The Deceivers ~One Direction~

CHAPTER 1

JADEN

He was staring at me.

The man sat by himself four tables away, looking suspicious in a dark coat and sunglasses. His clean buzz cut added to the creepy vibe. I had never seen him before in my life, but judging by the small camera he was casually hiding behind his hand, he knew exactly who I was.

Click.

I turned back to my best friend Callie Morgan, who was sitting across from me, babbling on about some really cute shoes she had spotted on her latest shopping trip, oblivious to the fact that some man was taking pictures of us. She took a bite of the salad we were splitting and frowned at me.

“Jaden? Are you alright? You look odd…” she said, chewing on the salad.

Click.

“Callie, don’t freak out on me, but see that man over there, a couple tables down from us?”  Callie nodded in confirmation. “Well, I think he’s taking pictures of me.”

Click.

Callie brown eyes widened as she realized I was right.

“What should we do?” she whispered timidly.

“We need to leave,” I said, slipping on my sunglasses, slapping some money down on our table and rushing her out the door. When we were finally outside I breathed a sigh of relief. That whole situation had creeped me out. The eerie click of the man’s camera still echoed in my ears. 

“Sorry it didn’t work out today,Cal,” I apologized as we strutted down the busy London streets.

“It’s ok. I guess that’s a celebrity’s life for you! We can’t even have a simple lunch without being stalked by paparazzi,” Callie said.

I smiled wryly back at her. Being a celebrity was a new thing for me still. It was hard to imagine only two years ago I was a normal sixteen year old girl. But that had all changed when Callie posted a video of me singing on YouTube and it went completely viral. I signed a recording contract with major music producer Andrew Malone and from there my career boomed. Now, I was known all over the world as Jaden Stone, British pop star. But lately I had been having some competition for that title…

“So,” Callie exclaimed, bringing me out of my thoughts, “What do you want to do now?”

“How about we go back to my flat and watch a film?” I suggested, grinning at my friend.

“That sounds perfect!” Callie replied, clapping her hands together. Her long, straight, dirty blonde hair fluttered around from underneath her knit cap in the cold London wind. I had always been jealous of Callie’s naturally straight hair. My own red hair fell in messy waves.

“Let me call Don. He should be right around the corner,” I told her, whipping out my mobile.

“It’s so cool that you have your own personal chauffeur,” Callie sighed.

I rolled my eyes at her dreamy expression. I could never refer to Don as a chauffeur. Sure, he did drive me everywhere, but he was also my main bodyguard, which meant he was tall and beefy. Definitely not to be labeled with a dainty word like chauffeur.

When Don pulled up to the curb, me and Callie hopped into the large Jeep. Callie settled down in the seat across from me and sighed, looking at her surroundings.

“I can’t believe you chose this car over a limo,” she said, looking at me like I was crazy.

Maybe I was crazy for choosing the Jeep. It was huge and was decorated with green army cameo, making it the polar opposite of a sleek, glossy limousine. But I think the Jeep was more my style.

“I like it,” I said, patting the seat fondly.

“You are not normal, child,” Callie giggled at me.

“You know you love me,” I replied, sticking my tongue out at her.

Callie just laughed at me some more. I grinned at my best friend, feeling grateful to have her. When I became famous, most my friends at school started acting really strange around me. All they ever wanted to talk about was if I had met any celebrities lately, or if I was going to some event and things like that. Callie was the only one who treated me like the normal girl I really was. And I was thankful for for that.