If I Had You

So three days went by, quicker than ever. I got tours of all the buildings, and I even got tours of the city surrounding the school. The best teachers. The best places to hang out. The best places to eat. The people to stay away from. It was hard to keep track of everything, but I was glad because I was finally feeling comfortable. I hadn’t even thought about my dad and how he had basically shipped me off. I was actually really liking it here…

Suddenly, I felt something on my bed. I groaned slowly opened my eyes. Ollie was standing over me, looking down with a grin. I shriek, throwing my pillow at him. Ollie dodged it and jumped off my bed, laughing hysterically.

“Oh man,” he said, cracking up. “You should see your face!”

“You freak!” I said, but I started laughing too.

“Do you guys mind?” The lovely sleeping beauty, Libby, said from her bed at the other side of the room. I learned to just tune her out. She was really no different than the popular girls at my school, just way more famous. She turned so that her back was to us. Ollie and I looked at each other and started to crack up again. Libby groaned.

“So, I was put in charge of coming to get you so we can get breakfast,” Ollie said when we were done laughing.

I sat up. “You guys didn’t have to wait for me,” I said. I would have been bothered that I was wearing nothing but a camisole and some short pj shorts, if it had been any guy besides Ollie. I mean… it was Ollie, after all.

“Keith insisted,” Ollie said. Then he laughed.

I got dressed quickly, and the two of us went down to the café on campus for breakfast. We sort of had a routine now. Breakfast was in the school’s café where we’d get whatever they were serving that day and coffee. Lunch was in the school cafeteria, and we’d take it out onto the courtyard to eat. For dinner, the past three days, we’ve gone out to little restaurants around town. Between all of my new famous friends, the food bill was never an issue.

Everyone was waiting out in the courtyard for us. “Okay, I got her,” Ollie said. “Can we eat now?”

***

The café was a cute small place, and rather popular. Whereas most cafés were quiet and calm, this one had tons of people talking and chatting, and someone had a radio going on in the background. Imagine a cafeteria. In a room less than half the size. That was this café.

I was just glad Keith was friends with one of the guys who worked there, another student with a familiar face that made me think I probably saw him in a movie or something. I snickered at the thought. Actors working in cafés like normal people. Anyway, Keith’s friend always saved us a table big enough for all of us in the back corner of the café. It had become our usual spot. And after only three days, it seemed we were beginning to have usual seats as well.

Keith always sat next to me. I was beginning to wonder about him. I was over the initial shock of suddenly being friends with a big-shot actor, and I was beginning to analyze him more carefully. A guy was still a guy, famous or not, and all guys had their eyes are girls. Trust me, I’m not that oblivious. Ollie always sat on my other side, mostly because I was the only one who would let him mooch my food and drink my coffee (as if he needed caffeine in the first place). Then Luci would sit next to him, and Piper next to him.

“So what can I get you guys today?” The actor friend said, with a charming smile.

We ordered what we had been ordering for the past three days.

“Oh, Keith,” the friend said before leaving. “Did you hear? Bubba and Eli are supposed to be coming today.”

Keith grinned. “Oh yeah?”

“Yup. Luke and Jack got here yesterday, and I heard something about Redd getting here earlier today,” he continued.

“Leave it to them to all arrive at the last second,” Keith said with a laugh.

The guy looked away for a second at someone who was just coming in. It was Will, who I hadn’t spoken to since the plane ride, and he was talking to some big muscled guy, laughing at something Will must have said. Keith’s friend chuckled. “Speak of the devil. There’s Bubba.”

Keith laughed, then he looked at us. “Hey, do you guys mind? I want to go say hi.”

Luci waved him off. “Go for it.”

I watched as Keith walked over to Will and Bubba. All three of them seemed friendly enough to each other. I frowned. “I thought you guys said Keith and Will weren’t friends?” I said to everyone at the table.

Luci frowned. “Well, there’s a difference between our Keith and their Keith.” I wasn’t following, but I let him continue. “Our Keith doesn’t much like Will and the lot of them. Their Keith is the popular King of the school who hangs out with all the hot-shots. Will included.”

I frowned. “You’re saying Keith is two-faced?” I asked.

“Majorly two-faced,” Piper agreed.

“Don’t get us wrong,” Luci said. “The guy’s still our friend. It just when you’re an actor with as much fame as him, you have an image to uphold. You want to be popular with the masses, you have to put on a face, you have to have the right friends. And what happened to Keith is his fame life sort of seeped into his social life. He doesn’t mean to be a jerk, but he lives to please everyone. And you can’t please someone without hurting someone else, so it seems.”

I nodded, sort of understanding. It didn’t seem Keith would be one to be two-faced, but I guess he was a super famous actor. I should have been surprised if he wasn’t super popular. However, I couldn’t help but feel sort of disappointed. No guys perfect, I guess…

***

Even by the time we had finished our breakfasts and drank our coffee, Keith was still talking with his friends, and just when I thought he was going to come back over, another one of his friends appeared into the café; they all sat down on the bar stools set up by the counter where the waiter friend, Keith, and the others (Will included) talked about God knows what.

Luci sighed, chugging the last of his coffee. “M’kay. Let’s go,” he said, standing up.

“What about Keith?” I asked

Ollie patted my shoulder, standing up as well. “Cierra, trust me. Worrying about him is a lost cause. He’s fine,” he said.

“He’s good without us,” Luci added. I frowned. That seemed harsh.

Either way, I followed them out of the café. As we passed by the bar where Keith, Will, and their friends sat, Keith looked over his shoulder at me. “Cierra!” he called, grinning. “I want to introduce you to some of my friends.”

I smiled apologetically. These guys reminded me of the popular jocks from my old school. The ones that drank, and did drugs, and fooled around. I didn’t like that group at my old school, and I didn’t like this group of people here. I couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable around them. “Maybe another time?” I suggested, following behind Ollie as we walked out.

I saw Keith’s face fall just a small bit.

“Ollie!” some girl said, just before we left. She was a pretty, skinny strawberry-blonde, and she immediately lacked to his arm. She pouted. “Did you already have coffee?”

Ollie casually slipped from her grasp, smiling politely. “Yeah, sorry,” he said.

“Aw,” she whined. She gestured to her friends, all just as pretty sitting at a small table. They were all watching and giggling. “We were hoping you’d join us.”

Ollie just shrugged. He wasn’t terrible rude about it, but still seemingly very blunt. “Sorry,” he said.

The girl frowned, but blew it off quickly. Her smile returned. “Well, then I guess I’ll catch you later!” she said, giggling a bit, then she bounced away back to her table.

“Sheesh,” I said to Ollie once we finally exited the café. “Unlike Keith, you sure aren’t afraid to blow people off.”

He grinned. “Aw come on. I’m a humorous homosexual guy who loves to talk about fashion. Girls tend to love me whether I blow them off or not.”

Piper rolled her eyes. “Big-headed,” she murmured with a small laugh.

Ollie stuck his tongue out.

“So what about the guys?” I asked Ollie.

He shrugged. “I’m gay. If they aren’t, they usually are uncomfortable with me either way, so there’s really no reason to act like Keith and hang out with them. Honestly, the only reason most of them tolerate me is ‘cos my popularity with girls.” He started laughing.

I just couldn’t get over the weirdness of this all. I mean, in a normal high school, the cliques were obvious. There was no question of who belong to which group, and there was certainly no cases of people weaving in and out of the popular group. The popular people never hung out with anyone else. Of course, this was a school for the rich and famous. They didn’t have A-list actors, and gay fashion heirs, and rock star’s sons. This school was different.

I frowned. I really didn’t understand this. At all.