Chapter 21 #2
Ten minutes passed quickly, and Oliver still hadn’t returned. All the excitement I felt for the evening was slowly trickling away, and it was being replaced with a stomach dropping feeling.
Alec looked down at his phone. “Guys, we need to leave.”
“I think I’m going to stay here,” I told the boys. If something bad had happened to Oliver, I didn’t want to show up at the movie premiere without him.
“You sure?” Alec asked me.
I nodded and said, “So I guess I’ll see you guys there?”
“You bet,” Xander said and gave me a hug.
“Good luck,” JJ added, flashing me a wicked grin. “Don’t trip on the carpet.”
“Thanks,” I said sarcastically, my heart suddenly racing.
When the door slammed shut, leaving me alone, I perched on the edge of the couch and waited for Oliver to arrive.
I waited. And then I waited some more. I looked down at my cell phone and saw that it was ten o’clock, and I knew that he wasn’t coming.
I sat there anyway, hoping that I was wrong.
After that, I didn’t keep track of the time, and the night passed in a blur.
It must have been a little after midnight when the front door opened and a concerned voice called my name.
“Stella, are you here?” I hardly noticed as Xander joined me on the couch. “Hey, are you okay?” I didn’t respond. I could barely hear him over the sound of the blood rushing in my ears.
“Stella?” JJ asked, crouching next to me. He waved a hand in front of my face. “Stella, snap out of it.”
I blinked and looked up at them. Xander looked horrified, like he had been told someone died, and JJ was red in the face. Alec was standing behind them and he looked…deadly. The gleam in his eyes was almost frightening.
“He didn’t come,” I said finally and looked up at my friends.
“We know,” Xander said. “We saw him there.” He bit his lip, and I knew he was holding something back.
“What is it?” I asked. My heart was hammering against my chest in anticipation, but I could feel the dread like poison in my veins. In that moment, I knew what he was going to say. Xander hesitated, as if he was afraid he was going to break my heart with a few simple words.
Alec said it for him. “Oliver went with someone else.”
***
She was a model. The boys hadn’t wanted to tell me, but I made them.
I had to see the girl Oliver went to the premiere with, the one he ditched me for.
Apparently the two arrived shortly after the rest of the band, and when Oliver walked her down the red carpet, the paparazzi and reporters went crazy with speculation.
It didn’t take me long to google her, and I discovered that Amelia Rose had long, endless legs and stunning red hair.
“She’s not Oliver’s type at all,” JJ said, snapping me back to reality. He was sitting on the opposite couch, and his mouth briefly settled into a white line. “When she stepped out of the limo with him, I was so shocked I almost…” He trailed off and shook his head. “I don’t understand.”
“Yeah,” Xander added. “We’ve never met her before. She just came out of nowhere.”
“Seriously?” Alec hissed, glaring at both of his bandmates. “You guys aren’t helping.”
“Right, sorry,” JJ muttered, looking at me apologetically. Then a fierce look crossed his face and he leaned toward me. “When he gets back, I’m going to beat him senseless.”
“Stella, you have to believe us,” Xander said then, cutting off JJ before he could make any more threats. “As soon as we realized you weren’t with Oliver we wanted to leave, but Courtney wouldn’t let us.”
“It’s fine,” I said, brushing the comment off. I wasn’t upset with the boys—I was merely trying to sound removed, like Oliver’s actions hadn’t torn my insides apart and left me feeling gutted. They’d done nothing wrong. There was only one heartbreaker in this band.
Xander and Alec exchanged concerned looks, but I took no notice.
As I stared at the picture of Amelia Rose glowing back at me on the computer screen, I realized that it didn’t matter who Oliver went with.
He could have gone with a gorilla and I would still have felt betrayed.
Sure, it hurt that he had taken a beautiful girl instead of me, but what really upset me was how he’d stood me up with no warning.
It just didn’t make sense. The last time I saw Oliver, he was so excited to go with me. What had changed?
Obviously something had happened between when I saw him this morning and the premiere tonight.
I just couldn’t figure out what. Before I could think of an explanation, the front door slammed shut and we all froze.
I knew it had to be Oliver finally returning, and the panic that rose in my chest made it hard to breathe.
I turned to Alec. “Please hide me,” I said, letting out a tiny sob. “I don’t want to see him right now.”
The moment I realized that Oliver wasn’t coming to pick me up for the premiere, I should have gone back to my own hotel room.
But I’d been so shocked and completely confused about why he didn’t show that I couldn’t think straight.
I kept telling myself that there was a perfectly logical reason for why Oliver did this. There had to be.
Alec held out his hand without a word, and as he helped me up, I could see the understanding in his eyes. He guided me down the hall and into his room, and only when the door was firmly closed behind us did he speak.
“Stella,” he said, his voice soft. “Are you okay?” I could tell from the way he asked his question that he knew I wasn’t. But he asked anyway because Alec Williams wasn’t as rigid and frosty as most people thought.
And that was all it took. The tears started, and I fell into his arms and wept.
He stroked my hair, murmuring comforting words in my ear.
At one point I heard angry shouts from somewhere else in the hotel suite, but I couldn’t stop crying long enough to hear what was going on.
I bawled and bawled, letting all of the heartbreak pour out of me like blood from a fresh wound.
I must have cried myself to sleep. When I opened my eyes, I could feel my hair sticking to my face where my tears had dried.
Sitting up, I noticed that someone had tucked me into bed and pulled the covers up around my shoulders.
That certain someone was sprawled out in an armchair, head tilted back and mouth wide open.
“Alec?” I whispered to see if he was awake.
He jumped with a snort. “Oh. Morning, Stella.” He pulled himself into a sitting position. “Sleep well?” he asked after rubbing away his weariness.
“Oh my gosh, Alec!” I gasped, ignoring his question. “Did I take your bed last night?”
He dismissed me with a wave. “Don’t worry about it. I’m fine.”
The purple circles under his eyes said otherwise, and I knew he hadn’t slept well at all. “But you guys have a concert tonight,” I said, feeling horrible. “You need to be rested up.”
As the words left my mouth, I realized their true meaning. The boys had a concert tonight, which meant I had to work. I would have to face Oliver.
Alec must have seen the horror on my face. “I’m sure if you talk to Paul, he’d understand if you didn’t want to go.”
“No,” I said suddenly, surprising both of us.
I felt like an empty shell, like all my insides really had been ripped out, especially my heart, but I wasn’t going to let Oliver see that.
More importantly, I wasn’t going to let our relationship, or as I should call it now our past relationship, interfere with my job.
Because of Cara, I had years of experience with hiding my pain.
I knew how to fake strength when all I really felt was helpless, like a blade of grass in the wind.
This would be no different. Besides, I’d taken the job because it was an amazing opportunity, not because of Oliver.
I wanted to be good at what I did, and I couldn’t let Oliver ruin that.
“No?” Alec repeated, his eyebrows arched in confusion.
“I’m going to the concert,” I said with as much resolve as I could muster.
“What? Why?” He sounded aghast, like I’d just told him I was going to jump off the top of a really tall building.
“Because,” I responded slowly, making sure my voice didn’t crack, “I’m not going to be pathetic and run away.”
“Stella, that’s not what I meant—”
“I know that,” I said, standing up. “But I was a slobbery, snotting wreck last night, and I’m not going to let that happen again.
” When I finished my speech, Alec looked upset, and I realized that I probably sounded angry with him.
Crossing the room, I leaned down and gave him a hug.
“Thank you so much for taking care of me last night. I couldn’t have asked for a better friend. ”
“Of course,” he said when I pulled away.
I could tell that he was still baffled by my sudden mood swing, but I wasn’t going to let my problems affect him any longer.
According to the clock on the nightstand, it was still early, and there was plenty of time for Alec to get some sleep before the day began.
“Why don’t you sleep a little?” I suggested and pointed at the now-empty bed. “You can still get in a few good hours.”
Alec was watching me, his face completely blank. After a few seconds, he finally nodded his head. “Yeah, good idea.”
“All right then,” I said as Alec unwound his headphones from around his iPod. “I’ll see you later tonight.”
***
The rest of the day sucked majorly. To be more accurate, being around Oliver was nothing short of torture.
But I had the boys for support—Alec, Xander, and JJ were giving him the cold shoulder.
In turn, Oliver avoided us as best he could, which was why I panicked and froze when I heard him call my name after the boys’ concert later that night.
“Stella.”