March brought a little snow, and a little sunshine. Gold spent more time with my brother than me, which was both good and bad. Good, because it made me focus on my schoolwork more, and bad, because I didn’t get to hang out with them as much. Rian did call every night he was away though, keeping me updated about the upcoming single. He wouldn’t divulge anything about it though. Only that it’d been completed, and they were setting the release date for March sixteenth, which was one week away.

            Needless to say, the morning they released the date to the public, the school was all abuzz about it. Finally shifting the attention away from the fact Rian and I were dating. It was amazing how long people kept talking about the same subject— it’d already been a week since I’d announced it. But from the moment Gold and I stepped through the main entrance, that’s all everyone was talking about. Rian seemed oblivious, yapping to me about his love for my brother when I met him by the gates. I still couldn’t decide if I thought his infatuation was cute or disturbing. But I was only half-focused on him, too busy being distracted by the rumors going on around us.

            “Oh my god! Gold’s new single is coming out in two weeks!”

            “I heard it’s going to be a love song!”

            “I heard it’s going to be an instrumental!”

            “No! An opera!”

            “I heard there’s going to be a romantic duet between Rian and Brendon!”

            “That would be hot.”

            “There’s Gold now! Let’s ask them! Rian!”

            Rian caught on now, his ears perking up at the mention of his name. I watched some sophomore girls by their lockers look at him with devilish expressions. Noah faltered a step back, forcing me to stand in front of him. I rolled my eyes at his action, but I couldn’t blame him. Sometimes their fans could be scary.

              One girl with dyed blue hair moved forward, a determined look on her face. Rian stopped short, causing me to run into his back.

            “Hi Rian, I’m Rebecca,” she greeted cheerfully. “I have a question for you.”            “Sure!” he responded enthusiastically.

            Rebecca smiled widely. “It’s about your single with C.S.”

            “That, my dear fan, is a secret right now,” he responded wagging his finger. “You’ll have to sit and wait like the rest of the world.”

            She pouted. “That’s not fair!”

            “Yes it is, because there are people I don’t go to school with who can’t ask me about it,” he pointed out. “It’ll ruin the surprise.”

            “I’m an impatient person.”

            “I’m not telling.”

            Rebecca narrowed her eyes. “Not even one little rumor? Luke, Noah?”

            Luke scratched the back of his head. “Well…”

            “Well what?” she breathed, her eyes growing as wide as saucers.

            “It’s not going to be an opera.”

            Her expression fell and I resisted the urge to laugh. Who even thought of those rumors? I made a face. Well, it could have been true. Brendon used to sing opera all the time.

            “Please excuse us,” Rian continued, giving her a charming smile before continuing down the hallway.

            Noah made a face, glancing behind him at the girls staring after us. “They can’t just wait two weeks?”

            “They’re just excited, Noah,” I chided. “I’d be excited too if my favorite band was coming out with a new single.”

            Rian’s head whipped towards me, eyes wide. Then he forced himself to look away. “W-who would that be?” he asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

            I grinned. “Not telling.”

            “Iris,” he groaned. “I’m going to die of curiosity!”

            “Well, I hope you enjoyed your life.”

            “Just tell me!”

            Luke chuckled. “Just give it up. She’s not going to tell you. But I bet we’ll find out eventually.”

            I gave him a skeptical look. “And why do you think that?”

            “I know the paparazzi will be all over it,” he replied. “They’ll want to know if Rian’s girlfriend’s favorite band is Gold.”

            “I highly doubt they would bother with me.”

            Noah frowned at me. “What? Of course they will. Remember when they were all over us? And that was before our new single was even announced. Sometimes I feel you don’t know how big Gold really is.”

            I mirrored his expression. “Because I think of you guys as my friends, not band dudes. They really will be interested in me?”

            Luke gave me a sympathetic look. “They’re nosy, Iris. They want to know everything about our lives… and when they find out your Brendon’s sister too it’ll make them even more interested.”

            “I didn’t really think of that…” Luke had a point. No one had made the connection between my brother and I yet— or that we knew of. Soon, they would. Sighing, I let my head fall against Rian’s shoulder. “Crap.”

            Rian abruptly stopped, looking down at me. “Change of plans. Come on, Iris.”

            “Where are you guys going?” Noah asked.

            “Don’t worry about it,” Rian responded, grabbing my hands and dragging me along behind him like a rag doll. But instead of dragging me to chem class, like where we were supposed to be going, he dragged me to the school’s exit.

            “You know how I feel about skipping class,” I started, frowning at him.

            “Yeah, yeah, Class Prez,” he responded with a small smirk. “But just go with it today; we haven’t got to spend a lot of time together.”

            Since he had a point, I didn’t complain as we went out the music hallway door. We went to his car and left the school, heading for the downtown area. Rian was quiet, which was really weird. Usually he never shut up. And right now, he usually never shut up about my brother. So I stared at the window, starting to feel a little uneasy. We entered the downtown area and I turned to him to ask where we were going.

            “I thought we could go to the café where we had our first not-quite-a-date date,” he told me as he pulled into a parking spot on the main street.

            I glanced up, barely noticing the semi-hidden restaurant. Heywood Café. I’d almost forgotten about it. Still, I smiled. “How romantic.”

            Rian laughed, climbing out of the car and running to my side to open my door for me. He took my hand, leading me into the café and one of the tables in the back. To my surprise, the waitress we had last time— Betty—was our waitress again. Her eyes crinkled as she smiled, seemingly recognizing us. “Skipping school again?” she inquired.

            “Yup,” Rian said with a grin. “Two cokes and two BLTS, please.”

            Betty nodded, turning back to the kitchen with a promise that she’d be right back with the drinks. Rian stared after her, a fond smile on his face. “She reminds me of my grandma.”

            “Mine too,” I agreed.

            “So, there’s a reason why I brought you here,” Rian began, staring down at the tabletop.

            I frowned, the nervous feeling coming back. “I figured.”

            “When the new single comes out… there’s going to be a lot of attention on Gold and C.S. It’s been pretty calm since we haven’t been touring or anything because we need to finish our studies, but this is going to cause a lot of commotion,” he explained, rubbing his hand on his neck.

            I nodded. “Yeah, I know.”

            His eyes caught mine and he offered me a half-smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “I know you don’t like attention on yourself… but if you’re my girlfriend, they’re going to want to know about you, about us, about our relationship. Like Luke said, they’re going to be really nosy.”

            I assumed the “them” he was referring too were his fans and the paparazzi. Shifting in my seat, I drummed my fingers on the table. “Yeah, unfortunately.” The thought of people prying into my private life annoyed me. If I wanted someone to know something, I would tell them.

            He nodded, and took a deep breath. “Yeah. Luke wasn’t the first one to bring it up. I talked to Colton. Well, more like he lectured me… But, he had a point.”

            What was Rian going on about? Why would Colton lecture him? Instead of voicing my thoughts, I waited.

            “So,” he continued, chewing on his bottom lip. “If you wanted to break up… it’d be okay with me. I know it would be very stressful for you because you don’t like attention and I kind of forced you into dating me in the first place. So we can break up.”

            My eyes widened slightly. What? He wanted to break up with me? Where did that come from? My hands gripped the table. “Rian…”

            “No, wait,” he said, louder this time, shaking his head. “It’s not okay. I don’t want us to break up. But it’s not fair of me to put you through this. So if you don’t want to continue dating, I understand.”

            “Rian,” I started. “I—”

            “But let me just say this,” he cut me off, reaching across the table to take my hand into his. “You’ve been the best girlfriend I’ve ever had, even though we haven’t been dating for that long. And I don’t think I’ll ever meet someone quite like you. You’ve stolen this rock star’s heart, Iris.”

            I squeezed his hand, shaking my head. “You didn’t force me into dating you, Rian. I started dating you because I wanted to. And I don’t want us to break up either, so don’t bring that up. It hurts to think about. I like you more than I dislike having attention drawn to me.”

            “Really?” he said, sounding hopeful.

            I couldn’t help laughing. “Of course! Otherwise I wouldn’t have stuck with you this long! I don’t know what Colton said, but ignore him. I know he’s just trying to look after me, but he can be a little pushy and overbearing. I can handle it, so don’t worry about me.”

            “Oh, thank God,” Rian breathed, slumping onto the table. “I’ve been worried sick about this and when Luke brought it up I knew I had to deal with it. I’m so relieved to hear you say that.”

            “Breaking up with you would be the stupidest thing to do, anyway,” I told him.

            “Why’s that?”

            I gave him an innocent look. “Because you’re probably rich. Or are going to be.”

            His expression morphed into one of horror, and then he narrowed his eyes. “I knew you only wanted me for my money.”

            “I’m sorry,” I apologized with a laugh. “I really am a Gold digger at heart.”

            Rian joined in on my laughter. “That really is an awful pun.”

            “I agree.”

            “Sorry to interrupt,” a new voice spoke up. “But I brought you your drinks.”

            Rian and I turned to Betty, who was beaming at us. “Thank you,” we said simultaneously.

            Betty nodded. “My pleasure. It warms my heart to see such a cute couple like you two. You’re so cute together.”

            Rian’s face grew red, and I had a feeling mine was too, but before we could respond she sauntered off to check on our meals. I dragged my coke closer to me and took a long gulp, the fizz tingling in my throat.

            “Hey,” Rian said suddenly, his head snapping up. “Maybe at some point we can go back to your house for dinner again… and you can officially introduce me to them as your boyfriend. Brendon sort of spilled the beans after I told him, but it would be nice to have dinner with them again.”

            “That sounds good to me,” I responded, grinning. “My mom will be excited. She took quite the liking to you.”

            “Good, because I love her cooking.”

            I chuckled. “Everyone does.”

            “Would you ever consider doing guest vocals for Gold?” Rian inquired, tilting his head to the side.

            His question threw me off guard, and it took a moment for me to find my voice. “Me? No, I’m not a singer.”

            “I know you can sing, Iris.”

            “I wouldn’t fit in,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m not that good.”

            Rian put on his puppy-dog expression. “At least think about it? I want to do a duet with a girl. I’d much prefer it to be you than anyone else.”

            “I don’t know…”

            “We’d get to spend more time together. You know, during recording and stuff.” He watched me expectantly and I didn’t have the heart to refuse him.

            “I’ll think about it,” I relented. “I’d need to hear the song and see the lyrics and have someone voice train me or whatever you do.”

            Rian fist pumped the air. “Yes! Your brother was so sure you’d say no! He owes me fifty bucks!”

            “You bet my brother about this?” I said in disbelief.

            He simpered. “Yep, and guess who just won.”

            “I change my mind.”

            “Iris! No!”

            I stuck my tongue out at him. “Kidding. I’ll decide later.”

            “It would make my world if I could do a song with my girlfriend,” Rian sighed happily.

            “And if we break up, you’ll regret it forever.”

            He shook his head. “No way. I’d never regret dating you. Ever.”

            His candid response made me smile. “Yeah, I don’t think I’d ever regret dating you either.”

            “But let’s not think about us breaking up,” he said quickly. “Let’s enjoy our lunch, because after next week, we won’t really have a lot of private time together.”

            I nodded in agreement. Things were going to be very different in a week.
_______

I have a feeling the formatting on this is going to be veeerrry off...