Page 105 of Ravaged For You

“I want to ask you,” she says. “Your tattoo on the underside of your collarbone. Don’t let anybody get in your way. What is that?”

“It’s a quote from the band Oasis,” I tell her. “You like it?”

“Yeah, I like it.”

To hide from any lurking paparazzi outside, I purposely wear a beanie and large glasses.

“What are those?” Maddie asks me, her mouth hanging open at the sight of my comically round glasses.

“My incognito disguise.”

“You actually own those glasses? You take them around with you?”

“Yeah,” I reply. “In case I want to head out without a crowd following me around.”

“And they actually work?”

I shrug. “They have before.”

Maddie snorts derisively. “You look like a child molester.”

“Gee, thanks.”

We leave the hotel like any other guest and walk downtown Chicago’s streets like any other ordinary person. It’s nighttime, but there are still a lot of people on the roads. The city is beautiful now. The skyscrapers all light up around us as we wander. It feels so weird being out and about like this, without an armed guard or with a horde of fans chasing me down.

It’s almost like… normality.

“I’m like a princess who’s been locked in a tower all her life sneaking into the nearby town,” I remark to Maddie. She giggles.

“Welcome to being a regular person,” she says. “The view’s pretty good down here. Sometimes.”

I constantly check behind me for any paparazzi. I’m not naïve enough to think that they may not be following me. I know their dirty tricks, especially Harold’s. The dude’s a real professional creep who’ll follow me anywhere.

But no one’s following us tonight.

Maybe I can live out this normal fantasy for one night…

We reach a cool-looking pizza place.

“Wanna go inside?” Maddie asks me, nodding towards the restaurant.

I take in a deep breath, readying myself for what’s about to unfold. I won’t admit it to my fake girlfriend, but I’m secretly terrified of situations like these. If someone in there recognizes me, then I will have to make Maddie and I run back to the hotel before we’re swamped. It can actually be quite dangerous, especially with no security around to bring order to any crowds.

“I am fucking hungry,” I say.

But, despite my fears, nothing happens. There’s no crush of autograph seekers. No crowd control. Maddie simply orders a few slices for us to take away, and we leave.

Simple as that.

Normal fucking people.

We walk and talk through the streets.

“The tour has gone by so fast,” Maddie says. I hear a touch of melancholy in her voice. She’s sad too, it seems.

She has really grown to like me, hasn’t she? A few weeks ago and she was ready to kill me in that office, now she can’t get enough of me.

I’m not the only one to be changed by this fake relationship…