Chapter Four
493 Words
Chapter Four
“What kind of a stupid name is Viko anyway?” Orestes asked.
“Well, you know. It’s probably generated through mountains of data and statistical analysis to cover as wide an audience as possible with multicultural appeal,” Aura said and munched on her gyro.
“Plus the Japanese girls,” Orestes added.
“Puh! Yeah! They are like, crazy. If they grab onto a celeb, he becomes a mega-celebrity in like a day.”
Orestes thought about that. “There’s a mountain peak you know named Viko. I think it used to have mineral water and stuff.”
“Then it suits him just fine! His brains are inflated! Ha,” she said, and they both laughed. She cut the laughter earlier than he did, bit on her gyro and decided to take down that poster from her room.
They had escaped together, Orestes had come and made up an excuse for them to ditch her dad’s party. They went a few blocks down to a nice gyro place, for fast-food. They were just sitting outside on the chairs and enjoying the sun. They were both famous enough to make some heads turn and produce hushed tones, but people had seen them plenty of times.
Everything loses its glamour at some point.
Orestes was more loved by his audience. She was the black sheep. The rebellious teen. He was kind and talented.
“Why are we buddies?” Aura asked.
Orestes frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, why are we friends? Why do we hang around? I’m nothing like your pals at the band, I’m not a good singer nor will I ever be, I’m certainly not making your PR firm happy by being seen with you…”
“Stop. Right there, stop. Aura, do you really think I care about all that? We’ve been friends for years, since we were kids. We grew up together. I care about you. Today, when you freaked out-”
“-Did not!”
“-I came to you, even though it’s silly having a reaction like that to a plain old dad-party for soft-drinks. Here we are having fast-food when there are caterers at your house preparing dishes with names I cannot pronounce and cooking amounts large enough to feed an army. I’m your friend, I don’t mince my words in telling you when you’re being stupid, but I’m there for you.”
Aura stared at her feet intently, and whispered, “Thank you.”
“I’m not that shallow to stop being your friend because my approval ratings might go down. People either like my music or they don’t. They can go to hell otherwise.”
Aura managed to look him in the eyes and smiled. “You don’t mean that.” She was tearing up.
“Okay, I’d never say that to anyone. What I mean is my fans don’t care about that, and they are my fans precisely because I don’t care about it either,” Orestes admitted.
Aura thought about it for a moment. “I just don’t want to ruin anything for you. Music is your life, I’d never forgive myself if I was to damage that.”
“Don’t worry,” Orestes said and gave her a reassuring smile.
- Writer
