Behind The Bright Lights

Chapter 5

Rocki smoothed her pale pink skirt against her thighs and took a deep breath and waited for the signal that she could go on stage. From where she was standing, she couldn't see the audience at all but there were approximately a thousand people in the studio for the Nate Show. She had spent the whole weekend practicing her stage smile – not that she needed practice but there was nothing like too perfect, right? And besides she had been on stage enough times to last her a life time so there was no cause for nervousness, right? Plus she looked like a goddess in the outfit Kimmy had made and heels always made her more confident and she was going to be the center of attention, right?

So why the heck was she so frickin' nervous?

She tapped her foot on the floor anxiously. Maybe it was because she was about to let the whole world into her personal space something she had avoided all her life but this was different, wasn't it? It was just her furniture and home design she was showing them and a few more personal things... it really wasn't that bad, was it?

'Rocki,' ah, there was the signal finally. 'you're up.' so she took another deep breath 'Well, here goes.' she said to herself stepping on stage.

Immediately, the audience roared and everyone was on their feet and just like that all the jitters she had been feeling were gone. Her fans always made her feel good about herself, she thought as she walked to Nate with a wide smile on her face. He too was smiling not so much for her as for his audience.

They had a little fight over the weekend. Rocki kissed his cheek when she reached his side.

'Hie. Wow you look amazing.' He said, once again for the benefit of the viewers. He still had not met her eyes.

'Thank you, Nate. My, I think New York agrees with me.' She said touching her face.

'It does. You are glowing!'

'Really? Thank you.' God, TV conversation was so fake. She looked around the set. 'Love what you've done with the place.' At this Nate laughed then motioned for her to sit down as he also sat and started explaining how they recreated Rocki's living room in the studio in the same flat TV voice he had used with her on Sunday.

Rocki had spent Saturday with Kimmy then Sunday she decided that she'd surprise Nate and Sharon since she had to meet the girl. Well, it really seemed like a good idea and it was going really well – up until Rocki mentioned how skeptical Nate was when Rocki recommended Kimmy, she wished she hadn't come. Sharon was upset over something probably about Kimmy and she also was the type that wanted to have everything and everyone under her control. Rocki recognized that because she too was a little like that and that's why her relationship with Nate failed. So she told Nate that she thought his girlfriend was a control freak and she also brought up their brief relationship in that conversation which made Sharon go crazy. Well, let's just say she wasn't going to give Nate anymore surprise visits.

She smiled as Nate turned to her;
'So, Rocki, I know for sure that there is a story behind everything you do so there has to be a story about this... diverse collection of furniture.'

'What you call diverse, i call genius. Granted its mad genius, but genius nonetheless.' Rocki responded causing the audience to laugh.

'Aha!' Nate said victoriously. 'Here comes the story.'

'Well...' she proceeded to tell a cock bull story about how her grandmother collected variegated furniture as a form of art. No one, not even Nate knew the story was not true. It was the best excuse she could come up with for having so much mismatched furniture and everyone bought it. She was really just a terrible home maker.

Well, for the first show, it went exceptionally well and their viewers had increased by 11.5% since their last show. Nate was very pleased with their progress and was sure that by the end of two weeks, his audience would have tripled. Rocki was amazing and she looked gorgeous and even though he wasn't very happy with her, he had to applaud her for a job well done.