Ours To Be (All Ours, #1)

Chapter 17

He nods amenable to that. ''For sure. We're dodging all paps tonight.''

Oh my fucking God. Tell me why I literally forgot this guy is frickin' famous. Shit. He's just so... normal. Most unpretentious man I've ever been around, if I'm being quite honest. I didn't even think about the fact that I'm out with a fucking celebrity.

''How do you do it?'' Fuck. I just had to ask, didn't I?

''What?'' he keeps his gaze on the road.

''Being in the public eye like that. I'm sure it gets hard at times.'' I add on. God, weed turns me into such a fucking schmoozer.

Silence falls after my query, only sound we're getting are the speeding cars on the road around us. Streetlights illuminating trough the car making me able to see him clearly, yet I don't turn to him. He seems entrenched it thoughts. I can practically hear the wheels turning from here.

I cringe at my absurdity. ''I'm sorry, you don't have to answer tha-''

He cuts me off, shaking his head. ''No, it's okay. I was just trying to figure out a proper way to response to that question. It's a hard one to answer without sounding like an ungrateful dick.'' He affirms.

''You can just be honest. Only if you're sure.'' I murmur. I don't want to push this on him. Although we've been talking for hours tonight, he should never talk about something he's not ready to- or doesn't want to- discuss.

''Okay, so people- or I should say society- has painted this general image of celebrities being the happiest and luckiest people on earth. However, I also blame the artists themselves for putting that exact vision out on social media- making it seem like their lives couldn't get any more perfect and everything's good. When I reality, nine of out ten of them are fucking miserable, battling severe depression and major anxiety issues.'' He declares.

''What about you?'' woah, I am on a roll today. Who the fuck is this? Suddenly worried about a man's mental health.

He hesitates and stammers over his words before he speaks. ''It doesn't get easier but you learn to live with it. It's just hard to shake off feeling like a fish in a bowl when you're being shadowed by paparazzi. It infuriates the fuck out of me because I'm not even the celebrity with all the people I'm around. I just represent them. It's challenging to live your daily life like a normal person when you're not even being considered or treated like a normal person by the outside world, you know?'' I nod. ''I don't take everything as hard now as I did when we first started off years ago- like I said, you learn to live with it- but you definitely develop major trust issues when everyone suddenly wants to be your friend once they see you starting to make good money.''

''I can't say I completely understand but I can see how watching out for the real and the fakes amongst you every single day can be exhausting. I sure as fuck wouldn't be able to do it- knowing myself, I'd just shut everyone out. People are fucking disgusting these days.'' I concede.

He chuckles at my shot of empathy. ''Yeah, you're definitely lucky with your group of girls.''

Couldn't agree more. ''I thank God everyday for them. I know it may not even seem like we like each other with the way we're always on each other's ass, but that's just how we've always been. We're not very affectionate people so we might show it in the oddest ways. But we know that we got each other's backs like rocks. Always.''

He turns his head to me and smiles a warm, teethless smile. ''I'm glad you have those kinds of people close to you.''

''I know,'' I acquiesce. ''Your circle must be huge.'' I presume. He doesn't seem like the most recluse person.