instagram; brandon arreaga

ten

"Valerie!"

I jumped at the sudden shout, relaxing once I realized that the noise came from Aidan. I lay back on my bed, groaning. "You woke me up, what?"

"You have to read this article," Aidan says, sitting next to me. I keep my eyes shut, "Read it to me."

He clears his throat before starting. "After continual flirting on Instagram and a meeting that seemed to be a date, fans of new boyband PRETTYMUCH are starting to think that member Brandon Arreaga is dating model and actress Valerie Liu."

My eyes shoot open at the mention of my name. I sit upright, grabbing Aidan's phone and continue reading the article out loud.

"The two met at a diner 2 weeks ago and spent the entire day together. Ever since their date, the Instagram comments have gotten even more flirty, and Arreaga's bandmates and Liu's best friend Aidan Alexander have been commenting as well."

I sigh before finishing. "In one comment on Liu's post, Alexander said "and also @brandon_arreaga don't worry i'm not stealing your girl ", to which Arreaga replied "@aidanalexander you better not be stealing my girl."

I set his phone down. "Oh my god," I mutter. "This is terrible."

"Terrible?" Aidan questions. "I got a shoutout in an article from Seventeen, my followers have already started going up!"

I glare at Aidan before looking back at the article. With the band taking off, a dating scandal is the last thing Brandon needs. I mumble a thank you to Aidan before getting up and calling Brandon.

"Hey, Val!" Brandon says cheerfully as he answers. "What's up?"

"Uh, not much. Did you see that article?" I ask. "No, which one?" he questions.

"There's an article on Seventeen about our comments on each other's posts, and it's stirring up a bunch of dating rumors," I tell him. There's a long pause on his end. "Is...is that a bad thing?" Brandon finally says.

"No, well...I mean, a dating scandal isn't exactly what you need right now, with the band taking off and all, I didn't think you would like it," I spit out.

"Valerie, if I thought that it was bad, I would have been a little more worried. I don't see anything wrong with the article," he says. "But it seems like you do."

I stop. "You...you think that I'm upset about it?"

"Well, you sure didn't sound happy about it."

"I just thought that it might not go well with fans, and I don't want an article to do anything to damage how well the band is doing," I explain. Brandon scoffs. "You think that an article from a teen magazine is going to damage the band's rep? It's a dating rumor, not a murder accusation."

"Brandon, lis-"

"No, Valerie, I think I'm done listening."

The line goes dead.