BOND

17.

It's the way that I feel when I, when I hold you close

'Cause everything else, oh, it comes and goes

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Elena cussed under her breath and put the phone away from her ear to clear her head for a second.

Hugh, her manager, continued in his heavy Cockney accent, "I put it up with everybody else, and they are completely on board, I don't know why you're so against the idea."

She groaned into the phone and tried not to act on impulse and throw her phone at the wall. She loved Hugh with all her heart, but sometimes, very frequently, his ideas annoyed her to no extent. "For the last time Hugh, I am not sitting through an interview-"

Hugh interrupted her, "It's only-"

And she interrupted him right back, "I don't care however long it is! I am not doing an interview with Joey!"

Hugh sighed, "You could put an end to the rumors, that's why I suggested it," he said in a sad voice.

If she didn't know well she would've pitied him and caved, but she did know better. It wasn't the first time he had used the 'sad' card to get her to do an interview.

Still in a calmer voice she replied, "We did that already. Didn't work."

Her match had been two days ago, and the Tigers coming to the game had blown up to say the least. The State Showdown had gotten more than the usual exposure this year due to LeBron James who had popped in for a couple of games. Afterwards he'd even said that the players all had incredible potential, and his word held a lot of weight. The hotel, where all the teams were staying, had been swamped since the beginning but now it was nearly impossible to head out through the front door.

The teams had naturally received a heap ton of coverage, mostly from sports channels, but the boys coming to Elena's match had sent even the gossip columns wagging.

To celebrate her win the boys had organized a party as best as they could in their suite. Invitations had been given to everybody who heard the noise and wanted to join in. Some of the teams had left already but from the ones that were still there, almost everybody had come in.

It wasn't anything crazy because none of them was of drinking age, but it had been fun nevertheless. Nobody had hung out outside of the playing field and it was a good time for everyone.

What Elena had wanted to do was take an early night but by the time the room had cleared it was already two in the morning and clearly not the time to have a conversation with Joey.

Over the night there had been numerous photos and though most of them had not made it on anybody's social media, a few had and it was enough. To not be subjected to the relentless barrage of questions about the status of her relationship with Joey, Hugh had suggested Elena to lay off social media altogether. And now he wanted her to do an interview. To address the exact same thing he'd told her to ignore. With Joey.

Hugh worded his sentence carefully, "It makes a stronger statement, if you just refuse together. Right now there's still the excuse of you just repeating what your management is telling you."

Elena rolled her eyes, "I am saying what my management is telling me."

She could almost see Hugh's jaw dropping in shock, "What the...What...What?" he managed to stutter out before she burst out laughing. She was still laughing when Hugh said, "Is something going on with you and him?" Strangely enough he had never asked her this before and in retrospect it should have been his first question.