Stepsisters

Chapter Nine

Chloe's phone dinged. She read the text. Of course not. Please don't tell me you believed it :(

Chloe was relieved. She knew Ashton wouldn't do anything like that. She wasn't so sure about Ella. She seemed nice, but she had only known her for three days.

"What did he say?" Sydney asked.

"He said he's not dating Ella," Chloe said.

"I told you," Ella said.

"Are you sure he's not lying?" Sydney asked.

"Ashton wouldn't lie," Chloe said. "He's not like that."

"Alright then," Sydney said. "Take it to Twitter and tell everyone that the rumor isn't true."

"Will people believe me?" Chloe asked.

Sydney nodded and Chloe went on Twitter. Ella couldn't help but notice a different side of Chloe coming out. She seemed less confident, but in a normal, teenage way, and unlike the prideful, snobby way she'd had before. She also seemed passionate, like she actually cared about something. Maybe Chloe was more dimensional than Ella originally thought.

"There," Chloe said, finishing her tweet. "I told all of my followers the truth."

Everyone except Ella and Chloe went back upstairs to go to sleep. Ella went inside to check her phone. She had 125 notifications from various social media networks.

"Wow," she whispered. That was a lot of notifications for a small town girl.

Meanwhile, Chloe sat out on the deck and texted Ashton. I'm glad it's not true :), she wrote. I was so worried.

Why don't you trust me? Ashton texted.

Of course I trust you, Chloe wrote. I just don't know Ella very well.

That's still not trusting me.

Okay, fine. I'm sorry. I'm just so worried about losing you.

Chloe felt a tear roll down her cheek. When she first become famous, she vowed that she would never show her emotions. She would just hide her true feelings and pretend to be a cool, confident celebrity. By blocking her emotions from the world, she had become snobby and cold, and no one knew that underneath her fake, mean skin was really just a scared little girl.

By acquiring famousness, she had captured the world by her talent. But she had also shut the world out.

Ella came out onto the deck. She wanted to talk to Chloe. She didn't understand her. She always seemed like she didn't care about anything, but today, Ella saw that she seemed to care about her boyfriend.

"Chloe?" Ella said.

Chloe turned around. Ella was shocked to see that her cheeks were wet with tears.

"Why are you crying?"

"I'm not," Chloe lied. "I have allergies. Go away."

Ella could see right through her. "Please tell me what's wrong. You seemed different today. Actually...caring."

"Really?" Chloe asked. "I was especially mean to you today. I screamed and accused you of something without even thinking about it."

"But you seemed like..." Ella said. She thought about what to say next. "You seemed a real person. Not just a snobby celebrity. You seemed a real person, with real feelings and real problems. You seemed like you cared about Ashton."

Chloe started to tear up again. "Ella, the reason I became so...mean is because I am afraid. I'm afraid of being hated on. I'm afraid that critics and the media will judge me. I'm afraid of having no fans. I'm afraid that the one person that understands me will date someone else just because, and even thought that's totally irrational, I'm still afraid, because I'm afraid of everything now. I've shut my emotions down. From everyone. You, your dad, all of my friends, even my mom. I've shut the whole world out...except for one person. And this...this makes me seem mean. But today, it just seems like these emotions have built up, and now they're pouring out of me. I don't want to be this person that's so focused on being cool. That's not me! I don't want to be this emotionless, heartless person anymore. But I'm afraid of what people will say if I reveal the real me to the world!"

Ella had never realized this about Chloe. She had just thought that Chloe was a snob. "I'm always here if you need me. We're stepsisters, remember?"

"Yeah," Chloe said, truly smiling for the first time in a long time. "And I'm sorry for what I said. About us being best friends only on the media, and completely ignoring each other in real life. I want us to be friends. That's what sisters are for."

"That's right," Ella smiled.

Ella and Chloe went inside, both happy that they each had a friend to count on.