“TJ, the people at my label, I’m not even kiddin’, they have so many plants in so many of these fan groups for this exact thing. If I go up on lyrics and make a fool of myself. If I lose my cool and go off on a heckler at a show and the fans react poorly to it. Whatever you can think of, they use these plants to steer the conversation. Not to mention their legal team. Their own social media warriors. There’s no headlines. It’s still contained. They’re on it. They’ve … been on it all day,” I finally confess with a sigh. “I’m sorry for not tellin’ you earlier. But trust me, they’ve got plans in motion.”
“I trust you,” he says quietly, then meets my eyes. “But do you trust them?”
I stare back, as if I don’t understand the question.
What he’s really asking.
Do I trust my label? Do I trust them to tell the story? And most importantly, do I trust them to protect TJ the wayI’dprotect TJ?
Can I even trust these calls from Ian blowing up my phone?
“Yes,” I finally say—or choke, throat stubborn and tightening up. “Yeah. I do.”
TJ continues staring into my eyes, as if to be sure. “Alright,” he finally says with a nod. Then he faces the road, hands back on the steering wheel. “I’ll trust them, too.”
He starts the car once more.
Off we go.
I can’t help feeling like when he says he’ll trust them, what he’s really trusting is me.
We make it safely back to TJ’s house without any spontaneous deer encounters, I’m relieved to report. “Since nothing’s going on just yet,” says TJ before we go in, “let’s not mention anything to my parents. I don’t want them to worry over nothing.”
Then we enter the house through the side door.
Cissy ambushes us in the kitchen. “You’re back just in time!” she cries out gleefully. “Your father and I were about to sit down to watch a movie in the cinema room. Why don’t you two join us?? It’s rom-com night!”
TJ is about to turn her down when I put my arm around his back and pull him close, startling him. “I think that sounds great,” I tell her—and him. He meets my eyes questioningly.
It’s exactly what I think we need tonight.
A safe, bland movie. Popcorn. Mom and Dad.
Normalcy.
It takes TJ a while to relax. I can tell. We’re spread out in his “cinema room”, which is basically a small movie theater with long, pillow-filled couches and loveseats filling four raked rows, clearly for them plus a dozen or more friends. The room’s complete with a sound system beefy enough to drown out the rest of the world, and isn’t that kind of literally what we need?
His parents sit near the front. TJ and I are a couple rows back.
He’s cuddled against me, his popcorn already eaten with the tub set aside, and I’ve got him safe and warm in my arms as we pay attention to the movie. Well, half attention. I’m not sure either of us are really following the plot. Isn’t that the thing with rom-coms nowadays? You can fall asleep through half of it, wake up, and feel like you’re still a step ahead of the adorably predictable plot.
I just wish our own story was as adorably predictable.
I have no fucking idea what Ian or my team are doing. If they have a handle on anything at all. How stupid was I, to believe that leaked photos of us from that night in Houston could somehow be magically contained, never to see the light of day again?
That was way back in Atlanta that I first learned about the photos. It’s now a whole ass-load of weeks later. That’s a fuck lot of time for those pics of us to circulate and stir shit up.
I’m honestly surprised a headline wasn’t written right away.
Don’t click-bait websites jump on that shit instantly, even if it’s speculative and unconfirmed?
“You okay?”
I stir from my thoughts at TJ’s sweet voice. He’s looking up at me from my lap. I guess he can still see the movie. I give his arm a squeeze, then nod. He smiles, then turns back to the movie. So do I, putting my thoughts aside, determined to be present with TJ.
His parents go to bed after the movie. I’m surprised when Tim gives me a hug right after Cissy, like I’m already part of the family. I linger there after they head across the foyer to their bedroom. I think I underestimated how much I miss this feeling of family.
“Be right back,” says TJ, a little cheerier after the movie, then heads off to take a shower.