Stuck With Him

Chapter seventeen [ 17 ]

Chapter seventeen: A Price Too High

Alex was at it all week long. He just couldn't let me be. Every time I tried dating or even talking to another guy, somehow he'd come between us.

To be fair, the first time wasn't really his fault but I blamed him anyway. See, I met this guy in a bookshop. We were really hitting it off until he noticed my face on the cover of some trashy magazine with a title: "WHERE IS ALEX VEGA'S GIRLFRIEND NATALIE?" That made him jump and run away from me. I guess being the next romantic relationship in my life after a celebrity loved by all was a little too intimidating.

The next one I met at a park. Unfortunately, Alex and his band were having a outdoor concert in the same park. When he noticed me talking to a guy, he actually JUMPED OFF THE STAGE AND CAME TO SING A BALLAD TO ME. And because we weren't really broken up in the eyes of the general public I had to smile and act like I was still in love with him. I pretended like the lyrics didn't break my heart but by the song's chorus the smile on my face was more like a painful grimace.

Some people say that I don't have a heart

That there's no one I care about

Baby I guess they're right, I don't

Except for you

To you I'm true

You're my heart, my pain, my everything

Living without you is maddening

I hated it when he did things like that. He just ignored my anger and went straight for my heart. I'm not exactly good at constructive confrontations either but he was just infuriating. He couldn't just sleep with the only girl I couldn't stand, show up at Mason's with my Nana and then sing a freaking love song to me. For crying out loud, I had flown over a continent to get away from him but he just wouldn't take a hint!

After the song ended, I smiled and pulled him to me for a hug. "Leave me alone", I whispered angrily in his ear.

"I love you too, babe", he said loudly and scared off the guy I had been talking with.

ARGH.
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"He's slowly driving me insane!" I huffed as I paced back and forth in Mason's greenhouse. Yes, he had one and no, he had no clue what plants he was growing in there. Obviously he wasn't the one doing the heavy lifting when it came to housework.

Mason didn't even bother looking at me when he replied. "That's the plan."

"He's just so infuriating! He acts like I can't move on with my life and keeps telling me how much he loves me and wants to be with me and crap like that. I made such a fucking big mistake when I agreed to date him. I'm so stupid! Meeting my idol really wasn't worth it", I ranted. Okay, meeting Andrew M. Borrows was pretty freaking awesome but surely not worth all the heartbreak Alex had caused me.

Mason snorted. "After you met that old fart, he was all you talked about for entire month", he said oh-so-eloquently.

I glared at him. "Shut up, Maisie."

He spread his arms at me. "I'm just speaking the truth, sista."

"But how dare he? He was the one who ruined it all in the end so what the hell does he want now? You know what? I should talk to Rusty. He's the one other person in the world who wants Alex to get over all this and resume working as much as I do."

I dialed the number I'd been dreading for so long and waited until I heard a 'hello?'.

"Hey, it's Harper. Meet in 30 minutes at the town gazebo."

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"Hey there, Harper", Rusty Klein himself said as I walked up to the town gazebo. He got up from the bench inside the gazebo and came to greet me. He air-kissed my cheeks and motioned for me to sit down. "How are things?"

"Fine."

"Okay then", Rusty replied and then he let out a sigh. "Let's cut the crap, yeah? What the heck is going on? Why has Alex parked us in some low- life southern living cover story town?"

I took a deep breath. "I don't know if Alex has told you this but he and I broke up."

Rusty let his jaw drop. "What?"

Whoops. I guess Alex hadn't told him. He had probably thought that he could get me to forgive him before he'd have to deal with Rusty. I wondered what the hell had he told Rusty and his band to get them to agree to come to Rosedale with him. Yet another lie from that infuriating boy's mouth...

"Oh, this all is starting to make a truck load of more sense. The moping, the starting fights, his music suffering..." Rusty listed while I rolled my eyes. And there he goes, trying to make me feel bad for causing Alex such pain and suffering. Rusty sure was unbelievable. The only thing he cared about was his client and he'd do anything for the client. One could easily be fooled by his crazy outfits or shiny Pepsodent smile but I had learnt the hard way that Rusty Klein was no friend of mine.

"So in the spirit of breaking up I'd love not to have to deal with Alex every single day so can you tell me when you're leaving?" I asked ignoring his pathetic attempt to guilt me right back to Alex.

"Well, we can't leave now, we have to fix this little disaster. Whatcha thinkin', Natalie? You can't leave him. Why hasn't Mary called me about this? Does she even know? She doesn't, does she? You are hesitant to tell her. Is that because you know it's a mistake and that you'll end up right back where you left off, with my boy Alex?" Rusty began the mind game. He was so good at it that he usually could sell ice to the Eskimos but I had made up my mind and refused to back down.

"I haven't told her because I wasn't sure how to. But now that you mentioned it, I guess I should call her." With that I pulled out my phone and began dialing just to be cut short by Rusty who locked my phone. I looked up at him and saw a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"You're not calling anyone", he said. "We are going to fix this and make everything better. What is it that you want? Money? More fame? A record deal? Name your price."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "I don't have a price, sicko. I simply don't want to date him anymore."

"We can destroy you. Your career could be over in five minutes if I decided so", he threatened next. Once upon a time threats like this had scared the living crap out of me but not anymore. If my career was to end then so be it. At least I'd still have my self-respect.

"Bullshit."

"You really wanna test me?"

"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn", I recited as I got up. I had made a mistake thinking Rusty loved money more than he cared about Alex's image. He wasn't stupid, he knew that the cash would stop flowing if people no longer supported and loved Alex. During the two years I had dated Alex, I had become a part of his image. It's true, there was dozens of sites dedicated to our "love". For crying out loud, there was even a blog dedicated only to pictures of my lips!

But despite all that, I was done feeling like owed it to the world to keep pretending. I wanted to live freely and not be tied down to anyone or told what to do with my life. And Mary would never let my career sink, she'd do everything in her power to help me. And if that still wasn't enough for me to stay relevant... well, I guess it wasn't mean to be, then. But I didn't want to have to lean on someone anymore.

"If you walk away now, you'll be very sorry!" Rusty called out after me.

I walked away.

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Oooh, she doesn't care *Snapping my fingers with some attitude*

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Much love,

Ida 💋