Chasing The Impractical (Brian Quinn Story)

Comic Con - Apollonia

August 2018

I had not seen Q or Sal since the cruise in February. Bella and I had spent the last days of the cruise entertaining ourselves. I felt bad for her, keeping her away from Bianca, but she didn't seem to mind and even said how she had missed spending time with me.

Over the last 7 months back home, the two of us had spent a lot of time in LA. I was needed out there more and more, but Bella seemed to be doing okay with her school grades and loved surfing and hanging out with Jorma's daughter Emily. For the past three weeks we had been out west, we had finished the first season and it was due to on air in September, so we had been working on the script for the next season and other projects.

"So you think it will work?" Andy asked over dinner one night with Jorma, his wife Sara and the two girls.

"A lonely island movie, are you kidding me. It would be huge" I cheered.

"You gotta help out on the script then, need some of that dry humour of yours in it" Jorma smiled.

"Hell yeah" Andy added.

"I'll do it on one condition, you don't make me come to comic con tomorrow" I pleaded.

"Nice try" Jorma chuckled.

The three of us along with a few other cast members would be heading down to San Diego tomorrow to promote the new series at Comic Con. Despite not having Q in my life anymore, I still followed him on Instagram and listened to the podcasts, so I knew he would be there with the other guys.

"It's a huge place. You'll probably not even see them" Andy smiled softly as though reading my mind.

I don't know what worse, seeing them or not getting a chance to just met them in passing. I missed them all so much.

The next morning I had to practically force Bella out of bed. We had to be pretty early as we were a 2 hour drive away. When I remembered her that avengers would be there, she finally got out of bed. The drive down was painfully slow, and I had suffered from restless the entire journey.

"Right, we have eight interviews and then Andy is monitoring a show later on" Jorma's assistant Mike announced as we stepped out of the car.

"You sure you don't mind watching Bella as well" I cringed to Sara.

"No, you have work to do. I'll have fun with the girls" she smiled.

Andy then threw his arm over my shoulder and pulled me through the back entrance of the main exhibiting hall. In the VIP section away from the stalls and general admission, we met up with the rest of the group and then headed to our interview room. Inside the PR team had set out banners and posters for the show and set out a few seats. Andy, Jorma and the rest of the cast agreed to take the interviews in turn to lighten the load, as I sat behind camera and answered emails.

"Fuck, let's get some lunch" Andy sighed a three hours and 5 interviews later.

I happily agreed and followed him up to the private diner. It was on a higher floor to the general stalls area, but the wall was made of complete glass so you could see down below. We were lucky enough to get a table by the window and both ordered some soda and burgers.

"Must be boring having to sit there and listen to us answer the same questions over and over" Andy sighed.

"I can think of worse jobs" I smiled.

"Well, if you wanted to head out and explore for a bit it's cool. I hear the IJ conference is going on in an hour".

"Why would I want to go there" I laughed awkwardly.

"I dunno, might help close some old wounds"

"Or pour fucking salt in them".

After lunch I walked with Andy back to the interview room. "Hey, I think I am gonna go explore. You know, see if I can bump into one of the hemsworth brothers" I smiled as Andy stood by the door.

"Have fun" he winked.

With the pass I had, I could pretty much get into anywhere with queuing or waiting. It felt pretty fucking cool. I had sadly been unable to locate a hemsworth, so decided to keep exploring until I not so accidentally found myself stood outside the IJ conference. With my pass I could just sneak in the back, no one would no I was ever there.

"Fuck it" I chuckled to myself and flashed my pass to the security guy.

The conference room was huge, there must of been around 800 people inside. One the raised stage, the four jokers sat with microphones, answering questions from the audience. From the back of the room, I couldn't really see or hear much, so I softly walked over to the side of the room and made my way down a few steps. It was pretty dark in the room, expect for the lights on the stage and one more pointing at the audience microphone, and this is what I blaming for what happened next.

I missed a step.

The next thing you could hear was a loud bang as I went down three steps on my bum.

"Fuck" I yelped.

Only then did I notice the entire room had fallen silent as the jokers stood up to see what had happened.

"We okay over there. Someone had a few too many free energy drinks?" Sal laughed.

As I slowly pulled myself up, I could feel every eye in the room on me.

"Well would you look at that. Hey miss, do you have a question".

My eyes quickly went to Q. I was not that far from the side of the stage now, and I knew he could clearly see me.

"Miss?" Joe asked with a huge smile on his face.

I quickly snapped back into reality and looked over at Joe. Shaking my head, I turned back to Q and so no level of emotion in his eyes.

"Awww come on, you must have one. Hey bring her the Mic would ya" Joe called out.

One of the show assistants quickly grabbed the Mic and then ran over to me. I reculanty took it in my hand and stood there speechless.

"She must of banged her head" Murr laughed but then quickly stopped when Q gave him the eye.

My cheeks and ear were burning hot with embarrassment. I needed to say something so I could get out of there. So I asked the first thing that came to mind.

"Could... could you ever forgive someone who did you real wrong?"