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Where We Left Off by Jaded Catalyst

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What was Hell in my eyes was a dream come true for the media. After seeing the mostly accurate article released only an hour after the actual fight, I didn’t know what to expect from the other reports that were bound to show up. The results weren’t pretty.
 
It was perhaps the biggest news in New York, and possibly the country, for months. Different versions of the fight were used in different tabloids, most of them posing me as the villain and poor Nat Wolff as the heartbroken victim. I was widely known as the “NBB Bitch,” a name that I was surprised to hear even the younger children shout in my direction. I bet soap sales went up with the amount of scrubbing some of these children’s mouths needed. My ears were practically bleeding at the end of each day from the amount of taunts they had to put up with. It was just another con to trying make myself a normal high school kid.
 
Yet another downside was the fact that I wasn’t just the ex-bassist of the Naked Brothers Band, but I was Rosalina, the ex-bassist of the Naked Brothers Band. I was the muse for most of Nat’s songs and the one who apparently shattered his heart into a million pieces. The biggest question on America’s mind was whether or not the band would stick together or dissolve completely. Somewhere in my mind, I knew that they would pull through, but the public had a great time blowing the issue out of proportion. In the end, my microscopic fan base was no match for his, and the beloved Nat Wolff received more support than ever before.
 
It was sickening, really.
 
And I used to be a part of it all, too. A part of me still missed it all, though. The narcissistic part of me genuinely missed the spotlight, the cameras, the interviews, the tours, and the amusingly exaggerating reports. The other part of me wondered how I could even bare to stand to live in a business that was more about how the public and media interpreted your actions than the actual action itself.
 
At the moment, I was at the height of it all. By quitting the band and breaking the heart of one of the most beloved celebrity in the country, I instantly became the most infamous face on the magazines. I went through the rest of my sophomore year in shame. I might as well of had a large neon sign behind me which had the word “traitor” on it. People called me names, taunted me, spat in my direction, and even threatened me at some points. There were only two people who were on my side during this entire ordeal: my dad and, of course, Richie.
 
Dad was quite worried when the verbal abuse got worse and even took a few days off work to stay at home with me. It was during those few days that I introduced him to Richie. My dad was a bit unsure at first, probably because he worried that Richie would become my first official boyfriend. Once the paternal instinct and paranoia faded away, he began to like Richie, even to the point where he admitted my safety wasn’t much of a concern as long as Richie was with me. With that said, my dad started working again and living his nocturnal life.
 
Richie was around me constantly. If it were any other time or any other boy, I would have been absolutely sick of seeing him. However, with the world giving me the cold shoulder, his company was always a blessing to have. No other person in the world could have lifted up my spirits in such a difficult time and stick by me for some of the toughest months of my life.
 
In the end, Richie was the one who let me stay strong.
 
During the last month of school, the Naked Brothers Band album was released. Its sales were off the charts since all the fans wanted to show them how much better off they were without me in the band. This would be a big summer for them. Not only were four of the five remaining members going to high school, but Alex was also rushing to finish his summer work early in hopes of skipping two years of school to join the band in high school. Normally, the system wouldn’t allow that, but with the publicity surrounding the band at the time, they could probably pull some strings. Their final day of middle school would kick off their summer tour, just as the last day of school kicked off last year’s tour. The only difference was that it would be their first tour without me.
 
And, to my bitter surprise, I honestly didn’t care.

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