Shadowteer

Chapter 29

"Would you two stop bothering me, Chris and I are not a 'thing'!" She rolled her eyes when the twins giggled, shaking her head softly as she went down the stairs. It was Saturday and she felt like having a quiet Chris free, drama free day after all the Zainab- Alex drama. She held her phone to her ear as she walked over to the door.

"What the..." she opened the door, shutting her eyes immediately from the flashes of light. A bunch of people were gathered around her house, taking pictures of her in her pyjamas. "Guys, I'm gonna have to call you back, okay?"

She hung up without waiting for an answer, slammed the door and locked it. Her heart was thumping wildly in her chest when she saw people pressing cameras against the windows trying to get her picture. She pulled down all the blinds and took a deep breath before running up the stairs. She took out her box of puppets from under her sewing machine, trying to calm herself down.

"We're gonna be okay, we're gonna be okay, we're gonna-"

"Hey Manon!" She yelped and fell off her chair. Chris winced and helped her up. She dusted herself off and glared at him.

"What did you do?"

"Pfft- me?"

"Yes, you. This has Christopher Lahiffe written all over it." He facepalmed and put his hands on her shoulders.

"No time to explain. I need you to change into your winter clothes, we need to get out of here." He ushered her to the bathroom before walking over to her closet and grabbing some clothes. "Here. Wear this."

He waited about twenty minutes before she came out. He smiled. "Didn't know you had such an eye for fashion Lahiffe. We must be going somewhere really special if you want me to wear this. I mean it's cute bu-"

"Manon, I love you but please stop talking." She shut her mouth immediately, flushing slightly. The boy was really annoying her. He kept casually mentioning love in conversations like when he called her love in school. It was so sudden and he acted like it meant absolutely nothing to him. "Remember when we used to climb up that old tree?"

"Yeah. My mom cut it down though. Hope you're not planning on making me jump." He pointed to the ladder he had used to climb up. Her mouth formed an o shape. He climbed down first, looking out for paparazzi and gestured for her to follow. Soon enough they were both standing on pavement blanketed with snow. He stashed the ladder away and grabbed her hand.

"We have to go before they find us. I have somewhere I want to take you to... and I apologise." She ran with him down the street while snow descended on them. He stopped at an alley and sighed. "I'm sorry for dragging you into this. They know who you are and this is exactly what I didn't want to happen."

"They know who I- well what's so wrong with that? Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?"

"I didn't mean it like that. I just- I know what's it's like to be famous. I can tell you honestly that in my opinion, it sucks. I don't want you to go through that, okay? Despite what you may think, I really care about you." She kept quiet and nodded, staring up at him. He chuckled and grabbed her, pulling her into the shadows when a cameraman went by. He wrapped his hands around her waist and waited till the man left before releasing her. "Uh... that was close."

"Actually, you didn't really win." She pointed to a girl holding up her phone who had recorded their entire conversation. She ran off.

"Should I go after her?"

"Nah. It's probably out already. Let's just go where you wanted to take me."

. . .

She blinked. Twice. Then thrice. "A talk show? You brought me to a talk show? Ch-Chris, I... I'm not comfortable with this..."

"It's okay. You're gonna do fine. Just keep calm and let them do your hair and makeup." She walked over to the chair she was directed to and stared at her face in the mirror, surprised by the change five minutes later. The crew of makeup artists and hair stylists managed to make her look slightly more presentable than usual. She got up and walked over to Chris, stifling a laugh when the artist brushed concealer onto his face.

"Very funny Manon. I'm not a fan of this stuff."

"How do I look?" He waved the makeup artist off and looked at her before shrugging.

"I like you better without makeup." She groaned with agony. He was teasing her way too much, in her opinion.

"Would you stop making fun of me?"

"Making- Manon, everything I just said was true." She folded her arms and peeked out to the stage. The host, Serena Moreau, gestured for her to come over. She froze up and looked to Chris for help.

"Dude, abort mission, I'm going to mess up and die! There are so many humans... I don't want to go on a talk show. That is not how I pictured my death, help me!" He chuckled and ruffled her hair.

"You'll be fine doll. I got you." She rolled her eyes though his words put her a bit at ease.

"Don't call me doll." She walked over to the stage and greeted the woman. The lady stood up and gave her a quick hug.

"The show's about to start and I can tell you've never been on one of these. It'll be okay, alright?" Manon nodded, stunned and sat down. "...and we're here live with the mysterious new celeb in Paris, the brother of world renown DJ Nino Lahiffe and the daughter of a news reporter of TVi, Nadia Chamack. Her name is Manon and she's here with us as well. Say hi to the folks at home you two."

Chris did a two-fingered salute, earning a laugh from the audience. Manon waved shyly. The questions were pretty easy at first, such as how they met which was in the playground when she poured a bucket of sand on his head. They became firm friends immediately. Soon enough though, things got more difficult. The host showed them the picture of Manon kissing his cheek and videos from backstage. She also showed them an Instagram account literally called Chranon which had multiple pictures of them together on it.

"Let's talk about Chranon, shall we?"