"Kristin?"
"Jeanette! Oh my gosh, are you alright? Where are you?"
"I'm fine, I'm fine. Katherine and I are at your place." I practically screamed, "What?! Are the paparazzi everywhere? Oh, geez, I'm so sorry-" Jeanette cut me off, "No, no, not Jackson's house. Yours. Kassy called us yesterday and told us to go to your parents' place-she said if we stayed at our houses or Jackson's, we'd be eaten alive by paparazzi pretty soon. So we had a sleepover at your place last night." I breathed a long sigh of relief and Jeanette said, "That was really brave, Kris. I saw the whole show on TV. I like the song, too." I laughed- Jeanette, always looking at the silver lining- and gratefully accepted the coffee Kassy's sister offered me. I sighed, "Well, I have an interview today. I'm going to solidify that I'm Jackson and then hopefully this will all end soon enough." Jeanette sighed, "This sucks. And those poor guys- they get teamed up with members that are awesome and sure to never break up, and then the band dies 'cause one of them's actually a girl." I laughed and shook my head, "I gotta go. I'll talk to you guys later."
"Ok. Hang in there, babe."
"You too. And thanks. Bye."
"Ciao."
Jackson Aepatt didn't exactly die quickly. I had to do interviews with basically every major news channel and magazine in the US before it was finally the straight-up truth that Jackson Aepatt was not real. I was afraid I would be charged with fraud, but Kassy took care of all the legal stuff quickly enough. The biggest shock of it all was finding out that the person who had leaked the story was Kassy's daughter. Kassy was devastated and with the way she was fuming, I was surprised she didn't disown her. I was pretty ticked at her, too, but I couldn't get too mad, because I knew pretty much anyone with that kind of a secret on their shoulders and that much to gain from leaking it would probably do the same thing. I had a scheduled meeting with the guys today and Jackson's-now, my- house. It was private, not for public viewing or anything like that- but I... just needed to talk to them. I hadn't since the night of the concert, and I was really grateful to them for having not talked to paparazzi about anything, only saying that they, "Found out about this at the same time as the rest of the world," in Luther's words.
Now, I opened my front door and bit my lip as the guys stared at me. They were all holding their favorite snacks, enough for four, along with each holding a carton of Haagen Daaz ice cream. I wanted to be strong when I saw them for the first time after the confession, but I couldn't help it. Seeing them there, staring at me with those blank expressions, holding the foods from our touring like a peace offering, I broke down and started crying. They just stood there awkwardly, Kevin looking desperate, as if he felt like he needed to do something but didn't know what, Luther looking horrified, and Joel looking like he wanted to cry, too. I pushed the door the rest of the way open and quickly waved them in. They put their stuff down on the coffee table and all sat down on the long couch as I rinsed my face in the bathroom.
I sat down on one of my arm chairs, facing the couch, and put my head in my hands for a moment before looking up and finally saying, "Look, you guys- I can't even describe to you how sorry I am. I just... when this all started, I thought it was a joke. I didn't expect anything to come out of it. And then, you guys showed up, and you were so awesome, and I couldn't just turn you down..." my voice trailed off, it was so strange telling the guys this story as if they hadn't been present when it had played out. But they really didn't know anything about it. I took in a jagged breath, "It just got out of hand." I shook my head, "I'm really sorry that you guys had to get involved in all this. It was really selfish of me to do this to you." I didn't really know what else to say. And they didn't say anything in response. We all sat there in awkward silence for what seemed like an eternity before Kevin's face suddenly glazed over in shock and he looked up at me with wide eyes and a dropped jaw, "Holy crap." I rose an eyebrow, "What?"
He just blinked at me for a moment before finally saying, slowly, "I've been sharing a bed with you on every single tour." I fought a laugh as I nodded and said, "Um, yea, that was sort of a one-sided awkward situation." He just scream-groaned, and dropped his head into his hands, shaking his head. Luther whistled through his teeth and said, "So this is why you freaked out every time we knocked on the bathroom door." I laughed, "Um, yup, that's why." The rest of the afternoon was pretty much just spent reviewing all the things they should have realized that showed my obvious female-ness. Joel didn't say much of anything the whole time, just kind of grinning at the occasional funny observation and sometimes throwing in an observation of his own. When they left, I didn't really feel any sort of closure. If my relationship with them had been a cracked open door, and I had been waiting for closure, I would say that the door really just opened wider that day.
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