cara mia || tommyinnit

xxviii

"Raratata," Anthony added.

She nodded. "Yep. And I cut off the first three letters of my name for shits, and before I knew it..."

"Six million subs."

"Six million subs," she repeated. "I thought it was just a hyper-fixation, y'know? That I'd get bored and forget about it after a few weeks, but then, I realized gaming let me take a break from the A-list life. I became friends with a shit ton of great people and it became a part of my identity." She took a deep breath in. "Sorry, I went a little overboard."

"No, no! It was perfect. So, you got famous the second time... on accident?"

"Basically."

He tilted his head. "So, why hide the identity?"

She thought on it. "I was— am, different when I'm Ara. I don't have to put on the loud-mouth persona I usually do on the stage or in my songs. I listen in on conversations, keep my content PG, and just... be calm. It's favorable if you've spent your whole life being known as a 'punk princess.' "

"Ah! Speaking of your content being PG, i think your reveal shocked people mostly because ChiChi, is the opposite of PG. At least it shocked me. I mean, and I say this with the utmost respect, you're music is the opposite of clean."

The singer laughed, a slight blush growing on her cheeks. "A good amount of people hate me 'cause they associated my music with my character. Not like my music is the epitome of all things evil, but, I tend to forget the older generations aren't too keen with certain words I write but, I wanna be the person people look up to. The type of girl that inspires others to shoot for the stars. Ara gets to reach a generation of girls younger than ChiChi ever could. I wanted to keep it that way. And if that meant having two personas, then, so be it."

The interview went on for hours, but the conversation never felt forced. It got to a point where Chiara had forgotten the camera's existed entirely and relaxed into her chair. Her posture had slumped slight back and her head in the clouds. Her attention only popped back in when Anthony asked her what she was most worried about going forward.

"Uh," she sighed. "Privacy. I came into this life at a young age so, I've never really had it in the first place but, now, I'm being introduced to a whole group of people. Some people hate ChiChi but love Ara, and vice versa. Now everyone know's her and I are the same person.

"It's been hard and it'll get even harder," he finished her thought off. She nodded.

"Yeah. I tried to move off the topic as much as I could and pretend everything was normal and... that didn't work well. So, now, I'm keeping it lowkey." She cringed at her words but Anthony wouldn't have noticed.

"Speaking of 'keeping things lowkey,' " he said, air quoting the sentence, "I have seen that love has sprouted in the air within this news. Via your Instagram, actually."

Shit. Chiara crossed her legs and only nodded. Anthony proceeded to pull up the post from her Instagram. He cherry-picked three photos from the post; All of which were of Tommy.

"What do the kids call it these days..." he pondered, laughing slightly. "A... soft launch? Soft launch, right? God I feel so old."

She exhaled in response. "Yeah, soft launches are a huge thing now."

"Is... this, a soft launch?" he asked, legs spread apart.

Her answer would hold a lot of water. Gallons, if it meant that much. Her manager's words sunk deep into her head.

You can keep the soft launch up and you and him can continue being together, but, privately. That's all we ask.

"No," she quickly replied. "It's not. I was just having fun at home with friends. Nothing more."

Anthony's eyes widened. He sat up straight, his hands holding his head. "Really? 'Cause we had word that a certain gaming was in America visiting you and had a similar soft launch of the sorts."

"Haha, nah," she denied again. "I'm perfectly single and happy that way. I just... like to spice up my fans, I guess. Even if I was, you wouldn't hear anything from me."

His head fell back. "Ah, so if you were in a relationship we wouldn't see any soft launch?"

"Nope," she articulated. "I'd keep it completely personal. I only ever share things like that if it's a joke or something meaningless. By no means does that hold any water."

The interview continued on, him asking generic questions about gaming and singing. Once it was over he shook her hand again in front of the camera, thanked her for being there, and then turned to the camera for a final send-off.

Once all the cameras were off, his persona grew relaxed, no longer in interview mode.

Anthony turned to smile at her. "That was great! Thank you so much again. The news about the soft launch was the most surprising. No cameras on, but, I could've sworn it was Tommy. He did get you to do this interview, after all."

"I—," she stuttered, "it wasn't. Don't worry. I'm sure it'll be good for people to hear that from me."

He only nodded, motioning her towards the exit. They took a quick polaroid photo, hugged it out, and she was on her way home.

—🂠🃑🃁🂱🂡—

a few weeks later...

Messages

light of my life:
morning loser (:
Read 6:32 AM

light of my life:
damn i forgot the
interview comes out tdy
Read 9:02 AM

light of my life:
is everything ok ?

tommy ??

...hello ?
Read 9:55 AM