International Love

Chapter 10

“It’s about freaking time.” Lacey scoffed pressing the side of her pants suit as Derek and I walked down to the hotel lobby, “If you two can’t be on time you’re going to need a babysitter apparently.”

Lacey’s mood has changed. Instead of being sweet and like a normal person she was giving attitude. I didn’t have time to baby her. I wasn’t going to play into it. She was not going to ruin this day.

“Let’s just go.” Steven said as our limousine pulled up. Steven had on a a white shirt with a champagne colored vest and bow tie along with black pants.

Lacey and I got in first and she sat far away from me.

I couldn’t figure out what was going on with her. I didn’t want her to ruin this day, but I also didn’t want to feel this amount of tension either.

Lacey, what’s wrong? I wrote on my board.

“Are you that dense?” She asked, “Did you two really think we wouldn’t find out you are together?”

“Lacey,” Derek began.

“No, you two have been sneaking around behind my back. You knew he was mine, Ivy so I don’t know why you thought you could snatch him right out from under me.” She said angrily, “You both are going to pay for what you’ve done. How could you do this to me?”

“We didn’t do anything to you. You and I were never in a relationship and I’m sorry if you felt led on by that which I don’t know how you would because I treat you just like every one of my friends.” Derek argued.

“It’s f****d up that you two thought you could hide it.” She answered.

“It is pretty messed up.” Steven chimed in, “If this ends bad I don’t think you two will be able to continue working together.”

You don’t know that. If this were to end badly we would still be friends because we were friends before being in a relationship. I wrote.

“Oh give me a f*****g break.” Lacey snorted, “You don’t know a thing about being friends with someone. You just stab them in the back.”

I was done with the conversation. The good thing about not being able to speak is that I didn’t need to entertain the conversation.

We drove the rest of the way in silence. I couldn’t help but think about what Lacey was going to do. She said we’d pay for what we’ve done. Even though the worst that we did was not tell them we were in a relationship. There was no cheating on anyone or anything. Lacey was capable of a lot. I only hoped she wouldn’t do anything to make the band look bad. But she’d sacrifice herself to get the ultimate revenge on someone. Revenge on me and Derek.

When we pulled up to the red carpet there were lights flashing, reporters everywhere, celebrities, it was an overwhelming scene. Katie opened up the door to our limo and she was dressed in a long black dress. She was always with us during these awards shows.

I guess she could feel the tension between the four of us because she commented on it and said we needed to forget whatever it was and be a cohesive group.

“Tell that to Derek and Ivy.” Lacey snorted.

I rolled my eyes and proceeded to move forward behind Katie.

During the entirety of our red carpet walk we were photographed together and for once separately as we usually were at awards shows. We did interviews together and few questions were directed towards me because, I mean, I couldn’t speak, what use would I be?

“Lacey, how is it going to feel having the other girl missing in your band? I know you two are always bouncing off of each other as far as vocals.” The reporter asked.

“Well, John.” She began. Oh boy, here we go. “I think I’ll be able to handle it tonight. Any note that Ivy hits I can hit just as well if not slightly better.”

That was a smack in the face. So much for the tension not being noticeable. I’m glad she had confidence. But our ranges were extremely different. I was able to go up four octaves while Lacey wasn’t. Thankfully, she wouldn’t have the chance to embarrass herself because of my hologram.

Once interviews were done we were all escorted back stage because we were apart of the opening act of the Grammys. We were originally supposed to perform one of our hit songs, but that was scraped when they wanted us to be in the opening. There were multiple different celebrities each singing a different song through each decade of music. Thankfully we were able to select the decade and since we previously recorded a song by Elvis, that made creating the hologram easier. We were singing an upbeat version of “Can’t Help Falling In Love”. Well the other 3 were. I had to sit this one out for obvious reasons.

Derek, Steven, and Lacey all walked out of the dressing room in matching white outfits. Lacey wasn’t wearing her champagne pants suit anymore instead she was in a white flowy knee high halter top dress. Steven and Derek were no longer in their black and white suits with champagne ties or bow ties. Instead they were in white jeans and white t-shirt’s.

Good luck guys! I wrote on my board as they walked to the stage.

I was staying back stage and watching on the monitor. The previous music faded out and our music started. I patiently waited for my hologram to pop up because I had the opening lines. Instead of my hologram popping up, Lacey started singing my lines. I would’ve thought my hologram malfunctioned if Lacey didn’t know which cues to hit for my parts.

I looked at Katie and she was just as shocked as I was. Tears welled up in my eyes as she hugged me, “I’m so sorry about this.” She whispered.

I stood there on the stage as Lacey destroyed my night. I didn’t want to be there anymore. But I needed to be there. I wasn’t going to let Lacey completely blow this night to pieces. I turned on my heel and walked straight back to the dressing room. I plopped on the couch and put my head in my hands and cried.

“We did so good.” Lacey squealed as they ran into the room. Rage filled my entire body.

“Are you f*****g kidding me Lacey?” Steven snapped, “You just f****d up that entire f*****g performance. You know you can’t hit those notes.”

Steven took off his in ear monitor and threw it across the room. I flinched and looked up and saw Derek slamming the door.

“What the f**k, Lacey!” He yelled at her, “Are you f*****g stupid? You could’ve done this anywhere, but you chose the f*****g Grammys. You’re f****d up.”

“Why are you guys so upset? We did great! I hit those notes!” She said excitedly.

“No! You didn’t! You were f*****g flat and could barely get up to that octave. You did not sound good!” Steven yelled at her, “Your obsession with Derek has gone so far that you would rather make a full of yourself and all of us at a major awards show. You’re so damn selfish.”

“Why would you do something like this?” Katie interjected.

“Because Ivy doesn’t deserve to be up there when she got herself strangled in the first place.” Lacey responded. Now I was seeing red. This girl really thought she was good tonight.

“You’re such a jealous bitch.” I said with my hoarse voice.

“Oh please, like you could’ve done any better. No one can even hear you.” She smirked.

“Enough!” Katie yelled, “You four are going to go out there like nothing even happened. You’re going to be cohesive and you’re going to get along for the rest of this night. If this continues you’re going to sabotage your own career. Lacey, if you ever pull any s**t like that again I promise you I will have your contract terminated faster than you signed it.”