Back to You - A Motough Fanfic [HIATUS]

Chapter 10 - Derek POV

Even though I've been the one reassuring Beth that we'd be okay, I'm extremely scared myself to see everyone's reactions. As soon as I get home, I mentally prepare myself before opening Instagram and Twitter. Though I'm often spammed with comments, I suddenly feel as if they're coming in faster than ever before. Taking a deep breath, I read through some of them.

To my relief, the majority are positive. Occasionally, however, some incredibly hurtful ones roll in. One user says, "You're a disgusting pervert. She's only a teen, and ten years is too much of an age difference at that time." Another states, "You're too good for that fat bitch. WHY???" I immediately become angry, and am tempted to curse that idiot out all night long, but of course, the sensible part of my mind resists.

I know that if I read any more of these hateful comments, I will burst with anger and frustration, so I decide to go to sleep. A text from Bethany comes in.

How bad are your comments?

Oh no, I think. If she's asking me this then hers must be terrible. I quickly reply.

Most of them are actually really positive, congratulating us on our relationship. Though some are hurtful, I'm okay. What about yours? I pray that they're not too bad, because Bethany doesn't deserve that.

Not bad, I guess. I mean, I always get hate comments no matter what I say or do, so I can handle this. Good night. Xoxo

Sweet dreams, sweetheart, I reply, turning off my phone and going to sleep.

The next morning, we decide to go out for breakfast – our first "public" date ever. I'll be returning to New York soon to rehearse for the Spring Spectacular, and we plan to enjoy our limited time together. Beth looks stunning, as usual, in a simple striped tank top and skinny jeans. As we exit my house, we are both immediately blinded by the flashes of the paparazzi. I feel Beth sigh into my shoulder and we both can feel a sense of regret – though we can go anywhere together publicly, our privacy is now officially gone. However, we're both used to the spotlight by now, and we link hands and flash our biggest, brightest smiles.

"Are you okay with this?" I whisper, as we make our way down to IHOP.

"I'm fine." She flashes a smile. "Just tired, though."

"You sleepyhead," I tease, poking her gently. "Just like on Dancing with the Stars." Beth rolls her eyes.

"Well, it was exhausting, trying to learn five dances and practicing my Lucy voice," she grins, and we both start reminiscing about our time together on the show.

The paparazzi fades away as we enter the restaurant, and though we can both feel many pairs of eyes boring into our backs, we try our best to act normal and casual. After we order, we sit down in a private booth at the back of the restaurant. This particular one apparently gets a lot of celebrities, so they created a special section for them, which I'm grateful for.

Bethany seems unusually tense as we begin to eat. "This is really weird," she admits, as she cuts up her pancakes.

"We'll get used it together, don't worry," I say comfortingly, leaning in to place a small kiss on her forehead. Beth nods.

"Anyway, I'm going to Youtuber Fanfest soon and I have to make this speech. Can you help me write it?" She asks, pulling out a notebook.

"Of course," I smile at her, and we soon engage in an intense discussion of the speech. After about 45 minutes, we're ready to leave, and walk back to my house in a comfortable silence, occasionally interrupted by our usual musings.

It's still relatively early, so Beth decides to change back into her pajamas and edit a video. I lazily begin playing with and braiding her hair as she works. After a few minutes, Bethany grows bored of the quiet, and turns on her soft music playlist. I smile as I study her work, brows furrowed in concentration as she increases the quality of certain clips and adds audio to others. It's an amazing feeling, watching the woman you love doing something she loves.

"Shoulders up, babe," I remind her, pulling her out of her slight slouch.

"Oh yeah," she teases, straightening and rolling her eyes. "You bugged me to no end about that."

"Well, it's good for you," I playfully argue. "You wouldn't want to be a hunchback for the rest of your life, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, Mr. Technical," Bethany shoots back.

"Geez, sorry," I say, pretending to be hurt. Beth smirks at me, not falling for any of it.

"Okay, I don't want to edit this anymore. How about we search up some Youtube challenges and do them for fun? I might film some of them, though, in case I ever feel like posting one."

"That's a great idea," I chuckle. "Though we're probably going to be so gross after we finish."

As the morning progresses, we've gone through both boyfriend and girlfriend does my makeup, as well as the baby food challenge – somehow I had found baby food in my drawers – and the chubby bunny challenge. By the end, we're both covered in makeup and smell like nasty baby food.

"Okay, I'm definitely going to shower," Beth says, staring down at her marshmallow-smeared front. "Thank god we had the sense to put on smocks before we started."

"Still beautiful, though," I grin, leaning forward to kiss her nose. Beth dodges it.

"Ew, Derek, I smell! See you later, alligator," she laughs, heading upstairs to shower. I begin to clean up the mess, throwing the smocks in the laundry and putting the baby food cans in the trash as I hear her amazing singing drift from the floor above.

As I clean, however, I notice Beth has left her Twitter open on her laptop, with notifications coming in faster than I could read. My curiosity gets the best of me, and I sit down in front and look. Though the majority of the comments are positive, like she said, there are some heartbreaking ones where the "fans" threaten to unsubscribe and call her a fame whore, accusing her of changing. It hurts my heart to realize that Beth deals with this much hate every single day, and it's even worse when I'm with her.

I hear Beth's footsteps coming down the stairs and I hastily stand up and quietly put back the stool, in the pretense of finishing picking the makeup products up.

"You're so slow at cleaning, but you can go shower now," Beth teases.

"It's not like you can do any better," I tease back, forcing a smile so she won't suspect anything.

As I head up the stairs and grab a change of clothes, I ponder: Was this the right thing to do?

A/N: HI GUYS! It's been a really long time since I've updated. I wrote this a long time ago and idk if it's any good.... :/ Sorry for never updating, I've been busy plus I kinda have writer's block, so please please PLEASE leave some suggestions in the comments!