Miss Americana and The Hearbreak Princess

Chapter Fifty Two - Getaway Car

Note: I received few private messages asking if Freen really did slept around. All I'm telling you is when did Freen ever lied to Becca? Atp you should already know that the characters are flawed people who coped with their pain in their own ways. If you want perfect green flag characters, you're reading the wrong story.

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"A dermatologist?" Mei snorted with laughter, her lips pressed into a flat line as she tried to hide a smile, "okay, well, that's... a story."

With an air of nonchalance, her eyes sparkling with amusement as she lounged in her chair, Becca's mouth twitched at the corners as she smoothed her fingers over the soft leather of the arm.

"Not really. I mean, not the actual decision. It was... just an idle conversation while getting a skin treatment with Heng Wood. Whenever we were together we'd go and get facials or manicures or massages. We'd catch up on everything since that last time we'd seen each other, and that particular time... well, I had a lot to complain about I guess. Admittedly, it was more to do with my own unhappiness than Non. I almost thought we could continue to be friendly - albeit in a passing manner - but I guess... he just didn't see it that way."

"I think that's safe to say."

Quietly chuckling, Becca smiled slightly, a tense knot forming in her stomach, a flicker of dread spreading through her as she thought about everything that happened. It was almost a knee-jerk reaction that left her tense and prickling with unease.

"I didn't mean for what happened next to happen, and I guess people had good cause to think that I was a liar and a manipulating bitch. The media had been saying it for years. I played the victim in all of my relationships, I used men, whatEver shit they could use to make me seem like a vapid little mean girl. Other celebrities had tried to start some low-balling drama, and I guess Non was just the cherry on top of a very long, anticipated wait to bring my life crashing down on me. I wish he hadn't taken it so personally; I never even thought he'd be hurt by it. Honestly. I mean... we weren't actually dating."

Autumn quickly gave way to winter, the days of sitting on the roof with Freen, drinking wine with her Jacket around her shoulders as they watched the sunrise giving way to the last stretch of her tour ending in Australia, with the searing heat of their summer and the final show in Melbourne, the day before her birthday.

She played eighty-five shows in just over six months and there was a sense of relief at it being over, at a chance to rest.

First, she had to make it through the holidays. Her twenty-sixth birthday was unEventful, mostly spent flying back to L.A., followed by a few days of lurking inside the carriage house on Cornelia Street, catching up on lost sleep and enjoying her own company as she floated in her pool, raided the liquor cabinet and made cocktails to sip out on the balcony, the first dusting of snow making her shiver beneath her layers.

She saw Freen a handful of times before she flew to Scotland for Christmas.

Nestled in a lodge in the wintery Highlands with her parents and Richard, everything blanketed in snow and the quiet emptiness of the resort giving her the space she needed to unwind, Becca was under no obligations to pretend, except for a few hours on the day that Non flew in.

Displeased by the whole idea of the trip, he was forced into puffy winter clothes for a photo op arranged by Nam.

Richard was shoved into it too to pad out the validity of the awkward shoot, the three of them standing beside a massive snowman that had been built for them for the charade.

While her mother and Beer sat by the fire in the lounge, and her father drowned his sorrows in whiskey at the bar, the three of them were subjected to the bitter cold for proof that they'd spent the holidays together.