Publicity

Chapter 21: Broken Promises

The beaming Atlanta sun warmed my skin as I sat pool side at Ray's house. We were finally back in the ATL. The dinner with Ray's family was really fun. They were so funny and now I know where Ray gets his humorous side from.

Ray sat beside me wearing blue swimming trunks and no shirt. His toned stomach was making it extremely hard not to start drooling. I looked down at my feet, dangling in the clear blue water.

"I can't believe your tour kicks off in a week." Ray spoke up, breaking the comfortable silence that had formed between us.

As soon as we had returned from California, Claire rescheduled my tour rehearsals. I rehearsed for a week straight and now everything was perfect and ready to go. I had this last week off before going on my 4 month long tour. How crazy is that? I'm super excited to go on tour but there is also a down side to leaving for that long. I'll have to leave my parents, grandparents, Bahja, and Ray behind. Sure, they can come visit me on tour but they won't be there 24/7 like I'm used too. It's gonna be hard to say goodbye. I sucked in a deep breath.

"It's crazy."

"I remember getting ready to go on my first tour. I was so hyped." He smiled as if remembering back to that time.

"I'm Kinda freaking out about it." I admitted, looking up at him. If I was going to talk to anyone about this, it was going to be Ray.

"Why?" He asked.

I shrugged, deciding to look past him instead of directly at him. "What if I'm not as great as people are expecting me to be? What if I let my fans down? What if nobody shows up?"

Ray rested his hand on my bare thigh in attempt to comfort me but it only made my stomach do crazy somersaults as a result to the contact. "Nique, you are extremely talented. This tour is only going to prove that." I looked up at him.

"I wish you could come on tour with me. It's gonna be so hard leaving everyone."

Ray gave me a sympathetic look. "It's gonna be hard but it will pay off. I'll always be here for you Nique. I'm just a phone call away." I nodded.

I had a feeling I was going to be calling Ray a lot while I was away. He's the only person who can keep me sane. We were both quiet as I sat and thought about leaving. Living on a bus and different hotel rooms didn't seem that bad. I loved traveling, performing, and meeting fans. If only I could bring everyone I'd miss on tour with me, I'd have the best of both worlds. Sadly, it doesn't work like that. Sacrifice is a big part of this world I'm now a part of. I looked over at Ray, who seemed to be deep in thought. I just admitted to myself that I have feelings for him and now I have to leave. I can't even try to work things out in a weeks time. There's no point in even letting him know how I feel.

"Hey. We have a meeting Wednesday." Ray remembered randomly.

"Yeah. It's about the stunt." I nodded.

Claire had let me know the general idea of what it would be about. We were gonna talk about the fake break up between me and Ray coming up in a few days.

"I wonder how they'll make us break up." Ray thought aloud as he moved his feet in circular motions under the water.

"Hopefully you get to break up with me." I laughed lightly. "Your fans will kill me if they think I broke your heart."

"True. Besides, it'd be more believable. I am a heart breaker after all." He grinned and I rolled my eyes. We sat, once again, in a comfortable silence. That is, until my phone went off. I picked it up and looked at the screen before smiling widely.

"Who is it?" Ray asked. "It's your dad. He's calling to face time." I clicked the green answer button and soon enough Ryan appeared on my screen with Tay Tay