Live With It // j.b

2

"If I weren't gay, I'd kiss you right now"  

California, late 2012

For the past six months, news channels, magazines, and all social media outlets in between have been abuzz with the news of MTV's new reality show Fandom.

One of the most popular YouTube news sources covered the first press release of Fandom.

"Get ready girls! This new MTV hit will be an eat-your-heart-out kind of show, with teen heart-throbs and tons of girl-on-girl drama, Fandom promises to transform your fan fictions into reality!"

"This is a new kind of show where girls like YOU are able to apply to be ON THE SHOW!"

"Each girl is supposedly paired with one of four mystery men, and they will all spend eight weeks in a house together, completing challenges and maybe even getting a little closer than just being 'fan and idol', if you know what I'm talking about."

"The producers of MTV are quoted as saying-"

'We've already started looking through the applications, and we are close to completing our contract signings with almost all of the celebrity guests.'

"You heard it here first, folks! Stay tuned for more juicy updates on this new hit- I'm Lara Linton, signing off."

California, 2013

"I cannot believe you, Dave! You've had six whole months to find four celebrities, and you bring me nothing?! Are you not aware that we need to start sending contracts out tomorrow or we won't make the cut for our pilot episode? The rest of us have almost one hundred thousand girls' applications to look through, and you couldn't secure four people?!" Dale screamed at his brother. Dave only sat still and rolled his eyes, "Dale, I told you this was a stupid idea. It's not my fault everyone is busy."

Dale threw his hands in the air, "busy? Busy? Celebrities are only busy when they're paid to be busy- what do you think we're trying to do, snag them for free? Maybe when pigs fly. But no. I know you didn't try hard enough. I can't believe you; you ruin everything for me-"

Just then Sarah walked in, "Dale, Dale- chill! Hold on a second, Hun. We might have something here," Sarah stated, walking towards Dale with a stack of papers in her hands. She pulled three packets from underneath the stack and handed them to Dale, "it took me two days, but I think I found three celebrities. But one of them is a girl. I hope that's okay . . ." She bit her lip nervously.

Dale looked from the packets to Sarah, "wait, Sarah, have you slept at all in the past two days?" He asked worriedly. Sarah shook her head, "it's no big deal though. We got what we needed."

Dale looked over at Dave and shook his head, "you see? Sarah has her own job, and she's taking your goddamn work load! Maybe don't be such an asshole next time, yeah?" He shook his head. Dave said nothing.

Dale glanced over the three packets:

Shawn Mendes

Dylan O'Brien

Taylor Lautner

Dale reread the names several times to ensure he saw them correctly. He was overjoyed, and flung his arms tightly around Sarah, "girl, you are the most fantastic person that works here! If I weren't gay, I'd kiss you right now. Wait, you know what? I can pretend to be straight for a second," Dale leaned in and forcefully pecked Sarah's lips. She busted into hysterical laughter immediately after their lips parted, "what was that?" She forced out, still laughing. Dale laughed too, "I'm just so excited! This will be great for the show; you snagged awesome guys! Taylor Lautner is a little old though. . . but wasn't he super hip with all the kids when Twilight was a thing?"

"That was only like a year ago, Dale." Sarah said, laughing again.

Dale snapped his fingers, "exactly! See, Sarah? This is why they pay you the medium bucks. You always have great ideas."

Sarah smiled and dramatically flicked her hair over her shoulder, "I try, I try." Then after a few moments her expression turned serious again, "wait, but what about the fourth celebrity? I didn't have the time . . ." She looked up at him.

"You've done enough, Sarah. Go rest your pretty little head. You deserve it." Sarah nodded and began to dig in her purse for her car keys. "Really, thank you again for what you have done. I appreciate it so much, you have no idea. Can I take you out tomorrow? Anywhere you want." Dale offered, Sarah smiled, "yeah, that'd be lovely . . . But to be honest I'm not sure how relaxed I'll be if we do go out. I'm freaking out about finding the last person."

Dale nodded in agreement, sulking slightly. He looked around the room for inspiration, with his eyes landing on the TV; a commercial for the MTV VMA's was playing. Dale smirked to himself, "I know who we can get." He said slyly, his expression gradually getting more excited.

"Who is it?"

"Justin Bieber." Dale said bluntly.

"Bieber?" Sarah exclaimed.
"Yes, Bieber! His manager, Scott, is my ex-brother-in-law from my sister's first marriage. We always got along, so I still keep up with him and we get together for each others' birthdays every year. My birthday is in a month but I'm sure I could get together with him earlier and ask him about getting Justin to do this."

Sarah threw her hands in the air, "Dale, you're literally a genius! Did you know that? Oh my gosh, we're actually going to be able to pull this off if Bieber signs on!" She squealed. Dave rolled his eyes, "but if is the key word . . ." But no one acknowledged him.

"So now that that's pretty much taken care of, what about the applicants? There's nearly a hundred thousand people that applied."

"Where are the applications?" Dale inquired. Sarah pointed to ten box on the side of the room, filled to the brim with papers. He walked over to them and chose four from the closest boxes. He walked back to the other side of the room and shoved the papers into Dave's chest, "do background checks on those girls. If they're clean, sign them on. Oh, and make sure they're at least eighteen. We don't need any discrepancies." Dale said, shoving his finger in Dave's face, "got it?"

"Aye-aye, Sir, Captain-Sir!" Dave said sarcastically, with a dramatic salute.

"Ha ha, aren't you quite the comedian. Now get to it." Dale said forcefully. He spontaneously ran out into the open area of the office and shouted loudly to the other producers, "what's everyone sitting around here with their fingers up their assholes for? We've got a show to make!"

(A/N: the next chapter is when we get introduced to our main character, and I start writing in first person. As well as that, I know based upon the year this story is set in, some of the celebrities I chose may not have been 18 at the time. But for the sake of the story- everyone in the house [regular person or celebrity] will be of age, so there's no issues)