HAZEL FINE SINGS ALONG (WATTYS 2022 Winner!)

Chapter 34: Time Out

Hazel was sitting in her hotel room feeling caught in a time loop.

There it was, her whole life, spilling out before her on the TV. It was all coming out now, reminding everyone of every low light she'd ever faced back when she was known professionally as Harper Fuller because some idiot thought that Hazel Fine was "too ethnic."

How she'd been America's little sister on the Dawsons, with her winning smile and her cute catch phrase.

Her wild teenage years where she'd ruled the clubs and been caught up-the-skirt without underwear on more than one occasion.

The obligatory stint in rehab even though she didn't do drugs and usually didn't drink to excess.

The shady manager who'd gotten her involved in what amounted to a Ponzi scheme for which she'd taken the fall at twenty-two, spending three years in a low security women's prison, and two years in a half-way house and how she was still on probation and would be for another year.

Someone had even tracked down her probation officer, Chris, and had caught her coming out of her office. Chris didn't take any shit, or any questions either, so the "journalists" filled in the blanks.

Had she been a train wreck or the victim of circumstance?

Was it a #FreeBritney situation, where she was manipulated and lied to by evil parents, or was she the mastermind of all of it pulling the wool over America's eyes once again?

The truth didn't matter. She was that day's villain on Twitter and that was enough.

She was done. She was over. If America didn't cancel her, then the show most certainly would.

"Hazel, come on, let me in." Zoey was outside the hotel room door, banging on it. Hazel had put the security chain on so Zoey couldn't get in. It was a dick move, but Hazel needed to be alone right now.

"Go away, Zoey."

"No."

Hazel turned over on her side and pulled the covers up over her head. She wanted to shut out the world forever, but mostly she wanted one more night of sleep in a comfortable bed before she was relegated back to her car or worse.

She hugged her knees to her chest as she heard the mechanical lock click open.

What the hell? "How did you get in here?"

"I saw this thing on YouTube about how to remove a security chain," Zoey said, now inside the room. Hazel could feel her presence looming over her. "Come on, Hazel, talk to me."

"Just go away. I want to be alone."

"No, I'm not abandoning you."

"You must hate me even more now."

"I never hated you. Come on, Hazel. Just talk to me."

Hazel sighed. It was hot under the covers, and hard to breathe.

But it was hard to breathe out there in reality too.

She lowered the blanket. Zoey was standing over her, her features larger than life in her stage makeup and glitter falling off her bedazzled dress. Hazel was still wearing her last costume for the night too. She'd been in a daze, but she'd sung the song she'd written with Nick, tears streaming down her face by the end.

She could feel the streaks in the makeup, her misery dried in place.

"Should I call you Harper?" Zoey said.

Hazel grimaced. She supposed she deserved that. "I always hated that name. My real name is Hazel."

"I'm glad something's real."