The Artist - 𝐇𝐞𝐫𝐨 𝐅𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐧

𝕾𝖎𝖝

"Stop that's my ice cream." I hold the cup out of Joaquins reach after he scooped up some of my ice cream. Khadijha chuckles at our behavior and shakes her head. We're currently sitting at a small ice cafe while the sun beams down at us. I close my eyes and try to savor some of the warmth. "I don't like my flavor it taste likes pistachio." Joaquin whines like a little child . "Because it is pistachio you idiot." I tell him my eyes still closed. It's every time like that he wants to try something different but it turns out that he doesn't like it and wants to eat mine. But I feel especially generous today so I open my eyes and look at him. "Want me to get you a new one?" "Pwetty please." He says pouting and fluttering his eyelashes. I laugh and stand up leaving my cup on the small table. "You want another one as well?" I ask K while I put my hand on her shoulder. "I'm fine thanks." She looks at me from her phone a worried look on her face. "Everything alright?"
"Yeah it's just a complication from work." She changes a weird glance with Joaquin but I ignore them feeling left out and make my way inside the cafe to get him a new ice cream. "Sorry could I get another one in chocolate." I ask one of the stuff and he nods at me quickly placing a filled cup in front of me. I drop a dollar and step back outside. Just before I meet the others at the table I hear the last words of Khadijah's sentence. "..don't tell her it's just for her own good." Who are they talking about?
"Your ice cream." I say sliding the cup towards Joaquin who looks at me caught. I give them both a weird glance for their mysterious behavior. "Should we go for a walk? The Griffith Park is practically around the corner." I suggest to get the sudden tension that's lying between us away. They both nod and we stand up and I lead the way towards the park.

Joaquin munches happily on his ice cream and I'm to deep in thought to start a conversation. Khadijha is unusually quiet and I take a quick glance at her to see her eyes trained on the ground. "Okay guys what's wrong?" I finally ask them after a few quiet minutes. They both look at each other and Joaquin nods as if to tell her that she should tell me, whatever she has to tell me. "I didn't really know how to bring up the topic smoothly.." she trails off and bites her lip. I push my shoulder against her encouragingly to tell her she should keep on going. "You remember my friend Hero?" My brows shot up at her question. That wasn't the topic I suspected the conversation would lead to. "Uhh yes.. I remember him. Why?" We step into the park and walk along the blooming flowers on the grass. The golden hour lets the park shine in wonderful orange tones giving me a comfortable feeling. Much different to the feeling I get when Khadijha asks me about Hero. "You liked him?"
"He was a bit weird at the beginning but he seemed alright. We warmed up real quick." We? You are stupid you know that. I cringe at my answers she's going to see through me any second. She's going to see that I'm just playing my attraction to him down. The thing is it was his looks that shocked me in the first place but when we talked a bit later he seemed like a nice guy with a lot on his mind. "He thinks you two warmed up quick as well. He was a bit disappointed when I told him I would hang with you and Joaquin alone." There's a weird undertone in her voice. "Why didn't you invite him?" I ask looking at the ground and kicking a small stone while walking. I try to stay as uninterested as possible while I'm screaming internally. He was disappointed that he couldn't meet up with us! I glance toward Joaquin and see him smirk when our eyes meet. "I wanted but-"
"oh my god Khadijha?" A voice asks behind us and we all turn around simultaneously. Two teenage girls grin at us one having braces on her teeth. Khadijha suddenly turns into working mode as she places a professional smile onto her lips. "Hey guys how are you doing?"
"We're so excited to finally meet a cast member! You play your role so well!" One of them says and the other one continues her ramble. "You are so pretty and I always liked Steph the most!"
"Thank you that means a lot to me." Khadijha tells them putting her hands on her heart. Suddenly the eyes of the girls swing over to me widening in the process. "You have to be the famous tattoo artist who got Khadijha and Hero their tattoo!" They say excited. I'm a bit overwhelmed with their screeching and intrusive eyes so I look at K lost, she knows how to handle these situation. "Yes that's April. Do you want to take a picture?" She asks them probably to divert their attention back to her she knows I'm feeling extremely uncomfortable. They both grin and hand me their phone to take a picture of them three. I snap a few ones and hand them their phone back. "Thank you so much!" One says and the other pipes up "By the way I think you and Hero would be such a cute couple." My eyes widen at her sentence. How do they even know that I tattooed Hero this is so creepy. That's why I don't like social media suddenly everyone knows you and wants to know everything about your personal life. "It was..nice meeting you." I mumble and they both wave heading into the other direction. I huff and lean myself against Joaquin who stayed silent at all of this. He wraps one arm around me as we make our way through the park again. "How do you even handle that all the time. Half the time I didn't even understand them it was just pure screeching." I say and Khadijha laughs at my words. "You'll get used to it eventually. These are the consequences if you're going to be famous."
"I'm happy that I'm not in this whole industry I like my invisibility. How did they even know me?" I wonder out loud. "Hero posted a picture of his tattoo praising you. This guy is totally fond of you." She says making my cheeks warm up. "Shut up!" I shove her lightly and she looks at me teasingly. I hid my face into Joaquins chest and groan. "April has a crush!" K chants and I yell at Joaquin to make her stop. "You can't hide the truth April." He tells me and I look up offended. "You're supposed to stay on my side! I bought you ice cream!" He shrugs his shoulders at me and I give them both angry glances. "That's what you call friends." I mumble darkly making them laugh and hug me both from the sides. Besides being angry at them I quickly forget my resentment and we all laugh together walking through the park.