The Snowbird Gazette was lying on the table. Jamie had brought it back with her from grocery store along with breakfast and other basics. Chelsea had been staring opened mouth at the headline for a solid minute while Blue and Jamie made coffee around her.
“Superstar Chelsea Riley Returns Home For Mother’s Wedding.” It was the sole headline above the fold on the front page of the paper. The photo underneath was a clearly photoshopped picture of Chelsea, Terrance, and Colleen. It was an awful picture, but the article was worse.
“I just love Terrance; he’s like the father I never had!” Chelsea read aloud. She looked up aghast at Blue and Jamie. “When on earth would I have ever said this? Who is this reporter? How can they just make stuff up about me? This is libel! I am calling the paper and demanding a retraction.”
“So the headline would read, ‘Superstar Does Not Approve of Mother’s Marriage.’ I don’t know, Chelsea.That might make things worse,” Jamie said. “Obviously Terrance or Colleen had it put in the paper. They want a response. We should just focus on making sure they don’t get married. Then the quotes don’t matter anyway.”
“And we still don’t know how we’re going to do that,” Chelsea said, slamming down the paper on the table.
“No, and I’m going to head out the grocery store and get some supplies for this house,” Jamie said giving Chelsea a large and obvious wink. “You know, just in case you two wanted some time alone.”
“We get it, Jamie,” Chelsea cut in.
“Bye, then,” Jamie said and then Blue and Chelsea were alone.
But she didn’t feel awkward; it was Blue, she had known him since the seventh grade. But she didn’t really know this Blue – the Blue who had joined the Army to get away from his dad, the Blue who had seen war.
“How long were you overseas for?”
“About three years,” Blue said. “I did my military training for about eight months and then I was sent over.”
“Was it bad?”
“Sometimes, but sometimes it was all right. Mostly we were bored. It was like there was twenty-three hours of boredom and then a solid hour of chaos; there was no in-between. It gets tiring after a while. But I’m glad I did it. I got to see the world and serve my country and get away from my dad. Plus, I made a lot of friends over there.”
“It just seems so crazy to me that while I’ve been sipping iced coffee and worrying about the hook on my song, you were out somewhere fighting in a war.”
Blue shrugged. “What was the hook in your song? Was it in ‘Love Be True’?” Blue asked.
“Shut up,” Chelsea said. “You do not know Love Be True.” It was Chelsea’s only almost hit. She had paid for the recording time herself and played the accompanying guitar. She had sent it out and done a few shows and then it had been played during a particularly dramatic scene on The Vampire Diaries. It was Love Be True that got her a manager and recording contract and she had written it about Blue.
“We used to listen to it all the time on the base.”
“You are such a liar,” Chelsea said with a giggle. She couldn’t imagine a bunch of soldiers listening to her sad song.
“Oh, yeah, I showed them our pictures from high school to prove we used to be friends. I tried to get into contact with you, but your number had changed and I didn’t want to ask my father. I’ve been listening to you for months, Chelsea.”
“I gave my new number to your dad,” Chelsea said with a sad shake of her head. “Obviously it didn’t get to you.”
“And you had like five million fans on Facebook. I didn’t think I would really stand out from the crowd.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re here now,” Chelsea said. “If only we didn’t have to deal with this.” He threw the paper down onto the table in disgust. “Are you worried about what your dad said, about men coming to get you because you won’t fight?”
Blue shrugged. “There’s not much I can do about it. But I don’t think they’ll come for me. You saw Jimmy; they have fighters. I just hope they’re willing to leave me alone.”
Chelsea’s phone buzzed on the table and the sudden noise made her jump. She reached for the phone and saw a message. “Hey it’s me Ryan hows your morning?” and then a little coffee cup emoji. Chelsea stared at the phone for what felt like a full minute. She had completely forgotten about Ryan Baron the heartthrob she was supposed to be fake dating or real dating, she still wasn’t quite sure.
She ignored the text and put her phone on silent and then face down on the table. “It was just work. I can ignore it,” she said with a wave of her hand.
“I don’t want to keep the superstar away from her fans,” Blue said with a roll of his eyes.
“I didn’t call myself a superstar, they did,” Chelsea argued, pushing the paper off the table as Blue let out a short laugh.
“You really want to be a superstar?” Blue asked. “Doesn’t that mean you can’t ever have a normal life? People will be all in your business and making things up about you. Do you really want that?”
“I don’t know,” Chelsea said. “I want to be a singer; I love to perform. There’s just a lot of baggage that has to come with that; there’s a lot you have to do that you might not want to.”
“Who says you have to do it?”
“If you don’t do it then you don’t ever succeed. You’re always a struggling and starving musician. Call me a sellout. I don’t care. I just want to sing and live off of it and this is the best way to do that.”
“I guess I worry about your sanity. I don’t want you shaving your head and attacking an SUV with an umbrella,” Blue said with a smirk.
“I’ll do my best. Besides, if things ever get too crazy I can come back to Snowbird and hide out. Unless my mom sells this house. That would suck so hard,” she said looking around.
“We’ll figure out a way to get her out of Terrance’s house,” Blue said. “I promise.”
“Thanks,” Chelsea said. It felt nice to have someone to rely on. Blue always had her back. All through high school if anyone ever messed with Chelsea, if some boy got too handsy, Blue was there to sort it out. She had almost forgotten how much she depended on him and she was depending on him again.
“Yeah, I’m not planning on starting school until the spring semester anyway. So I have some time and it is nice being home.”
“So what are we going to do?” Chelsea asked. “How do we stop our parents from marrying? I’m worried about my mom. She’s always so eager to please whatever guy she’s with and I don’t want Terrance taking advantage of her. Could we go to the police about the fighting pits?”
Blue shook his head. “They move around; they’re always in a different spot, so it’s hard to raid them. The other problem is that criminals and gangsters run it. If they found out we ratted them out to the cops they would come for us and we would be screwed. These aren’t men you want to mess with. I’m hoping my father was just bluffing about them wanting me back in the ring. I think he’s the one who wants me back there and he’s just using the threat of them as a power play against me. The safest thing to do is stay off their radar entirely. Which isn’t helpful, I know.”
“This whole thing is just so messed up,” Chelsea said. “But I guess it’s always been like this for you, hasn’t it?”
“Kind of,” he said. “But I always tried to make sure no one else got involved. I kept it between me and my dad. But it’s different now with Colleen involved and you and your sister.”
Chelsea nodded. Terrance may have been a bad man, but he wasn’t a stupid one. He had been ready for this. He told Colleen Blue was a liar and when given the option of choosing between her children and her new boyfriend, she had gone with the boyfriend as Chelsea knew she would. It was her mother’s way; she would go all in with some guy and ignore the warnings as long as she could until eventually the whole thing came tumbling down around her and she would cry for days.
It was one of the reason’s Chelsea liked to keep things simple. She had never been the kind of girl who longed for a boyfriend. She liked easy dates and one night stands where there was no need for messy emotions. Everyone had fun and then they went home, no drama or tears at all. In fact, the only person she had ever really like and wanted to be with was Blue and she finally had him. Sort of.
Her label was not going to be happy about this, not at all. She didn’t want to ask Blue to keep their relationship a secret, but she might have to. Unless he was ready for the barrage of paparazzi and total lack of privacy, keeping everything a secret seemed the only way. But as she looked across the table at Blue and his swollen and bruised eye she knew he would never agree to that. He wasn’t the kind of guy interested in lying or sneaking around; he was upfront and honest and Chelsea wondered what would happen to him if he were thrust into the limelight with her.