Stay With Me (Merome)

Chapter 20

Jerome's POV

I stopped him right there. "Hey, don't jump there yet, let's not get carried away. Remember, she has no proof of anything. They're just acting on false belief."

"In something that's real!"

"Yeah, but they don't know that." Oh look. In this one minute I'd left the app then entered it again, a hundred new notifications. "God, what is wrong with our fandom?" I asked in exasperation, and Mitch managed a watery smile. "Us." He then looked at me apologetically while I wiped away his tear. "I'm sorry Jerome, I just didn't want them to find out this way. Through a source which we don't even trust."

"It's okay. Just let me do damage control." I took a deep breath. This would be such a critical tweet. Stuff it up and everything is out in the open.

I typed something up and then read it through.

Thanks everyone for trending #Merome but you shouldn't have! And yes, Merome is real! Since when has it not been? ;)

I sent it off and Mitch read it right away. "That seems appropriate. Will it work? Do you think they'll not believe her?" He asked, and I stared at the message. "I hope so. None of our close friends tweeted about Merome other than Ashley so that probably helps, and Ashley was in our defense." I flicked to the public conversation, then cheered. "Oh wow." The salt between Ashley and Lia was very high.

@Ashleeeymaarie: @califorlia you really shouldn't say things like this, people may take you seriously.
@califorlia: @Ashleeeymaarie well, the truth is a serious thing...
@Ashleeeymaarie: @califorlia and lies are even more serious. You should really just delete this post and move on.
@califorlia: @Ashleeeymaarie why are you trying to hide this?
@Ashleeeymaarie: @califorlia I'm not hiding anything. Just because Mitch ended it with you doesn't mean you can try ruin his reputation like this.

At this point it had ended, and everyone was speculating what had happened. The tweets ranged from Lia being called a liar to people siding with her and calling Ashley out. "Geez. Should we throw ourselves into this?" I asked, and Mitch shook his head. "We can appeal directly. Just not today. I think we can appeal after the holidays." He hoisted himself off the bed and then pushed me out of the room. I was changed, wearing a thick jacket and pants over various other clothes already, but Mitch was not, and wasn't too enthusiastic about me helping him choose clothes either.

I stood outside waiting afterwards, trying hard not to start banging on his door, yelling at him to hurry up. He came out after a long while anyway, and looked at me knowingly. "You were about to yell?" He asked. "Yep."

"How long was I in there?"

"Five minutes?"

"When did you wake up?" Mitch suddenly asked, and then I smiled cheekily. "Since six thirty." He facepalmed and I smiled again. "Hey, just because we don't all sleep like crazy."

"Hey! Eleven hours is not crazy when you've been sleeping at two and waking at nine." He argued, and I smirked. "Don't stay up so late."

"Yeah? Ha! Thanks Jerome, even though you keep me up half the time!" He shot back, and I smirked even more. "There's a reason why I tell you that recording a lot in one go is better than wasting the whole day then making me have to rush you at one am." He glared at me with a forced air, like he wanted to laugh but didn't want to lose, so I giggled first and threw my arms over his shoulders and we made our way downstairs.

As we entered the living room, I felt him suddenly tense next to me. "Jerome. I've been thinking." He said earnestly, and I chuckled. "You. Thinking?" Mitch scowled openly at me, then carried on. "You know what? Let's put this out in the open! Except for a cause. We aren't telling them Merome is real quite yet. But I will confirm a few things." He whispered, coming behind me, and I felt a warm hand slide around to my chest as his breath hit me ear. "Yes?" I asked cautiously, and Mitch lightly nibbled on my ear. "I want to confirm those lips are mine." I blushed under his touch and pushed him away, suddenly shy. All those fantasies, yet I can't accept one teasing gesture?

Mitch stood confidently, then carried on with an air of certainty. "We can do a New Year's livestream. The fireworks are probably gonna be bad enough, only New York is actually really publicised in the US, the rest around the world have some time to watch. We can make the New Year become cool! Joking. But seriously, set it up for the St. Judes hospital again, and all money goes to them. If, though, however, we hit, say, ten thousand dollars, guess who I get to kiss?" He asked, voice suddenly breathy. "Dementors." I answered quickly, and Mitch facepalmed. "Why. Do. I. Try?" He moaned, and I hugged him. "Because you love me." I sang, and even though he'd heard it so many times, he still smiled. "Yeah, and I can't wait to tell the world. But oh, not yet." He purred. "Not just yet."

So you can maybe see I'm now stuck for ideas, and that I don't know where to go from here. Questions I'm asking myself are like "do I really want to make this so overly dramatic and oh wow Mitch and Jerome will try to kill each other over stupid things" or "do I really want ANOTHER hospital scene (spoiler if I do :P) when I've had so many?"

I don't know, but it may cause me to stop updating for a while, though hopefully not. Sorry.

Amber