My Brother's Best Friend: a Josh Richards FanFiction -complete-

Part 14: Hype House

I walked into the foyer that I had stood in a few nights ago to apologize to Tayler. 
"Avani! Hey, girl! It's been a minute," Addison greeted her. "Hey, Bailey, come meet some people."
Two gorgeous blondes sat on a couch in the living room. "I cannot believe my eyes, it's Addison Rae!" one of them said, getting up to hug her. 
"And she brought a friend. Hi, Bailey. I'm Kouvr," the other one introduced herself to me, extending a hand.
"How do you know who I am?" I asked, completely lost. 
The other girl interjected. "We saw you on tiktokroom with Tayler. I'm Kelianne."
I shook her hand, horrified at the thought that the first impression these people had of me was a one-night stand with their roommate. "Let's go introduce you to some more people," Kouvr said, taking my hand. She led me up the stairs and into a bedroom. "Alex! Come meet Bryce's sister!" she called out. "Alex is my boyfriend. He's a lot of fun."
Alex came out of the adjoining bathroom. "Hey, it's nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about it." I felt my face flush. "All good things, don't worry."
"There's some more people that we want her to meet," Kouvr said, giving Alex a peck on the cheek before leading me down the hall and banging on a door.
"Bitch, if you don't knock that shit off." I immediately recognized Larray. "It's my favorite Hall! Hey, bitch!" he said, wrapping me in a hug.
I hugged him back. "I'm a huge fan. This is like a dream come true."
Larray laughed. "You're a huge fan of me? I'm a huge fan of you!"

Addison cleared her throat behind us. "Thomas and Mia here?" she asked, a nervousness that I had never seen before crossing her face.
Kouvr shook her head. "No, he's filming today. He told us not to worry if he's not back until late."
Addison sighed in relief. "Let's introduce her to a few more people. Then maybe we can make some TikToks, get her a couple of tags, and try to clean up her image."
As we walked down the hallway, I recognized Chase. "That's Lil Huddy, right?" I asked, turning to Addison. She shook her head yes. We made eye contact, and he knew that we were about to talk. 
"Addison. Bailey. What brings you guys here? Is there another diss track in my future? Still Softish part two featuring Addison Rae and Bailey Hall?"
Addison chuckled wryly. "Wouldn't waste my breath, Chase. We're here to get Bailey exposed to other influencers that aren't her brother's friends."
Chase chuckled. "So what you're saying is that you wanted to give her some positive role models?"
I could feel Addison's anger. "Hey," I said softly. "Let's go meet some more people, huh?"

As we walked through the house, the names were too many to truly remember. Nate, Jack, and Nick all seemed nice enough when they introduced themselves. I recognized Olivia, Kio's ex girlfriend, but she kept her distance. "Hey, Bailey. Bryce needs you back at the house in a little bit, so we might want to get started on making those TikToks."
First, I danced with Tayler and Nate. "What should I caption it?" Nate asked.
Kelianne laughed. "Whatever you do, don't caption it new trio. This girl's been through enough with tiktokroom."

After a few more, Addison and I thanked them all and headed out to the car. "Did Bryce say what he needed us back for?" I asked, buckling my seatbelt. 
Addison shrugged. "His text was in all caps, so who really knows?"
We drove in silence. When we arrived at Sway, we found Bryce sitting outside with his arms crossed over his chest. 
"What's your problem?" I asked, getting out of the car. 
Bryce chuckled. "Me? Have a problem? Never."
"Don't play games, Bryce. Why are you mad?" Addison interrupted.
"I thought that I specifically said to keep your relationship with Josh out of the media," Bryce said, ignoring Addison.
"Bryce," she interrupted again.
He continued to ignore her. "So, you can imagine my surprise when I go out today, and I am stopped by Hollywood Fix. Do you know what they asked me, Bailey? Any ideas?"
Regardless of the confusion and hurt on my face, Bryce kept going. "I don't say things to you just to hear the sound of my own voice. If I wanted to do that, I would just record myself saying it so that I could listen to it over and over. I say things to protect you, and for some reason, you don't fucking listen to me!"
"Bryce, you need to calm down right now," Addison said, putting a hand on his forearm. He shrugged out from underneath her touch.
Before he could speak again, I tried to explain myself. "Bry, I didn't do that. I swear. I know that you think I just have some agenda to not listen to you, but I don't. I didn't say anything to anyone about Josh and me."

Bryce threw his hands in the air and began screaming. "This is unbelievable! Not only do you not listen to me, you're lying to my face! Figure your shit out on your own, Bailey. I'm done trying to help you when you clearly have no desire to be helped."
He turned around, going back inside the house. I looked at Addison helplessly. "I swear to God, Addi, I didn't tell anyone about me and Josh. Bryce was just starting to be okay with it. Why would I jeopardize that?"
Addison wrapped her arms around me. "Did Josh say something to someone? Is Bryce's anger just misplaced?"
I shook my head. "He was there when Bryce said not to say anything. I don't think that he would do that."
"Did anyone else know?"
Nessa. "Only Nessa. Do you think she would do this? She did like that tweet that called me a homewrecker."
Addison pulled out of the hug. "You are not a homewrecker, and we are going to figure out who leaked this to the press. Everything is going to be just fine. I'll work on Bryce. You go talk to Josh and get to the bottom of this."

My phone rang as we walked inside. Fueled by my anger, I answered it.
"I was so happy to hear that you two made it official." The voice on the other end dripped with sarcasm.