Chapter 126
William Taylor pressed down on Graham Hughes’s shoulder with his right hand, stretching his body to the limit as he tiptoed and leapt upward. Yet all he could see was a dense sea of people, blocking his view of everything. The scene at the centre of the square was completely obscured. He could only faintly glimpse some hair at the top, let alone see any faces—he couldn’t even tell if the person was male or female.
Standing nearby, Hope Bates was being squeezed by the crowd to the point of breathlessness. Her frail frame seemed as if it could be swallowed up at any moment. She had to shout, “You can push forward, but please don’t crush me, okay? ‘The Big Bang Theory’ cast isn’t standing next to me!”
The waves of people quickly drowned out her clear voice, but it managed to ease the pressure around her slightly. Hope finally got a bit of air, though the murky atmosphere made her lungs ache. She quickly patted William’s left hand. “How about now? Can you see him? Can you see him? Isn’t Renly breathtakingly handsome? Isn’t he? Isn’t he?!” Instantly slipping into fangirl mode, her sharp tone from before was nowhere to be found.
William grumbled in frustration, “Nope, can’t see a thing!” He jumped a few more times, but it was futile.
“Then let’s do this!” Graham raised a banner in his left hand that read, “Renly Hall: The Most Outstanding Leading Actor in My Heart!” Holding it high with both hands, he waved it around vigorously. However, the swarm of fans ahead, dense as a forest of United Nations flags, obscured their banner completely. Standing in the middle-to-back section of the crowd, they were utterly engulfed.
William took the left side of the banner while Graham held the right. The two of them stretched their arms to the utmost limit, raising the banner high into the air. Hope looked up at it, shouting, “Higher! Even higher!” The banner wobbled but managed to emerge from the sea of people.
But the two young men couldn’t hold it for long. Their arms soon grew sore, and they had to lower it again. William groaned, “Why are there so many people today? I thought the Emmys weren’t that popular.”
“It’s all because of the fans of ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and ‘Glee’. They practically own the place,” Hope replied with an exaggerated eye-roll, her irritation plain as day.
Hope Bates, a freshman at UCLA, had met William and Graham by chance during a freshman mixer. The three quickly bonded over their shared enthusiasm for ‘The Pacific’—or more specifically, for the actor Renly Hall in that series.