Hired | b.w.s

Seven

After weird people on the tube and awkward conversation with the taxi driver, I arrive at the tall building from my instructions. Nerves fill my stomach as I push the door open. I'm quite scared, I've never done anything like this before and this is a big deal, especially for my bank account. Pretending to be dating someone who you don't know is a weird ask and I'm not sure how to go about it professionally. Hopefully this meeting will provide some guidance.

I take a deep breath and ask the receptionist where to go. She gives me instructions, which I follow until I reach a large glass door. I push it open slowly and walk in to see a large table in the centre of the room, like a meeting room for really important people. Four young guys, who I'm assuming are the members of The Vamps, sit on the furthest end of the table as who I'm assuming is their manager talks to them from the front. All eyes turn to me as I walk in with a creaky door shutting behind me, causing my face to heat up.

"Alexa! Hello, sit down." Their manager greets me. I cringe at the use of my full name but I don't have the courage to correct him.

I sit down in a chair near the top end of the table, closest to Joe and furthest from the band. I look around awkwardly as they all stare at me. I wonder which one I'm going to have to fake date.

"Uh, hey." I awkwardly greet them all with a small wave.

They all smile and nod at me. Thankfully, the awkwardness is interrupted by a tall blonde girl walking into the room. Her makeup is flawless, her blonde hair curled to perfection and her long legs never ending as they strut into the room. She takes off her sunglasses and looks at everyone with a judgemental look.

"Hey, you must be Sylvia." Joe greets the familiar girl.

"That's me." She smiles and it's a perfect smile.

"Brilliant, take a seat please." Joe instructs and goes to speak, but Sylvia isn't finished.

"Which one's my guy?" She asks bluntly, looking straight at the four of them. I'm overwhelmed by her confidence and sheer beauty, she clearly owns every room she walks in. It's very impressive.

"Uh that will be James." Joe points at James who timidly waves.

She nods, struts over to him and sits in the seat right next to him. That leaves me sat at the top on my own. Great.

"Okay, now we're all here, let's talk business." Joe says, becoming more serious as he sits down at the head of the table.

I look at him whilst nibbling at my bottom lip obsessively. This is very intimidating, I'm definitely not used to this kind of scene.

"We need you four to be as much like real couples as possible. Public appearances, public dates, selfies together...I don't really care. As long as it seems like you're actually together." We all nod. "Now, you don't have to actually kiss or date it's just for show, you don't even have to get along. As long as you act like you do and these rumours die down, we're all good." Joe finishes. "Understand?"

Everyone nods silently.

"Right, I'll leave you four to get to know each other. Tris, Con come with me." He beckons two of the boys who stand up and leave with him. The only people left are me, Sylvia, James and the boy with curly hair who I'm assuming is going to be my fake boyfriend. The door shuts and silence falls.

"Right, so a few ground rules." Sylvia speaks up. "No kissing, no touching and no looking. I'm here to make you look better, so don't get any ideas." She demands.

I respect her setting boundaries but god does she do it with an awful tone. I rest my head in my hands. What have I gotten myself into?

"You're not as bad as her are you?" I hear a voice mumble in my ear, making me jump.

I look to my left to see that the curly haired boy has sat next to me and is smiling brightly at me. Deep brown eyes crinkle at the sides, perfect teeth all lined up in a row. I examine his face, he looks young, younger than me at least. He's definitely not unattractive...

"Uh no, definitely not." I laugh lightly as I glance over to see her listing off her demands to James who looks horrified.

"Thank god. I couldn't deal with that, pretending or not." He rolls his eyes. "I'm Brad." The curly hair introduces itself, holding out a hand for me to shake. I notice that his voice is very monotonous.

"Alexa." I respond, shaking his hand. He half smiles at me and tilts his head to the side.

"So how old are you?" He asks me curiously.

"I'm twenty, what about you?" I ask because I literally know nothing about him and that seems like a good place to start.

"Twenty." He says simply. He looks a mixture of bored and curious as he stares at me intensely with his eyes squinted. "Wanna get out of here?"

"Sure." I shrug, it won't hurt to get to know him.

We get up and leave the room together, a silence surrounds us as we make our way to the front entrance of the building. I still can't make my mind up about him, he seems...strange. I check my phone in case of any new messages. Unfortunately, my phone screen is blank.

"So is there going to be loads of paparazzi?" I ask him, that's something I'm very uneasy about.

"Uh yeah, they know we're here so it wouldn't surprise me." He says with a slight attitude, making me raise my eyebrows at him.

I shake it off and nod as we approach the front entrance. I notice a few bodies standing outside with large cameras gripped in their hands. The few bodies seemingly multiply as we get closer. Nerves fill my stomach as we reach the door, the people turning to face us and quickly snapping pictures.

"Should we hold hands or something?" I ask him.

"Oh yeah." He grumbles, taking my hand in his with force and leading me towards the exit.