Tracking a Star

Chapter 5: Compliments

“You okay back there?” Josh yells over the loud and roaring wind. Reluctantly, I smile and nod, forgetting that he probably can’t see nor hear me right now.  Even though the lingering thoughts of a motorcycle crash happening a moment crawled through my mind, I feel weightless, stress-free, and not a single bad thought is on my mind.  I feel incredible right now.  

“I‘m having the time of my life!” I yell back in response. I swear I can hear him chuckle at my excitement.  Hey, it’s not every day you get to ride on a motorcycle. Well, it is for him, but I am living the dream right now and he can chuckle all he wants at my actions.  

The wind goes by in a blur; I feel like we’re going through the sound barrier. Chills run through my whole body and make me shiver. The wind finally stops blowing by us as he slowly the bike down, pulling over by a curb by the street.

“Everyone usually seems so scared when they ride it with me, you just felt like you wanted to ride on it forever,” he remarks, still gripping tightly to the handle bars. I guess I did. I smile as I take off the helmet and hand it to him.

“Can I?” I ask sarcastically. He laughs at that, then just gazes at me with the smile still stuck to his face before he attaches the helmets back on the bike. I look up to notice he took me to a very fancy-looking restaurants that I would usually stare at as we drove past it from time to time.  Our family didn’t go out very much, with dad being gone and all. We were okay with that, because mom always loved to cook for us and we’d cook for her on occasion.  Going out to eat anywhere just never came up.  Now that I stood here looking at it with awe.  

“Josh, I would’ve worn something better if I knew we were coming here!” I try to tell him, but he just laughs.

“Don’t worry about it, you look beautiful,” he compliments. Wow, I rarely heard that except from my family members from time to time.  Even that was a rare occurrence. I try to hide the redness filling my cheeks as he helps me off of his bike.

“I don’t know about you, but I am starving,” He says to me. I raise my eyebrows at him as I plant my two feet on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. I shake my head as his comment as we walk in, hand-in-hand, with a night of a sort of awkward conversation that is yet to come.

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I patiently sip my diet coke while we wait for our meals to come.  This place wasn’t as fancy as I thought it was going to be, but that’s okay.  The entire restaurant was dark and all the tables were covered in white tablecloths and abstract paintings hanging on the deep burgundy walls.  Who am I kidding, this is some pretty high class shit here and I should be appreciating it.  I look back at Josh as he nervously smiles back at me.

“How do you do this?” I burst out. He raises an eyebrow.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re famous. Your poster is on every girl’s wall. You can be put on any kind of merchandise made, and any girl would own it. And here you are, going on a date with me. There’s a million girls out there, and you pick me.” Okay I admit that none of that was supposed to come out of my mouth, ever. Why am I suddenly such an idiot?

“And you question that?” He smirks. Um, yes, but you weren’t supposed to know any of that. 

“Well, I guess so. Don’t you ever think ‘A girl would die to have this moment’ whenever you’re falling asleep?” He laughs.

“I don’t really think about it. I love acting, I love all the fans that support me through it, and that’s it. Fame shouldn’t change people like that,” he points out. I purse my lips, suddenly ashamed of saying all of that to him.