Social Suicide

[six months later]

"MIKE!"

A blur of nudeness ran past Billie as he opened the door to see what all the noise was about. It was late afternoon and he had just woken up from a nap and apparently the youngest member of the band, Tre, had begun to use the hotel hallway as a running track. Billie just caught site of Tre's bare ass before he rounded a corner at full speed.

Billie took a step out of his room and kept his foot between the door and the hinge so he wouldn't get locked out.

"Tre! What are you doing?" He attempted to call after him. Tre was long gone. He heard the elevator open at the end of the hallway and turned his head to the opposite direction and saw a smirking Mike walk out. Just then they could hear Tre running up the stairs like a stampede of elephants. Mike's face turned to horror as he began to run towards Billie as Tre finally appeared; completely nude.

"Mike, Tre! We have to get going. And Tre, get some clothes on. We can't get kicked out this time." As he took his foot away from the door and it closed.

"Mike stole my clothes! And look, I'm still all sudsy."
"You have got to be fucking kidding me. What are we, 12? And since when am I supposed to be the father-figure of you two? Give him back his clothes, Mike. We have to leave."

Billie began to walk down the hallway and then turned around, deciding that it wasn't a good idea to trust Mike to give back the clothes peacefully. He grabbed them out of Mike's grasp and placed them back in Tre's, and continued walking down the hallway towards the elevator. They were supposed to be leaving to meet up with Samuel Bayer, their video director, to begin discussing ideas for some upcoming videos they were planning.

Billie stood in the elevator and kept his finger on the button to keep the doors open while he waited for Mike and Tre, Tre throwing on his pants in the process while walking over. Billie felt a little guilty for yelling at them and he decided to relieve the tension he caused. Just as they closer Billie suddenly took his finger off the button and the elevator door shut. He smirked as it closed around his profile.

[ Meeting ]

They were going on 15 minutes into the meeting, without much going on since Sam had yet to show up. Tre was screaming his infamous "Dominated Love Slave" in attempt to let some time slip by.

"Would you shut up!" Mike covered up the microphone of his cell phone, "I'm trying to talk to Sarah but all she can hear is your Afro-Ass!"

Billie just laughed as Tre shot Mike a dirty look and Mike returned to his phone call. He lifted the hood of his sweatshirt over his head and crossed his arms as he just sat there and had an unprepared staring contest with Tre. He had to keep him occupied until Sam showed up.

Sam finally appeared through the door with an apology running out of his mouth and a girl on his arm. Mike shut his cell phone as he ended his conversation.

"Again, I'm sorry. I don't have much time as it is, either. So this will have to be quick." Sam pulled his sweatshirt off to reveal his white tank-top. Billie internally smiled. 'It never gets old.'

"This is Willa. She's going to be in your next video." As he pointed her to a chair next to him.

Willa's posture was on that screamed of confidence. Head held high she glanced a polite look as if they were all equals, not the superstars that most girls her age would swoon over. Willa smiled sweetly as Sam made the introductions. "That's Mike to your left, Tre is at the end of the couch closest to you," Tre gave her a goofy look and Billie began to occupy himself by tying his shoes, "And that one over there learning to tie his own shoes is Billie."

"Nice to meet you all" and she presented each boy with a polite smile.

"Well no offense, Willa, but we don't need girls in our video. We don't want to have girls shake their ass in the camera." Mike began.
"I see what you mean," She turned to Sam and gave him a sympathetic look, "He is really anal."

Billie looked up and wondered who would tell Mike off. Most girls would have giggled or be shy around them.

"Excuse me?" Mike stuttered out with shock.
"You heard me. I'm not that type of model." She sent him a slight dirty look.

Billie recognized that voice but he wasn't sure where he had heard it from.

"Relax Mike. She's working on the video with you, end of story. Just see how it turns out, please. There are others and she is just here as an example. If you don't like it we'll cut it out." Sam told Mike giving him a look as if Mike was ruining his chance to flirt with this girl.

Willa then gave Sam the same look Mike had just received and then sat back in her chair and turned her attention to Billie.

"Must run in the band."

[ Later in the evening ]

"Willa," Billie groaned out in disgust. As he stepped into the limo he saw her sitting in there already. She had her legs crossed and looked as sweet as any other girl. Too bad he knew the real her. She was a little bitch and it had come out not several months before but then again in the meeting room when they'd been discussing scenes. Billie hadn't fully been paying attention, but he'd caught the part when Willa had been talking about her outfit for the video shoot.

"At least you know my name now," She snapped.
"I know it before," He spit out and pulled himself into the farthest seat away from her.
"Sure." She studied her nails for a moment then looked out the window.
Billie rested his head against the window and prayed that the traffic would be light so he wouldn't have to spend too much time with her.

"So, Billie, I guess you are psyched about doing the love scenes with Willa."

Billie turned away from the window and wore a shocked face. He turned to glance at Willa and he saw the small smile that creased her lips as she looked out the window. He turned back to his band mates.

"I told you he wasn't listening at the meeting!" Tre informed the group.
"I was listening. And I didn't hear anything about that."
"It was all a joke, Bill. Don't be so uptight." Tre told him to turn back to his little window and he obeyed as he muttered his present feelings of Tre.

When they arrived back at the hotel everyone piled out of the car and as they waited for the elevators everyone began making their plans for the evening. The guys had a self-imposed curfew that evening of one a.m. which meant that they would have just enough time to go out and party for a few hours before having to be back "home" in the hotel.

"We were going to go out drinking," Mike said sliding up next to where Willa was waiting with them. "Want to go hang out in my old hometown?"
Willa smiled, "Maybe."
"Awe, come on Willa, when else are you going to get to date three guys at once?" Tre had been throwing himself hopelessly at her for most of the afternoon.
"Make that two," Billie said folding his arms over his chest.
"You aren't coming out tonight?"
"I've got shit to do," He said, "Phone calls... you know... business and stuff."

They seemed to take the excuse at face value then went back to bugging Willa.
When she got off the elevator two floors below theirs Willa smiled and waved. "Give me a call when you're leaving and I'll see if I want to go with you."
"Okay," Mike said.
"Bye guys," she said then paused and looked at Billie, "Goodbye Billie... or did your mother not teach you manners enough to say goodbye?"

Before he could jump out and grab her around the neck and strangle her for the remark the door closed leaving the three of them to go back to their own rooms.

[ Willa's Room ]

Her cell phone chirped it's happy little ring an hour later. Willa picked it up and sat down on the bed in her hotel room for a moment. She bounced on the bed for a moment testing out the firmness of the mattress knowing that after her long day of flights and meetings she was going to need a good night sleep. It wasn't as good as the one that she'd had in the Bahamas a few weeks before, but then again, nothing could top having their own suite in a tropical paradise. She'd stayed down there a few extra days to fully enjoy her stay.

"Hello?" "What's up?" A male's voice asked.

She smiled trying to guess if it was Mike or Tre. She figured Tre would be the spokesperson since he'd been the one she got along most with.

"Hello, Tre."
"Ah man. How'd you know it was me?"

Willa laughed at the thought of him trying hard to flirt with her over the phone. He'd probably have some cute little smile on his face, like he'd had thrown in her direction for most of the meeting they'd been in that day. For the most part Willa hated men looking at her like that, but with Tre it didn't seem to matter. She couldn't take his flirting attempts too seriously no matter how hard she tried.
She leaned back onto her bed and stared up at the ceiling.

"I'm psychic."
"Wanna come out with us tonight?" He sounded casual about the whole situation, but Willa knew that the event would be an ordeal.

Willa hesitated before answering, trying to make her decision. She didn't have coin with her, but it would have come in handy in a situation like that. She wanted to join them badly, but as she looked in the mirror across the room from her she noticed how tired she was. She knew she should get to sleep that night early considering that she had to be in front of a camera the next day. She'd heard more than a few photographers yell at her for the sometime-visible bags under her eyes and she knew that she didn't want to add anything to whatever ammunition Billie would be throwing her way that next day. He'd already picked on her enough at that party without knowing a thing about her.

"I think I'm going to pass Tre, but thanks for asking me," she said and got up and paced the room for a moment before going to find clothes to sleep in. She remembered putting them into her bag when she'd packed up, but didn't see them on the first look.

She could hear Tre say something in the background and a few people were pleading.

"Before you ask, Tre, I'm sure. I'm already in my pajamas."

She looked down at herself and laughed. 'Yeah right' she said to herself, she was in a skirt and was still dressed up.

"Oh, is that so?" Was her response. She groaned and slapped her hand to her forehead. Tre continued.
"You have too good of a body to be covering that up with Pajamas."
"Well I'm going to sleep alone tonight, so who am I going to be showing my body off to?"
Tre spoke to her in an almost Barry-White sort of voice, "You don't have to go to bed alone."

She laughed and quickly ran him off the phone. She got out of tonight safely by promising to a late night tomorrow. She sighed and thought about them. They all seemed to be okay, except for Billie. She had done nothing to be a bitchy-princess model to him. He was going to be a challenge.

She knew in the back of her mind that she could have men fall at her feet but with Billie she had a lot of resistance. It was a nice change of pace and she didn't want to ruin the surprise ending by leaving instead of putting up a fight.

With a smile on her face, Willa slid out of her outfit and into her sweats and T-shirt. She slid some socks on her feet and turned down the covers on the bed. Settling herself in for the night she flipped on the television and thought she'd use it as background noise to go to sleep to.

[ Billie's Room ]

Billie just couldn't sleep. He turned to look at the clock which read one AM. He groaned and new that the guys would be back any minute. Which meant he would be woken up by both of them. Billie pushed himself out of bed again.

He figured he'd go out and talk a walk or something or maybe go down to the lobby and hang out for a while before trying to get back to sleep again. He usually didn't have trouble getting to sleep, but lately his schedule had been so hectic that he'd been taking too many naps and hadn't been getting enough sleep at night when he should.

He slipped on a baseball cap and sighed. His thoughts converted to Willa and he wondered if she, too, had to dress up when going out in public. He slipped down into the lobby and into the gift shop just to look around. He came upon a rack of magazines and saw his face plastered on a few of the covers.

He shifted his eyes to another section on the racks and sure enough he saw Willa on the cover of Woman's Health.

Opening the publication to the article that featured her pictures for a new line of swimsuits he stared at her picture. She looked like an angel. Too bad that all had been placed there with airbrushing. He knew the real her and she was nothing but trouble.

"Find anything nice to read?"

Billie stiffened at the sound of her voice and didn't need to turn around to know that Willa was the person now looking over his shoulder.