"You're mad at me," Ian said.

"Correct," I mumbled.

We were walking together in the park. I folded my arms over my chest and walked in silence next to Ian.

"This is so dumb, Vanessa. Just because I wanted to answer her questions..." Ian began, but I cut him off.

"It's not only that, though, Ian. Ever since we've been getting more and more famous, you've been getting more and more arrogant. It's really annoying," I told him.

"You call it arrogance and I call it living the dream," Ian said.

"So living the dream means being a jerk to everyone, including your girlfriend and band mates?" I asked him. He frowned.

"You guys are all being way too dramatic about this," he said.

"And you're acting too non-chalant about it. You need to fix your attitude, Ian," I replied. He sighed and then grabbed my arm, pulling me closer to him. I looked away, not wanting to see his face.

"Don't be mad," he said softly, placing his finger on my chin and moving my head so it was facing him. He had a soft, but cocky expression on his face. He brushed my now-long hair out of my face and tucked it behind my ears. Then he leaned down to kiss me, but I moved my face. "Vanessa, don't be that way," he said. I gave him an annoyed glare.

"Stop being an arrogant bastard, then," I said. Now he glared at me.

"I don't understand why you're acting like this, because I didn't interrupt you at all during that whole interview," he hissed.

"But you did for Caleb!" I exclaimed, frustrated.

"What's he to you?" he asked.

"He's my friend--!" I began, but paused. I heard a giggling from a nearby tree. I turned to see a group of three teenaged girls, their hands over their mouths, their phones out. Ian turned to look, too, and the girls burst into a fit of girlish shrieks.

"Oh my gosh! It's Ian from The Velocity!" one of them cried. I narrowed my eyes at them. Couldn't they see we were having a private moment? The three of them walked up to us.

"Can-can we get a picture with you?" one of them asked Ian in an annoying high-pitched and flirty voice.

"Yeah, sure," Ian said, flashing a wide grin at them.

"Can you take it for us?" they asked me. My mouth opened slightly as one of them handed me a camera from her purse. I raised an eyebrow at Ian, who nodded slightly at me.

"Sure," I said in a bittersweet voice. I snapped a few pictures of the three girls with Ian and then they asked him to sign their shirts. And then all three of them hugged him and then they walked away, swaying their skinny little hips in an exaggerated way.

"Wow, my first fan encounter," he said, watching them walk off. I squared my jaw and glared at him. "It's not my fault!" he cried, putting his hands up.

"This whole fame thing is going to come back and kick you in the ass one day," I told him, walking again. He grabbed me by the hand and pulled me to him so quickly that I didn't have time to fight him off. Before I knew it, his lips were crashing down on mine and he was kissing me ferociously. I pulled away after a moment of struggling, slightly breathless. His eyes were intense.

"I GOT IT!" we heard. We turned to see one of the three girls jumping up and down with her camera. They had hidden and taken a picture of us kissing. Then they ran off seeing my face. I sent a death glare at Ian and then stomped off.

"Where are you going?" he called after.

"Away from you!" I replied, walking faster so he couldn't catch up.

                                                                        ~~~~~~~~~~~

I stayed angry at Ian the rest of the week. This was problematic because during my photoshoot with Seventeen, I was distracted and couldn't concentrate properly. And it didn't help that in the interview that they did, all they wanted to do was talk about my relationship with Ian.

"Well on the bright side, you took some really cute pictures," Mae said, trying to be helpful. I shook my head.

"I'm really regretting telling people that we're dating. It's so annoying now," I said. "It's all they care about now. It's not really about the music or the band anymore. It's about 'Ian and Vanessa' or as that one gossip site said, 'Inessa'," I said. Mae fought back a smile.

"Inessa. It sounds like a name in an of itself," she said. "That's a really cute dress on you, by the way," she said off-handedly. I ran the silky silver material of the dress between my fingers.

"I'm so excited they let me keep it," I said, grinning.

When we got to our apartment, I found Ian sitting on the steps, his head resting on his knees.

"Ian?" Mae asked. He looked up, his eyes skipping over Mae and landing on me. He stood up and walked over to us. "I'll just...go..." Mae mumbled to me, stepping aside and going inside. I saw her turn around and give me a sympathetic look before disappearing into the building.

"Can we talk?" he asked, his voice somber.

"Depends. Are you ready to apologize?" I asked him. He looked down, his eyebrows arched in tension.

"Come with me. I want to show you something," he said. He opened the passenger side to his car and I got in. I didn't know where he was taking me nor did I ask. I wasn't going to talk to him until he apologized for being a jerk. He drove for a while. We drove out of Beverly Hills, towards the slightly more run-down part of the city. He parked in front of a rather shabby looking apartment complex. I sat facing the old building, confused but not willing to say anything. Several moments passed. I took in the features of the building. The brick work was old and on some parts of the foundation, dark green ivy could be seen creeping up. Several of the window sills were partially broken off and tattered. The windows all seemed in-tact. The handle of the front door was rusting. In the far distance, a police siren was blaring.

"Where are we?" I asked finally, unable to take the silence any longer. Ian looked at me and then got out of the car. I opened the door and stepped out onto the broken concrete side-walk. He locked the doors to his car and began walking towards the small field of dead, brown grass. As I walked behind him, I could hear the grass crunching underneath my feet.

"Ian?" I prodded. "Where are we?" I asked again. He looked at me, his eyes solemn.

"Home," he said in a faint voice. I furrowed my brow.

"Home?" I asked, my eyes scanning the old building again. He nodded, pointing up at the apartment.

"This is where I grew up," he told me. I was a little more than speechless.

"Wait, I thought...I thought your parents were rich? You said that your brother went to Harvard," I said.

"What does that have to do with my parents? My brother got into Harvard because he was extremely intelligent and had an amazing essay. My family, though, is poor," he said, nodding at the building again.

"I don't--I can't believe it," I said softly.

"Do you see now why this band is so important to me?" he asked me. I turned towards him again and his face showed pain. "It's all I have to make a good life for myself. I don't want to live in a place like this anymore. Music...fame...it's my only ticket out. I was never as smart as my brother. I could never get into a good college. Music was the only thing I was ever good at," he explained to me. I looked down at my hands, feeling guilt creep up inside of me like the green ivy on the side of the building. I sighed and stepped closer to him, putting my arms around his waist. He pulled me closer by putting his arms around my shoulders and rested his head on-top of mine. "I'm sorry I was a jerk. I've never had the luxury of fame and attention. I got carried away," he said softly. I shook my head.

"It's all right. I probably would have done the same if I grew up in the same lifestyle as you," I replied. I looked up at him and gave him a small smile, which he returned. He leaned down and kissed my lips gently. I deepened it, realizing now how much I missed kissing him. He placed his hands on the small of my back and I wrapped my arms around his neck. As the kiss deepened, I felt another emotion rise between us, one that I had never felt before. It started in the pit of my stomach and went to my heart, where it was almost painful. When we broke away, I saw a quick emotion flit over Ian's face. There it was again. What was it?

But I knew what the emotion that I was feeling was. And then realization flooded Ian's face as he gazed down at me. He softly ran his thumb along my cheek and down to my neckline.

"I love you, Vanessa," he breathed. I closed my eyes. Had I imagined it? Did he really just say what my feelings were mimicking? I opened my eyes and saw him looking at me. He had said it. It was real. This was real.

"I love you, too," I replied, pulling my lips into a slight smile. He pulled me in and kissed me again, with a little more neediness this time. He lifted me up bridal style, our lips still connected, and began walking towards the complex. I was barely aware of what he was doing. One moment we were outside of the building, and the next, we were inside the apartment, in a dark bedroom with thick curtains.

In the passion of the moment, we moved quickly, needing, wanting more and as much of each other as we could get. The pile of our clothes on the floor grew quickly and we were wrapped up in each other, breathing quickly and heavily.

And as quickly as it had begun, it was over and we collapsed next to each other, completely out of breath and still full of longing. I loved him. And he loved me. And right then, that was all that was important.

                                                                            ~~~~~~~~~~

"Vanessa? It's your mother."

"Mom?" I asked, my eyes widening slightly. Mae looked at me, confused. I shrugged at her.

It had been almost two months since our first album was released. In that span, we had done numerous interviews, photoshoots, meet-n-greets, small performances, and were now in the process of making our very first official music video.

"Hello, Vanessa. How are you?" she asked.

"I--well---I'm--I'm fine. Uh...how are you?" I responded, thoroughly confused as to why my mother was suddenly calling me.

"I'm fine, dear. I wanted to congratulate you on your band's success," she said. I closed my eyes. She didn't mean that. I could hear the stiffness in her voice. I was in for a lecture.

"Thanks, Mom," I said robotically, waiting for the blow.

"I guess it's another matter that I had no idea of what you were doing until you became famous and I saw you on an old re-run of Ellen," she continued. Ah. There it was. The blow. "I mean, why should I, your mother, the one who gave birth to you and raised you as her very own, be the first to know of your fame? Silly of me to think I had any importance in your life," she said.

"Mom, you were never interested in my music and--" I began, knowing full well she was already angry and was not going to listen to my explanation. I heard her sigh loudly and dramatically.

"Well, even though you didn't think it important to share such a big moment of your life with me, I will still congratulate you whole-heartedly and with all my love. Because I am your mother and I love you very much. Even if you don't love me," she kept going. I pulled the phone from my ear and covered the mouth piece and sighed in frustration before putting it back to my ear.

"Mom. I'm sorry. I just didn't think you'd be that interested in what I was doing because it had to do with music," I explained. She sighed again and I rolled my eyes.

"Anyway, it happens. Parents will be forgotten. All of our efforts turned to dust and blown in the air as if they never existed," she said. Mae gave me a questioning look and I made an aggravated face at her. I did not want to deal with my mother's drama right now. "But that's not the only reason I called. I wanted to throw you and your band a party for your success. I have already booked the hall and called the catering company so you can't say no. It will be at the end of this month, the 20th of October," she told me. "I'll send more details when I get them," she said. I opened my mouth and then closed it again because she kept talking. "Oh, and no need to thank me. I'm your mother after all. I care even if you don't," she finished and then hung up. I threw my phone on the ground in frustration.

"MOTHER!!!" I yelled angrily.

"What'd she say this time?" Mae asked.

"Just guilt-tripping me for not telling her about the band. And now she wants to throw a party for us to celebrate our success," I told her.

"Oh gosh, that's going to be hell," Mae said.

"Tell me about it," I mumbled, burying my face in my pillow. "What am I going to do?" I asked.

"Suck it up and go, I guess. You don't really have any other choice," Mae answered. I looked at her wearily.

"I feel so bad for the boys. They have no idea what's in store for them," I said. Mae chuckled.

"We'll give them a fair warning before we go. But in the end, they'll just have to learn the hard way like all your other friends did," Mae said. I groaned again and flopped backwards on my bed. This was going to be a nightmare.

_______________________________________________________________________________

A/N: Yayyyy! Ian declared his love for Vanessa!! Do you think he meant it? How awful do you think the party Vanessa's mother is throwing will be? We'll find out in the next part. Stay tuned!!

In the meantime, comment and rate!

XOXO