Amber, Toby, and Lea all stood in front of the car as a number of workers for the orphanage walked over to say their goodbyes to the little girl that I had chosen to take home. Their faces expressed smiles and their voices explained how much they were going to “miss her”, but I could see what they really felt through their eyes. My fist tightened as I neared the crowd of people around my car. The bag over my shoulder made it even harder to maneuver around the cluster of bodies but I managed to squeeze through them all.
“Alright,” I announced to the three in front of me. “Let’s get out of here.” Toby lunged himself to ride shotgun, but was caught off-guard when he saw that Amber too took a hold of the door.
“Oh, y-you can go ahead.” He nervously said.
“No, it’s my fault; I didn’t mean to take your place.” She replied apologetically.
“No, no, please. I insist.” Toby countered.
As the two continued to rant on about who should take the front seat, I peeked over my shoulder to see a number of rapidly approaching vans heading our way. The flashing lights of high-powered cameras inside the vehicle gave clear indication that these were paparazzi. I looked back at Toby and Amber, still arguing on who should be seated where.
“Guys; we have to go, now!” I yelled.
Both turned their attention to me but quickly noticed the speeding vans and rushed into the safety of my car. With Toby now in the back accompanying little Lea and Amber shotgun, I stepped on the pedal and hurried out of there. The long turn to the entrance of the orphanage gave us enough time to lose the photographers; I began to slow back down to a normal speed once I felt we were a fair distance away from all the trouble. I took a quick glance at the rear-view mirror revealing Toby awkwardly sitting next to Lea. Apparently, this entire scene we just pulled did not even faze her. I turned my gaze to Amber.
“You alright?” I asked softly.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” She paused. “So, I guess that’s how it is for famous people, huh?” She added.
“I guess; maybe not so aggressive though. I’m sure it’s mainly because of this whole adoption thing leaking out that they’re really searching for answers.” I explained, smiling. I was quite unsure on just how paparazzi found out where the center was located, but that was something to be looked into at another time.
Amber gave a soft chuckle.
“I don’t know how you’re able to deal with it, to be honest. I would go crazy if people followed me around all day trying to take pictures of me; waiting for something crazy to happen so they could profit from making me look like an idiot.”
“I guess… it’s just about learning to live with it.” I told her. “This life… I never wanted this. It just… came.” I chuckled back at my response.
“Maybe I got so caught up in getting the better, higher-up job with that ‘incredible pay’ that I never realized what I had gotten myself into.” I kept my eyes on the road as I explained.
