Rise To Stardom

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

God, I know you have a plan for me. If I'm meant to win this show, I am, but I do pray that I make it far. That I will survive the first week of voting and that my admirers will have my back. I have faith that you will answer this prayer. Thank you, father.
Amen.

That was the kind of prayer I'd been saying the past few days. My body had been wracked with nerves that I would be voted off too soon. My dreams of becoming a pop star would fly out the window and I'd be stuck working as a waitress for the rest of my life.

After the last performance, we were going to the club so I was able to keep my mind off it. The next morning, I was reminded yet again about the fact that I may not make it. I took another sip of my ice cold water.

It made me feel colder even with layers of blankets accepting me into their warmth, but there was something about cold water that was more refreshing.

The door opened and Kayla walked in at a zombie pace. Something was wrong with her and I could tell by the way she was staring off into space at the floor. Her hand was gripping the house phone and whatever she was told made her bottom lip fall ajar.

My heart dropped. "Kayla? What's wrong?" Every time the phone rang, I worried it was the caretaker informing me of my father's health taking a nosedive.

Mom told me that he was getting worse; his coughing fits were lasting longer, he'd been sleeping all day and even getting out of bed was becoming a chore. She warned me that I should be expecting the call any day now.

I swallowed a lump in my throat while waiting for Kayla to open her mouth. "You're scaring me."

"You're all over the news."

I released a sigh of relief and the knot that formed in the pit of my stomach unraveled. Processing her words, I furrowed my brows and tilted my head. "What do you mean I'm all over the news?"

Kayla was hit with a wave of energy when she sat cross-legged at the end of my bed, making the mattress dip beneath me. "I just got off the phone with Taylor. She said she was going grocery shopping and found a magazine with you, Aubrey and Carson outside the club the other night."

I went over how it must've looked to reporters. My tear-stained cheeks and Aubrey and Carson looking like they were seconds away from killing someone.

I wondered what story they were making up about me and Carson because it was just an innocent encounter. "What are they saying about me?"

She shrugged. "They're not saying anything bad. All the headline says is that 'movie star, Carson Daniels, spotted with distressed viral star, Emory King'," she answered with air quotes.

There was a sudden lull in the conversation as I thought about the insane conspiracy theories that were spiraling around the media. I was snapped back to reality when the phone started to ring.

Call it best friend's intuition, but I had a feeling it was Aubrey calling to freak out about being on the news. I pressed the green button and immediately put her on speaker.

"Hello?"

"I'm on the news." My suspicions were correct. She sounded more upset than she did excited unlike when she saw herself in the audition show. The odds were, it was because she didn't look pleasant.

She began going on a rampage about the stories the reporters were making up. Each time I would try to cut in and ask about them, she would tell another. I was growing more frustrated the more she spoke.

According to the media, I was trying to start a relationship with a grieving actor. That would be the dream to marry Carson and to have his babies. However, his love for Hayley was deep and no one could love another more than he loved her. Only real fans of his would understand that.