Song of the Chapter: A Thousand Years by Christina (yes, again)

*******************************

Inside a black Infiniti QX30, sat a worried Belinda and Marcus, the former trying desperately to get in touch with Amias and the latter driving the pair to his client's apartment.

It had been a week since the pictures of Amias and Belinda had first appeared on the Internet. A week since one article accused the upcoming actor of being a liar and a deadbeat, prompting other articles that soon came after it to follow suit. A week since Amias had gone into a depressive state and cut off all ties with anyone and everyone he cared about. A week since Marcus, Belinda, Vivaan, Jennifer, and Amias' parents had slept more than 4 hours a night.

Earlier that day, Marcus had gotten in contact with Belinda and offered to drive her to Amias' apartment so they could try to fix whatever happened to him. According to the agent, Belinda might be the only person who could successfully get through to Amias. Marcus had tried to call, FaceTime, text, and even get the door open to Amias' apartment, but to no avail. No matter what he or others tried, Amias never answered.

When Marcus called her, he was pretty embarrassed that he had forgotten that he knew her.

"Wait," he said, halfway through their conversation. "You're Belinda."

"Yeah. . . We established that at the beginning of this conversation, Mr. Shay." she replied, laughing.

"No, I mean, you're Belinda as in the Belinda that Amias was friends with when he was younger. I am so sorry, miss, I totally forgot. I can't believe I forgot! That explains why Amias was texting me about you texting him for the past few weeks. It all makes sense now. I'm so, so, so sorry, Belinda."

Belinda laughed again at his amazement. "Ami was texting you about me?"

Stopping the car in front of the hotel Amias was residing in, Marcus turned to Belinda. "This is where Amias is staying. In order to obtain a spare key to his door, pretend to be his girlfriend — which shouldn't be too hard considering that's who everyone currently believes you are. His apartment is on the seventh floor, it'll be the fifth door on your right."

Belinda nodded and decided against telling Marcus that she might've been on her way to becoming Amias' actual girlfriend. That probably wouldn't end well with him. Then, she casted a look at the hotel. She blinked.

"Wait, this is a hotel. Why do you two keep calling his place an apartment? He's not in a complex."

"The room is built like an apartment, so Amias dubbed it an apartment." Marcus explained simply, opening his door then coming around the car to open Belinda's door. "Good luck, Belinda."

"Thank you, Mr. Shay. I promise I'll get him back to normal."

He smiled. "I trust that you will. And, Belinda? Call me Marcus; you've known me as long as Amias has."

***********

Getting past the staff on the ground floor was easy enough. The short trip to Amias' room and actually opening the door was even easier. The hard part of this mission would be getting Amias back to normal. Belinda knew that. She just hoped it wouldn't be too hard.

Once inside the room, Belinda could finally see why Amias called it an apartment.

As soon as she walked in, she was already standing in his large living room. In the middle of the room, there stood two black lounge couches facing each other with a small glass table separating them. On the wall furthest away from Belinda was a white large piece of flooring in the middle of the wall, creating two levels. Black stairs led up to the second level which had a door at the end of the small corridor. The first level, underneath the flooring, was a nook of sorts that had a full bookcase in a corner and small tables scattered around the floor.

On the right of where Belinda was standing, there was an opening leading to another room. She peeked into the opening and saw a large kitchen with an island in the middle with multiple sinks built into it. On the walls adjacent to and across from her was marble countertop with two ovens and a few stoves in between the surface. Her jaw went slack.

This place was so much better than a regular apartment.

Figuring that Amias was probably holed up in his bedroom, Belinda climbed the stairs to where she thought the room might be. Getting to the closed door, Belinda knocked on its hard surface and called out Amias' name. He didn't respond. She knocked again, harder, and called out his name louder. Again, no response.

Belinda grit her teeth and tried the doorknob angrily, surprised when the knob actually turned and she was allowed access into the room.

Amias' bedroom wasn't dark, like Belinda had expected it to be. No, it was quite the opposite of that. It was rather bright in his room. Looking at the large floor to ceiling set of windows, Belinda faintly remembered Amias complaining about not having privacy because of the lack of curtains in his apartment. Now, she finally understood the big deal he was making about the subject.

Next to the windows sat a king sized bed with a lump underneath the sheets.

There he was.

Surprisingly enough to Belinda, there was no trace of trash or dirt anywhere in the room. No dirty laundry or food lying around on the floor or on any other flat surface in there. Which made Belinda worry even more.

"Amias?" she said, her tone soft as she made her way to the bed. "Hon, have you eaten anything for the past week? I don't see anything here, and that's a bad sign to me, Amias. I have been really worried about you for a while."

She plopped down onto the bed where she believed Amias was facing. "Ami?"

When she didn't receive a response, Belinda decided that a little tough love might be needed in this particular situation. She grabbed the top of the sheets and, without warning, pulled the sheets completely off of the bed, fully uncovering her best friend. Immediately regretting that choice, Belinda was very much thanking the Lord for her dark skin because the view in front of her had rendered her speechless and embarrassed.

There Amias lay on the bed, in just his basketball shorts, his arm under his head, staring off aimlessly into space.

"Amias," Belinda grounded out, gulping her embarrassment down forcefully. "Why aren't you wearing anything?"

He ignored her.

The Amias she knew would probably respond, just as embarrassed as her, with a smirk and a sassy, "Lin, this is my apartment. I don't need a reason to walk around shirtless."

But this person lying in front of her wasn't her best friend. He was an empty husk. A soulless body that just looked exactly like Amias, but had none of his best features. The ever-present, glowing smile that basically called his face home; his beautiful, deep chocolate brown eyes with silver flecks speckled around the pupil that always had a reassuring glint to them; the dimples that only added more beauty to his smile or grin.

Right now, his smile and dimples were no where to be seen and his brown eyes had no mirth to them. His eyes were hollow and lacked any sign of emotion left in him. And this pissed off Belinda.

Walking to the side of the bed, Belinda squated so she could look Amias in the eyes. She scowled at him.

"Amias, you have to get a hold of yourself," she said bluntly. "You have never let anyone get the best of you, no matter what. You just keep going, ignoring everything that they say to you. You know that they have a problem with you because they have problems with themselves, and you wish them good luck with their lives. But because you're reacting this way instead, they're winning. They say all this crap about you and they know it hurts — in fact, they don't even care about your feelings. These people hate on you because their life fricking sucks and they want to bring down other people with them.

"And Ami, if they are going to be this two faced after hearing one thing from one place, then they don't deserve to call themselves your fans. They don't deserve your hard work and your drive and your honest love. They don't deserve you at all and once they come to their senses, they'll realize what they did and how they made you feel and beg for forgiveness. Because you're awesome and real, Amias. And they're just fake." Belinda smiled at him. "Now get up, Ami. You can do this, you can take them on. And I'll be right by your side."

No response.

Belinda swiftly stood up with her arms crossed and growled. She stamped her foot on the ground hard, making Amias flinch slightly. Seeing this, a muscle in her jaw twitched and her expression hardened.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did I startle you? The first damn response I get from you is that?! Your family, Marcus, Jennifer, and I have been so damn worried about you, arsehole."

For a few years, Belinda had lived in Britain with her mother's side of the family, and had even adopted an accent, as well. As a result, whenever she was mad, she would slip into an English accent. That is exactly what happened as she reprimanded Amias.

"You just decided to, what, shut yourself up in your room? And what good would that do, idiot? I bet you've barely even eaten, as well. Amias, this can't possibly be your reaction to every horribly negative thing that happens to you. It's not healthy, and it's stupid as hell! You're stupid as hell! "

Belinda grabbed Amias by the shoulders and pulled him up so their faces were a few inches away from each other. Amias' eyes widened.

"What the hell?! I have told you so many times that you could always come to me with whatever you needed, and you know where I live! You helped me when I needed it, so let me help you, dammit! You've always been so stubborn about receiving help, even if it was the best option for you! Is this what you did when I left, Amias?! This isn't healthy, dammit!

"And another thing! Ever since we were in 7th grade, I've liked you! And I care about you way too much, and, dammit, when you do stupid crap like this, it makes me worry! A lot! You've stolen my heart with that damn Amias charm of yours and I want it back, dammit!"

And she pulled him closer and kissed him angrily, pouring all her pent up worry and annoyance and love into the gesture. In the back of her mind, the far back, she realized that this could technically be taken as sexual harassment because she didn't really ask for his consent beforehand. As she started to pull away, she felt Amias wrap his arms around her waist and softly kiss her back.

The calm way he responded and pulled her into his lap, calmed her down as well, because he was back to normal. As the tension in the kiss died down, passion quietly increased. She wrapped her arms around his neck and almost laughed when she felt the smile on Amias' face. Not wanting to push too far past her boundaries, Amias pulled back, an adoring smile on his face.

"This actually isn't how I imagined this would happen, buuuut I'm not complaining. I liked it."

"And I like you." the corners of Belinda's mouth quirked upwards, and she gently cupped his cheek with her hand. "But you have to admit, what you were doing was pretty stupid."

Amias nodded, leaning into her touch. "Yeah, it was. I'm happy that you were here to help me, though. And by the way, you were right; I haven't eaten anything for the past week, and I'm really starting to feel it right now."

Belinda laughed and ran a hand through Amias' hair. "Okay. You want pancakes?"

"Yes, please!"

As Belinda got up from the bed and Amias pulled on a discarded white tank top, her phone vibrated. She pulled it out of her back pocket and Amias stood behind her.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Ami. . . Jennifer recorded a video in your defense."

************************************************

Wow! So much drama! And a kiss, as well! Many things occurred in this chapter, and it was pretty long, too.

Sorry about that, but this was a pretty important chapter. 👉👈 😅

I will take your thoughts here. 👉👉👉

Next chapter will be important, too. I'll be updating that one either today or tomorrow, so keep your eyes peeled!

Only two more chapters left until the end!

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

Word count: 2,092