All that glitters, ain't gold.

Chapter 23

| Megan's Mom |

It's 4am on January 1st and I have to be packed and ready to fly to New York City for a photo shoot. That's right, it's back to business for me. It doesn't matter that I only had 5 hours of sleep, or that I won't get a chance of saying goodbye to everyone before I leave. Nope, what management wants, management gets.

"Alright, I'm leaving. I'll see you in a couple of days." I whisper to Conner, who gets to sleep in until 12. "Alright. Good luck with Jake." He whispers, giving me a hug. "You too, with Tiffany." I said, sadly. "I'm going to fight for her, Meg." I shake my head before walking towards the door and leaving.

My flight is in two hours, so I should be heading downstairs to get in the car waiting for me but instead I find myself wondering to Jake's room. I send him a quick text to come outside of his room. I would knock but I didn't want to wake Celia up, plus I know Jake is still up. Whenever he has something running on his mind, it's pretty hard for him to get rest. "Yes." He says shortly, not looking at me.

"Jake, please don't be mad at me." I plead. "Marriage, Megan?! You're nineteen years old!" He all but shouts. "Jake, someone is going to hear you-"

"Do you even love him? Did you guys plan this out?"

"Of course not, it was just as much a surprise to me as it was for you!" I whisper but urgently is in my voice. "Is this what you want?" Jake pauses and finally looks up at me. He looked broken, mentally and emotionally broken and it almost brought me to tears. "Jake, I need to tell you about-"

"To be married at nineteen, to some guy you meant a couple of months ago-"

"Jake.. What are you two doing out here?" Celia pops her head out of the door, rubbing her eyes. "Oh hey, Celia." I say, faking calmness. Truth is, I was about to spill the beans on the contract to Jake and I was very frantic at the moment. "Oh- Congrats on the engagement, girl! I didn't get to tell you at the party! There were so many other people talking to you." Celia squeals and hugs me. I look up to Jake to see him shaking his head and running a hand through his hair. Tears begin to fill my eyes as I try to hold them from falling. "I think you should have a summer wedding with a yellow palette. That would be so pretty. I can't wait to be a brides maid- oh and Jake would look so cute walking me down the isle as a groomsman."

The tears fall from my eyes and I hold back a sob, "oh honey! I know it's so exciting!" I couldn't get mad at Celia. She's the type of person to always be a ray of sunshine, unless she doesn't like you. Then she's not so sunny- hence the feud between her and Ashely.  I wipe my tears away and fake a call from Sarah. "Okay- I'll be down." I lock my phone and look back up. Celia was hugging Jake, lying her head on his chest. "I, um, I stopped by to say goodbye. I'm actually about to be late for my plane to NYC." I spread a small, fake smile across my face. "Oh my gosh. Okay! You don't want to be late for that! As soon as you get back in LA, call me. We need to start planning, ASAP." I nod my head in agreement before leaning in to give Jake a hug.

"Wait for me... Please." I whisper in his ear before walking off.

---

On the plane ride, Sarah tries reading off my schedule for the next week in New York but I don't feel like hearing anything from her or anyone else in management. "I have a headache, can we go over this later?" I say, not caring that my voice sounded like I wanted to kill someone. "Sure." Sarah says snapping her folder together and heading towards the back of the plane. I put on my favorite movie, "Breakfast at Tiffany's", and cry. I cry because Holly and Paul are so great together. I cry because I want to be with Jake right now. I cry because I was a kitty or a dog, they're perfect. Silly and irrational, I know but that's how I was feeling at the moment.