Ch-25 ★Camera Flashes

[Aulaura]

            The clouds were beneath us. Staring out the oval shaped window, I felt as awed as the first time I had seen them. The view from the plane was amazing, truly breath-halting. This is one of the few reasons I loved to travel. My eyes got a whole treat of delicious views, not that I didn’t have any nice views in London- I looked over to Jay, smiling contently to myself.  

Jay was fast asleep beside me, his eyelids secured over his mesmerizing eyes. I removed the small lever that was between us, lifting it upwards and leaned towards him, my head resting on his shoulder. He smelled so good- a mixture of some strong clone and after-shave. Surprisingly, he didn’t reek of cigarette smoke today. I wonder what had made him stop…

Jay didn’t argue with me, in-fact he didn’t say a word to me and simply followed my request and packed his bags to meet me outside- though I didn’t miss the begrudging look in his eyes as we left the apartment. But this needed to be done, I didn’t have a choice. I wanted Jay far from Sam, far from Melody’s memories and far from everything that troubled him. I wanted to steal him away for few days. Even though I knew he didn’t want this- I couldn’t tell myself to stop. It was clear that he didn’t like me. It was clear he had betrayed me just few hours ago with my sister-like friend yet I couldn’t force myself to hate him.

For a minute my mind lingered back to Sam. No-matter how much I tried to reason with myself I couldn’t shake off the precarious guilt that sat on my chest like a heavy weight.

What was wrong with me? No-matter how vile Sam had been she still was my friend. She had even apologized but I can’t forgive her. No, I won’t ever forgive her. Jay was mine and solely mine. There is no way I was going to let anyone have him.

There was another reason why I was taking Jay away from London. A reason that made me believe I had truly gone insane. Normal people didn’t deal with betrayal like this. They didn’t run away from it instead they faced it head on; confronting the betrayer with the lies he had told.

            But this was me and I didn’t face my problem. I ran away from them. I let them rot in my ignorance, silently praying they would disappear into thin air.

            With a deep, pained sigh, I pushed away these thoughts back into my mind like always. It was my way of coping. When I felt Jay shift towards me and take my hand, everything I had done so far didn’t seem wrong. He made everything feel so right.

            And that was so wrong.

            ~*~*~*~

                        We walked, together through the airport bustling with activity. occasionally few people passing by us would stop and stare. “Hey isn’t that Jay Walter and Aulaura Grey?” I heard some of them whisper amongst themselves.

 I had my hand wrapped around my tiger-print suitcase, its wheels squeaked behind me. Actually I was feeling a little worried. We boarded our flight in London fairly early in the morning that’s why we didn’t have to face any sort of media or paparazzi. But it’s like past noon here in America and news did travel pretty fast these days. So that only meant one thing, a massive crowd of fans and media will be waiting for us. I could feel myself beginning to hyperventilate. That wasn’t good. Nausea began tightening its reigns around me.

I looked over to Jay who didn’t look the least bit bother. He wasn’t wearing his usual outfit- dressed in a pair grey sweatpants and hoodie. Black shades were covering his eyes while a slack-pack was slung across his shoulder. Damn, did he look drop dead gorgeous.

            And like I had predicted, there were Jay’s fans and numerous photographers lining the airports exit. Except the numbers were no-where close to what I had imagined. I could say there were at-least a thousand people here and that was scaring me.  The only thing that was holding them back was the security that Dad had sent with me. Thank God, I didn’t object to that one. I could see the airport staff rushing to the doors. Panic was covering their faces. Okay, so things like these don’t usually happen. We’re supposed to pre-plan these things and notify the airport to not allow anyone without a boarding to pass to enter but this time we didn’t.

            The nonchalant look from Jay’s face dropped instantly as a small worried frown began forming on his face. It didn’t suit him.

            “I almost forget that I was famous,” He muttered under his breath, taking in the size of the crowd. He was trying not to fret about this. I could tell.

            “Well, that’s one thing the world doesn’t let us forget. Does it?” I laughed, oddly enough he laughed with me.

            “Man, I can’t believe I wanted this so bad,” Jay spoke, gesturing towards the screaming fans, few of them were jumping up and down in their spots to get a better view. The paparazzi were going mad, afterall this is the first time Jay and I were caught together in public. The camera flashes were almost blinding.

            “I can’t believe my dad wanted this,”

            “It’s not our fault, Aulaura,” Jay replied, smiling at me, wistfully. “They say gold drives the wisest of us insane,”

            The way he was speaking right now, everything seemed so normal like there absolutely nothing wrong between us. I wanted it to stay like this. I wanted to forget all that had surpassed us in the last few days.

            “Afterall all that glitters,” He stared hard at the crowd that kept on growing larger.

“Isn’t gold,” I finished for him.

He looked down at me, smiling slightly. “Just like me,”

“That’s what you think,” I retorted. For me, he was a treasury of gold, so enormous that the world would fall short to encompass it- yes that’s how much he meant to me.

He titled my chin, cocking his head to one, his eyes bore into mine. “That’s what I know,”

Another flash enclosed us into white, breaking the moment apart. One of my security guards rushed to us, panting heavily- his chubby face was beet red with perspiration.

            “We can’t hold them off for much longer. The crowd is going crazy,” He spoke in between breaths. “Please hurry up-”

             “Let’s go,” Jay cut him off before I could reply- taking my hand he strode in front of me leading me towards the large, glassed exit.

            I think he felt my hand tremble; maybe that’s why he wrapped his arms around my waist. For a quick moment, his eyes met mine- it was like he could almost read my fear.

            The security tried their best to prevent the crowd from hurting us. But they didn’t need to. I don’t why the instant we stepped outside a strange blanket of silence fell over the crowd. I saw numerous eyes staring at us. It made me feel very uneasy. I moved closer to Jay as we walked through the narrow opening leading to the car that was waiting for us.  Then one of the photographer, who was standing by the rear end, blurted a question in our direction.

“Is the world’s biggest Rockstar dating the world’s richest man’s daughter?”

            Jay looked at the man. He could hear the wave of whispers that had erupted in the crowd. I don’t know what made him say the next words but they knocked air out of me.

            “No,” He shook his head. “Please don’t use titles to make fun of our love,”

            Our love, my eyes widened, my heart pounded so hard against my chest that I was sure I would faint. And I thought was shocking then what I heard next would change everything.

            “It’s just that a guy named Jay fell in love with a girl named Aura. Just like normal people do. We have feelings too you know,” My heart burst into flames, literally I could feel this massive warmth inside me.

            The photographer eyes fell down, he looked ashamed for asking the question. No-one dared to flash a camera in our direction. Silently, Jay led me to the car, pulling the door and allowing me to sit down first.  I could see the media, even the fans their mouths sealed into silence. Their eyes still followed us. Jay sat down next to me, the seat sunk on his side causing me to fall into his side.

            He held me, away from himself at a little distance, making sure that not a part of our bodies touched other than the hands.

My mind was literally blank. What he had said there was it really true? Or was it one of his tricks? Why did he say that?

            I wanted to ask him but I bit back when I saw the furious look on his face. He was ready to kill if you ask me. I don’t know why did the photographer’s question bother him so much? It did bother me as well because it was kind-of judgmental the way he addressed us but still….

            I sighed, looking out the tinted black windows.  I caught a sign that said.

Welcome to Florida- The Sunshine State

            Florida, I wish you could shed some sunshine into our lives.  God knows that both of us need it desperately.

~*~*~

            West Palm Beach, Florida

            My father had many estates around the world. He saw them as profitable sources of investment hence the reason why he bought this resort. It was few kilometers away from West Palm Beach. It was a splendid place, spectacular and grand but I didn’t like it one bit because I just felt really out of place here. The people that came here were usually awfully rich and it’s not that their mean or stuck up or anything. It’s just I didn’t seem to belong with them like the way I belonged in the street dance fiesta. I shared a passion of dance with those people. With these people, I shared nothing other than the fact that I was rich.

            The very sophisticated lady-manger led us to our suite. She said the view was simply ‘divine’ from it. It was like on the eighth floor I think. I quietly trudged behind her. Jay raised an eyebrow in my direction, obviously noticing my discomfort. His anger from earlier seemed to have vanished into thin air.

            I shrugged my shoulders. “I hate this place,”

He tapped his chin. “Hm then why did you pick it in the first place?”  I caught the sarcasm under his voice.  He thought I was dumb or something.

            I jabbed an elbow in his stomach, causing a startled yelp to escape his mouth. The manger looked back at us with a peculiar face.

            When she turned her back at us again, Jay leaned down to my level. “What was that for?”

“For being idiot,”

            He smirked. “Oh, really? Or maybe you just wanted an excuse to come closer,”

I controlled my urge to stomp on his foot. “Shut up,”

            “So why did you choose this place?” He asked, quickly reverting back to the topic at hand.

“My dad owns this place and I didn’t have the time to pre-book any hotel. Plus we need a-lot of security and the staff at this place is ready to face challenges like those,”

            “What was the rush anyways?” There were lines beginning to form on his forehead. He was honestly confused, wasn’t he? “It’s not like I’m going anywhere,”         

            I took a sharp intake of breath, fear clogging my mind. I clenched my hand to stop it from trembling. “I-I needed a break,”

            “Why?” He flexed his jaw, holding it in a tensed position.

Thank God, I was saved by the manger’s voice. She stopped in front the door of our suite.

            “Here it is,” She spoke, looking in between us- clearly noticing the sudden change in mood.

“Ah, thank you Victoria,” I rushed towards her, taking the keys from her outstretched hands.

            “No problem,” She smiled, politely. “Let me know if you need anything. The room service is available at all hours,”

            “Yes, of course. I’ll let you know,”

“I’ll leave you here. Enjoy your stay,” With that she left us, alone on a secluded floor. I don’t know why I was scared now. I was scared of staying here alone with Jay. The questions that were running around in his head were the ones I couldn’t dare to answer.

            “So this is it, huh?” Jay came to my side, looking at the room. Our suitcases had already been placed inside.

            There was a large seating area, filled with crystal bowls and blue flowers- bluebonnets I think that what their called. A large white, silk drapery fell from the ceiling parting the seating area from the gorgeous king-sized bed. It was huge. The bed’s frame was in a shape of a coral. There were soft, pink bed sheets that covered it and a large coral colored blanked was draped over it. It was crowded with numerous pillows.

            There was a small, lobby like kitchen filled with all the necessary state of the art appliances. Then to one side there was misty, white glass door- I think that was bathroom. Why was the bathroom’s door so see through? I don’t think I’m going to able to take a bath with Jay here.

            Wait! This is the honeymoon suite. There was a large bookie of roses and card placed near the kitchen counter. Oh no, they only did for newly wed couples. My face flushed red- I didn’t dare to look at Jay.

            “Hey, is it okay if I take the room next door? I really don’t think we can live here together,” His voice sounded strained.

“Yah, sure,” I replied, trying to keep face hidden by my hair. He was thinking the same thing as me. Well, this is embarrassing. “I’m sure the entire floor is empty,”

I turned to grab my bags accidently bumping into Jay. He had a blank expression covered his face. Though his eyes, I could see them darken. If he was angry about this, he clearly wasn’t showing it. I know we weren’t ready for this. God, we’ve only kissed like what two times.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled, moving aside but his hands grabbed my arms.

He pulled me back so ended up slamming into his chest. He lowered his head so I would be directly staring at him.

“Why did you bring me here?” He asked- scowling in the most menacing way. “What was the rush? What are you running from now?”

My heart was pounding terribly fast. Was I scared of him? No, never. I was scared of the monster I had become.

I smiled. “From college and work. I need a break,”

He didn’t say anything and walked away with his bag. Before leaving, he turned around to say one last thing.

                “I hope you know what you’re doing Aulaura because hell! I don’t even know what’s going on,”

Author’s Note: Now, that their settled into Florida. Let’s give these two some sunshine.

                Cheerio! I hope you guys enjoyed this. Leave your thoughts about this chapter and I’m eager to hear them.