the bucket list | lrh

13 - meeting someone famous

When they had finally arrived outside of the concern venue, Valentine felt beyond relieved to be able to stretch her legs. As she climbed out of the passenger seat and planted her feet down onto the cement of the parking lot, she felt rejuvenated by the much-needed movement.

"Okay, here's the plan," Luke began, making his way around the car to meet Valentine.

"I've been to this venue, and I know that there's a backdoor entrance for employees and artist's assistants and stuff like that. If we can get to that, we are golden. As long as we pretend we know what we're doing, I'm sure nobody will question us once when are inside."

Valentine felt a little nervous as Luke explained what their course of action would be, and she felt even more anxious when he began making long strides towards the building ahead of them. She swallowed down hard in preparation for what was about to happen. Valentine rarely broke rules, and she didn't particularly enjoy it most of the times she actually had.

Something about doing it with Luke was entertaining enough to ease some of her nerves, though. She followed the boy like a lost puppy and it was painfully obvious that she wouldn't usually do things like this. Luke snickered to himself, noting the way she carefully planned her steps out as if it was an equation she'd need to solve to survive.

"Stick behind me," Luke turned back and instructed the girl when they approached an opened gate leading into a courtyard with a few stray pieces of equipment lying around. "Don't tell me what to do," she mumbled, rolling her eyes at the boy. Though she complained, as they walked up to the back door she obeyed and stayed in his shadow.

Luke was relieved to get through the first hallway without her jumping up or down, or giving them away in some strange way.

"It's cool in here," the girl acknowledged, basking in the AC, harshly contrasting with the immense Texas heat she had just escaped. "Shh," Luke hushed her, waving his hand around as if to signal that she was being too loud. She knew her voice was low enough though, and there was not another human in sight. She wasn't all that scared, so she just chuckled a little at his paranoia. Who knew he'd be the one worrying about getting caught.

"Act normal," the boy whispered, leading her into a second hallway, this one running the opposite direction of where they'd entered.

Valentine began to wonder if the man had kidnapped her just now, because not a single soul was near them. She thought maybe he'd gotten the wrong place, or that the two were just too early to accomplish anything worthwhile. She was nearing the point where she'd ask, but she was quickly stopped dead in her tracks by a shirtless Oscar Peppers roaming around aimlessly, clearly confused by his surroundings.

"Oscar!" Luke enthused, walking forward to meet the man.

"Hello. If you don't mind me asking, who are you two exactly?" Valentine was almost certain that it was the end of that story, until Luke cleared his throat and spoke up, stepping to the side to guard the girl from even being seen by the man. She was slightly annoyed at the unnecessary protection, because she was the one who was trying to meet him after at all.

"Hi, my name is Luke. My colleague and I here are just passing through to get to the concessions. Do you know whereabouts we can find that?" Valentine was almost shocked by the way his accent thickened when he told the lie. She wondered if he had done it on purpose, or if it was merely a subconscious thing that had slipped past his conscious mind. She wondered if it was just a Luke thing to speak so formally when telling a bold faced lie.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure just through there—" the man expanded is arm to point towards yet another hallway. And again, Valentine was giving up on hope that the encounter would continue on for much longer—until Luke started working his magic.