Dirty Roomie

by Alycia Taylor

  I called Dominic later that day. I had been hoping to see him and was more than prepared to drive to meet up with him. But sadly, Dominic was away.

  “I’m back tomorrow. Can we meet then?”

  I sighed. “I don’t think so. I’m not here for very long.”

  “Are you serious? I thought you would be here longer. Why don’t you just ask if you can stay?”

  “Trust me, I’ve tried. But there’s a schedule, and I have to stick with it. I can’t really go against my agent right now. Not after everything he has done for me.”

  “Yeah, I totally get that. Well, that’s a pity, but hopefully we can see each other the next time. Or I can come and see you.”

  “Yeah, for sure. Listen, Dom, I need to ask you a favor.”

  “Sure, anything.”

  “Something is up with Riley,” I said and explained to him what was going on. “Would you mind going to get my stuff? Just throw it all into bags or something and take it back to your place. I’ll come and get it the next time I’m here. I just don’t know what else to do right now. And . . . maybe you can try and find out what the hell is going on? I feel so confused. I was looking forward to seeing her more than anything else, and now she won’t even talk to me.”

  “Of course, I’ll do that. I’ll go there first thing tomorrow.”

  “Thanks, bro.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Riley

  It had been a tough few days. Paisley and Ruben had stayed at my house for most of the time, which was nice of them, but after a while, I’d told them that I wanted to be alone. It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy having them around, because I did, but I hated the way they looked at me. They looked at me like was a fragile glass that would break at the simplest touch. They felt sorry for me. And there was nothing worse than someone looking at you with pity. I felt embarrassed too that I had spent all this time telling them how much I liked Silas, and how I was hoping that the two of us would finally be a couple when he got back. It had only taken a few months for Silas to find someone else. And I had no idea if that woman was the first one that he had been with. Maybe he kissed all the girls backstage. When I saw that girl kissing him, I realized that I didn’t know Silas nearly as well as I thought I had.

  I couldn’t believe that he had actually had the nerve to still come and see me. I’d been hiding in my room when he arrived. I knew he was coming because he had texted me to tell me that he would, so I’d asked Paisley to open the door and to also give him back his check. There was no way I was going to use that money after what he had done to me. I didn’t need his help or his pity. When I heard a knock on the door today, I figured it was going to be Paisley again. Even though I had told her I was fine, I knew she would still worry about me. But it wasn’t Paisley. And it wasn’t Silas. Instead, a very good-looking man stood in front of me. A man who looked remarkably like Silas. A bigger, sportier version. He looked like someone who spent a lot of time outdoors. It was the eyes though, the kind eyes that made him remind me so much the man I’d started to fall for. It was hard to look at those eyes.

  “Hi, I’m Dominic,” he said. “I—”

  “You’re Silas’s brother,” I said. I remembered the name. He was a linebacker for some football team. That was why he looked the way he did. “He’s spoken about you before.”

  “He called me and asked me if I could come and get his stuff for him. Is that okay?”

  “Uh . . . .” I half expected Silas to be waiting around the corner, ready to jump in as soon as I let his brother in. I wasn’t sure what to do. I looked at him nervously, and he obviously understood my meaning.

  “He’s not here,” he said gently. “I promise you. It’s just me.”

  I opened the door. “Sure, come on in,” I said and showed him to Silas’s room. He turned around to say something to me, but I told him that I would wait for him in the living room when he was done and quickly hurried off. It felt so strange to be around someone that looked so much like Silas.

  I got to the living room and paced. I tried sitting down but immediately stood back up again. I walked around and around the big living room, my heart beating fast in my chest. I couldn’t relax knowing that Dominic was up in Silas’s room. Part of me wanted him gone, and part of me liked hearing sounds coming from that room again. I felt a mixture of emotions running through me as I listened to him. I heard him moving things around and felt bad that I was just making him do it alone. Silas was the one that had hurt me, not his brother. So, I swallowed my pride and made my way back to the room. When I got there, I saw him on his haunches, a drawer open as he threw things into a bag. He’d already done quite a lot in the short time that he had been there. The room was starting to look the way he had before Silas had moved in and it saddened me to see it getting empty again. Why had Silas ruined everything for us?

  “Uh, hi. I’m sorry about that. I was being rude. I’m Riley, by the way.”

  He smiled and came to shake my hand. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Riley.” He said it like he had heard my name many times before and it made me wonder what Silas had told him. I wanted to ask him, but at the same time, I didn’t want to start up a conversation about Silas if I didn’t have to. It was hard enough just thinking about him.

  “Can I get you a something to drink? Beer? Coffee?”

  He shook his head. “No, that’s okay. I don’t think I’ll be too long. But thank you. I have my truck here so I should be able to take most of this stuff. But I might have to leave some of the bigger things and come back for them another time. I’ll try my best to take it all, though.”

  I got a good feeling around Dominic. There was something very likeable about him. Then again, I had thought the same thing about Silas. I tried not to let that influence my opinion of him. “Thank you, Dominic. That’s nice of you. I really appreciate you doing this.”

  “Yeah, it’s no problem at all. I would do anything for my brother. He’s a good guy,” he said and shot me a look. I didn’t say anything. I just pulled some stuff from the closet to help him. His brother obviously didn’t know Silas at all. Or maybe he just didn’t think him kissing girls was a big deal. Maybe I had been the fool all along. After all, Silas had never officially asked me out. He had every right to be with other girls if he wanted to. Maybe I was the one that had looked into all of this too deeply. Maybe he had never liked me as much as I thought he did. Didn’t like me as much as I liked him. I felt ill at the thought.

  “You know,” Dominic said after a while as he interrupted my reverie. “My brother really cares for you. I know that this is none of my business, but I think you should know that he likes you a lot. More than a lot. I’ve never heard him talk about anyone in the way that he spoke about you. I’m not sure what is going on, Riley, but I am completely convinced that my brother has fallen for you. I’m sad that things aren’t going well, but maybe you should talk to him. The guy is devastated and very confused. All he wants to do is see you.”

  I looked at Dominic. I wasn’t going to say anything, but I also had to defend myself. I didn’t want him to think that I was the bad person in this equation. It wasn’t really fair to me if he thought ill of me when it was Silas that had been in the wrong.

  “Oh, it’s not like that at all. I don’t think he cares about me one bit. Not in the way that you think.”

  “What do you mean? Of course he does. The guy is crazy for you. Trust me; I know the guy well. The two of us are very close. I know that he really cares for you. A lot.”

  I raised my eyebrows and let out a small chortle. “Really? If he likes me so much, then why is he kissing other girls backstage? That doesn’t sound like something you would do if you really liked someone. At least, that’s not something I would do.”

  He stopped what he was doing and looked at me in surprise.

  “He was kissing girls backstage? What do you mean? That doesn’t sound like Silas.”

  “No, it doesn’t sound at all like Silas. But as it turns o
ut then, neither one of us knows him as well as we thought we did,” I said sadly.

  “But . . . how do you know? I don’t understand.”

  “I was there.”

  “You were there?”

  I sighed and nodded. “I told him I was working the night that he had a concert nearby. It wasn’t true. I wanted to surprise him. I went to watch the concert. My friend Paisley had organized for me to get backstage after he played. So I went there, ready to surprise him, and as I walked in, I saw him kissing another girl. I quickly hurried out before he could see me. So yeah, that’s why I don’t want to see him anymore, and that’s why I’m so upset with him.”

  “And he has no idea that you saw him?”

  “I guess not.”

  “Shit. I’m sorry, Riley. That’s horrible.”

  “Yeah. And look, I know that the two of us weren’t dating. I know that anyone else will probably tell me that I’m being overdramatic about the whole thing. He has a right to do whatever he wants with whomever he wants. But I really believed that we had something special going on. We might not have made it official, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t real to me. I’ve missed him so much while he’s been away. I really believed that we were going to be together again. But it only took a few months for him to mess around with someone else. And that’s just the one girl I saw. I have no idea if there have been others.”

  Dominic shook his head. “I’m still so shocked. This just doesn’t sound like my brother at all. He’s not like that. And when he spoke to me and asked me to come and get his stuff, he sounded so distraught about it all. It’s a weird reaction to have if he was with someone else. Maybe it’s not what you think. I know that he cares about you, Riley. I just know it. And I know that he’s a good guy. Maybe you need to talk to him. Maybe he can explain.”

  I shook my head. “Or maybe the fame has already gone to his head. I’m sorry, Dominic, I know you’re sticking up for him because he’s your brother, but he really hurt me.”

  He sighed. “I don’t understand why he would do this.” “You and me both.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Silas

  I felt sick to my stomach as we left home. All I wanted to do was to stay behind and sort things out with Riley. I was glad that Dominic was going to see her. I was hoping that the two of them would talk and that he would get to the bottom of things. I’d told him to call me as soon as he managed to go and see her.

  “You should be happy,” Shaggy said to me when he saw me moping in the corner. “And we get to go back home now for a bit before moving on again.”

  “That’s your home,” I reminded him. “Not mine. That apartment is not even mine. I’m only staying there temporarily. All my stuff is back home. Actually, who knows where the hell it is at the moment. It might be with my brother. I hope not. I hope she changed her mind and let me keep my stuff in my room.”

  I was babbling, and poor Shaggy had no idea what I was talking about. I hadn’t confided in any of them about what had happened, but they all knew that something was up.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, man,” he said as he shook his head. “But you don’t sound happy. You were great at the concert. You should be really happy with yourself. And that hot girl came up and kissed you. What was that all about?”

  I sighed. “Just a fan.”

  Shaggy laughed. “Just a fan. I wish a fan would come up to me and kiss me like that. If you ever want, you’re more than welcome to send them my way if you don’t want them. I will gladly take them off your hands.”

  I laughed. “I’m sure you will.”

  Shaggy sat down opposite me and handed me a beer. “You sure you’re okay? I’m assuming things didn’t go well with that Riley girl?”

  I sighed. “Things didn’t go well at all. But not in the way you think. I mean, I didn’t even see her. She won’t see me and I don’t know why. I feel like I’ve done something and I have no idea what it could be. She wants me to move everything out of the house too. That’s how serious she is. Even her best friend looked like she wanted to kill me. And nobody is telling me what’s going on. I sent my brother over to get my stuff. I’m waiting for him to call so that I can figure out what is going on. I’m going out of my mind. How can she just suddenly hate me like that? I’ve done nothing.”

  “Whoa. That’s rough. I’m sorry. No ideas at all as to why she could be mad at you?”

  I shook my head. “I have no idea. None at all.”

  “Women!” Shaggy said at shot me an apologetic look. We sat there for a while not talking and then he got up and went to fiddle on the computer. I could see that he had no idea what to say to me. It was at that moment that I realized just how little I knew these guys. We might have been touring for the past few weeks together, but we didn’t know each other. I suddenly felt so alone. I had heard about stars being the loneliest people in the world, and now I wondered if I was already starting to feel that way. My career had only just begun, and already I felt the effects of it. That wasn’t a good sign. I just needed to make things right with Riley. Then everything would be okay.

  When my phone rang, I jumped up in nervousness when I saw it was Dominic. I rushed to answer it.

  “Hey, did you go and see her?” I asked without even bothering to say hello to him. I wanted to get straight to the point.

  “I did,” he said. “And . . . well . . . Silas, she said that you have been kissing other girls. She’s pretty distraught. She’s a nice girl, too. I thought you liked her. What happened?”

  “What? What do you mean? I haven’t been with anyone else. All I’ve wanted was to see her. What is she talking about? Who told her this rubbish?”

  “She saw you, Silas. She actually saw you kissing someone. Listen, you can tell me. I’m your brother.”

  “She saw me? I don’t understand. I have not kissed anyone.”

  “She came backstage to surprise you. And she said she saw you kissing someone. She ran out before you could see her.”

  The memory of the fan coming up to kiss me flooded my mind and I groaned. Of all the times for her to walk in on me, it would obviously be that time. “Oh no. I wasn’t kissing her,” I said, and I explained to Dominic what had happened. “She walked right up to me and kissed me, but I pulled her off me. I didn’t kiss her back. I wasn’t interested in her at all.”

  “Shit. Well, that’s bad timing. She thinks you are with someone else now. That’s why she didn’t want to see you. She really likes you, Silas. I could see how hurt she was. She’s a really cool girl.”

  I sighed. “She’s the best. This is awful.”

  “You need to make things right.”

  “I have to. Okay, thanks for letting me know. I really appreciate this. At least I know that this wasn’t something I did. I can fix this. I have to fix this.”

  “You have to. Silas, she’s perfect for you.”

  I smiled sadly. “Yeah, I think so too.”

  We spoke for a little bit longer, and then when I put the phone down, I immediately went up to the front to talk to Garren. As usual, he was on the phone, so I sat and waited for him to finish up. He was scribbling something down furiously in his notebook, and he held up two fingers to show me that he wouldn’t be long.

  When he was finished, he looked at me and smiled. I noticed how tired he looked. The lines around his eyes looked like they had been etched in. No wonder he was so tired. The guy never stopped for one minute. Was that how I was going to look one day?

  “Silas. Almost home,” he said, and I resisted the urge to tell him that we were not going back to my home but to his home. “What’s up? Sorry about that. You know what it’s like with me; business never stops.”

  “Is there any chance that I can take a few days off? I want to go back home to sort a few things out. I didn’t get enough time to do it while we were here. I know you said we are busy, but I literally just need a few days. That’s all. Let’s say two days tops.”

  He looked
at me and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Silas. But we can’t. You know we are leaving for Florida tomorrow.”

  “Florida? I didn’t know that.”

  “I gave you the schedule. Remember there were changes. I gave you the schedule and told you that we were going there first before going home. Didn’t you see it?”

  I suddenly remembered him giving it to me. I remember him saying something about changes but I hadn’t been listening. I had put it aside to look at, and I had completely forgotten. My mind had been on Riley.

  “Oh. Uh, I didn’t see that. And it’s set in stone?”

  “Of course it’s set in stone. What’s going on, Silas? I thought that this is what you wanted? To be a singer. To see the world. To get paid for doing what you love. That’s what I’m providing for you. And now you don’t seem happy.”

  “Oh, I’m definitely happy,” I said. I felt immediately guilty. What was wrong with me? Garren had done everything in his power to get me to where I was. It had only been a few months, and I was already so well known. “Sorry, it was just something I wanted to sort out. But I’m happy. There’s nothing to worry about. I’ll make a plan.”

  “You sure?”

  “Of course. Thanks, Garren,” I said and walked away before he could see how upset I was.

  I felt annoyed. I was obviously grateful and happy for everything that Garren had done for me, and happy that I was living out my dream. But my life also felt so out of control, and I didn’t like the feeling of not having a say in anything that I did. I wanted to shout at him and tell him that it was my life, but what if he fired me? What if he told the world how ungrateful I was? I couldn’t do that. Not when he had done so much for me. I just had to make things right with Riley. I would just keep calling her until she answered. I would phone Paisley and explain myself. I would do anything and everything to make sure that she heard me out. I hated that she thought so badly of me.