Forty.
*Michael's POV*
I could not believe the words he was saying. A fake girlfriend? Seriously?
"I don't think so." I mumbled, staring down at the table.
"Well what do you think we should do?" The first man replied, almost yelling.
"Let them fucking be in a relationship!" Luke yelled, staring the man right in the eyes.
"You will lose fans."
"They were never apart of the family if they were homophobic."
"Listen, do you want money or not?" The second man asked, trying to convince us to give one of us a fake girlfriend.
"No." Ashton stated.
A cold breeze came into the room, making us all shiver, except for the two men. They seemed emotionless, they seemed like robots. It was like they had been programmed to tell us these things and not listen to us.
"It's not about what you want. It's about money. It's always about money."
"You jerk." I muttered, and the two men looked at me like they were sick of me not wanting a fake girlfriend.
"You don't get it boys."
"What don't we get? I'm sorry I am not siked about being forced to be in a relationship or see someone I love be forced into a relationship!" Ashton yelled, slamming his fists onto the table. I hadn't seen him this angry before, he was pissed. I wouldn't have been surprised it he murdered them.
"Ashton. Not everything can go your way." The first man said, looking over to the second man to continue.
"The reason we are giving you a fake girlfriend is because your fame has been decreasing lately, and with the new album coming soon, I think you're going to have to become more famous if you want to stay successful."
Maybe if there was no Five Seconds of Summer, Ashton and I could have dated without complications. Maybe we wouldn't have broken up twice, and one of us wouldn't have been forced to have a fake girlfriend. Life would have been easier without fame.
I looked over to Ashton, seeing what he thought about a fake girlfriend. His eyes were focused on the floor, avoiding eye contact with everyone. His light brown hair was messier than it had been before, and his hands were messing it up more.
"No." Ashton stated.
"No?"
"No."
"Someone from management has told us to tell you this. You cannot say no." We didn't say anything after he said that, so there was an awkward silence taking over the room.
"Anyway, which one of you would like to have the girlfriend?"
"None of us." I replied, knowing that neither of us would have volunteered.
"One of you have to!"
"No we don't." Ashton muttered. Luke and Calum had seemed to zone out of the meeting, I didn't even know why they had to come.
"You do."
"I think it should be Michael who has the fake girlfriend." One of the
men suggested, and I started shaking my head repeatedly. He nodded in return, eventually I gave in.
"Fine. But it's only because I love Ashton." I said, mumbling the part about Ashton.
Ashton's lips formed a straight line, he was looking uneasy. I knew he was hating the idea of a fake girlfriend just as much as I did, but we both knew that there was no way out of it. I guess this was how being famous felt.
The two men's mouths curved into a smile, and they both looked at each-other for a moment. They looked pleased with themselves, like they had tamed us or something. Finally, they got what they had wanted.
"Great."
"We will show you a few photos of your soon to be girlfriend." The man exited the room for a moment, returning with a laptop. He typed for a few minutes on the keyboard, before turning the laptop around so we could see the screen. The images shown on the screen were of a girl who looked around seventeen. She had short blonde almost light brown hair, which just reached her shoulders. I didn't want to have anything to do with her.
"She's Cecelia Fields. She's eighteen."
"When do I meet her?" I mumbled, closing the laptop screen. I didn't want to look at it for another second, I didn't want to meet her. I just wanted to run away with Ashton.
"Two days. You can come back then, and you can both sign the contract." I bit down on my lip, until it almost started bleeding before I replied.
"Fine." I choked out. We sat in silence for a moment before I spoke again. "I'm leaving now."
I stood up, and started to walk towards the door. Pretty sure that none of the boys were following me, I didn't bother to look behind me to see which seat to sit in the car. Sitting in the passenger seat, I turned on the radio as I awaited the other three boys.
They opened the car doors a few minutes later, Ashton sat in the driver's seat and the other two sat in the back. Ashton started up the car and started to back out of the parking lot. There was a silence in the car for a while, the only noise was the radio.
"Change the station. This song is so horrible!" Luke demanded, trying to reach foward to change it.
"No. Avicii is the best!"
"Hell no. Change it!" Luke yelled, and I changed the station. There was someone talking on the station when I clicked it, but after a moment Katy Perry started playing.
When we arrived at the apartment, I was the last one to get out of the car. I followed behind all of them, until we reached the apartment. Then I raced infront of them and jumped on the couch. By the looks on their faces, they thought I was in a good mood when I really wasn't. I just wanted them to think I was so they wouldn't ask if I was okay.
"I really hated them people." Calum mumbled as we all sat on the couch.
"They were so rude!" Ashton commented.
"Now I have to have a fake girlfriend." I added, looking down at the ground. I imagined having to go out in public with her, and shuddered.
"Hopefully one day you won't have to." Luke said, and I smiled.
"One day." Ashton mumbled.
We watched TV for about an hour, not continuing the coversation about having to have a fake girlfriend. I could tell that none of us wanted this to happen, none of us cared if we lost fans.
"What about that pizza?" Calum said when the ad breaks came on.
"Oh yeah." Luke laughed, and grabbed the phone. He started to talk into the phone, telling it what we were ordering. After a moment, he placed the phone down and sat back down.
"I am so hungry!" Calum complained, as food was showing on the television. I wasn't even hungry, even though I hadn't ate an actual meal in ages.
"So am I. I feel like I haven't ate in ten years!" Ashton commented.
They continued to complain about wanting food for around half an hour, everytime they saw food on the television screen they would groan. When the pizza man arrived, they stopped complaining and their heads shot to the door. Luke stood up, paid and took the pizza before coming back over.
"Nom nom nom!" Luke yelled, throwing the boxes of pizza on the table.
"Let's eat." Ashton opened the boxes and the three boys started to feast on the food. I didn't even try to reach out for the food, instead tried to watch TV. But I couldn't concentrate on the screen because the smell of pizza, and I couldn't stop thinking about having to fake date Cecelia Fields.
"Michael, you hungry?" Calum asked, holding up a piece of pizza.
"No." I lied.
"Fine."
---
"Michael! Ashton! How have you been?" We were back at the building two days later, to meet Cecelia. Neither of us wanted to come, but we knew we would have had to sometime.
We didn't answer the question, instead we followed the first man from the last meeting into another room. This room was basically the same as the meeting room, except it was much smaller and only had a small table. Ashton and I sat down on the seats while the man left the room to get Cecelia, I assumed.
"I hate this." Ashton whispered.
"So do I." I replied, just as the man came back with the girl.
"Cecelia, Ashton and Michael. Ashton and Michael, Cecelia." We shook her hand rudely, before the man started speaking again.
"Here are the requirements of this fake relationship," he started. "One, you must not tell anyone it's fake, including your family. Only you and your bandmates must know." We nodded.
"Two, if the media is not convinced by this relationship, we are allowed to make you buy an apartment together etc."
"Hell no!" All three of us said in unison.
"You must agree."
"No." Cecelia argued.
"Yes you must. We own you." He ignored our stares, and continued. "Three, you must do everything we tell you to do."
"Fine." I sighed.
The man left the room for a moment, and returned with three pieces of paper. He passed one to me, Ashton and Cecelia. "Michael and Cecelia's are the same and Ashton's says he won't tell anyone."
I did not want to sign the paper, but after Ashton and Cecelia had, I had no choice but to sign too.
-{ Sorry this chapter is bad :3 }-