Fairytale Love - Becca & Brian(31)

Brian would have loved to do that for real. Unfortunately, a camera up  in your grill and a director beside you looking pissed, because you  didn't want to follow the script, was not the most conducive environment  to have a heart-to-heart. So instead of talking like they normally did,  his and Becca's conversation had been stilted and fake. He'd seen in  her eyes that she'd had a lot she wanted to say to him, and he knew that  she'd felt the same thing from him. Since they hadn't been able to say  what they'd really wanted, they'd just made awkward small talk.                       
       
           



       

As much as it killed him to watch Becca and Colton flirt, he was the  most jealous over the simple fact that the guy was getting to spend so  much time with Becca.

His Becca.

* * *

Becca tried not to let the fact that Brooklyn was gyrating against Brian  shamelessly affect her. But it was hard not to. That girl took flirting  to the Olympic level. And although Becca didn't believe for a second  that Brian was actually enjoying the attention, it was still hard to  watch.

"Screamer208 says, ‘Brooklyn and Brian are h-o-t! They need to have  their own show where Brian is always shirtless. #BrooklynandBrian  #ShirtlessBrian #iwanttohavehisbabies.'"

Well, Becca thought, I can get behind two of those hashtags.

When she looked over at the ‘hot' couple, she saw that Brooklyn could  not look more satisfied and Brian looked like he wanted to be anywhere  but standing on a stage where people were broadcasting that they not  only wanted to have him shirtless, but also wanted to have his babies.

Aww, poor Bri.

"And now what did you have to say about our couple that is safe from elimination tonight, Becca and Colton?"

Oh, lord. If they thought Leah was boring, then what could they possibly  think about her? She braced herself for the worst. Becca fully  understood that people sitting in the safety and anonymity of their own  home, typing into their computers or phones, did not really understand  that the words they were saying-the criticisms, the insults, the  attacks-were actually about real people. They figured that, if you put  yourself into the public eye, then you deserved whatever hateful or  ignorant thing they felt like spewing at you. They were so mean, so  hurtful.

She heard Weezer's voice from Steel Magnolia's. "You are evil and you must be destroyed."

It actually made her feel better somehow. Empowered. More ready to hear  herself get ripped apart. Becca had to admit that her '80s movies quotes  rarely failed to lift her spirits.

"What did you have to say about Becca and Colton?" Lance repeated and  then paused dramatically. "A lot! And we'll hear your thoughts and find  out which one of these couples is at the end of the fairytale love road  right after this commercial break."

Well, that was anticlimactic.

"And we're clear," Jennifer said as she stepped up to Lance, spritzed  him with something, and handed him water while another PA held a small  electric fan pointed at his face.

Becca would kill for a glass of cold water and a fan. Oh, and a chair.  Tonight had taught her a valuable lesson about herself. If beauty  equaled pain, then she was perfectly happy not being beautiful.  Comfort-that was the name of her game.

That little competitive bug she hadn't even known she'd had, had crept  back up while all the girls were getting ready for tonight's live show.  Well, getting hoochiefied was more like it. Seriously, she didn't know  how some of the things these girls put on were actually considered  dresses. Two of them, Brooklyn and Madison, had been sent back upstairs  to change because their dresses were so short that Sabrina could see  straight up them-and they hadn't been wearing underwear.

Who did that?

When had showing your wooha become sexy?! Did anyone think it was sexy when celebrities had flashed their goodies to paparazzi?

Becca seriously could not understand some people.

Colton leaned down, and she felt the scruff of his five-o'clock shadow brush against her ear. A mini chill ran down her spine.

"You okay?" he asked as he slipped his hand to rest on her waist.

She tensed up slightly. It wasn't that it didn't feel good having his  hand on her hip-it did. She just …  It just …  It felt too good, and that  didn't feel right.

"I'm fine," she said under her breath.

He moved back but kept his hand where it was.

Guilt swept through her. She felt guilty for not being open to whatever  could possibly be between her and Colton. She felt guilty for having the  feelings she was having for her best friend. And she felt guilty that  she was the one standing up here with immunity and not Brian. It should  have been him.

The applause track sounded again, signaling that they were coming back  from commercial break, and Lance stepped into his place directly in  front of the camera. "Welcome back to Fairytale Love, the show where one  lucky couple's happily ever after will mean not only finding their soul  mate, but also a half million dollars."

A track played through the speakers of people oohing and ahhing.

"That's right. The stakes are high, and all is fair in love and war,  folks. This week, the winners of our love challenge were Colton and  Becca."                       
       
           



       

Applause sounded in the air.

"They scaled the wall, becoming the first couple to gain immunity which  makes them safe from elimination, and let's just say you, the viewers,  took notice. Let's see …  papadontpreach90 says, ‘Colton and Becca are the  perfect couple. They should get married and have babies.  #coltonandbeccababies.' Starg8zer5 writes, ‘Becca is so hot and she's  going to be a doctor. Colton needs to lock that down. #lockthatdown  #coltonandbecca.' Marigold88 says, ‘Becca and Colton are so cute  together. I could watch them garden and be entertained. #beccaandcolton  #gardeningshow.' There were hundreds more tweets and messages.  Unfortunately, they were not TV appropriate."

And cue laugh track.

Becca couldn't believe how fake reality TV was.

Lance went on to talk about the elimination process. He talked about how  viewer votes and also each contestant's score, on the challenge that  week, were added together and the couple with the lowest combined score  was packing their bags and leaving.

As she waited to hear which couple had the lowest score, she couldn't  believe how nervous she was. Not for herself, obviously, but for Brian.  Hearing Lance announce the amount of the prize money all night suddenly  made it real to her. That money would mean so much to Brian's family.

She'd talked to her mom and dad this morning and they told her that  they'd seen Brian's dad, Frank, at the auto shop when they'd taken their  car in for an oil change. They'd asked Becca if Frank was feeling  better and had been cleared to go back to work. Becca hadn't known what  to say. When Becca hadn't answered right away, her mom explained that  the reason she was asking was because Frank had seemed tired and his  complexion looked a little gray.

That information had been weighing heavily on Becca's heart all day.  Should she tell Brian what her mom had said or not? If she did and his  dad was fine, then what good would it do other than to make Brian worry?  If she didn't and his dad ended up overdoing it and, God forbid,  something happened, would she ever forgive herself for not saying  something? But was there really anything Brian could do even if he left  the show?

These questions had been haunting her all day. She would never keep this  information from Brian normally, but these were anything but "normal"  circumstances. He needed to be here, doing exactly what he was doing. If  not, he'd end up giving up on college completely, taking over his  parents' shop, and even then, Becca had no idea how he would make all of  the financial obligations that came with the responsibility he was  taking on; putting two people through college, with one of them  attending an Ivy League school, was not cheap. Not to mention the  medical bills and his parents' living expenses.

When she thought about all that Brian had on his shoulders, she really  thought the weight of the world was underselling it. Yet he never  complained, never put his problems on anyone else, and he was still the  first person to offer help to anyone if they needed it.

He really was a prince, he just couldn't be her prince.

Becca got startled as she felt arms surround her. It took her a minute  to realize that it was Leah. She hugged her back, even though she wasn't  exactly sure what was happening. Then she saw Blake shaking Jax's hand  and realized that they must have been the couple getting eliminated.

Which meant Brian was still in the running. As she consoled Leah, who  was crying, her eyes found Brian saying goodbye to Blake and a  determination, she'd never had before, filled her with urgency. It was  more determination than she'd had when she'd set out to get straight A's  in high school (which she'd done), more than when she'd decided to run  the Chicago Marathon (which she'd completed in four hours), more than  when she'd decided to start a community outreach program for troubled  teens, tutoring them after school and helping them apply to colleges  (which she'd done two years ago and six students who had been ready to  drop out of high school were now in college).