Hollywood and Mr. Popular (the original)

Chapter 21

Stela enters the house, followed by Mom. My mouth nearly hits the floor when another guy follows behind her. He looks around the same age as her. He's tall and muscular. Tattoos cover his right arm and I can barely make out his smile between his beard and mustache. You can still tell he's attractive, even with all the extra hair.

"Who the hell is he?" I ask quickly. Mom glares at me then sighs, looking at Dylan.

"I think you should go. Thanks for babysitting. You're sure you don't want anything in return, I know Javiéra can be a handful."

"Nice of you to talk about me like I'm not right here." Dylan just shakes his head and says goodbye before leaving.

"Hi," the man says. He looks like the young version of John Stamos with his dark hair, tan skin and little grey hairs poking out of his beard, "I'm Nick." He sticks his hand out for me to shake but I look at it like he just picked his nose with it and was now trying to wipe the booger on me.

"Okay, Nick. What are you doing here?" Mom moves around the chair quickly, holding Nick's hand firmly in hers.

"Javiéra, meet Nick, he's my boyfriend." At those words, it's like the entire world has stopped moving. "Now look sweetie, I know you miss your father but-"

"You don't know anything!" I say pushing myself up from the sofa amd giving them all disgusted looks. "How could you possibly know how I feel? You're never around to even notice." I whirl around and rush upstairs without giving them a second glance. I lock my door, crashing down onto my bed and squeezing my pillow tightly.

It was quite immature of me to throw a temper tantrum believe me, I know. But having Mom waltz in with a boyfriend was the last thing I expected her to do. I hear a faint knocking at the door, followed by Mom's voice.

"Javiéra, open the door." She says jiggling the knob.

"No." I reply, clutching the pillow against my chest.

"Javiéra Marié Devitto, you get your carcus up and you open this door right now." I sigh, knowing that if she was using my full name, she was probably pissed. I open the door and fling myself back onto my bed, burying my head in my collection of pillows. "JJ look at me." I feel the edge of the bed dip with her weight and sit up. "Baby, I'm so sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but Nick and I have been dating for a couple of months now. He comes on tours with Stela and I-"

"Oh wonderful. Guess you won't be needing me then." I flip over so I don't have to face her because I cam feel the tears stinging at my eyes. He'd been hanging around Mom and Stela that long, he probably thought they were family by now. Did he even know about me? Probably not, but if he did he probably thinks I'm a disappointment.

"I can't be mad at you for thinking like that, JJ, because it's my fault you do. I know sorry won't fix it but I'll say it anyway. I'm sorry I abandoned you and I hope you forgive me. But I'm gonna be around more often. Stela insists she's a big girl now and she can do her tours and stuff on her own so I'm here for you now." I snort but decide to give her the benefit of the doubt. She is my mother after all.

"And that means..." she nods.

"Dylan's services will no longer be required. But he can stick around if you'd like." I lay my head back down. I'm sure he'll be excited to hear he can hang out with his girlfriend anytime he wants now.

"Is he better than Dad?" I whisper. There's silence for a minute as she thinks over her answers.

"It's not fair to compare relationships in situations like this," she says, "but of course not. Your father was the love of my life. When I lost him, I lost a good bit of myself. I'd known him since we were teenagers and to have him ripped away like that...you can't just replace that kind of love." I hear her sniffle so I sit up and wrap my arms around her.