Stay With Me (Merome)

Chapter 18

Jerome's POV

"Holy- Kayleigh, the heck?" Mitch screamed next to me, his voice cracking, and she looked up, startled, and fell off her bed.

Crawling back up, she saw my shocked face and, brushing away loose strands of blonde hair, confronted me with a wavering look of defiance. "You. My sister. Have a thing. For my boyfriend?" Mitch flipped, and I watched Kayleigh turn bright red as she argued. "Come on, we didn't even know you two were dating until ten minutes ago! Your girlfriend was perfect for you, and you ended things, idiot."

"Uh, no. Cheated on me, but oh wait, you didn't know that, scrub." Mitch retorted, and I watched Connor slowly leave the room.

"Hello? I'm still here!" Marley yelled in exasperation, as we started watching Mitch and Kayleigh hurl their best insults at each other. They ignored her, and I looked at Marley. She added my Skype to the chat as I went on my laptop and took it to my room, and we opened up the private chat and set up a running commentary of things said. Only until Kayleigh called Mitch a fake did we start to intervene. "Guys!" Marley yelled, but they kept screaming over her. "Do you know what it's like to have millions of fans look up to you? To have Connor look up to me? Don't you dare call me a fake, when you've heard why I had to change!"

"Oh yeah, Mr. Bigshot, we heard it all! Just because you're so successful to strangers doesn't make it easy for us! You cut your swearing, your jokes, you basically sold your soul for a few dollars! You haven't had to work hard ever since you started! You're still a lazy asshole, especially to your siblings!"

"You know I stopped because Mom and Dad wanted me to! I was a shitty influence on Connor, and all the other kids-"

"They'll never live with you though! You aren't even helping Connor here, especially since he's old enough to swear, to know what they mean! He says it anyway now, but what's that to you? You'll still act like a pompous prat, all high and mighty because some unknown kids love you! What if they knew the real you though? All they see is the mask, the mask of a man hiding his real self!" I knew we could all hear the yelling, but no doubt everyone at Mitch's house didn't want to get involved. "Hey! How about Jerome, huh? He did the same thing as me, stopped swearing on YouTube, even though he still swears offscreen, but you'd never accuse him!"

"That's fucking right!" I muttered, and they still ignored me in the call. "God Mitch! Stop bringing him into it. You are my brother! You think I want a shadow of who my brother used to be?! Where is the guy who swore, and happily onscreen? You've changed into someone you're not! Who cares about the kids who watch you, what about your family who you deserted for friends who may just disappear?"

"I never deserted you guys! I did what most kids do, which is move on. I have my own life now, and it's time you did the same!" He screeched, tears going down his face, and Kayleigh looked at him, stunned. "I'm so sorry." She whispered, before running away. I dropped my laptop and ran downstairs to Mitch, who was curled on the couch, crying. "Oh Mitch!" I flew to him and gathered him in my arms. "Do you think she really believes that?" He whispered sadly, and I shrugged. "I don't know. I really don't know."

"Some of it is true though. I pretty much did sell my soul. My channel, it hasn't seen much content meant for 13 and older in months."

"You're just catering to your crowd. That's all." I tried to reassure him, but the damage had been done. Kayleigh's words had been said, and Mitch was now going to feel the pain from them for weeks, even after anything else. "God, I guess loving me runs in the family!" I joked, trying to change the subject quickly, and Mitch raised his head. "You idiot." He muttered, then thought. "Well, Mom, Dad and Connor do in a family way I guess, Kayleigh and I, well... Marley... I think she did for a few years?" I looked at him. "Seriously?" I groaned, exasperated. He nodded, and I grinned. "I must be extremely loveable then."

"And extremely annoying too." I looked at the computer screen, and saw the call was still on, though all cameras were off. "It's muted." He added, following my gaze. I went over and typed a quick message, turning us off mute. "Marley is still there, and so is your family."

"And we are sorry." Kayleigh added behind me. Mitch watched and scoffed, but she sniffed and continued. "Come on bro, I'm sorry I said that. It's just that you have it all right now, and I guess I wanted that." Her camera turned on. "Jerome, well. Uh. Oops."

"Oh lovely, thank you." Mitch drawled, but he was laughing now. "Maybe what I said was true but it's because I care, so I will try swallow it if you want to be the five-year-old kids entertainer. Just don't ask me to watch." Kayleigh warned, and Mitch smiled. "I won't."

"Oh yeah, and treat each other right, because I'll come for either one of you if you don't." We laughed and left the call, too lazy to do anything else, apart from- "Jerome!"

"Yeah Mitch?"

"Can you make me a sandwich? We forgot dinner." Apart from eat. Mitch came and kissed me on the cheek, which made me blush. Well that was nice too. Nice enough to make a sandwich.

I wanna state these aren't my views. #SupportMitchAllTheWay

Shine bright :)
Amber