Jason and I hadn’t been as alone as I’d thought the night before, and our kiss was now a headline story on one of the leading entertainment websites.
Oh, wow. I’d been so rudely awoken I hadn’t had time to revel in the fact that Jason and I were officially… something. An item. Albeit a very new and slightly tentative one. That fluttery sensation I’d felt when he kissed me returned at the memory and I had to fight a smile, because although there was plenty to smile about, having it appear in the news was not goo
d at all.
“Yeah,” I began. “Ellie, I have something to tell you.”
Her eyebrows shot upwards. “Lucy, this isn’t funny!”
“Do I look like I’m laughing?” I shoved the duvet away from me, and hopped out of my bunk.
“What the hell did you do?”
I pointed at the screen; did I really need to say it out loud?
Ellie blew out a breath. “Okay, we need to fix this immediately because as soon as Mum and Dad see this, they’re going to call and you need something to tell them. In fact, the faster we sort this, the faster you can call them before they read it in the paper.”
She looked frantic, her hair in disarray. I saw it was only nine am, which meant it was only eight in the UK. Hopefully my parents hadn’t checked the news just yet.
“Wait,” I said. “What do you mean ‘fix this’?”
“Damage control. We need to call Derek and get this crap resolved before it gets out of hand.”
Crap? Me kissing Jason was crap?
“Ellie, stop talking. I need to think, okay? And I need to talk to Jason.”
“You need to stay away from Jason or Mum and Dad will have your ass flown home!”
“I’m not a child! I can make decisions for myself, and right now, I need five minutes to myself.”
I pushed past her to the communal area which was, thankfully, empty. I was surprised Ellie’s yelps hadn’t dragged everyone from their bunks, though if they knew what was smart, they’d stay where they were and listen from a distance. This was about to get messy.
I didn’t need to read the news story Ellie had tried to show me. I knew what it said because I knew how tabloids worked. Two people kissing. A rock star, and his brother’s girlfriend’s baby sister. Brother’s fiancee. Shit. Me kissing Jason had made higher ranking news than Drew’s proposal, which was pretty messed up. This wasn’t just a story about a stranger. I was known to the Razes Hell world because of photos on social media. They knew who I was. How old I was. How I was a family friend of the Brooks’. This was a shit storm we didn’t need, and we should have known so much better than to figure out our personal lives in the open air, but as far as we knew, we were alone. More alone than we’d have been with prying eyes and ears inside the bus – or so we’d thought.
I should have panicked, but the thing that coursed through my veins more than anything was fear. The Razes Hell fans would – mostly – be supportive, but it was the rest of the world I was concerned about. The judgements. And they wouldn’t be on me, they’d be on Jason. Angry as I was with Ellie, she was right. We needed to limit the damage, but how? There was only one way. To pass the kiss off as a mistake, and never let it happen again.
As always, I felt Jason’s presence before he spoke, and I said, “Please don’t say it.”
“Say what?”
I looked up at him and my heart leapt . His shirt was off, displaying the array of tattoos across his chest, and his hair was messy.
God, please don’t let this be over before it’s begun. Please. I really don’t ask for much.
“That we have to tell everyone we were drunk and that we can’t see each other anymore.”
Jason paced over and sat beside me. When he put his arm around me and pulled me into him, a little of the stress dropped away. I felt his warmth through my thin cami top, and I snuggled into him, dropping my head onto his shoulder.
“That’s not what I want to do,” he said. “We do need to figure something out though. Ellie is about ready to rip my head off, Luce. She made Drew go out for a walk before he hit me. I’m surprised you didn’t hear the shouting.”
“I heard nothing until Ellie shoved her iPad in my face.” I looked up at him. “What did they say to you?”
“Nothing I haven’t heard before. I’m selfish, inconsiderate, reckless. An all-round asshole.”
I wanted to tell him he was none of those things. That they didn’t know anything, and they didn’t understand. But I didn’t want to sound like a cheesy song written by a teeny bopper. Instead I placed my hand on his, hoping he knew how I felt. When he squeezed my hand, I knew he did.
“What did you tell them about us?” I asked.