Fame (Except Not) [GxG Fanfic]

Eleven

Anna tells the driver to go back to the hotel, and then says to me, yet again, "And thank you. You have no idea how much this helped me out..."

"It really is okay," I say. "You don't need to keep thanking me over and over, you know."

"Just as long as you know..."

"I know," I say. "I promise I know. So stop. Please? It's getting kind of embarrassing."

Anna smiles, but she also nods and does actually stop, which I'm quite glad of by now.

We both go quiet, and sit there for a moment, side by side, thinking. The silence gets longer and longer.

I'm looking out the window, and desperately trying to think up something to say, and oddly, I suddenly wonder if Anna is doing the same thing. I wonder if that's why she was saying thank you so much, whether that was partly just a way of making conversation with someone she doesn't know, since she probably has as little idea what to say to me, as I do to her. I wonder about that. I wonder if it's right. I sneak a glance sideways at her, and realize she's glancing back at me, and apparently thinking, too.

I decide maybe I'm right.

Anna sees me looking at her, and clears her throat. She seems nervous, and I actually think she's about to say thank you again, but instead she suddenly says, "And, well, the other thing that happened...?"

I look at her. I'm pretty sure I know what she means. "The other thing like you kissing me?"

She looks uncomfortable. She looks almost embarrassed. "Yes, that," she says, tightly.

"I don't mind that you did."

"It isn't that," she says. "I mean, I'm glad you don't mind..."

"I really don't."

"It isn't that," she says, tightly. "It's, well... you can't talk about what happened. You can't say a thing about it, ever. I mean, you understand why, don't you?"

"I understand."

"It's really important you don't tell anyone," she says.

I nod. I know. I get it.

"If you do," she says. "I'll have to say it isn't true. I'll have to call you a liar, and I don't want to do that."

"I said I understood. But I won't say anything."

"If you do..."

"I won't," I say again, more firmly.

And I mean that, by the way. I've read gossip mags enough to know what happens to the non-celeb who gets caught up in a celebrity sex scandal. I get chased and hounded and hunted and every part of my life gets picked over. And I don't have money and powerful friends to protect me, not like Anna does.

I really don't want that.