The Bad Boy • Jonah Marais

Season 3: Part 10

"And that concludes it all." My father says to all the satisfied power hungry stuffed collars sitting all around us. "Now if the new happy couple would please exchange information and start following each other on everything, we can all call this meeting done."

I rolled my eyes and pulled my phone out as Josh did the same. I gave him my phone and he gave me his, I put my Instagram, tiktok, and Twitter in and follow myself. No phone number, no snapchat, if he adds me in my phone I'm deleting immediately, I'm not taking this bullshit. As soon as I finished following myself I give him his phone back and he does the same.

"It is done." My mother says then turns to Josh and I, "Now why don't you two go out and grab a bite to eat?" It was more of an order than a suggestion. We both get up awkwardly and leave while I hugged the paperwork to my chest, praying Angela could help me out of this.

"So where are we off to?" Josh asks me.

I rolled my eyes, "Nowhere." I said to him, "I'm going to see my boyfriend at the recording studio and you're going to live your own life."

"That's not in the contract-" He argues with me.

"What makes you think I care?" I asked him.

He puts his hands in his pockets, "Considering you'd be living on the streets without it, you should probably listen to your parents."

I scoffed, "Whatever, there's a Wendy's down the  street, you're taking your own car and you can only park next to me in the parking lot."

**LATER**

"So what's the story of you and Jonah?" Josh asks me eating a fry. Look I'll admit, he's a nice guy, I'd even be his friend but not under these circumstances.

I shook my head, "It's really complicated."

He shrugs, "I got time."

"I don't." I said to him debating on starting my car and driving away.

"Guess it's not my business." He says. And it isn't his business. "Look I'm sorry that you hate me but I'm just trying to make it in this world."

"Yeah seems like the excuse." I say to him.

"Its the one you're using too." He argues back.

I shrugged, "Hopefully not for much longer." I say and start my car. "Look you seem cool but I'm not pretending to cheat on my boyfriend for this shit, I need to go see him now."

**AT THE STUDIO**

I walk in to see Zach walking around flipping his phone. One day all of these boys will break their phones. "Zach!" I called out to him.

He turned around and sees the food in my hands, "AVA!" He exclaims running up to me, "Took you long enough, Jonah started whining." Zach jokes and takes a bag to help me and leads me down the hallway.

"I'm sure he was fine without me." I said to him, "How is the process going?"

Zach turns the corner, "It's not too bad, a little stuck in the writing process though, thank goodness you're here, Jonah says you're a great songwriter."

I giggled, "I'm definitely willing to help but I'm not too great."

"Well I trust Jonah, if he says you're great, you're definitely great." Zach says and then he opens the studio door for me. "Hey guys! I found our uber eats driver!" Zach says and the boys all come rushing out to me.

I rolled my eyes, I always get them food for the studio so they call me their personal uber eats driver. "I got you all Wendy's today." I say and put the bags down.

The boys all go to look through the bags, diving for their food. I turned to see Jonah and I go in to hug him. "Hi baby." I bury my face in his chest.

He wraps his arms around me, "How was it?"

I bit my lip, "Well you're not gonna like what happened but it looks like there might be hope for us." I say to him.

Jon knocks against the glass on the other side and pointed at his watch, I'm gonna guess they're behind schedule and need to hurry up. "I'll tell you later, you eat and keep working, I need to make a call." I say to Jonah then I walk out of the room and dial Angela's number.

"Angela Kingston." She answers her phone.

I swallowed the lump in my throat, "Hi Angela, this is Ava."

"One moment please." She says and then her end goes silent, she muted herself. After two minutes, she unmutes, "Ava, I've been keeping track of everything your parents have been making you do since you moved here, there are recordings of your meetings and a loophole in your contract that everyone seemed to miss."

"Wait, you can just give those to me?" I asked her.

"I'm not under the influence of a nondisclosure agreement unlike you and Josh, so yes." She answered me.

All of this settling in was making me even more confused. "Angela, this is all very kind of you to bring up to me, I can't think of a way I can repay you." I said to her.

"We can discuss that later, is there a way we can meet up some time preferably tonight?" She asked me.

"The boys get out of the studio around 6 so-"

Angela cuts me off, "I'll meet you at your apartment building at 7:15, bring whoever you'd like to but I'd like to keep this between a few people and that's all." She says to me. It seems like she really is efficient, no wonder my parents kept her around for three years.

"Okay." I say to her. The reality of being free from my parents is becoming more and more real and I couldn't believe it.