The Real Stella Smock

Trouble In Paradise

"Hello?" Half an hour after I got on my eight o'clock flight my phone rang.

"Yeah, when was the last time you searched yourself on Google?" Justin asks me.

"Um I dunno, why?"

"Go look. I'll wait." He tells me.

"Alright." I pop open my laptop and type my name up on Google. When I saw the first story I had to read it over a couple times to make sure I read it right.

"Is Stella Smock a cheat? What is this?" I ask.

"Go look." Justin repeats and I do. I start reading the actricle from Perez Hilton's site aloud to myself.

"This is one rumor I hope isn't true. The world's sweetheart premiered her new song "Oath" on the Elvis Duran morning show yesterday morning. This is also where she said she was still in a relationship with actor Jaden Smith. So who is this guy and why do they look so intimate?"

There were a couple pictures of me and Jake laughing and walking a couple blocks away from his house. But then there was this one where Jake was holding my hands and we were both looking into eachother's eyes.

"This is not happening." I prop my left elbow on the armrest and place my fingers on my temple.

"So Jaden didn't call you yet?" Justin asks.

"He saw this?!"

"Yeah, he's trippin'. I thought he would've called you though." I sigh.

"I tried to help you out. I told him you guys've known eachoter for a while and are just really good friends, but... I didn't know what was going on there myself." I smile at the way he said it.

"He was begging me to help him dump his clingy girlfriend." I say.

"Oohh! That's what that tweet was about."

"Yeah, but listen. I'm gonna call Jaden... don't expect a call back." He laughs.

"Alright."

"Bye." He says bye, hangs up and then I call Jaden.

"Hey!" I pull my legs up on the chair as Jaden answers.

"Hey." Jaden says a little less cheery.

"I haven't heard from you all weekend. It's like you died or something." I say.

"Yeah, I've been busy." He says with that same dull tone.

"Oh... So..." I didn't know what to say.

"I don't know, you're the one that called me."

"Are you really gonna be like that?" I ask Jaden.

"What do you expect me to be like Stella? That story was the first thing I saw when I woke up today." I try to ignore the sound of my heart dropping.

"I expect you to know the type of person I am. I mean we have known eachother for a couple months now Jaden." He doesn't say anything and I start to get nervous.

"...So you're just gonna listen to people who get paid to make up stories?" I ask Jaden.

"Stella if I didn't wanna hear what you had to say I wouldn't have picked up." My heart warmed as I realized there's still hope.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

"Alright, so you know how I've been telling you about my friend Jake? The guy my family was living with for a while?"

"Yeah."

"I met his extremely clingy girlfriend who was apparently a fan of mine. So a couple hours later he asked for my help to break up with her. So I told him no, but then he started to beg and I finally agreed. So I sang this song for her about how Jake felt. She was cool about it though, since it was me. She even tweeted about it which I replied to later." I explain.

"What about the picture?"

"That's just the way Jake begs. He likes to use his "charm" as an advantage." I say.

"So that's it?" Jaden asks.

"Yeah. People are just trying to make it into something bigger than it is."

"Alright." He says.

"So... we good?" I ask.

"I guess."

"You guess?" I ask smiling.

"I guess." He says again.

"Ok." I laugh.

"How's your mixtape going?" I ask him.

"I got a song down."

"When can I hear these anyway?"

"How about when you come over Friday?" Jaden asks.

"I never said I was coming over Friday."

"I know. I am." I smile.

"Alright. Before or after school?"

"During." He says.

"Alright. Are you gonna come get me?" I ask him while going through Twitter on my laptop.

"Probably. We'll talk about that later though." Then I come across Jaden's tweet from last night.

"I know I'm late but congrats babe! Heard Oath hit #1 on iTunes in a couple hours."

"Oath hit number one on iTunes?" I look around to see people looking at me like I'm weird.

"I thought I was late." Jaden laughs.

"This is insane!" I say. I retweet his tweet.

"OhmyGod I just figured out Oath hit #1 on iTunes yesterday! I'm late, I know lol. Just freaked out on my flight, got people looking at me like there's something wrong with me! XD But you guys are amazing! I love you <3" I tweet.

"So how's your album coming?" He asks me.

"Actually you won't believe who called me today!" I tell him.

"Who?"

"Ryan freakin Tedder!"

"Forrealzies?" He mocks my enthuiasm.

"Shut up, I love him." I laugh.

"Hey, did you get my dress yet?" I ask Jaden.

"Hmm?" He asks as if he didn't hear me.

"Jaden." I say warningly.

"I found the dress but I need your measurments." He tells me.

"Yay! I'll text you them when I get home."

"Alright."

So Jaden stays on the phone with me until the Pilot tells us to turn off all electronics...