Chapter 2

“You fucking what!”

Angelo tried tuning out Troy’s yelling as he kept going on about the uproar Angelo had caused. Troy was the band’s drummer and like an annoying big brother. Despite the fact that Angelo was the eldest and he was the youngest, Troy always behaved like the former and Angelo the latter.

Damien shook Angelo’s shoulder and he snapped. “Jeez, mate! You’re going to pull off my shoulder!”

“You are not listening to Troy, are you? Who is she?”

“Bruh I did not get anything aside from her name. She’s so… Weird and difficult. I’m going back tomorrow and could you believe she had no idea who I was? I swear when those photos were being taken, she had no idea and looked so surprised and confused. She’s probably pushed it out of her mind and her makeup looked really…”

“Woah dude you’re thinking about her makeup already. Pfft, what’s gotten into you? Smitten already?”

“Naa of course not! Iris tried to do the same thing and she succumbed within two days. If I could win her over that fast, this one would be a piece of cake!”

“Sigh… You’ll never change, will you? Always thinking girls are tripping over you.”

“They are tripping bro. I can have anyone and I am going to get her. Want to bet?”

“You sick idiot. Do I look like Troy to you?! You better pretend to listen now. He’s coming and he’s going to chew your ears off!”

Angelo immediately changed his expression to something more serious and grave. He looked at Troy.

“Forget it buddy. I’m not falling for that sh*t. You managed to drag a good number of people after you and cause a storm on social media! You do know we just got back right? You can’t just take advantage of the fact that our manager is really lax with us and our contract is not so binding!”

“Well I do have the media on me. That’s more press and it’s to our advantage I think?”

Helia snickered and Damien shook his head trying to suppress his laughter.

“You really think we need that much attention do you? Have you forgotten about all the ‘let’s not draw too much attention’ thing?”

“Troy calm down! Besides, do you really think that not drawing attention to things would work? We have a huge fan base and it’s only natural we are followed around by jeez!”

“I do hope this girl is worth it. You won’t like it if you turn this into a hot media case. We may need publicity but nothing negative!”

He tuned out Troy’s noise again. It was no big deal to him and his main focus was Astria.

“Just who was she?”

***

Astria’s POV

Finally! I had wrapped up my shift and gotten home. I had hardly opened the door when Lucy flew at me.

“Oh my goodness Astria! What in the world? You never told me you knew Angelo from Extremes!”

OK I was confused what the hell was she talking about and who was Angelo?

“Girl don’t play dumb with me!”

She whipped out her phone so fast and began to show me pictures of the annoying jerk and I that were taken at the bar.

“Jeez, why is that on the net? It’s just a photo. Stop bothering about it Lucy. ”

“Girl do you know who this guy is?”

“Yep! He’s an annoying jerk, who comes on too strong, thinks he’s every lady’s dream and a terrible flirt! Like who the fuck calls a girl baby? Sounds so lame and old fashioned.”

Lucy looked at me as if I had just said a set of forbidden words. I brushed past her and began to set the groceries I had gotten in the right places in the kitchen.

“Astria look at this.”

She then shoved her phone in my face and the comments I saw were horrifying!

“The bitch! How dare she try to flirt with my hubby?”

“Is she trying to force herself on him?”

“Bitch”

“Witch”

“Such an idiot! To hell with her! She looks fucking ugly!”

OK now I am pissed! It was that annoying jerk that tried flirting with me and now all this? I wanted to comment on the post but decided to check who made it first.

It was a famous blogger.

Iris Stanguard. She was a really popular blogger but what was her business with all this?

Dear God what sort of problems have I gotten myself into! I looked at Lucy and motioned for her to collect her phone.

“So…”

“Just so you know Lucy. I don’t know who that idiot was but he was the only one flirting , not me! I can’t imagine someone being that annoying and I’m the one being trolled? Well I don’t give a fuck anyway. I’m beat and I want to sleep!”

Lucy looked at me incredulously but she knew this conversation was over!

My head hurt and I needed a good night’s rest.

***

[Next day]

I woke up to shouts from outside.

What in the world was going on?

“Tell her to be really careful Lucy!”

“We do not want to hurt you but how could she behave like such a whore?!”

“Where is she?!”

I stepped towards the door and saw the crowd that Lucy was trying to handle. There were cameras around and mostly angry looking ladies.

“What’s going on Lucy?”

“Sigh… You should not have bothered yourself coming down. Just handling a little disturbance from the neighbors. Go back and prepare something.”

“Little disturbance?!”

“There you are, you whore!”

“We have come to warn you, stay the hell away from Angelo… He is not yours and will never be. Throwing yourself at him will not score you any points!”

Wait, these people were here to tell me to leave that annoying jerk?!

It should be the other way around!

The dude was on my neck yesterday and was a big nuisance! Well I needed to tell these jobless females that they had boyfriends and crush this nonsense.

“Oh… So you left your warm beds, your houses and workplaces to tell me to leave a person alone? I have no business with him! There was simply a spill on his shirt due to my clumsiness and I wanted to clean it up.” I did not give room for any snarky remarks and continued almost immediately.

“And whoever took pictures of something really simple is such a creep! For fuck sake! I do not even know who that weirdo is! He was just a customer at the bar and I must say though, he’s really annoying and about him being yours? I know that a good number of you ladies here have a boyfriend, if not all of you!”

I looked at ladies and saw my nosy and annoying neighbor, Jenny. I have been looking for a way to get back at her and she just needed to make the mistake of calling that annoying jerk hers! Ohh she was going to pay. Thank the heavens for the cameras.

“Jenny, you called him yours huh? Don’t you have a boyfriend? You both came here last week for dinner at Lucy’s offer and you’re out here, proclaiming an unknown guy as yours? Damn your boyfriend must really hate himself. I feel bad for the poor dude! He’s not enough for you huh?”

I paused and the ladies had started looking guilty. Good! Now time to sow even more seeds of guilt!

“I would advise you ladies to haul ass and get yourselves busy! Even the guy you’re all here making a protest for is an annoying jerk and is probably sleeping off the scotch he had yesterday! Well if there’s nothing else, stay toxic and please, don’t have a wonderful day!”

I slammed the door and looked at Lucy. “How did I get girly?”

“Killed it b. But what are you going to do? That probably went viral and you’ll be trolled on the internet for days to come!”

“Pfft I really don’t care. But I do hope that stupid guy I met yesterday has his own share of misfortune! I lost a good damn hour of sleep to deal with this noise and shit!”

Lucy looked at me and burst into laughter. “You never change do you? You never let stuff like this phase you and you always find a way to wing it!”

“Adaptability is my specialty. It’s my free day. I’m going to sleep it away after some breakfast!”

“Glutton!”

I burst into laughter and just like that, the peace and ambience was back. The tension we had faced outside minutes ago was gone.