Beautiful Mess

The sound of a door closing woke me. In my groggy state, I looked up to see Darcy walking into the room.

“Dude, put on some clothes.” She had some nerve to tell me that after her stint with Jet the previous day. I turned to where Marco had been the night before, but the bed was empty.

“Have you seen Marco?” I asked her, looking around the room to see if he was hidden somewhere.

“He just left.”

“How was your night?”

“Probably as playful as yours.”

“You’ll have to tell me about it.”

She nodded and went to have a shower.

I, meanwhile, got up and hobbled over to the kitchen. I was still a little sore from the night before, and if I wasn’t careful, I could have damaged my ankle further. I whipped up a coffee and checked my phone, as I hadn’t bothered to the previous night. I had over a hundred messages on it. The majority were Stephanie: “We need to talk! I expect to see you in the morning.”

Well Fuck.

I hurriedly put on some clothes—a baggy T-shirt and some tricky dacks—and made my way over to Stephanie’s room.

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I stood outside her door. There was no way I was going to enter that door.

Maybe it would be better to come back later. Yes, later would be a better option. I am sure she doesn’t need to see me, right?

I turned to leave when my phone began vibrating.

“BLAKE! Don’t ghost me. I need to see you! And you know why!”

Shit! Shit! Shit! I tried to silence the vibrating. Unfortunately, it seemed I was a little too late as I heard loud footsteps approaching the door. A second later, it swung open, and an exhausted-looking Stephanie was standing there. She had bags under her eyes. I had to wonder if she had gotten any sleep last night. Or perhaps she was simply hungover from her bar party. I hoped it was the latter.

“Did you think I wouldn’t hear your phone?” She asked with a sigh.

“I hoped.”

“Well, too bad. Come in,” she instructed, and I followed with my head down.

She walked around the desk and collapsed on the chair, her thud on it so heavy that I thought the chair was going to give out.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

“What do you think?” she sighed and rubbed her forehead.

“If you aren’t well, I am more than happy to come back another time,” I offered.

“Oh no, you aren’t going anywhere. Take a seat.” She gestured at the empty chair across from her. I slowly sat in it, hoping that my compliance would be considered ‘good behaviour’ and lessen my punishment.

“You’ve created quite the mess now, haven’t you?”

“I wouldn’t know what you are talking about.”

“Oh, I think you do.”

“So you saw?”

“The whole community saw. No, scratch that, I think the whole world saw.”

“Sorry.”

Here, I was watching it from the bar with the other delegates when all of a sudden, all the attention was on Marco and Blake. People questioning ‘What’s going on between the two?’ Having to answer, to lie, that it’s all part of the plan.”

“Sorry,” I repeated.

“I said, make a good impression. This is what you do. I’ve been putting out spitfires all morning.”

“I am deeply sorry for the inconvenience I have caused you and everyone else on the team,” I replied, hopping off the chair and getting down on all fours to demonstrate how sorry I was. That said, I also didn’t see the big deal about Marco and I dating.

She sighed and rubbed her temple as if she were dealing with a bad migraine. “I even warned you only a short time not to cause a commotion.”

“Hey, I did the best I could. The other could have helped me out a bit.”

“Oh, don’t you worry. I will also be lecturing them later. We definitely need to go over media training. Well, at least it could have been worse. In fact, your little moment actually played off really well. The Geddit Page is going nuts for the two of you right now.”

“So let me get this right: my moment with Marco actually played off well.”

“At the moment, it looks that way.”

“Then why are you scolding me?”

“Because Valentina’s on my arse about it.”

“Who?”

This was the first time I had ever heard that name before.

“The head of the Italian delegation. She’s pissed at us. I had to promise you wouldn’t make any more scenes.”

“Why doesn’t she mind her own business?” Everyone seemed so fixated on Marco and my relationship. Why did everyone want to stop us dating? It seemed stupid. What the hell’s with these geopolitical issues?

“Your business is everyone’s business. It’s how the politics of the competition works. Also, I need you to stay focused. You are the frontman. You are the face. If you are getting distracted by the hot single Italian guy…”

“He’s not single,” I cut her off. I could deal with her yelling at me. I couldn’t deny that the interview was a train wreck, but I would not stand for anyone denying Marco and my relationship.

“I know that, but many of the fans do not. We should keep it that way. You all are extremely popular with women. If we can tap into that, then we could get a large televote. Add in with the Juries that always seem to favour us; it puts us in a great position to win.”

“So this is all about getting votes? I thought Solstice wasn’t supposed to be political.”

“Everyone knows it’s political. It’s a song war between countries, and right now, you need to think about your geopolitical loyalties. Every time you flirt with him. Our stocks go down, and his goes up.”

“But you said it helped us out there.”

“This time, it did. Thank God Darcy had you dress up as a girl. It played off like a play. It showed the best of both of you. But there is no guarantee that it’ll happen the same way if you do it again.”

As annoyed as I was, I just responded, “alright.”

“Good, I think that’s all I need to say. I trust you are prepared for your rehearsal and staging practice today.”

I nodded.

“Good, now get to it.”

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End of Chapter 15