I watch Sam drives away after he drops me off. I could tell that he is still troubled of what he must do, but I am glad to feel that it lessened a little bit when we part ways. Perhaps my recommendation helps him, or much intensify him to think much more. I hope that it will be the first one, for I am glad to help him in the simplest way I can.
It is true that next week will be the start of classes for College. If Sam is indeed thinking of entering school after years of being simply homeschooled, he’ll certainly need to think about it already. After all, for someone like him whose records show being taught at home than in a bunch of kids in one room, the processing will certainly be much longer.
I enter our house and as always, what welcomes me every day is Buzz alone. He jogs at my feet with a series of happy barks, and sits across from me, wanting to play along. I smile at him for a moment and pet his head, greeting as well, “Hello there, little pal.”
Except for Buzz, I always arrive home with my parents away on their work. Well, sometimes, one from them will be home if Dad no longer has clients, or if Mom is done with her works at the university. But most of the time, they’ll be arriving home about eight o’clock in the evening; that leaves me about three to four hours of everyday to prepare dinner for us. It had been a habit of mine to be the cook for dinner. At the very least, I want them to know that they shouldn’t always worry about me, that I can do the simplest things. Not to mention that three days from now, I’ll be residing in a school residence that will be much nearer to my college of choice. That means that I’ll mostly do all the work, and they’ll need to always eat dinner outside or buy foods from other chains, or simply skip it, which is probably the one with the most possibility.
I look at the time and realize that I’ve got at least an hour and a half left to prepare dinner but it is all enough to do the cooking. As I work on, I play my favorite tunes at my laptop by the bar counter and Buzz follows on my trail, all the while waiting for a part of food to drop by in any case. Little do Buzz knows, that I purposely drop a vegetable or fruit for him to feast on.
While I am in the middle of cooking, my laptop registers a Skype call. Casting a curious look at it, I find out that the one calling is Airin, and it surprised me, knowing that now is the most unlikely time she does. Mostly, it is Sam who does every time I cook dinner, but with the problem conflicting him right now and with my advice to him, he is surely in the middle of thinking, needing to have some space. But Airin mostly calls by nine, all the while I am in the middle of a texting session with Sam as well. Resulting for me and Airin to mostly chatter about him.
Anyway, this is a strange occurrence and I shudder to think that it will be an emergency. Hesitantly, I answer the call after pausing the song I am currently playing and Airin’s face instantly appears on the monitor. And before I could even say a word, she is already squealing like a little child.
“Ada! Ada!” she calls with a very jubilant face. “Can I come over to your house like tomorrow? Let’s have a Star Wars marathon! Pretty please?”
“What’s with that?” I ask as I turn back to the sauce I am working on. “You hate Star Wars, even if I tell you that Hayden Christensen is a great actor, that he and Ewan McGregor are way much handsome than Brión Siadhail. Remember that you didn’t talk to me like for a week simply because of that?”
“When was that time?”
I give her that completely unimpressed look for a while before turning back to focus onto the steak I am preparing and steamed vegetables at one currently in front of me.
“All right! All right!” Airin says. “I’ll tell you that I am being such a fool at that time. But I really want to watch it right away.”
“You can’t watch it for just one whole day.”
“Maybe we could skip the cartoon series to do so?”
I frown at her. “I never told you about it having a cartoon.”
“Well, I made a research about it. Look!” She then shows me her iPhone’s screen with a Wikipedia page of The Clone Wars. “But it appears that the animated film is also a good shot. Perhaps we could just watch the live-action movies? Along with the anthologies?”
“You’re asking me for us to watch Episodes I to VIII. All the while knowing that Episode IX is just lurking by the corner to finally conclude the franchise.”
“Darn it! I really need to. I need to prove to the world that I am completely a fan of it!”
“Why?”
“Because at the time I arrived and checked on the latest news, I found out that Brión Siadhail was casted for a Star Wars movie!”
I almost lose hold of the spatula I am holding, almost tumbling the pan sideways, and almost blazing up the steak completely toast, upon hearing her reason about her sudden interest. I always know that if she found out something about Sam Bryce Beltrami a.k.a. Brión Siadhail, she’ll certainly do everything on her power to prove that she is his number one fan.
Then I remember that time that she dragged me to one of Sam’s movie’s premiere night here in Dublin, that ended up with Sam being so surprised with me being there after promising to him that I’ll not go to support him being the best friend of his. Even to that extent, I am forced to take a picture of them, all the while laughing in my head that Airin could actually ask for a picture with him every single time, that I have countless of pictures along with him already.
But I am again reminded that I and my parents, and his family and his agent are aware of his real identity. Airin simply thought that Sam bears a resemblance with Brión Siadhail, because every time that the two of them meet, Sam is always in disguise, and I even forbid Airin to look at our pictures together. The pictures I only allow for her to see is those of Sam being under disguise, which is very few to admit that one won’t even think that we’re best friends.
“Go hifreann leat!” I shout at Airin. “It is all because of Brión Siadhail again. Even if you watch the whole Star Wars franchise, read all the books and comics of it, you’ll never be considered a fan, girl!”
“Go hifreann leat to you as well!” she remarks. She is laughing though when she does. “Anyway, what Star Wars movie is going to be shown about a year or two from now?”
I sigh. “There’s an untitled Han Solo film for next year, and Episode IX a year after that. Alden Ehrenreich was already casted for the role of the young Han Solo, so there’s no way that Brión Siadhail will appear at that movie as a main cast. Another thing, he hasn’t been in the first movie of the sequel trilogy, The Force Awakens, so there’s also a small chance for him to appear as a main character in Episode IX.”
“Wow,” she muses. “How did you know about such things like that? How could you predict those?”
“Because a fan is always a fan. Deal with it, fuzzball.”
“Go hifreann leat!” she curses again. “I hate you.”
“I know.”
She chuckles. “Anyway, please. I deadly need that Star Wars movie marathon! Support me in supporting Brión about it!”
I can’t even tell her the truth that Sam himself is planning to turn down the offer. That will certainly crushed her dreams after taking the risk of watching a series of movie she has no intention of watching. I can’t even tell her that Sam is Brión, just because that Sam doesn’t completely know Airin at all the same way I know her. Also, that’s how Sam wanted others to know of him, and I can’t influence or be against that choice of his if I want him to continue trusting me.
“Are you going to watch the anthologies as well?” I ask with a sigh after finally finishing everything I am cooking, turning off the stove. “Or just the Episodes?”
“You tell me. Would I understand the story already just watching the Episodes?”
“Most questions you’ll be having will be solved though upon watching the Episodes alone. Others though will be from the anthology and the animated series.”
“Okay, the Episodes alone. What time shall I be there for us to finish it by midnight?” She gives me a knowing smile.
I spin to face her after washing and drying my hands. I gape at her, “You’re practically telling me that you are asking me to throw a sleep-over party for you upon having a Star Wars movie marathon!”
“Yes, I do! And I am actually going to ask you as well if you can invite Sammy as well to join us.”
“It isn’t like I can’t invite him…”
“So you would?!”
“Sam’s a busy person. And to admit, I don’t think he’ll be free for tomorrow.” Darn the life of an actor. Your manager-slash-agent decides your schedule for you.
Lucky I am to know that Sam will always make some time for me if I ask of him. Still, I can’t simply do so right now, knowing the situation he is in and the conflict of his emotions that he has about what he’ll be deciding on. It will take some days, but it won’t certainly take a week. After all, if he is to attend College, he’ll need to be present since day one.
“Okay, since you already thought of it, yes, I am planning for you to have a sleepover tomorrow,” Airin says as she moves somewhere at her bedroom to check on something. Her voice echoes inside the room when she adds, “Tell auntie and uncle that they don’t need to worry since I’ll be bringing snacks for us.”
“And what is that ‘bringing snacks for us’ means?”
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