach, and most are just having a tan.
We almost owned the beach, since all the staff members can’t get tired of water,
and continued what they were doing back in the ship. Some played beach
volleyball, including Troy, while others collected some seashells. I also
bought a few things that I think I will need, since we’re staying until Monday;
an emerald and pearl stripped one-piece cut-out, white chiffon sleeveless cover
up and emerald patent sandals.
When we’re staying on the dry
white sand, Paulo would have his camera and take photos of everyone, but mostly
me. And of course, a model should always be prepared with hundreds of poses,
right? But most of my poses were quirky.
I put my cover up and took a
sip on my mango smoothie as I walked toward Paulo. “What are you doing?” I
asked looking at him lying on the sand.
“Burying my body,” he grinned.
“You know how to build a sandcastle?”
“Of course,”
“My camera is in my bag. But
you know that already. Build a sand castle over me then take a shot, okay?”
“Sure,” I giggled
I placed my smoothie on the
sand and did my best to build the sandcastle. Not to brag, but I can say that I
did a pretty good job. I took two photos of him, then with me. Of course the
creator should always be included. The twilight started to deepen, though we
haven’t notice it.
“So, how can I get out of
here?”
“I don’t know,” I chuckled,
lying down beside him.
“Maybe this is one way,” he
rolled to my way, and all of the sudden on top of me.
“Maybe,” I giggled again.
“If I tell you that I’m not
most of the girls’ dream guy and that I’m very aggressive, would you hate me?”
How can someone as hot like you couldn’t be most of the girls’ dream
guy? I thought. “I don’t know. I don’t really like guys who are
aggressive.” I giggled again.
“What if I say that I don’t
want to take it slowly? And I want to pass the friendship thing?”
“Whatever,”
“What does that mean?”
I just smiled. He brushed his
lips to mine, and I can feel that he’s trying to be gentle as possible. “I
thought your aggressive?” I asked with another chuckle.
I saw a pair of white shoes
stepped nearly on my face as someone cleared his throat. I looked up to see
Troy. “Sorry to ruin your make out session, but a press conference will be held
in an hour.” He muttered.
“Right,” I said as Paulo stood
up, then offered a hand to help me.
I headed to my suite and took
a bath quickly and change into my purple tee and denim jeans. Colbie and Stacey
did my makeup and straightened my hair as fast as possible, which was amazing,
then left my room too.
I brushed my hair slightly as
I look at the time. There’s about fifteen more minutes before the press
conference. I can’t believe it. I just got a new boyfriend; the dream of my
life. This is one of the best days of my life.
Someone knocked on the door
loudly. “Come in,” I said, continuing to brush my hair.
Troy barged in the door then
sat on the edge of my bed.
“What are you doing in here?”
“You just said ‘come in’...”
he lay down to my bed.
I let that pass. I’m such in a
perfect mood to argue with him.
He sighed before he spoke.
“Look, my mom told me to do this. So, could you just take care of yourself?”
“I am doing that. Besides,
what did she tell you?” I said not looking at him. I can see his reflection in
the mirror that I don’t need to turn around.
“To watch out for you,” he
said still staring on the ceiling.
“Then fine... if you want, we
can go on separate ways, and I’ll just tell Zoey that you did your job,”
“Fine,” he sighed. Wow, this
is the fastest negotiation we ever had. Impressive. “Oh yah, take it easy with
that guy. You don’t even know him,”
“I already know him,”
“For what? Two days?”
“Even so,” I muttered. “Some
even hook-up when they first meet...”
“But you’re not like others,”
he sighed, and then sat up straight. “Look, I’m not saying this because you’re
my enemy or something, and that I want to make your life miserable as possible,
but because I’m like... an older brother,” he almost choked the word. He paused
for a second then continued before I could say anything. “Just... just be very
careful with that guy,”
“Fine,” I breathed and turned
to him. “And for the record, you’re not older than me... almost. I’ll be
seventeen anyway,” okay, so it’ll be ten months before I turn seventeen, but
even so.
“I’m not older than you? When
you turn seventeen, it’ll exactly be eighteen days before I turn eighteen,” he
laughed.
I paused for a second. So maybe his birthday
is on January fifteen, but we’re still on the same birth year. “Whatever,” I
stood up.
We headed to the press
conference to see like a hundred cameras and reporters. I wonder what they’ll
ask this time. I know that they’ll interview Troy about his movie, and then
maybe ask about his birthday, but why do I need to be here? My album was
releases a few months ago, and I don’t have any movies to promote right now. Um, duh, because you’re on tour right now. The
voice muttered inside my head.
“Remember, we’re friends, not
enemies,” Troy whispered to my ear.
“Yah sure,” I whispered back.
I sat beside him as we waited
for the reporters to start. “Oh yah, I know how diligent you are on reading
your schedule, or probably even love listening to the conference table when
they plan about your projects... we’ll be having a movie together, though it’s
not yet confirmed on when it’ll start...” sarcasm filled his voice, even in his
whisper.
“But I didn’t audition...”
“And so did I...”
“Oh,”
***
The press conference was
mostly what I expected. It was all about Troy, his movie, which was recently
released in Hawaii, and if he’s dating Cindy Black; his love interest in the
movie. When the question was sent to me, it was ‘are you dating Troy?’, ‘how was working with Troy?’ ‘When will the
movie start?’... And I can say that I have the best answers of all time. No, we’re just friends... it was fine... I
don’t know... and I could probably tell that the reporters would have
thought that they just waste the time on me on the first three questions. The
only question that caught me off guard was ‘have
you ever wrote a song together?’.
“No,” I lied.
“But are you planning to write
one together? Since from the reviews from your latest concert, critics said
that you two have one of the best chemistry onstage...” the same reporter
asked.
“Yes, we are...” Troy answered
before I could.
“So, are we expecting that
song on your next album?” another blonde asked.
“You can count on that,”
The press conference ended
swiftly; Troy answered the rest as I watched and listened to his answers. After
it, the owner of the hotel invited us all for dinner. It was actually enjoying,
except for the paparazzi when we went out of the restaurant for our return to
the hotel.
“Goodnight, sweet dreams,”
Paulo kissed me quickly before he walked away. He had waited for us to come
back for hours so that we can have a walk around the beach. It was sweet,
actually; walking on the beach in barefoot, as we talked more about just
anything else. It’s not a starry night, though the moon is full. Everything
around us was quiet, except for the crashes of the waves.
I climbed to my bed as I
reminisced what happened today. I got a new boyfriend, and Troy still thinks
he’s my older brother. This day can’t get any better. It’s perfect.
I was staring on the ceiling
when my other phone, the one I use as Lauren, rang. I ran to my bag, and almost
trip, to find out that Troy was the one calling.
“Hello?” I said.
“Hey Lauren. Um, I just want
to ask about your day. I mean, about school,” Troy mumbled.
“I didn’t go to school today.
I have a headache and a cold. So I think you should call Mandy or Jacque to
have the latest,”
“Am I disturbing you?”
“What?”
“Well, you sound like you want
to hang up the phone,”
“No, of course not. It’s just
my head really, really hurts...” I pretended to cough. “And now I have a
cough.” Okay, I love this day, so I’m gonna take the best of it. “But it’s
really great that you call. Your voice is kinda soothing...” where the heck did that came from?
“Really?”
“So, what happened in Hawaii?”
I changed the topic.
“Amazing concerts and
rehearsals.”
“That’s good,”
“Yah, but my free time was
boring,”
“Why is that?” I didn’t even
see him that much in the beach this afternoon, and I thought he was busy. Or
maybe I was just not paying attention.
“Well, I didn’t really have
fun. Except when I was surfing... The others were snorkelling, having a tan,
and others are just plain making out.”
“Oh,” I swallowed hard. “Well,
when’ll you be back?”
“Miss me already?”
“Kinda,” I tried to laugh
weakly as possible.
“Miss you too... maybe
Tuesday, I guess.”
“Okay. I just hope my
headache, cold and cough would be gone already. I’m bored too,”
“Is it okay if I call every
day? Well, until I get back of course...”
“It’s up to you,”
“Great,” he laughed. “Um, did
you have any news about the school?”
“None. Mandy haven’t texted me
since this morning,” And I’m too busy like you to text her. I wanted to add.
“Oh. Well, that’s fine. I just
hope the teachers didn’t give a lot of homework...”
“Let’s cross our fingers,”
“Already crossing,” he
laughed.
“Um, I need to go; my
brother’s knocking on my door.”
“Sure. Get well soon,”
“Bye,” I shut my phone.
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