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)
Jay punches him in the shoulder. “I just got in here and they both looked suspicious as hell!”
I glance down.
Lucas looks at the wall and rubs away a small speck of what looks like dirt.
Kai leans against the door and sighs. “Just tell me this. does it have to do with the lipstick on Sookie’s face and any of you?”
“Partial correct answer.” I mutter under my breath.
“And will it happen again?”
“No.” I say quickly wanting to add on an, I wish.
“All right,” Kai nods in appreciation, he’s the second oldest. “Then it’s your business, and we don’t have to talk about it. Now we need to go before Rae finds us all in here staring at Sookie’s red mouth.”
“It is his color.” Jay nods in appreciation gaining a smack in the arm from Lucas.
We all shove out of the bathroom in time for Rae to walk down the hall. “We have to go now and what the hell were you all doing in the bathroom?”
“Birthday plans.” Jay didn’t have to yell it. “So you can’t know. Let’s go!”
The van ride to management is pretty tame.
When we pull up, Assistant Solia is already waiting for us outside the doors, her eyes flicker to Kai briefly before looking away. He refuses to tell us what happened between them, but they’re downright hostile toward each other now. Even the van rides feel chilly with the two of them in the same car. It’s been like this for months.
Fans are waiting outside with signs. It blows my mind. I don’t even know how they figured out our schedules when we weren’t even supposed to be at the label today. Their dedication to stalking and knowing our every move us is pretty insane. Which also makes me wonder what shifted but Solia looks too angry to ask so I leave it alone and I know the rest of the guys are tired with our already packed schedule so again, I say nothing.
Security steps out of the large all black glass skyscraper and hold the fans back creating a nice path for us while we walk in our sunglasses and face marks through the double doors. People are holding up proposal signs, tossing stuffed bears at us.
One girl to the left is crying my name, like she’s tormented or something. I give her a little head nod and she cries even harder. “He saw me!”
Look, I’m flattered by the attention but these are the kind of moments that I don’t understand. I’m so covered up she doesn’t even know if I really saw her or not. But she’s still taken by the idea that maybe I did. Maybe I noticed her out of the sea of fans. It’s amazing to me—this level of obsession. My mouth was on someone else’s only an hour before we arrived here. And that woman is the only one that matters to me. If only people knew our hidden lives, our secrets, we let them see what they want, which is why the fall from grace is so fucking far.
Why it’s so important to never make a mistake.
We’re instantly escorted to the top floor where all the conference rooms are. Huh, this is interesting. I thought they were bringing us in for an extra practice or a meeting about the album again?
“What, the hell is going on?” Lucas whispers next to me, I can barely hear him under his mask, but it’s Kai who grabs my elbow and guides me into the room.
Rae’s stoic in front of us as we walk into the huge conference room and take in the scene. TestME, the five group members who live in the other penthouse and who’ve only released one album so far are sitting with smug, yet innocent grins across the conference table.
My surprise doesn’t stop there.
Ari is also in the room, and she’s standing next to a man I’ve never seen before. He looks like he’s in his late twenties. He’s dressed in an expensive looking black suit and is standing really close to her. Too close, if you ask me.
I hate it.
Something he says makes her laugh—which in turn, makes my skin crawl. He’s pointing at papers in a black leather portfolio and smiling like an idiot. What’s so funny about papers? But Ari seems to think something’s funny about what he’s showing her. Huh. Right then and there, I decide I hate him. I especially hate that he made her laugh.
And what really pisses me off even more are the smug guys sitting across from where we’re standing like they are the best thing that’s ever happened to the label.
Bull shit.
We’re the ones that made it possible for them to even have a group.
They were trainees under FS for two years tops—the fact that any of them debuted that fast would be alarming except they have a similar concept and look. So the minute we started becoming the biggest cash show—that basically carried the label early on—management wanted a junior group that we could help promote and that would feed into our brand.