Play Pretend

Chapter 2

Dana pulled Keira's hand and dragged her outside of the VIP section. Despite Keira's protests and argument that it was a waste of money, Aria had bought the most expensive seats with the most perks, which turned out to be useless because Keira did not want them anyway. Why would she want to line up along with the fans and meet the celebrities? Keira had enough of those celebrities in her job as an assistant director.

"Where are we going?" she whined at Dana, who led her away from the audience altogether and heading straight for the backstage.

The security detail stopped them just as Keira expected. She was about to celebrate and drag Dana back to their seats but the younger girl jumped up and down, waving her hands to someone a few feet away.

"Timothy!" she yelled.

The person Dana called turned and saw them. Smiling, he walked over, taking another guy with him. Based on the way they were dressed they were either one of the backup dancers or singers that would be performing.

"Dana!" the second guy exclaimed.

"Hello, Finn," Dana greeted. "Where's my brother?"

"Finn" shrugged, turning to the other one named Timothy, who did the same thing.

"Nathan didn't tell us you're coming," Timothy said. He turned to the security and told him that it was Nathan's sister and that he could let them in. He put an arm around Dana as he walked them towards the backstage. Dana pulled Keira with them. "Oh, you brought a friend. Who is this--"

Keira watched the two guy's eyes grow wide when they saw her.

"Aria?!"

So they met Aria before. That would mean these people were the members of Nathan's group. She did not really pay much attention to the music industry and most of the idol groups looked the same to her.

"She's Keira," Dana said. "Aria’s twin sister."

Understanding came to their faces and they bowed to her in greeting, apologizing for mistaking her as her late sister. They also gave their condolences, which she awkwardly thanked them for. She still did not know how to properly respond to that. It's not as if they would understand how she felt.

"Get your filthy hands off my sister."

They all turned to the guy who came. Nathan did not look as the same person who attended her sister's funeral two weeks ago. This was the first time Keira saw this side of him. He had stage make-up on, making his eyes fiercer that it had always been. All the blemishes on his face was covered, the colors of his contact lens matching the metallic blue suit he wore. He even looked a couple of inches taller than he really was, probably wearing insoles.

His eyes fell on her and he saw him gasp. For a moment there, he thought Aria came to life and attended their concert. He realized that would never happen and his face returned to normal as he glared at his fellow member to let go of his sister. Who had the sister complex, now? Keira thought.

"You," Nathan said, pointing accusing finger at Dana. "You're supposed to be in cram school. Do you know how much I pay for that every month?"

Dana stuck a tongue out at him and waved to the person walking towards them. "Hans!"

"Yow, yow, yow!" came another voice. The one Dana called Hans joined them. "Dana, darling. What a surprise!"

"Don't call my sister, darling," Nathan warned. He placed an affectionate hand on top of Dana's head. "Why are you here?"

Dana pointed to her. "Keira had tickets," she answered. "They were the royal ones. Why waste it?"

"Didn't know you were the concert-watching type," Nathan commented, turning to Keira. "How could you let this little beast manipulate you into coming here?"

"That's the same question I had been asking myself the whole plane ride," Keira admitted.

Nathan knew it was Aria who bought the tickets and that Keira refused to watch it with her. However, there she was, fulfilling her sister's wishes when she was no longer there to see them. His heart reached out to Keira, knowing she must be hurting ten times worse than he was.

"She told me you weren't coming," Nathan said to her quietly while his own sister was being entertained by his friends.

Keira felt awkward seeing him like this. She guessed Aria would have loved seeing Nathan live his dreams. She would have wanted to be there and watch him perform. Keira was there for Aria, not for Nathan.

"We should go," Hans told them.

"Let's meet at dinner," Nathan said to the two girls. "There's a company dinner after this so you better not leave." He pointed to Dana. "We're still not done talking."

"Break a leg!" Dana said to them, walking back where they came from.

Keira started to follow her but then remembered something. When she turned to Nathan, she found him staring at her, as well. She was sure he was thinking about Aria. She put a hand on his arm.

"Perform as if she's here, watching," she told him. He nodded. She watched him swallow dryly, tears starting to pool in his eyes. His tears had always been easy. To cheer him up, she gave him a small smile. "Fighting."

Nathan took a deep breath before returning the smile. Maybe it was not too late for their friendship after all. It was one of Aria's biggest wish. Too bad she would no longer be there to see it.

Keira lost Dana and she struggled on her way out of the back stage. Her lack of sense of direction was one of the reasons she never got her own car. Now, she inherited Aria's car but she was sure she was going to sell it. As she turned the corner, she bumped into someone very hard that she almost got knocked down to the floor if not for the person catching her.

"I'm sorry," the guy said.

Her eyes widened when she recognized him. It was Tristan Ray, her first love. She almost became a fan-girl like Aria because of this guy. After she encountered countless celebrities in her line of work, she lost interest. Now that he was there, she realized she was wrong.

"Are you okay, miss?" he asked her.

Keira blinked, recovering. When she realized Tristan Ray was holding her shoulders, she stood straight up. "I'm fine, thanks. Sorry."

He nodded slightly before going on his way. Maybe it was not so bad being friends with Nathan again, after all.

*****

The stage was huge. The lights were blinding. The audience was so loud it was almost deafening. Nathan moved to the beat of the song that he practiced hundreds if not thousands of times, his body moving on its own without him having to put much thought to it. His group was singing and dancing to the songs he, himself, wrote.

After their production, the members of BRIX lined up on the stage to say their greetings. Then, they had to do their individual greetings. Nathan was supposed to say his greetings in lines they were given previously to them to memorize but he did not have the time. He said it in English, trusting the interpreter to do the job of letting the fans understand what he wanted to say.

"Thank you all for coming," he started. "We hope you enjoyed our performance. Brix is preparing to come back with a new album, so please look forward to that, as well. Also, I would like to thank my family for coming all the way here to support us."

He waved to Dana on the audience. The camera turned to his sister and Dana's face was shown on the VR as she covered her mouth and waved shyly.

"My sister is supposed to be preparing for her exams but she's here instead," he said in a nagging tone. The audience laughed at that. He was known for being affectionate towards his sister. "And I would also like to thank a friend who's in heaven now, who made all this possible for me. I hope you enjoyed the stage. This one's for you."

He subtly wiped a tear before stepping back and gesturing for Finn to take the spotlight and say his thanks. From where he was, Nathan looked again at Dana's direction and found Keira. For a second, he indulged himself with the illusion that it was her twin sister in the audience.

After the joint concert, he sent Dana a text message to stay behind so he could find them. He also asked which hotel they were staying at, finding out that it was the same one they were booked at. He stayed by the stairs of the stage, watching the audience being herded out of the venue.

Meeting Dana's eyes, he waved at them, gesturing for them to come. It was the shortest way to the waiting room anyway. The security person was a different one and he did not let the two in, even if Nathan told him they were his family. Fortunately, his labelmate, Tristan Ray, was also there, and helped him convince the security.

To his surprise, Tristan walked with Keira on the way back to the waiting rooms.

"Hi," the guy said. "That was you earlier, wasn't it?"

He watched his childhood friend stare at Tristan with a shocked face. Nathan felt hands around his waist as Dana hugged him excitedly.

"Tristan, you know Keira?" Nathan asked.

"I bumped into her earlier," Tristan explained. "She almost fell down because of me. I hit her pretty hard, there were tears in her eyes."

"It was my fault," Keira argued. The tears were there even before she bumped into him.

Nathan bit his lips to keep himself from laughing. Keira acted tough with him but she was still the same girl she was back in high school who had a poster of Tristan Ray on her locker.

"This is Keira," Nathan said, introducing his friend. "She's the daughter of my mom's best friend. And this is Dana, my sister."

"You've been keeping these pretty girls all to yourself, huh?" Tristan teased.

"Hey," he protested. He put a protective arm around Dana. "We're talking about my sister here."

"Come with us to dinner," Tristan told the two girls. "We're having a meal with the rest of the staff. As Nathan's family, please join us. It's pretty late and you should not be out on your own."

"Keira studied in Japan for two years," Nathan said. "She knows the place better than we do." He turned to Keira. "You are joining us for dinner, right?"

He knew he was being selfish, but he wanted Keira to stay. It made it easy for Nathan to imagine that Aria was there. He was not being fair to Keira or himself but he wanted to do it even just for that night. To his relief, Keira shrugged to show him she did not mind staying.

They gathered their things and Nathan begged their manager to allow him to bring his "sisters" with them in the van since they would be staying in the same hotel, anyway.

"There's no room," their manager argued. There were a lot of things in the car, including their costumes.

"They can ride with me," Tristan offered. "I'm the only one there besides my manager and stylist."

Nathan hugged him. "Thanks."

*****

Keira could not believe that she was riding Tristan Ray's van. Dana seemed unaffected by it, but that was probably because she was used to being with these people. The younger girl just kept to her phone, catching up with her social media accounts.

As Keira looked around the car, the surreal feeling of riding the same car as her crush died down. She had met superstars in the acting side and most of them had been smug. She was trained not to get her hopes up if they extended a generous hand to them and that was supported by Tristan Ray who was currently taking a nap in the front seat, most likely exhausted from exerting too much energy during the concert.

To her surprise, she actually enjoyed it. The crowd around her were hyped up and it was contagious. She found her high schoolgirl heart when it was Tristan Ray's turn to sing.

They drove to a restaurant that their label company rented for the whole night. She was already used to this because they do the same thing whenever they finished filming a movie. It was a way of celebrating and congratulating themselves for the hard work. They were the last ones to arrive and most of the tables were filled up. Tristan bowed to them before leaving to join the executive table.

Dana easily found her brother and led Keira to their table. Instead of sitting next to her brother, though, Dana sat next to the other empty seat beside Finn, much to Nathan's protest. Keira took the seat next to him instead, and that shut him up.

During dinner, none of the members of Nathan's group mentioned Aria. She guessed they were trying to be considerate of her, but Keira would actually have appreciated if she heard good things about her sister from them. Every time Aria spent time with them, she came home happy. But then, that was probably because Nathan was there.

Keira argued with her sister that she had just been feeding her fantasies about Nathan, when the truth of it was they were never going back together. Now that she was there, she wondered what Aria felt while she was with these people. For sure, she would have loved to be in her place.

"I'm on a diet," Dana declared. She said she had an upcoming audition and she refused the lettuce wrap that Nathan made for her.

On the other hand, Keira was just thankful she did not have to pay for her and Dana's dinner. She did not have a body figure to maintain and ate her fill. She never gained much weight anyway.

A BRIX member, Stephen, pushed the plate of sashimi closer to Keira. "Eat more, Keira," he offered.

Keira bowed her thanks before taking a slice and eating it. Nathan eyed her.

"You're a pig," he whispered to her.

"Like you're not?" she snapped, rolling her eyes at him. Back in middle school, Nathan had been on the heavy weight side. "If I released your childhood photos to the public, you'll lose half your fans."

Nathan took one slice of sashimi and put it on Keira's plate. "Have some more," he said with a forced smile. The other people around them could only laugh.

She did not expect it to be easy to be friends with Nathan again. It was probably because it was just her that had been the problem. It was as if the last six years of disconnect and lack of communication did not happen. Even though he was already The Nathan Young, the leader and producer of the CG Entertainment's famous boy band, BRIX, he was still the Nathan Young who used to eat dirt in the playground when she dared him to.

Keira backtracked all the times she fought with Aria about it, her sister always rushing to defend Nathan. Looking back on all of that, she probably just gave Aria more heartaches in her short lifetime. It was too late to apologize now.

Just as she thought, being with Nathan just brought her painful memories about Aria. Keira only wanted to remember the good ones. She ate quickly, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible.

"Keira," Dana said, sitting next to her when Stephen left her side. "Do you want to go back to the hotel now? I'm kind of tired already."

Her brother heard her. "Let's go, then. I'll take you to your room." He started looking for their manager.

"That's okay," Keira refused. "We'll take a cab."

Nathan pretended not to hear her and got up anyway. He went to the other tables, letting their seniors know that he was leaving first to drive his sister to the hotel. He had to pour a drink to their Vice CEO, who accompanied them for the first day of their tour. After that, he was free to go.

"Aren't you going to say goodbye to Tristan?" Nathan asked before they walked out of the establishment.

Keira just gave him the stink eye in response, but her eyes drifted to the direction where her idol was. She found him laughing at whatever one of the staff had to say as he poured beer to his glass.

"I'm a camera person," she reminded Nathan. "I deal with celebrities all the time."

Nathan just made a face at her and flagged a taxi.

*****

"Do you want to shower first?" Dana asked. She was already dressed in a bathrobe.

"You're already dressed like that and you're asking me that question?" Keira replied, shaking her head, once again being reminded by her late sister. "Go ahead."

Giggling, Dana went to the bathroom to wash.

Nathan wanted to personally make sure Dana was comfortable and checked the room they were given. He was sitting on Dana's bed, most likely just loitering because there was no one in his room yet.

"Thanks for bringing her along," he told Keira as she sat down on her own bed. This was the closest they had been in six years and it was still surprisingly comfortable. It was like she was meeting a cousin from the province after a really long time. "And for taking care of her when I'm not there."

You were never there, she almost answered. "She's practically family. No big deal."

There was a long moment of awkward silence between them, until it was broken by Dana, singing fiercely in the shower. They both laughed.

"She's cute," she said after a while.

"I knew you were into girls!"

She took her pillow and threw it at him. "Even if I was, I would not date Dana."

"Why not?!" he demanded as if she insulted their whole family. "What's wrong with her?"

“Nothing," she answered. "I just don't want to be family with you."

"We almost became family, though," he muttered.

"Glad it did not come to that."

They both fell silent again after that. She still hated Nathan for hurting her sister but it would not do her any good if she held on to the grudge. She knew Aria would want her to forgive him. It had been the thing she kept asking Keira.

Fine, Aria. You win, like always.

"I can still remember every detail about her," Nathan said quietly after another minute.

Keira swallowed hard. She envied him. "I feel like I'm forgetting her," Keira admitted. "What if I forget her? What if I don't remember the good things about her? What if I lose all those memories we had? What will I do?!"

She had remained strong in front of other people during the wake, up until the funeral. Even when she came home to that apartment that was now empty except for her, she did not shed a tear. She knew Aria hated tears, especially if they were shed for her. Now, Keira was opening her heart to Nathan, of all people.

"I'm alone now."

The tears started falling without her permission. Nathan saw them and he was by her side in a flash, pulling her to his arms as she cried her heart out. He knew Keira would not have cried, thinking Aria would hate it. All her life, Keira lived for her sister.

His eyes were not dry, either. "Let it all out, K," he told her, calling her by her nickname and gently caressing the back of her head. "It's okay to cry if it hurts."

Keira allowed herself to put her arms around him. She needed to hold on to something or she would break down. She had been holding herself for a week but now it was like a dam was opened and she could not stop them. She crumpled Nathan's shirt in her hands as they held each other, grieving for their loss.