The Premiere Day

Chapter 7

Joe and Ben left early the next day. The trip was calm, and two hours after they had left Joe's house, they were in Hyde Park. Joe's mother had left a person taking care of the dance studio to stay with him and Ben.

"How are you, mrs. Mazzello?" Ben asked. They knew each other because of the events Joe had taken his mother to.

"I'm fine, Ben, and you, how are you?" she answered. She was a very nice and smiling woman, despite the sufferings she had gone through. Maybe that was the reason Joe himself was such a positive person.

"I'm fine, too," Ben said, and then Joe added, "His movie is coming out tomorrow!"

"How nice!" mrs. Mazzello said, genuinely happy. "I know it's gonna be great."

They talked for a while and then Joe took Ben to see some places in town. They ate at Joe's favorite diner and returned home at night. The next day would be full with activities and Joe wasn't feeling very well.

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The next day...

Natalie was desperate. The hairdresser who had agreed to tidy Ben's hair had just warned that an emergency had come and she could no longer keep her promise. The car, the clothes and the makeup were ok, but what about the hair? She would do Joe's too, though he didn't worry about it much, but Ben had been very specific. And he had every reason to be.

"And now what do I do?" Natalie looked anxiously at Diana, who was packing the things they would take to Joe's house.

"Why don't you get his hair done by yourself?" Diana suggested, turning to her friend. "You have all the training you need. Remember that time you cut my hair?"

"Yeah, but it's Ben's! What if I start trembling and make a mess? What if I do everything right and he hates it? What if-" And then Diana interrupted her.

"A lot of things can go wrong, but where are you going to find a good hairdresser at this time? The event is in 10 hours from now, it's too late, I don't think there's another way..."

******************

While Natalie decided what to do, Ben was finishing eating breakfast and Joe was lying on the couch watching TV. He wasn't hungry and he was pretty sure he was going to get sick. He had a headache and he felt weak.

"Are you sure you won't eat anything?" Ben asked after he finished eating and went to sit with Joe in the living room.

"No," Joe replied. "But I took an aspirin and I'm drinking plenty of water. If I lie here resting, I'll be okay in no time."

"Fine." Ben said and began to change channels. "Let's watch something good then." After searching for a few minutes, he found "It's a wonderful life", which had just begun. He knew that was Joe's favorite movie, and so he decided they would watch it. Then,  Joe's phone rang.

"Hi, Diana," he said, his voice hoarse. "Okay, we'll wait ... No, it's just a physical discomfort, but I'll get well soon ... Yes. I'll see you later, then."

"Are they coming already?" Ben asked.

"No," Joe said. "It's going to take a while because Natalie has to sort some things out. We can watch the whole movie."

******************

"Joe's voice was strange," Diana said, a little worried, after turning off her phone.

"Really?" Natalie replied. "Will he be sick?"

"Hope not!" Diana said. "He seemed so happy to go to that premiere with Ben!"

"True ..." Natalie replied, while made a call.

"Who are you calling?" Diana asked.

"I'm making one last attempt, and if it doesn't work, I'll follow your suggestion about Ben. Let's hope he doesn't freak out!"

******************

The movie was ending when Natalie and Diana arrived at Joe's house. Ben got up to open the door. Joe was napping, having taken yet another aspirin in an attempt to make the headache go away, but to no avail. When he heard the girls' voices, he woke up and sat up with some difficulty.

"Hi, Joe" Natalie and Diana both said at the same time.

"Hi ..." he said, placing his hand on his forehead.

"He's not very well, as you can see," Ben said, sitting next to his friend.

"I'm not really ..." Joe said, discouraged.

"But I think you'll be ok by the time you have to leave." Diana said trying to cheer him up.

"Maybe," he replied and drank some water. Then, he got up and went to the bathroom in his suite.

"Well, the makeup artist will be here in a few minutes and the limo will be here as soon as you get ready. The suits will arrive in ..." and she looked at her watch to make sure, "well, in about 15 minutes... But... there's a little problem." She lowered her voice and looked down as she said it, and Diana looked at her a little worried.

"What happened?" Ben asked.

"Your hairdresser backed out at the last minute, and I'm going to do your hair myself, I hope you don't mind ..." she replied, almost whispering, avoiding to look directly at Ben, worried about what he was going to say.

"Oh, okay, no problem," he said, looking at Natalie.

Diana realized that her friend was nervous and decided to talk too. "She's taken courses for this, don't worry, we all have to have the basics, but she went further, she'll deliver the goods."

Ben laughed. "I trust you, Natalie."

"You can trust her!" Diana continued. "Once she cut my hair and it looked gorgeous!"

Natalie smiled, looking at her friend and then at Ben. She was calmer now, which she knew was very important for the work she had to do.

At that moment the bell rang and Diana opened the door. It was the makeup artist. Since Bem was ready, it was decided that she would begin with him, then Natalie would fix his hair and then he would change his clothes. During the time they had been talking about this, Joe hadn't come back from the room. Diana was worried and decided to check.

"Joe?" she called, after knocking on the bedroom door, "Is everything okay?" He didn't answer. "We were worried because you didn't come back."

"Come in ..." he said. Diana opened the door and found him sitting on the bed, staring at the floor. "I'm feeling very weak, I came here because I started to feel sick, like I was going to vomit, and that's what happened, I threw up three times. That's why I didn't come down, I don't think I can go to the premiere."

"No, you have to go to the hospital!" Diana was worried.

"I don't want to, I just need to take some medicine and lie down."

"You MUST go, Joe.You can get dehydrated, and we need to figure out what's going on. It's not normal to be like this ..." she said, sitting down next to him.

"I think it was something I ate ..." he said.

"I think it might be the flu. You have to go, don't worry, I'll go with you."

"No, I can go alone ..." he said, standing up to find out what to wear. But he felt dizzy and had to sit down again. He hadn't eaten anything in 12 hours.

"No, you can not. I'll go with you."