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“I’ll be fine.” She doesn’t answer but I can hear her shallow breathing. “I honestly will be. Starling Key is beautiful. It has a really cool, laid-back vibe, and the staff seem nice.”
“Yeah,” she breathes out. “They do. And I think you’ll be safe with Isaac. He doesn’t look like he’d be easily bought by Chuck. And he was soooo hot, girl.”
“Who, the security guy?”
“Um, yeah.” She fans her face to emphasize her point.
“Right. I didn’t notice. I guess I was more concerned about the way he was with my parents. You can tell a lot about how someone’s going to turn out by how much they suck up to the management, you know?”
“Yeah, I guess. He didn’t seem too impressed with your mom and Chuck, actually.”
“No,” I giggle. “I liked that.”
Ana sits up and brushes blades of grass from her elbows. “I think you’ll be fine. I have a good feeling about it.”
I sit up too and we both stare out at the marina. There’s something about being near open water that soothes my soul. I can’t wait for more of this when I get to Starling Key.
“Excuse me,” a small voice ventures behind us. Ana and I spin around to see a young girl, and who appears to be her father, standing behind looking at us expectantly. “It is you, isn’t it? Aurelia Bird?”
“Shit,” Ana mutters under her breath.
“It’s ok,” I mutter back. “She’s only young.”
I get to my feet and walk over to the young girl who instantly flushes beet red. “Hi, I’m Aurelia,” I say, bending down to her level. She is shaking like a leaf. “What’s your name?”
“Ag… Ag… Ag….”
“It’s Agnes,” her father answers.
“Agnes? What a beautiful name.”
The girl sniffs and I can sense tears brewing behind her eyes. Even after five years, I still don’t get why people react to me this way. I’m a living, breathing human being exactly like them. I just sing on a stage for a living, that’s the only difference.
“Would you like a selfie, Agnes?”
I look up at her father to check it’s ok and see Ana in the corner of my eye pacing on the spot. Her father nods and offers his phone. I crouch next to the girl, holding the phone up to face us. “Smile!” I say, softly. She manages a very small one before she bursts into tears. “Hey! It’s ok,” I say, putting my arms around her. “It’s ok, Agnes.”
A couple minutes pass and I can sense Ana having a conniption behind me. “It’s so nice to meet you,” I say, pulling away from the hiccupping girl. I stand and give the father an apologetic smile, then join Ana to walk out of the park.
“Put these on,” she orders, handing me my sunglasses. I do as she says and we walk quickly back along the road towards the hotel. “I have a bad feeling.”
“A bad feeling about what?”
“As nice as those people were, they have your photo. It’s probably on social media already, location tagged and all.”
We get one block away and the sound of stampeding feet freezes me to the spot. The source of the sound is not yet visible. Ana and I look at each other. Even behind the sunglasses, I can tell she is freaking out. She spins around to scan the area; Ana was always quicker on her feet than me.
“Down there,” she hisses, pointing to a back road filled with dumpsters. “Go hide. I’ll send someone to find you.”
I stare at her.Is she out of her mind?The sound of running feet gets closer. “Go!” she hisses.
I spin in my sneakers and run down the back alleyway, keeping as close to the dumpsters as I can in case I need to dive behind one of them. I turn back and see Ana looking straight ahead, her posture rigid. I keep running, dodging bits of trash that have likely been dragged out of the dumpsters by vermin. I look back again and Ana is nowhere to be seen. Instead, there’s a giant mob of people in her place.Shit.I keep running until I realize I’m close to the end of the alley and right around the corner from the Ritz Carlton. I can hear chanting so there is still a crowd outside the hotel. I take a left, hoping to get in through a back exit, then I hear someone yell. “She’s there!”
I turn to see another group of people appear in the alley to my right. It’s one thing to be courteous to a lone fan, a young girl who chances upon me in the middle of a quiet park, but I’ve been in the business long enough now to know it’s a whole other thing to find yourself mobbed by a group of people fanatical enough to stand outside a hotel for hours—days even—waiting for a slight glimpse. My legs burn as I run as fast as I can to the back of the hotel. I look over my shoulder to see the group flying up behind me, and when I spin back around, I slam into something large and solid. An arm wraps around me, lifting me up and over a thick, broad shoulder, and again we’re running.
“I’ve got her. I need back-up. Side exit. Five seconds.”
I would cry with relief if I wasn’t hyperventilating so badly. We burst through a fire exit and keep running down a concrete corridor. Three security guards pass us heading for the exit. I can’t see them but I hear commotion as the group of fans slam against the closed door. A gun fires and finally, my tears fall.
