Changing Tune

Chapter 37: Crazy conspiracies

Chapter 37: Crazy conspiracies

Ellie's POV

*****

I didn't realise how unprepared I was for the entire thing till I saw Jordan standing in front of me. The boy whom I used to see every single day when Noah used to still live with us.

"What? You know him?" Adam asked me, looking in between Jordan and I, confusion in his face.

The three boys were all confused, and I didn't miss the slight look of panic on Blake's face.

"Noah used to mentor him when we were like twelve. He's a musician too," I explained, my eyes landing on the very familiar face which I used to see every single day.

It was crazy to think that the guy who was supposed to pose as my fake boyfriend was a guy I was so familiar with. A guy I hated so much.

I had never told him that, but I could not help but hate him for all of the time he was spending playing with my brother. For years I stood by outside of Noah's room, hearing him teaching Jordan all of the tricks he had to be familiar with if he wanted to be a talented musician. My passion for music wasn't as strong back then, but deep down, I had always felt as if I was the one who was supposed to be having those lessons with my brother.

Jordan had never done anything wrong to me directly. He was a nice guy, with one of the most incredible voices I had ever had. But that did not change the fact that every time I looked at him, I was filled with rage.

It was shocking to find him standing there in front of me after all those years. Once Noah moved, I stopped seeing Jordan. He had become quite popular through his videos by then, which made my jealousy towards him grow even more.

"Wow, I haven't seen you in like three years. I didn't know you played too," he said, his newly deep voice surprising me.

"The last time I saw you, you still sounded like a chipmunk," I told him, making the boys snicker as he rolled his eyes.

"Always so warm," he sarcastically said, probably trying to convince us that his ego was not hurt.

"I'm glad you two know each other," James said. "That might make it easier for you guys to pretend to like each other."

I nodded sweetly with a fake smile on my lips. Never had I put the words 'like' and 'Jordan' together in the same sentence. I knew that the whole fake boyfriend thing was in no way Jordan's fault, but it still did not help me like him any better.

The whole thing had seemed so distant before, but seeing Jordan there in front of me made it so much more real.

"Alright, so I have a meeting, but I want you guys to stay and get to know Jordan here a bit better. I'm sure you'll all love him," James said with a smile.

"Yeah, I'm crazy about him already," Blake sarcastically said, his face completely serious.

"So Jordan," Adam said, trying to break the tension in the room that had engulfed us ever since James left. "Tell us about yourself, buddy."

"Oh, well, I love music," Jordan started off by saying. "I'm home schooled, which means that I've never really had close friends. Guess it's always been just me and my music."

Adam smiled at him, seemingly pleased by his answer. I was completely caught off guard. He had always seemed to be social and outgoing, and I had never imagined that he could have been home schooled.

"Ah great," Blake said. "James couldn't have found a more perfect guy for Ellie, could he?"

We all turned to look at him, his tone scaring me. He seemed angry, and I hated it.

"Is there a problem, bro?" Jordan asked him, clearly confused by Blake's hostility.

"Okay, for starters, I'm not your bro," Blake said, taking a step towards him. "And second, no, there's no problem."

"Blake!" Adam reprimanded, turning to look sternly at Blake.

Blake had always been a calm person. He was kind to everyone, and it was rare to see him acting that way with anybody. I hated that he was doing that, but I could not blame him at all. If the roles would have been reversed, I would have been hostile to whoever it would have been that was supposed to act as his girlfriend too.

I could not ask him to be nice to Jordan. It would have been cruel of me to do that. Blake was hurting, and he had every right to.

He and I had avoided speaking about what was going to happen to our relationship once the fake boyfriend comes into the picture. I knew then that that was a mistake, and I hoped that we were going to be able to work through it.

Blake looked at me, his eyes softening slightly as he saw the shocked look on my face. I didn't want him to be angry. No matter how hard it was going to be, I didn't want our relationship to be ruined because of it. I liked Blake, and I wanted him to know that he was the only one I did.

"So what made you accept this whole thing?" Blake said after taking a deep breath, his voice slightly calmer.

"I didn't really have a choice," Jordan said with a sigh. "They told me that this would improve my image, and that I had to do it if I didn't want to end up being forgotten."

"But that's so unfair," I said jumping up, finding what they told him extremely cruel. "You're talented, you don't need to have people see you with a girlfriend for them to see that. What does a girlfriend have to do with your music?"

"What does a boyfriend have to do with yours?" He calmly asked me.

I knew that it was a rhetorical question. He wanted to prove a point. Whether we liked it or not, the two of us were in the same situation. I couldn't help but wonder whether things were that tough for the well known artists that we listened to every day.

Following your dreams was not supposed to be that tough, especially not when you've come so close to them. I hated that there was nothing that we could do to fix the situation. We were supposed to act like pawns in the managers' game of chess.

Till then, I had been so convinced that it was just us who had those problems. I thought that maybe if we had had a different manager, there would have been no need to go to that extent. But Jordan had different management, and even he was being forced to do that.

It was like they were using us just so that they could make more money, and I hated that. But there was also nothing that I could do about it. If we wanted to succeed, we had to listen to them. We would not be going anywhere had we not had managers.

So many times I had laughed at crazy conspiracy theories that singers had fake boyfriends or girlfriends just so that they could be more popular or hide something. What I would have never imagined was the fact that I would end up being one of those people myself. 

*****

A/N: Hello jellybeans!

I'm sorry that today's chapter is a lot shorter than the ones I normally write, but I have a lot of assignments to finish and I didn't want to rush through a long chapter and have it not make sense or be just filler points. 

In this chapter I wanted to introduce you guys to Jordan, and kind of make you see how tough they have it in the music sector. 

What did you guys think of the chapter despite its word count?

How do we feel about Jordan?

How do we feel about Blake's feelings?

What about what Ellie was thinking?

Next week we will be seeing Ellie and Blake having a talk, as well as Ellie and Jordan. Then, if words allow me to, we will be seeing Ellie and Jordan's first public hang out. 

But until then,
Stay safe,

Stay perfect,
Love,
~M