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Thea turns around and enters her home without another word. My mind starts thinking about today. She’s right. It was a great day, but is it sustainable?
ChapterThirty-One
Matthew
“You’ll be okay tomorrow?”I ask Thea.
Tristan left earlier today, and I am heading to California tomorrow. The crowd hasn’t diminished since the day I announced on social media that I visit Silver Moon often.
“Yes, stop worrying about me. You should ask Reed.”
“He should hire someone.”
She rolls her eyes. “That’s not necessary. Matt, you’re the reason we had so many visitors every night.”
Thea places her palms on her cheeks and squeals. “OMG. It’s MJ Decker. Please, please,” she squeals, rubbing her body against me. “Give me your autograph, take me home. I want to have your babies.”
I wiggle my eyebrows and smirk. “So, you want to have my babies?”
“Ugh,” she growls, face palming her forehead. “No. Those are some of the phrases many of your crazy fans screamed while they were pawing you as if you were a piece of meat.”
“USDA choice, prime select piece of meat. And you must call them my adoring fans,” I correct her, half-joking. They’re borderline insane. The attention is exhausting sometimes, and the lack of privacy is frustrating. “Not crazy. They have feelings.”
Thea frowns, lifts her hand, and touches my jaw. “You don’t like the attention, do you?”
I stare into those magical eyes that look deep purple tonight.
How does she know?
“Your smile doesn’t reach all the way to your eyes like it usually does when they’re around. Having all thoseadoringfans chasing you along with the reporters must be tiresome.”
I nod.
“There’s no such thing as privacy,” she continues. “And they want to know everything about you. From where you bought your last coffee to how you sleep at night. Boxers or briefs. Meat or vegetarian. Coke or Pepsi.”
“Boxer briefs,” I respond, then take her hand and place small kisses along her palm. “I don’t think they’re that intrusive. But it’s the price you pay when you’re famous.”
“It isn’t worth paying for it with your life, because when you need them, they’ll be on to the next star.”
She tries to take her hand back, but I don’t let her. I’ve never discussed with anyone how I feel about the attention. No one would understand. For some reason, she does.
“And then, you’ll be running away from everything you had and watching your back to make sure they aren’t right behind you. Every step you take is documented, and every mistake judged and penalized. At night, all those followers are gone, and you remain lonely. Hurt.”
“I try my best to erase the intimate shit,” I explain, trying to communicate to her how I manage to survive.
It’s the job of the media team I assembled to erase most of what’s posted about me. “Keeping the personal life away from strangers is hard in showbiz. You know, when Jacob and I started our band, Without A Compass, it was fine. No one cared about us as people, only our music. There was an incident that changed it all. Some jerk tried to make money off us, and the media got wind one of our fathers was Chris Decker.”
I don’t tell her it was the old drummer from Dreadful Souls, Papa’s old band. Martin Levitz is a fucking asshole. If I could, I would make him pay for everything he’s done to the family.
Something flickers in Thea’s eyes, but she closes them briefly, and when they open, they look void of emotion. It doesn’t sit well with me, but I shove it aside. “We adjusted our routines and made sure everyone just focused on us to keep Ainse out of the spotlight. It was long ago, though.”
I shrug, stopping myself from telling her more. I don’t want to talk about the past. It did hurt, the asshole robbed us of our privacy.
Martin Levitz tried to sue Without A Compass because we included a few covers of their former band on our second album. It was with my father’s permission, but that didn’t matter. Martin Levitz took legal action against us, and even when we won the battle against him, he cracked our family by outing the so-called Decker twins.
Ainsley was already in the middle of a feud with our parents. After that, she hated them more. Papa acknowledged us in public and left her out. A couple years later, my parents separated. The ripple effect of his actions almost destroyed what’s sacred to me—my family.
“I’m sorry.” Thea’s face drops slightly, and her eyes don’t meet mine. “That must’ve been difficult, to find a new way to live after someone disturbed your privacy.”
