Page 100

July 14th

“It wasn’t that big of a deal,” I grumbled, rolling out of bed and holding my phone aloft to keep Becka in frame.

“My best friend got recognised in the wild!” Becka crowed, making me wince as the volume of her exuberance hit a little too hard for seven in the morning. “That is a big deal!” she insisted.

“I mean, to be fair, I was, like, in the hot zone,” I floundered for the appropriate example before yawning. I’d gone out for drinks with some of the engineers last night and hadn’t gotten back to the hotel until after one in the morning.

“If it was ever going to happen, it would be at one of the concerts,” I finished, moving into the bathroom and flipping on the light before propping my phone up on the counter. “The kind of people that are following me right now are Vibers. It makes sense that I’d be recognised by a Viber at a GVibes concert. Everyone will have forgotten who I am by this time next year.”

I dragged a hand down my face before rubbing the crust out of my eyes and pulling my hair up.

“The circumstances are immaterial,” Becka said, dismissing me with a wave of her hand. “The fact of the matter remains that my best friend, internationally published journalist–”

I snorted.

“–Kaiya Thompson was recognised by a fan.”

“Becka!” I laughed, running the tap to splash water on my face. “Don’t you think you’re exaggerating just a little?”

“Doesn’t matter. Facts are facts, regardless of how embellished they are.”

“I don’t think that’s how that works, actually,” I muttered, rubbing face wash into my skin.

“How does it feel to be famous?”

I paused my vigorous lathering to stare at the camera.

“First of all, not famous, second of all, weird.” I took a moment to rinse my face before patting it dry with a towel. “I could feel them looking at me all night,” I said, words muffled through the towel. “Not in a bad way. Just kind of there. Luckily, I don’t think it’s something that’ll happen often,” I scoffed, reaching for my toner.

“You never know,” Becka said, raising her eyebrows.

“Moving on,” I said loudly, “how goes the job search?”

“Less than encouraging,” she sighed, and I made sympathetic noises as I rubbed serum into my cheeks.

“What about that one place – you know, the start-up?”

Becka made a disgusted noise. “They went bankrupt.”

“Oh, shit,” I said, making a sympathetic face.

“Yeah,” she sighed.

“Have you applied for anything else?”

Becka let out a sigh. “A bunch of things, but mostly safe options. Nothing I actually wanna do.”

I raised my eyebrows as I moved onto moisturiser.

“Don’t make that face at me, babes,” Becka begged. “I don’t know the first thing about starting my own PR firm.”

“I didn’t say you did,” I said defensively. “And for the record, I know you don’t, and I’m not suggesting you do anything of the sort, but–” I said quickly, interrupting her when she opened her mouth in clear protest, “maybe you could start small.”

“Tell me about this ‘small start’,” she huffed.

I shrugged, rubbing moisturiser into my face. “Since I’m so famous these days, you could always take me on as a client.”

Becka blinked at me, and I couldn’t keep my face straight for long before I cracked.