Whirlwind Summer (Mark McMorris Fan Fiction)

Chapter 5 - Walk of Fame

15 minutes later our taxi pulled up on Hollywood Boulevard. Mark's arm had rested on my shoulders for the entire journey, keeping me glued to his side. We'd made some small talk about how I liked LA so far and what we were planning on doing while we were here but it was awkward and stilted, as all small talk is. It wasn't like the conversation we'd had at the restaurant. I think the reason for it was the fact that Darcy and Bea were in the taxi with us, at close proximity, and we didn't have the noise of other diners in the background drowning us out. Also Bea kept turning to me, bringing up random stories of people we knew that were so irrelevant but I felt bad shutting her down rudely. Mark could tell I was getting a little pissed at Bea because he grinned sympathetically at me every time I made an annoyed face when she forced me to turn around and pay attention to whatever random tangent she was on. Darcy, on the other hand, was so intrigued by her gossip that he was hanging on to her every word. Usually I also love listening to gossip... because I mean who doesn't? But tonight I just wasn't in the mood because she was repeating stuff she'd already told me and she was distracting me from my conversation with Mark. Seriously! She was so oblivious that I liked him. It was laughable. But I forgave her.

We got out the taxi, Mark offering me his hand as I stepped out onto the pavement. The others had arrived just before us and we walked up to meet with them. "So...now what?", asked Bea. "Let's take a stroll in the moonlight", said Seb with a sing-song voice, obviously making fun of how romantic it sounded. I linked arms with Tessa and started walking down the boulevard, forcing the others to start walking too. I was also trying to get away from Bea because honestly, I needed a little break from her. "Look that's Oprah's star" I exclaimed to the others as I spotted it on the ground in front of me among some other names I didn't quite recognise. I grabbed my phone out of my bag to snap a picture of it. "Hey look, Tessa, Backstreet Boys!", said Bea calling her over to where she was standing. Tessa was a big fan of the Backstreet Boys - she even went to see them in concert last year! "I need a picture with it", she gasped and forced us all to stand around waiting for her until she managed to get a good picture with it. "It's for the gram" she huffed as we all gave her impatient glances.

We walked up the boulevard slowly, stopping every now and again to admire stars whose names we recognised. The boys started joking about how it was rude that they weren't honoured on the Walk of Fame. "I mean I've been in loads of movies: In Motion, Unbroken...." commented Mark, "I deserve a star". "Yeah except they were snowboarding movies" laughed Darcy. "They don't 'count' apparently". "Don't worry you're a star in your own right" I told him. "2 x Olympic Medal Winner, 4 x Burton US champ, 15 x X Games medalist...". "Hey what about us?!" interrupted Seb, rolling his eyes as I focused on Mark's successes. "You're all stars". I responded diplomatically. There was a moment of silence and then everyone burst out laughing over the conversation we had just had. Of course they didn't care that they didn't have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I felt hands encircle my waist suddenly and lift me up in the air spinning me around. I screamed out loud because it was ticklish. I threw my head back to see who had just picked me up. Mark. He grinned at my reaction. "Thanks for making me feel special", he joked as he put me down and then slung an arm around my shoulders. He seems to really like my shoulders. "I really appreciate it, bro", he said jokingly, emphasising the 'bro'. I smirked at his 'friend zoning' of me. You could tell that he wasn't being serious. He then changed tune completely and leaned in closer to me, his mouth inches away from my ear. "I like you more than a bro if you wanted to know" he confirmed in a whisper and then pulled away, focusing on the others. We were both playing hard to get now, I noted.

Mark removed his arm from my shoulders and caught up with Darcy and Bea, who were leading the pack, going to talk to Darcy about something to do with snowboarding probably. Ok then. I hung back a bit and joined the others. "Major flirting going on there" commented Anastasia with a smirk on her face. She was referring to Mark and I obviously. "Maybe...." I replied. "Oh definitely", said Seb. "Mark really likes you." I blushed. I then glanced over at Ståle who was looking straight ahead as if he was trying to ignore me. He had that air of jealously surrounding him. Sensing my gaze on him, he turned his head and then said suddenly, "you know what happened with Coco?". I didn't know. But why did he just bring that up? "What happened?" asked Anastasia curiously. "Oh it was really sad" interrupted Seb. "They dated for like 5 years, but this year their schedules and stuff were so packed, they didn't see each other for 4 months straight. And then they just decided that they couldn't have that kind of relationship anymore. It was really tough on Mark. They were so in love, but I guess they both felt that they needed to have a more physical relationship. I get it" said Seb. "It was really tough on him" said Ståle, repeating what Seb had just said. It's as if he was implying Mark was still deeply in love with Coco and hadn't gotten over their break up yet. "When did they break up?" asked Tessa. "Bout 2 months ago" said Ståle, emphasising that only a short amount of time had passed since the breakup. That's why Mark looked heartbroken when I asked him about Coco. Poor Mark. My instincts made me just want to give him one big hug.

But we were cool with each other for the rest of the night. We had flirted heavily before and now we both playing hard to get, by ignoring the fact that we had spent the first half of the night flirting. So I didn't really get to speak to him. Ståle on the other hand took this opportunity to hang on to me and tell me the weirdest things that he's every done snowboarding - like snowboarding naked in -10°c weather in Norway on a dare. I wasn't surprised that he had done that because he is one hell of a crazy dude. But he made me laugh and distracted me from thinking about Mark and Coco.

The guys dropped us back at the hotel just before 2am. The combination of our tiredness from travelling and the exhausting nature of the guys made sure that we fell asleep the second we hit the mattress. We were so tired that we didn't even take off our evening clothes...we just rolled straight into bed, trying desperately to mentally prepare ourselves for the fact that we had to get up at 7.30am to hike up to the Hollywood sign. I know it had been my idea to do the hike and when I thought about it at first it seemed like a good idea, but now it felt like it was going to be more of a chore. What a joy. I thought to myself as I drifted into unconsciousness.