Always There

Chapter One Hundred and Seventeen

Songs for this chapter:
• Josslyn - Olivia O'Brien

Chapter One Hundred and Seventeen:

Lexi's POV

"I'm. Going. To. Fucking. Murder. Him."

Mac winces.

James mutters under his breath from where he's standing in the doorway to my dressing room and gently tugs Emma out after him once he exits.

She opens her mouth to protest and he simply shakes his head at her. "Leave her with Mac. He'll get her sorted out."

As soon as the door to my dressing room clicks shut after them, I hurl my phone across the room at the closed door.

I need to get that stupid article about Bryce and his stupid girlfriend as far away from me as possible.

Bryce Bradshaw and new girlfriend Lydia Spears were seen roaming downtown New York City earlier this afternoon. Photos show the pair holding hands, but Bryce seemed to be uncomfortable being so close to Miss Spears.

Does this have to do with how secretive Bryce has been in the past about his relationships? The twenty-three year old singer has yet to reveal who the muse of his many love songs is, but now fans are speculating that it could have been Lydia all along and that the pair had been keeping their relationship a secret since they rose to fame under the same record label.

I could only force myself to read the first two paragraphs of the article before I started screaming like a banshee, drawing Mac, James, and Emma from their nearby dressing rooms.

As soon as I caught sight of the photo of Bryce with his arm around Lydia's shoulders that was embedded in the main text of the article, I absolutely lost my mind.

I don't think I had ever cursed as much in my whole entire life as I did once I saw that photo.

I should've avoided social media. I should have been smart enough to assume what I would see the moment I opened up Twitter, but I had just finished getting out of my Christine costume and changing into my regular clothes and I was waiting for Mac to come to my room so we could go to the stage door together and I had nothing better to do and I was just such a fucking idiot and . . .

Mac is sitting on my small pink couch as I pace back and forth across the length of the dressing room, but when I get near enough to him, he reaches out and grabs me by the waist. I'm hauled onto the sofa beside him, and even when I flail my legs and try to squirm away, he wraps me up in his arms and hugs me against his side.

I let out an aggravated puff of breath before burying my face  into his shoulder and screaming again.

I don't even care how bratty and immature I'm acting right now. All I feel is anger and a sorrow so deep I need to do whatever I can to cover it up before it reaches the surface.

"I hope he's miserable," I spit. "I hope that she treats him like the lying bastard he is. He doesn't deserve to be in love, not after what he just did to me. He promised to my fucking face that we were exclusive, and now I'm going to ruin his fucking face the next time I see him."

Mac sighs and squeezes me tighter. "He isn't in love with her. You have a right to be pissed, don't get me wrong, but this just . . . doesn't seem right. I saw the way he looked at you only a week ago. And besides, this news just came out in the interview a few hours ago, and after you saw the interview earlier we had to go straight to the theatre and you had to go on stage and pretend nothing happened. You haven't had any time to process any of this, but the one thing we know for certain is that Bryce was in this very room a week ago and he brought you flowers and looked at you as if you were his whole world."