Looks Can Be Deceiving

Chapter Nineteen

"Are we almost there?" Joel groans as he walks towards the front of the bus.

They were on their way to the next city but everyone was hungover. They had made so many stops to puke, go to the bathroom and buy food, that the trip was taking two hours longer than it should have.

"15 minutes chicos." The bus driver calls out to all the boys.

Stella didn't go out with the boys so she felt fine but decided to take the journey with Hugo, Ali and some of the crew who were in a separate bus. They had arrived hours earlier and Stella spent her time without the boys to pick her room.

Stella and Richard agreed that if she arrived first, she should pick her and Richard's room so he or she could sneak in. Ali gave her the keys to all six rooms and Stella entered every single one hoping to find a connecting door. It wasn't until she entered the last room she noticed a connecting door, with the one she was just in.

"Finally." she mutters to herself. She puts aside the keys for the connecting rooms.

By the time the boys arrive, Stella has showered and is ready to explore the city. She's about to open her door to leave when she hears the groans of six hungover boys and a knock at her door. She laughs to herself and opens the door cheerfully.

"Keys please?" Joel begs.

Stella nods and hands out everyone's keys careful to hand over Richard's last.

"Yours is the furthest Chris," Stella comments, it was definitely an intentional choice, "then Zabdiel, Joel, Erick and Richard." She chose to keep Chris further, in case he caught them. Then Erick was the closest because he already knew everything.

Erick rolled his eyes at the choice of rooms and walked straight into his. The rest of the boys followed and Richard lingerd.

"Where are you going?" he asks, looking her up and down.

"I just thought I could explore. Do you wanna come? Make it a fake date that's a real date."

"I'm feeling real beat. Maybe after you're done you can come see me?"

Stella smiles excited. "I haven't even shown you yet!" she grins and runs into her room. "Go into your room." she orders and shuts the door.

Once she hears Richard enter his room she opens the connecting door and leans on the door frame.

"Ayy!" he smiles, "Connecting again?"

"Yep."

He takes her hand and pulls her towards him, she collides with his chest and he winks.

"So I guess we can just share this big room, then hey?"

She nods and stands on her tippy toes to kiss him.

"I'm going to go. I'll come in later." she pecked his cheek and rushed out the door.

Stella spends the afternoon walking around the city and taking pictures with fans. She was sitting by herself drinking coffee, when she came across an article '5 Reasons We Think Richard Camacho and Stella Velez are dating'. She opened the article scrolling through it and then sent it straight to Hugo.

'I guess it's working'

'Great job!'

By the time Stella arrives back at the hotel, it's close to dinner time and she knows the boys will be starving. She picks up some food for everyone and texts them to meet in her room.

"Hey." she smiles as she sees them crowding outside her room.

"You bought food?" Zabdiel asks looking at the bags she's carrying.

Chris meets her halfway down the hall and takes the bags from her hands.

"You bought heaps!" Chris smiles looking inside the bags.

"Yes Mami!" shouts Erick.

"Can someone open the door?" Stella requests, "The key is in my back pocket." she turns around waiting for one of the boys to take the key.

Richard stares at her ass, his face turns red but he isn't embarrassed he's angry. Erick looks at Richard scared to grab the key but Zabdiel is so hungry and oblivious to the situation he pushes his fingers in her jean pocket and pulls the key out, unlocks the door and lets everyone into the room. Richard huffs his way into the room and settles at the round kitchen table.

"We're going to eat or what?" he grumbles.

Stella notices his attitude but doesn't understand why he is angry. She saw all the boys like brothers - other than Richard - so she didn't think anything of it when she asked if they could grab the key. She assumes Richard is trying to keep up appearances so she decides to push his buttons. The food is placed on the table and Stella pulls out plastic cutlery before biting back.

"If you're going to be a dick then no, you don't get to eat." she smiles to herself, oblivious that this is a real fight.

"Fine." he screeches the chair from under him as he pushes it backward and storms into his room. Except he doesn't use the main entrance, he uses the connecting door and slams it.

"Another connecting room?" Chris questions.

"What's his problem?" Joel looks confused.

Zabdiel is so focused on eating, Stella assumes he didn't even hear the interaction. Erick on the other hand looks panicked starring between Chris and Stella.

"Who cares?" Stella responds to Joel rolling her eyes. Inside she wants to follow Richard and ask if they were still keeping up appearances or if this was real.

"Why do you have a connecting room?" Chris echoes.

"I don't know." she shrugs. "I didn't even notice. He must have realised when he spent the day in his room."

"Yeah I guess." Chris begins to fill his plate.

Stella reaches for her phone.

'This is all fake right? Just pretending to fight?'

Richard sees the text and throws his phone on the couch in his room, before ordering room service.