Wrong (Lauren Cimorelli/You)

Chapter 3 - Rejecting the unrefusable offer

Narrator's POV

"Not happening."

Y/N's manager raised her eyebrows at Lauren just cutting her off like that. She definitely didn't expect this reaction. "Pardon me?"

Lauren shook her head. "It's not happening. I'm not going to date her."

"I'm not even done with listing up what you're gonna get out of this yet," Carol said. This was really surprising to her. This is not the first time she's dealing with messes Y/N had gotten herself into, but never had she ever had someone deny her offer like that without even listening to her.

"Yeah, you're going to give me money and let me keep everything she's bought for me during this PR. Wow," the dark-haired girl repeated with an eye roll. "I don't care."

The manager was totally bewildered by this. "I mean, this is Y/N Y/L/N we're talking about. Do you know how many people would kill to be in your shoes right now? They'd do it for free even."

"Then why don't you pick one up off the streets and ask her to be your client's girlfriend instead?" Lauren replied sassily.

Carol pulled the contract she's laid out back to her and scanned through all the conditions. This should be an offer no one can reject. "Is it that the money isn't enough? Give me a price, I'll see what I can do with it."

Lauren rolled her eyes again. "I don't want your money."

"$50,000 prior and for every public stunt, you'll get an additional $1,000."

"It's a no."

"$80,000."

"I'm not going to do it."

Carol sighed as she quickly calculated her math. "Okay, $100,000. That's the furthest we're gonna go. This is already the triple amount of our original offer." They started at 30k but that already got rejected right away, but since the budget was pretty high for this, she can move around with the numbers a bit. They've always had a super high budget for this particular client, because just the number of scandals Y/N makes every day... her PR team was practically throwing money into the river with how much they're spending to cover all her dirty laundry up. So automatically, the budget for an actual PR relationship wouldn't be that low either.

Lauren ran a hand through her hair in frustration. Why is it so hard to understand that she doesn't want to be in a fake relationship with someone she doesn't like? And especially someone like the Y/E/C-eyed girl.

"You can literally give me a million bucks and I still won't change my mind."

Maybe another approach then. "You and your sister are in a band, right? I can hook up the right connections for you to set your career off. Not to mention, being seen with Y/N would probably already give your music a boost in exposure."

Everyone raised their eyebrows at this new offer and exchanged looks with each other. Lauren glanced back at them and saw that they were clearly intrigued. They had a little singing career on their own, but it was barely anything. With a tiny bit of help from Y/N Y/L/N's manager, also known as one of the mainstream artists now, they can surely get their name out there.

"I... I need to think about it," Lauren said after a while.

Carol smirked at her finally succeeding in at least making her think about it. Well, then there's one final power move. If this ain't gonna work then she doesn't know what will. "Would you still need to think about it if I can get you a recording contract under the labels Y/N is currently with? Syco and Sony Music?"

And now all her sisters are frantically pulling on Lauren's shirt. With all due respect, they knew this was the dark-haired sister's decision to make, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Some of the biggest names out there are all under those two labels. They would finally be able to put everything they've worked so hard for out there for the world to hear. Not to mention that they are in some debts right now because of how much money they've already spent on their music, and then there was also their student loans. This would definitely help a lot.