You could feel it bubbling up your chest, your throat feeling raw and itchy as your nose stung on and off the longer you held back. Your hands were shaking, and your eyes were heavy. You felt mentally and physically exhausted, but there were waves of anger and frustration woven into it all and by the time you were back on the plane, sitting across your supposed bodyguard, your leg was bobbing up and down as you shook your head, a feeling of disgust boiling beneath your skin. There was a glass of water with a anti acid next to it on the side table and you were surprised it wasn't Jurassic Park rippling right now.
You were leaned forward on the couch, resting your forearms on your legs, and you lifted your head to glare at the redhead who was sitting across from you with her legs crossed, face mute of emotion, and attention on her phone as she texted furiously back and forth with someone. You couldn't explain why, but it all pissed you off and she was in your sights, so you couldn't help it.
"You're fired."
She didn't even look up, "No, I'm not."
"Fine," You huffed, sitting back and frowning down at your lap, "But don't tell anyone about what happened, alright?" You were at a total loss with what to do, but a panic did edge its way into your mind with how this could look, and she paused, glancing up at you, but you just felt like your heart was in your stomach, so you whispered a small, desperate, "Please?"
"Let's get one thing straight," Her jaw was set, and her eyes bore into yours, making you feel tiny and like you were about to get yelled at again, "I would never tell anyone anything about you, whether you pay me or not. I'm not a low life piece of shit like your agent and management team. And I'm sorry he said those disgusting things to you, but if I had stepped in, I would've been fired and then I couldn't help you."
You had nearly fallen for it until the end, scoffing humorlessly, "Help me? You stood there and watched him scream at me for twenty minutes, calling me slurs and – you didn't say a word! How does that help me?" You took a deep, hopefully calming, breath and then muttered bitterly, "Even Paul pipes in to give me a break while attempting to calm him down when he gets this angry."
You were so tired, exhausted out of your mind, and you had to be on stage in less than eight hours. You needed to sleep on the plane, and you didn't see that happening. But you knew deep down you were picking an argument with her over next to nothing – it wasn't her job to defend you against your agent or management, she technically works for them too.
"I didn't want to ruin this."
You furrowed your eyebrows in confusion before you followed her movement, watching her hold out a miniature hard drive that could be inserted into a phone or connected to one so that it could record and save everything to it.
You took it, flipping it over in your own hand with a frown a few times before you looked back up to her, "What is it?"
"I recorded everything he said to you in that meeting."
You shook your head, clutching the small drive because you didn't want the reminder, "Why would you do that? So you could laugh about it later with Bucky?" You spat without thinking and she looked so genuinely hurt that you would think she would do that when you paused, so you shook your head, feeling terrible, "Fine. But I thought you wouldn't tell anyone."
"I won't, but I think you should."
"What."
"Leak it anonymously," She leaned forward to match you, her face not a foot from yours, and you noticed the splatter of freckles across the tops of her cheeks and nose, her impossibly green eyes sparkling with hope and a bit of mischief, "And let the world hang him for you."
You didn't notice you were holding your breath until you let her words sink it and then your stomach dropped.
"No." You whispered, and her face fell to confusion, her nose twitching a little and no, you didn't think it was cute – okay, it was.
"No?"
You didn't make a big thing of it, not moving away from where you were sitting, but you reached over to the side to plop the drive into the glass of water. She frowned, watching the water fizzle a little as it sunk to the bottom, and then she sat back, defeated. You knew what that felt like and you wish you could see her smile again because her lips curl up in the most gorgeous way, but it didn't matter.
"I don't want to come out that way," You admitted, more to yourself as you looked down, and you were being honest, "I'm not sure I ever want to come out. Officially."
She was silent for a long moment, and you thought you'd sneak a peek to see her fuming because you had ruined her plan, but you only ended up seeing her lost in thought. Her face was mostly stoic, but her eyes told a different story.
"I'm sorry." You mumbled under your breath, feeling the awkward silence eating you alive.
Her eyes snapped to yours in an instant and you were surprised to see the softness in them, "For what?"
"For yelling at you before. And throwing out your plan to help me."
She opened her mouth to say something, but then decided against it before, "It's nothing," She nodded towards the bedding folded by the side of the couch – a pillow and throw blanket, "Try to get some sleep, princess. I'll wake you when we're landing."
