My heart stopped the moment I heard the name. Liam Hawthorne. It couldn’t possibly be.  I mean, he was my childhood celebrity crush. Adorable little Liam Hawthorne in all those BBC mini series and other period flicks. My friends and I fawned over him when we first discovered him like nobody else’s business, all swearing we were going to move to England together just to marry him. Then he disappeared during his preteen years. My friends and I were just out of that phase of taping pictures of him to our walls and Google him everyday, when suddenly he came back when he hit the upper teen years. He grew tremendously and went from a cute little actor that hardly anyone knew, to this worldwide babe, just like James. 

“Hello, it’s so nice to finally meet you. It’s Camille, right?” Liam said, putting his hand out which I instantly took to shake.

My eyes seemed to go in and out of focus as I tried and failed to not check Liam out. He was in similar attire as James and his dark brown hair was cropped down except for a tiny quiff that, honestly, I didn’t think anyone could pull off until I saw him.

“Yeah, Camille. But you can call me Cam.” Maintain cool, Cam. You can do this. He’s just another guy. Not the celebrity that you happened to plan out your entire life with and name all six of your children.

“James talks a lot about you, I don’t think you realize that. So it’s great to put a face with the name.”

“This is going to sound terrible, but James hasn’t mentioned you.” Trust me, I would have remembered.

“He hasn’t?” Liam looked over at James putting a disappointed face on. “Mate, you’re killing me here.”

“Cam, when have I ever mentioned every single actor that I’m working alongside?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Always.”

“Well, this cast is big, you can’t expect me to mention every actor.” James said defiantly.

“I’m your co-star! I’m in ninety percent of the shots you’re in!” Liam feigned being offended, something he was accomplishing and I was believing. At least he was good at his job 24/7.

“Well. I’m telling you now. Cam, this is my co-star Liam. Liam, this is my little sister Cammie.” Liam offered a sweet smile and I felt my insides melt.

“Anyway, Mel will kill you if you don’t get in there, like, right now.” Liam told James.

“Alright, I’m out. Cam, go find Mom.” James started running towards the trailer as I called after him, “This set is huge and I’m just supposed to find her?” But James didn’t hear. He simply disappeared inside the trailer. I pursed my lips in mild frustration. Just find Mom. He expects me to “just find Mom”. This set seemed to stretch for miles, how was I supposed to know where Finch took my mom?

“You look confused.” Liam said.

“I have absolutely no idea where my mom is.” I replied, looking around the immediate area, which I knew my mom was no where near, momentarily forgetting that I was talking to the Liam Hawthorne.

“She’ll probably be in the Zone.” I raised an eyebrow.

“The what?”

“The Zone. It’s like a green room for theater. Just a place where everyone chills, watches the filming, the like.” Alright, that made a little more sense, however there were trailers and tents, I didn’t see any buildings.

“I still don’t know where that is. If you could just point in the general direction...” I waved my hand, gesturing the lot. 

“Here, I’ll take you there. Come with me.” My stomach started doing flip flops, but I had to be chill about this.

“Are you sure? Don’t you have to do... stuff?”

“Trying to get rid of me already? We barely know each other.” Liam smiled over at me as we started making our way towards the other end of the set. 

“No, not at all!” Why would I ever try to get rid of him? He was beautiful. “Just don’t want you to get in trouble.”

“Well, thank you for your concern, but I’m ready to go. It’s usually the girls who take forever to get ready.”

“True, I -”

“Cam!” I heard the high pitched squeal come from behind me and I turned to see Gemma running towards me.

“Hey, Gemma.” It wasn’t like Gemma to be so excited to see me. The only times I had ever really seen her excited was when she was with James. She gave me a quick hug and I was so shocked by her action, that I didn’t even respond before she released me.

“How are you? Haven’t seen you in awhile. I’ve missed you.” She said, her white smile blinding me.

“I saw you, like, two days ago.” She was up to something, I could feel it.

“Really? It’s felt like longer!” She glanced over to where Liam stood, looking slightly out of place all of a sudden. “Oh, good morning Liam. How are you today?” Everything clicked. Liam. James. Gemma was just wanting some major boy attention. I’m surprised she wasn’t chasing after Carson, wherever he was. Perhaps it was just the fact that he was younger and just as much of a flirt as she.

“I’m alright, just taking Cam to the Zone.”

“Oh, I can take her!” Gemma said, over enthusiastically, but that was the last thing I wanted. Gemma and I never really got along. We had barely even talked before.

“That’s alright, I have nothing else to do.” Liam said and not going to lie, it made me feel happy that he didn’t mind taking me. 

“Either do I! Come on.” Them fighting over me made me feel a little awkward. I suppose it wasn’t really fighting over me, but it still left me in a weird position. Before Liam could say anything, however, a lady peered out from one of the nearby trailers.

“Gem! We need to finish your hair. Get in here!” Gemma pouted and turned back to us.

“Alright, Liam, she’s all yours. We should hang out later, Cam, okay?” I nodded my head, giving her a passive answer She scampered off into the trailer, her blonde hair bouncing behind her. I was deeply jealous of her hair.

“Anyway, how old are you Cam?” Liam asked as we started walking again.

“Seventeen, you?” I didn’t care if I had memorized our age difference when I was eight, it was important or else he would know that I stalked him for the majority of my life.

“Twenty-one and a half.” He beamed proudly.

“And a half? Really? Haven’t moved passed the stage where the half is important?” His eyes went wide.

“The half is always important.”

“Well, then I’m seventeen and...” I counted how many months since my last birthday. “Seven twelfths.” That sounded about right. And a bit pretentious.

“See? It makes a difference. Now I know that you are almost eighteen.”

“Not like it’s that important.” I said, dismissively. I never really understood the big deal about turning eighteen. I guess that becoming an adult was a pretty big deal, with the right to vote, drink legally in some countries, and do a bunch of things without your parents. However, I didn’t care about most of those things. Drinking never interested me, a tramp stamp without my mom knowing didn’t sound appealing, and voting... ok, voting was a different story. But it also meant time to start planning out my future, something I wasn’t too keen on doing.

“You don’t think eighteen is important?” Liam looked at me wide-eyed.

“That important. Only kind of.”

“Why, if I may ask?”

“It means growing up and growing up sucks. I want to fly off to Neverland with Peter and hang out with the Lost Boys.” As soon as the words left my mouth, I mentally face-palmed myself. Did I seriously just reference Peter Pan to Liam?

“You know how many girls Peter ends up taking to Neverland? Do you want Tinkerbell to try and kill you, too?” Did he really just go along with my reference? Just when I thought Liam couldn’t get anymore attractive.

“Alright, fine, I won’t escape to Neverland.” I drew out every word, over-exaggerating my exasperation. Liam seemed content with that answer. I never expected, in a million years, that I would be having an easy conversation with Liam. I mean, we were discussing Disney.

“So what do you do?” My face crinkled in confusion at his words.

“What do I do?” I repeated, dumbly. But I honestly had no idea what he was referring to.

“See, I’m an actor. I act. Sometimes I go play a game of football or Call of Duty. What do you do?”

“Like, in my spare time?” I asked, still not entirely sure what he was asking.

“In general.”

“I’m in high school. I sit around in my room being a hermit.” I told him, not feeling like I should mention my sketching or photography. He eyed me curiously.

“What? No raging parties in LA that you go to with your posse?” He asked, seeming completely serious. In reply, I snorted. “I take that as a no.”

“I’m not a partier. And I do not have a posse.” I don’t even have friends in LA, I added bitterly to myself.

“So all you do, ever, is sit in your room being a hermit? Sounds dull.”

“Well, occasionally, when I’m feeling extra ambitious, I sit in the living room instead.”

“Taking YOLO to a whole new level.”

“Living on the edge. Hardcore.” I put my hand in a ‘rock on’ formation, which caused Liam to laugh and, oh my goodness, his laugh was adorable. He had deep dimples and his laugh slightly resembled a cute little hiccuping. He sounded like he was a little kid when he laughed.

“Anyway, here’s the Zone.” We reached a large building-like tent, probably the largest on the lot. Just then, the fluttering Finch came out and instantly spotted me. Or Liam. Who was with me.

“Oh! There you are! Your mother has been wondering what happened to you.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry, I started daydreaming and I guess I wandered off.”

“It’s alright, I just hope you didn’t run into any problems. Your mum has your pass.” I smiled and nodded.

“Yes, I know. There was a brief confusion, but James came to the rescue.” Lisa looked over to Liam who was still standing beside me. “And then Liam offered to show me where to go because James had to finish getting ready.”

“Well, you better stick with me until you get your pass, come on.” She turned and began to walk back to the tent.

“It was nice meeting you, Liam.” I said, trying to hide how nice it really was.

“You too, Cam. I’ll see you later.” My heart did a quick flip at those words.

“Yeah, maybe.” I smiled, just as I heard a sharp voice beckon me to come. “I feel like a dog.” I muttered to myself. “Bye Liam.” I turned to follow the fluttering Finch into the tent and the entire time, my brain was stuck on the thought that I had just met Liam Hawthorne.

Not even a quick meet-and-greet, like at a signing or something, but a real meet. We had a conversation, we talked, we laughed, I nearly cried in joy. I used to hide from the majority of James’ celebrity friends because I knew that I might have a panic attack. I could never be too careful with hanging out with them. The memory of spilling my pop all over Nate was still fresh in my mind and that was an action I couldn’t go repeating. But no. I spent the last five or so minutes simply chatting with Liam. I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face if I tried.

I followed Lisa into the tent where I saw my mom pouring herself a cup of coffee.

“Hey Mom.” I said, coming up beside her to make myself a cup. My energy was dying down fast.

“There you are! We were wondering what happened to you.”

“Oh, nothing much, just meeting and talking to Liam Hawthorne. No biggee.” My mom’s eyes went wide. 

“Liam... Hawthorne? The little British boy that you, Becca, and Riley had a crush on when you were little?”

“Yeah. Him.” My smile was erupting after trying to keep it under control. I wanted to scream and do little dances.

“So,” Mom nudged my arm with her elbow. “What’s he like?” She teased.

“So good looking.” I emphasized. “Like, so, so good looking. Not to mention, really nice.” I said, honestly surprised at how nice he was being.

“Found your future husband?” Mom asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Mom, he was always going to be my husband. I already named our children and everything.” Mom laughed at my remark as we took our cups of coffee to a little sitting area that had several TVs set up to watch filming.

“So, Lisa was telling me earlier how for the first little while we’ll watch some of the filming, then we’ll have lunch, then we’ll get a tour of the set, maybe meet some more people, watch more filming, and then we’ll go home. Sounds good? You brought stuff to do, right?” In reply, I pulled out my sketch book and my Monster.

“Do you think I’d be allowed to wander some more and take pictures of random stuff?” I’m sure lunch wasn’t going to be for a long time and sitting around watching filming didn’t sound that exciting.

“Maybe later, hun. Just sit around and watch the magic of movie making. Besides. Food.” My mom pointed to another table where an entire table was filled with food. I gave a quick look at my mom and was mildly impressed how quickly she was able to distract me. My face split into a giant smile as I practically skipped over to the table to load a plate of mini muffins and fruit.

“Alright, they’re about to start! Where did your daughter go?” I heard Lisa say when she entered the area. I almost started laughing when she asked where I went. She sounded horrified, like they would have to search the entire set for me again.

“I’m right here, Lisa.” I came up behind her with my food, making her jump slightly.

“Oh! Camille, you gave me a fright.” Gave her a fright? What century were we in?

“Sorry.” I murmured, my mouth full of a lemon poppy seed muffin.

“Well, the show’s about to begin. Shall we?” All the TVs illuminated, each one carrying a different angle of the set they were currently on. I saw as the actors shuffled into position, this scene starting off with Carter, Gemma, and an older man who, despite all the different angles, I couldn’t recognize him. 

“Quiet on set!” I heard someone from the TV yell. The clapperboard snapped in front of the cameras as one other person called, “And, action!”