The Gravity Between Us

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The Gravity Between Us

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Name: Samantha Rivers
Age: 22
Body Type: 5'9", narrow and slender
Job: Singer - Pop
Clothing Style: Wears clothing that very closely adheres to the stereotypical cowgirl type of look. Otherwise, Sam keeps up with current fashion trends when she's amongst other famous singers.

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Name: Florisel (Flori) Mauricio
Age: 22
Body Type: 5'4", average, slightly chubby
Job: Waitress
Clothing Style: Casual, soft tomboy

---

It had been a good hour since Samantha's flight came in. Still sitting in her first class seat, she let out an exasperated sigh. The whole entire airport was backed up. Figured given her luck. Busying herself on her phone, she switched off the airport function as signal returned to her life line. Notifications started rolling in. She rolled her eyes.

After finishing her tour, Samantha decided to take a break from it all. The screaming fans, the drug scene that a lot of her fellow musicians partook in, and the traveling. She hated that part the most. She knew thousands of girls would've killed to strike it big like her, but they simply didn't know how restrictive this life was. Everyone was watching you, and you could never get away from it. Whatever the case, she loved it. Singing in front of crowds. There was seldom other things she could picture herself doing instead.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your cabin crew speaking." Sam sat her phone down. Finally she thought to herself. "We're terribly sorry for the wait. We should be docking shortly. If this is your ..."

Samantha drowned out the rest of the message as she grabbed her purse. The rest of her luggage was waiting at the pick up. She breathed deep. It felt good to be back in sweet ole' Texas.

---

"It's so good to have you back, darling!" Samantha smiled as she pushed up her sun glasses. Her mom, Meredith Rivers, had come to pick her up. She figured her dad was still at work. It was a impromptu visit. "How's the limelight? They aren't mistreating my little princess are they?"

Sam laughed. "You haven't changed, ma. I'm doing fine! Just tired." Hearing her phone ring, she took it out of her pocket and silenced it. "Damn thing. I didn't mind it in the beginning, the attention, but it keeps buzzing. Like all the time. By the way ma, have you been getting the checks?"

Meredith waved dismissively. "Oh hush, just got my baby girl back. Money is the last thing on my mind."

"But your treatments!"

"Never felt better!" Sam's mom said as she pointed at her hair. "What do you think? Dark brown wig. Just picked it up today! It was a bit expensive. I thought I'd tre--"

Sam placed a hand on her mom's shoulder. "Do you need more? You have to tell me ma; this isn't funny!"

Meredith scoffed as she turned off the highway. "Samantha Renee Rivers," her mom said. "We're doing just fine. I mean, the situation stinks, but I don't need to wear the doom and gloom on my sleeve wherever we go. I'm fine, dear. Now, our friends are definitely coming over tonight. Don't argue, it's going to happen. I already made several calls, and they're thrilled! I was going to phone your old high school friends too!"

Samantha's jaw dropped. "You did not call them!"

Meredith rose an eyebrow. An evil smirk replaced her smile. "If I did?"

"Mom!" Before Sam could say anymore, she looked ahead as the car was parked neatly in a parking spot. "Um, what are we doing?"

"We're going to shop. I'm dead serious."

Looking at her wear, Samantha was dressed in a purple-teal flannel and comfortable fitting yoga pants with black boots. While it wasn't conservative in nature, it was comfortable. "I don't need clothes. I have a whole wardrobe full."

"Window shopping my dear! Mother daughter time, it'll be fun. Now come on!"

Unable to suppress her grin, Sam got out of the car as she followed her mom into the mall. Taking off her sun glasses, she placed them in her purse.

---

Several hours passed as the shopping marathon marched onwards. Sam held two bags in her hand - one from Victoria Secret and the other from a candle store - as she strolled through the aisles of a arts and crafts store. It was a hobby of hers whenever she had the free time. While she was a lousy painter and drawer, Sam wasn't too bad at knitting. Her mom was probably in the pottery section, an art that Sam knew she herself would botch.

"Need help looking for something?" Sam turned and saw a middle aged woman standing next to her putting needles on the racks. "Don't see too much young folk interested in stuff like this."

Putting a ball of light blue yarn into her cart, Sam started looking for knitting needles. "It's fun! Kind of like doing a puzzle."

"Is that so?"

"Quite so ma'am."

The store worker chuckled as she picked up her basket. "If you need anything, I'll be around."

Sam said her thanks as she continued looking. While she had what she needed, there was something missing. "Now where is that darn thing...?"​
 
"Ramon, come on. Every day you order this sandwich and you've never once finished it. I beg you, why not save me the trouble of cleaning up for you, and just order a half sandwich?" Flori pointed to the coffee-stained plastic-covered menu insistently. "Look, it's cheaper. So why don't I just bring you the amount of food you actually like and you can pay me less."

"What if I want the whole sandwich?" Ramon asked, elbows still planted on the laminate counter which wrapped around the the tile run where Flori stood, pen tangled in her messy hair and a hand on her hip.

"Will you eat it?" She asked.

"Probably not. But I might." Ramon shrugged.

"Dale..." Flori sighed and slid the order ticket onto the wheel behind her.

"Floriii! Florisel Carmelita Mauricio!" Diana called, throwing the doors of Dally's Diner open like a queen arriving for her crowning.

"Sí, Diana?" Flori called back. Diana hopped the counter and reached around Flori's waist, beginning to untie the strings of her faded pink apron.

"You're coming on lunch with me to the mall. I'm driving." Diana exposed, explicit that this was not a question.

"Heyy who says I didn't already have lunch?" Flori laughed, reaching behind her to smack at Diana's hands.

"Well the fact that you always wait for me on days when you work here and I work across at the Sun Station... And the fact that even though you are no longer in love with me you will love me forever and you'd never betray me in such a way." Flori pretended to groan but let Diana toss the apron aside and gave her a smirk.

"Marcie?? Cover for me? Yes? Thank you!" Flori called as they ran out of the restaurant. They climbed in Diana's little red Accord and took off down the road.

"Hey, listen who it is." Flori said as she turned up the radio knob and Samantha Rivers' hit single from her last album blasted from the speakers.

"The only conchuda who ever really made it out of Richmond, Texas." Diana drawled raising an immaculately-groomed eyebrow enviously. Didn't she go to your high school?"

"Yeah but we never talked." Flori replied, drumming her fingers on the dashboard in rhythm with the song.

"Well you never really talked to anybody, Señorita Fantasma." Diana teased. -They broke the conversation off briefly to belt out the chorus of the song in unison. Yelling out the "Oh-woah-ohs" over the road.-

"Well I was trying to be invisible on purpose." Flori defended. "You know, to keep my relationship with you a secret."

"Mmm" Diana pursed her lips, considering this explanation. "No, I think it'd because you always wore those big ugly sweatshirts. Not much has changed really." She joked. Flori feigned offense, glancing down at her grey athletic sweatshirt and lace-patterned short-shorts.

...

As soon as they got inside the mall, Diana went to pick up a pair of jeans that she had on hold a popular brand store. Feeling crunched in the crowded shop, Flori wandered across the hall into the almost empty art store. She wandered down the tight aisles and examined the knitting kits. $40? For some string? Cuánto dinero tiene alguien... She glanced up from the basket she was holding and spotted a perplexed-looking woman at the end of the aisle, turned away from her. Flori's eyes did a quick once-over and when she reached the feet she noticed a wallet on the floor beside her. I wish my wallet was that fat. Flori mused. She walked over and bent down, picking it up. "Here, I think you dropped this?" She said, placing a hand on the woman's shoulder.
 
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Samantha pursed her lips as she kept looking at the shelf of knitting accessories. It's not that she couldn't afford most of the things on the shelves, but she hated buying what she didn't need. As she traced her finger amongst the items, she finally found what she was looking for. Embroideries for the cuffs.

"I knew I was forgetting something!" She said and tossed a lace design into her basket. As she was about to walk off, she heard a voice from behind her. Turning around, her eyes roamed over the pretty little thing standing before her then to the wallet. "How did that..."

Reaching over, she smiled as she pocketed her wallet into her purse. "Why thank you miss," she said. "I have no idea how that ended up there. Must've fell while grabbing the needles! It was someone's bright idea to place it super high. Anyway, I'm complaining. Thanks again!"

About to turn and leave, Samantha stopped. The hispanic woman before her looked oddly familiar, as if she knew her but not well. Pursing her lips, she stood there before snapping her fingers. "Do I know you from somewhere? Not sure where. I could be mistaken, but you seem familiar."
 
When the woman turned around Flori froze up. She was irrefutably standing mere inches from Samantha Rivers. She was touching Samantha Rivers. She unfroze long enough to snatch her hand back. Out of all of the things that could've happened that day, Flori never would've expected running into a celebrity in the knitting aisle at the mall. Moreover, she saw the woman's eyes roam her body. Did she just check me out? No, stop it of course she didn't. What is she even doing here? She hadn't even come out of her head long enough to say 'you're welcome' or do anything at all when Samantha began turning away.

Flori was already trying to process how she would even begin to tell this story to Diana when Sam turned around again and asked her if they had met. She opened her mouth, closed it, smiled self-deprecatingly and opened it again before finding the words. "We both went to Richmond High. Same year but, you know..."
 
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Samantha rose an eyebrow in amusement as she waited for the woman to answer. What if she were wrong? Truthfully, lots of faces began to blur for the popstar. She could've easily mistaken the woman for somebody else. What if there was a language barrier? Samantha was no racist, but she wasn't oblivious to the fact that Texas was a melting pot of caucasian and hispanics. Why didn't she pay more attention in Spanish class during high school. It might be biting her in the butt right now, but hopefully the woman - that didn't seem much older than herself - understood what she had said. The 'thank you' at least.

After moments passed and the woman finally found her voice, Samantha tilted her head to one side. She tried to wrack her brain back to her days of high school. Right when she was about to give up, she had a light bulb moment. "Oh I remember you," she said. "We never really talked did we? Gosh, lets see ... Florenia? Oh god, sorry. I'm terrible with names. Back then and now."

Chuckling, she hefted her basket. "Do you knit too? You're in the aisle, so, call it a feeling?"
 
"Florisel, actually." Flori corrected surprised that she had been remembered at all. She'd spent most of high school being sulky and secretive in sweatshirts and ponytails. She was pretty much asking to be forgotten. "And I don't very much but, my brother had a baby recently and I was thinking of giving him something. Maybe a little hat?" She made a face that was clearly unconvinced as she looked at the prices again. It occurred to her suddenly that she was having a casual conversation about knitting with a celebrity. She looked Sam over. She was tall and modelesque even moreso than in high school. Her clothes were casual but probably better quality than anything Flori had owned in her entire life. She found herself looking around for paparazzi. "No offense but, shouldn't you be in Los Angeles or something?" She asked softly, wondering if Samantha was in town hiding from some huge celebrity scandal.
 
Samantha tapped her head as she laughed. "See? That's what I mean! I'm terrible with names - granted we didn't really talk much did we? My manners! I'm Samantha. Simply Sam is fine," she said. Listening to the idea, Samantha beamed. "Genius idea! I can imagine the little munchkin now. You should knit a cat in the hat styled hat. Can't go wrong with Dr. Seuss, am I right?"

The face that Florisel made wasn't lost on Samantha. She pursed her lips. It was true that the mall had outlandish prices. There were certainly other stores in Richmond that had better prices; this was just convenient. Suddenly, Samantha started to feel somewhat self-conscious. It had been a long time since she had to worry about money.

"Don't tell the store owner, but Michael's right by the school has way better prices. It's my frequently frequented spot - for knitting anyway." Enjoying herself, her jovial nature faded away when Florisel mentioned Los Angeles. Samantha frowned. "Can't a girl catch a break? I should be there, but I needed some space. Fame isn't all fun and games like most people think. The long periods of solitude writing terrible songs and refining them ..."

The words died off as Samantha looked around. Hopefully the paparazzi wasn't around. Those vultures always followed her! "Could you keep me being here on the down low?" she said quietly to Florisel. "I'm not running from a scandal. I just wanted to spend some time with my parents and unwind."

Biting her bottom lip, Samantha gave Florisel another once over before pulling out her phone. "To make up for old times sake. What's your number?" She clicked on her phone. "My mom thought it'd be a swell idea to throw a welcome back party - so much for flying under the radar. Totally not my idea. If you want to come, you're welcome! Who knows? Maybe we can talk about that hat you're planning to knit!"
 
Flori nodded when Same asked her if she would be discreet about running into her. Not that people would be likely to believe her anyway... When Sam asked for her number Flori had to resist the urge to panic. How absurd was this encounter going to get? Running into a celebrity... at a knitting store... in Richmond... and getting invited to a party at her home?

"Right, knitting tips yeah." Flori replied, still processing what going to a celebrity's house would entail. She kept it together enough to give Sam her number. She glanced past Sam's shoulder and noticed the crowd at the jeans store had died down considerably meaning Diana would be trying to track her down soon. That reminded her, Diana would kill her if she didn't try to get her an invite as well. She quickly looked at Sam again. "Can I bring somebody? I don't like going to new places alone so..." She shifted her weight a little and brushed her hair behind her ear. "Yeah.."
 
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Samantha frowned as she noted Florisel's change in demeanor. Was she being too straight forward? While she was touring about and mingling with the denizens of stardom, she had forgotten that some folks simply didn't want to be bothered or invited to some random party. It was too late to correct the mistake now. Samantha had already given her her number, but perhaps she should give the girl a way out? She was about to tell her not to worry about coming until Florisel mentioned bringing a plus one. Samantha grinned. "Sure. But just a plus one right? I don't know how many people my mom called," she said. She sighed. "I'm hiding from her right now. She's completely enraptured with a store. I think she forgot I'm here. But, um, you're not here to listen to me complain. Anyway, plus one, got it. Just ... please be discreet? Like I said, I'm not looking for a Los Angeles rager or anything."

Looking over her things, everything she needed to make a sweater was there. Looking back at Florisel, she couldn't help but think she was making to girl uncomfortable. Wanting to get to know the person she just invited, she ventured another question. "I've got some time to kill. Feel like talking for a bit? If I'm totally creeping you out, no hard feelings if you wanna scoot."
 
Flori could see that Sam was worried she was bothering her. That was a laugh. Flori spent all of high school trying to stay out of everyone's way, but she never imagined Samantha Rivers would be extending the courtesy to her. Regardless, she didn't want the starlet to feel disliked. However, she had to get back to work before long and if Diana spotted them without being introduced to the idea first she would definitely freak out and blow any kind of cover Sam had established.

"Sure, I'd love to talk." Flori assured the other young woman. "Unfortunately I'm on my lunch break and have to get back soon so maybe if you haven't eaten you could stop by the diner I work at? Days like these are slow so we can chat then. It's called Dally's. I can text you the address." She spotted Diana making her way out of the opposite store and looking around for her. She didn't know that Flori was in the craft store. "Really, I'd love it if you stopped by." Flori assured Sam again.
 
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Though a bit disappointed, she understood. The nice thing about her life was that she didn't have set hours except when she was in a recording studio or in one of her writing sessions. When she was in high school, she did work at Perkins, so she could understand the hours and the meager lunch break folks received in the service industry. "Sure thing," Samantha said as she smiled. "You have my number, so just send over that address. Haven't been to Dally's. Sandwich store right? Anyway, I won't keep you. Catch you later, Florisel!"

Walking off, Samantha glanced back once more before heading to the checkout. What an odd turn of events she thought to herself. She hadn't expected to run into a former high school alumni or give out her number. It was an impulse thing, Samantha wasn't sure why she did it in the first place. Placing her things on the belt, she nodded to the cashier. As she paid for her items, she walked back into the mall as she sought out her mom. She wanted to get going, and if she could, steal the car. Moving quickly to avoid attention, she heard whispers of her name behind her as she entered a store.

It was time to go.

---

It hadn't taken too much effort to get the car. Samantha had told her mom that she was going to catch up with some friends. It was the truth, in a sense. She followed the GPS on her phone to the address Florisel had sent her. There was two main reasons why she went. One, she was hungry since she skipped out on breakfast to catch the plane. Two, she wanted to talk to someone. Florisel knew who she was, but they never actually met. Not knowing why, but the prospect of meeting someone normal, someone new appealed to her.

Finally getting to the location, she saw the sign for Dally's as she pulled up into a parking spot. Getting out of the car and locking the white Lexus, she made her way into the modest fast food sandwich shop. Walking towards the counter, she had already found what she wanted. "Excuse me?" she announced her presence as there was nobody at the counter. Did she came at a bad time? "Hello?"
 
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Florisel waved and after Sam had discreetly made her exit, ran out to the middle part of the mall to meet with Diana.
"Ay, Diana! I have a story to tell you and you will not believe it." Flori announced, catching her best friend by the arms. She retold the entire encounter to Diana in Spanish, keeping her voice low as they made their way out of the mall, Diana repressing a scream all the way.
"And I'm invited too?" Diana asked, when they climbed in her car and Diana whooped in excitement. "¡Cuán feliz me haces!" She paused and then gave Flori a horrified look. "Por dios... what will I wear?" Flori laughed.
"We'll worry about that later okay? Just, don't tell anyone else she's here."

Diana dropped Flori off at the diner and then took her car across the street to the gas station where she worked. Flori had texted the address to Sam on the drive back so she should be there before long. She busied herself in the mean time cleaning the counters in the kitchen as a favor to Marcie for covering for her at the last second. Before long she heard Sam calling out from the front counter. Flori wiped her hands on her apron as she walked out to greet her.

"Hi. You found it that's good. Can I bring you something?" She asked shyly as she pulled the pen out of her messy curls and picked up her pad instinctually.
 
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Samantha waited for a few more moments before she heard footsteps. She looked towards the door which she assumed that led to the kitchen. She saw Florisel walk out as she smiled. So she did find the right place. "It wasn't too bad once I saw the neighborhood. Kind of near school," she said. Sam looked at the menu and point towards a tuna sandwich. "I think it's the number 3? Footlong with a drink would be swell!"

She reached into her purse and pulled out her credit card. She paid for her meal as she waited patiently at the counter. "I'm excited!" She said pointing towards the sandwich. "I've never been here. Always been a subway gal myself. Do you work fulltime then?"
 
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