Song of the Chapter: Everybody Talks by Neon Trees

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Two days after Belinda was fired from her job, the pictures of her and Amias sitting together were posted online. They were both blissfully unaware of the chaos currently running rampage on the Internet. Belinda was lying comfortably in her bed, reading a book and waiting for Amias to wake up so they could text each other. Amias was still sleeping peacefully with the script for the TV show lying on his face.

When they were sitting together in the park, Amias had briefly gone off-track from one of the conversations they were having (it was about Vivaan and his decision to be openly pansexual in the music industry).

"Y'know, Lin, my brother always told me that if I liked someone, the best course of action was to tell them outright. Not keep it from them, but confidently tell them and take the consequences, whether they're good or bad, like a grown-up. To be completely honest with you, I've only ever had a crush on one person."

Belinda smiled widely at him and replied. "It's me, isn't it?"

" . . . Yeah." Amias raised an eyebrow in confusion. "How'd you know?"

"I've read a lot of romance books in my time, so it was rather obvious to me. Also that dramatic build-up you used." the brown haired girl snickered. "Any person with an IQ above 5 could've figured it out, Ami."

"Yeah, yeah." Amias pouted, making Belinda laugh.

"You're adorable, Ami. Would it raise your spirits to know that I feel the same way?"

Waking up from his deep slumber, Amias smiled sleepily. He was quite fond of that memory. And her.

He pulled the script off from its perch on his nose, and winced at the immediate sunlight shining onto his face. That was something he'd never get used to. Despite being considered a Very Important Person in the hotel he was temporarily living in, the staff never came back to him on his request for curtains. The large room contained many windows with rods to hang curtains — or at the very least, blinds — off of.

When Amias' phone started to ring, playing the Pokémon theme song, he smiled, anticipating hearing Belinda's voice. He grabbed it and answered, pressing the device to his ear. Instead of hearing the voice of the girl who's somewhere between either being his girlfriend or being some weird type of friend with benefits, he heard the voice of Marcus.

His agent.

"Amias, what in the everloving fu—"

Obviously, he wasn't at home right now.

"Marcus, it's too early for cursing," Amias yawned.

"It's always too early for you, Amias." he replied, the words playful, but the tone dead serious.

Waking up a little bit more, Amias stretched and got out of bed. "Marcus, what's going on?"

"I should be asking you that question. Have you even seen what's going on online? " asked Marcus. "Oh wait, it's 10 o'clock. You just woke up, didn't you?"

"Yup."

Marcus blew out a frustrated breath. "Okay, Amias. Hang up this call with me and type your name into Google. You'll see what's been going around and once you understand the gravity of this situation, call me back. We're going to have a long conversation after this that you will not enjoy."

And with those threatening words, Amias did as he was told and hung up on Marcus.

"Type my name into Google?" he muttered, eyebrows furrowed. "Okay. . .?"

As Amias opened a new tab in Safari on his phone and sat on the foot of his bed, he wondered to himself what could have possibly happened for Marcus to be so angry with him. It couldn't be his interview, right? Both Marcus and Jennifer were more than pleased with him after it was published. He made a good, lasting impression on future audiences with that article. It boosted his popularity, so that couldn't be the reason.

Typing his name in, Amias tilted his head to the side in confusion. If it's not that, then what could it possibly be? There was no other way for the public to see or hear about him. That article and the recording of the In the Heights performance were the only pieces of information that people had to use against him. And both made him look really good.

Unless. . .

That day at the park with Belinda, he did take off his mouth mask and wasn't even wearing the hood on his sweater. Now that he has looked back on it, Amias realized that that choice was rather stupid and smacked his forehead. But was anyone really in the park at the same time as him and Belinda?

He pressed the blue search button and his jaw dropped at seeing the first result.

An article simply titled, "Amias Beaumont, A Lying Heartthrob?"

At the title, Amias immediately decided to read it, needing desperately to know what was going on. When he clicked on the link, the last he expected to read about himself was that he was only a lazy deadbeat who wanted to sleep his way to the top. The writer of the article had included the pictures that were leaked online in what they had to say. They had also already identified "the African-American girl with puffy, red rimmed eyes and a red nose" as Belinda.

The article had accused Amias of having previously been in a relationship with Belinda and seducing her to make sure that the interview succeeded and agreed with the public. Disgusted and heartbroken, Amias scrolled through the well-written article to get to the bottom, the comment section.

There's no way people would actually believe this. . . Right?

"Wow, I can't believe I was actually fooled like that by him."

"He seemed like such a sweet guy. Now I know that he's just a double-faced asshole. Thanks Sarah Stone, for your input."

"Haha, everyone thought I was insane when I said there was something shady about this douche. He was just too honest and naïve. Good to know I was right."

"What a desperate manslut."

"So fake, damn."

"He seemed to have such potential, too. What a waste of space."

"C'mon, guys, this is only one article that's portraying Amias this way. Y'all are the fake ones if you believe all the first things that you hear about stars."

"I can't believe I was going to watch 'Remington Retaliating' with him starring in it. He's the worst. The only reason why I'll watch it now is because of Jennifer Gardner."

Then, Amias' phone rang, cutting off the stream of hateful comments he was reading. Jennifer was calling him, but Amias had dropped his phone to the floor.

Curling in on himself and wrapping his arms around his bent legs, Amias shook his head in disbelief. How could he be so careless? Yes, at the time, he was trying to console his best friend, but why hadn't he been more observant and cautious? Who was even there with them? How could he have not seen them?

His phone rang yet again, but it was ignored by the teen. He instead focused on the spiraling thoughts that consumed him. Suffocating thoughts of ruining his only chance at stardom and disappointing his family that increased its deadly grasp on him with each word, quickly throwing the usually optimistic boy into a hopeless, depressive state.

He's already lost his nonexistent career.

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Chapter 5, done! ✔

Wow, that was pretty dramatic! But for good reason!

The people online who hate on someone after reading only one article on them are the worst. So I thought it'd be interesting to see how a character in one of my books would handle it. 

Amias definitely cannot handle it. The poor boy is too soft and caring for it. To be honest, I'd probably act that way, too. Especially because they know nothing about me and it's bad publicity to say anything. 

So, thank goodness I'm not a celebrity. 

Anyways, see you in the next chapter, and write your thoughts on the chapter here!

Thanks for reading, and remember to not be a silent reader! Vote and comment! Constructive criticism is an author's best friend! ❤❤

Word count: 1,245