The Tour. | +18 | BWWM

𝄞 13 | Contestants

The light shines into my eye with an angry glare. We were all lined up on the stage and Paulie was giving his greatest showman act. The slither records executive was as slick as ever.

We weren't allowed to do the song we wanted.

Paulie announces the standings with his normal toothy smile. He said less than twenty-four hours before the show that he couldn't get clearance for it. We were the first to turn in our choice of songs. Yet he couldn't get clearance?

"The standings are tied with Team Pop and Team Broadway taking first place." The arena with over seventy thousand people in it goes wild, with applause over the results. "And... in the last place... Team Rock. Work on it, you'll get them next week," Paulie says without his smile moving an inch off his face.

Zoey is on stage with me and it feels just as lonely, even though she's right next to me. Her blue eyes are downcast. The burn behind my eyes stung but I don't even flinch as the large screen zooms in on our face. It wasn't a bad performance, but stacked against the polish of the others, we didn't measure up. The invisibility of her confidence in herself was visibly shaken.

I sigh. It's my fault. I fucked with Paulie during his sponsor time, and he got me back. He was fucking me over, which, in turn, fucked Zo over. The two lights flash with the names of the team. With lights showing how filled up on votes they were. The Team Rock sign over Asher had it simply outlined with barely. The other teams' names had lights that filled up much more than ours. And the leading teams had close to two quarters filled up with votes. A closer look at the results showed us not just behind, but miles behind the other two teams. Yeah, my fault.

Zoey's shaking hand slips into mine. I squeeze it back and stand straight. My brother was watching and probably hers too.

"Thanks for watching and remember this is The Tour," Paulie says in full cheese mode.

"And.... we're out," Megumi says off stage. The reality TV cameras were still very much active. A small crew that was always around was still red light on.

Paulie turns to me and says, "Good show." That smile does not move an inch. Disgust racks my body. If I could have gotten away with it I'm not totally sure how far I would have gone. Zoey's hand squeezes mine. I wasn't going to do anything, but yeah, I know. The idea of giving the reality tv cameras the pleasure of making me the angry black woman. It wasn't my vibe, to begin with. But at least we know the score. Paulie wasn't a fan of mine. And he was willing to screw over me, which in turn would screw over Asher and Zoey too. Screw all of us over to get to me without blinking an eye. Good information to know for next time. Very good information to know. I watch Paulie leave the floor and head up toward the sky-boxes to the after-show party. I was glued to the spot, watching him go.

Well, message received, fuck you too Paulie.

a/n: Soooooooooooooooo, this is an extra. Yall been fucking with me and my writing so much that I wanted to push an extra chapter. Thank you for your support! This is a baby chapter finish up because we got a longer possible multi-post one coming.