Just pretend. | l.h.

Chapter 25 ~ Situations.

((Song of the chapter: I Miss You by Blink 182))

"Oh sweetie you're going to enjoy tonight?"

"Really? Why's that?" I try my best to smile sweetly to him. His rough hands grab mine pulling me closer to him as we stand outside my house.

"You want to find out?" He questions. I get a whiff of his alcohol infused breath. He had a few beers while we were at the party.

"I-I should really get to bed. It's late, and besides I have to wake up early to pick up my family at the airport."

I don't think he liked that answer as he shook his head taking the key from my front pocket slowly. My leg tingles and not in a good way. He unlocks the door and roughly grabs my arm. He drags me up the stairs despite me not moving my legs. We reach my bedroom door and I feel myself tremble in fear. He wouldn't dare go this far, would he?

Once we were in my poster covered room he didn't even care to shut the door. My body is thrown onto the bed and before I know it his body is hovering my shanking one.

"You have no idea how long I have waited to do this," he breathes out. He takes my arms in his hands and holds them above my head.

"Please, Jace, stop. You're drunk," I plea. I try taking my arms out of his grip, but he won't let go. I feel small tears falling down my face and his chapped lips try to get a reaction out of my own. I can feel him getting more desperate and angry with each second that goes by without me kissing him back.

"God d.ammit Addie! I am your f.ucking boyfriend for godsake! You better start kissing me back!"

I try again to remove my arms from his grip, but it's no use. He is a 6 foot 5 football player and I'm just little frail 5 foot 3 me. I have absolutely nothing on him. So, I give in and kiss him back.

"F.uck Addie I need you so badly right now," Jace says while leaving kisses down my neck.

"Jace, I said no. Not today, I'm not ready."

He chuckles, "Oh sweetie, you're ready when I say I'm ready." Jace starts ripping off my clothes, yes literally ripping, while keeping a hand over my mouth to mute my cries for help. I continuously try to hit him away, but it's no use.

"Stop it God d.ammit!" With that I feel his palm connect with my cheek.

"Addie? Adddddie!?" A voice calls while shaking my body. I shoot up to see Calum by my side? "Oh my gosh are you okay?" I touch my face and feel that it's just wet. It was just a dream.... Just a dream.

"Oh um, yeah." Calum can read right though my lie and gives me a big bear hug. I find myself collapse in his arms and cry even harder.

"Did you have a bad dream?"

"Uh, I guess you could say that," I sniffle.

"Want to talk about it?" He asks after a few moments of silence.

"Not really. Wait, how did I end up on this couch in the family room?" The last thing I remember was hanging up my phone..

"Well you were down here and then Luk- uh luckily I woke up and found you just as you passed out. So, I moved you to the couch."

"Oh," I say not quite believing him. Calum sounds unsure of what happened.

"Yeah, so what were you doing down here in the middle of the night?" Calum is too curious for his own good. There is no way I can tell him.

"I was on the phone with someone," I try to be as vague as possible

"Who?"

"Oh you know just erm my uh parents, yes my parents."

"Your parents are up at 3 in the morning?" Crap crap crap.

"Yes?" I realize after I spoke that it sounded more of a question than an answer.

"You know I don't really believe you, but I'm not going to push you to tell me if you don't want to Addie." Why is Calum such a sweetheart.

"Thanks Calum." I stretch out my limbs. I really want to talk to someone about this. I would call Sydney, but she's grounded from basically the entire outside world for a while due to the incident. The only person I trust the most to talk to about this is Luke. Freaking Luke the guy I am no longer aloud to be around or speak to. There has to be a way. It's not even just that I need to talk to him about this whole Jace situation, but I just feel this desire to be around him. The connection between us is something I have never felt with anyone before and I don't want to just give it up because of a flipping music management contract. UGH. Why why why why?!

"Addie, what are you think about?" Cal questions.

"Just life. I don't really know what to do," I honestly admit.

"Does this have to do with a tall lad who spends an unruly amount of time doing his hair?"

"Maybe."

"D.ammit. We need to figure out a way around this contract. You two are adorable and I haven't seen Luke this happy with a girl ever."

"Really?" I don't know why, but I'm quite surprised.

"Yes really. He has dated a few girls since the whole band thing really kicked off, however, none of them have genuinely liked him for well him."

"Hmmph." I glance at the clock. It's already 10 am. "I suppose I should go shower and get ready for the day."

"Sounds good."

~

LUKE'S POV

After leaving Addie with Calum I went to my room and immediately started researching ways I could change the contract with management. We f.ucking partly own Hi or Hey Records so shouldn't we have a say in what happens between artists? We have management to help us not f.ucking ruin our lives. This is not what I signed those papers for and definitely not what Addie signed them for either.

I think the hardest part about this is seeing how hard it is on Addie. She was on the brink of tears the whole time after the call and meeting and then I find her on the kitchen floor passed out after speaking loudly on the phone with someone? Not okay. And I know she has some stability issues from things that have happened in the past. I don't want to be part of the reason she regresses back to her old ways and hurts herself. I really hope she doesn't hurt herself. F.uck. This whole not getting involved or attatched s.hit is not going to work Who am I kidding? I am falling in love with this girl.

I try google searching a few different things, but nothing is helping. I can't talk to Claire about getting out of the contract because well she just wouldn't have it. Can I fire her? Is that a thing? There's probably something in those contracts that say we can't do that.

This sucks. I don't even think I was ever given a copy of the contract we signed with management. Don't they have to give me one? Maybe Ashton can help me with this. He is usually the voice of reason in the group and is fairly smart besides that one time he thought a tadpole was a baby turtle....

I rub my eyes and dare to take a glance at my reflection in the mirror. I look like literal s.hit. My hair is going in every direction and my eyes appear droopy and red. I mean it is 8 am already and seeing how I only got like 2 hours of sleep I should probably try to catch some shut eye. I know what I have to do today. Screw managent.