Setting: Hidden Hills, Los Angeles County, California
Hangover
God's way of saying, "you fucked up last night."
Tucked underneath a limited edition, white Pottery Barn duvet and a plethora of pillows in the master bedroom of one of the most expensive compounds in the hidden hills of California was a terribly hungover popstar. A groan slipped through her chapped lips as she rolled onto her stomach and buried her face into the crook of her arm, trying to shield herself from the sun as much as possible. Despite the amount of times she tugged the fabric over her face and despite how tight she shut her eyes, the sun still nearly blinded her and worsened the pounding of her head. She wasn't even going to waste her time by sending out an infamous "I'm never drinking again" snapchat because everyone knew that was far from the truth. A hangover couldn't keep her away from a bottle of vodka and everyone knew that. But as her head pounded in her skull and she felt everything that she didn't eat last night churn in her stomach, she certainly did regret going as hard as she did last night. Celebrating shouldn't have left her feeling so shitty, even if she had a lot to celebrate.
There were a few lessons that Demi had learned last night, lessons that she would have to remember next time that she decided to go out and "celebrate." The first was that Kendall Jenner is insane (and a little too touchy) with cocaine in her system. The second was that she always needed to bring along an extra friend whenever she decided to party with the likes of models such as Kendall, Hailey Baldwin, and the Hadid twins. And the third was that Hennessy and patron are not friends but they will come together to jump your ass.
Finally opening her honey brown eyes, Demi Lovato mentally cursed herself. Not only for drinking, but for thinking that having a basically all white room was a good idea. The sheer whiteness of her room was making the sun even worse, resulting in her headache increasing as she rolled onto her back and looked up at her ceiling. Next time she decided to move, she would make smarter interior design choices because this white room was killing her.
After finding out that she did indeed get booked for the Gucci campaign that her management had been lobbying for since last summer, she decided to call up some of her friends and hit up one of the hottest clubs in town. Getting crazy wasted hadn't been on her agenda but when she drank...she drank. There really was no stopping her, and now she wished she had dragged along one of her real friends that would've stopped her when they saw that she was getting too out of control. What else were friends for?
The one thing that Demi was absolutely grateful for was the silence in her house. Even though it was bright and she didn't have the energy to drag herself out of her bed to close her blinds, the house was relatively quiet. Her dogs weren't even making a sound. It made it so much easier to swallow her nausea, close her eyes, and allow the silence to lure her back to sleep.
The silence in her Hollywood hills house was short lived because she heard her two dogs barking downstairs, meaning that someone had come in and was coming to interrupt her morning. Or afternoon. She really didn't know. All she knew was that it was bright as hell and she would do anything for a few more hours of sleep. But with the life she lived and the people who worked for her, there was no way that would happen.
Kelsey Kreshner bounced into her room holding a venti chai tea latte from Starbucks along with one of those little orange scones she loved so much. Demi smiled in relief as she scooted over and let Kelsey sit next to her on the bed. She knew she kept the awkwardly peppy girl around for some reason. Kelsey doubled as her personal assistant and her best friend. It was kind of hard not to become best friends with your personal assistant though. Not only did she have someone to keep her life in order, but she also had someone to confide in, someone who would never share her secrets unless she wanted to be out of a job.
"Holly told me I had to come and make sure that you would make it to your meetings today on time, but I pushed them all back to the afternoon since we all know how you are after a night out," Kelsey said as she passed Demi the tea, then helped Demi's dogs Batman and Robin onto the bed.
"What meetings?" Demi grumbled, taking an appreciative sip of the cool drink before setting it on her nightstand.
"Demi...seriously? You have a meeting with Calvin Klein, another meeting with Dior, and that test run for the Gucci campaign. How much did you drink last night?" Kelsey questioned as she frowned in disapproval, her dirty blonde ponytail seemingly bouncing in annoyance.
"Oh yeah...those meetings," she breathed out before collapsing against her pillows and releasing a deep breath to soothe her nausea. Maybe she should reconsider her "I'm never drinking again" stance. Maybe she should actually mean it this time.
"Yeah...those. Clyde and Avo are downstairs waiting to get you ready so I suggest you shower and do all that good stuff so that you can be on time," Kelsey stated as Demi took another appreciative sip of her latte. Kelsey always knew exactly what to do or exactly what to get her to fix her mood.
Once Kelsey saw that she still wasn't getting up, she snatched the cup out of her hand then yanked the covers off her tanned, half naked body. Demi groaned and dug her face into her pillow before feeling a light slap on her thigh. She knew that she had to get up. But she just wanted one day where she had a break and she could do something for herself instead of running around to these gigs and meetings. Wishing to be famous and actually being famous are two completely different things.
An hour later, Demi was showered and sitting in one of the white leather chairs in her garage as her hair stylist Clyde fixed her extensions. In a flurry of emotions, Demi had nearly chopped all her hair off a few months ago and she was having a hard time growing it back. The style was cute on her at first but after a while she started to look like someone's mother so she fixed that with extensions, which were to be faithfully worn until her hair at least reached her shoulders.
Clyde was working on her hair, Jill was working on her makeup, and Avo was putting together outfit options for her. Demi lived a privileged life style but she did still know how to do stuff by herself. Her management just insisted that anytime she was doing something professional, her team had to get her ready. They didn't trust her enough to get ready by herself.
"You got a text...well several. But here," Kelsey said as she entered her garage-turned-second-closet, passing her rose gold iPhone to her. Demi unlocked the phone and she felt her stomach drop into her ass as she saw the messages on her phone.
"Can I ask you a question?" Kelsey questioned as she knelt in front of Demi.
"You just did."
Demi didn't even have to look away from her phone to see the look that Kelsey was giving her, so she lazily waved her hand for her to continue.
"What's going on with you and Trey?"
Demi's fingered hovered over the string of messages from her...boyfriend. With all the alcohol, the sweating, and the grinding of last night, she had let her on-again-off-again boyfriend slip from her mind. But she knew that someone was bound to bring him up. Trey was her boyfriend of roughly five years – give or take because they really had a thing for taking breaks – and right now, Demi could only describe them as off-again. Right now, in their dramatic relationship, Demi had basically told him to call her when he decided that he really wanted to be with her. If she told Kelsey that, she would just roll her eyes, scoff, and mutter something about them being back together by the end of the week. Not that it wouldn't be true. The longest break they ever had was six months and that was only because they were both touring around the world. In short, it was difficult for them to actually stay away from each other and Demi wanted to pretend that she was being strong and not letting him right back in after the shit storm he had caused.
"We're just taking some time apart. We're both busy," Demi mumbled, playing with the belly button ring that Trey had playfully picked out for her while he was in Miami for a club opening. There was a diamond and then connected to it was a small charm that said, "climax high point" with an arrow pointing upwards. Trey thought it was the funniest thing. The background on his phone was a close up of her wearing it while lounging next to their pool...or it had been before their fight.
"Hmm. Okay," Kelsey shrugged before she walked off.
And because Demi knew Kelsey better than anyone else, besides her beloved boyfriend of course, she just knew that Kelsey had something to say but was biting her tongue in a useless effort to keep her job. Kelsey used to hold her hair back while she snorted coke and kept her mouth shut when Demi passed out from not eating for a week. She was never getting fired.
Since Kelsey was gone and Jill was finally done assaulting her eyelid, Demi finally clicked on the message from Trey and read everything that he had sent her since last night.
Tremaine: I think we need to talk. U busy?
Tremaine: clearly you are. Just let me know when you're ready to talk.
Tremaine: you're really showing your ass tonight, huh?
Attached to the message was a video, and if it wasn't from Trey, Demi would've immediately opened it to see what someone was trying to blackmail her with this time, but since it was Trey, she locked her phone then dropped it into her lap. It was no secret that Trey's friends, or goons as she called them, were loyal as fuck to him and if they saw Demi out in public doing some shit that they deemed inappropriate, they would collect the necessary evidence then send it back to him. Besides paparazzi, they were one of the main reasons why she was always in high alert whenever she went out. That was actually one of the things that they had been fighting about.
Letting it slip to the back of her mind, Demi decided to try to take a quick cat nap while Jill and Clyde finished on her makeup and her hair. Judging by those texts and all of the meetings she had to attend, it was going to be a long day.