Truth

“Blake, I saw you wander out after Marco Ferraro’s performance. It was practically a love confession. What’s your response? What’s your relationship with him?” The blogger asked, shoving a camera in my face.

“Can you move?” I asked, averting my gaze.

“Please answer the question. There are lots of rumours about the two of you.”

“Can we take that as a rejection of Marco?”

I was sick of everyone trying to toy with who I could love. I just wanted to love Marco. Was that so hard for people to understand? I was tired. I was tired of being played with. I wanted to push everything out of my head and just focus on winning Solstice. To hell with everyone else. I love who I love.

Frustrated and still trying to sort out what I was feeling, I didn’t have time for some shitty blogger who just wanted to get some drama.

I’m not in the fucking mood. I thought.

“What’s my relationship with Marco? We are dating. He’s my boyfriend. Can I go now?” I responded firmly.

I had to be careful not to call him a shitty blogger. Stephanie may bail me out a lot, and my band would as well. But if I crossed that line, I would be done.

I knew the cameras were on me, and I knew the news would spread everywhere. After Marco’s performance, it was already going to be the talk, but my confession basically sealed the coffin.

Stephanie and the other members of our delegation would no doubt be angry with me. That being said, they gave their blessing, and the truth had to come out eventually. And I felt free as I said it.

I stormed back to the hotel. I arrived outside the building and bumped into Pete.

“Hey, Blake, how’s things?”

“Eh!” I replied apathetically.

“You alright?”

“What did you think?”

“Think of what?”

“Marco’s performance.”

Pete turned slightly pale.

“I’m so sorry; I know you two are dating and all, but I have to admit I didn’t see it; I was out hitting the streets.”

“Pete, this may not mean much to you, but thank you.”

He gave me a confused thumbs up but didn’t say anything. I was glad at least one person in the world had never once betrayed me. We entered the hotel together, and the moment we arrived on our floor, our entire crew had gathered.

“We saw what happened.” Darcy signed.

“You okay shorty?” Jet added.

“Is this good or bad?” Noah asked.

“Stephanie looked angry,” Luca commented.

“Guys, hold on. I’ll go see Stephanie in a minute. I’ll talk to Marco later. At the moment, I don’t know how I feel. I appreciate the love, I really do. But I need some time to think about it myself. Please give me some space.”

“No worries, we will support you no matter what.”

“Thank you bestie.”

The group began to walk back to their rooms, but Jet remained.

“Come give Blake some space,” Darcy lectured Jet.

“I need to tell him something alone. It’ll only take a second.” Jet told her back

“Alright, if Jet is an arse, let me know, and I will punish him,” she licked her lips after signing this.

I nodded, and she left, leaving Jet and me alone.

“Blake, I must admit, we haven’t always gotten along, but we are in this together. Let’s go out there and kick everyone else’s arse and win.”

I laughed.

“Cheers, Jet. Let’s win.”

He promptly left.

I sighed.

I had to visit Stephanie now, and it was exhausting. Perhaps it would have been easier if I had waited until the morning.

Well fuck it, let’s sort it now so there is one less thing to worry about.

I paid a visit to Stephanie.

“Thank fuck you are here.” She commented while also chatting on the phone.

“I got to go; Blake’s here,” she said as she hung up on whoever was on the other end.

“Umm...”

“Look, you’re probably exhausted; I certainly am. Let’s cut straight to the point.”

I nodded.

“I underestimated Valentina. I am sorry.” She apologised.

“That’s alright, I wasn’t expecting this either.”

“We were thinking of lodging a complaint about it.”

“Are you going to?”

“Well, there was you in the Green room and the interview afterwards,” she sighed.

“That’s already up?”

“That’s already trending.”

“Sorry.”

“Again, not your fault,” she sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “Anyway, let’s talk about you. How are you?”

“Do you actually care, or is this just Solstice related?” I asked.

“Both.”

“I dunno,” I answered honestly.

“Well, figure it out ASAP.”

“I think I need to talk to Marco.”

“Good, you have a plan.”

She pressed some things on her keyboard. A smile flashed across her face.

“Blake, come here.”

She waved me to come. I reluctantly walked around her desk to look at her laptop. It was just a bunch of numbers and percentiles. I had no idea what any of it meant.

“What is this?”

“This is the odds,” she said proudly.

“I can’t read it.”

“That’s fine. This is saying that you and Marco are both trending in a good direction. It has not harmed our chances; in fact, we are getting a massive boost.”

“So you just care about the competition.” I sighed. I wished she would see me as a human who may have just been betrayed on the grandest scale ever and not some commodity.

“I’m paid to do that. It means I can help you fend off the government and other bureaucrats. I’m on your side.”

“So then, what am I meant to do?”

“Looking at this...” she pointed at the screen. “You just need to sort whatever with Marco and give a great performance.”

“Alright, I’ll talk to him.”

I already knew I would have to talk with him; in fact, I had been planning what to say all this time. I wanted to know if he felt the same way I did about him. Was it real, or was it all a marketing ploy to him? Regardless, whether Marco was sweet or cruel, I would love him either way.

─── ༻ ☼ ༺ ───

End of Chapter 37