"Miles Mathers is in the same room as me."

Alexa was rocking back and forth on her heels, peeking out into the theater through the curtains, her eyes on the boy sliding into his leather jacket with a crooked smile at the foot of the steps leading on to the stage. I was sure then, as I stood behind my best friend with an amused look, that if Alexa's eyes had the ability to turn into hearts, they would of that very second.

I was honestly surprised she was even able to speak coherently and breathe right now, considering she had been dreaming of this day for the last two and a half years, I had thought she'd be hyperventilating or passed out by this point.

"Nova." Alexa poked my arm with a huge grin, "Miles Mathers is in the same room as us." she repeated, as if she hadn't realized she had been muttering it to herself for the last couple minutes.

Her grin stretched even wider across her face, resembling that of the Joker the moment Ace glanced sideways, looked back at Miles, then quickly turned his entire body in our direction. In doing this, he completely turned his back to the movie star and eventually made the decision to stalk over to us and scold us like children with a scowl.

"What the hell are you two doing here? Didn't Dad say to stay the hell away from this theater tonight, Lex?"

I looked between the siblings, still astonished they were related, even after over a decade of being friends with them. Alexa was as fair skinned as I was, and burned horrible in the summer. Freckles lined her cheeks, nose, neck, and arms, and her blonde hair was so light it was almost platinum. Ace was in every definition of the words, tall, dark, and handsome. Though he'd gotten his father's height and a few of his facial featured, he favored his mother in his rich dark skin, lean build, and hazel eyes I'd spent hours staring into for years.

Now he wore a white button up, a beautiful contrast to his skin, and a black blazer was slung over his right shoulder, as if he were going to slip into it right before the showing.

"It's Miles Mathers, Ace. Why wouldn't we be here?" Alexa eventually responded, straightening as if it'd magically give her the height to be eye level with her older brother.

Ace finally shifted his intense, irritated stare to me and I retreated into myself a little. I hadn't seen him since we'd broke up last July. Though he'd promised we'd be okay eventually, we agreed it'd be best to keep our distance for a while. Being under that gaze had me feeling things I had long since buried and I didn't like it.

"I expect this out of her," he made a gesture toward his sister, "but come on, Nova. What the hell? You guys can't be here."

I opened my mouth to respond, pausing momentarily when Alexa shot me the look from behind her brother and disappeared somewhere in the dark theater.

"Look, I tried to talk her out of it." I responded softly. "You know how she is. She doesn't take no for an answer."

He stared at me for a minute, as if he were seeing who it was that was standing before him rather than looking passed me. "Why?"

"I just explained—"

"No, why did we end it the way we did? We could have tried harder, Nov." he said.

I shifted back and forth on my feet uncomfortably, shaking my head. "It was just as fantastical as Lex's idea of marrying Miles, Ace. You're this. . . this star in the making and I'm a nobody struggling through college from a broken home. I wasn't going to hold you back when you had this whole perfect, beautiful life ahead of you. Nor were we going to sit around and pretend we were going to constantly wonder all those months we were about if the other person was being faithful. It just wasn't realistic."

He looked as if there were a million things he wanted to say in that moment, but the only thing that left his mouth was a harsh, cold, emotionless threat.

"Tell my sister if she tries to go within a hundred feet of Miles with that pass that I'll hunt her down and kick her out myself."

*

"What do you mean he knew? Did you tell him?" Alexa asked, meeting my eyes in the bathroom mirror, dropping her lipstick back into her purse as she dug for her mascara.

"Of course I didn't tell him." I kicked my legs back and forth from where I sat on the marble counter beside her, glancing sideways with a worried look.

"So you're telling me that my idiot brother actually knew what we were doing?" She asked, leaning forward as she fixed her eyelashes and eyebrows.

"He's not an idiot." I muttered, "He's actually really smart. And Lex, love, you aren't the best at being discreet." She rolled her eyes in my direction, giving me a once over.

"I know you've still got a soft spot for him, Nov. But right now the only way we'll be able to stay here is if we steer clear of him and Dad." she grabbed my arm and dragged me toward the door, sending me a reassuring smile over her shoulder.

"I promise it'll be a great movie. And we won't be leaving this place until I meet Miles, so you better prepare yourself for a long night." she added.

Finding seats came in a close second on the list of the worst parts of the night so far. Trying to find a seat that wasn't being "saved" by a thirteen-year-old girl with anger issues was hard. Trying to find a seat with a sixteen-year-old hot head as my best friend was even worse.

"I can barely see the screen." She grumbled once we finally found a set of seats in back.

"You will when the movie comes on. It's not that bad. It's horrible sitting in front and straining your neck anyway." I tried to be optimistic about the whole thing, tossing a gummy bear into my mouth. She stuck her tongue out at me childishly as the lights in the theater started to dim.

"Oh My God!" she squealed, grasping my wrist painfully tight.

We watched as someone stepped on to the stage, even from afar, I recognized Mr. Simon's beard and bright green eyes.

"Hey, everyone! Are you ready for the movie?" he tilted the microphone in the direction of the crowd, barely giving me enough time to throw my hands over my ears. It did nothing to drown out the screaming of the girls encasing me, it only prevented them from deafening me. Just as the girls settled in their seats, Miles stepped out on to the stage and another wave of hysterical shouts echoed through the room.

He waved, only riling the girls up more, including Alexa. She stood up in her seat and waved back, screeching his name as the rest of the girls in the crowd did.

"What a turn out!" he shouted into the mic, his voice barely audible over the girls around me. I felt a pang in my chest when I saw Ace poking his head out from behind the curtain, his arms crossed over his chest as he mumbled something into his headset.

We wouldn't even be in here if it weren't for him, and all I had done was upset him in return.

"I love you guys. It's crazy that you have all come here to support this movie." I leaned back in my seat and listened to Miles as I tossed a few more gummy bears into my mouth.

"I hope you guys will love watching this as much as I loved filming it. Any questions?" I snorted at the question.

He was answered with everyone asking questions at once. They were silenced moments later when Mr. Simon quieted them down and promised there'd be a chance after the movie.

My best friend, still bouncing like an excited thirteen year old in the seat to my right, leaned across the arm rest and whispered, "We're going to meet him after the movie!" in my ear, giddy with happiness.

Not wanting to dim her sparkle or snuff out the light in her eyes, I patted her thigh with a forced smile. "Yep."

Luckily it was enough for her because she looped her arm through my own and returned her gaze to the darkening room, but my eyes went to the stage for her brother, but he'd disappeared behind the dark red curtain, as if he'd never been there in the first place.

*

I must have dozed off at some point during the last twenty minutes of the movie because I was stirred awake by someone's popcorn bucket hitting the side of my head on their way out. When I sat upright, everyone was pouring out either side of the doors, all lacking the same excitement that'd been present two hours ago. Glancing to my left to ask Alexa if she was ready to go as I had work tomorrow morning, I sighed, slouching forward, when I saw she'd disappeared. Picking up the nearly empty nacho container from the cup holder beside me, I rose to my feet shakily and groaned.

"Nova!" I recognized Mr. Simon's voice, but unfortunately for the both of us, I was exhausted and very uncoordinated and I stumbled on the edge of the stair I was on and fell down a couple steps and face first into the nacho container. It was nearly empty, but had enough cheese residue to stick to my lashes and face, and enough jalapeno to make my eyes start to sting.

Nova meet stair, stair meet Nova.

"Are you alright?" a quiet voice asked from a few feet away. For a moment I thought it was Mr. Simon, but upon processing the gruff, raspy tone I lifted my head slowly and almost slammed my face right back into the container.

I managed to force myself into a sitting position on the stair and swiped my sleeve across my eyes in hopes it'd stop the burning. I then wiped at my face with the opposite one. I kept my eyes trained straight ahead, blinking rapidly, but could still feel Miles Mathers eyes on me.

Alexa would have fainted given this moment, but I was beyond embarrassed. Not just because I had just completely ate it in front of a celebrity, but he was a hot one at that.

"Are you sure you're good?" Miles repeated, this time falling into a crouch as if it would magically make this any less embarrassing. "You're eyes are really red."

I swiped at my eyes again with a weak laugh. "I'm fine. Just clumsy and the jalapenos in there are making my eyes burn."

"Do you need help?" I caught his hand extending in my peripheral. "That was quite the fall you took there."

There was a playfulness in his voice, and when I glanced up, despite the fact his eyebrows were drawn in concern, the corners of his full lips were twitching at the corners and there was an amused light in his blue eyes.

"No." I whispered, then started to stand to prove I was fine. I must have fallen harder than I thought, because I got a head rush the second I was on my feet. To my relief-and immediate horror-Miles caught my elbow before I could collapse back to the floor.

I waited until the floaters had subsided and there was only one of Miles to gently shake his hand off my arm and scan the room for my best friend-or at the very least her father. He'd been the one to cause the damn fall and he'd just vanished.

"Come backstage with me. You need to sit down for a while." Miles suggested, stepping so he was in front of me. "You're not looking too good."

"I'm okay, really." I took a step down and made a dramatic gesture toward myself. "See!"

He eyed me skeptically, then, as if he were finally seeing past the clumsy, headstrong girl he'd come to rescue, the smile that had touched at his lips a few minutes ago fully formed. "Really? You wear a work uniform to my premier, Nova?"

I dropped my gaze to my black Coffee & Co. blouse and felt warmth start to creep up the back of my neck. "My best friend kind of dragged me here."

"That explains why you're not hysterically crying and begging for my autograph." he chuckled, breathy and quiet, "Thought maybe it was because you hit your head, but this makes more sense."

"Yeah." I shifted on my feet, eyes scouring the room once more.

"Your friend, she's a fan? Did you want me to sign an autograph for her?"

I allowed myself to tilt my head back a little and look into his eyes and immediately regretted the action. I'd never seen such blue eyes in my life-the color of the sky on a clear day.

"An autograph would be great." I muttered, shaking myself from the daze and untying Alexa's jacket from my waist. I draped it over the back of one of the vacant seats and whispered, "Her name is Alexa."

I watched his hand glide across the back of the white sweater, knowing it'd be strung up over her bed by midnight.

"Miles, son!"

The deep baritone was so sudden that I jumped and probably would have went down another couple of stairs if Miles' arm hadn't shot out and grasped my waist before I could plumet to my inevitable death by embarrassment.

"Mom! Dad!" Miles greeted with a nod, his entire body tense beside me. I could feel the anxiety causing the air to grow colder the closer the older couple got to the two of us.

They were a beautiful couple-the kind Alexa and I used to see at the country club every once and a while and aspire to be at the age. The man was a little shorter than Miles, but a few inches taller than myself, but unlike his very lean and athletic son, he was frail and his shoulders were in a slight hunch. Those eyes were most definitely a mirror of his son's though, hidden behind a pair of thick rimmed black glasses. The woman was just as petite and frail, but her dark hair fell down her back in waves, big brown eyes flickering between her son and me.

"Look at you." The woman finally said, stepping away from her husband. As if I were just a part of the scenery, she reached out and cupped his face in between her long, slender fingers, shaking her head. "You look so grown."

Miles forced a small smile and joked, "I haven't grown, Mom, you've just gotten shorter."

She didn't seem at all amused by the comment, but I felt as though I were invading a personal moment and was about to step out of his grip when his father fixed the glasses askew on his nose and narrowed his eyes at me.

"Who's this?" his father questioned. "Have you finally found yourself a real one this time, Miles?"

Miles's top lip curled just the slightest at the comment, but his mother interjected and moved over to stand in front of me, touching my face the same way she had her son.

"Oh, yes! She's beautiful!" her eyes dropped to my uniform and her smile grew. "And look at that! She has a normal, mundane job!"

Thanks for that reminder, Ma'am.

If I just walked away now it'd be find. This was Miles Mathers. The worst his parents could do is ask who I was, and when their son explained he had no idea, they'd leave it at that. But I was raised to not be that rude and I knew my mother would roll over in her grave if she saw me do such a thing.

"I'm Miles' mother Eleanor but call me Ellie."

I looked to Miles, anticipating a blunt response of me being just a passerby that had fallen down the stairs in front of him, but the look of confliction in those beautiful eyes was enough for me to know what he was about to do before he'd done it.

"Yes, Mom. I wanted to keep it on the down low, you know? Nova's not really one for the spotlight."

Nova's about to smack you upside the damn head, celebrity or not!

"Mom, Dad, this is my girlfriend, Nova."

****AN***

Sorry about the long chapter, the next will be shorter

Hope you enjoyed!

Let me know what you thought!

~ChasingMadness24