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Lockdown
“What in the actual fuck?” Ellie shrieked, shoving her iPad in my face as my eyelids fluttered open.
“What?” I mumbled. “Go away.”
I tried to pull my duvet over my head, but she tugged it away from me and thrust her iPad toward me again. I blinked a few times, trying to work out where I was, what time it was, and why my sister was flipping out.
Prague. We had to be in Prague by now. There was daylight outside, so maybe it was. Hell, I had no idea.
I turned onto my side, and as my eyes focused on her iPad screen, I let out a shriek of my own.
This cannot be happening again.
But it was. Just like the year before when the papers had gone batshit over Drew and Jason’s feud and Ellie had gotten dragged in the middle of it. This time, it was my turn to make the news.
Jason and I hadn’t been as alone as I’d thought the night before, and our kiss was now a headline story on one of the leading entertainment websites.
Oh, wow.I’d been so rudely awoken that I hadn’t had time to revel in the fact that Jason and I were officiallysomething.An item. Albeit a very new and slightly tentative one. That fluttery sensation I’d felt when he kissed me returned at the memory, and I had to fight a smile because although there was plenty to smile about, having it appear in the news was not good at all.
“Yeah,” I began. “Ellie, I have something to tell you.”
Her eyebrows shot upward. “Lucy, this isn’t funny!”
“Do I look like I’m laughing?” I shoved the duvet away from me and hopped out of my bunk. I pointed at the screen.Did I really need to say it out loud?
Ellie blew out a breath. “Okay, we need to fix this immediately because as soon as Mum and Dad see this, they’re going to call, and you need something to tell them. In fact, the faster we sort this, the faster you can call them before they read it in the paper.”
She looked frantic, her hair in disarray. I saw it was only nine o’clock, which meant it was only eight in the UK. Hopefully, my parents hadn’t checked the news just yet.
“Wait,” I said. “What do you mean ‘fix this?’”
“Damage control. We need to call Derek and get this resolved before it gets out of hand.”
“Ellie, stop talking. I need to think, okay? And I need to talk to Jason.”
“You need to stay away from Jason or Mum and Dad will have your ass flown home!”
“I’m not a child! I can make decisions for myself, and right now, I need five minutes to myself.”
I pushed past her to the communal area, which was thankfully empty. I was surprised Ellie’s yelps hadn’t dragged everyone from their bunks, though if they knew what was smart, they’d stay where they were and listen from a distance. This was about to get messy.
I didn’t need to read the news story Ellie had tried to show me. I knew what it said because I knew how tabloids worked. Two people kissing. A rock star and his brother’s girlfriend’s baby sister. Brother’sfiancée. Shit. Me kissing Jason had made higher-ranking news than Drew’s proposal, which was pretty messed up. This wasn’t just a story about a stranger. I was known to the Razes Hell world because of photos on social media. They knew who I was. How old I was. How I was a family friend of the Brooks’.
This was a shitstorm we didn’t need, and we should have known so much better than to figure out our personal lives in the open air, but as far as we knew, we were alone. More alone than we’d have been with prying eyes and ears inside the bus, or so we’d thought.
I should have panicked, but the thing that coursed through my veins more than anything was fear. The Razes Hell fans would—mostly—be supportive, but it was the rest of the world I was concerned about. The judgments. And they wouldn’t be on me. They’d be on Jason. Angry as I was with Ellie, she was right. We needed to limit the damage, but how? There was only one way. To pass the kiss off as a mistake and never let it happen again.
As always, I felt Jason’s presence before he spoke, and I said, “Please don’t say it.”
“Say what?”
I looked up at him, and my heart leaped. His shirt was off, displaying the array of tattoos across his chest, and his hair was messy.
God, please don’t let this be over before it’s begun. Please. I really don’t ask for much.
“That we have to tell everyone we were drunk and that we can’t see each other anymore.”
Jason paced over and sat beside me. When he put his arm around me and pulled me into him, a little of the stress dropped away. His warmth seeped through my thin cami top, and I snuggled into him, laying my head on his shoulder.
