Chapter2-Obsessive Meetings

February 14th, 2012

 At the same time, Andrew’s iPhone was blowing up with numerous texts from Natalie. So far, he has been ignoring them, but this was too much. He scanned through them. The messages were all demanding to know where he was. He never responded back.

 Alyson watched Andrew go through his phone. She asked, “Natalie again?”

 He nodded his head. She said, “What does she want now?”

 Andrew replied, “She’s demanding to know where I’m at. Like I’m going to tell her that I’m a hospital because Justin overdosed himself and that he’s crazy.”

 Alyson gave a frustrated sigh, and said, “Andrew, how long are you going to put up with her? She can’t keep controlling you.”

 “Alyson, I’m trying to figure something out, but I keep hitting a dead-end. The only way out of this mess is that I go to the media, and admit that I was a grade-school bully.”

 “If you tell the world the truth, will that hurt your reputation?”

 “Probably. I mean, I’m already known as this bisexual man-whore. I may have gained respect, but at the same time, I’m being ridiculed for cheating on you, Brandon, and Justin.

 “Look, I did my best to be ‘nice’ for the media. I’m typically not a nice person, and I know that. But I had to. I had to make myself look good for the public. But once they hear about my past, I could lose everything I work hard for.

 “Do you know how bad bullying has gotten lately? They’ll accuse me of bullying someone to death. All I used were fear tactics and a couple of beatings. I never went to extremes by sending anonymous hate messages and telling people to kill themselves.”

 Alyson said, “I know you never went that far with your bullying. If you did, we would’ve heard something by now. But you didn’t. As for your career, you’re established. You’ve been in the industry since you were 8, and you emerged as a teen popstar. Now you’re one of the most popular male celebrities in the world. Maybe you won’t lose your status.”

 “I hope not.”

 Then Andrew started texting. Alyson asked, “What are you telling her?”

 “I’m telling that I’m at a mall with the guys.”

 Alyson gave a nervous smile as Andrew sent the text. A few minutes after he sent it, Bailey came storming into the waiting room. The member noticed she look mad.

 Andrew asked sourly, “How was that crazy druggie?”

 Bailey replied angrily, “I don’t know what’s wrong with him. He doesn’t remember anything except that we broke up, and that you’re bi.”

 That shocked the members. Alyson said, “Did Justin have some massive blackout or what?”

 Bailey said, “I don’t know. Maybe, or it’s something worse.”

 Andrew scoffed, “What can be worse than a blackout?”

 She answered, “Multiple personalities.”

 Once again, the members were shocked. They knew Justin had a meltdown, but they didn’t know how bad it got. Amanda said, “How can Justin have multiple personalities? The only time he may have had this was when he was out posing as Andrew. But even then, he knew what he was doing.”

 Andrew said, “I think he was going through a major blackout. It would make sense since he was behaving erratically.”

 Alyson asked, “Bailey, what are you going to do now?”

 She replied, “I don’t know. I was in love with a stranger. I even slept with him. I…I just want him to be honest. I want him to tell me the truth about himself. But I guess I won’t be getting that.”

 With that, Bailey walked away. The members stood there, not sure what to do. Libby asked Alyson, “Do we go with Bailey, or do we stay here for Justin?”

 She replied, “No. We go with Bailey. She right. We had a stranger among us. We know nothing about this guy. Besides, we can’t see him. We’re not family.”

 The members agreed, and soon left the hospital.

 It’s about an hour later. The 7A members were in their hotel suite, waiting to have a Skype conference meeting with Louis Walsh, their manager. As they waited, Andrew’s phone buzzed. He saw it was a text from Natalie. She was demanding to know why he lied about being at the mall. As Andrew was to about to text back, the conference was starting.

 After about thirty minutes, the conference was over. The 7A members told Louis about what was going on with Justin. Louis decided to cancel the tour, and postpone the final stop, which is London, until further notice. He was not about to have a missing member during a tour again. He said he’ll talk with the concert promoters to refund the money for the tickets.

 But he wanted 7A to go ahead with the promos for their upcoming single, Do You Feel Me. The members agreed to the arrangements, and soon it was over.

 As soon as it was over, Andrew received a voicemail. He played it, and it was Natalie yelling at him. Alyson heard it, so she asked, “What did that bitch want now?”

 He answered, “She’s demanding to know why I wasn’t at the mall, and she accused me of lying.”

 “So what are you going to do?”

 Andrew replied as he started texting, “I’m going to meet with her at a coffee-shop down the street to talk.”

 “Okay, but be careful.”

 “I will.”

 Andrew and Alyson then kissed, and soon he was out the door. It didn’t take too long to arrive at the coffee-shop. Once he entered, he saw Natalie sitting. She looked like she was about to crush her coffee cup.

 Andrew approached the table, and sat down. Natalie glared at him, and said sternly, “I didn’t see you at the mall today.”

 He said, “You just missed me. I was already gone by the time you arrived.”

 Natalie stared at Andrew, and then said, “We need to go out more.”

 Andrew let out a frustrated sigh. Natalie could tell how he was feeling. She told him, “Look, if you don’t want your past getting out, then you need to stay with me.”

 Andrew said, “Natalie, I’m trying here. But we can’t keep going out on dates. I never went on this many dates with anyone I dated. Not even with Alyson.”

 “Andrew…”

 “I’m tired. I need some time off after this afternoon.”

 “What happened? Too much shopping?”

 Andrew didn’t want to tell her the truth, so he said, “Yeah, too much shopping. Plus, we’re on tour right now.”

 “When is the next stop?”

 “We leave for Birmingham at midnight.”

 Natalie smiled, and said, “Okay, once your tour is finished, we go on a real date.”

 Andrew then said without emotion, “We start promos for our single right afterwards.”

 “But you have day offs, right?”

 “No.”

 Natalie saw a cold expression on Andrew’s face. Then she got up, and said, “I’ll make you make time for me, and I will make you love me. Remember, we’re from Hartford. You’re not from Boston.”

 With that, she stormed out of the coffee-shop. Andrew let out a sigh of relief. He also left the place. Once he returned to the hotel suite, he took Alyson to his room.

 She asked him, “Andrew, what’s going on?”

 He replied, “I told Natalie that we’re still on tour just so she’ll leave me alone.”

 Alyson wasn’t too pleased with what he did. She told him, “You know, she’s going to find out tomorrow once she enters an empty arena.”

 “Alyson, I just needed to buy time.”

 “And she’ll see us on TV next week when we start promoting our new single.”

 “Alyson…”

 “Andrew, she’s going to be furious with you. She might leak out your past.”

 Andrew glared at Alyson, and then he rolled his eyes. He said reluctantly, “Fine, I’ll tell her the tour is canceled. I just don’t want to go on anymore dates with her. I just want to relax for one day.”

 Andrew then sat on his bed. Alyson saw how tired he look. He even looked a bit upset. She sat next to him, and rub his back. She told him, “I get you’re tired. Hell, I’m tired myself. You need to decide if you want to reveal your past yourself, let Natalie do that work for you, or stay being her hostage forever.”

 Andrew nodded his head. He needed to decide soon what his next move will be. Will he reveal his past himself, or stay stuck with Natalie?

_______________________________________________________________________

IN THE VID IS 7TH ANTHEM'S SINGLE,"DO YOU FEEL ME">>>