Bound to You

Chapter 13: Pressure

Darcy drummed her fingers anxiously against the handrails inside of the elevator as it dragged slowly to the 20th floor. She was dreading seeing Sean again. She hadn’t seen or spoken to him since she’d gone to visit him nearly a week ago. Thankfully this time she had Ross with her. Sean had called them both in to discuss the plan for April. “Are you okay?” Ross’s voice cut through her reverie. She immediately stopped thumping her fingers against the metal and looked over at him. He was staring at her with a worried expression across his face. She nodded quickly. “I’m fine. Sean just makes me nervous sometimes. He’s really…” “Intense?” Ross finished. Darcy nodded again, gratefully. Ross nodded as well. “I know. We’ve been working with him ever since we first got signed to the label. He’s just trying to do what’s best for the band.” He smiled reassuringly at her. She half-smiled in returned and looked down at the tops of her shoes. She wasn’t so sure about Sean and his intentions. There was just something about him, and it wasn’t ‘intensity’. It was ominous, threatening…sinister almost. She quickly shook away the thoughts as the elevator doors opened on the top floor. She followed a few feet behind Ross as he approached Sean’s office door. The door swung open before Ross even had the chance to knock. Sean beamed at the two of them. “Darcy! Ross! Come in.” he said in a friendly tone. He stepped to the side to allow them to enter. Darcy kept her eyes on the back of Ross’s head as she stepped over the threshold, doing her best to avoid Sean’s gaze. She settled into her usual chair and glanced quickly over at Ross. He was staring back at her with the same puzzled expression. Sean was being overly friendly today. It was…odd. To put it lightly. Sean quickly sat down in his own chair and began flipping through a folder full of papers. “Okay…so this past month went well. Very well. You two are doing an excellent job. But…” He peered up at them from over the top of the papers. Darcy and Ross exchanged glances once again. “But…?” Ross prompted. Sean sighed and laid his folder down. “But…it isn’t enough apparently. Have you two been on Twitter lately?” he asked. They both shook their heads, indicating that they hadn’t. Sean handed them a printed copy of a screenshot from Twitter. The trending topics were circled in red. Darcy groaned when she read the #1 trend. ‘Raura is forever.’ Ross looked back up at Sean. “I thought you said the fans were beginning to let go of all that.” Sean sighed. “I thought they were. Most have, it’s true. But there’s still that group of hardcore shippers that aren’t giving up. I read a few posts on Tumblr where some fans were talking about Darcy. They believe she’s…temporary. They don’t see you guys together for the long run.” He leaned forward and rested his arms against the top of his desk. “You two are going to have to change that.” He said pointedly. Darcy kept her eyes on the paper. She hadn’t made eye contact with Sean since they’d entered his office. Just being in the same room as him gave her that…feeling. Ross ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. “Well, what do we have to do?” he asked tiredly. Sean leaned back in his chair. “You two are going to have to step it up. Big time. You have to become the next Zac Efron & Vanessa Hudgens. You have to convince the world that you are hopelessly, entirely, head-over-heels in love. There can be absolutely no room to question how crazy you are for each other.” Darcy sighed and finally lifted her head to look at Sean. “Why does it matter if a few fans hold on to Raura? You aren’t going to change their minds, no matter what you do.” She said crabbily. She instantly regretted opening her mouth. Sean turned his gaze on her. His brown eyes were burning with fury and indignation. She shrank back in her chair. Somehow, she knew she’d pay for that comment. She glanced at Ross out of the corner of her eye; his attention was focused on the printout in his hands. He hadn’t noticed the nonverbal exchange that’d just went on between her and Sean. He finally tossed the paper back onto Sean’s desk and looked up. “So what about the schedule? Are we getting another one this month, or was it just a onetime thing?” he asked. Sean reached into the folder he’d been looking through earlier and pulled out two hefty stacks of paper. “The schedule will be monthly. It’ll help keep everything on track. That way you guys are able to keep up with what events you’re supposed to be at, and I’ll know too.” He handed a copy to each of them. Darcy’s eyes widened. This month’s ‘schedule’, as Sean referred to it, was twice the size of the previous month’s. Her eyes landed on the first event; she and Ross were supposed to be attending the Captain America 2 premiere that evening. Over half of the first page was filled with instructions for that one event alone.It was almost as if she were reading stage directions for a play. Sean had planned out every move, every touch, every tiny detail of the evening. Darcy flipped through the pages of her schedule. Almost every event over the next month was the same. Line after line of tedious directions and instructions. Even their typically casual and unscripted coffee runs were meticulously planned out. She kept her eyes on the paper, only vaguely aware of the conversation Ross and Sean were having about the premiere they would be attending that evening. This hadn’t been what she signed up for. At all. Sean had led her to believe that she and Ross would have some small control over their ‘relationship,’ when in fact they had no control whatsoever. They were just his pawns; to be moved whenever he said to, to be placed wherever he saw fit. “Darcy?” Ross’s voice cut through her thoughts. She jerked her head up to look at him. He was already standing by the door. “You coming?” he asked. She nodded quickly and immediately stood. He stepped out of the door and began walking towards the elevators. Just as she reached the door herself she heard Sean clear his throat. “Darcy.” He said sternly. She froze in the doorway. She could feel her heart rate quicken. The schedule she had been handed earlier was shaking in her hand. Nobody had ever had such an effect on her before. He scared her; terrified her. She turned around slowly to look at him. To her relief, he was still standing behind his desk. “Don’t let me down.” He said quietly. Once again, his eyes spoke far more than his words did. His piercing gaze seemed to send out a silent warning. Or else.