Newly Exposed

by Meghan Quinn

  “Not drunk, I’m not a big drinker, remember? This is only my second beer.”

  “Damn, more for me then,” Nikko said, putting all three beer bottle heads in his mouth and guzzling.

  Holy fuck!

  Scout just laughed as Nikko formed himself his own beer bong. It was too impressive not to watch. Not finishing the bottles, but making a great dent, he pulled away and shook his head.

  “I’m getting laid tonight; I don’t care what Zia says. I’ve been busting my ass in the gym for the past month. I deserve some drunk pussy.” He looked around and eyed two girls making out. “I think I might have found my target. A little threesome might be right up my alley tonight. I know Ty will cover me; the douche is probably bringing someone over anyway.” Nikko turned back toward us and said, “You up for a little run in the morning before we take off?”

  “After your threesome and most likely killer hangover?” Scout asked.

  “Eh, better to run it off, puke it out, and then get on the plane. So, you up for it?”

  “Not if you’re going to be blowing chunks the whole time, seriously man. Who would want to run with that?”

  “Your loss,” he shrugged his shoulder and turned toward me. “You in?”

  Trying not to laugh at the disgusted look on Scout’s face, I said, “I think I’ll miss the puke parade this go around. Maybe next time, though.”

  “I’ll hold you to that,” Nikko said, walking toward the two girls who would most likely end up with him tonight.

  “Never heard of curing a hangover that way before,” I said to Scout, just as my phone buzzed.

  “He’s an original, that’s for sure.”

  I pulled my phone out while asking, “Isn’t he some kind of MMA fighter?”

  “Yeah, he also does some stunts on occasion. Well, he used to until he broke his leg and Zia made him sign a contract that says as long as he’s with Teeg Model Management, he won’t be doing any stunts.”

  Interesting. I glanced down at my phone and saw it was a text from Solo. Looking around to see if Zia was anywhere near, I opened the message and turned away from the crowd.

  Solo: Home from work and depressed as hell that you’re not waiting for me in my bed. Can’t wait to have you home tomorrow. We have a lot of making up to do.

  Adam: You got that right, muffin. Believe me, right now, I would rather be cuddling your sweet ass and kissing that sweet spot between your ear and neck, you know the one that makes you extremely wet.

  Solo: And I would be rubbing that rod between your legs, you know that one that explodes when it’s inside of my pussy?

  I choked on my beer as I read Solo’s text. My girl was a little randy, and I liked it!

  Adam: One more comment like that and I might have to excuse myself to the bathroom.

  Solo: If you do, Facetime me; I would be more than happy to help you get off.

  Fuck. I missed her. I was about to text back when my phone vibrated at me, telling me I needed to charge my phone, once again. Instead of texting back, I pocketed my phone so I could squeeze out a little extra charge for when we finally left the party. I wanted to be able to call Solo on the way up to my hotel room.

  “Axel,” Zia called out from behind me. “They want one last group photo. Get your butt over here.”

  Taking a deep breath, I turned and walked over to a crowd of girls who were shouting my model name, practically screaming my name and waving their arms for me to come closer.

  They fucking terrified me. Most of them had bathing suits on, some of them were topless, and some of them were licking their lips while thrusting their chests in my direction. Sweet Jesus.

  “Get in here,” Zia called out to me.

  All the guys were positioned with a girl in their arms, and that left me with Zia, of course. Hesitant, I walked toward her and got between her and Nikko who was eye-fucking the girl’s breasts who he was attached to.

  “Wrap your arms around me and lean over my shoulder,” Zia said, as she scooted her ass into my crotch. I held back the obscenity that wanted to escape and continued to be the perfect model that she wanted me to be.

  Her necklaces rattled as she tried to get in position, flipped her ponytail to the side, and leaned against me. I lowered my head over her shoulder, wrapped my arms around her petite waist, and smiled at the camera, just wanting to get this over with. She pressed her head against mine and wrapped her hand around my neck, making our pose that much more intimate.

  The photographer took his jolly ass fucking time positioning everyone else, so I was stuck holding Zia until everyone was ready to go.

  Finally, the photographer counted off and took a couple of shots. Once he gave us the thumbs up, I released Zia and felt a buzz in my pocket, which she did as well, since she had her ass pressed up against me. I thought it was a text message until my phone continued to buzz.

  Zia looked at me with disapproval, but I still pulled the phone out of my pocket and saw that it was my Aunt Sarah calling. My heart seized in my chest, because the only reason she would be calling me is if something happened to my mom, since she knew I was at an event.

  “I have to take this,” I said to Zia with an apologetic look, and then bolted to the side of the pool area where I could hear her better.

  “Aunt Sarah?” I answered, hoping my mind was just going to a dark place, given the situation.

  “Adam,” Aunt Sarah’s voice sounded weak.

  “Yes, Aunt Sarah, can you hear me?”

  “Barely. It’s your mom, she…” her voice cut out, thanks to the DJ who was thanking everyone for joining the party.

  Fuck!

  “Aunt Sarah, I can’t hear you, what happened?”

  “You need to get here, Adam!” she shouted in the phone, just as my phone went dead.

  My heart beat rapidly against my chest as I tried to figure out what the hell just happened. The guys were all huddling around some partially naked girls and Zia was walking back to the hotel; I needed to talk to her.

  Scout eyed me as I ran after Zia, but I just shook my head and called out to her for her to wait up for me.

  Zia turned around and smiled as she saw me running up to her.

  Once I caught up, I quickly said, “Zia, I need to get home. My mom has been in the hospital for the past few months, waiting on a new heart, and my aunt just called me and said I need to get to the hospital. My phone is dead and I have…”

  She cut me off and pressed her hand against my chest. “Don’t say another word; I’ll have my driver take you to the airport. Take my card,” she pulled a credit card from the clutch around her wrist and handed it to me. “Get the quickest flight out of here.”

  I pulled her into a hug and said, “Thank you, Zia!”

  She hugged me back and said, “Don’t even worry about it.” She eyed me up and down, and for some reason, I couldn’t let her think that I was available, because the look in her eyes made me think that she was going to cash in her returned favor when she got home.

  “I’m with Solo,” I blurted out, wanting to shoot myself for blowing up Solo’s spot.

  Zia was caught off-guard, but then her face softened. She patted my cheek and said, “You two are so perfect for each other. Thank you for letting me know. I appreciate it.”

  “You’re not going to fire her?” I asked, while shock registered over my face. I wanted to leave, but I needed to make sure Solo was safe.

  Zia laughed and said, “Of course not. That girl runs my business. I would be lost without her. Don’t worry about her, she’s safe and so are you. I saw the chemistry between you two on set. I’m in love with the idea. Now get out of here, and when you get your phone charged, please let me know about your mom, okay?”

  “Yes, thank you, Zia,” I called over my shoulder, as I grabbed my shirt off of the lounge and headed toward the front of the hotel. I had no clue what the hell was going on, but the faster I could find out, the better. I just hoped I wasn’t too late.

  Chapter Twent
y Nine

  Solo

  “I don’t understand why he’s not answering his phone,” I said to Nolly, as she hovered over a plate of pancakes.

  I tried calling him several times last night, but kept getting his voicemail like his phone was off. I thought maybe he was really tired, so he just went straight to bed, but now that it was the next morning and their flight just landed, I should have heard from him already.

  “Don’t be so paranoid. Maybe something happened to his phone.”

  “I feel like he would have called me from Scout’s phone, though. Don’t you think so?”

  “I don’t know your boyfriend,” Nolly said, as she shoved a whole pancake in her mouth.

  Blaze came strolling out of her room, with only a towel around his waist and a smirk that made me think he was the dirtiest man ever.

  I had the distinct pleasure of hearing Nolly and Blaze fuck each other all last night, and it wasn’t pretty. I needed to talk to my girl about her howling noises, because damn was she sounding ugly. I loved the girl, but it almost sounded like Blaze was skinning a cat in the next room.

  “Did you tell her?” Blaze asked, as he sidled up next to Nolly and nodded at me.

  “No, I just don’t go telling everyone about our sex life.”

  “No need to tell me, I could broadcast the play by play for you right here after the marathon of screaming that came through the wall last night,” I replied, tossing some fruit around on my plate.

  “Oh, shit, was I loud?” Nolly asked with a sorry look on her face.

  “Nolly, seriously? What the fuck kind of noises were those last night?”

  “Those were noises of a girl getting cannolied,” Blaze said, totally stealing Adam’s term.

  I glared at Nolly, who shrugged her shoulders and said, “I taught him something last night, and I’m not going to lie, he was fucking good at it.”

  “Thanks, babe,” Blaze kissed her cheek and then looked at me. “You going to eat that fruit?”

  “No,” I pushed it toward him. He took a seat at the table and started shoveling the fruit in his mouth. “Babe, slow down on the pancakes, that carb shit goes straight to your hips,” Blaze lectured Nolly.

  Insulted for all womankind, I bored my eyes through Blaze’s soul and said, “How dare you say something like that?”

  “He’s right,” Nolly said, pushing aside the pancakes. “We were just talking about how I could lose a couple of pounds.”

  I stared at Nolly as if she was crazy. There was no weight for that girl to lose.

  “You have to be kidding me, Nolly, your body is perfect. How can you think that?”

  “I need more definition. Blaze is going to help me, right babe?”

  He nodded and said, “Yup, we’re going to get this girl lean and fit.”

  “She’s already lean and fit,” I argued. “Nolly, you don’t have to lose any weight.”

  “Friends have to say that,” Blaze said to Nolly. “Stand up, babe, let’s show her what we talked about.”

  Nolly nodded and stood up for Blaze as if she was a robot. I was so fucking confused that I couldn’t even leave the little side show I was watching.

  Blaze turned her around and lifted her shirt, he pinched her side and said, “See this, Solo? This is the result of too many pancakes and potatoes. But we’re going to change that. She’s going to be so fucking hot when I’m done with her.”

  My mouth hung wide open as Blaze pinched a centimeter of skin off of her body. I was pretty sure he was just pinching skin, not fat. There was no fat on her damn body. I was so furious that I stood up from my seat and just stormed off; I couldn’t even begin to think of what to say. There was nothing to say except that Blaze needed to go. His negative talk was not good for Nolly, especially since she already had low self-esteem, thanks to all her break ups.

  I locked myself in my room and flopped on my bed. I looked down at my phone and tried calling Adam again, but his phone went straight to voicemail. Feeling a little desperate, I decided to call Scout. He had to know where Adam was.

  As the phone rang, my heart twisted in my chest from all the bad and negative thoughts that were running through my mind as to why Adam was not answering his phone.

  “Hello?” Scout said into his phone. At least someone had their phone on.

  “Scout? It’s Solo.”

  “Uh…hey, Solo. What’s going on?” The tone of his voice instantly made me nervous.

  “Um, I was wondering if Adam was around. I know you two roomed together last night, and I wasn’t able to get in touch with him. His phone seems to be off, and I just wanted to see if he was okay.”

  “Yeah, umm…he’s fine.”

  The way he paused had my heart beating rapidly.

  “Is he with you; can I talk to him?”

  Silence came through from the other end until I heard Scout exhale. With his little exhale of air, my heart sank to the floor, and tears started to form in my eyes.

  “Solo, I can’t lie to you.”

  “Then don’t,” I said, on the verge of losing myself.

  “I don’t want to be the one who tells you this, but I guess I don’t have a choice.” He cleared his throat and continued, “Last night, Adam never came back to the room.”

  My ability to breathe all of a sudden stopped, as I continued to listen to Scout.

  “I saw Zia slip a room key into his pocket at the party. I asked him if he was going to use it and he said he would never because he had you, and I believed him until he never showed up last night and didn’t show up this morning, and neither did Zia.”

  “Wh-what?” I asked, trying to take big gulps of air. “He wasn’t on th-the plane with you?”

  “No. I’m sorry, Solo. I want to say this is some bad coincidence, but I can’t think of any other reason why he wouldn’t be with us.”

  “Oh, my God,” I cried into my hands as I thought about Adam with Zia. Was this really happening again? It couldn’t be; there was no way. I talked to him all day yesterday. He told me how much he loved me, how much he wanted me.

  “Solo, do you want me to come over?”

  “No,” I said quickly. “I just…I just don’t know if I can believe it.”

  Scout let out a heavy breath and said, “I know. I think the same way because of the way he looked at all the text messages he received from you yesterday, but…”

  “But what,” I asked, just waiting for the dagger to make its final plunge into my heart.

  “Fuck,” he stuttered for a second and then said, “Last night, Ty went to go check out Zia’s room, you know, see if she needed any…”

  “I get it,” I cut Scout off.

  “Well, when he went to knock on the door, he distinctly heard Zia moaning, and it was because she was fucking someone up against the door of her hotel room. This was right after our group picture, when Zia and Adam disappeared at the same time.”

  The room started spinning as my entire body went numb. Blackness started settling in as Scout’s voice kept talking through the phone. I couldn’t register anything he said. All I could think about was the fact that what I had with Adam was fake. Every moment, every kiss, every laugh was all fake, because no man would ever cheat on his girl if he even cared one ounce for her.

  The question was, why would he lead me on? Was it because of his job? Was it because I helped him out during photo shoots and he needed my help in handling Zia? Flashes of his last photo shoot ran through my mind, as I guided him through what he was supposed to do, how he was supposed to pose. His desperate need for money, his inability to pose without me….it all made fucking sense.

  I hung up on Scout, barely whispering a goodbye, and buried my head into my pillows. Ty might have cheated on me with Zia, but he never used me.

  I didn’t want to believe that kind and sweet Adam used me; he didn’t seem like the type, but then again, you could never truly know someone, could you? One day, they could be your best friend and the next, they could be hiding some deep
, dark secret.

  There were couples all around the world who broke up because someone in the relationship was hiding someone, like a secret affair, a fetish, or even the fact that they no longer liked the opposite sex. It was all around. Humans were hard to trust, especially when it came to being in the spotlight.

  Thoughts of Adam telling me how beautiful I was or how much he loved me and wanted to be with me kept running through my mind as I sobbed into my pillow. Everything was a lie, a fucking lie, and I fell for it.

  I pounded on my pillow and cried until there were no more tears left for me to shed. My eyes eventually closed and sleep captured me until there was a knock on my door from Nolly, telling me Adam was at the front door.

  Chapter Thirty

  Adam

  The last twelve hours had been hell. Once I was able to get to the hospital, I was greeted by my Aunt Sarah in the waiting room with red-rimmed eyes and mascara running down her face. I broke down right in front of her before I could even find out what happened.

  I held her in my arms as she sobbed into my chest and I cried into her hair. There could only be one reason why she was crying so much.

  It wasn’t until the doctor tapped me on the shoulder and escorted me to another room that I realized we were in public.

  We sat down and the doctor folded his hands on the desk that sat between us. He explained to us that my mom had a stroke, and in the midst of the staff trying to combat her stroke, someone on another floor passed, with the same blood type as my mom and a healthy heart. My mom was instantly rushed to the operating room, where they performed open heart surgery on her, but because of all the trauma my mom had gone through in the matter of an hour, she was put into an induced coma and was now in the intensive care unit, where her chances for recovery were fifty-fifty.

  When my Aunt Sarah called me, my mom had just had the stroke, and Sarah was freaking out, rightfully so. But it wasn’t until I got to the hospital that we found out all the information.