He's Giving Me a Reason, an Emblem3 Fan Fic (Sequel to Riptide)

Chapter 23

"Well where the hell did they go?" Keaton asked concerned. A wave of panic washed over me. Where did they go?

"Do we think they're together?" I asked.

"Probably." Wes replied. I nodded, okay, yeah that makes sense. They would want to spend as much time together as possible before they would have to break up.

"Should we be worried about keeping them out of the media?" Owen asked, still seated at the kitchen table.

"Nah, our audition hasn't aired yet, we've got about two or three weeks before Judges Houses." Wes explained. "And by that point we're supposedly going to have a fanbase, so paparazzi are going to be following us around." 

"So they've got two weeks, and then they're not allowed to be seen together?" Owen asked.

"Nope, not until you guys turn 18. Which is like three months away." Keaton speculated. 

"But by then it might be too late." I sighed and the boys nodded sadly. A lot can happen in three months. And with Adrianna and Drew not being allowed to be anything more than friends, it looks like things could end up changing for the worse.

"Do you think we should go after them?" I asked Wes as we split off from the group and headed into the livingroom. He stretched out on the couch and put his arm behind his head, closing his eyes. The poor guy was insanely stressed out, I could tell. 

"Nah, let them have their time. Besides, I think Drew's kind of pissed at me." He sighed. His eyelids flicked open and I saw the sadness in his gaze.

"Why?" I asked wondering what else had happened at bootcamp.

"It's a number of different things." He said. "Having to break up with Adrianna is just the icing on the cake." He scooted as far back against the back of the couch as he could so I could climb on next to him. We were pretty much the same height, so I had to scrunch down in order to lean my head against his chest.

"That's not your fault, you didn't write up that contract." I told him, running my finger up and down his stomach. Even through the soft cotton of his shirt I could feel the contours of his abs running across his chest.

"Yeah, but still" I felt his fingers play with the ends of my hair, "I just get this feeling that he's mad at me about it."

"Why?"

"Because we're still allowed to go out. I mean, we're in the same freaking situation but he has to give up everything, and I don't have to give up anything." He said sadly.

"Hey, this isn't your fault." I tilted my head up to look at him. I brought my hand up to his face and stroked his cheek softly with my thumb. "There's nothing you could have done." I whispered.

"I know, and that's what makes me mad. I can't do anything. It's not my fault, but he's still mad at me anyway." Wesley's voice turned somewhat angry.

"What was the other thing you said that happened?" I asked trying to get his mind off the break up. But apparently that wasn't a good idea either.

"So we sang Iris for our bootcamp song," He stated and I nodded. I had helped the boys pick it out a few days ago. "and one of the judges kind of made a comment..." He took a heavy exhale.

"Was it bad?" I asked rather surprised. I couldn't believe one of the judges would say something bad about Emblem3, the entire panel seemed absolutely captivated by their audition.

"Not exactly. Well for me at least." Wes replied. I looked at him waiting for an elaboration. "So after we finished, the judges didn't really give us any comments because that how the bootcamp stage works. So they gave us some feedback and then started talking amongst themselves to decide whether or not they were going to put us through." He started. "And that's when I overheard SImon saying something to the panel." He admitted.

"And what was it?" I inquired.

"He said 'the guy in the hat is by far the best out of the three'." I looked up at Wes who was indeed wearing a snapback.

"Oh my god! Simon Cowell gave you a huge compliment!" I poked him in the side. I saw a small smile creep across his face but it vanished just as quickly as it had come.

"You should have seen his face though Aves." Wes said sadly. He was talking about Drew. And suddenly, my excitement depleted as well. Drew worked twice as hard as everyone in the band vocally. Back when we had met over the summer he told me that he was pretty self conscious about his vocals. At the time I found it so hard to believe because he was an amazing rapper. But as I went to more and more of Emblem3's shows, I started to see where he was coming from. 

Wes and Keaton both had these really powerful voices- and when they sang, Drew's soft voice got lost in the song. He put in a lot of extra practice on his on time. He beat himself up about his voice a lot, but I didn't see why. He might not have a super big range, but he had so much soul and truth in his voice and his lyrics, and that's what made it so beautiful.

But I knew Drew; the judges didn't. They didn't see anything more than just Wesley's back up singer. I saw the hurt in Wesley's expression confirming the fact that we were thinking the same thing.

"He's way more than they think he is, and you know that." I told Wes. "He just needs a chance to show them." I squeezed his hand and he squeezed back. "And we'll do whatever it takes."

"Well then I guess this means we're going to need to make it to the Live Shows." Wes grinned down at me. I took the opportunity to cuddle into his side more. I missed this so much. Lately our lives had been so chaotic and hectic we almost never had time to do things like this.

But the one thing I knew for sure was that I was going to make the most of it.

YAY! another chapter written :) hope you guys liked it!! Please leave me some comments ;D

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