Change Is Yesterday.

Chapter 27: He's Determined To Call Her Bluff.

He took my hesitation as a signal to carry on. “It seems strange because no-one’s seen any pictures of you guys, and you don’t really see that much of her in the video. Are you hiding her deliberately? Because no-one even knows her name!” He made it sound like he should know her name, and he should have loads of pictures of her. How dare he, quite frankly? He didn’t need to know anything about her. I had to keep telling myself that he was only doing his job, he was doing his best for the fans. That’s the reason I answered.

Well here goes… “Well, I do want to protect her privacy, because I don’t want there to be a frenzy like there was last time she was talked about. It wasn’t easy for her, and I completely understand.”

“Well that’s a real shame… Your fans are really desperate to see her. They want to hear her call you ‘Bubbles’ or something?” I laughed so hard at that.

“She calls me Bubbles, it’s something she’s always called me.” Now I was really confused. My fans wanted to know about her, so should I just tell them? It couldn’t do any harm? Not really… I did want to be more open with my fans, so maybe this was a good place to start.

“Well, okay then. She has been shouting at me lately, she wants to meet all you guys too,” I said looking directly into the camera. I was no longer being interviewed; I was talking to my fans, just me and them. “Oh! Speak of the devil herself, here she is! Come here beautiful.” She came into view from behind a hot-dog stand; I could tell she’d been looking for me, because the worry left her face when she heard my voice. The smile that shot across her face was so beautiful; her smile was the most perfect sight. I couldn’t help but just stand and stare as she walked towards me, a wary look on her face as she calculated the scene.

The interviewer coughed quite impatiently, I mustn’t have heard him the first few times. “Wow! So this is…?”

“Connie! Connie Boleyn.” Her musical voice jumping in before mine, I laughed at her eagerness to impress everyone. But I couldn’t help the worry that still lingered, this was her first time in front of a camera like this, I didn’t want to force her into anything…

“Well then. World exclusive everybody! I would like to introduce to you all to, Alex Gaskarth’s girlfriend, Connie Boleyn!”

“That’s copyrighted by the way. I’m sticking a trademark on that particular brand name.” Her laugh seemed effortless, but only I could hear the edge in it. All her life she’d been branded as something. The daughter, the sister, the girlfriend of… Never just Connie. I squeezed her hand to let her know it was okay. She turned her head to smile at me. I kissed her.

Pulling away quickly, she looked up at me and smiled at my confusion, “watch out, you’re breaking hearts here. I don’t want people hating me bitch!” She chuckled at my reaction. Kissing her again, she didn’t pull away this time. We were interrupted by the interviewer’s coughs of impatience; I laughed, this wasn’t the first time we’d gotten carried away in front people. She smiled sheepishly as a flush of pink grew on her cheeks.

We turned back to face him as he asked us another question, except this time, it was directed at Connie. “So we hear you have famous connections?”

Without much hesitation to hint there was anything wrong with the question, Connie laughed. She was doing her best to smooth things over; I could tell she wasn’t ready to open up publicly about it. A nervous laugh escaped my lips as I attempted to make things less awkward. I glanced at Connie’s less than composed expression, afraid that if she spoke, she’d make it obvious something wasn’t right.

“It’s funny you should mention that actually. Josh Franceschi is like her third cousin once removed or something?” I knew Josh would go along with the lie, he knew everything there was to know about Connie and her family. Connie looked up at me with a grateful smile, but I couldn’t return it. I knew this wasn’t over yet.