Meet Me Backstage

36. Something to Talk About

JACKS

I grab my room key and bolt out the door, heading directly for Skye's room down the hall. I knock rapidly when I reach her door. After a moment, she opens the door and gives me a weak smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes.

"I need to talk to you."

She nods and waves me inside, closing the door behind me. Her eyes look red and a bit puffy.

"Is this why you're calling it off with me?" I ask, holding up the magazine.

Recognition flashes across her face.

"Listen, your business is your business and all, but I just... I don't think I can personally be involved in whatever this is."

"What is it, then?" I ask, stepping closer as she backs further into the room.

"I'm trying not to be the lame clingy girl, okay? I thought I could do casual with you, but it doesn't feel good to me. I kn-"

"Casual? Do you think you're the other woman?"

Her gaze falls to the floor and she bites her lip.

"Am I not?"

"Shit." I close the distance between us and wrap her in my arms, pressing her head to my chest. "You're the only woman—the only person. You're everything I think about, Buttercup. Do you have any idea how damn smitten I am with you?"

She looks up and blinks at me, almost in disbelief.

"I don't want to do the friends with benefits thing, alright? I can't hack it."

"Is that... what you thought we were?"

My chest stings as the words sink in. I'm trying not to take her words to heart, but the same old fears come creeping in.

Was this just a rebound fling for her? Was she just hoping to go home with some wild stories to tell her friends?

"Come on, Jacks. I know who you are and who I am. I was having fun with you and I thought I could hold back my feelings, but I'm not cool. I'm the freaking least cool human being. I'm just anxiety and emotion wrapped in skin, okay?"

I laugh slightly, pulling her back into me.

"I don't want you to hold back your feelings, Skye. Let it all loose. Overwhelm me. Drown me in it."

"I like you and I don't like you being with other people, okay?"

I rest my hands on either side of her face and pull her head up to look at me.

"I'm only yours. You own me."

Her eyes sparkle as she stares into mine, as if she's trying to solve the puzzle beneath them.

"So these stories aren't true?"

I shake my head.

"Not even a little bit."

"Who is she?"

"Angel? She's my ex. We broke up over a year ago. I broke up with her, actually. She was all about our public relationship and what it could do for her career, but in private she acted like an entirely different person."

Angel was so obsessed with being seen together—half the time we ran into paparazzi, I would wonder if she had called them herself. She loved to put on a show, so of course she's been using our breakup to stir up more press for herself. With my reputation, the press immediately branded me a cheater and she was happy to play the role of sympathetic victim. My personal policy is to never comment on tabloid stories, so I've just let it go, but it never occurred to me that Skye might see these stories and get the wrong idea.