DreamInColour
© 2004
Someone was sitting on her bed. Dylan groaned;
she really shouldn’t have accepted that third drink. She recalled stumbling
into her room at around 3am having talked about her and Elijah then Orli’s
relationship issues into the ground. Her mouth tasted like bark or something
and as she got her bearings she was realising there was somebody sitting on her
bed.
“Morning sunshine.” He said.
Screaming she pushed herself away from the body
and fumbled for the bedside lamp. “Dom?” She stared at him.
He laughed, “You have a nice set of lungs on
you Dylan.”
“W-what time is it?” She was still waking up.
Shaking her head she tried to remove the fuzzy feelings from it.
“You have forty-five minutes before I have to
be at an interview.” He thought for a second, “Does that make sense? I don’t
normally wake you up so this is new to me.”
She ran a hand over her face, “You are rather
perky for the morning did I miss something?”
“Only your alarm love. I’ll ring down for some
breakfast.” He pulled her off the bed, “Now go shower you stink.” He wrinkled
his nose in mock disgust.
Yawning she smacked at him, “Shut up.”
Billy and Dom were starting their interview
when Torrie finally got a chance to talk to Dylan, “What happened last night?”
She took a long sip of her coffee before
answering, “Rodney showed up at the restaurant.”
Torrie was incredulous, “He followed you?”
“Nope it was all a twist of evil fate or
something.” Dylan sighed, “Then I stupidly got caught up in reminiscing and
kind of, umm, forgot Lij was there.”
“You forgot he was there??” Torrie raised her
voice because she was shocked, this caused Elijah, who was walking nearby to
stop and eavesdrop.
“Yeah, yeah I know I’m an idiot.” Dylan
groaned, “I attempted to apologise but he didn’t want to hear it.”
“I figured as much, he showed up at my room and
looked really pissed.”
“Did he? What did he say?”
“Nothing to me, he wanted to talk to Billy.”
“Damnit.” She sighed again, “I really shouldn’t
want to know what he thinks I’m sure he hates me.”
“I doubt it.”
“Why?”
“Cause he’s Elijah, he never gets mad. If he’s
gonna waste his time doing that he’s got to at least care about you.” Torrie
explained. Elijah blushed, he didn’t realise Billy’s cousin knew him so well.
“That’s what Orli said.”
“Orli?” Torrie echoed the question that was in
Elijah’s head.
Dylan nodded, “Yeah I turned into a crying mess
in the elevator and he happened upon me so he plied me with drinks and made me
feel better.” She smiled in spite of herself.
“How?” Torrie raised an eyebrow.
Catching her drift Dylan shook her head, “Oh no
nothing like that he basically got me to admit that I’m love with him.”
“Huh what?” Torrie was confused, “You’re in
love with Orlando?”
“NO!” Dylan actually laughed, “Are you crazy,
he’s too pretty. I’m in love with…” She lowered her voice, “Elijah.”
He stumbled back a bit as his breath caught in
his throat. ‘Did she just say she was in love with him?’ Looking at his watch
he realised he had to go so he slipped away before the girls realized they had
had an audience.
Torrie was giddy, “Seriously? Omigod that is so
great!”
Dylan’s laugh faded; “It’s not really that
great since he won’t talk to me. I’m trying to resign myself to the fact that I
probably will only get to love him from a distance.”
“Ah don’t give up just yet D, fate has a weird
way of playing good tricks on you too.” Torrie reassured her friend.
Being so absorbed in her own situation Dylan
didn’t notice the wistful look in Torrie’s eyes as she watched Dom and Billy
conduct their interview. Half an hour later as the four walked towards the next
interview Dylan was shocked when Billy started walking with her.
“Can I help you?” She asked.
He smiled at her, “Yeah could you tell me how
many more of these half hour smidges we have to do?”
“Isn’t that Torrie’s job?”
“It is but if you’ll take a gander in front of
you it seems your employer has commandeered my cousin and assistant.” He pointed
at the two in front of them.
Dylan watched Dom slide his arm around Torrie’s
waist and say something into her ear. She laughed and leaned into him so she
could respond. “Holy shit when did that happen?”
Billy laughed, “Last night in the midst of your
crisis apparently.”
“My crisis?” She looked at him then caught on,
“Oh right he talked to you.” She looked down.
“Yeah for some reason he thinks I’m some sort
of relationship expert, this I don’t get. I’ve probably been single most of the
time I’ve known him.”
“What did you tell him?” She asked.
“The same thing I’m going to tell you. You two
need to discuss these things with each other, because I can’t speak for either
of you.” Billy said with a smile, “Now tell me, how many more of these half
hour things have we got?”
Elijah found Orlando stuck in the midst of
approximately a dozen females of various ages. The poor guy looked like he was
trying to pay attention to all of them and there didn’t seem to be a security
man in sight. It took Elijah twenty minutes a lot of pictures, hugs,
autographs, hugs and more hugs before he could convince the girls that the two
guys had places to be.
Orlando threw himself on a nearby chair with an
exaggerated sigh once they’d finally left, “Bugger me, they are relentless.”
Grabbing two bottles of water from a nearby
table Elijah sat down next to his friend and handed him one, “Can I ask you a
question Orli?”
“You already did.” He said with a laugh then
saw the sombre expression on Elijah’s face. “Is this about Dylan?”
He took a sip of his water then nodded, “I just
overheard her say she thinks she’s in love with me, something she apparently
admitted to you last night.” He eyed his friend.
Orlando sighed, “Don’t know how I turned into
Dr. Phil but I guess someone had to be. What do you plan to do about that
admission?”
“So it’s true then?”
“It looked that way to me, but she’s the only
who can confirm that for sure so why don’t you talk to her about it?”
“Honestly? Cause I’m afraid, every time we’re
together it’s just so intense that nothing makes sense except us. Then the real
world comes in there and fucks it all up.”
“So you’re in love with her too then?”
“Yeah,” Elijah sighed. “And now I’m sounding
like a fucking romance novel it’s disgusting.”
Orlando laughed, “It’s funny actually and I
really think you should just talk about it with her. It can’t hurt.”
“That’s just it.” Elijah sighed, “It can.”
The interviews that day went well into the
night. After approximately three hours of sleep everyone was on an airplane
headed for London.
“Looks like I’m stuck sitting next to you again
huh?” Dylan said to Orlando as she plopped down in the only empty seat
available. Elijah had sat next to Liv and seemed to be deeply engrossed in a
conversation with her.
“I really am sorry to put you out.” Orlando
laughed, “I hear some would like the job of being stuck next to me on an
airplane for eight hours.”
Dylan managed a small smile after tearing her
gaze away from where Elijah sat. She patted Orlando’s arm, “You know what I
mean.”
“Probably the first time someone’s wished I was
Lij.” He said with a laugh putting a hand over hers in comfort, “Unfortunately
I’m not.”
“You don’t have to be.” She said, “I’m quite
content letting you be you.”
“Thanks for the permission.” He grinned, “You
know I’m sure Liv would change seats with you if you asked her.”
She shrugged her shoulders with a yawn, “I’m
too tired to get into it with him anyway. If he’s content with being mad at me
I don’t have the strength to fight that right now.”
Orlando struggled against telling her what
Elijah had confessed to him earlier. He looked over to where Elijah was
animatedly talking to Liv, from the expression on the woman’s face he figured
that she was getting an earful about what Elijah was going through. “You should
just sleep on it then love.” He put an arm around her, “…and I happen to be a
comfortable seatmate.”
She laid her head on his chest, “Thanks
Orlando.”
He put a hand up to muffle a yawn of his own,
“No trouble.” His eyes closed as he leaned his head back and tried to catch
some sleep of his own.
“See.” Elijah gestured, “She doesn’t seem
desperate to talk to me.” He’d never wanted to be Orlando so badly in his life.
“From what you’ve told me you didn’t exactly
make it an open invitation to talk to you Lij.” Liv said, “She could be scared
you’ll shut her out again.”
“I understand that. Maybe I just wish that
she’d take the risk again ya know. Some sort of fucked up way of proving she
really does love me.” He continued to stare at the sleeping pair.
“You aren’t jealous of Orli are you?” Liv asked
following his gaze, “Cause you know he’d never do something like that to you.”
“I know he wouldn’t. I only wish that was me
and not him holding her right now.” Elijah groaned and put his head in his
hands, “My god I’m such a fucking sap.”
Liv laughed and grabbed hold of his hand, “Look
at me sweetie.” He did so, “You’re in love with the woman, you’re allowed to be
a sap. You’re also tired so why don’t you sleep some of this stress off before
you give yourself a headache.”
He yawned in spite of himself, “I guess I
could.”
Reaching across him she put a pillow behind his
head, “It’ll make sense soon enough Lij, you just need to have patience.”
“Patience is a pain in the ass.” He mumbled.
She squeezed the hand she was still holding,
“It’s worth it though.” She assured him then reached for the book she’d been
reading and tried to relax.
The talent emerged from the aircraft before everyone
else so Dylan made her way to Torrie trying desperately to stifle another yawn.
“I can’t believe I’m still tired I slept most of the flight.”
“You’ve had a trying few days.” Torrie observed,
“Although from what I could see you had a comfortable spot.” She teased.
“It’s unfortunate that he doesn’t really affect
me.” Dylan laughed, “And you should talk, your spot didn’t look any less
comfortable.”
Torrie blushed, “I still can’t believe it.”
“Guess out of the two of us you were the one
who got a hobbit.”
“Don’t give up so easily D.”
“I don’t know what else to do, he made it damn clear
he doesn’t want to talk to me.”
They piled into the shuttle that was taking
them to the hotel, “He had just seen you interacting with an old boyfriend. He
was freshly hurt, he could easily have just spoken out of anger.”
“It’s amazing how much truth you can speak in
anger.” Dylan said.
“Dylan...” Torrie was becoming slightly
frustrated with her friend’s pessimistic attitude. “You ignored him and you
hurt him he had a right to be angry, but he’s Elijah he doesn’t stay angry
long. The least you can do is take the risk and extend the white flag.”
“Why do I have to?” Dylan had a whine in her
voice but she was slowly conceding.
“Because the fact that you are in love with him
is going to eat away at you until you tell him. After that it’s up to him what
he does.”
“Fine.” She finally relented, “I’ll try and
talk to him tonight after the premiere.”
He hadn’t planned on staying out as long as he
had but some fans had put together a large party and it had actually been fun
so he’d stayed. He was in the process of shutting his light off when he could
have sworn he heard someone knocking on his door. It couldn’t be…could it?
She shifted her feet from one to the other. She
knocked again this time a bit louder, if he didn’t open the door in a minute
she was going back to her room. She started biting her nails as she waited.
Pulling the door open he regarded her with his
head tilted to the side, “That’s a bad habit.” He observed.
She took her hand out of her mouth, “That’s the
first thing I ever said to you.” Why had she said that? She just wanted to get
out what she needed to say and planned to leave anticipating him being too mad
to care.
“Yes it is.” He’d never forgotten that because
he’d been drawn to her from that moment.
“I-I.”
She inhaled trying to pull up all her courage, “I know I have no right to
expect you to forgive me…” She started, “but I have to tell you this.” She
looked him in the eyes and got lost for a moment, “I love you.” She finally
said.
His face remained emotionless as he looked at her;
he wanted to be sure she’d actually said that. He smiled finally and opened the
door wider, “Please, come in.” She let out a sigh of relief and ducked under
his arm into the room. “I should probably start with I love you too…” He said
as he shut the door.