“You guys street shop?” I whisper asked Heather.
She turned to me with a raised eyebrow. “We can’t?”
“I just thought it wasn’t really your style.”
“You couldn’t be more wrong. We all love to street shop. We just don’t do it quite often because we get mobbed a lot. But when we’re in other countries, we need not worry because not a lot of people recognize us. It’s also because we disguise ourselves.”
“Wow. I never could have imagined people like you street shopping.”
“That’s what is annoying about people. They just assume that if someone has money then they look down upon poor people, see things that aren’t designer as trash and generally are rude. Okay, they aren’t totally wrong because all these things basically describe my? mother.? But still, just because of a few people they shouldn’t think that all of them are like that.”
“Okay.” Some things just really get to Heather. I didn’t know why she said all of that as if I hit a nerve. Maybe she had been accused of been rude, and someone who looks down upon people. Heather was actually quite a nice woman, just a little less pleasant when someone annoys her.
“Can I ask you something?” I asked and when she nodded, I continued, “Why doesn’t Patricia like you?”
“Well, she’s a snobby, bratty rich bitch.”
I gasped. “You called her a bitch!”
“She deserves it. Now come on, put this wig on.” Heather said, handing me a wig of curly blonde hair.
I put it on, examining myself. I guess I looked decent in it, unrecognizable too. The other girls were waiting outside for us as they had finished disguising themselves early.
Heather wore dark sunglasses and a cap over her Five Seconds Of Summer T-shirt and dark blue jeans.
I had seen a lot of pictures of Heather with the band so I couldn’t resist asking her about them.
“Have you really met Five Seconds Of Summer?”
“Yeah. They are cool. Very funny.”
“Who’s your favorite?”
“Well, all of them were very nice but Ashton’s my favorite. In fact, I talked to him just yesterday. Even though he doesn’t know you, he still apologized for not been able to attend your birthday because the band is on tour right now.”
“Oh my God. Wow.”
“Now come on, the girls have been waiting for quite some time,” Heather said, dragging me behind her and out of the room we were in. We were still at the hotel, well technically we were leaving for street shopping.
I shook myself out of the trance I was in and followed after her. “I’m sorry I diverted from the topic. I was asking why you called Patricia a-” I looked around to see if anyone was eavesdropping and continued in a low whisper, “-a bitch?”
“She has never acted like a mother to me. She didn’t even want to adopt me but Justin, I mean my dad saw something in me and he just wanted to adopt me, treat me like his own daughter and he did a good job at that,” she said with a smile. “He never made me feel as if I had come from a poor background, he filled the unknown void my parents had left in my heart. But Patricia,” Heather paused, a sneer taking the place of that beautiful smile, “she treated me like dirt, still treats me like that. She thinks I’m a gold digger, a witch who cast a spell on her husband or something. She never left an opportunity to take a jab at my past and make me feel as if me being born was the biggest mistake in the world. I never understood her hatred for me. It’s ironic how she does a lot of charity but secretly whispers to me about how I belong in the category of the poor people she’s helping out.”
Hearing Heather talk about it made me see her in a different perspective. I could’ve never imagined that she would have had such a horrible life. If you see her from afar, she’d appear as a spoilt brat to many and at some point, I thought of her that way too which I was too ashamed of right now. I hated how quickly I judged people.
“Enough story time, let’s go and shop!” Heather said enthusiastically but I did notice how much it was forced.
“Oh my gosh, you guys took so long. We were just about to ditch you,” Amelia said, skipping to us.
“Ashley’s not coming with us?” I asked her.
“No, she doesn’t like to street shop.”
“Oh.” Although I knew that she didn’t recognize me and that she wasn’t as bad as I thought, I was still relieved to know she wouldn’t be accompanying us.
We took one of our cars with us. Heather sat in the passenger seat and the three of us who were dressed casually were at the back.
We got to know about a street where there were a variety of stalls and shops selling all different kinds if things so we decided to shop there. With the instruction given to our driver to not move from his place until we got back, we set off into the busy street. It was a little crowded but we blended in right away.
There were many shops lined next to each other on both side of the somewhat narrow street. We first checked out clothing shops and bought a few things we liked. It was nice to know that these girls preferred street shopping too sometimes. We would try on dresses just for fun without any intention of buying just to see how we would look in it.
Amelia bought a very fancy hat for herself and she instantly stood out in the crowd, forcing her to take it off. We didn’t want to draw much attention to ourselves. I was pretty sure that to other people we were just some regular college girls, which in my and Olivia’s case was true.
We even tried out a lot of street food specialty of Paris. I was shocked when Amelia bounced towards a street food vendor because we would steer clear of those shops.
“What?” Amelia asked, seeing my shocked expression. “It’s my cheat day, and so is Heather’s.”
We ate a lot. I think we visited almost every stall in that area and tried out every different kind of food we could find.
By the end of it, our stomachs as well as our hands were full. We each carried about four shopping bags filled with our respective purchases. We couldn’t let our bodyguards carry them for us as it would appear odd to others. However, we weren’t as careless as to go on a shopping spree on our own. A few bodyguards followed us closely for protection, lest someone actually recognized one of us.
We were back to the hotel in no time, exactly in time for lunch which we all decided to skip as we were already full. After a two hour nap, we went out again. Ashley accompanied us this time. We were going to watch a movie. A movie in an actual theatre, and not a private one with lots of people around who would hopefully not recognize us. Getting mobbed was the last thing we wanted.
After Olivia bought the tickets for all of us because she was the only one who wasn’t a famous face, not that I was but I had the face of a billionaire’s daughter so that had to account for something.
Come to think of it, Ashley was not a famous face either except for in college. I knew her dad was wealthy and she had connections and friendships with famous people like Juliet and her friends and family but still she was never under the media glare. I guess she just liked to keep a low profile.
The movie was some action thriller and it was pretty nice. I liked the plot and the actors did a good job. Turns out that one of the actors in it was Amelia’s cousin. I wasn’t even surprised at the revelation. I would really like to meet someone famous who wasn’t somehow related as relatives or even friends to Heather, Ethan, Amelia or Ashley’s family.
We bought a lot of popcorn and it still wasn’t enough.
“No offence, but don’t you think you guys are eating a lot, like? a? lot? today?” Olivia asked once the movie ended and we were making our way to our car.
“It’s our cheat day today,” Amelia repeated.
“All of you? At the same time?”
“Yeah. It’s fun to eat things we shouldn’t along with others who shouldn’t eat them too, kind of makes us feel better.”
“And Audrey? Is today her cheat day too?” I asked.
Heather snorted. “First make sure she knows what a cheat day is. I swear that woman hasn’t eaten anything tasty since her birth. She was born to be a model, quite literally.”
“Sounds depressing.”
“Whenever I see her eat, which is extremely rare by the way, it’s always salad and all the healthy low-fat recipes she keeps on searching up. She practically lives on that. Antonio tries to get her to eat more? or something which does not include vegetables or salad but she has only ever tried it once or twice.”
“Speaking of food, I’m hungry. Again. So let’s go to McDonalds. I’m craving for some burgers and fries. I haven’t had them for ages,” Amelia pouted, keeping a hand on her stomach which I was pretty sure I heard rumble just then.
“You read my mind. I’m not yet done with my cheat day either,” Heather said.
So we found the nearest burger joint and had a few burgers which counted as an early dinner so I guess we wouldn’t even have dinner with the family today.