And it all started with this meet & greet - Ondreaz Lopez

Chapter 20. "He doesn't, believe me."

Soph POV:

Time passed. The longer we sat there, the harder it was to set new tasks. At the end, we didn't feel like it anymore and we divided all the remaining shots between us. The alcohol went into our blood so fast that it didn't take long until we were all drunk and didn't know what we were doing.

Nobody was still in his right mind, we just stayed lying there. Someone turned off the lights, just the lights, the city was in darkness. The first ones quickly fell asleep. Chase  breathed in and out noisily. Nick muttered incomprehensible things, Amy snored softly. I was one of the last to fall asleep.

I didn't know exactly where I was. Somewhere on the floor. Not far away from me lay someone, his breath beat against my shoulder. Annoyed, I turned to the side but hit another. As I did not manage to get up - I would probably step on someone - I tried to lie down so that I had some distance between my two bodies.

When I woke up I had a hell of a headache. But they were drowned out by something. The tingling sensation that was rushing through my body. Carefully I opened my eyes and stared at a bare chest.

The sunlight stung my eyes and I had to blink violently to get used to the sudden brightness.

Carefully I looked up and looked into Ondreaz's face. He too seemed to have just woken up. "Oh my God, sorry!", I said and wanted to move away from him but he held me tightly. "If you leave now, I'll get cold," he murmured and I relaxed.

"Okay," I whispered and closed my eyes once more.

---

"They look so cute," someone whispered, and I saw a bright light behind my closed eyes. I opened them immediately and saw nine people looking down at me. With one hand I drove through my face and stood up.

Ondreaz next to me sighed. "What's wrong?" he murmured and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "Did I miss anything?" Tony laughed. "Nah, just that you slept next to Soph all night." He winked at him. What the fuck was going on?

When I got up, the headaches got worse, but Amy handed me a pill and a glass of water. I gratefully took both and swallowed them. "What time is it?', I asked and looked around.

"Half past one," sighed James "And what time did you get up?" They thought for a moment. "About half an hour ago. And we're hungry." I nodded. Yeah, I did too. And I needed coffee. Badly.

So I hurried up to Amy and my suite. There I peeled off the old clothes that smelled of alcohol and sweat and slipped into light hightwaste jeans, a beige croptop. I put my feet in black Adidas shoes.

I tied my hair into a quick braid with a little bit of braiding so that it looked woolly and you didn't notice that my hairstyle looked like shit just to die for. 

---

Together we got in the elevator and went to the dining hall. Just before that, the doors opened and the manager - Manuel, as they had told me - the lads came in and pointed at Nick. "Oh, you're in big trouble, my boy," he hissed, apparently not having noticed me yet. He was just about to start again when I interrupted him.

"Good morning to you too, Mr Miller. "I said politely and he looked at me. "Um... Y-Y-Yes, good morning." he stammered insecurely and Nick looked at me in astonishment. I just shrugged my shoulders.

When I got to the right floor, Manuel got out, whispered to Nick, "I'm not finished with you yet," and then he didn't seem to want to get away from us fast enough. When he was out of sight, Nick fell on his knees before me. "You've got to stay close to me or I'm gonna get killed," he whimpered. I just patted his head and nodded.

---

I was just about to sit down on a chair with my plate when Thomas gently pushed me aside and fell on it. Shaking my head I went to the next seat, but Amy jumped on it. Something was going on here behind my back, I felt it.

So I sat down next to Ondreaz on the bench and when his arm touched mine I felt that tingling sensation again. "Say, what was going on with Manuel?" Nick asked again and looked at me. "I told him what I thought the other day, that's all," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

Tony and Chase began to laugh. "He was so frightened he almost peed his pants," Tony pressed out and I rolled my eyes. "Don't exaggerate," I mumbled and gave him a warning look. "He's not, believe me," Tay grinned.

"I've never seen him like that. I'm telling you, with you by our side, we can finally do some real fucking up again." I shook my head and laughed. "You're completely stupid. But just out of curiosity... are you afraid of him?"

Silence reigned. "You've got to be kidding me. I'm serious, this guy is nothing to be afraid of. You should see my coach. He's really scary. No, not because he's got a pound of muscle on each arm and he's got a lot of tattoos and he's big as shit... he can intimidate you with a single look. And in a way that makes you want to run away. When he gets upset, you want to cry and shoot yourself in the head to end it.

Believe me, and I was just standing there when he yelled at somebody. My tears came and I couldn't talk all day because I was so scared. It bordered on insane."

I shook myself to get rid of the thought. "You're right, but it's different with Manuel," Thomas said, and I gave him a questioning look.

"He's actually really cool, super nice and also, like a dad to us. He's done so much for the Hype House that we can never thank him enough. He's under a lot of pressure, though. As soon as we fuck up and it's in the media and it reflects badly on us, he gets it. He has to take care of all that and lately it's all getting a lot. We can understand that he is so angry and often takes out his frustration on us. But he has done so much for our career and he always helps us out of trouble so that we just don't say anything, you know?" Ondreaz tried to explain to me calmly, that's the end of the subject.