Of Gods and Fame

“Let me get this straight.” Brown eyes blinked at me dubiously. “You met Nate Harding?”

I rolled my eyes and sighed in exasperation, dunking my chicken nugget in sweet and sour sauce before shoving it in my mouth. “For the last time: he walked into the store while I was cleaning up and asked to buy a chocolate eclair for his knocked up sister. Pompous bastard he was, too,” I added, glaring at my fries.

It was silent for a few moments. “I mean, I knew he was from around here originally but the last thing you’d expect is to run into him.” Joey scrunched his nose up and stared at me, before his lips began to curl upward and he started to grin. “Imagine how Chloe would react if she knew,” he added excitedly.

Chloe Whitman was a girl that would fare much better with my name, to say the least. She was a lovely girl at heart, but she was gorgeous and thoroughly aware of the effect it had on several males (and females) in the general vicinity. She was our ‘friend’ — a term used loosely considering the amount of times she blew us off to hang out with with her latest conquest or to work on her quads — which definitely wasn’t the right thing to be thinking about whilst shovelling McDonalds fries into your mouth, I realised with a slight scowl.

“She would’ve jumped right on that.” It was silent for a few moments, save for Joey slurping up the last of his drink. “So would you, though.”

Brown eyes glared at me furiously. “For the last time, Naja, I’m not gay.”

“You own a cat.”

“I have a girlfriend.”

“You wear hair gel.”

“You’ve met her. We went out for coffee last week.”

“Your boxers have red hearts on them.”

“…Okay, how do you know that?”

I rolled my eyes at his wide eyed look. “I forgot to bring mine when I stayed over once.”

Joey looked at me like I’d sprouted another head. “That’s disgusting, Naja.”

I shrugged, shovelling the rest of my fries into my mouth before licking at my fingers.

“Anyway,” Joey said, watching me with a disgusted look on his face, “Do you reckon you’ll see him again?”

I frowned. “Doubt it. Not that I’m too bothered,” I said simply, pushing an errant strand of hair out of my eyes with salty fingers.

Thankfully Joey dropped the conversation and we instead started to talk about his plans for summer — which involved going away with his so-called ‘girlfriend’ (I still wasn’t convinced) to her family home down by the beach. I used this as an opportunity to guilt him into giving me the rest of his fries, telling him that he’d form a pot belly if he kept up with his diet.

“Naja?”

I looked up to see a tall person wearing all black and with large, red-rimmed sunglasses covering their eyes and a black beanie. “Hamburgler?” I offered dubiously, blinking at the person as I tried to figure out who it was. “I didn’t realise they did dress ups here.”

The person sighed, lowering the atrocious glasses for a bit to reveal light blue eyes. “It’s me,” he said quietly, before shoving his glasses back against his eyes. “I’m trying not to draw attention to myself.”

Oh. I snorted with laughter. “So you thought that dressing like you’re about to rob the store was the way to go about that?”

Joey laughed. “Who would want to rob McDonalds? Hell… there’s a bank two doors down.”

Seeming to realise that someone else was there, Nate lowered his glasses slightly to look between us. “Oh, I’m sorry… am I interrupting a date?” he said, not sounding all too apologetic. I was still trying to get over the fact that he remembered my name, much less was talking to me in the middle of a crowded store.

“What?” Joey laughed incredulously, shaking his head furiously. “Oh no, I-”

“He’s gay.”

“- have a girlfriend.” His head snapped to the side to glare across at me. “I’m not gay!” he cried in exasperation, fingers clenched on top of the table. “Honestly, I don’t know why I bother with you.”

Nate was looking between us in amusement. “Well, you do wear a lot of hair gel,” he said, coughing when Joey turned to glare at him. “Sorry, I just assumed,” he said swiftly, changing the subject.

Joey smiled slightly, looking at me with eyes that said ‘I’m-going-to-kill-you-later’. “You were obviously forgetting Naja’s complete and utter lack of social etiquette.”

“What are you even doing here?” I said quickly, trying to change the conversation. “Shouldn’t you be at home eating celery sticks and putting on a face mask?” Nate looked at me in obvious amusement. “You know that eating McDonalds can give you pimples,” I said, faking shock as I looked at him dramatically. “Heaven forbid the paparazzi catch that on camera. The gossip magazines would have a field day.”

Nate laughed. “Over pimples? I think I’ll take my chances.”

“Hey guys.” Chloe plopped down in the booth beside Joey, looking across at me excitedly. “Did you hear that Nate Harding’s apparently in town? I was with Chris today and he said he saw him walking back from the shops with some sunglasses on. But it would be obvious who he was no matter what he was wearing, don’t you reckon? He’s just one of a kind.” She sighed wistfully. “Chris could just be saying that because he knew it would get me in the mood, though.” She laughed, her lips curing into a secretive smile as she looked at us. Joey looked like he was about to laugh and Nate was tugging down the ends of his beanie, staring at me with a fierce look that begged me not to reveal his identity.

Seeming to notice that there was someone standing beside the table, Chloe looked up at them with a slight frown on her perfect features. “Do they take orders here now or something?” she asked questioningly, glaring up at him. “In that case, I’ll just have some water, please.”

Nate coughed, pushing his ridiculous sunglasses up higher on his nose. “I better… er… go get those nuggets for my sister. See you later, Naja.” He gave me a look before turning away and heading toward the counter, and I looked across the table to see Chloe staring at me incredulously.

“What?”

She sighed. “Really, Naja? You could’ve at least picked someone with a better fashion sense.”

Joey snickered, reaching across to nab one of his stolen fries. “You have no idea.”