The Hollywood Princess

[2] chapter two
— a bundle of joy

song = chocolate by The 1975


"Damn it!" I shouted, swinging my fist in a solid righthook that would even make Mike Tyson himself flinch. I shook the pain from my hand as it made contact to the hard little button nose attached to the purple, stuffed bunny that had laid untouched in my closed since my late childhood. Sargent Carrot, by the blow of the punch, flew graciously into the bookshelf and took a few of the dusty novels with him.

I winced when, after hearing the loud clutter from all the way downstairs, my dad rushed through the doorway with my mum not far behind who threw a disappointed look at she took in the scene before her. "Your date with Harry is in less than five minutes and you're playing around with your teddies?"

"Mum," I whined as I fell back on the bed, Sargent Carrot in my arms. "why don't you understand that I can't go to this stupid lunch?"

"Why don't you give me a good reason without repeating the word 'hate' and I might consider listening." she folded her arms and transferred her weight over to one leg, smirking at my lack of response. "My point exactly."

I broke my silence with an agonised outcry, "But you don't understand!" My clenched fists were slammed down on the plush, sequinned violet duvet around me and she huffed at my childish mannerisms.

"I understand more than anyone," she cooed and perched a seat next to me on the bed. "you're in denial."

I scoffed, rolling my eyes as I stroked the soft furr on Sargent Carrot's head, "With what exactly?" I waited for her to enlighten me. She sat closer to me, a sympathetic yet all-knowing smile etched over her red-stained lips. Almost scared, I pushed myself further away from her.

"Sweetie, Darling," she paused as her manicured nails poked my nose and, trying to ignore the fact that she had literally just booped my nose — something that I've hated since I was five years old — I stared at her with a crinkled nose and waited for her to continue. "Harry is a charming fellow, we don't blame you for being attracted to him."

I choked on air and, with Sargent Carrot's face crumbled into my balled fist, I sat up in attempt to catch my breath. "What?" I was now filling in my hysterical laughter that bubbled up involintarily from my chest. It was so funny it almost hurt.

After several more failed trials to speak again, I held up a hand in front of me as if to metaphorically pause the moment. I spluttered out a final cough and straighten myself out into a better posture.

"You have got to be kidding me. That theory is all you got from all the hatred and loathing between us for all these years?" Her and my dad - who was still leant casually on the door frame - stared at me blankly and my featured morphed into seriousness. "Let me get this straight; I do not like Harry, I do not have feelings for Harry and that will never, ever change even if Harry was the only human left on Earth — capiche?"

"Oh, ouch."

Both mine and my mothers heads snapped up, staring at the door in pure, utter shock. The space being no longer held by my dad who had suddenly and mysteriously dissapered into thin air, only to be replaced by the one and only person who repulsed me more than mushroom soup — and that was a substantial amount of repulsion for one girl.

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear." I grumbled under my breath.

My mum pounced up from beside me with so much speed and force that I was surprised that she hadn't broken through the verry ceiling above us. I waited for the blood to rush to her head as she beamed at Harry and pulled him into a hug, but sadly it didn't happen.

Unfortunately, being the celebrities that they were back in the day (and also present day), my mum and dad had gained quite a few close friends through the years. Including Harrys parents and eventhough they were divorced, it somehow caused the relationship Harry had with my family to strengthen and it was almost as if my own mother prefered him over me, her own flesh and blood. Perhaps beneath my strong exterior, I had secretly been jealous of him but was still no excuse for him to act so smug and charming around me all the time, hence why I avoided such meetings similar to this one; to me, Harry was like a flea that was immune to all cures, he just wouldn't bug off and it felt like he sucked all the life out of me when he was around.

As if he was the golden child of the house (which he was far from, by the way), my mum gave him a loving squeeze before stepping back and straightening out her skirt to give him a once over. "Why Harry, you get more handsome every time I see you, no wonder all the girls are so smitten with you." She turned and looked at me from over her shoulder. "Look, Payton, it's Harry!"

My eye twitched, "Yeah, thanks, I noticed." I murmured but she had already turned away back to Harry, leaving me looking at her back as she practically swooned over him.

Seeming almost humble, Harry had blushed at my mothers previous compliment and his eyes crinkled at the sides "I can say the same for you, Mrs Shae, you haven't aged at all since the last time I saw you."

"Of course, I forgot! How was Africa, is it really riddled with all those illnesses like they say on the news?"

"It was amazing, we built a water fountain for this small town and we even filmed me visiting a medical centre. it was a pretty small, rural area but there was so much suffering and poverty — the media have eaten it all up too, so that's a plus."

I let out a disbelieving laugh, trust someone like him to do such an amazing act, having a once-in-a-lifetime experience but then when it's all totalled up, only caring about the publicity.

Typical.

Harry Rose his eyebrows up suggestively and I had to force myself to hold my hands behind my back to not repeat the little number I had also done on poor, innocent Sargent Carrot who was probably still disregarded on my bedroom floor.

"Sorry, is there a problem over there, Payton?" He called over to me, craning is neck to look over at me as I stood mid-action. Whilst he and my mum were having a mothers meeting behind by back, I had recovered some books from the floor and placed them back into their places on the shelf and hadn't really expected them to hear me mocking him.

"No problem." I said with clenched teeth. "No problem at all."

"Alright," He hummed, "You look great today, by the way." Some hidden part inside of me died and I glared at him, my eye now spasming more than ever. "I can't wait for our date."

I was officially ready to attack but my mum interrupted before I could get into a fighting stance. "Oh my, I forgot about your date — I have so much work to do, too." She wiped her forehead, comeing to terms with her socialite mistake and morphing back into her normal professional ways. "I must be off but try not to get into trouble, okay?" She gave be a pointed look before pulling out her shine and dissapearing, off to her office.

I turned towards Harry to find him already staring at me. He sent me a cocky smirk and twirled his keys round his index finger, "Ready for our date, Babe?"

This was going to be a long day indeed.

Notes

i just finished a book and it ended so abruptly, she was kidnapped at the start of the book but in the ending she escapes with the help of one of her captors who isn't really a captor but kinda technically is and it turns out one of the two captors got her pregnant and, having done the shame-shame with both of them in one night but loving only one of the men, she keeps it but it doesn't say if she reunites with the one she loves or anything in the epilogue, it just ended.

i think I have whiplash