Upgrade U

twenty-one. We should talk

"How was your vacation?!" Upon landing, Chris sent a car for Courtney, and Duncan, taking them and Alejandro straight from the private airport to the studio. He purposely left Heather out of this. "It was amazing, actually. Me and Duncan squashed our differences and.. we have a song finished, and our original one is almost done." "Did you just say... two songs?" The CEO looked at the two excitedly, as Duncan chuckled under his breath leaning over to Courtney.

"Dollar signs are about to bulge from this dude's eyes." He whispered, making her giggle before she nodded to their boss. "Yep! And you're gonna love them.. obviously it's from me." She winked at the rich man, as he smiled satisfactorily. "Music to my ears already. If I could get this song on my desk by the weekend that would be great. This meeting is dismissed. Welcome home, you two. Mr. Burromuerto, come with me." Chris left the room with his assistant in tow, Alejandro right behind the two. Left alone in the room, the two looked to each other. "So, you kissed me again-" "I should really get going. I have a lot to do now that we're back." The brunette hopped out her seat, letting out a breath she didn't even realize she was holding. "Bye!" Rushing out, before he could get another word in, he was left alone all by himself.

~

"Mr. Burromuerto, Al.. may I call you Al?" "Please don't-" "So Al, they really mean it when they call you the best in the biz." He was sat at his desk, as Alejandro sat across from him. The men's body language mirroring eachother, but Alejandro's a little more uncomfortable. Chris continued, a charming smile plastered on his face. "Your agency should be very lucky to have you... but unfortunately they didn't see it that way." His thick eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he sat up. "Excuse me?"

"They fired you. But fortunately, I will double what they were paying you to join my team as a publicist." Though his exterior stayed calm and collected, on the inside the man was screaming and crying. How could they fire him? With no warning? Not to mention, while he was on a job. They were gonna regret that. "Double, you say?"

~

After unpacking, the singer immediately found herself back at Scott's apartment. She stood in the hallway by herself, contemplating on just knocking. How would she even do this? Just rip the bandaid off? Cause the soft approach did not work last time, and she definitely didn't want a repeat of it. Her fingers grazed where the bruise was almost faded, but still visible. She started towards the apartment door but quickly retreated before she could get to a five foot radius of it. "I can do this.. what is wrong with me!?" She whisper yelled at herself, as she paced herself back and forth. "I am Courtney Barlow. I can do anything.. like admit that I can't do this."

"Hey Courtney, you okay?" Standing on the bottom flight of the stairs, she sighed into the receiver. "I actually need your help, I'm at Scott's apartment. Can you meet me, I'll send you the address." "Yeah, no problem. I'll be there in 15. Hang tight."

~

The two embraced upon seeing eachother. The brunette held onto the rapper's waist, breathing in his scent as she was wrapped in his arms. The rapper had his arms wrapped around her torso, his head resting ontop of hers contently. They eventually pulled away abruptly after a few seconds, as Duncan looked at her with a reassuring smile. "Let's go dump Scott, shall we?" Courtney giggled, before leading him up to the red head's apartment. Giving her a thumbs up, the ravenette moved away from the doorway to not be seen but still was able to see the scene. The singer herself, took a final breath of courage before rapping her knuckle on his metal door. After a few seconds the redneck opened the door, revealing his smug grin already from seeing his girlfriend through the peephole. "Courtney! You're back, babe!" He engulfed her in a hug, that quickly turned awkward as she pat his back slowly. Which he may have picked up as he suddenly let her go, rubbing his arm nervously. "So how was the trip?" "We should talk.." they both said, she was now avoiding eye contact with Scott. "Talk about what? You've been gone for like 2 weeks, with barely any communication." He stared at her, his expression darkening as he crossed his arms over his chest. It was silent with Courtney still avoiding his harsh gaze. "Courtney! Answer me!"

Her breath hitched, jumping back from him as he reached for her arm. "I think we should break up!" She practically yelled, her breath beginning to quicken. The red head's eyes widened before he shook his head. "No, no. Babe, we can talk about this. Just quiet down and come inside." He lowered his voice, looking around as he reached for her arm again to which she quickly stepped back again. "Okay, enough of this shit Courtney. Let's fucking go–" roughly grabbing her wrist, he started to pull her into the apartment as she yelped attempting to push him off. Though, he was only able to get two steps back towards his door before Duncan came rushing over, knocking the guy back into his place making him let go of Courtney. The rapper followed him into his apartment, starting to wail on the red neck until he felt a familiar hand grab his arm. "We really need to go."