Forgotten age [a Martin Freeman fanfic]

14.

Terrible day. 

My family, the media, most of my closest friends, they were all against me.

#MelissaJohnson's trending topic on Twitter was soon replaced by #Melissaisoverparty. I was the clown of the town. Suddenly, Jeremy was everywhere. Magazine covers, commercials, even on my Instagram explore page. Also, he unfollowed me, and I didn't. That created such a big mess on social media, almost ridiculous. 

I envied Martin. He had no online profiles. None. Zero.

I felt the urge to delete all my accounts. But I knew that wouldn't improve the situation.

I had spent the last three days at Pearl's, avoiding the world. I didn't answer any calls or texts, I still read them though. Bad decision. Every text was nothing more than a dagger on my back. The people I thought loved me the most were now using me for clout, revealing secrets to the press about my relationship with Jer. What for? Followers. Recognition. 

Sad.

The only person who stuck by my side twenty four seven was Sophie. Understandable, she was the one who led me to unleash this chaos in the first place. Still, I didn't reply to any of her messages. I just kept reading them again and again until I had me convinced that my decisions had not been foolish. That feeling only lasted for about five minutes. Maybe because my decisions had indeed been foolish. 

Pearl had been very nice to me. She was the perfect description of a single independent strong woman. The bad part, though, is that she was barely at home. Always out, running errands, at meetings, working in god knows what. She was always busy. I started feeling bad for her when I opened the fridge the third night. Only a few pieces of fruit and a couple cartons of milk left. I had emptied her fridge. I had eaten all her good food. No more ice-cream, pop corn, cookies or frozen pizza left. And I was scared to go out in case someone recognized me. 

"You know you'll have to face the world eventually, right?" Pearl asked me in a whisper when she got home. She sat by my feet at the couch, where I was laying underneath a stupid number of blankets. It wasn't even that cold.

I growled at her as I peeped my head out of the blankets. We locked gazes and couldn't help but burst out in laughter at the situation.

"You look like a hobo, Melissa, oh my god!" She stammered while laughing loudly. "You can use my shower, you know that, right?"

I hid my face under the covers once again. It had been a while since I last showered.

"I don't want to leave this apartment ever."

"Honey, don't forget about tomorrow. The script reading!" She pointed out.

"The wha—" 

"—Black Panther 2."

I closed my eyes at her words. Of course. The new movie starring Martin. 

"I printed out the script already," She told me happily. From underneath all the layers I could hear how she rummaged in her bag looking for what I assumed would be the script. "Aha!"

Suddenly, my space was invaded by a pair of hands that aggressively teared apart my little nest. 

"Hey!" I complained when I saw all the blankets laying on the floor, a chilly breeze hit my skin.

I looked at Pearl, she was holding a cream colored folder. The script.

"Here you go. I'll pick you up at six. You have all morning to get ready. Please look... decent. For me?" She asked me faking a smile with shimmering eyes.