Breaking Point

Chapter 08 // Jesse

[BEFORE - 1 Year and 1 Month Ago]

Kennedy and I had been broken up for three weeks.

One rumour had been spread about me only the previous night. The rumour being that I had moved on from Kennedy already with meaningless sex, AKA a hook-up. That came one night when Adam, Ed, Jason and I had hit the town, specifically a private bar. Adam, despite having acquired a girlfriend in the past few months who attended college a few towns over, started chatting to another girl present in the bar and then dropped my name in it during his inebriation. He confessed that he was trying to do me a favour, but I didn't want to hook up with her, and nor did I particularly like her like that. My mind was still focused on Kennedy, and I couldn't fucking get her out of my head.

Yes, the random girl was beautiful. But I was still hung up on Kennedy and Chantelle filled the role of another girl in my life, even though we were just incredibly good friends with flirtatious banter. It was normal and harmless with us.

Despite the bar being private, as soon as someone spots a situation which blinds their eyes with dollar signs, they'll jump at it. Someone unidentifiable snapped a photo of the girl and I. She had said something to make me chuckle and we had been leaning in considering music was blaring through the bar, so you can imagine how scandalous it appeared.

It was all over the Internet that evening and went straight to the tabloids for printing for the following day's edition. It was front-page news. It was disgusting. They were leeching onto something that didn't exist, manufacturing it for their benefit so they could profit from it, even if it was slander for me.

Pauline, as my publicist, had a field day trying to work with that scandal, though it seemed to be my first big scandal. Anything else prior was just about my relationship with Kennedy and having been caught making out in the back of my car or somewhere, which for a guy and a girl who were both roughly twenty-one, it was as harmless and innocent as possible.

"Please tell me you think the rumour is bullshit," I said to Chantelle the following day when I turned up at the studio.

Chantelle seemed momentarily taken aback. "Uh, yeah. But you know, there's nothing wrong with a hook-up if you needed it."

I shook my head. "I'm good."

She stared at me, wordless.

"I mean, don't get me wrong, sex is amazing. But I'm not ready for something with someone else." The words were just vomit I was suddenly spewing uncontrollably. I winced. "Can we forget I said that please?"

She grinned. "Totally forgotten, Two-Minute Man."

A chuckle escaped me. "Trust me, I last longer than two minutes."

She waved her hand, a grin curving at her lips, as she wandered over to Claire, my vocal coach and Ally, my stylist. "Yeah, whatever," she shouted, earning an impish grin off me.