Meet Me Backstage

32. What Are We

SKYE

I drag myself out of my bed and make my way toward the sound of alt-rock buzzing from my living room stereo. Ollie is stretched out on my couch scrolling through his phone.

"Finally!" he says as he sees me and sits up. "Dude, I thought you were gonna sleep forever. You realize it's like, one in the afternoon?"

"I'm on a late schedule for the tour," I groan, rubbing my eyes as I make my way over to the armchair and sit down, setting my phone on the coffee table.

"Oh, so it has nothing to do with your late-night dates and phone calls with a certain infamously big-dicked superstar?"

"Eww Ols!" I screech, picking up a pillow and smacking him on the shoulder with it. "First off, no, we just hang out and talk late because we're both on that schedule. Secondly, we are not having those kinds of late nights. And why do even you know anything about his– wait, no, I don't want to know."

"I'm just teasing, Skittles. And come on, you know I googled it."

I roll my eyes and lean back in my seat.

"What are you doing here, anyway?"

"I missed my sister," he says with a shy smile. "You've been gone for ages and you're only a few days from going back out on the road. I missed you, okay?"

I smirk and move over to the couch, scooting in next to him and giving him a big hug.

"Okay, dude," he says, shrugging me off. "That's enough hugging. I don't want to catch your cooties."

"I'll show you cooties!" I playfully hug-attack him, squeezing him tight as I pucker my lips and make kissy noises. He shrieks and tries to push me off.

"NOOO! GRODY!! HELLPPP!"

I push his shoulder and laugh as I relent.

"Big baby!"

I walk into the kitchen to make myself some coffee.

"So how are things with Jacks, anyway?" he asks, following me to the kitchen bar.

"I don't know..." I fill the coffee maker from the faucet. "It's complicated."

"Good complicated or bad complicated?"

"Both I guess. I just... I'm really enjoying spending time with him."

"Well, I can see how that would be terrible."

"It is if I'm starting to catch feelings for someone completely unattainable."

"Starting to?" He raises his eyebrows at me but seems to decide against teasing me further. "I know it's a totally different deal with this guy 'cause he's hella famous and all, but I don't necessarily think he's unattainable."

I keep trying to remind myself that even though he's the Jacks I know, he's also Jackson Ford. The sexy pop star is not someone you imagine a future with. In the end, he's going to go on to marry another beautiful celebrity and have beautiful celebrity babies. I'd have better luck of having a serious relationship with Bigfoot.

"It's just, all the times we've hung out we've had to be at his place or mine or somewhere super private. Maybe I'm just gun-shy after everything with Greg, but I'm starting to feel like I'm somebody's secret again."

"You know things are different with Jacks, though. He's in the public eye. Of course he can't go public places like everybody else."

"True," I say with a sigh. "But he certainly has been out in public with his past dates. I don't know, maybe I am being paranoid. I can't even tell anymore. I don't even know what I want from him. I literally just broke up with Greg, I shouldn't be jumping right into another relationship anyway."