Behind the Scenes

Chapter Nineteen

Fat

Ungrateful

Whore

Gold digger

Ugly

Selfish

Bitch

Those were the words he saw the most as he scrolled through the hashtag, which he instantly reported as offensive but one tweet really caught his eye.

"#StopWritingStar we should break @/amandaneel and @/tomholland2013 up so Tom doesn't have to see her ugly bitchass every morning and can see @/zendaya's face instead like he's supposed to... or mine."

He replied, against his better judgement.

"@/tomstan3000 I'm actually happy with @/amandaneel , she makes me smile. She's gorgeous and she's funny and I love waking up next to her, it's one of the best feelings. Me and Z are just friends, and me and you? Never."

His tweet quickly blew up, and he ignored the text from his agent asking him to delete it. Amanda came back through fully dressed and with towel dried hair, smiling sadly at him.

"Why do they hate me so much?" She asked, sighing. Tom stood up and pulled her into a kiss, his hands on her ass to pull her closer.

"They're just jealous of how pretty you are." He mumbled against her lips. "And how much attention I give you." He added as he squeezed her ass before pulling away from her lips, his hands moving to rest on her hips. "Please, please, don't let it get into your head. None of what they're saying about you is true,  babygirl. Please don't listen to them." He whispered, staring into her eyes.

"I-I'll try." Amanda mumbled, looking away under his intense stare.

"Not a single word is true. I promise." He said softly, gripping her chin and turning her to face him again. She nodded, pushing onto her tiptoes to kiss him without him leaning down. He grinned and kissed her back, groaning when his alarm goes off.

"Shower, Tommy." She mumbled, heading into the kitchen. He watched her walk out of his room and sighed, but did as he was told, taking a handful of clothes through to the bathroom and turning the shower on, taking his boxers off and getting under the hot water.

The doorbell rang and Amanda jumped in shock, nearly spilling kettle water. She moved to open it, smiling at Zendaya when she came in.

"Are you okay?" She asked, seeing the swelling around Amanda's lips who immediately blushed and Zendaya nodded in realisation. "Is Tom in the shower?" Amanda nodded quickly.

"Uh, do you want a drink? Coffee? Tea? Juice?" She offered, opening the fridge and checking it quickly.

"Sure. Some OJ would be great." Zendaya said as she flopped onto the couch, face up, her fingers drumming against her own hips. Amanda set a glass of juice down on the table for her and went to knock on the bathroom door, having heard the shower stop.

"Tommy? Z's here." She said, and he said something about being out in a minute that she couldn't quite hear through the door and she went back through to the living room.

"Been on Twitter lately?" Zendaya asked her, hoping the answer was a no. Amanda looked down, trying to block out the tweets she had seen from reentering her head. "Trust me honey, the only thing you should take away from this is that you guys have an awesome ship name." She assured her, sitting up to sip her juice and to make room for Amanda to sit down. Tom came through fully dressed, wearing a long sleeve even though it was the height of summer in LA. Zendaya looked at him with a raised eyebrow, slightly concerned and he groaned, going and changing into a short sleeved top instead. "Shit, Tom, what happened to you?" She asked when he came back through and she saw the bruising on his arms.

"Got in a fight with one of her ex's." He said with a shrug, wincing at the movement.

"Ice." Amanda instructed, staring at him with puppy eyes until he gave in and grabbed an ice pack out of her freezer, holding it against his right shoulder. "You must have pulled it." She mumbled, sighing.

"Who'd you fight?" Zendaya asked, a little excited but also worried in case he'd gotten into a fight with the wrong person.

"This Jackson guy. 5'11ish, muscles for days, blue eyes, dark brown quiffed up hair, jawline that could cut stone." He explained and Zendaya frowned.

"I feel like I've seen him around." She said, trying to think back but unable to place a time on when she saw him. "Oh! Writing studio. A couple days ago." She said and Amanda looked down at her feet nervously. "Is something going on?" Zendaya asked, looking between the two of them and Tom sighed.

"Amanda got a restraining order on him a few days ago. He approached her in a park and said some shit and she was shook up, completely. Then he approached me a couple days ago and said some shit about her and tried to punch me."

"Looks like he succeeded if you ask me." Zendaya mumbled and Amanda winced slightly.  Zendaya looked at her apologetically and went quiet as the post gets pushed through the letter box. Tom goes to get it and stares at the letter.

"Hey, Amanda? How many people know you're staying here?" He asked, confused.

"Just you guys, Harrison, Leea and Jacob. Why?" He put a letter in her lap, that had just her name and no address on it.

"That's all there was. Must not have been a postman." She frowned and opened the envelope, freezing up at the scratchy handwriting.

Did you miss me?

"Oh, dear God. Is nobody actually dead apart from my mama?" She asked rhetorically, her face draining and fear clear in her eyes even as she tried to play it off.

"Who's this from?"

"The ex who killed himself." She mumbled. "Or, didn't kill himself, I guess." The four words played over and over in her head and she closed her eyes, sighing and rubbing her temples.
"So, my dad isn't dead. Jackson is here instead of in jail. And now Killian isn't dead either."

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I think I've seen Jackson with a guy who looks old enough to be your dad. Tall, built like a tank, bit of a beard, dark hair?"

Amanda put her head back into her hands, starting to panic, her breathing speeding up and she starts to rock back and forth, Tom instantly moving closer and wrapping his arms tightly around her, mumbling sweet nothings into her ear and stroking her hair.