Chapter 41

Pearl woke up to him gathering his things. "Good morning." Pearl said, half awake. "Hey...morning. Sorry. I gotta go." Dylan said.

"You have to go?" She looked at her phone. "But it's like 6:30 in the morning?"

"I know, I'm sorry. I have to be somewhere"

"Ok" said Pearl. And she heard her door close behind him. "Well, I guess that's that." She said out loud. That was not the wake up she expected. He gave her the morning ditch. And she deserved it. She never should have went through with that. It seems he was either completely terrified that it happened and felt awkward or he was just using her and bailed. Either way, it made her feel like shit. She fell back into bed and back asleep.

She woke up at noon. She never slept in that late. These last few weeks had been a whirlwind. She had managed to sleep with a movie star, her boss and one of her best friends who was also a virgin. And the virgin ditched her right after it. When she listed it out like that it sounded both unbelievable and horrible. This shit was insane and she felt like a terrible person. She checked her phone. Text from Rhys. "Hey, sorry I didn't text last night. Didn't get in til late. I'll see you at the show tonight."

Nothing from Dylan.

She arrived at the venue an hour earlier than she was supposed to. She wanted to eat and get settled before she saw Dylan. John and Janie were already there. Janie came over and looked at Pearl "you had sex with him. I can't believe it. You know these things change people, right?"

"He told you?" Pearl asked. "Yea. He told all of us." Janie said.

Great, Pearl thought. "Pearl! Man is this crazy now! Tell me it isn't true." Blake said walking in. "Ugh Blake I don't want to talk about it." Pearl said and walked outside. She needed a cigarette. She walked across the street to the gas station and bought a pack. As she was paying, an entertainment channel was on behind the counter. "Holden Tomlinson was seen last night in Chicago at the House of Blues with his arm around ex-Carys Mack. Could the two actors be igniting old flames?"

She looked up and there he was. Paparazzi caught it all. His arm was around her at a table in the VIP section. She was practically sitting on his lap. The tall, thin blonde actress looked beautiful.

She walked outside and lit her cigarette.Something inside of her knew this was coming. Why would someone like Rhys truly want her, anyway. And she had no ground to stand on. She was just as terrible. She slept with Dylan last night. Yes, she wasn't the one pushing for her and Rhys to move forward like Rhys was. He was the one telling her he wanted them to try and asking her if she'd live in his house someday. That was him. Why would he even waste the energy if he was seeing other people?

She made it back inside and they started to set up. Dylan was late again, as usual. 10 minutes before they were supposed to start, Pearl was starting to get worried. She was going over the set list when he walked in and sat his amp down. "Hey." Pearl said. "Yea hey" Dylan replied.

"Can i talk to you?" She asked. "Sure" he said and followed her to a side door. "What was that this morning?" She asked. "What? I mean. I don't know? How am I supposed to act? Look, I don't know if I'm equipped right now for this. I don't know if I can commit to this right now. You know?"

"What!?" Pearl couldn't believe it. He had used her.

"Look I don't want this to be weird, you know?" He said.

"It's not weird. Nothing's weird. Just stay the hell away from me, ok?" Pearl marched past him and went to the stage to finish setting up. This was supposed to be an amazing night. And now it was tiring out to be the worst night possible.