Things Are Different Here

ten

Being in a fake relationship with your celebrity crush definitely had its perks. I'd kissed Olivia five times already, and we planned dates about three times this week.

But, it also had its downsides. All of the dates we planned were also planned by her management team. Every one of them had been photographed over and over, and my face and name was suddenly coming up all over Twitter and Instagram. I'd gained a solid thirty thousand followers in the last forty eight hours, and my "story" had been posted on every stan account across the globe. I was the mediocre actress Olivia had met in New York, and she'd drug me back with her so we could work together and let our relationship blossom. Or, my personal favorite, I'd been an understudy for Olivia's friend in her last movie, and we'd started a secret romance way back when, and were now getting our chance at true love.

"Did you see this one?"

I was laying on an indoor-outdoor recliner on Olivia's patio, with Conor stretched out below my chair. He handed his phone up to me, which expectantly had a photo of me walking out a Starbucks the other morning, two cups in hand—which strategically said Olivia and Stacy in bold, black letters—with a brutal caption written by another 17-year-old.

stacy's keeping it super classy and getting morning after coffees literally right before work

"Love this for me," I laughed and handed the phone back to Conor.

"They are pretty creative," Olivia sipped her margarita I'd made. I picked up a couple tips from Erin on mixology, and played around with a pink dragonfruit and mango concoction. Olivia hadn't complained yet. "I love my fans, but they can get a little...imaginative."

"Just a little," I quipped. I sipped my margarita, enjoying the refreshing chill it gave me. Although it was only the beginning of March, we were having a couple hot days. It had reached 76 degrees, and we were breaking out our summer clothes. LA had a totally different heat than New York—the east coast felt humid and sticky, while LA was dry and scorching. I didn't have to peel my clothes from my body every few minutes, but I did have to double up on moisturizer and sunscreen.

god i love lesbians, one tweet said, attached to a photo of Olivia kissing me in front of some bar. I couldn't remember which one; we'd gone to three already this week, and we'd only been 'dating' since last Friday. I'd been scrolling Twitter for the last hour, Olivia claimed it was for research. She wanted to get a feel for how well our agreement was going, and if her loyal fans were eating it up or not. While most seemed to love that she was away from Nyx, some were claiming I was just a rebound while Nyx was out of the country on a summer-long holiday. Nyx hadn't even left for Greece yet, last Olivia had heard.

"What are we doing tonight?" Conor asked, sitting up from his previous spot. His hat fell off, and he hastily placed it back on his head. He was obsessed with making sure he was protected from UV rays at all times.

The three of us had become something of a trio, we had a group chat that never ended, and Conor had been to Olivia's house almost every day this week. Although I hated lying to him, we still hadn't told him about our arrangement. Olivia trusted him, but her PR team did not.

"I was thinking we could hit up Aisha's show tonight," Olivia suggested. Their friend Aisha had recently taken over the Y2K party at The Roxy, and they'd both been dying to go.

"I could definitely get down to some Britney," Conor nodded.

"Name one song that isn't Toxic or Baby One More Time." Olivia gave him a pointed look, and he shook his head.

"Whatever, you know I'll be the best dancer on that floor." He retorted, earning a snort from me.

"And what's your go to Y2K tune, Stace? Since you're the oldest here and only one born before 2000." Olivia raised a brow as she quizzed me.