Stuck With Him

Chapter sixteen [ 16 ]

Chapter sixteen: Sweet Nothings

All through dinner I glared at Alex who just kept smiling and charming every other person that wasn't me or Ian. Oh, poor Ian. He tried to look anywhere but me. He had already figured out that there was consequences every time he communicated with me. Every time he tried to talk to me or I to him, Alex attacked him with questions, simply friendly on the outside but pure venom on the inside. So after awhile he gave up on trying and refused to even look at me. I was so mad at Alex that I could feel smoke coming out of my ears. He had no right to come between me and Ian. Not that there was anything to come between but it still annoyed the hell out of me. I'm going to kill him after we get through this stupid dinner, I thought to myself for the hundredth time that day.

Just as dessert was brought to the table, I felt my phone buzz. I checked the caller ID out of habit and noticed that it was Elijah, a friend of mine who I had met through Alex. He was my other friend's, Tesla's, producer and such a sweetheart. But last time we had talked hadn't been all that lovey dovey. I wasn't sure if I was still on Elijah's list of his favorite people.

I excused myself and left the dining room to answer him. "Hello?"

"Hi, Harper." There was a small pause before he added: "How's it going?

"Um, fine, thanks", I said then. God, this shouldn't be so awkward. We were good friends once and could talk for hours without getting bored. "You?"

"Pretty good. Listen, the reason I'm calling is to let you know that there might be an increased amount of media attention around you during the next couple of days."

"Why?"

"Remember that day I asked you to sing the words I wrote so I'd know if they fit the melody I had in my head?"

Of course I remembered. I had been bored out of my mind, always getting dragged into Alex's functions, forced to sit down and smile a lot. Most of the time it's simply miserable to be introduced to people as 'Alex Vega's girlfriend'. I'm not really an attention seeker but it's still nice to be recognized by one's own attributes, not by one's SO. I had felt so alone, so forgotten until Elijah had asked my help with his songwriting. Almost like he had seen so how I had been drowning in the sea of people who didn't know nor care who I was.

That was also the day Alex had told me he loved me.

"I remember."

"Somebody from the studio found it and leaked it. It's all over the internet."

I closed my eyes. "Great", I whispered. Now I had to deal with this, too? As if it wasn't enough that soon I wouldn't be able to leave the house when news of my breakup with Alex would spread. As much as I wanted to stop being called Alex Vega's girlfriend, I wasn't looking forward to being in the middle of the media frenzy that would inevitably follow our breakup announcement. For a reason or another, celebrity breakups are great entertainment to the masses.

"If it helps, you sound good", Elijah tried to cheer me up. I smiled at his words. That was what was great about Elijah: he was such a nice guy. Even when we hadn't spoken in over a week, he still wanted to cheer me up.

"I'm sorry", I suddenly blurted out. "For what I said."

I heard Elijah sigh. "I'm sorry, too. Your relationship, your business. Shouldn't have butted in."

"You only did it because you were worried."

"Yeah, but you know what you're doing. It's not up to me to tell you who you should date and who not."

"I miss you so much", I breathed out and closed my eyes for a second. It was true: over the catastrophic two years that had been my relationship with Alex, Elijah had been there for me when I had needed a friend.