Welcome To Hollywood

Home Sweet Home

...

"Hii!" I walk into the house.

"Stella you're everywhere." Peyton runs up to me.

"What are you talking about?" She drags me off to her room where her laptop is sitting on her bed.

"You're in j-14, twist, m, popstar magazine, and on 4tnz." 

"You're lying." I tell her.

She turns her laptop around so I can see the five tabs. I click on each tab to find basically the same story in each magazine. I call Justin.

"Hello?" 

"Have you checked any websites lately?"

"No, why?"

"I came home and Peyton showed me four different magazines we're in."

"You serious?"

"Yeah."

"Read me one."

"Ummm I'll read the one from 4tnz. Did Justin Bieber Already Move On? Click the link."

"Click it." Justin says.

"Alright... Talk about moving fast? Days after breaking up with miss Selena Gomez Justin was seen shopping with this girl, Stella Smock... There's two pics of us. One me trying your drink, and the other of me putting whipped cream on your nose. My name's highlighted so there's probably an article on me. I'll read it when I finish, but anyway... Justin even took her with him to his concert in Florida where the two were seen at the beach together. More pictures of Justin and Stella are in the photo gallery there's a link for that. But I'm gonna click my name first."

"Ok." Justin says.

"Who is Stella Smock? We were asking ourselves the same questions but then we did a little research. Stella is a South Floridian girl that recently moved to LA for family reasons, we are told by an insider. But apparently Stella isn't just some girl. All we know about Stella so far is that she sings, raps, and dances. But she has real talent. It makes me wonder why she still has no record deal yet. At the moment that's all we know about her, but you can watch her performances ... Alright, back button... Now the pictures." I click on the pictures. The pictures weren't really that bad. Just us laughing together... Oh."

"What?"

"The beach pics are kinda... mmm." Justin laughs.

"What do you mean?"

"They're just really... flirty." 

"What did you expect?" I laugh at the way he asks.

"I don't even know."

"I can clear this up real quck if you don't want Jake to think we have a thing."

I turn to Peyton to see if she heard... She did. She just gave me a look that says "How does Justin know Jake?"

"I don't like Jake, we were just really good friends." I can picture Justin giving me a look.

"I know you're giving me the look." Justin laughs.

"Listen we'll talk later. Peyton won't stop looking at me, I gotta tell her about Florida."

"Alright."

"Bye."

"Bye." Justin hangs up.

"I ran into Jake in Florida."

"Really?!" She grins.

"Yeah... a couple times actually when I was with Maria."

"Did you go to the house?"

"Yeah." She gasps.

"How's Jenny?"

"Jenny grew up, she's a freshman!" I pout.

"Really?" Peyton asks smiling.

"Yeah!"

"And what about Jake?"

"He has a mixtape out."

"Really?" She asks again.

"Yeah, but he got a little cocky."

"How cocky's a little cocky?"

"A lot." She smiles.

"Because your not there anymore. If that boy said something remotely arrogant you would bring down his self-esteem so quick." I laugh at how true that was.

"He said that too."

"So you and Jake still have something." Peyton says.

"We never did."

"Stella, really?"

"I- I don't have to talk to you about this. I'm gonna go say hi to everyone else."

Peyton smiles as I walk out of her room and into my parents.

"I'm baaaack."

I peek my head through the door to see my mom and dad speaking in whispers. They stop abruptly when they see me.

"Hey sweetie!" My mom says. I look at them both suspiciously.

"What were you guys talking about?"

"It was nothing." My dad waves it off. 

Not wanting to start something I hug them both and we talk about Florida, and Maria, and performing, and the Millers.

"Mama, can I stay home tomorrow?"

"No." I give her the puppy dog face.

"Does this have to do with Jaden."

"No, it has everything to do with Jaden." Mom and I both just look at dad.

"Oh!" He gets up and leaves. We smile while watching him go.

"Stella you really have to learn to deal with these things."

"But mom-" I groan.

"Don't you have any other friends besides him?"

"Yeah. But all of them except one is friends with him."

"Have fun with that one person then." I give her a look and she smiles.

"Good talk." She pats my shoulder and walks into her bathroom. I sigh and walk back to my room.

"You're back." Brandon says annoyed.

"Nice to see you too."

I walk past him but then stop when I realize how badly I want- scratch that need to know.

"Brandon?" He turns around.

"What?" 

"What happened between you and Jake?" He look at me weird as if trying to find out where that came from.

"You saw him?" I nod. He folds his arms over his chest and leans his shoulder on the wall.

"And he didn't tell you?" I shake my head.

"We didn't see things the same. I guess we have a different perspective on things." I try not to be frustrated by his vague response. I mean I'm even suprised he answered me at all. Brandon nods slowly.

"How is he?" He asks.

"Good. He has a mixtape out now."

"I know."

"Oh." I say and Brandon turns around and begins to walk to his room.

"He misses you you know." I tell Brandon. That stops him dead in his tracks.

"He told you that?"

"No, but I know. The same way I know you miss him."

Brandon slightly smiles and then walks to his  into his room. Maybe, just maybe, things might go back to the way they were...