The Universe of You and I

Chapter 2

Her

It was just another one of those days. Nothing particularly wrong but she was tired. Nowadays, she couldn't shake off the exhaustion no matter how hard she tried. She hadn't taken a day off from work in ages. She was waiting for her birthday to just sit and watch a marathon of her favourite actor's movies with a large pot of tea and chips. Just as she was thinking about all this, her phone rang. She looked down to see that it was her sister. It was one of the few people whose calls she actually picked up. Everyone else was answerable by text. It's not that she didn't care. She did. She was just so much more articulate via text. The only person she didn't try to sound the least bit articulate around was her sister. It's funny because her sister was a writer. Words were always her thing.

"HI!"

She laughed and asked, "Why are you so excited? Wait, did you win that pitch?"

"NO! THIS IS EVEN BIGGER!"

"You won something bigger than a pitch?"

"YES!"

"Okay...I...Hmmm...An award?"

"Okay, we are going to get nowhere if you sit and try to guess. I will tell you."

Her sister then took a deep breath and said, "I won a contest I saw on social media. And guess what the prize is?"

"Oh wow! Um...A book?"

"Oh God, I asked you to guess again. Scratch that."

She chuckled at that. She asked, "Well, what did you win?"

"A WHOLE DAY WITH YOUR FAVOURITE CELEBRITY!"

She blinked. There was a contest? With a chance to meet him? How had she not known? How had this missed her attention? She then realized that she would probably never have taken part. Every time she pictured meeting him, she pictured herself saying something stupid. OR worse. Him looking right through her. Why would he do anything else?

Now had it been anyone else, she would have felt jealous. But her sister could be declared the coolest person on Earth and she would happily agree and clap with the others.

So she replied loudly, "OH MY GOD! WHAT? HOW? NO! WAIT! WHAT DID YOU DO TO WIN THIS?"

Her sister laughed and said, "Finally, you're talking at my volume! It's a promotional thing for his new film. Letters to you? I had to write a letter."

"Of course! No wonder you won. OH MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"

Her sister said, "I KNOW RIGHT? Anyway, so...I know it's a day earlier but...happy birthday!"

"What do you mean? Oh, you're getting me an autograph, right?"

"Tsk. Only you would think of that. Sometimes, I feel like shaking you! Do you really think I would claim a day with your favourite celebrity? He's going to spend that day with you. It's my gift to you."

When she didn't say anything for over 5 seconds, her sister prodded, "Say something!"

In all honesty, she had never pictured meeting him. She knew what would happen even if she did. She would just be another fan. Which she was. He would look right through her, with no glimmer of recognition, no sign of her being any different than the legion of fans he already had.

Without meeting him, she was still one of the fans. But at least she didn't have to deal with being forgettable.

Only now, she would have to.