Page 56 of Siren's Heart

The meet and greet starts alright. The smaller children pose for a photo with wide smiles on their faces, and one of them tells us all about her favorite song. Kayla and I smile, returning the small talk and waving at them as they return to the hallway, where they gather to go to their next stop on this backstage tour.

"Yo, can I take one with, like, only her?" One of the teenagers, a girl with fire-red hair and piercings in her ear, asks as she points at Kayla, and my heart drops.

"Yeah," another one snickers. This one has black hair and a tattoo on her temple. And it's not even a pretty one. I think they’re supposed to be butterflies, but they just look like black blobs. "The actually talented one."

I gulp, struggling to keep the smile on my face as I gulp down the emotion building up in my throat.

"The one who doesn't have to sleep around to stay relevant," another one adds. Wordlessly, I step aside, each word piercing through my heart like a blunt needle. I cross my arms in front of my chest and bite the inside of my cheeks to refrain from tearing up.

"Yeah, no," Kayla says and shakes her head. "That’s not happening. I'm not taking a picture with you. You can leave."

"What the fuck?"

Naroa, hearing the commotion, suddenly appears beside us. "What's going on here?"

"They're insulting Millie, and I'm not having it," Kayla tells her before I can even open my mouth. Naroa looks at the curly-haired woman responsible for the teens, looking at us with a bright red face.

"I can only apologize for these three," she sighs. Seems like it hasn't happened for the first time. "Please wait for us outside."

"But that's unfair," red hair complains. “We want a picture with her.”

"Yeah." Her friend nods along.

"Well, life ain't fair, but in this case, you behaved like dickheads and had it coming," she says mercilessly and points towards the door. Honestly, I’m a bit shocked at her bluntness. "Now go, or I'm sure those lovely girls' security details will assist you."

The three of them shoot us dirty looks but finally leave.

"So it begins," I whisper to Kayla, my good mood from this morning now completely gone.

"Five more minutes!" Naroa announces, and we quickly go through the last pictures. There's only enough time for the kids to come up, smile for a picture, and say maybe half a sentence before Naroa rushes them away until finally, they're all gone.

"Already?" I ask her past the knot in my throat, raising my eyebrow. This has been the fastest I've heard this kind of dismissive shit after being photographed with a new boyfriend.

"What can I say? Your pictures are making the rounds." Naroa lets out a deep sigh. "We'll have to wait for it to die down."

I sink into myself, disappointed by how this is going. I'm not even sure what I want her to do. Or the label. Whatever kind of statement they might release wouldn’t solve anything. If anything, it would fuel the fire, with people assuming I need my agency to save me.

Yet, they’re doing it for Kayla all the time. From the time they used my relationships to cover for her hook-ups, she’s been protected, while they leave me out in the wild, throwing some meat at me for good measure to attract the wolves.

Well, if this is telling me anything, it's that I need to stay off the internet. I sigh and sit down in the same spot I did before those kids came in and ruined my mood. Kayla follows suit.

"Are you okay?" Kayla asks quietly when Naroa leaves after receiving a call on her headset.

"Not really," I admit and swallow past the emotion in my throat, pulling my knees to my chest and resting my chin on them. "It's exhausting. I was hoping it would get easier."

"I'm sorry."

I give her a gentle slap to the back of her head.

"How often do I need to tell you, what the label is doing is not your fault." I sigh. It's not mine either; I know that much, but I’ve never been mad at her for it. "I'm just exhausted. I want to ignore it, but then, just when I think I have a grip on it, situations like these happen."

"I'll fix it," she says, her voice full of determination.

"That sounds intriguing, yet kind of scary," I chuckle and nudge her arm with my shoulder. "It's not your problem to solve, though. Don’t get into this and do anything dumb."

"You're my friend, which makes it my problem too," she declares, flicking my forehead. I rub the spot as she continues. "And if Naroa can't come up with a plan, I sure can."

"That sounds like you have one already. What are you planning?" I tilt my head and frown at her. Seriously, that sounds borderline illegal.

---