Fake

18. More of The Truth

LUKE'S POV
[APRIL 6TH, 2017]

I rubbed my eyes and stretched, leaning back in my chair. This meeting had been going on forever and I had promised Annabeth I would go out to lunch with her. I still needed to tell Dave everything, he had been eyeballing me the entire meeting, so I had a feeling he was going to say something or talk to me after.

We have an interview tonight, so I really needed to get going to spend time with Annabeth before I had to be back with my band mates. We were supposed to be talking about tour dates and when we leave and new music, but I honestly could just not pay attention.

"Luke," Dave said, getting my attention. "Is there anything you wanted to add, or update us on in your personal life?" He put his hands on the table, smiling at me. The way Dave was looking at me, he wasn't giving me much of an option, but I decided to play dumb.

I looked at the 12 people around the table and shook my head. "Not entirely." I looked down at my hands and realised that I had posted things about Annabeth, and I'm sure everyone had seen pictures.

Dave looked ashamed almost, but I didn't want to bring it up right now. And I knew he would bring up the wrong situation and make everyone turn against me. "Alright, you're giving me no choice on this Luke."

Ashton cleared his throat. "What's going on, exactly? Is this about Luke's new girlfriend? Because we know about that." He sat back in his chair and I put my head in my hands.

"Luke's... Girlfriend, is pregnant, or so she says. She's an actress who's working on a big project, which is Luke. He refuses to believe it." He spoke and all the blood drained from my face. "I found her acting agency and talked to her manager who refused to give me information on if she was working on a big project right now, which means she is."

I stood up, slamming my hands on the table. "Just shut up, Dave! Why can't you just be happy for me? I'm going to be a father. I went to the doctors with Annabeth and saw the baby on the screen! I have a sonogram and everything!" I took the sonogram picture out of my wallet and threw it at him.

"So, you've seen her belly? Have you had sex with her since the day you supposedly got her pregnant? What doctor did you go to? Had she been there before? You're not asking her any of the right questions, Luke. You're being so dumb about this!" Dave yelled at me. We had never done this before and I really didn't like it.

I scoffed. "It was Dr. Dre's Women's Clinic. She had been there before, she liked the guy, she said he was really nice to her." I took the picture back from Michael who had been studying it and put it in my wallet.

"Dr. Dre? Like, Beats by Dre? Luke, are you kidding me?" Dave said and I couldn't take any more of it.

"It can be a name, too!" I yelled. "Why can't you just be happy for me?"

"Because, you idiot! She's scamming you! She's pretending to be pregnant and she's making you fall for her in the process so when she comes clean, it's going to be harder for you to be mad at her! Open your fucking eyes, Luke. She's an actress, she's playing you." Dave had walked over and was now nearly screaming in my face.

I shook my head and sat down. "I'm going to be a father, why can't you realise that?"

"Luke! You're really not!" Calum yelled. "You haven't seen her stomach, you couldn't even see it at the doctors office which is not normal at all. And you haven't had sex with her since you found out? That's also not normal at all. I heard pregnant women can be horny sometimes." He smirked but then quickly wiped it off his face. "This is all ridiculous. Call her out on her bullshit."

I looked down at my hands. "I can't." I had tears in my eyes. I wanted this more than I realised. I wanted to be a father and I wanted to love this little being that I made with all that I had in me. I loved Annabeth, too. I just wanted us to be a family. "Anytime I try, she changes the subject or just amazes me in some way. I'm so infatuated with her, I don't know how to confront her on this."

There was silence for a minute, and I can't believe I was telling my band and management team about all of this.

"We'll help you." Ashton said. I lifted up my head and looked at him. "Ask her out to dinner, we'll all go, we'll bring dates and we'll ask questions and make it very believable and nonchalant, I promise. We need to get the truth out of her, I don't want you to hurt because of some girl who feels the need to lie to you for personal gain. That's not cool, man."

I was almost sobbing. Why was this happening? I never cry, but I guess when you think you're going to be a father and then you kind of figure out you're being lied to, it hits something inside you. I didn't even want to believe it, though I just wanted to be happy.

Even though this was hard, I nodded, accepting Ashton's request. Michael and Calum said they would help too and I just don't know where I would be without my best friends.

"Okay, so call her now and cancel lunch, then ask her out for a late dinner instead. We can go after the interview. The boys and I will phone up some friends to be our 'dates', and we'll work this out." Michael put his hand on my shoulder. "It'll be okay, Luke, I promise. We just gotta get to the bottom of this."

I nodded again and wiped my nose, trying to compose myself. I took a deep breath and pulled out my phone, needing to call her as soon as possible.

I pulled up her contact and looked at all the hearts she put next to her name and nearly cringed. It made me so sad, I don't understand why she was doing this.

The ringing filled my ear as I held my phone up. Dave mouthed 'speaker', so I pulled my phone off my ear and tapped the 'speaker' button on the screen. It kept ringing for another moment and then stopped.

"Hi baby," Annabeth said in a loving way. I was trying really hard to not cry again. Why was I so emotional right now?

I wiped my face. "Hey babe." I croaked. "Listen," I furrowed my eyebrows and was bouncing my knee. "I can't make lunch, the meeting is running really long, but we can go out for a late dinner, after the interview?"

She didn't answer for a moment. "Yeah, sure! Um, just text me when your interview is over and we can go get dinner then."

I nodded, looking up at Ashton, who was pointing to himself and the boys. "Oh, um, is it okay if my band mates come with their girlfriends? They wanted to spend time with them before we leave and they also wanted to meet you since they hear about you all the time." I forced a laugh and I heard her laugh lightly as well.

"I hope you're telling them good things about me." There was a pause. Ashton hit my arm and I realised I was supposed to answer.

"Oh, yeah, of course." I laughed, subconsciously rubbing my arm where Ashton had hit me. "Anyway, I gotta go get ready for this interview, I'll see you at like 8, yeah?"

I heard her hum. "Yeah. Love you." I choked, my heart getting caught in my throat.

"You too." I hung up quickly.

"Damn, you guys are saying you love each other already?" Calum shook his head. "When did that happen?"

I shrugged. "When we saw our child together for the first time."

Dave sighed. "Well, let's get you to this interview."