“Woah, what’s going on here?” Noah rushed toward them with Oli and Jermaine a few steps behind.
“Nothing,” Trevor said. Because he didn’t want them involved in his and Skyler’s relationship drama. Between him, Skyler, Sierra, and Maggie, there were too many people involved already.
But Skyler shook his head and said, “No, go ahead. Tell them!”
All the guys’ eyes felt laser-focused on Trevor now, so he exhaled loudly, then said, “Fine. Maggie wants me to get fake engaged to Sierra.”
They all looked adequately taken aback. Because yeah, it was crazy. He didn’t need Noah’s wide eyes or Oli’s head whipping back and forth between him and Skyler like he was waiting for one of them to say they were joking in order for him to realize that.
But it wasn’t fair for Skyler to scream at him over it like it was his idea.
“Don’t you think,” Jermaine started cautiously, shooting Skyler a worried glance before turning back to Trevor, “that’s going too far?”
“Yeah,” Oli agreed. “What’s next, you’ll have to marry her?”
“Obviously they can’t make me do that,” Trevor told them. But he wasn’t entirely sure at this point. It seemed management was capable of making him do any damn thing they wanted.
He was like a frog cooking in a pot of water. The temperature had risen so gradually that he didn’t know he was in trouble until it was too late to jump out. Until it had reached the boiling point.
He should be trying to fight harder still. Skyler needed him to. But ever since he’d lost his mom, he’d felt like he’d lost a huge part of himself too. And maybe it was the part of him that held the will to fight, because no matter what he did, he just couldn’t find it anymore.
Every day he tried not to fall apart, tried to stay strong for Skyler. But in return, Skyler kept yelling at him for things he had no control over.
Maggie had brought up the engagement idea because supposedly fans had responded so well to the interview where Trevor had talked about his tattoo for Sierra and his commitment to her. What a joke. While some fans had responded that way, he suspected her motivation for this had more to do with the larger group of Blue Skies shippers who’d been sharing their opinions very loudly online about how theSwas clearly for Skyler.
It probably had something to do as well with Skyler’s new habit of going rogue onstage. Changing lyrics, pretending to fellate his microphone, blatantly wagging his tongue at Trevor.
Both Trevor’s and Skyler’s actions had led to this disaster, so it wasn’t fair how Skyler was looking at Trevor now as if he’d committed the ultimate betrayal.
He hadn’t even said he’ddoit—not that Maggie had asked him like he had a choice. He’d just sat there dumbly as she’d explained the plan, and then when she’d dismissed him, he’d left to find Skyler to talk about it. Which was going great, obviously.
“They’ve made you do everything else up until this point, so why not marry you off?” Skyler said, his voice laced with bitterness.
Trevor took him by the arm and urged, “Can we please not do this in public?”
The guys looked offended, but he didn’t only mean them. Other people were milling about in these hallways, getting things ready for the show.
Skyler didn’t protest as Trevor led him away from their friends and into their dressing room. Some of his anger had seemed to fade, but as he carelessly shoved aside whatever was on the table so he could lean his ass on the edge of it, crossing his arms, Trevor knew this was still going to be an argument.
“I thought we were okay,” Trevor said. It came out like a plea.
“I thought we were too,” Skyler told him, “but I guess I was wrong. Because I’m not okay with this, and I shouldn’t have to be!”
Trevor took a cautious step closer, wanting to reach out for Skyler’s hips but resisting. “But you know it’s not real.”
“That’s not the point,” Skyler scoffed. “We shouldn’t have to hide. It’s fucked up and you know it.”
He heard the pain in Skyler’s voice and again had to resist touching him, because that wasn’t the way to fix this. “I know, okay?” he admitted. “I know it is. This is never how I wanted things to go. But we signed contracts.”
“I don’t give a fuck about a contract!” Skyler shouted, flying off the table and getting in his face.
Trevor let himself touch now. Only a hand wrapped gently around Skyler’s wrist to try to calm him. Try to make him understand. “Yes, you do. You care about your career. Youlovebeing in this band and everything we get to do because of it. You love performing, and you love traveling even though it gets exhausting, and you love meeting the fans and making them happy just by stopping for thirty seconds to sign something.”
“There’s no reason I can’t be honest about who I am and still have that.”
“In a perfect world, sure. But in this one…”
Skyler frowned. “When did you become so cynical?”
