Why Wait?

7

IMPORTANT NEWS IN THE END REGARDING UPDATES. JUST WANTED TO LET YOU GUYS KNOW IN CASE YOURE LIKE ME AND SKIP THROUGH THE AUTHORS NOTES.
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~~~arena~~~
"You're alive!" Luke exclaims as I walk into the arena. He runs off the stage and envelopes me in a hug. "You looked awful yesterday."

"Thanks," I say, an edge to my voice.

Luke doesn't seem to notice. Instead, he slowly walks with me down the narrow isle of the arena.

"Hey," Ty says, picking up his bass. "You look better."

"Thank you," I say quietly. "I feel better."

Chance and Alex walk in with a stack of magazines. They give me a relieved smile when they see me, but they have worried looks on their faces.

"What's the matter?" Ty asks them.

Chance and Alex sit in front of me on the stage and Luke props his elbows forward, looking at the magazine.

Ty picks up one of the tabloids and his eyes widen. "Whoa."

"It's not real," Chance says. "But we do have to fix this."

"Fix what?" I ask, grabbing one of the magazines. My breath got caught in my throat as I read the headline. ALEX FLEMMINGS' NEW GIRLFRIEND? Under the headline was two pictures. One of us while we were in Starbucks. He was looking at me with a smile on his face and I was smiling back. The other picture was of him carrying me into the hotel. You couldn't see my knee brace in the picture so they made it sound as romantic as possible.

I let out a groan. "Seriously?"

Luke laughs beside me.

I hit him. "It's not funny!"

Which, of course, makes him laugh harder. "It's pretty funny."

Before I could hit him again, MarieAnne walks in with my mom by her side. They both had huge grins on their faces. "We saw the tabloids," she says before any one of us could pester her about it.

Mom gives me and Alex a sheepish smile before talking. "Well, we've thought about it. And there's really no reason not to go along with this."

"What?" Alex demands at the same time as I say, "You're kidding."

Mom avoids my glare. "Trust me, this will be good. Kelli, they're already talking about you. This could be good for Austin, too."

Austin.

It's always about the great Austin Ross. Never what I think. I'm still trying to get Cody to take me back. I can't be in a fake relationship.

I glare at her. "So what are you saying?" I ask, my voice giving away all the anger I feel.

MarieAnne smiles. "You pretend you've been dating for ten months. You'll be scheduled for a live interview on Thursday and tell the whole world about your coupleness."

"Absolutely not," Alex says firmly. "I barely even know her."

Ty smirks. "Not to mention you have a girlfriend already."

As if on cue, his phone rings. He stares at the screen before answering. "Brooke," he bites his lip. "Hi."

He listens for a moment. "Well, I am going to kindly interrupt you. Just to say that you are wrong."

Luke lets out another laugh, Chance joining him this time. Ty was smiling but his eyes were wide.

Mom gestures for me to follow her and we walk out of the arena so we couldn't be heard. But the arena is empty. And large rooms tend to echo when they are empty.