Stuck With Him

Chapter twenty [ 20 ]

Chapter twenty: I Am Titanium

"I hate that bitch", I snapped as I was staring at a magazine someone, I could not possibly guess who, had dropped off at our door. Just seeing the headline pissed me off.

ALEX VEGA AND NATALIE HARPER'S LOVE STORY COMING TO AN END?

There has been a lot of whispers about Natalie's relationship with the one and only Alex Vega. Their mutual friend Cindy Farrell gives us the dish: apparently Natalie has been seen with a lot of guys while Alex pines for her. No one truly knows what happened between the lovebirds but Ms Farrell remembers that Natalie has always been very 'free-spirited' when it comes to social situations, especially with men.

"She has always carried like a pack of boys with her. I think she does it to feel better about herself and to tell you the truth I feel bad for her. She has had it rough so she feels the need to exploit boys for her own sadness."

At this point I had to stop reading because I needed to slam the magazine to the wall. After I had cooled down a bit I simply skipped the part where the "journalist" tried to decide whether or not I was a pathetic man eater with major mommy AND daddy issues.

Whether Natalie Harper truly needs boys to survive life is up to discussion. But it can be admitted that she does have a tendency to make more male friends than female friends. She is always photographed around a 'pack of boys' as Ms Farrell put it. As the old saying goes: there's no smoke without a fire...

I'm out. I just can't -- I mean, who even publishes crap like this?

"Hey yo, Harper, we're leaving to go drink at Sing-Alongs and you're coming with, yeah?" Mason said appearing in the kitchen. Sing- Alongs was a karaoke bar in the outskirts of town. I wasn't really a karaoke person nor did I feel like going out with everything that was going on so I started to shake my head and say no.

"Nah, I'm just gonna--"

"Jax, now!" Mason shouted and then Jax charged me. He picked me up and put on his shoulder like a freaking caveman. It all happened so fast that I had no time to repeat my earlier trick and take a hold of something and stick to it until Jax would give up. No, this time those two evil bastards got their way and made me leave the house. Damn, they were good.

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Much to my surprise it wasn't that horrible to go to a karaoke bar. I had never really cared for them since usually the singers are drunk people murdering all my favorite songs with their terrible singing voices or bunch of people who wished they had made it in the business but didn't and are now trying to torture their way in. I found myself actually humming along to a couple of songs as I sipped my beer. I'm not a classy girl, that much we have already established and I kind of like the taste of beer. Not often but when it's hot enough outside a cold pint is just what I need.

Well, the karaoke thing wasn't horrible until my dear bestie Mason (after downing quite a bit of pints) decided to make me sing. He set something up with the dude handling the music without me noticing it and then out of nowhere he walked up to the stage. Suddenly I found myself in a spotlight and Mason grinning at me from across the room.

"Come on, Harper, get your ass in here or I'll start to sing. You know how awful that will be. Do you really want to make all these people suffer through it?"

Henry Poole looked terrified. I can only imagine that he was having a terrible flashback from the time Mason had decided to sing the national anthem at our high school's graduation ceremony.

"Natalie Harper, you are going to go up there and stop that horrible boy from singing!" Mellie Miller ordered looking just as worried as Henry Poole. The rest of the people in there either remembered all those disastrous times Mason had decided to show off his non-existent musical skills or just simply joined in on the ruckus. In the end it got so loud that I couldn't ignore it anymore.

"Well, excHOOOOse you, Mrs Miller", Mason started to say and I knew I had to move before Mason would start World War 3 against Mellie Miller. To be completely honest, that was a war I knew we wouldn't be able to win. Mrs Miller was sort of terrifying when she wanted to be.

I walked up to the stage and with a glare took the mic from Mason. It must be listed as his attribute that at least the song was a good one, actually one of my favorites that I had been listening to nonstop during the last couple of days.

"You shout it out,

But I can't hear a word you say

I'm talking loud, not saying much

I'm criticized but all your bullets ricochet

You shoot me down, but I get up"

Just as the song was starting to pick up guess who walked in.

Alex's gray eyes immediately attached to mine and I struggled to keep singing. I couldn't and wouldn't show him how much his presence still affected me. I squeezed the mic tighter and felt my fingers sweat. Don't let him get to you, Harper. That's what he wants.

I glanced at his band mates Cris and Hartz who had come in with him. Their bodyguard Trevor probably wasn't far off. Although people of Rosedale had pretty much left them to be. It was weird. The town would always meddle with just every average joe and jane's lives but once goddamn rock stars walk into town they were like nah, ain't nobody got time for that. I'm a Rosedalian to the core, born and raised there, but even I can't sometimes figure that place out.

In any other town a band as famous as theirs was would have caused quite a stir but in this town of weirdos everyone just accepted their presence like it was nothing. It was weird, even by Rosedale's standards. And what's worse, the band was so amazed by the lack of screaming girls attacking them that they didn't seem to be in a hurry to go anywhere. They had just finished a tour and were about to release a new album but that wasn't until next month. I had a bad feeling that I'd be stuck with all of them until then.

I stared at Alex and I felt every lyric I sang in my very soul. My chin rose to a defiant position. They could do their worst but I'd be okay. I won't fall 'cause I'm titanium and it's about damn time for them to see it too.

After the song finished Alex, Cris, Hartz and Trevor who had appeared like I knew he would were the first to get up and start clapping, Trev even whistled loudly which was very much not like him. After a confused second passed the rest of the bar joined them. I had never really sang in Rosedale to an audience, most of the people who had known me all my life had no idea that I could sing so they were pretty dumbstruck. But Alex knew all about it and the way he looked at me as I got down from the small stage told me that he was planning something. I also knew I wouldn't like it, whatever it might be.

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Can you guess the song that I put? 🤔

Please COMMENT, VOTE AND FAN

Much love,

Ida 💋