Irreplaceable {1}

Chapter 20

Leo stayed at my apartment the rest of the week.

I kept stalking my new Instagram from my regular one. The only people who questioned the new one were Roxy and Rowan. I explained it to them when they were both home with help from Leo. The four of us read every article together and Leo made sure I was with the guard he hired when I left the apartment for work and school. He followed me from class to class but waited outside and followed me to work but again, waited in the parking lot.

Nancy called me into a meeting first thing Tuesday when I arrived. Two of the HR people were there and they must've spoken the day before because they had a whole speech prepared.

I listened to the whole thing and then they let me say my peace.

"I still am my own individual person and I deserve to work towards my dreams and ambitions. Who I date or don't date should not define me as a person and if there is someone in the office who thinks that my entire life is just Leo's girlfriend, then they have their own things to work through in life. I want to work and I want to be here and I want to write a book one day that get's read because I wrote it not because I'm Leo's girlfriend."

The HR people nodded and tried to assure me everything was safe. As long as I didn't stir up any office drama.

I was so angry after work that day that I vented to the security guard. He listened and offered some advice but it truly just made me more annoyed. If I moved companies they might just hire me as a face, which was not what I wanted. I wanted a real life.

And I wanted a real life with Leo.

They had to fly out after movie night, and so we only got to watch one movie together before Leo and his bandmates headed for the airport. Most of us didn't feel like watching a second movie so we all got to go to bed early.

Since I got all week with Leo, my bed felt empty. 

Sunday morning, one of the publicist people came over and we posted another picture onto my Instagram together.

It was a picture of my bookshelf, with a question asking for everyone's favourite reads.

This post made me a little excited, and I watched as people started commenting books they loved. The publicist person helped me respond to comments, saying that this would make me seem more human and help people tone down with hateful comments if I could relate to more of them.

We spent a little over an hour talking to people in my comments together and I felt lighter about it by the time she left.

After that, I finally got some study time in. I was going into crunch time. One week left of classes then final exams and essays and projects needed to be in the next week.

I did not post or interact on my second Instagram at all. But I did see everything Leo and the band posted on theirs. I watched a few streams of the concerts and still had daily calls with Leo. They were still in weird time zones with coming back to easier time zones after my exams were over.

Things continued much the same, the security guard stayed with me until my exams and school were complete and then let me move on. Work continued much the same, only my cubicle people really spoke to me anymore, but they were all the same kind of intern as me.

They tried really hard not to talk about celebrities though.

One day at lunch I walked in on a conversation where they were chatting about some rock band and when they saw me they all stopped and one awkwardly said something about prices at the grocery store.

I sighed and slammed my lunchbox onto the table, making them all jump.

"Guys, I don't know any other celebrities. I'm not going around just meeting famous people. My life truly has not changed that much. I'm just finishing school and trying my best to land a regular job."