That Last Little Spark

"So I was thinking..." Kelsey began as she set down her empty bowl.

"There's a dangerous thing." I interrupted. She merely flipped me off and continued speaking.

"While you were down in West Chester, the girls and I found a place for Erica's bachelorette party. She doesn't know about it, though. So don't tell her." she smiled.

"Where is it?" I asked, already thinking about checking it out on the computer.

"49 Grove? On Grove Street?" she asked. I frowned in thought, trying to remember where Grove Street was.

"Between Christopher Street and 7th Avenue." she explained.

"Oh!" I exclaimed in realization. We had been there once before, and we all wanted to go back again. "I think she would love it." I grinned and pulled my laptop out of its case under the table.

“Are you checking it out?” she moved a throw pillow aside and sat closer.

“I wanna see if you still have to show up before 11. Do we want to have an actual party thing for her or are we just showing up?” I asked as I waited for the starting screen to load up.

“I think we should do an actual party thing for her. Try to get her a tiara with a veil on it.” she giggled.

“You think they have those?” I laughed with her as windows started popping up on the screen. I let the AIM homepage stay while I clicked out the little virus scan windows.

“Wait! Hold on!” Kelsey pushed my hand away when I went to click on to Google.

“What?” I asked.

“‘Margera has new flame’?” she pointed at a tiny box in the middle of the page. I stared at the words dumbly.

“Are you going to click it?” she asked excitedly after a minute or so.

“I don’t know if I want to.” I admitted.

“Fine. I’ll click it.” Kelsey double clicked the link and I resisted the urge to close my eyes. A picture suddenly popped up of Bam and I in Central Park as we kissed on the bridge. It was zoomed in so much that you could clearly see every detail of our faces. I doubt anyone would’ve been able to get that close to us without either of us knowing.

“Oh no.” I groaned and closed my eyes.

“Do you want me to read it?” she asked in concern.

“No. I’ll read it too.” I sighed and opened my eyes again.

"Jackass Bam Margera has a new flame? Or is she just a new fling? Just two months after a rocky breakup with his girlfriend of 8 months, Bam is back in action in the Big Apple! Nobody knows this city sweetheart’s name, but the picture has sources saying that this is no fling, judging by the sparks flying in this picture!"

“Could they be any more cheesy?” Kelsey snorted and scrolled down to the comment section.

“She’s prettier than Jenn, that’s for sure!”

“Bam’s sure dressed to impressed in this photo! Maybe he’s serious about her!”

“Just be careful of those city girls, Bam.”

“They look so cute together!”

“I’m surprised that most of them are good.” I sighed and then clicked out before Kelsey could read off any more comments.

“Are you sure you want this?” Kelsey asked as I searched for 49 Grove on the internet.

“What do you mean?” I looked up from the club’s information.

“Well, everyone knows Bam’s a celebrity...and where there’s a celebrity...” Kelsey began.

“There’s paparazzi.” I finished in realization.

“It’s great that you two finally found each other again...but can you handle the pictures and everything that comes with being a celebrity’s signifacant other?” she asked.

“Bam should be used to it by now, Kelsey.” I snorted.

“I’m not talking about Bam,” she rolled her eyes and tucked a stray piece of hair behind my ear. “I’m talking about you. I don’t think the paparazzi is that bad in West Chester...but here in the city, I hear it’s horrible. Think about it. This picture was taken without you guys even knowing about it! What about when people are crowding around you guys?” Kelsey asked.

She wasn’t trying to make me feel bad. I knew she was just trying to warn me about the publicity.

“I’m calling him.” I pushed the computer into Kelsey’s lap and let her search for more information on the club.

“Yo babe. You make it home?” he asked. I heard a door close on his end.

“Yeah...and Kelsey and I found something interesting while we were looking up the club we’re taking Erica to for her bachelorette party.” I took a deep breath.

“What’d you find?” he asked.

“Well...someone took a picture of us in Central Park.” I rubbed the bridge of my nose tiredly.

“What?” he asked in shock.

“Someone took a very close up picture of the two of us in Central Park the night we all went to dinner.” I explained more.

“Were we...” he trailed, and I knew what he was hinting at.

“Kissing? Oh yeah. They caught that big time. There’s a nice picture of it on some gossip site. They called me your ‘pretty city sweetheart’ and your ‘new flame’ and talked about how you moved on so fast from your previous girlfriend.” I said everything I could remember from the article.

“Son of a bitch.” he groaned. “God, Jess, I’m sorry. I should’ve told you that big cities are the worst for paparazzi.”

“It’s okay. None of the comments were horrible. It just pisses me off that some people have no respect for privacy.” I rolled my eyes.

“I’m not gonna lie to you, Jess. They’re not gonna go away anytime soon. And the comments could either get better or worse. But I promise I’ll keep you out of it as much as I can.” he said.

“Bam, no amount of cameras and shit that people say is going to change how I feel about you, you know that.” I smiled.

“I know, I’m just trying to warn you so you know what you’re getting into.” he laughed.

“I knew what I was getting into ten years ago when I became your friend.” I teased.

“True.” he agreed before we settled into silence.

“I have to start getting ready to go out tonight. More wedding stuff.” I yawned.

“Why don’t you take the night off and stay home? Sounds like you need it.” he said.

“I have to get back in the routine of the city that never sleeps. I won’t lie: the constant blare of traffic and radios and the smell of every cafe, restaurant and food stand is a huge sigh of relief from the silence of the woods of West Chester.” I replied.

“Ooh, the city sweetheart is back on her throne.” he teased.

“Damn straight. I’ll call you later when I get home, okay?” I asked.

“You got it, babe.” he said in this weird voice before we hung up.