Page 31 of The Spotlight Effect

“I’ll be right back,” I tell Alexia and get out. I insert my card into the machine and continue to get gas. I also open the message from Nevea.

There in front of my face is Nevea. But Nevea with no top on and boobs out. No, I’m not jumping to conclusions it could be for Kenan but considering the message below it says ‘if you want to, I want to.’

I’d say not.

“Holy shit,” I say.

“I don’t know what to do,” Charlie panics. “I got one too.” Charlie is the golden retriever- teddy bear. He hates these problems because he’s not a mean person, but he doesn’t want to start conflict but even I don’t know how to handle this. I’m a dick I’d just block her and move on.

“Tell Scar,” is the first thing I say.

“Yeah duh, but what about Kenan?” Charlie asks. Mhm, I forgot about that.

“Look we will talk about this when I get there just leave it for now,” I tell Charlie and hang up. I finish getting my gas and get back into the car.

The car ride is quiet, and we just listen to music. “Explain this,” she demands, showing me my phone. My heart drops. There is the message from Nevea to me. The same one Charlie got.

“I swear it’s not what you think,” I state. This looks bad.

“You better not be hooking up with your friend's girlfriend,” Alexia scolds me.

“That girl, fuck no! I do not want her. Look Charlie got the same picture, and I have no idea what’s happening, but I plan on finding out,” I tell her and get out of the car, slamming my door.

I’ve already been fucked over by a girl and I don’t want the same to happen to Kenan, even if they have been dating for years.

THE NEVEA PROBLEM

ALEXIA

Ididn’t think I’d ever be meetingtheGrayson Archer’s mother but here I am in front of a white two-story house that has rocking chairs and an outdoor sofa on the porch in Malibu.

I’m slightly trembling.

As a girl who has only had two boyfriends (both of which weren’t super serious relationships), only kissed three people, is still a virgin and has never met my boyfriend's parents, I don’t know what to do.

I’m also meeting the rest of The MorningStars, because they want to meet me. Oh, not to mention meeting his sister too! This is unreal.

It’s only my fourth day here!

“I want to warn you, Beatrix can be a littlehardto get along with and doesn’t like many people,” Grayson tells me as we walk up to the house. Great, I'm meeting a sister like me. I’m that hard person to meet in the family. Stephan just talks, Momsits back and observes, Dex talks too much and tries to get to know them, and Lia asks too many questions. Now I’m on the receiving end. Not happy to be here.

I take a deep breath and walk up to the porch.

Grayson waits for me to catch up to him and we walk up to the front door together. He opens the door with his key and walks inside, holding the door for me and closing it behind me.

“Mom! Bea!” he calls out. I follow him inside and close the door.

“In the kitchen!” his mom yells out.

“Gray, come to the kitchen we’re being fed!” Charlie yells.

“No, he’s being fed!” Kenan yells out.

“Stop yelling, you idiots,” I hear someone say, and I laugh a little. So far, everyone is pretty normal. That was a weird thought, of course they are normal. They are just regular people.

Who happen to be rich, famous rockstars.

Hearing all their voices a little panic rises in me. What if they hate me? Will I make things awkward? Will they think I’m ugly? I don’t even know why that matters but it does.

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