Chapter 4

Pin drop silence covered the place. No one dared to open their mouth, let alone move an inch, as they were too busy being shocked at seeing Troy and Danica kiss. Hernan wanted to cover Aziel’s eyes instantly, which he couldn’t, because the cameraman was filming everything. It was supposed to be a live video, shit, Hernan realized and blocked the camera, glaring at the cameraman to stop recording.

But it was too late as the fans were already bombarding the comments section with ‘who is this girl?’ while Troy’s assistant’s phone was being spammed with calls from his editors.

Danica pushed Troy with her hands, who didn’t stumble back due to his firm posture. She glanced at Troy before the glimpse of their first kiss flashed in front of her eyes. This was Danica’s first on-screen kiss, and she knew it was Troy’s as well. But the footage would be deleted from the video, she thought.

“Dani, did you just kiss the Troy Kingston? Oh my god!” Aziel squealed in excitement, breaking the awkward silence. And when he saw Gabrielle and Trevor, he let out a scream. “I cannot believe this! I am in a house full of celebrities. This is the best birthday gift ever.”

Hernan snapped his fingers, motioning the crewmen to move out. “How about I show you to your room?” he asked, turning toward Aziel.

He nodded and grabbed Hernan’s hand. “Dani, you and Troy look cute in pink,” he uttered before walking away with Hernan, who just winked at Troy and Danica, wishing them the best of luck as well.

Danica’s hands flew to her hair in a panic. Pink dye was all over her hair and her green crop top. She groaned and stomped her feet. Out of all the colors, she couldn’t believe her hair color was now pink. She had always thought pink hair dye was an eyesore.

Before Danica could cuss out, Gabrielle let out, “Dani? OMG.” She fastened her pace and pulled Danica into a big hug, not caring for the pink dye that had smitten with her pastel-colored dress. “It’s been like forever. I didn’t expect to meet you at all. Like really. Not at all. I’m so glad to see you. I can’t explain.”

“I think you should ask her whether she is okay at first,” Trevor spoke from behind Gabrielle. He instantly regretted opening his mouth as he received Danica’s burning glare. A bucket of guilt splashed on him. Even so, he did not regret what he did. After all, he would commit the same mistakes over and over again if it was for the sake of Gabrielle.

After the hug, Gabrielle glanced at her bracelet wristwatch. As much as she would love to skip work and chat with her friend, she could never let anyone question her professionalism. “Shit, I’m getting late. I will catch up with you later. See ya, Dani.” With that, Gabrielle rushed to the main door.

After she left, an awkward silence spread in the room once again.

Pointing a finger toward his direction, Danica said to Trevor, “What the fuck were you thinking when you pushed me at that time? Was that your idea of welcoming me? Have you gone crazy in the meantime I wasn’t here, Trevor? Why would you do that?”

Trevor took a few steps back, in case Danica was planning to throw something at him and cleared his throat. “Sorry, Danica. It was a live prank, and Gabrielle was going to a shoot. I couldn’t let her hair get ruined and-”

“So you decided to ruin mine?” she snapped back, but she paused all of a sudden. A realization hit her hard like a brick. “Wait. Live prank? What do you mean?” She gasped and turned back to where she expected Troy to be standing. Troy wasn’t there anymore. He had already put his hands in his pocket and was making his way to his room. “Shit, it might go viral. I have to talk to Troy.” Sparing one last glare at Trevor, who arched an eyebrow in amusement, she ran behind Troy.

As Troy was about to close the door of his room on her face, Danica stopped the door from closing. “I know I should knock but the door is still technically open, so can I come in?”

A startled Troy nodded his head and opened the door for her to enter. “I… Have a seat, Danica.”

Danica sat on the white couch quietly. She scanned the red and white shaded room, slightly smiling that Troy still really loved red a lot. She didn’t fail to notice how cute Troy was actually looking with pink dyed hair. He looked good in just about anything, even neon hair dye would suit him. When her mind drifted to the on-screen kiss they had, she started speaking, “Troy, about the kiss… It was a live video, wasn’t it? What if it goes viral?”

Troy twitched his lips, thinking for a few seconds before taking a seat next to Danica after taking something from the nightstand. “Don’t worry. Hernan will handle everything. Even if it goes viral, it will disappear from the internet within a day or two. You don’t have to worry.”

“Are you sure?” Danica asked nervously.

Troy hummed in response. He handed her a bar of Hershey’s. “Here. Have this and stay stress-free. It was just a peck, nothing serious. People will understand that, and things will be normal. Just enjoy your stay.”

She smiled seeing her favorite chocolate in her hand; Troy didn’t forget about it. “Okay, thanks. I should go to Aziel now because he saw us kissing and I need to explain it to him before he imagines stuff all by himself.” She would not be surprised if Aziel got the two of them married in his imagination. “By the way, your room is very well-decorated, and I like it.” Danica got up and further said, “Are you okay, Troy?”

“Yes, I am okay. I should be asking you this question, but I know you’d say you’re okay when actually, you are not. Thus I didn’t ask, and I won’t.”

Danica narrowed her eyes playfully before making her way out of the room. As she was about to step out, Troy called out, “Danica.”

She turned to face him, arching an eyebrow at him, waiting for him to continue. When she saw his blue eyes piercing through her hazel ones, without uttering a word, she said, “Yes?”

“If you are nervous about the kiss, you shouldn’t be. We are each other’s first offscreen kiss as well, not only on-screen.” With that, Troy winked at Danica. Her heart skipped a beat.

She could feel the lump in her throat as her cheeks grew hot in embarrassment. She failed to see the tint of red shade on Troy’s cheeks while thinking about her own shyness. “How-how long will this pink dye last?” she managed to ask him in a meek voice.

“About twenty-four hours,” he answered and stood up from the couch. “I made it especially for Gabrielle, but look, it was us who ended up suffering. I guess our habit of dragging each other everywhere didn’t change.” He chuckled lightly while eyeing Danica’s pink dyed hair, which made her look very cute, almost like a barbie doll. Troy would admit that Danica was naturally beautiful, and she never failed to make his heart skip a beat with her original beauty.

Danica only hummed in response and stormed out of his room.

Meanwhile, Marker David, Troy’s assistant, nervously approached Trevor, who was waiting for Danica in the living room. “Um, what should I do about this, Mr. Bennett?”

“Do what?” Troy looked up at the glasses-wearing young assistant.

“The editors and fans are going crazy over sir and Ms. Waylon’s live kiss. They want me to make an official statement to clarify the situation,” Marked explained.

Trevor smirked as an idea surfaced in his head. “I have the perfect statement for you.” This is the only thing he could do to make improvements in the love life of his best friend. “Statement should go like ‘Troy Kingston found his long-lost love after years’, okay?”

Marker gulped, fearing his boss’s wrath for making such a bold move without taking his permission. “But wouldn’t sir get mad at me?”

“Don’t worry. Why fear when Trevor is here?” Trevor gave a pat on his shoulder and made his way toward Troy’s bedroom to look for Danica.

“You are what causes me fear, Mr. Bennett,” Marker mumbled under his breath before entering Troy’s social media accounts, which was handled by him, and found out Danica’s account. She didn’t have any other social media account other than Instagram, so he followed her account with Troy’s and liked a few of her posts to make the upcoming statement seem believable. Then he posted a tweet on Twitter with the same statement as Trevor instructed him to. “Now I leave it in the hands of God.” With that, he rushed out of the mansion in a hurry because he knew his boss would chew him out once he saw the tweet.

On the other hand, Trevor found Danica standing in the hallway, lost in thoughts. “What are you thinking?” he asked, snapping her out of her fallacy. Danica glared at him which made him give her a teasing look. “Enough glaring. This is your room.” He smiled as he pointed to the molded door a few steps next to Troy’s room.

“Thanks.” Danica took a few steps toward her new room before making a stop. “By the way, Trevor, I heard that Gabrielle proposed to you first,” Danica started, trying to hide the sinister smirk on her face.

“Yeah, so?”

“Why did Gabrielle have to propose? Why didn’t you do it? Were you too afraid that she would reject you?” she spoke up which silenced Trevor. She turned around as she further spoke, “I guess you weren’t much of a man then. Coward.”

“You know what I was like back then. I didn’t have much confidence in myself,” he told her.

“Well, now you have. You must have enough confidence to be a model, I suppose.” Danica shrugged.

“Why are you being so mean? You weren’t like this.”

“Well, letting the hair dye fall on me was a mean move too, don’t you think?” she retorted.

Trevor let out a sigh and asked, “Is that how you’re going to get your revenge?” She nodded. “Well, you got it. Now, are we even?”

“Have we ever been at odds, former bestie?” Danica joked and fist-bumped with him.

“Yet, I get the credit for letting you have a kiss with Troy,” he teased. “And-” he paused before he spilled out the beans about the official statement. As Danica raised an eyebrow, he shook his head and said, “Nothing. I forgot.”

Rolling her eyes, she replied, “I didn’t ask for it.” With that, she got into the fully beige-colored room. It was designed beautifully, with a king-sized bed in the middle of the room. Her luggage was placed near the closet room, which she had to organize. As her rapid breathing refused to stop, she sucked in a deep breath after closing the door and leaned against the door, locking it properly.

A smile formed on her lips as she remembered her first-ever kiss. She subconsciously touched her lips and started grinning like she was back in her high school days. It happened during the high school freshmen party. She got really drunk that day, and Troy was trying to take care of her. When she was completely out of her mind, she pulled Troy by the collar and smashed her lips on his all of a sudden. It was Troy’s first kiss too. Although she could not remember for the life of her if Troy ever kissed her back that night. The following morning, she apologized several times to Troy, who laughed it off and forgave her. But he never stopped teasing her about it, and she never forgot the fuzzy feeling of his lips on her.

And now, it was her second kiss, with the same person, but this time it was on-screen – she kissed Troy in front of several people. She had no idea what effect it would stir in her or Troy’s life.