Managed 3: A Rock Star Romance

by Clarissa Carlyle

  “No, I can’t wait anymore. He is making me out to look like I’m the problem. Like I’m the one that is doing something wrong.” Missy was crying. “All these people really think that he is this perfect guy that can’t do anything wrong. Well, they are sadly mistaken and I am going to expose him for the dirt bag that he is.”

  “Missy, we have been over this time and time again. Whatever you are thinking about doing is only going to make you look like even more of the bad guy.” Getting more and more frustrated Hailey kicked off her flip flops. “Where are you right now?”

  “I don’t care what I look like to those losers! He is such a dirtbag. I’m not the one who is being unreasonable.”

  “Where are you?” Hailey shouted into the phone as she changed her shirt.

  “Well according to my GPS I will be at their practice in like fifteen minutes.”

  “Listen to me. I’m really close to where they are holding practice. I’ll meet you there but I might get there couple of minutes after you. You need to promise me that you will not go in that building and wait for me to get there.”

  “I cannot promise you that,” and with that, the call was dropped.

  Hailey slammed her phone on the nightstand. She was trying to change out of her workout clothes as fast as possible but it seemed like she was still moving too slow. She just could not understand why Missy would not listen to her and do what she said. Hailey was very understanding when it came to this whole Missy- Dustin situation, but Missy was just being childish at this point.

  Before running out of her room, Hailey grabbed her cell and keys. She ran out of the front door so fast that she almost forgot to lock her door behind her. Almost tripping as she ran down the stairs reminded Hailey why she didn’t do much cardio and stuck to yoga. Racing into the street, she was going as fast as she could without speeding because the last thing she needed was to get pulled over and not make it to the practice location in time.

  Turning into the parking lot, she saw Missy’s car parked on the other side. Hailey parked next to her, but no one was in the front seat.

  “Damn it” Hailey screamed. She switched into park and swung the door open almost hitting the side of Missy’s car. A part of her wished it had hit her car. Hailey couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t just do what she asked. Running around the corner of the building, she suddenly stopped when she noticed all the paparazzi and their flashing cameras.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Hailey huffed.

  Missy must have called them to meet her here. It made sense since she wanted to expose Dustin as this big jerk. Pushing people aside, Hailey forced her way to the door they circled around. Finally making her way through the door, she saw Missy and Dustin on the other side of the room.

  “Shit!” Hailey said under her breath. She was too late. The entire band and their groupies were there and Missy was beyond mad. Missy was inches from Dustin’s face and her hands and lips were going a mile a minute. Dustin was standing with his arms crossed and face turned so that he was not making eye contact with her, which probably was making Missy more irate.

  Hailey steadied her pace, trying not to cause more attention to the situation than there already was. If she ignored her, maybe no one would notice Missy making an ass of herself.

  Making her way over to where everyone was standing, she couldn’t help a brief eye contact with Jasper. He was standing to the right of Dustin with his arms crossed as well. It looked a little awkward because his arm was still in the cast. Of course, he was right beside Dustin and not by the stage where Liam was. Of the members in the band, Dustin and Jasper had the best relationship. Even though their personalities were on two opposite sides of the spectrum, it just seemed to work and it didn't help that Jasper was loyal to a fault. No matter what, he was always going to be on Dustin's side, even if he disagreed.

  Jasper let out a small smirk that caused Hailey to stumble. Hailey couldn't understand how he was able to make her legs so weak by the slightest movement of his lips. Catching her balance, she continued to make her way to Dustin and Missy.

  “Look at me! Look at me!” Missy screamed, as she tried to grab his chin to turn his face in her direction. Even being pregnant Missy was only about a hundred twenty pounds soaking wet; Hailey didn't know why she thought she could force Dustin to do anything.

  “Why are you ignoring me? You forced me to come down here, making me out to look like the bad guy, like I’m crazy or something.”

  Dustin let out a laugh that made Hailey uncomfortable, “Missy, trust me, no one needs to help you look crazy! You have that down to a science all on your own.” What he said wasn't even that funny, but the girls hanging out by the stage found it hilarious.

  Missy leaned to her left. “What the hell are you guys laughing at? That wasn't funny or original.” Leaning back, she was back in Dustin's face. “You left me with no other option than having to come down here. All this could have been avoided if you would just have answered your phone. What's the point of even having a phone if you’re not going to answer it?”

  Hailey grabbed Missy’s arm trying to tell her to calm down.

  “Well if you could take a hint, then you would know that I don't want to talk to you.”

  “You don't have a choice! You are a deadbeat and I’m going to make sure that everyone knows. All your adoring stupid fans they’re going to find out the real you!”

  Before Missy had the chance to lunge at Dustin, Hailey squeezed in between them, grabbed Missy and tried to hustle her out of the back door, away from the situation.

  Jasper decided to chime in, “Listen, you two hooked up once. Missy, I’m sure he’s not the only guy you’ve been with in the past couple of months. I’ve seen you in the tabloids.” He’d also said that to her before.

  “Excuse me?” Hailey looked back around and addressed Jasper. It was one thing for him to be there to support his friend. She understood him doing that, but for him to say that to Missy when she was upset was not helping. To make matters worse, he had his arm wrapped around Autumn’s waist and she was hanging off of him.

  “Hailey, wait up,” Jasper said, as he followed her out the building.

  Hailey was already on edge and didn’t want to talk to Jasper at the moment. She was too emotional and didn’t want to say something that she was going to regret. Hailey managed to get Missy in her car without the cameras noticing and told her she needed to go straight home.

  Hailey turned so that she could get in her car, but Jasper was standing right behind her. “I do not want to talk to you right now!”

  “Please, come on, don’t be like that. We had a good time the other night. Why are you acting like this?”

  “Yeah, I thought so too, but obviously you’re just hell-bent on making a situation that’s already bad worse for me!”

  Jasper wouldn’t let Hailey get around him and the paparazzi started to yell and clicked their bright bulbs a mile a minute.

  “I was just trying to stand up for Dustin and you know Missy is crazy. It’s not like what I said wasn’t true.”

  “It doesn’t matter, Jasper! Regardless if she was the worst person in the world, you should not have said anything. I get that you want Dustin to know you have his back but what about my back. If you really care about me the way that you have said you care for me, then you wouldn’t have said anything. You should have known that you were just going to make my job even harder than it already is.” Everything that Hailey was feeling just started to pour out of her. “How am I supposed to feel now?”

  Jasper didn’t even have a chance to respond before Hailey shoved her way through the paparazzi that had formed a circle around them.

  As Hailey pulled out of the parking lot, her phone started to ring.

  Before she was able to say hello, Bill started talking, “Hailey, what the hell is going on? I’m getting calls from the press that Missy has gone off the rails. This is very concerning for me. What’s going on? I thought you had things under control?
” Bill was not letting Hailey respond. “You know how this looks for our company. It’s chaos. I need you to clean this up somehow. I can’t deal with the press today.” He hung up on her without allowing her to answer.

  Hanging up the phone, Hailey turned onto the street where her office was located. She needed to do some serious damage control. The argument with Jasper, Missy freaking out, and the whole world was going crazy. She was in desperate need of a vacation.

  Chapter Eight

  Jasper took Dustin into the back away from the girls and from Autumn. Things with that chick were definitely getting out of control. He wondered if Metallica had to deal with these kinds of crazy situations.

  “That was not good for our PR at all, Dustin. I get it she’s crazy, but maybe you should just placate her some. I don’t know, try to figure out what it will take to calm her down until you can do a paternity test.” He put a hand on his friend’s shoulder.

  “You know what, if you were dealing with that crazy, you’d handle it the same way.” Dustin moved away from him and started pacing.

  “I can’t say what I’d do buddy, but the way I see it, she’s not going to quit. All you need to do is figure out how to talk to her, how to get her to see your side.”

  Jasper was doing this for Hailey, but he didn’t think Dustin knew it. He felt bad that she thought he would do something to make her life harder. He pulled his phone out and texted her a little prematurely.

  I think I’ve talked him into a civil meet, you just need to calm down a bit. It will be okay.

  He had a feeling she would be mad at him telling her to calm down.

  “Alright, what do I do?” Dustin sat in a chair and looked defeated.

  Jasper and Dustin came up with a plan and decided they would execute it that evening. She needed time to calm down and it would be better for them to talk when she wasn’t spitting mad at him.

  When they came out, the girls were taking shots with Autumn in the middle.

  “Babe, let’s go out!” She danced over with a bottle in her hand.

  Of course, she wanted to go out. “Autumn, Dustin and I have already made plans for this evening.”

  “No, man, I think it’s okay. I need to unwind before I deal with her.”

  Jasper made a halfhearted attempt to get out of it again, but then he agreed. The band and the other girls were all so excited about going out they kind of rubbed off on him. He wasn’t planning on getting too drunk. And he needed to make sure Dustin didn’t get too drunk.

  They left and went straight to Mayhem. There was a line, but they didn’t have to wait. The club was crazy, and it wasn’t even six o’clock yet. There was a foam party going on and everyone was in various states of undress. Jasper allowed Autumn to bring him a couple of shots and took them. He was getting into the feeling of the party after having such a stressful afternoon.

  Dustin came by and he grabbed him.

  “Dude, don’t forget the plan. You’re going to go talk to her. It’s going to make everything so much better.”

  “Man, I do all my best negotiating when I’ve been drinking.”

  Dustin disappeared into the crowd. Jasper really hoped he held up his side of the bargain. Hailey hadn’t texted him back yet, and it made him want to drink a lot more. Maybe she hadn’t seen it yet.

  The foam was still everywhere, and Autumn brought Jasper another drink. He took it from her and smacked her on the ass as she ran through the foam giggling. The buzz was starting to kick in and he was feeling better. It wasn’t a smart thing to drink more, but once a couple of drinks went down, it was always easier.

  Before he knew it, he’d already downed two more and Autumn was grinding up against him on the dance floor. She leaned up and kissed him, pushing her tongue into his mouth, and he allowed it. His body was responding to her and it hadn’t before; it had to be the alcohol.

  He allowed it to go too far, he allowed her to continue in the middle of everyone. The cameras were clicking, phones were out, but he continued to dry hump her on the dance floor ignoring the repercussions.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Autumn said to him, and he knew exactly what she meant.

  He took her by the hand, gave Dustin a look that said oh well, and pulled her out to where Carl was waiting.

  They were all over each other in the backseat. He saw Carl’s disapproving eyes in the rear view when he looked up. He didn’t care, the alcohol was in control now, and he was hard and ready.

  They stumbled out of the car together laughing. He led her with him into the hotel. He didn’t care who saw them. They fell together through the door. He went to get some beers from the kitchen for them.

  “I’m so glad Hailey isn’t representing me. Matthew is going to do such a better job. She mishandles your reputation, baby, you can have a balance of rock star and good guy. It’s possible to do both.”

  “What are you talking about?” he asked handing her the beer.

  “Your firm is representing me, but since we’re dating, Hailey said it was a conflict of interest and Matthew took me on.”

  “That guy is a huge tool, Autumn, I don’t want you around him.”

  She pouted and tried to come over and kiss him again. It probably seemed like he was playing the possessive boyfriend card.

  “You know what, I’m hungry, I’m going to make us some omelets.”

  “Oh my God, that sounds amazing. Yes, omelets!”

  Jasper made the omelets meticulously, and part of him wished Autumn would just pass out. All the lust he’d been feeling had left him and now he was starting to sober up and come to his senses.

  He brought her omelet, eating his quickly. After he went into the bathroom and took a long time shaving his face and cleaning out his medicine cabinet. He hoped she’d fall asleep. She didn’t. When he came out, she was lying in the middle of his bed without anything on. He stood in front of her with his mouth wide open. She’d not wanted him before now, never displayed such blatant sexuality, so it took him by surprise.

  “What the hell were you doing in there? Come over here and give me some of that sexual energy you were displaying on the dance floor.”

  Autumn looked good naked in his bed, but all of a sudden, it was gone. The whole night seemed like a bad dream and all he could think of was what she said about Matthew.

  “I will, but let me take a shower first,” he said quickly and ran back to the bathroom.

  He took an unnecessarily long shower. When he finally emerged Autumn had passed out, still naked, on his bed. He walked out into the living room making sure to close the door slowly, trying to make as little noise as possible. If Autumn was to wake up, he didn't think he would be able to make up another excuse not to have sex with her. He would literally have to tell her his penis didn’t work, and he wasn’t really up for that. He was beginning to think it didn’t work. What kind of idiot would turn down sex with a hot girl for someone he kind of liked? Even as he thought the words, he knew it was more than a little crush he had on Hailey. He was more messed up than he thought.

  Grabbing his phone, he reluctantly went to Twitter to see hundreds of notifications. They would no doubt be about the bump and grind he’d been doing with Autumn earlier tonight. Hailey was going to be so upset with him, but he was a little mad at her for not telling him what Autumn had been up to. He decided to call her to see if they could talk about it.

  “What?” Hailey’s voice was cold and irritated.

  He’d never heard her answer the phone like that before. She was for sure mad at him.

  “Well since we are skipping the small talk. Why the hell didn't you tell me Autumn showed up at the firm looking for you to represent her and how the hell did you let her walk away with Matthew representing her?” he asked matching her tone.

  “I really don't want to talk about that right now. Plus we have more important things to discuss,” she said cutting him off.

  “What are you talking about?” Jasper was playing dumb because he knew exactl
y what she was talking about.

  “Jasper, you can not honestly be this naïve! Your Twitter is going crazy over all these pictures of you and her practically having sex with your clothes on in the club. You’re honestly so inconsiderate and don’t care that you are making my job harder. If you don’t want to clean up your reputation, then just tell me.”

  The way Hailey was speaking to him pissed Jasper off.

  “What the hell do I pay you for? You just get in there and make it better, no matter what I do. If I was one of your other clients you wouldn’t speak to me this way. Do your damn job and let me worry about what I’m doing. No games, just be professional.” Jasper hung up and threw his phone across the room. Luckily it hit the sofa and bounced to the floor or he would have destroyed it.

  Maybe Matthew and Hailey had made up, and that’s why she didn’t tell him. She could be lying to him about the nature of their relationship. Why did it bother him so much? He told himself it was because he didn’t like people keeping secrets, but he knew that wasn’t the case.

  When his phone rang, he assumed it was Hailey calling back to apologize. He’d let her sweat and answer after it’d rang a few times. Smirking he walked over slowly and picked the phone up. His heart dropped to his stomach when he saw the name on the caller ID. Tara was calling him for the first time since he dumped her. This was not good.

  Chapter Nine

  Hailey's fingers ached. Since the moment she woke up after three hours of sleep, and for five hours after, she hadn't stopped typing. Her laptop, tablet, and phone were in front of her on her desk. As soon as she typed on one device, she would direct her attention to the one next to it and type some more.