Fame Crazy (Sequel to Strings Attached)

Chapter 70

"You're joking."

"What?"

"You have to have had friends," Ambriel tells him. "I mean, look at yourself. You can't go from grade-A loser to Ed Sheeran 2.0 like that."

"You can if you have incredibly good luck," Castiel replies. "But you shouldn't have that problem. You seem way better off than I was."

"Hey, Castiel," Hael greets him, interrupting their conversation. "Quick favor to ask. My friend Andrea is always bragging that she's dating a guy on the Patriots — it's some long distance thing, I guess. I don't know. I need a selfie with the two of us to make her jealous because she may have been dating Benny Lafitte for almost a year now, but I've known Castiel Novak longer. 'Kay?"

Castiel chuckles. "Sure."

They take a selfie, in which Hael looks way better than him because he doesn't know how to selfie.

"Awesome! She usually does her streaks at about six so I'll post it at five so I'll make sure she sees it."

"Why don't you just send it to her?" Castiel asks.

Balthazar shakes his head at him, silently telling him not to get involved with her high school drama.

"Because that's too obvious!" she says as if he should have known. "If she knows it's meant for her, she'll think it's totally staged but if I post it on my story, it seems way more casual like we're just best friends. I know you weren't exactly Mr. Popular in your day, but come on, Castiel. Try to keep up."

Castiel raises an eyebrow but doesn't question it.

"Can I get a pic too?" Ambriel asks.

She has Balthazar take a picture of them hugging, which she posts on Instagram, so it doesn't disappear after a day.

"You want one too?" Castiel asks Hannah.

"Nah," she replies. "I don't want to piggyback off your fame. I'm more than your little cousin, ya know? And if people like me more cuz I know you, I don't think they're the type of people I want to hang out with."

"Nicely said, Hannah. Nicely said."

~~

"And welcome to the Bronze," Balthazar says that evening as he and Castiel step into the club, the girls behind them.

"And what does one do in the Bronze?" Castiel asks him.

"Most just hang out and chat."

"And there's karaoke," Hael adds. "And you can't just skip karaoke."

"I think I've done enough singing lately," Castiel replies.

"No way!" Ambriel protests. "You have to sing something!"

"If I had known there would be karaoke, I would've ditched," Castiel tells her.

"But —"

"You wanna sing, go right ahead," Balthazar says. "Castiel does it for a living. It probably gets real old real quick. If he doesn't want to sing, he doesn't have to sing."