SL-Chapter 2 Ten Years Later The years flew past.  When Kari first got to California, she called the Hardy’s at least once a week.  She wrote them a lot and went to visit once.  But, as the years went on, her life become hectic and her relationship with them was thrown into the attic of memories that sat somewhere in the farthest depths of her brain.  She had achieved her goal of becoming an actress and had taken it even farther than she had expected.  It had taken a couple of years of hard work, but just two years after she had arrived in Los Angeles, she landed a role in a hit movie.  She became an overnight success.  She starred in at least a dozen top ten movies.  In ten years time, she had become one of the highest paid actresses in Hollywood.  And she had done it not only on her incredible beauty alone, but pure talent.  She was a natural. But, along with this level of stardom came the down side of fame.  Her life was put under a microscope.  Everything she did seemed to end up on the front page of some gossip magazine.  This included her very short but abusive marriage and divorce from a well known rock star.  The pain and suffering that she endured was only countered by all of the success she experienced and the many awards that she had won for her trade.   The Oscars were only two days away.  She was nominated for her lead role in a movie named, "Midnight Falls" in which she starred opposite Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage.  She was sitting in her kitchen trying to write an acceptance speech, just in case she won.  Her best friend and now roommate, Shea, walked in rolling her eyes.  "What?", Kari asked.  "Jason is in there watching wrestling and I can’t persuade him to change the channel.", Shea answered as she sat down at the table.  Kari had met Shea on the set of one her movies.  Shea was the make up artist on that shoot and they hit it off immediately and became the best of friends.  When Kari and Tommy got divorced, she asked Shea to move in with her.  It wasn’t that Kari couldn’t afford the house by herself, it was paid for.  It was more that Kari couldn’t stand to live alone.  That was one of the reasons that she married Tommy in the first place, she had come to realize.  And then there was Jason.  He was one of Kari and Shea’s best friends.  Shea had become friends with him when she began working as the make up artist for the television show that he starred in.  She then introduced him to Kari.  He fit right in turning the duo of friends into a trio that was hard to separate.  They were often referred to as the three muskateers.  "Hey, Kari!", Jason yelled from the living room, "Come here!"  The two girls rolled their eyes and made their way to the living room.  "What?", she asked from the doorway.  "What’s the name of that town where you lived in North Carolina?", he asked.  "Cameron.  Why?", she asked with a very puzzled look on her face.  "These two guys on here are from Cameron.", he said pointing to the big screen television.  Intrigued, Kari walked closer and had a seat on the couch.  The camera was showing someone else so she waited patiently to see if she knew them.  "Their names are Matt and Jeff Hardy.", he stated.  "I don’t believe it!", she said as the camera pointed to them.  There, big as ever, were Matt and Jeff on her television screen.  "They really did it.", she said smiling.  She couldn’t believe it was really them.  Matt still resembled the old Matt, but Jeff had changed a lot from that twelve year old boy that she had left standing in the driveway ten years ago.  "You know them?", Jason asked.  "Honey, everyone knew everyone in Cameron.  It wasn’t any bigger than a minute.", she said laughing.  Her laughs were brought to an immediate halt as she noticed a shiny silver object hanging around Jeff’s neck.  "That can’t be it.", she said under her breath as she realized that he was wearing the cross that she had given him.  It was no longer on the silver chain, but he was wearing it on a black cord type necklace.  Just as he had promised, he had kept it with him.  The guilt began to eat away at her.  She hadn’t kept in touch with them like she had said she would, yet there he was in front of millions wearing the token that she had given to him to protect him.  "You know those guys, huh?", Shea asked.  "Yeah.  But I haven’t seen them in ten years.  I would have never recognized Jeff.  He’s grown up a lot.", she stated not taking her eyes off of the screen.  "Was his hair purple then too?", Shea asked laughing.  "No silly.", she said.  She stood up and returned to the table to work on her speech.  She had trouble concentrating as her mind filled with memories of her time spent in North Carolina.  The time spent with the Hardy family.                 Last Chapter ..*.. Next Chapter ..*.. Chapter Index ..*.. Home