Tomorrow Never Dies

Chapter 24 - "You've gone viral"

At the end of my second session with Sampson and Martin, we'd perfected our Marvin Gaye routine and we'd decided to video it to post on the ballet company's YouTube. I hadn't known this in advance, so I wasn't looking fantastic - while I had my favourite black leotard on (which had three black straps across the low back), my hair wasn't scraped back and my makeup was limited to concealer and mascara. Martin pulled his camera out of his packpack and set it up as Sampson and I practiced the dance again.

"Alright guys, let's get this filmed," Martin said, starting the recording and the music. Sampson and I performed our dance, putting all of our energy into it. We finished the routine, waited for Martin to stop filming, and I collapsed on the floor, all my energy spent.

"You a bit tired there?" Sampson laughed, offering my a hand up. I shook my head at his offer.

"Just a bit, and I'm not getting up until I've had my Quavers," I pointed at my bag. He chuckled and grabbed the bag from my bag, throwing them at me. I ate them quickly then stood up. Sampson was still by my bag. He was looking at a photo I kept with me wherever I went, a picture of me, my brothers and our mum, the last time we were all together.

"This is so sweet," he said, smiling. I took the photo and ran my thumb over Toby's face. "But why are you in a photo with Matthew Lighthawk? How did you get to meet him?"

"He's my brother," I told him. "I first met him when I was born."

"Ha, no shit," he shook his head. "That's quite cool though, I don't get how I didn't realise you were siblings."

"Yeah, Matty is my big brother, Toby is his twin, he's in Ecuador doing biology stuff," I pointed at him. "And that's my mum."

"Dad?"

"Dick."

"Ah," he said, understanding instantly. I had never cared to find out about my dad. I knew he had treated my mother badly, and when I was born he finally left her and she was free. She never dated again, and we managed quite fine without any men in the family until the boys grew up. Even when I was in hospital and Mum had nobody to turn to, she never once let anything get her down. She was always a headstrong, confident woman and she still had no problem putting my brothers in order. "This is sweet," he repeated. "But I must be off."

"Night," I smiled, looking to Martin.

"I edited it slightly, just cutting off the start and the end, but it's uploading now."

"Fab," I smiled. "See you tomorrow." Michael was at band practice so I had to get the bus back to uni. The journey was fairly uneventful, except for when an old man smelling strongly of smoke came and sat behind me. I coughed slightly, the smell not a pleasant one, and was very grateful when I recognised the area as near my stop. I got off the bus, then wandered up to my dorm. Grace was nowhere to be seen, so I took a shower, tied my wet hair into two French braids, and got into my pyjamas, today wearing my Disney vest top and shorts, and got into bed, pulling out my Macbook.

I put on House, M.D. on Netflix, the episode capturing my interest, when Grace burst through the door. I looked up to see her staring at me in awe.

"You've fucking gone viral," she panted. She'd clearly run up to the dorm.

"I've what?" She grabbed my laptop and went straight to Facebook. She let me scroll through my News Feed for only moments before I caught sight of me and Sampson dancing. I clicked on the video and gasped. There were more than fifty thousand likes, a thousand comments and it had been shared thousands of times. "What the fucking fuck!"

"Look at the comments!"
I wish I could dance like this! These two are amazing, mad respect! That had come from a girl who looked about my age in her profile picture.
WOW! The girl looks like an ANGEL, and the man is a VERY good dancer too. They must have been dancing together for a LONG TIME! Xxxxx The woman who had commented that was more in her forties. I laughed. By the time we filmed the video, I had been dancing with Sampson for all of four hours.
are they together?? A girl about thirteen put. Below her, a few people had replied.
obviously
no, that's Flora Lighthawk, she's with Michael Clifford from 5sos
no!! i want the boy to be my boyfriend

"This is fucking weird," I told Grace. "I've got people arguing over my relationship status in the comments."

"And your follower count on Twitter has almost doubled."

"The only thing I do is retweet videos of puppies," I laughed.

"Quality content," she said.

My phone buzzed.
Michael❤️: wtf youre facebook famous
Michael❤️: HEY YOURE TAKING ON THE WORLD
Michael❤️: i've always wanted to quote my own songs
I laughed and replied quickly.
weirdooo
I proceeded to turn my phone off and I lay down, ready to rest. Sleep came easily, and my eyes closed for the night.

***
When I woke up, I knew without a doubt what had happened overnight.
Mother Nature had arrived.
I squawked at Grace and she understood as soon as she woke up. I grabbed a new pair of underwear and ran to the bathroom while Grace grabbed my sheets and took them to the laundry room. I sorted myself out, then took a couple of painkillers for the agony that was cramping and pressed a heat pad to my stomach as I lay on my bare mattress. There was a knock at the door, and after I called for them to come in, Michael appeared at the foot of my bed.

"Oh, thank God you're okay, I saw Grace with bloody sheets and I was genuinely scared she'd murdered you."

"Nah," I chuckled. "Time of the month."

"Oh, no," he pouted. "That must suck."

"It does, oh my God," I groaned. Michael gave me a look as if to say don't get started, but I was about to rant to him. "I hate girls who get light periods for a few days with zero cramping or bloating or PMS or anything. I get everything, I'm moody, everything hurts, and oh, my God, the blood-"

"How do girls cope? I always thought you were supposed to pass out of the sight of blood," he shook his head.

"Nope, and our pain thresholds are pretty damn high," I said. "I mean we're desigmed to push babies out of our-"

"No need to be graphic baby," he cut me off again. "Look, I was just going to grab some bread, do you want anything?"

"Like, all the fucking chocolate you can see and flowers and ice cream and a DVD," I said, getting carried away in my daydream.

"I'll see what I can do," he said, kissing me on the forehead before walking out. I grabbed my laptop and put on Netflix for a little while until he returned, his arms laden with carrier bags.

He presented me with a beautiful bunch of lilies, then spilled out the bags onto the mattress. There was what felt like thousands of chocolate bars, Supernatural season 1 on DVD as well as Mockingjay Part 2 and Deadpool, and a few tubs of Ben and Jerry's.

"You're actually the best fucking boyfriend in the world."

"I'm officially broke now," he laughed. I grabbed the Deadpool DVD and put it in my Macbook, and we started watching the film as Michael fed me chocolate. He would put pieces of a random bar into my mouth and make me guess what I was eating, and he had everything from Tim Tams to Crispellos. He put something on my tongue that I couldn't identify, and suddenly my throat felt like it was closing up. My chest felt tight and my tongue was the wrong size for my mouth.

"What was that?" I choked out, rifling through my drawers.

"Reese's Pieces," he said, frowning. "What's happening?"

"Call an ambulance, tell them I'm going into anaphylactic shock," I said, finally finding my Epipen. I hesitated for only a moment before driving it into my thigh, feeling the needle pierce my skin and the adrenaline pump through my veins, but I was too late. The pen fell out of my hand and my eyes shut.

*****
OOH drama
im still ill im gonna die but this time next week ill be with Fallon2000 yay

song of the chapter: little bird by ed sheeran (+ was legit the soundtrack to my holiday last year so it's one of the only albums that makes me happy without fail)