Maggie ignored him. “It appears you all had a fun night last night.”
Nobody responded.
“I’d say a bit too much fun,” she went on. “I know most of you are of legal age to drink over there, but bringing fans back to your hotel rooms? What were you thinking?”
“We were just hanging out,” Oli said.
Maggie shot him a look that made him shrink back in his seat. “These girls have already taken to social media to tell everyone all about it. And the fact that you were all drunk”—I wasn’t drunk, Trevor wanted to argue—“wouldn’t necessarily be catastrophically damaging for the band, but unfortunately, they’ve also mentioned Trevor and Skyler and how intimate they looked. We don’t want this story getting out.”
“We weren’t doing anything other than sitting together,” Trevor told her, trying to remain calm and not yell about how fucked up it was that she’d basically insinuated he and Skyler’s relationship wascatastrophically damaging.
Maggie looked skeptical. “Even if that were true, I’ve seen the two of you sitting together. I know how that can look like exactly what it is.”
Like two people who love each other? Oh no, the horror.
“Now, we’ve paid the girls off to remove their posts, but they’ve already been shared, and we have no way of knowing if there are screenshots out there. We can only hope we caught this early enough that the stories at least won’t make it back over here to the U.S. Trevor and Skyler, I expect you two to behave with more discretion going forward. And all of you, please think more carefully before you decide to bring random girls back to your hotel rooms.”
Trevor was fuming. He wanted to hold Skyler’s hand and assure him that nothing they’d done together was wrong. But Skyler was too far away.
“And lastly,” Maggie continued, “these girls are talking about how one of them slept with Jermaine and spent the night in his room.”
Trevor’s head whipped toward Jermaine. This was news to him, but it was clear by Noah and Oli’s faces that they already knew.
“We’ll let this part of the story live,” Maggie informed them. “So the focus will be on that, rather than on Trevor and Skyler. Him getting drunk and taking a girl back to his room to party aligns with his image, so it’s not that bad. But I expect all of you to watch your behavior in the future. Are we clear?”
Trevor was stunned. She didn’t want anyone to know that these girls thought he and Skyler looked close, but a story about Jermaine hooking up with a fan was okay? Because it fit hisimage? The bad boy image they’d wanted to cultivate even though it wasn’t him at all?
This was bullshit.
He couldn’t let Jermaine take the fall like this to cover up the truth about him and Skyler. He didn’t care if people knew they were together. But the other guys were already nodding and muttering their assents, and before he could decide what to do, Maggie ended the call.
As they all filed out of the room, he grabbed Jermaine by the elbow, holding him back. “Hey. You sure you’re okay with this?”
Jermaine shrugged. “It is what it is. Iamthe one who bought the alcohol, and I’m the one who hooked up with one of them. So that’s on me.”
“Maybe, but you’re not what they’re trying to make you out to be.”
“None of us really are, are we?” Jermaine said.
And that was true enough.
Guilt still nagged at Trevor, though, as they caught up to the others. He wasn’t paying much attention as everyone was ushered outside and into the two waiting cars. It wasn’t until he was inside the one Christian had pointed him to that he realized Skyler was in the other. And that had to be on purpose.
He told himself it was only a thirty-minute ride to the airport. It wasn’t the end of the world. He and Skyler would still be in love when they got there. Separating them for a car ride wouldn’t change that.
But it was as if some kind of shift had taken place. And he didn’t like it at all.
Leave it to Maggie to ruin Christmas morning for everyone.
Chapter Seventeen
Now
SKYLER
The fire’s still burning,and Skyler’s still trying. Trying to keep Trevor occupied, trying to keep his mind off it. Hoping Trevor doesn’t begrudge the fact that Skyler’s essentially taken him hostage here in New York when everything Trevor cares about is on the other side of the country.
And he keeps asking himself one thing. Is he honestly doing this to keep Trevor safe? Or is he doing it to keep Trevor with him?
