Fireworks 3 and 4

Fireworks: Forever Chapter Nine

    I could be the good girlfriend, the meek one who goes along with what her man wants to do, Mia thought. Or I could tell him how I really feel about all of this.

    "Your thoughts?"

    Just remember that you asked to hear them, baby. "What if I told you that I didn't want to give them what they want?"

    He exhaled loudly.

    "What if I told you that if they wanted to bring a fight to me because of it, I was willing to stand ten toes down and go against them? Put them on blast?"

    "Baby-"

    "The world needs to know!" she exclaimed. "They suspect something is up, but they need to know that this shit is happening. No one should hold this much power, Aubrey."

    He squatted down in front of her. "Do you know how scared I am of these people? I almost clapped a hand over your mouth just now, out of fear they have our fucking phones bugged."

    She rolled her eyes.

    "You're only capable of not taking that fear seriously because you haven't seen them in action."

    "What action?" she demanded to know. "Maybe if you told me what you've seen, that would make me reconsider."

    "I can't tell you."

    "Ugh." She threw her hands into the air in frustration. "I can't with this mess."

    Quietly, he grabbed both of her hands and held them in his own. "You're asking me to tell you, but you don't really want to know. Trust me."

    "I hate you right now."

    "You can do that. You're alive to hate me, though. Meanwhile, they're asking us to do a little bit of acting for the press and for social media. Fake a little bit of relationship drama to keep people talking about artists signed to labels. We can handle that, baby."

    Sadly, I don't know if we can. We've already been through so much. "You'd be expected to go on dates with her," she said, pouting. "And flirt with her for the cameras and hug up on her. You have history with her. I don't like this."

    "If we don't do this, they could stick us with something much worse. This is a cakewalk."

    "Maybe I wouldn't feel so threatened if it wasn't SZA's cakes in particular we were talking about," Mia mumbled. "She's pretty, Aubrey. Really pretty. And talented."

    "Aww, is baby girl jealous?"

    Her first urge was to smack him. Thankfully, she held that urge in check. Barely.

    He reassuringly squeezed her hands. "You have absolutely nothing to be jealous about. We act up a little bit, sub each other on social media, maybe even a few songs. Our fans will rally for each of us and take sides, like it's a football game or some shit. SZA and I have a big blowout breakup, end things, and I'm back with you."

    "I don't want to be away from you." I hate how it sounds like I'm begging, and I hate how desperate I sound, she thought frustratedly. 

    "You mentioned how much we've been through, but to me that's all the more reason we're going to make it through this. Why do you doubt that so much?"

    "Because for some reason I feel like if we do this, we're not going to make it," she told him honestly. Tears were welling in her eyes. "I can't talk about this anymore. Can we just...can you just hold me?"

    "Of course, baby."

    They got into bed. He cradled her from behind, pressing kisses to the top of her head and her shoulders. 

    "We can make it through this," he promised her in a whisper. "We can make it through anything."

    "Except we barely made it through the last drama. I seriously can't talk about this anymore."

    "Okay, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I just...I don't want you to worry about this."

    "We're talking about faking relationship drama to prevent being framed for murder or worse," she surmised. "All so a group of already-rich men can remain rich and get even more rich. And you're telling me that I don't need to worry?"

    He didn't respond.

    "You admitted to being scared of them. You're damned right I'm worried, Aubrey. To pretend like we shouldn't be is...foolish. That's whether we go along with what they want or not. No one should hold that power over anyone else. Tonight, as it stands, I don't want to give them what they want. I want to fight against them. You don't, so it's pointless to continue this discussion. I'm going to sleep on it and see if I feel any differently tomorrow."

    Spoiler alert: Mia didn't feel better the next day. Instead, she found herself praying that she'd had a wild, crazy nightmare brought on by eating salt and vinegar chips too close to bedtime. The moment she opened her eyes that morning, the first feelings that registered to her were warmth and comfort. That was because Drake's body heat was radiating and mingling with hers, and she could hear his slow and steady breathing. In those first few moments, that warmth and comfort was all she knew. 

    Then memories from the previous day started kicking in. Her body tensed as those memories came flooding. Life felt perfect when she was held in his arms, but if the powers that be had their way, he soon wouldn't be holding her. He'd be holding another woman, a singer that Mia held high regard for. A gorgeous singer Mia held high regard for. A gorgeous, thick singer...

    Ugh. Mia brought both hands up to cover her face. I know they're supposed to be this all-powerful entity and everything, but there has to be some way for us to fight them. Aubrey might not be all-powerful, but he does have power as an artist. I'm a lot newer to the industry, so I don't have nearly as much power he has...but maybe if we stood together against these assholes, other artists would join us? We can't be the only ones who want their reign to be over. She turned around in Drake's arms and smiled at his adorable sleeping face. 

    His lips puckered in the cutest way when he slept. Just seeing them reminded of Bri's savage duck lip selfie jokes she loved to crack about him. 

    Mia burst out laughing, then made a pitiful attempt at burying her laughter in his chest.

    He stirred in his sleep and his brows furrowed, but his eyes didn't open.

    Her laughter quieted, and she peered up at him again. "If only you knew how determined I am to keep you in my life this time," she sang to him in a tinkling voice barely above a whisper. "If only you knew how intent I was to make sure you're mine. If only I could feel like we were in this together..."

    "If only we could hold onto our fireworks forever," he sang back to her, albeit a bit groggily. Flashing a wide smile, he cracked one eye open at her.