Chapter 5
M
y fingers were starting to cramp. I knew I had to have signed over two hundred autographs. People had begun lining up here at the mall early this morning. I was helping with the grand opening of the new Miami Beach mall, and it seemed like it was going to be huge. The singer Miguel was performing, and I was signing autographs. At first, I wasnât feeling making an appearance at a mall opening. That stuff was reserved for beauty pageant queens. But the station had some kind of partnership with the mall and all but forced me to do it.
This creepy-looking guy approached the table. He had a 1980s jacket buttoned all the way up to his neck and some too-tight khakis. His long, stringy hair looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks, and even though I didn't smell anything, he looked like he stunk.
“C-can you sign my autograph?” he asked. He had my picture clutched closely to his chest.
Kennedi, who had tagged along for the event, stood behind me. She eyed him suspiciously, but I managed a smile and said, “Sure.” I held out my hand to take the photo. “What's your name?”
“Ch-Chris,” he stuttered.
“All right, Chris,” I said, flashing another smile.
Smooches,
I wrote on my photo.
“Y-you're so beautiful,” he said like he was in some kind of trance.
“Thank you very much, Chris.”
I handed him his picture back. He lingered a bit too long before finally saying, “Thank you, I'm going to treasure it forever.” He still didn't move; he just stood there staring at me like he was crazy.
I shot an evil look at Ariel, who was standing at the end of the table. She was supposed to be helping us to keep the line flowing, and she was just standing there looking stupid.
“I'm sorry, we have to keep the line moving,” Ariel finally said. The strange guy reluctantly walked away, but he kept staring at me.
“Ewww,” Kennedi said, leaning in and whispering to me. “Talk about creepy.”
I laughed as I pushed her away. “Girl, be quiet and move.” The line wasn't getting any shorter, so I needed to hurry up and make my way through these people.
I signed more autographs (the station had printed up tons of publicity photos), took a whole lot more pictures, then finally, the mall representative person said, “Okay, that's good.”
I just then noticed that they'd cut the line off. Thank God. “Yes, I'm so ready.”
“Me too,” Kennedi echoed.
We gratefully followed the mall representative into a back room. I took a few more photos with mall staff, then ducked in the public restroom to use it.
“All set,” my bodyguard, Mann, said.
“Yep,” I replied.
“The girl who wants your job told me to tell you she was leaving.” Kennedi laughed.
“Her name is Ariel.” I chuckled.
Kennedi gave me a “whatever” shrug as we headed to the parking lot.
“You good?” Mann asked after he walked me to my car. “I can follow you home.”
“Bye, Mann. I can make it from here.” I smiled. I liked him a lot. Unfortunately, he was only with me at appearances and stuff. But Tamara was going to have to get with the program and hire him full-time for me soon. I bet Beyoncé never had to walk around without a bodyguard.
“Yeah, Mann,” Kennedi leaned in and said. “If something happens, I'll protect her.”
I laughed as Mann waved bye and watched me pull away. I had just turned out of the mall when I noticed my diamond promise ring from Bryce was missing.
“Oh no!” I said. “My ring.”
“What about it?” Kennedi asked.
“I left it.”
“Left it where?”
I thought for a minute. “I had to have left it in the restroom when I washed my hands.”
“You should stop wearing that cheap jewelry, and you won't have to take it off before you get it in water,” Kennedi joked as she leaned back and began playing with her phone.
“Ha, ha, you got jokes,” I said, making a U-turn to go back into the mall.
“You want me to go with you?” Kennedi asked as I pulled up in front of the mall and double-parked.
“Nah. I'll be right back.”
Kennedi turned up the music and started bobbing her head as I jumped out of the car.
I made my way back into the restroom, praying that my ring was still there. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it right where I had left it. I had just slipped it back on my finger when the door to the bathroom opened. I didn't pay it any attention until I looked up and saw the person who had just come in.
“This is a women's restroom,” I said, instinctively backing up.
“I-I know. I s-saw you run in h-here, and I just had to see you again.”
My heart started racing as Chris took a step toward me. “I was just sitting out there reading when I saw you.” He pointed toward the door. “I think, it was, it was like some kind of divine intervention.”
I looked at him like he was crazy but didn't say a word because homeboy looked like he wasn't wrapped too tight.
“It would m-make my day if I could just have a kiss,” he stuttered.
“I don't think so,” I said, stepping back again. “Get away from me.” I tried to push past him, but he grabbed my arm.
“Why do you have to be so mean?” he snapped.
His tone caught me off guard, and my whole body tensed up. He no longer sounded like some creepy nerd. His voice was deeper, and he scowled like some kind of madman.
“I can't stand teases like you,” he said, pushing me up against the wall.
“I was nice to you,” I managed to say.
“But you're not being nice now. If you were nice to me, you would give me a kiss!”
“Okay,” I said, trying to keep him calm. “I didn't mean anything by it; it's just that I don't kiss strangers.”
“I bet you kiss your boyfriend, Bryce.”
If I hadn't been scared before, I was definitely freaked out now. How did he know who my boyfriend was?
“Excuse me, but I really have to get going. My friend is waiting.” I again tried to push past him. He grabbed me again and tried to force a kiss. Before I could scream, he put his hand over my mouth and pinned me harder.
“Let me go,” I mumbled as his nasty hand covered my mouth.
I was just about to try and bite the mess out of him when the door to the bathroom swung open.
“What are you doing?” a girl screamed as she raced toward us. She took her purse and hit him over the head. “Let her go!”
The girl kept kicking and hitting him until he let me go. She grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the door. “Let's go!”
She didn't have to tell me twice. I raced out of the bathroom behind her and didn't stop until we were out among the crowds of people again.
I immediately began scanning the crowd for a security guard. “Are you okay?” she asked.
I tried to catch my breath. “Oh my God, I can't believe that.”
“Did he hurt you?” she asked, examining me.
“No, no. I'm okay. Thank you so much. Who knows what he would've done.” I felt myself fighting back tears. I took a moment to pull myself together. “I need to find a mall security guard.”
“Are you going to be okay?” she asked again.
I nodded as I kept looking for a security guard. “Hey,” I said, spotting one. “Excuse me, officer,” I called out, waving toward him.
“Yes, ma'am, may I help you? Is something wrong?” he added when he noticed my panicked look.
“Come on,” I told the girl who had helped me.
I turned, and the girl who had just literally saved my life was gone. Did she really leave without saying anything?
I shook my head. I couldn't worry about her. I quickly began explaining what had happened to the security guard, who didn't seem all that interested. I thought about tracking down the mall representative who had set up my appearance, but she'd have to tell my station, and Tamara would fuss about my sending Mann away when I had been the one begging for them to hire him in the first place.
No, I chalked this one up to my letting my guard downâsomething I vowed never to do again.
Chapter 6
I
had just wrapped up another bomb taping and was absolutely worn out. I had also taken two tests and had three meetings today. Yeah, I couldn't wait until graduation, because this balancing act was killing me.
That's why Tamara's summoning me to her office on my way out the door was more than a drag. I was tired and meeting with Tamara was definitely not on my list of things I felt like doing right now.
Even still, I poked my head in her office door. “Hey, Tamara. You wanted to see me?”
She excitedly waved me in. I didn't sit down, because I didn't want her to think I was staying long.
“Great show today, Maya.”
“Thanks,” I said, looking at her like “I know that's not what you called me in here for.”
“Well, you know at
Rumor Central
, we go digging.”
“Yeah.” I nodded as I tried to figure out where this conversation was going. Of course I knew that. I was the one doing most of the digging.
“So,” Tamara continued, “we just had to figure out who was the person responsible for making Maya Morgan a hot topic on social media.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, me. I'm the one responsible.”
Tamara laughed. “Besides you, of course. We know there would be no hot topic if it weren't for you. But someone was helping us trend each week. So, at your suggestion, we put those
Rumor Central
skills to work and found out who it was, and actually it was your own assistant who was able to dig up a name for us.”
So, Ariel was good for something? She'd found the person behind the
Rumor Central
Twitter handle.
“Well?”
“It's the president of the Maya Morgan fan club.”
“What fan club?”
Tamara leaned back in her chair. “The fan club that has over twenty thousand members.”
Wow, I had a bona fide fan club. “That's what I'm talking about.” I smiled.
“Kelly, can you send her in?” Tamara said into the intercom.
I waited in anticipation. How cool was this? I was actually about to meet the president of my fan club.
The door slowly eased open, and in walked a girl, with long, curly brown hair and deep dimples. She was dressed a little frumpily for my taste, but she looked like if you cleaned her up good, she could pass for Keke Palmer's twin sister. I studied her for a minute. She looked really familiar.
“Maya, this is Jayla Cooper,” Tamara said.
“Hi, Maya.” She was giddy with excitement. “It's a huge honor to meet you.”
“Have we met before?” I asked.
She nodded. “It's an honor to meet you, officially. The last time we met was Saturday in a bathroom at the mall.”
I jumped from my chair. “Oh, my, God. You're that girl from the mall! The one who got that guy off of me in the restroom.”
“What?” Tamara asked.
“Yeah, some creep followed me into the ladies' bathroom at the mall.”
Tamara looked shocked. “What? Why didn't you say anything?”
“I don't know.” I shrugged. I really had intended to say something, but it was my own fault that Mann wasn't around, and I didn't want anyone chewing me out for sending him away.
“What happened? Were you hurt? Where was Mann?” She started firing off questions.
“It's no biggie. Some guy followed me into the bathroom.” A part of me wanted to tell the truthâthat jerk had scared me to death, but I didn't need the drama, so I left it alone. I pointed at Jayla. “This is the girl that helped run the guy off. She beat him with her purse.” I turned to face her. “Why didn't you introduce yourself then?”
“That wasn't the time or the place. I was actually there earlier to take some pictures for my blog site when I saw you go in the restroom. I was going to wait for you to come out and ask you a question.”
“You have a blog site?”
“Actually, it's for you. It's called
All Things Maya.
We actually just got it up and running on Monday. I've been working on it a while. I sent you an email about it. But I know you're pretty busy.” She was right. I got so many emails; no way could I reply to half of them.
“And Maya, this website is
phenomenal
,” Tamara said, finally interjecting. “This girl right here is a technological genius.”
“Have a seat,” Tamara continued, speaking to Jayla. “This site has all the bells and whistles.” Tamara motioned for me to come around her desk so I could see. I was amazed. It didn't look like a blog site. It looked like a bona fide website, designed by some expensive web designer. The colors were my favorite, pink and silver. The writing was classy. All the photos of me were my absolute best. This thing was off the chain.
“I just wanted to make it nice, because I'm like your biggest fan ever,” Jayla said. “This is just for now. I'm actually working on something a little more high-tech.”
“Something better than this?” I said.
She nodded modestly.
“Well, I love this, so I can only imagine how I'll feel about anything that looks better than this,” I said.
She looked relieved to have gotten my approval.
“I still think you should've said something,” I said to Jayla as I walked back around Tamara's desk.
“You weren't in any condition to meet anyone new,” she replied. “Besides, I knew one day I'd get to meet you correctly.”
“Well, we're looking forward to big things with Jayla,” Tamara said. “I just wanted you to take a look at the site. If you like what you see, then we'd love to have her work with you to help you build your brand.”
I looked at Jayla and smiled. “Well, I love it, and make sure we have your info.” I looked back at Tamara. “Because I'm with the boss. We need to see how we can make you a permanent part of the
Rumor Central
team.”
Jayla's eyes grew wide. “Wow, I'd like that. B-but . . .”
“But what?” Tamara asked. “Please don't tell me that's not something you'd be interested in. I think you'll be pleased with the terms.”
“Oh, it's not that,” she said. “I'd work for Maya for free. It's just, I'm eighteen.... I'm still in high school. I graduate in May, but I'm still in school.”
Tamara and I laughed. “Around here at
Rumor Central
, age ain't nothing but a number,” I said.
She broke out in a huge smile. “Then let me say I'd love to work for you, and I look forward to talking to you more.”
“Give all your info to my secretary on your way out,” Tamara said.
She nodded, rose and turned to leave. But she stopped and turned back to me. “Maya, let me just say, I can't wait to get to know you better.”
“I second that, Jayla Cooper. Hope to see you soon.”
“I love it,” Tamara said after she was gone. “All this young talent.”
“That's the best kind to have.” I stood and headed to the door. “And I guess I need to thank Ariel.”
Tamara nodded. “We both do, because I think this was a score for
Rumor Central
.”