Untitled [As of yet]

My mom is Sylfaia Lazuli, voted by the world as the hottest, sexiest actress in Hollywood. My dad is Len Silverstone, dirt-rich boss of Silver Jewels & Crystals. Me, I’m Azaliean Silverstone, daughter of Jennifer Alston and Len Silverstone. I have twin kitties, Moonlight and Sunrise. Moonlight’s pure white with silver eyes; Sunrise’s grayer with golden eyes. 1

You’d think that being rich and famous rocks, but not if your mom doesn’t give a damn about you. Living in Hollywood isn’t everything.2

***3

“Parrrr-tay! C’mon girl! Let’s dance!” I dragged my bestest friend every, Fay, to the dance floor.4

“Unh! Don’t wanna!” she protested.5

“You’re in Hollywood, my dear. C’mon! Dance!” I told her.6

“Aza. My mom may be in trouble, how can I party?” Fay turned away, her eyebrows furrowed.7

“Hey, sorry. What happened to Rose?” I asked, concerned.8

“Her manager said people are not buying her albums after the stripping scandal. If she can’t sell 1 million by the end of 2 months, the manager’s opting out. And you know that being a world-renowned singer is my mom’s greatest dream; it will break her heart if she loses it. Oh Aza, I don’t know what to do, how to comfort her, what to say. It’s not the financial problem – there’s plenty of cash from my dad – but more like what it will do to her. Help me, Aza; you’re always so good with people. You know what to do, right?” she cried, eyes pleading for reassurance.9

“Fay.” I put a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s dance. That’s what you should do now.” I wiped away her tears and grinned. She managed an uncertain smile but she allowed me to swing her to the beats of the music.10

“Don’t worry so much, Fay. If she’s not worrying, why should you? Wait till a month have gone past, I’ll bet the album sales would have gone up,” I promised.11

“Aza. Don’t try it again. It’s dangerous,” Fay cautioned.12

“Aww. It’ll be fine. Nothing bad will happen. For now, let’s jus enjoy what we came her for. Dance with me, Fay!”13

We danced the nigh away, clubbing with our friends, whose parents are as rich and famous as ours. But I’m considered royalty, that’s the extent of my mom’s influence.14

“Princess.” I felt a warm hand slip into my cold one, and a gentle kiss on my lips.15

“Chris! Hi!”16

“Hi yourself.” He grinned, his arm snaking around my waist, holding me tight. 17

“Lovebirds! Hey, are you 2 dancing?” Fay shouted at me while kicking her heels to the beat.18

Chris nuzzled my long hair. “You smell great.”19

“Unh!” Fay rolled her eyes. “I guess not.”20

I laughed and swirled around to face my boyfriend. I love partying!21

“I’m home.” I closed the door and flicked the switch. My heels clicking on the marble floor, I entered the kitchen. Raiding the fridge produced a can of Diet Coke and a bag of marshmallows. Mmm, my favourite snacks for supper. 22

“Aza? Did you have fun?” a motherly voice called out.23

“Yeah. It was great. Where’s mom? Back yet?” I asked.24

“She’s… she won’t be back for a couple of days.” The voice neared, becoming louder.25

“Off to somewhere in the world to shoot another movie, I’ll bet. Let’s hope she goes to Antarctica and gets frostbite so her feet will need to be cut off, then we’ll see how can she still act. Aha!” I laughed bitterly.26

“Touchwood! Nothing will happen to her.” A stout woman with a jolly face appeared. She’s the perfect example of a farmer’s wife, though why she never did become one is a mystery.27

“She’s always off to somewhere, when will she ever be home?” I grumbled, munching on my marshmallows.28

“That should be your father’s line… Aza, why are you still eating? You should be asleep now; it’s 3 a.m.!” 29

“Marian. This is Hollywood, people do not sleep at 3 a.m., they eat, they party, they do anything but sleep at 3 a.m.” I retorted, still munching on my marshmallows, popping one after another into my mouth.30

“Don’t blame me if you have panda eyes and indigestion tomorrow. But what am I to say anything; I’m just a lowly housekeeper working in Hollywood for the famous actress Sylfaia Lazuli, aka Jennifer Alston, aka mother of Azaliean Silverstone. So of course my word can’t mean anything.” She pouted like a kid, then turned to go back to sleep.31

“Sorry, sorry. Fine, I’ll sleep after I finish my supper ok? Partying makes me hungry.”32

“That’s my girl. Your mom puts me in charge of you whenever she’s away; it’s not that she doesn’t care about you, but her career doesn’t give her time to look after you properly. She hopes you will understand, she even bought you the boots you wanted, the diamond-studded one… costing her over $1000…”33

“OH MY GOD! Tell me she didn’t! It was so ex I didn’t even dare to look at it twice! OH GOD! Where’s mom? I’ll call her and thank her right away!” I screamed like a maniac, fumbling around for a phone.34

“Hello mom? Thanks for the boots! Love you! Muackz!” I screamed into the phone when she picked up.35

“Aza? I’m busy, call you later.” She hung up on me. Some part of me shouted at her for ignoring me, but the other part was rejoicing at the newest addition to my wardrobe. I followed the latter, unwilling to lapse into a bad mood because of my mom.36

“Hiyah Aza!” Fay greeted me the next morning. “Tomorrow’s your b-day! How are celebrating? I’m not going to The Teddy Bear again.” I opened my eyes and slowly focused on the cute girl leaning in just above my face. 37

“Huh? What? Why ya here?” I slurred.38

“Marian let me in. Get up, sleepyhead! It’s finally the weekend, so don’t waste it by sleeping in.” She dragged the covers off me, and I made a feeble attempt to pull them back.39

“1 more minute…” I turned onto my side, going back to sleep. It took me less than 10 seconds to drift off into Lala Land.40

“I’m going to take an un-glam photo of you sleeping and send it to Chris…” she threatened mischievously. 41

“Chris?! Oh no you don’t, Fay Cross!” I bolted upright and stared at her.42

“That got you awake. So now are you going to get up and go to the mall with me?” she asked innocently. She looked exactly like Moonlight when she had peed and looked at me happily, like she hadn’t meant for it to happen.43

“Yes, yes. Fine whatever you say. Gimme 10 minutes.” I rubbed my eyes and got off my bed. As I shuffled into the bathroom, Fay chuckled to herself.44

True to my word, I changed and dolled up in 10 minutes flat, with 1 minute leftover for a quick breakfast.45

“You never cease to amaze me, Aza.”46

“Oh, shuddup. You forced me to get up from my nice and comfortable bed; I haven’t made you pay for that yet.” I swiped at her playfully.47

“What did we say about violence, Aza? Do you want loverboy to know that his girlfriend is violent?” she retorted. We clicked our way out of the house – mansion really – and onto the sidewalk; we don’t drive unless we need to, there’s enough pollution in the world as it is. 48

“He knows I’m slightly violently inclined, so it’s ok; that threat’s not going to work on me,” I gave her a sly smile. “Any more threats to throw at me?”49

“No, not threats… Surprise!” she squealed.50

“What? What surprise?” I looked around for anything out of the ordinary, but hey, living in Hollywood, what is “ordinary”? I’ve seen cats dressing up as dogs when it’s not even close to Halloween and skeletons walking out of a house in broad daylight. So what’s “ordinary”?51

Then I found my surprise. Strong, muscular but cold hands covered my eyes, blocking out my vision.52

“Hello? Who’s that?”53

“Mmm…” My assailant was too busy kissing up my neck to answer.54

“Hey! Stop it! You know I’m ticklish!” I giggled uncontrollably. That’s gonna leave a hickey, I thought.55

“I’m not done yet…” Chris whispered in between kisses.56

I reached behind and poked whatever flesh I could reach. There was a yelp, the hands uncovered my eyes and I could see again.57

“Oww… Pain… Violent woman…” Chris muttered, nursing the place where I’d jabbed him.58

“Sorry! You didn’t wanna stop and that was the only thing I could think of that will make you stop!” I attempted to redeem myself.59

“Uh, hello? I’m still very much alive and being disgusted while watching 2 lovebirds.” Fay interrupted.60

“Fay! Sorry! I didn’t mean to ignore you!”61

“Yeah yeah, I can totally believe that. If not ignoring me means joining in, then no thanks. So, are we going to the mall or are you 2 going to kiss the whole day?”62

“Let’s go.” I linked arms with Fay and Chris. 63

“I’m gonna lay the ground rules. 1: No kissing or hugging in public places or any other intimidate acts, or I will just leave. Holding hands is fine but nothing more, 2: I’m alive and I exist here and I don’t wanna be ignored by you lovebirds. 3: We’re going shopping now, so if your boyfriend does not wanna tag along, it’s perfectly fine by me.” Fay stopped, arm akimbo.64

I exchanged looks with Chris. He smiled and we burst out laughing.65

“What’s so funny?” Fay demanded.66

“Nothing.” I stretched my smile even wider.67

“Fine, whatever. Faster! I want to go shopping, not stay here forever!” Fay dragged us along as she ran, on 5-inch heels.68

“Bev Hills! Here we go!”69

“Yes! I love Bev Hills! So, is Chris tagging along or what?”70

“Hmm… I’ll just follow for now.”71

“You said that.”72

“Yeah whatever. Aren’t you shopping? Why care so much about me?”73

“Then shuddup if you’re not shopping,” Fay snapped.74

I had already drifted off to look at display items while they bickered like a couple. I’m not worried about them; they’ve always argued since they knew each other. I think they can’t exist together without arguing.75

“Oi! Aza! You went off without me!” Fay ran to catch up.76

“Not my fault… Hey, you think this dress is pretty?” I asked, holding up a chic white dress which came down to just above my knees.77

“You have enough dresses already; you don’t need any more, Aza. I bet you have another dress which looks like this,” Fay replied.78

“… Possible. K then, I won’t buy.” I put the dress back.79

“What about this? It’s new so you shouldn’t have a duplicate at home.” Fay held up an even shorter dress.80

“Wow! Sexy!”81

“Wear it for the prom then!”82

“… See first. There’re still so many dresses here!” 83

`~`84

“Are you 2 done shopping? There’s a limit to how much I can carry you know; I have only 2 hands, if you haven’t noticed,” Chris said grudgingly, both arms filled with shopping bags. The stuff we’d bought ranged from accessories to shoes to handbags. “I think there’s over 1 million bucks worth of clothes here.”85

“Did you spend the money? No, right? Then shuddup; it’s our money, not yours.” Fay shot him a look. “IF you don’t wanna carry our stuff, we’ll carry it by ourselves, thank you very much.”86

“Woah,girl! It’s fine, everything’s cool.” Chris held up his hand in mock surrender.87

“Let’s take a rest, Fay. We’ve shopped for hours!” I walked over to a café nearby. “Starbucks?”88

“You choose.” Fay waved nonchalantly at me.89

“Starbucks it is,” I decided, walking straight in.90

“What about my opinion?” Chris muttered. “Don’t I have a say too? I’m like your servant now.”91

I stepped back and turned to face him. “Chris servant! Hurry up! Mistress is angry!” I cried92

“Coming! Sorry Mistress! Chris knows he’s in the wrong, please forgive him!” Chris begged me, playing along with our favourite game of “Mistress and servant/slave”.93

I grinned at him. “I’ll help you.”94

“No, thank you.” He swept gallantly. “How can a mistress help a servant?” His eyes gleamed wickedly.95

“Mom!” I heard an exclamation. “Mom!” The rapid clicking of heels followed soon after.96

“Hi Fay baby.” A melodious voice sang.97

“Why are you here? Didn’t you have an appointment with the agency?