Prank Calls | D.R.

Chapter 16

Drew's POV

     "Sometime soon, you and Sergio are going to have to genuinely make up. It was so tense when the two of you were alone," Mia takes a sip out of her wine, her other hand holding mine across the table.

     "Oh, it was just when you were there. He was blatantly flirting with you, and I couldn't do anything about it," I admit, grazing my thumb lightly over her knuckles.

     "Are you going to tell him?"

     "About what?"

     "Us, this," she gestures between the two of us. "He'll want to know sooner than later."

      "But he'll then tell management, who will force me to break up with you without letting me tell you. It's better to keep it under wraps."

     "I don't think they'll care that much. Just stay mellow with it, and everything will be fine," she tries to be reassuring, but it doesn't help at all.

     "The whole dynamic of the thing is... complicated. I don't know. You wouldn't understand," I run a hand through my hair.

      "Try me."

     "Do people ever think you're doing something for one reason, but you're actually doing it for a different reason? But you're too afraid to tell them, and now the lie has now kind of morphed into you, and you don't know what's real and what's fake? What's the real motivation for this? What's..." she squeezes my hand in attempt to calm me down. She nods.

     "Yeah, my parents thought one of my main motivations for moving to New York was just to find hot guys. That wasn't what I wanted, but they already shunned me, so why not play it up? I went around and did exactly what they thought I would just to frustrate them. Eventually, I got used to it, all the attention from guys, and I don't know... it kind of became part of my identity.

     On my 22nd birthday, Morgan sat down and had a chat with me. She told me I had to stop. I should've easily been able too, you know? I mean, my, may I say, slut persona was only created to frustrate my parents. Now that they were out of my life, I should've been able to drop it, but I couldn't. My world and lie world mixed together to create me.

     Morgan and I got on a plan to fix it. I slowly started to wind down. My life finally started coming back into focus, school and my degree. It opened my mind up to all the guys who were just blatantly using me. Men told me I was loosing who I was if I didn't sleep with them. They tried to use it against me. That's why I don't really like guys as much now, with exception of you," she quickly fixes her statement. "My lies affected my reality."

     "Wow, you do understand," my eyes are wide. She lightly smiles and nods.

       "Now, Mr. Ramos, what's your lie? Your reason? Your real motivation?" she's keeping her voice calm and mellow, making sure to not set me off. She looks genuinely interested too.

      "People assumed I acted how I did, the alcohol and drugs, all that stuff, because I thought I was cooler than everyone else, better that everyone else," I sigh, looking down. I haven't told this to anyone, but I'm going to have to get this off my chest eventually.

      "Is that not what it is?" I shake my head at the question. "What is it?"

      "The guys never wanted me in the group," I tell her. The expression on her face immediately changes from intentness to concern.

       "That's not true. They all love you. You guys were so tight on Boy Band."

       "Firstly, they all hate me now, and second, they didn't want me in the band. They all wanted Mikey. I wouldn't blame them. I wanted Mikey too."