The Brightest Star - Luke Hemmings

Chapter 9

"Okay, so, do you want to eat or play first?" Alaska asked, they were already wearing their bowling shoes and where practically the only ones in the place.

"I don't know, whatever you want" he shrugged.

"Oh silly, if you ask me, my choice is always going to be to eat!" She smiled, making her way to one of the booths.

Luke smiled and sat across from her in the red leather seat. He watched as Alaska ordered a large pizza and two beers for them.

"Are you trying to get me drunk?" Luke joked.

"Oh darling, I don't need to get you drunk" She smirked, winking at him.

Luke blushed and thanked God that the waitress got back with their drinks.

"So, besides being forced to pretend to date someone you barely know and having the paparazzi chase you down the street; how's famous life treating you?" Alaska asked.

"Pretty good actually, it's been crazy...the fans are amazing" Luke smiled.

"Oh yeah, the fans" Alaska scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"What? You don't like your fans?" he asked, wide eyed. Luke loved his fans; they were the most important thing in the world for him.

"What you need to understand, hemmo boy," Alaska began to speak, folding her arms over the table, "is that we both may be famous, but we are completely different types of celebrities"

"What do you mean?" Luke furrowed his eyebrows at her.

"Well, for starters, you come from a relaxed community with fans who genuinely care about your well-being. They dedicate themselves to you and respect your morals." Alaska explained, "My fans, if that's really what they are, simply like me because they think I'm entertaining – you are your music, but I'm not the characters I play, I might make people laugh, cry or even fall in love, but not as myself. They like me because of who I am in front of a camera, they don't give two shits about the real me, because, let's face it, reality is shit."

Luke didn't know what to say, he felt so bad that Alaska though about her job like that. He thought back to the time when she and Zoe were arguing and Zoe told him Alaska didn't like anything.

"Can I ask you something?" Luke said, a little unsure. Alaska didn't seem mad or upset about the things she had said, but again, she was a pretty good actress.

"Shoot" Alaska leaned back on her seat.

"Why did you decide to be an actress?" Luke asked, avoiding her gaze.

She pondered for a minute, looking at the boy in front of her who was too uncomfortable to even look her in the eye. She leaned forward and searched for his blue orbs, when he finally looked back at her, she answered. "Acting is not that different from real life, you know? You wake up and you can choose who you want to be for the day, you can put your face behind any mask you want. You can be someone you want to be, or someone you think people want you to be..." Luke looked at her with a puzzled expression on his face, "...but the thing about masks, Luke, is that you have to be careful. Someone else might be pretending."

He was about to say something about her confusing answer when the waitress coming back with their order interrupted them. After the food was placed in front of them, Alaska took a sip of her beer and leaned back at her seat.