Fireworks 1 and 2

Jungle: Chapter Sixty-Three

    On the way over to the stadium where they'd be forming, Drake continually attempted to engage Mia in conversation. Her responses were brief. It was impossible for her to get that look from Nicki out of her mind. The look Nicki had given Drake was conspiratorial, filled with shared secrets that Mia felt outside of the loop on. For the duration of their relationship, she'd avoided asking about the extent of his and Nicki's previous relationship. Suddenly, that didn't feel like an option anymore - not when curiosity was eating her up inside.

    Drake touched her arm. "Did I do something to piss you off?" he asked her.

    She shook her head. "There have always been rumors about you and her," Mia said softly, still staring out of the window. She refused to look at him. "Rumors that you were together at one point, or that...you were more than friends with her at one point."

    "And I told you that she and I were just friends, always have been," he told her.

    "Yeah," she said, lowering her eyes. "That's what you told me."

    "What does that have to do with anything?" he asked.

    "I saw the way she looked at you in there. The way she looked at you...it was like she knew something about you that I don't."

    "She's known me for a lot longer," he pointed out. "She probably knows several things about me that you don't."

    She rolled her eyes as the car pulled to a stop outside of the talent entrance of the stadium. Without waiting for the driver or Chubbs to open the door for her, she pushed the door open and stepped out of the car.

    There was the sound of a car door opening and closing, and then Drake calling out to her, "Mia! Hold on."

    She whirled around and glared at him.

    He walked up to her. "Why did you jump out of the car like that?"

    "I jumped out of the car like that because you're spinning me," she shouted at him. "You're spinning me like I'm some talk show host or radio deejay who is interviewing you. I don't fucking appreciate it. Just...be straight with me. Be real. There's something you're not telling me."

    "All of this can wait until after the tour is over," he told her.

    He pretty much just admitted that there's something he isn't telling me. She wrapped her arms around herself. "I guarantee you that this cannot wait until the tour is over."

    "It's in the past," he told her, his voice strained. "It's not anything that can touch us now."

    "If it can't touch us, then tell me," she told him.

    He ran a hand over his head.

    "No lies, remember?" she asked him, and she instantly hated how whiny her voice sounded. "We just went through this big deal where you were pissed at me because I briefly hesitated in telling you something that was going to piss you off. And right before that, we went through the Free shit. We made that pact. No lies? No secrets? We can tell each other anything? Us against the world?"

    "Us against the world," he repeated, dropping his gaze to the ground. "Can we...can we have this conversation inside?"

    She narrowed her eyes at him. "So you can stall and claim to busy with having to rehearse?"

    "I'll tell you. I promise. Can we just...?" He glanced around them. No one was around, other than their car, which was still parked several yards away from them.

    Chubbs opened the passenger side door and got out of the car. He leaned back into the car, ending his conversation with the driver. Then he straightened his posture, closed the door, and jogged over to Drake and Mia. "We headed in?"

    Drake turned pleading eyes to Mia. "I don't know. Are we?"

    Chubbs's brows furrowed in confusion, but he also turned to look at Mia.

    "Fine," she said reluctantly. "But as soon as we're in there..."

    "Yeah. Of course." Drake offered her his arm.

    She ignored it and turned away from him, heading towards the entrance doors.

    All of the stadiums were starting to look alike. Sure, the seats were often different colors, or there were subtle differences in the design of the stage, but one stadium was another stadium was another stadium. The backstage areas were all starting to look the same. The walls were often painted the same bland, neutral colors. The dressing rooms were almost identical. Drake followed her into the dressing room and asked Chubbs to stay posted in the hall. Then he closed the door and pressed his back to it.

    Mia sat on the couch at the far wall and crossed one leg over the other. "I'm waiting."

    He took a deep breath. "What I tell you can't leave these walls."

    She had to resist the urge to roll her eyes again. "You have my word. You know I wouldn't go around spreading your business or our business to anyone, Aubrey. Come on."

    He slid his hand into the pockets of his jeans and walked further into the room. "Some of those rumors...about Nicki and me...some of them may have been true."

    Her heart dropped out of her chest. "Which rumors?"

    "The specific rumors are not important."

    "They're important to me," she argued. "They were important enough for you to lie to me."

    "I didn't lie," he told her.

    "Yes you did!" she cried out, jumping up from the couch and balling her hands into fists at her sides. "And stop trying to justify it based on technicalities. I asked you point-blank, and you didn't tell me the whole truth."

    "There are reasons why I didn't tell you, why I couldn't tell you," he said, moving closer to her.

    Her bottom lip quivered. Her entire body was shaking, vibrating with anger. "Did you sleep with her?"

    "Mia, listen to me."

    "You've gone out of town with her," she said, closing the distance between them. "You've slept in the same hotel as her - without me there, or without Meek there. So I deserve to know if you ever slept with her."

    He blinked rapidly, and that was answer enough.

    She covered her mouth with her hands and backed away from him.

    "What happened between me and her was a long time ago," he told her. "Our relationship now... she and I are just family. That's it."

    Puzzle pieces were beginning to fit together. "Meek coming at you wasn't just him randomly going crazy or losing his mind. He found out. He found out that you and Nicki were together."

    Drake lowered his eyes.

    "That's why he came at you? And you didn't tell me?" She shook her head. "Who are you?"

    "You know me," he said quietly.

    "Apparently I don't know a goddamned thing!" she yelled at him, and walked around him.

    He followed her to the door. "Where are you going?"

    "Back to the hotel," she threw over her shoulder. "So I can pack my shit." Here we go. Again.