Just Play Along

Twenty-One & Twenty-Two

PART TWENTY ONE

“Remember, don’t breathe a word to anyone,” Jess told me as I turned to leave her flat. 

“I won’t!” I said, annoyed that she kept repeating that. After signing the list of rules Jess had told me to keep my mouth shut. It was only going to work if we were the only people who knew the truth. That meant I couldn’t say a word to my bandmates, or even my mum!

As I finally managed to get out of her flat I jogged down the stairs. I had studio time booked in for late morning with the boys and I figured I should grab some food to take with me over there.

“Oh, Aston, hey!” someone said as I pulled the door of the building open. Marnie was stood there with her key in her hand and a shocked look on her face.

“Hey,” I replied, pulling the door open further so she could come in.

“You weren’t here all night were you?” she asked awkwardly.

“No, just came to drop something off.”

“Oh. So what, are you and Jess a thing?” Marnie asked me.

“Umm… I guess,” I shrugged. I hadn’t had enough time to work out how I was going to break this one to people; I had literally signed the paper only minute’s prior. In fact, I was looking forward to the drive across town to the studio to figure that one out.

“Well I’m going to tell you one thing Aston,” Marnie said, a dead serious look on her face, “Watch out for yourself.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I questioned. 

“Jess is a bit of a maneater,” Marnie said pointedly.

“A what?”

“Maneater? Ball-crusher? I don’t know… she toys with guys.”

“Really?” I asked. That didn’t seem like Jess. When I’d first met her she seemed like a nice girl, although her crazy work persona could explain this side of her a bit more. Maybe she was bipolar?

“Oh sure, she’s not innocent, by any means,” Marnie told me. “Have you gotten her whole, ‘I don’t fall in love’ speech yet?”

“Yeahhh…” I sighed. Was I already being played by this girl? It was too much to keep up with!

“All I’m saying is that she sticks to it. If you start getting too close she’ll push you away. Hard.”

“Seriously?”

“Last guy to try it on with her was publicly embarrassed, in front of at least 300 people.”

“Oh,” I said, trying to piece it together.

“He still doesn’t show his face at society events.”

“But what about that George guy?” I questioned. This all didn’t make sense to me. If Jess was a ball-crusher, why was he still hanging around? Surely she’d have done something equally horrible to him by now.

“He’s an exception to the rule. He just can’t get enough of the challenge, no matter what she does to him. And she’d done a lot. But he’s also properly insane sooo…” Marnie said flippantly.

“Right, well, thanks for the warning,” I said, moving to head towards my car.

“No worries! See you around!” Marnie said brightly.

Driving to the studio I tried to put together everything that had happened in the last half hour. Somehow I’d managed to get myself into a fake relationship with Jess. I wasn’t sure exactly what sold it to me, but she was being so persuasive and she legitimately made it seem like the best idea for the both of us. It wouldn’t hurt to get papped with her here and there, right? It wasn’t like I had to do much else!