Shoot For The Stars (Wesley Stromberg)

Chapter Thirty-Five: Bigger things

Wes~

A short knock on the bedroom door startled me and made me open my eyes for the first time since I got back.

“Wes?” Keaton called from the otherside of the door.

I grunted, using as little energy as possible, in reply.

Keats opened the door enough for him to squeeze through. I wasn’t at the contestant mansion today. After Scout left me with no warning just after I told her I loved her, I didn’t feel like being around everyone. Especially not after I announced to the press that she was ‘my girl’.

It wasn’t the embarrassment that worried me. It was the fact that for once I’d fallen head over heels in love with who I thought was the right girl and then it got taken away. She hadn’t even text or anything to explain.

My mind raced, thinking about the worst things I could muster up. Like what if she lied and then sold me out to the press. Or if she got scared off by me. Either way I was acting the way I swore I’d never let a girl make me.

Keats sat down on the end of the bed back at Mom’s house in Huntington. I rolled over so he couldn’t see my face.

I felt bad for being annoying for Drew and him about everything but I knew they understood. It wasn’t like I wasn’t focused though; I had gone to every practice all week and put my heart into it 100%. Because I knew that music could never break it.

Ok, I sound like a girl.

“Wes, we have to go and get ready for the show tonight. Come on, bro. It’s been a week now and she’s clearly not worth it.” His voice is torn up and we both know he’s lying. He knows all about her. He knows what she’s like. He knows what she’s doing to me and even he can’t hate her for doing this.

But then again I hate the fact that I didn’t hate her. I hate the fact I can’t. Even if I tried.

“I’ll get up in a minute.”

He sighed and left me alone again. I could hear him and mom talking in her room about me. All about how I was making a big deal. Keaton just didn’t get it. He would in the future when he fell hard for someone. But for now I was just un-relatable to him. Mom defended me; she hadn’t seen me like this before.

After a few minutes trying to talk myself into actually getting up; I hoisted myself out of my bed and threw on some clothes.

The light burned into my eyes as I opened the door and stepped into the light. Keaton was already downstairs waiting with Drew. Both of their faces were trying so hard to be understanding but I could tell they didn’t know what to do. And in honestly, neither did I.

“Hey, bud. Let’s get going, yeah?” Drew smiled and patted my back encouragingly.

I nodded slowly and let him lead me to the car.

**

“You boys did amazingly last night. But this is the semi-finals and everyone deserves the places in the final. We all need to be prepared for whatever the public might throw at us. No matter what, I will back you fully.” Simon explained as we were all about to head on stage to find out the results.

Drew was unusually quiet. Normally he would be quoting someone about something inspirational like he always did. But tonight was different. He sat alone in the corner, not showing any emotion.

Maybe he’s think the same thing as me.

What if we go tonight?

Will we go anywhere?

Sometimes you have to accept that anything can happen and now was that time. But I knew that as a group, we had to take it all graciously.

“We are on in 5!” Mik yelled loudly and walked off to sort something else. I shot her a smile and wave as she walked away.

Keats and Drew both huddled up to me and put their arms around me and each other.

“To whatever happens tonight; we will always be ourselves.” Drew vowed and looked at us in turn. Keaton and I nodded in agreement and pulled Drew into a bear hug.

Soon enough, it was time to go on.

The music was blaring loudly and the crowd went wild as we came onto the stage.

Mario explained about the voting and began to open the second envelope.

“TATE STEVENS YOU ARE THROUGH!” Khloe yelled happily and gave him a hug.

Everyone, including us all went over and gave him our best wishes. He looked so happy.

Only one thing stuck in my mind, though. It was between us and teen prodigy Carly Rose Sonenclar. There was no way she wasn’t making the final. Which meant we were going.

“The final act that is thought to the x-factor finals 2012 is…” Mario strung out the last word, making us all wait anxiously.

………………………..

…………………

………….

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…

..

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“Carly Rose!” he exclaimed. “Well done on making the finals.”

I’m not going to lie, it was a bummer but I didn’t want to show it. I knew that Drew and Keaton felt that way too but we didn’t care. It was natural.

“Emblem3, come here. How are you feeling?”

“Good. We went as far as we could and thank you to everyone who supported us throughout, we love you so much!” Drew yelled into the mic and threw up a peace sign. Carly ran over to us and jumped into Drew’s arms.

The rest of the night flew by in a blur; we had interviews and had to pack up our stuff. By the morning we’d had half an hour sleep and were expected to do another hour’s worth of interviews.

That went past quickly too, by the end we were all exhausted and in need of sleep.

Dad took us back to a rented house on the sea front in central LA. The house was amazing. Instead of going to bed; Keaton headed out on a walk with his camera and Drew called up Tiffany.

I however just wanted to crawl up into a ball and remind myself how alone I was.

“Are you ok Wesley?” Dad asked, concerned.

“Yeah, just tired y’know? I’m going to go straight to bed if that’s ok?”

“Ok son, sleep well.” Dad continued bringing all our stuff in and let me slip off to the bed I was sleeping in. It wasn’t long before my mind ran straight back round in one big circle and arrived at the thoughts of Scout.

I fell asleep to her voice replaying in my head.

“It means that I guess what I’m saying is… I love you.”