Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 82271 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82271 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
“Sorry.” She shrugs. “I couldn’t get the stain out.”
“Yeah well, the good news,” I start to stand. “Is that you’re already in your pajamas.”
Her eyes narrow briefly. “Can we talk?”
“We have been talking.” I’m so confused when she grabs my hand and pulls me over to the couch. “I mean about what happened.”
My entire soul feels like it’s going to leave my body.
She wouldn’t, right?
“What happened again?” I ask. “And is this something we should be talking about,” I feel the words hiss through my teeth.
She get’s closer. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, we only have fifteen minutes left of the date, we should play a game or something.”
“I already know you, every part of you,” She smirks. “Why do we need to play some silly icebreaker game?”
Pretty sure I didn’t say icebreaker, but whatever, if I can keep her arguing or talking then she won’t bring up things she has no business keeping up.
She places a hand on mine. “You won’t get canceled you know, people experiment in high school and you weren’t even an idol yet.”
She’s going to say it, she’s going to say it
“I mean, who wouldn’t want to brag about losing their virginity to you?”
I’m numb. I shove her hand away from me. “Are you kidding me right now?”
Thank God the dates aren’t live. “What? It was a special moment.” She leans in like she’s going to kiss me.
I fall off the couch onto my ass in an effort to get away. “Are you trying to ruin my career.”
Her eyes darken. “Guess there are worse things I can say, like seeing you touching someone’s hand, was it days after kissing Dueri.”
“You know why I kissed Dueri.” I point out. “She’s dying and she’s precious.”
“And I’m white? Alive and stupid?”
“That’s not what I said.” I’ suddenly reminded of how much of a bully she was to me during our relationship. I could only wear certain clothes out on dates, wanted constant anniversary gifts and always told people I was famous.
Iseul leans over the couch then pulls her tank top of her head, she’s in nothing but a black sports bra and barely there shorts. “Should I remind you how could I can be?”
Nobody is saving me on the crew, it’s like they want this drama to happen, but isn’t this supposed to help market our album not completely destroy us? It almost feels like a set up.
I scramble back from her and jump to my feet. “No matter what our past was filled with,” I try to take the shaking out of my voice. “I don’t know you anymore beyond the two dates and it’s not fair of you to come back into my life and threaten my career. That is definitely not love or even like. You know what else? If I wanted to kiss you, if I had feelings for you, nothing and no one would stop me. Not even a show that could ruin me.”
Fire blazes in her eyes as she jerks away and gets to her feet. “You know, all it takes is one false rumor and you’re done, and this one is actually true. You slept with me. You stole my virginity, and you had just started training at the label.”
“We were teenagers.” I point out. “And I feel like we’ve already hashed this out, no need to talk about it ever again, it’s in the past, if you really liked and respected me, you’d protect me rather than slander me.”
Her eyes fill with tears. “I love you, how do you not know that?”
Wow nothing I say is going to get through to her. I look at the producers. “I think our time is done here, thank you.” I hand him my mic and do a slight bow to Iseul then walk off and take a detour to the group hang out spot with all the Soju. Lucas and Grace are already there with Rae and Kai. They both look like they’ve seen ghosts. Kai is chugging his soju like his life depends on it and staring at the grass, he’s covered in splotches of paint.
I grab a Soju and sit down on the wooden stump. “What happened to you?”
“Lost at paint ball,” he grumbles.
“Hey it’s cool she’s good at it.”
He jerks his head to the side and shoots me a deathly cold glare. “She hid behind me, and producers thought it would be funny to go to war with little kids. Who gives little kids paint guns and why are they so hellishly accurate? I should have worn a cup!”
I snort out a laugh, “What about you Rae? How’d it go?”
He doesn’t answer right away.
“Rae?” I wave in front of his face.
His body jerks like he’d fallen asleep with his eyes open. “Oh date, my date, ummm she had an allergic reaction to shellfish which she’s never had before, I had to rush to the drugstore for her, and then she mauled me with her mouth full of antihistamine---and shared some of it with her tongue.”