So I Married a Rockstar

Chapter Fifteen

Ch.15: The Courage of Gin

We were halfway through the German gin and moving on to the Japanese one, when I finally felt drunk enough to face my phone.

"Who's this guy? He's kind of cute," Elle said, pointing at one of my social media messages.

I looked closer. "I went to school with him. I asked him out when I was about fourteen, and he laughed in my face."

"Oh. Screw him then."

Reading the message, I had to laugh. I was pretty sure I hadn't crossed this guy's mind once since we'd left school, but his message suggested that we'd been super close, and it would be great if we reconnected.

He wasn't the only one.

My phone was clogged with messages from people I'd gone to school with, and they all seemed to have developed a very warped sense of history now that I was married to someone famous. Apparently I'd been best friends with a lot of people that, in reality, hadn't given me a second glance.

Did they really think that sending me fawning messages would somehow get them fifteen minutes of fame?

Tasha had sent me ten messages in shouty capitals, begging me to call her, because this couldn't actually be true, could it? I smiled at that. I'd have to call her soon – she was probably going out of her mind. Then I got to the message from my friend Vera, and my smile faded.

Holy shit, this is amazing, her text read. Do you think you can get me free concert tickets?

My heart gave a thud of disappointment. I'd known and trusted Vera for years, but when it came to the biggest thing that had ever happened to me, she was more interested in whether or not she could get freebies out of it.

"Yeah, you'll get a lot of that," Elle said, reading the text. "The minute you get sucked into the fame orbit, all the leeches come crawling out of the woodwork, hoping that some of your glitter will rub off on them."

"Vera's not like that," I said, automatically defending her, even though my heart wasn't in it.

Elle gave me a pitying look. "She finds out you're married to one of the most famous rockstars on the planet, and her first instinct is how it can benefit her. Trust me, she's exactly like that, and she won't be the only one. From now on, you'll need to be very careful about who you're friends with."

Vera wasn't the only one angling for freebies, and my stomach turned over as I read texts from other friends and people I worked with, all asking to meet Jude or other members of the band, or asking for VIP passes. Few of them actually congratulated me on the fact that I was fucking married.

"Sorry, but this is one of the darker sides of fame. It shows you who your friends really are," Elle said.

"Did this happen to you?" I asked.

Her face darkened. "So fucking much. It still happens. People kiss my ass because they want something from me, or they act like my friend because they think I'll open doors for them, and sometimes it works, then once they're through that door, they lose interest in me. It's not easy finding genuine friends."

I deleted the messages from all the people who hadn't cared about me until I became Jude Scott's wife, then I texted Tasha, promising we'd talk soon - I'd have to call Mum and Dad first, and I couldn't face having that conversation twice today. I ignored Vera's message for now. I didn't know how to handle it.

"Don't reply to any media messages yet. Wait until you've talked to Jude," Elle advised.

"I have to call my parents," I said.