Down & Dirty (Asking Alexandria, Denis Stoff/ Denis Shaforostov)

4. Compromise

Mia-
I sat sidestage the next day with James as the rest of my band finished their soundcheck.

"So how are you doing love?" James asked me.

"Me? I'm alright, had some nice breakfast, weather is good here." I shrugged.

"I didn't mean small talk." He rolled his eyes. "I meant how are you holding up, I know it must be tough being around Denis considering you two have a past."

"How much of that past has he told you about Cassells?" I raised my eyebrows.

"Not much. Just the fact that it was a bad breakup, you two aren't on good terms, and you are a massive bitch."

"And what parts do you believe?" I raised my eyebrow.

"The first two. I only see you be a birch to him which is hilarious, considering his asshole side only comes out around you."

"Isn't that something to be proud of. I'm the only one who can make Denis Stoff seem like a jerk." I rolled my eyes.

"No, I didn't mean it like he hates you. I've seen him genuinely hate people and he isn't like that towards them. I think Denis secretly wants to be on good terms again."

"I don't think that you think that Cassells, I think you had a conversation with him about that." I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Psh, no." He chuckled awkwardly.

"You have a terrible pokerface Cassells."

"Fine. He wants to be at least cordial to you, fans are starting to notice things and it's bad press."

"Why should I care about what the press says about him?"

"Because you will get the worst end of it. This is gonna sound bad, but we are a larger band, and more people will take his side, not even listening to what happened. He cares about your reputation as well." He sighed.

"Most people haven't even heard what happened. It's ridiculous to assume things."

"Well what did happen?" James asked.

"He never told you?"

James shook his head.

Maybe Denis did care a bit about me, he hadn't tarnished my reputation to his bandmates before I met them.

"We started dating when I was seventeen, four years ago. Right when he was big into some Make me famous stuff. I was with him through the transition into Down and Dirty, that's how I met my current bandmates. They are also how I found out that he was cheating on me, banging a bunch of groupies. That's when I ended things, and that's when he blamed me for being too controlling and jealous. It was all a big mess." I sighed.

"Sounds like it. The real question is do you hate Denis?"

"Strongly dislike. Ever since he cheated on me, he hasn't exactly been diplomatic with all of his comments and actions. I don't fully hate anybody."

"That's good at least. Could you two talk it out though? At lease be cordial to each other? It would make this tour a lot less awkward and a lot more fun for all parties involved."

"I guess we can work out something. Maybe we can put a paper bag over his face so he can stop smirking after he makes snide comments." I laughed.