Through Adversity To The Stars

Chapter 1 - Summer Of 2003

Alexander Saunders; the 2 words that started it all, what seemed to carry me off into the midnight sky. He wasn't as such as what the media had portrayed him to be. But once his lips met mine, there was no going back to reverse what we had done. I was bound to him and him to me. We belonged either hand in hand or lips interlocked with eternal happiness as the key.
The Summer of 2003 started it all; the jokes, the smiles, the late nights, the love.
I let my feet dangle into the ethereal waters, blessing every inch of my skin up to my ankles that were left in the Sun. Soft stereo music ran around in the humid atmosphere. The same beloved book circled around me, reminding myself that love wasn't a golden ticket, rare as can be, but more like love itself controlled when it should take a place in your life. However, it seemed to me that my door to love was locked, but I didn't have any plans on opening it myself.

My parents owned a gorgeous house in south of France that I'd never get over saying that I stayed there. It was a place you'd only imagine the cliché beings would stay, always taking its glory for granted, never feeling blessed to live in such a state. Every other minute, the realisation hit me over and over again that the intertwined wisteria covered, brick house was my adventure to uncover.
The house next door had been sold for weeks, even before we arrived, nothing seemed to be moving along. Just a house, much grander than ours, sat alone untouched. In my mind, it felt as though it was supposed to be left, sitting in its solitude as I had been.

My head involuntary moved to spot a car, a taxi, old and green, past the trees and bushes that seemed to disguise its existence. Window down, probably letting the people within listen to 'Love' by John Lennon wind around their beings. A boy, only flashes of his face that carried his smile was somehow familiar. I shook my headful of nonsense, instantly stopping my mind from travelling to the impossible. I didn't dare let myself to step into that boundary in case I got lost in the illusion.

"Elizabeth," my mother called, prying my eyes away from the mystery. I dragged my feet out of the water, not drying them as I walked through the overgrown grass I adored. "Darling," I lifted my head to meet my mother's concerned expression that masked her face, "what had you so occupied?"

I cleared my throat, taking the lemonade from her hand. "Nothing," I supposed, "just my imagination." I heard a car come to a stop, making my stomach feel like it consisted of jelly.

"Oh, that's probably your father with his new client," he was a manager for actors and actresses, only ever handling them for a year or so, then them deciding that acting wasn't their suited profession.
Before he left for the airport, he kept explaining to me, trying to convince me almost, that he had 'hit the jackpot' with someone I was 'sure to love'. The problem was that he had always said that, ending up alone with no clients by the end of it all.

I shrugged, sipping my ice cold lemonade that my sensitive teeth couldn't take but I tried to frown through. "I'll be in my room," I set down the glass and jogged towards the stairs.

"Elizabeth, please," which makes me turn to face her, doors of the car slamming.

I pull a face, resting my chin on the edge of the stair banister. "I don't want to meet another failing actor and be forced to befriend them until they leave us," they were like second children of my parents, only one really coming to visit every so often. Rebecca Woods; she was an amazing actor but the love for her boyfriend got the better of her and she stopped, to be with him.
No reply from my mother as if the silence allowed me to hide in my room. I took the chance and ran to my room before Father would stop me and plead for me to meet the quitter.

Before I closed my door I heard a woman say, "we'll just be next door."

"Yeah, I'm really thrilled to be working with you." Their voice was deep, but not too deep. A hush deep that you could drift off to and wish they had their own radio show.
I shut the door, letting my back fall back against it. I let my sun kissed arms wrap around my waist, gripping onto my father's white t-shirt I wore over the bikini Mother said would look elegant and poised.

Foot steps below travelled outside into the garden I was once sat in. My open window allowing me to hear small parts of their conversation. "Did you mention you have a daughter?"

I sneaked into my bathroom, running the tap to wash my face. "Yes, Elizabeth. She's quite antisocial," they laughed as I still presented my straight, emotionless face. The curtains of my small balcony danced inside and out as Father started to reply, "but I'm sure she'd be quite happy to show you around."

"Tomorrow maybe? I have quite a lot to focus on today," the male answered as if I had no schedule of my own.

"Certainly! You young actors having a busy life," Father chuckled, letting my eyes roll. Not wanting to hear any replies from the new comers, I closed all my windows, even if my room would make me boil to death, I rather had that than listen to them have an awkward encounter. However, I missed Mr Radio Voice but certainly not too much.

My eyes drifted over to my mangled bookshelf, the heat already seeming to strangle me. 'Dear Andrew Hayes', a name of a book I loved till my heart was content. The amount of joy it brought me in that instant was unaccountable. A boring book that seemed to bring me bliss to my black and white life I led. Boy meets girl, girl instantly falls for boy, they get into a relationship and are long distance so letters back and forth between the two. My heart longed for that, a romance, something that made me feel like the world was capable of something other than a friendless, planned life.
Andrew Hayes was left liable for all the hopes I bottled up and wrote notes about, desiring for a boy like him. The author was my enemy, making me yearn for a fictional, non-touchable being. On the other hand, the film didn't do me any justice, unable to fix my stride, Andrew being played by the one and only heartthrob; Alexander Saunders. I endeavoured to forget about the boy, the man, the half grown adult who portrayed no resemblance to the Andrew Hayes.
A knock at my door awakened me from the trance I was once in, "Elizabeth," it was Father, he didn't open the door, just keeping on the other side, "please come down and meet him, he is a really bonnie boy."

I rolled my head back as if it would make any idea spring to my head, "can I not later? I'm learning the end of that song you like." I hadn't even looked at sheets of music since the weekend, he suggested it. I was in my parents domain, always trying to please their hopes for an actress.

"Oh, I'm sure the boy can help-,"

"I'm completely fine by myself," I sat onto my bed, the covers sprawled across the floor because of how incredibly hot it was the night before. "I'm more independent than you would think," I mumbled, my voice not reaching him as he wandered back down stairs.

Somehow, with the windows closed, I still heard them, not as clear as before. I found myself leaping towards the small window above my bed and that's the first time I saw him; the floppy, brown haired boy. The soft, pink lipped boy. The broad shouldered boy. The joyfully damaged boy I came to love.