Celebrity

Heart Shattered

Thomas POV

In the morning, I was frying some eggs in the kitchen. I remembered last night; I lied to Ava about the deal—more like blackmail—from Bruce to get Emilia on board with this charade of fake relationships. The question that kept me wondering was: if I told her last night, what would she do? She's just as powerless to him as I am. The last thing I want is for her to get worried about me after her sacrifice to keep me here.

Then comes my other issue with Emilia. I got her to agree to this media relationship, and it didn't take much convincing after I told her the truth about being forced out of the country if she didn't agree to this. But aside from that, we haven't really spoken to each other after that moment we were under the influence and we kissed.

I'm pulled out of my thoughts when I hear a knock on the door. I walk to the door, then open it to see Emilia. She just walks in without me telling her to. "I've had enough," Emilia continues. "We need to talk."

I push the door, but it doesn't completely close. I'm not completely bothered by it. I catch a scent of burning eggs, so I immediately rush to the kitchen. I take the pan off the stove and lay it on the counter. Then I see Emilia standing at the frame of the door.

"Are you going to keep ignoring me?" she says. "We need to talk about that night." "What do you want to talk about?" I ask sarcastically. "We need to talk about our kiss," Emilia says.

My eyes catch Ava's; she seems in shock about what she's heard. "Wait, Ava, it's not what you think," I say. Emilia turns to see Ava behind her. Ava turns around and starts pacing off, headed for the door. I call for her, but she doesn't answer and only keeps moving forward.

I start to go after her, but as I leave the kitchen, Emilia grabs me by my arm and stops me in my tracks. I try calling for Ava over and over again, but she keeps moving till she leaves the apartment.

"Don't ignore me; we need closure now," Emilia says. I turn to look at her with anger in my eyes, and she senses that and lets go of my hand. "You want closure? Here it is: it was just a stupid kiss; we were drunk; it meant nothing!" I snap at her and sprint after Ava.

I tried going as fast as I physically could to catch up, but by the time I got downstairs, I found she had already left. I stood there in the parking lot in disappointment. It's weird because why did she come over? Was it because of last night or label business? But if it was label business, why would she storm out after she heard Emilia say that we kissed? It doesn't make any sense.

I'm headed for upstairs till I see Emilia, who's coming down the stairs. I immediately remember that I snapped at her after I saw Ava. "Emilia—"
"Save it; you've made your feelings clear to me," she cuts me off and walks away.

That's the second time a girl has walked out on me today, and it's frustrating.

***

I'm in my room till I hear a knock on the door. I go to open the door, and I find Max at the other end of the door. I gesture for him to come in. "You called me?" Max asks.

I called him because he's the only real friend I know, and I need his opinion on this Ava and Emilia thing. Plus, I did promise not to keep secrets from him. "I need your advice on something," I say. I shut the door, and Max takes a seat on the couch whilst I remain standing.

"I don't know how to say this, but...I kissed Emilia." Max's jaw drops. "When did this happen?" Max asks eagerly. "A couple of days ago." Max leans to the edge of his seat. "So, was it good?" "What do you mean?" "Like the kiss; was it good?" "I can't really remember; I was sort of drunk."

I tell him, and he relaxes back comfortably on the couch again. "So, what do you need my advice for? You literally kissed the most beautiful girl at Harvard." Considering where our relationship started, I guess it's kind of progress.

"Well, she's sort of a problem, but not the main one," I continue. "After the kiss, we didn't speak for days, but when she showed up this morning to talk about it, Ava showed up and heard us talking and left." Max takes a moment to process the information I just told him.

"Why did she leave?" he asks. "I don't know," I respond. He scratches his chin. "Was she jealous?" he asks. I burst into laughter, up to the point where I couldn't breathe. "Ava jealous of me? Don't be ridiculous," I say whilst I'm still laughing. I look at Max and see he's serious, so I know he's not joking.

"Listen to me, why else would she run away when she hears you kissing somebody else?" he asks with a lot of emphasis. His words are starting to make sense. Why else would she run away? "She can't be jealous; she doesn't even have feelings for me." "Or maybe she does," Max says with a very calm voice.

Ava having feelings for me is crazy to think about. How can she have feelings for a guy from Africa who's poor and whom she has to pay for his university, whilst she's a rich, pretty singer that everyone loves? I suddenly remember how I spoke to Emilia to apologize. "Do you know where Emilia lives?" I ask. "Of course," he responds cheerfully, which I find weird, but I don't press on the matter of how he knows. I just ask him to tell me.

***

I stand in front of Emilia's gate to her house. Her address is 4080 Boulevard Road. I take a deep breath and exhale, then I walk into the yard. It's quite a big yard, and it has rose flowers almost everywhere. I reach her front door and knock. After a while, the door opens to reveal Emilia, whose eyes are red. I can't tell whether she was crying or doing something else.

"What are you doing here?" she asks. "Who even gave you my address?" I shakily chuckle at her asking where I got the address from, but she doesn't seem amused by it. I clear my throat. "I came to apologize." She raises a brow at me. "What for?" she asks. "I'm sorry for snapping at you; I didn't mean to be rude."

She leans onto the doorframe and folds her arms. "I'm not mad at that. I'm mad about us having a serious conversation, and you ran off for Ava." She says, "Well, she's a celebrity; who wouldn't follow her when she shows up?" I lie. "No, it was more than that; it was like you two have something."

First Max, now Emilia thinks that we have feelings for each other, which is insane. "No, we don't," I say after realizing I took too long to respond. "You go after her since she seems to be the one you want to speak with and leave," Emilia says and shuts the door right in front of me.

I get back to my apartment and go to my bedroom and throw myself onto the bed. I grab my pillow and drown myself in it. Everyone keeps telling me to go after Ava, but Ava's a superstar, whilst I'm a nobody. Her having feelings for me is like a cat having feelings for a dog; that's never going to happen.

I've been avoiding going to her place, but I think it's time to clear the air between us.

***

I stand at the gate to Ava's home, but the guards don't let me in because they don't know me. All the times I've been here, they've never really seen me before; both times it's been me coming in tinted cars. I plead with the guard to let me in. He talks to someone on his earpiece; after a short conversation, they finally let me in.

When I get to the front door, I find Ava already standing at the front door. Before she could say anything, "I'm sorry," I say. "There's nothing to be sorry about," she says.
"But...this morning, you..."
"What about this morning?" Ava says. "You seemed jealous," I say this very slowly and just came out.

"Me jealous of who? You? About what?" she says. I remain silent. "There's nothing I can be jealous of; you're nothing to me. I think you should leave." Hearing her say this hurts me so much. It's easy to say in my head, but hearing her out loud is worse.