Here my twin brother and I held one of the greatest mysteries of the 21st century. We would be cracking the code of who STAN was like a knockoff of Scooby Doo.
If Google Maps was correct.
We found ourselves in a decent but ever so slightly rundown apartment complex a small way away from the inner city. If we were correct, it looked like STAN lived at this address and not some super secret evil lair in a volcano.
Emmett found the apartment exactly—number 434.
"You ready?" he asked, hands in pockets.
"Sure," I gulped, wrapping my arms around myself tightly. It was like a lump had formed in my chest.
Hopefully, this person wasn't armed. Oh gosh, we didn't prepare for that.
Before I could say anything, Emmett knocked on the door and I sucked in a breath.
The door creaked open slowly, and we both found a pair of scared brown eyes, which later we found belonged to an entire human.
A lanky, east Asian guy with long hair answered the door.
I gasped. His eyes narrowed on me.
"You're the barista!" I shouted.
"Ezra Thompson?" he wondered. "What are you doing at my house?"
"I should ask what you're doing trying to ruin my sister's career!" Emmett hissed.
He shrugged into a sigh. "Hey."
His name suddenly came to me. "Spencer?"
Spencer. The same name as Andre's ex-boyfriend.
This now made sense.
"What about it?" he–Spencer hissed. "What do you want?"
"I want you to take down the article!" I shouted.
"And do what?" he said, eyes narrowing on me. "The damage has been done."
"How did you even find me?" I asked. "I don't know you. How did you get all of this information?"
He shrugged. "Just to let you know you're not special. I never wanted to ruin your career."
"So then, why me?" I asked.
"I was trying to ruin Andre. You were just collateral damage," he spat.
"I don't understand."
"Has he ever told you about us?" he asked. I nodded. "Did he tell you that we auditioned together?"
I shook my head, and he smirked. "Andre and I auditioned as a group. At the auditions, I thought I did well. But when they called us to be on the show, they only asked for Andre back."
"He never told me that," I revealed. "I thought you two were just exes."
"He won't tell you," Spencer hissed. "He'll tell you about how he auditioned on his own in the official press stories. Spencer is nowhere to be found."
It suddenly made sense. I couldn't imagine what of must have felt like to see Andre in Dilemma.
"He wanted to get rid of me!" he continued. "He took a chance to go solo and did! And guess where he is now! In a group! He convinced me to move to LA with him and look at me now!"
My spine tingled at his sudden outburst. His face was red and his expression nasty.
"So you wanted to ruin his life by revealing he was in a relationship with me?" I asked.
"It clearly didn't work," he muttered. "His fans are too loyal."
"But how did you find all that stuff?" I asked, leaning towards him. "You weren't at the party. I've only met you at the cafe."
"Does a certain roommate ring a bell?"
The blood drained from my face.
No.
No.
No.
I knew Ray didn't like me! She must have given him all the evidence!
How dare she pretend to be all innocent and blame me? Why didn't Ray like me? Why was I so horrible that she wanted to ruin me? Did she just want Andre?
Tears welled in my eyes.
"Let's go," I muttered. "We don't need to be here anymore."
"You'll pay," Emmett muttered under his breath.
"Shiver me timbers," Spencer mocked. "There's nothing you can do about this."
Emmett and I both faced the door and walked outside, back into the general complex. I finally released my arms and sighed.
"You got it?" Emmett asked.
I unzipped my hoodie and pulled out my phone and the small microphone it plugged into it. I finished the ten-minute recording.
"Got it," I confirmed.