Fame ***

“You’re in,” I informed Jem frankly when I saw him in the studio the next day. He was sitting Indian-style in one of the line of chairs set up against the wall, a novel perched in his lap. His green eyes were squinted as he struggled to read the words written on the page, probably because he needed glasses but was told he couldn’t wear them because he’d mess up his makeup.

At first, he didn’t understand what I was saying, his dark eyebrows pulled together so a crease formed between them. “I’m in where?”

“Meeting One Direction at their video shoot,” I reminded him as I settled down in the chair to his left, crossing my legs and grinning at him. “Niall said he’d talk to people until you were allowed on set.”

His face lit up like the Hollywood sign as he shut the book in his lap with a bang so loud that I flinched back in response. “Oh my God! Did you really?!”

“I said I would, didn’t I?” I laughed. “Your doubt wounds me.”

“I didn’t doubt you!” he defended, though a smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth. “I just didn’t think it would actually be possible. I mean, I’m no you.”

I shrugged and grinned at him. “Maybe not, but you’re connected to me now, and that’s going to give you a pretty decent amount of power.”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t go to my head.”

I almost snorted at the irony of the situation, but I knew my finding humor in the situation would require an explanation, so I suppressed it and headed toward the set to film my scene.



“So I was just wondering,” Jem started as he and I walked down the hallway to return our costumes back to the wardrobe department about a week later. He was already starting to shrug off the modern black leather jacket he had been instructed to wear, which I noticed set off his eyes quite nicely. “Would you want to go out for some food after this? I’m starving.”

“That wouldn’t look good.”

The words came so quickly, so automatically, that Jem gave me a startled, if slightly horrified, look. “What do you mean?”

“I mean that, if the media sees us walking around the streets together, getting food and eating and laughing, they’re going to blow it out of proportion and say that we’re secretly dating. They’ll say it even more if, while we’re walking through the streets, we make an effort to look like we’re not dating, like one of us walking in front of the other without us touching at all. Paparazzi are cruel, Jem.”

He looked incredibly hurt and unnerved. I felt kind of awful that I was destroying his idealism about show business already, but if I didn’t teach him, then who would? Experience? I didn’t want to make him go through the pain of having to figure those things out on his own, from his own missteps. “Okay, you’re right. The last thing you want is to make Niall worry that you’re cheating on him when you’re not.”

“Right.” There was a short silence before I got an idea and grinned. “But, if you want, we can eat together without the media ever finding out.”

“What?” He pushed open the door proudly labeled ‘WARDROBE’ and stepped back so I could slide into the room before him.

Jem had finally adjusted to the idea that celebrities couldn’t afford to have any shyness toward one another, though a little difficultly, and went to one side of the room to dispose of his leather jacket and slide off his dark-wash jeans.

“My idea is,” I started as I unzipped the back of the very seventies dress I was wearing, my back to Jem for his embarrassment’s sake, “that I go to somewhere close, order all the food, and bring it back here. We can eat in the studio, and no one will have to know.”

“That seems worse somehow,” Jem mumbled, but then he sighed. “But if it’s what we have to do, then I say go for it. I like spending time with you.”

I grinned. It had been such a long time since I had a friend, a real friend, who I actually liked. It seemed awful that the media had to blow things out of proportion and would make it seem like the two of us were going behind Niall’s back when that wasn’t the case at all. Jem’s and my relationship was completely platonic, and that was the way both of us wanted to keep it.

After putting my outfit back on, a free-flowing blouse, a pair of black ultra-skinny jeans, and my designer boots, I turned around and looked at Jem to find that he’d been leaning up against the wall, facing in the opposite direction of where I was, while I finished.

I cleared my throat, which made him look over at me, his eyes fast and fleeting, like he was afraid he’d see something he didn’t want to. But when he saw that I was fully dressed, he seemed to relax.

And the question escaped my throat before I could stop it: “Are you gay?”

I expected him to be mortified, but his eyebrows just drew together as he struggled to keep from smiling. “Are you asking me that because I love One Direction?”

“No, it’s a few different things. Are you going to answer me, or…?”

“I’m not gay,” he replied. “I’m straight. But I give you props for having the guts to ask me.”

“You did the same thing with me,” I reminded him. “The first day we started shooting, you told me that I didn’t seem like a bitch to you, which you found as an incredibly pleasant surprise.”

“That might have been too forward.” Jem laughed, a small rumbling sound, crinkles appearing in the corners of his eyes. “Sorry. I don’t have much of a filter between my brain and my mouth sometimes.”

“It’s fine. In an industry where people almost never say what they should and never say what they mean, the bluntness is appreciated.” We stepped back into the hallway as I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and saw that I’d missed a text from Niall while I’d been working.

Hi babe. I miss you.

I bit my lip and answered that I missed him, too before putting my phone back in its original place. “You like him, don’t you?”

Jem looked genuinely curious, just like I’d been about his sexuality. And for some reason, I really didn’t want to lie. So I said, “Yeah. More than I’ve ever liked anyone before. It’s kind of scary, you know?”

“I understand what you mean. But don’t let it scare you. Just jump into it headfirst and don’t overanalyze everything.”

God, he sounded wise, despite the fact he was only two years older than me. “Aw, Jem!” I cooed, leaning forward and poking his cheek. “Do you ship Niall and me?”

He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms in front of his chest defensively. “Ship you where?” he asked in a fake-dumb voice, trying to pretend that he wasn’t into Tumblr terms.

“Very original joke.” I nudged his side with my elbow and chuckled at the cheesy grin he gave me. “You didn’t steal that from Liam or anything.”

His face flushed violently as he realized he’d been caught. “Okay, this is now officially embarrassing. Let’s change subjects. What about food?”

“I don’t care what we have. I’ll find something to eat anywhere. Where do you want to go?”