The Hollywood Effect (7 page)

“I think it was to save Steph and I the inevitable high school embarrassment. She probably would have come clean to the town if she’d lived a bit longer…”
 

Liam squeezed my shoulder again and stood up.
 

“Do you want to stay here for a bit longer? I can leave you alone.”
 

I brushed my hands. “Nah, I’m good. See ya, Mum.” I kissed my hand and leant over and touched her gravestone. There was something to be said about rituals. “Death sucks.”
 

“Yep, it sure does,” Liam agreed. “Ready to go?” Liam asked. My foot was starting to get numb again. I wiggled my toes in my boot and nodded to Liam. I sighed sadly, patted the grass, and tried not to think too graphically about
 
Mum’s bones beneath us. Liam stood up and stretched, then held a hand out to me. I took it, and he heaved me up.
 

“Damn it, pins and needles,” I muttered and stamped my foot, trying to get the feeling back as quickly as possible.
 

I watched out of the corner of my eye as Liam checked his phone. I quickly glanced at mine, but there was nothing.
 

“Want to come over to Mum and Dad’s for dinner? Mum’s making a roast,” Liam said as we reached the car. He didn’t even glance at the hovering photographers. Some of them seemed to have left, and at least one of them was actually exploring the cemetery, and was ignoring us. I had a quick flash of respect for him. The cemetery was old, and I’d always found the older parts interesting. The new section was full of tears too fresh.
 

“Sure,” I said. “Can Dad come too?” I asked. “Left to his own devices he would live off baked beans and tinned spaghetti.”
 

“I’m sure that’d be fine. Not like he has far to go,” Liam said.
 

“Great, thanks. He needs to get out of the house more. Is it all right if I drop you back at your parent’s and then come over later? I need to get some school work done. Lesson plans and stuff for Monday,” I said. I started the engine and slowly drove out of the cemetery.
 

“Yeah, of course.”
 

I dropped Liam at his parents with a wave and drove the few streets over to my house. Most of the following paparazzi stayed out front of the Burns’ place, but a couple of them followed me. I shook my head. I had no idea why they were following
me
. They’d
seen
Liam go into his parents’ house. He wasn’t hiding in my back seat or anything. I pulled into my driveway and got out of the car. One of the blonde women I’d seen with Matt Rivers came racing up to me.
 

“Excuse me, can I ask you a couple of questions?” she said breathlessly, bangles clanking.
 

“No.” I frowned, and tried to channel my scariest teacher glare. It wasn’t up to snuff, apparently.

“Are you and Liam an item now? How long has it been going on for? Are
you
the reason Holly and Liam broke up?” She said all of this without even drawing a breath.
 

“What? I… what? No… no comment.” My teacher glare disappeared into a puddle of bewilderment. How could anyone possibly think
Jen Pike
could compete with
Holly Monroe.
I mean, really. What were they smoking?!
 

She started asking me more rapid fire questions that I could barely follow. I held my hand up and tried to put on my sternest teacher voice, the one I had been trying to perfect over the last few years. “Get off my property.” She looked momentarily stunned, and I took the opportunity and turned my back on her and marched inside.
 

I slumped against the closed door and took a few deep breaths. This was crazy. I went around the house and made sure all the curtains were shut, which was a pity on such a nice sunny day. This house had a nice little sunroom that I used for my study, with a lovely view over the overgrown backyard. I liked to do my work there, and be able to look up and outside. Now all I was looking at were the scummy blue curtains that looked like they hadn’t been replaced in my lifetime.

I loved my friend but I was beginning to wish he’d hurry up and leave. The paparazzi had never been so
aggressive
 
before. Since hitting the big time, Liam had come home a handful of times. The one time he’d brought Holly, a few photographer’s had followed them around a bit, but they’d taken their few happy holiday snaps to sell to the magazines and left the rest of us alone. Had he got even more famous since then? Or was it just because of the break-up?
 

I made myself a nice hot cup of green tea and set myself up at my desk. I needed to finish my planning for next week’s classes, but I found it hard to concentrate for long. Lesson plans had taken me ages to do when I first started teaching, but I seemed to have finally gotten the hang of them - as long as I knew the content. Getting a new class about
 
something I knew nothing about was always fun. And by fun I meant hard work. I turned off the internet to avoid distractions and concentrated on getting through at least Monday and Tuesday’s classes. I had a double free Tuesday afternoon, so I could theoretically get some more planning for the rest of the week done then. As long as I didn’t get lumped with an extra. I hated when that happened. I wrote myself
 
a quick to-do list and got stuck into it. After the first distracted half an hour I actually managed to get in the zone and smashed out three lesson plans in a row. Good ones too, even if I did say so myself.
 

I glanced up at the clock on the wall. I still had an hour or so before I’d be expected over at the Burns’ residence. I pulled out my paper journal. I hadn’t updated it for awhile, but I enjoyed writing in it and getting my thoughts out, and even just as a record to look back on years later. I’d been keeping a journal on and off since I was eight years old. The early one’s were a bit cringe-worthy to read, but I was still glad I had them.
 

Liam’s back in town, with a pack of paparazzi in tow. He surprised me Friday night - turned up on my couch. I’ve missed him. Those damn feelings that I’ve been trying to repress all these years have bubbled to the surface again. Holly and him are done. Maybe. Probably. I hope.
 

Or do I? I’ve had less than 24 hours of paparazzi attention and I’m already sick of it. They’ll go away with Liam of course… but.. Is it a taste test of what life with Liam would be like? Hounded? Or would they not care so much if he was with a normal girl and not another movie star? Ugh, why am I even thinking that, I have no reason at all to even suspect that he has more than friendly platonic feelings for me. Plus, he’s still in love with that cheating idiot, despite what he says. Am I just trying to convince myself that it’s impossible anyway? I don’t know. I’m a bit confused. I suppose there’s nothing to actually be confused about.
 

Anyway. Feelings or lack of feelings aside, it’s been nice to see him, although could do without the pack. It’s weird to say the least. Don’t they know he’s just boring old Burnsy?
 

We had too much to drink last night. Went up to the cemetery this afternoon to pay our respects to Grant and Mum. It would have been Grant’s 24
th
birthday today. I miss him. I miss them both. I wish Grant were around to help make sense of this craziness and laugh at the insanity of anyone finding Burnsy fascinating. I reckon he’d find that pretty hilarious.
 

I threw the diary away from me in frustration. I was just confusing myself more. Usually when I wrote, it helped to unravel my twisted thoughts. I was just winding myself up tighter right now. I shook myself. I was being silly. Liam and I were just friends. And friends was what we would always be.
 

I packed up for the day and jumped in the shower.
 

I tried to ignore the pack of waiting photographers as I stalked up the Burns’ driveway, an hour later. Why did I think it was a good idea to walk? Stupid.
 

I resisted turning around and glaring as I knocked on the front door. After a few moments and a swish of the curtain, the door opened for me. Liam’s older brother Charlie stood there, grinning at me.
 

“Come in, come in,” he said and stood aside so that I could squeeze in. He shut the door firmly behind me.
 

“Bit crazy, eh?”
 

“Yeah, that’s certainly one word for it!” I shook my head. “Anyway! How are you?” I leaned in and gave him a quick hug.
 

“Pretty good, thanks, Jen. How are you? Ma said you’re teaching up at the school now. How’s that going?”
 

“Yeah, I am. It’s just temporary, I’m just filling in for Jill Gerhard’s maternity leave. Did you have her?”
 

“Nah, after my time, I think. Are you enjoying it?” I followed him as he led me up the hallway and into the brightly lit kitchen.
 

“Yeah, it’s been pretty good, although it’s only been a week so far. But, so far so good! Can’t really complain.” I inhaled deeply. Whatever Frank had in the oven smelt divine.
 

“Jen’s here,” Charlie announced.
 

Liam, his parents, and Charlie’s wife Nina, were sitting around the lounge room, picking at a plate of delicious looking cheeses and dips. Linda got up and gave me a big hug.
 

“Good to see you, Jen.”
 

“You too. Thanks for having me, it smells great in here,” I said and looked around. “Where’s Dad?”
 

Linda frowned. “He said he wasn’t feeling well,” she said uncertainly.
 

I sighed.
 

“He needs to get out of that house. Excuse me, do you mind if I go and brow-beat him?”
 

“Of course not, Frank was just talking about doing that himself,” she said with an understanding smile. Frank nodded behind her shoulder.
 

I smiled grimly at them both.
 

“I’ll come with you,” Liam said and put his beer down.
 

“Thanks.” I started heading back up the hallway to the front door, but Liam grabbed my arm.
 

“Let’s just jump the fence.”

“Good idea,” I snorted. I was glad that I’d worn my jeans instead of the skirt I was contemplating. Liam led the way out the backdoor and into the backyard. We strode quickly across the lawn to the timber fence. It was taller than I was, but Liam could easily see over it. We went to the oak tree. It was a gargantuan of a tree, and you could access it from both sides of the fence. A lot of sneaking had been done, and not just by me and Liam. There was one summer when my sister Steph and Charlie had had quite the summer fling. We’d had to shout warnings when we were coming up the to the treehouse. Once is more than enough times to see your sister and your best friends brother who is almost like an older brother to you himself half clothed and making out and probably more.
 

I jumped down into my side of the garden, and heard Liam thump to the ground behind me. I glanced at Liam as he looked around the overgrown garden.

“Let it go a bit, hasn’t he,” Liam said with a frown.
 

“Yeah... I hope he gets back into it soon. The councillor reckons it will help if he has something to focus and concentrate on, but so far everything I’ve tried doesn’t interest him much. Not even the garden...”
 

“He used to be out here all the time,” Liam said slowly.
 

“Yeah, I know.” We walked past the chook shed (I noticed that Dad had finally fed them the scraps, thankfully) and up to the back door. I knocked and then slid the glass door open.
 

“Dad? It’s me,” I called out.
 

No answer. I looked at Liam.
 

“Dad?” I called louder.
 

“In here, love.” The voice came from the lounge room. Liam followed close behind me as I made my way up the dark passageway. The contrast to Liam’s parents house was stark. Their house was warm, bright and smelt divine. This place was dark, cold and smelt slightly off.
 

He’d drawn the curtains again and was sitting in his old chair watching the TV. A pile of dishes was starting to build up next to him. At least he was eating, I told myself.
 

“Dad, Liam’s here,” I said.
 

“Hello, Mr Pike.” Liam crossed the dim room and held his hand out for Dad to shake. Dad blinked at it for a few seconds before he seemed to come to himself and stood up, shaking Liam’s hand and then pulling him into a quick hug.
 

“Liam! Good to see you, son.”

“Good to see you too.”

“So that lot out front were right then, you are back in town.”
 

“Yeah. Unfortunately. I was hoping to keep this trip under the radar. I don’t know how they found me so quickly.”

“Well, it’s not a very big town...” Dad smiled. I blinked. I hadn’t seen Dad smile in months.
 

“We’ve come to bring you next door. No excuses,” I said.
 

“Yeah, Dad’s got a big roast cooking, too much food just for us. And Charlie’s home too for a visit, he’d like to see you.”

Dad looked between us. I think he realised we weren’t going to take no for an answer.
 

“C’mon, Dad. It’ll be fun,” I said.
 

“Oh, all right. Let me just get changed.”

We waited while Dad went into his room. I opened the curtains to let in some daylight, then quickly shut them again when I remembered the paparazzi camped out the front and settled for turning the light on. I looked over at Liam. He was studying the framed photographs on the mantle-piece. Mum and Dad’s wedding photo took pride and centre. They looked so impossibly young and happy in that photo. It was surrounded by obligatory school photos of me and Steph throughout the ages. I personally thought my Grade 3 portrait was the best one. The Year 8 one was just sad. All those pimples. That haircut. The braces. I just couldn’t win that year.