Eyesore

Glorified playtime.

Her elbow rested on the arm of an empty chair as Minnie stared at all the high tech equipment being set up around the room. She should’ve stood up straight and tried to look impressed by all the so-called significant things happening around her, but her whole body stayed bored. Being on the set of a video shoot wasn’t foreign territory for her, considering she used to visit her dad all the time on set as a little tike with Brier. They were even both thrown in, last minute, to "Crush On You", Aaron Carter’s first music video. Still, it didn’t matter how many times she showed up to a set, it always seemed like a lot of hype over something so irrelevant.

Minnie had overheard one of the sound engineers say that the budget for this video had increased by a million dollars from the Jonas Brothers last music video, and she just couldn’t wrap her head around that. To her lifeless and sunken in brown eyes, the set looked like a green screen with a lot of lights, two guitars, a coffee table, a couch, and strangely, a whole paper mache four leaf clovers through out it. Minnie didn’t understand why they couldn’t just hang out in somebody’s basement with their instruments and have their mom film them on digital camera? It would look all the same and they would save over a million dollars.

Her internal dialogue was quickly shut down by the appearance of a man wearing nothing, but denim and a tool belt.

"This is crew only, miss, can you step aside, please?" Through a deep Southern twang he asked her, already picking up her arm and trying to remove it from the arm of the chair.

"Oh, but Joe asked me to..." She stopped herself halfway when she realized lots of other girls had probably used that line as a lie before, so she turned to the left and did more than the man asked, she began to leave the facility all together. She reached into one pocket of her blue thermal. It should’ve been tight fitted, the way those shirts were supposed to be, but it rolled over with inches of extra material to spare. Right as she was reaching for cell phone and ducking her head down to keep away from the violent sun rays, Joe’s voice pulled her attention straight towards him.

"Hey, I told you to wait inside." He seemed effortlessly happy, which was surprising to Minnie, considering her dad would be there any minute and Joe never lied about how much he detested Gaston’s existence.

Joe was walking between a long row of trucks, trailers, and tents, with his brothers, Big Rob, other security and a large posse of kids who belonged at a skate park in the Midwest somewhere. He had his "iconic" Ray Bans over his eyes and tucked nicely under well-groomed and behaved locks of hair. Tight teal pants on that revealed to Minnie that either he had no package at all or had taped it down painfully. She was staring at him like he was the least impressive thing since toaster pizza was invented, but once she noticed his flashy zebra-patterned blazer, she lost it.

"What’s so funny?" Once close enough to her, Joe asked, tilting his head to the side and smiling, also helping block the sun from beating down indifferently over Minnie’s skin.

"Nice outfit, Boy George." She snarled through her giggles and at first, it looked like Joe might join in with laughing, but once his friends around him starting poking fun, he snapped his smile back into a straight line and scoffed at her, making her feel two inches tall.

"I have to wear this, what’s your excuse?" Leaving his eyes burning through her for a second, Joe walked right by her and through the warehouse doors.

"You know," Minnie could’ve just kept walking and jumped on the first bus to her neighborhood, but something hostile and competitive inside of her forced her feet to turn around and head after the flamboyantly dressed pop star. "If you want me to help you piss my dad off, you should really be nice to me." She pointed out, her chin nearly cutting off his shoulder the way she was approaching him.

"Oh, I don’t need you, in order, to piss him off." Joe stopped his bright red chucks on the ground and looked down at her, surprised that she was even still around. "Watch this, tits." He slapped the back of his arm against her disappearing torso and walked towards a group of reporters.

Crossing her arms over her chest, Minnie rolled her eyes and reluctantly let her eyes follow Joe across the room. She wasn’t sure if he was poking fun at the fact that her boobs were noticeably decreasing in size or if he was just being demeaning to all women in general, either way, her dislike for him was thickening.

"Joe, a lot of your female fans are dying to know," An overly botoxed blonde reporter asked while shoving the fuzzy microphone right into Joe’s face, sunglasses still on. When Minnie concentrated hard enough, she knew that she’d seen the reporter on E! before. "Are you single?"

"I’m not, actually." Joe’s sly smile curled up onto his face like the Chesire Cat’s always did in Alice In Wonderland

Minnie shook away all of her tender and spiteful feelings towards Joe and ,unconsciously, shifted her eyes around to look for the skinny popsicle stick of a girl that Joe had, most likely, tricked into dating him. She hoped that no one thought that she was the other woman or anything, if she had known for a second that he was in a relationship, she wouldn’t have come to set.

"Who?" Almost every reporter had their microphone in his face now and was curious like a high school gossip columnist.

"Minnie Savard." Joe smiled, looking over his shoulder and away from the cameras to nod his head at her, sticking out his tongue wildly. If her body had been any weaker, she wouldn’t have been able to hold it up in that moment. "We met a month or so ago," Joe lied. "And usually I’m private about these matters, but I just can’t be...I’m so in love and, it’s all credit to my boss." Joe worked his audience like they were small children and he was the puppeteer. He was a master manipulator and enjoyed getting to flex his muscles again. "Where is Gaston?" Joe put on his clueless face and theatrically looked around. Once he spotted the only man that had ever pulled his own puppet strings, dressed like a cheap pimp in a matching velour jogging suit without a shirt under and just threw thin gold chains over his furry exposed chest.

"What the hell are you talking about Joe?" Gaston had overheard everything Joe was shelling out to the reporters from the monitor, and just as the pop star suspected he would be, Gaston was greatly displeased. One first curled in a fist while his eyes searched for any sign of a brain underneath Joe’s head of stylish hair, Gaston stepped in front of the cameras and pushed the lens away with one hand. "Tell me, you’re playing around and that this is all just a fucking joke, Joe." His fingers still pushing through Joe’s skin underneath the blazer’s sleeve, Gaston had dragged him away from all the media to grill him.

"No joke, Mr. Savard," Joe reached for Minnie’s shoulder, since they were close enough now, and pulled her underneath his arm and against his side. "I’m in love with your daughter."

"Minnie, what are you doing here?" Gaston talked to his daughter as if she was his secretary, not his child. His eyes just rolled around in an exhausted manner when she showed up in his sight, he didn’t even rest them on her for a moment.

"I don’t know." Minnie’s had slanted her brown eyes up at Joe’s face, curious to why he was still smiling.

"Joe, I told you, you can’t see Minnie. I refuse it." If you didn’t know that Gaston and Minnie shared the same last name, you would never expect them to be related. Anyone walking by would’ve thought Gaston was Joe’s dad, instead.

"The more you say that, Gaston, the more I want to be with her." Joe squeezing his hand over his shoulder and then kissed the side of her forehead, making both of them cringe internally. Minnie tried to wrestle her way out of his grip, but it seemed impossible. Joe was waiting, feverishly, for Gaston to give him the options right there. He wanted to hear the puppet master to tell him that he would do anything, including exiting the boys contract, if Joe would just stop seeing Minnie, but it never happened.

"Joe, go get mic’d, Minnie..." He finally backed up, his eyes looking around for a quick solution. "Just go to craft services or something, I don’t care." He began walking away, but not before Joe threw in the lost word.

"Minnie," He held both of her hands in his and turned her, so she was looking just at him, not watching her dad walk away. "I want you to sit right by the director." His voice was so loud, like he was yelling at her passionately, but really, Joe just wanted to be sure Gaston could hear him. "I want to feel like I’m singing just at you, okay?" He looked over Minnie’s messy bun to catch Gaston glaring him down like a starved lion.

"Whatever." Minnie groaned, irritated, and pulled her bony arm away from Joe. She headed over to the camera, where a comfortable fabric chair had already been set up for her. At this point, she didn’t care about the plans she and Joe had made after. She would’ve been happy to watch Joe be eaten by sharks, she was just staying to hurt her dad the way he was hurting her.

X

"Yeah, they’re giving us an hour break." Joe felt the wardrobe woman poking at his pants and taking out the pins that she’d used to hold them up, while he listened to a nameless girl on the phone ramble on at him like they were closer than they actually were. Of course, this girl had a name, and she probably had a face as well, but Joe recalled neither. "Sorry, I’m not allowed to bring visitors by set." He told her when she requested to come and watch him film his video. "I know, I’m sorry...." He searched for her name in his head, but gave up quickly. "I’ll call you tomorrow morning before we start filming, okay? Maybe, we can do dinner." He knew that the possibility of that happening was nil, but he said it anyway because it simply sounded nice out loud. "For sure, you pick the restaurant." He rolled his eyes and a made a face at the woman working on his pants. "Okay, I can’t wait." He told her. "I love you, too." That phrase, supposed to be so symbolic and meaningful really held nothing of importance to Joe anymore. Unless he was telling his immediate family, he never put any emotion inside that expression. He’d worn it out so thin that it was just jabber at this point. Quickly, he flipped the cover of his phone shut and planted it down on one of the make up counters. "Am I good to go?" He asked, talking to the wardrobe woman nicer than he did the girl on the phone.

"Yeah, just leave this here. I can’t let you leave the area with the clothes on." She told him, simply. "I’m sorry." Adding the apology in only because he was a super star and she knew it was expected.

"That’s alright. See you in an hour." Joe picked up his phone again and headed off behind one of the make shift drapes in the trailer to change out into a pair of designer men’s yoga pants and a long sleeved henley. His sunglasses still over his face, he jogged down the trailer steps with his Ipod headphones already plugged in and screaming out a favorite song of his. He looked around for someone to entertain him or something to pass the time with, but his eyes squared right in on Minnie.

She was planted on a metal bench that was set up against the brick warehouse wall, staring at the screen of her MP3 player and squishing her dry lips together, trying to choose a song to listen to. She assumed that Joe never had any intention of hanging out with her after the shoot, he probably purposely forgot, she figured. Once she settled down on an upbeat song that she always listened to when at the gym, she stretched out onto her feet and flexed her harms together over her head. There was never a bad time in her mind to squeeze in a work out. Just as her sneaker was about to plough down on the pavement, Joe stepped in front of her.

"Can I help you?" She groaned, popping out one ear bud and staring at him to show just how unwelcomed he was around her.

"I thought you wanted to hang out after the shoot. I have an hour." He told her, innocently. "Where were you about to run off to?"

"Just run." She told him, very honestly, pausing the song that was singing through her ears.

"Well, there’s a pretty good burger joint down the block. Do you want to go with me?" Girls never turned Joe down. He could’ve invited her to go drink motor fluid with him and he would’ve expected her to eagerly follow him like a lost puppy with an ecstatic wagging tail.

"I’m not hungry, actually." She lied. Even though she knew she had written it down in her notebook back home, she couldn’t recall off the top of her head what she had last consumed.

"Well, uh, mind if I join you then? I could definitely use the work out." He pat his hand down on his toned stomach and made a face.

If she didn’t think he was stupid before, Minnie did now. Joe was in great shape, which he prided himself on, she didn’t want to, but Minnie could admit that Joe was good looking when it came to appearance.

"Fine, if you can keep up." She popped the headphone back into her ear and took off in front of him. She had build up great endurance to pain and running that she could speed off right away, never having to build up a pace, but Joe’s body was stronger due to always be hydrated and full of nutrients, so it took him less than three seconds to catch up to her.

At first, it was all competition with their dark eyes squaring threateningly into one another’s and trying to cut each off over the pavement. Occasionally, Joe would dodge an obstacle and look behind him to see if Minnie got trapped, but she always managed somehow to make it over to him again and give his side a huge push out of the way. After they had conquered a single mile, they were laughing with one another and it had just become playtime between two exercise buffs.