Break Your Little Heart

Though her destruction of Oli’s office had been extremely cathartic, Chloe was still grumbling as she hailed a cab. She stewed for a while in the back of the car before finally taking a deep breath and forcing herself to relieve the tension. She double checked her stupid ticket. Her flight was due to leave at 6:15 p.m. which meant Chloe had close to four hours until she had to be on that damn plane headed to America.

Chloe extracted the right amount of money from her wallet and paid the cabby as he pulled up to the airport. She managed to make her way through security fairly quickly. Thanks to Oli, Chloe didn’t have to wait in those ridiculously long lines to get checked in and given her ticket. By the time 5:00 p.m. rolled around, Chloe was situated in the seats at her gate, munching on a salad. Begrudgingly, she sent Oli a text message to let him know she was at the airport and about to board the fucking airplane. She didn’t even bother reading his response, still upset with him. No doubt it would contain the L-word and that would just piss Chloe off even more. She sent a nicer text to the younger Sykes brother who responded optimistically that she would have fun and be home before she even knew it. He also told her to please talk to Oli, even though they both knew she wouldn’t until she was done being upset with him. And then Chloe found the familiar number in her contacts and pressed the call button, actually smiling in anticipation.

“Chloe!” Her cousins voice was slightly muffled by random shouting and crashes in the background.

“Hi, Mop.” His side of the phone became a lot quieter but only due to the fact that Zack had now moved into the back room, away from his insane band mates.

“What’s up, Bo? How’s your first day without Oli going?” Chloe scowled.

“Oh it’s going swimmingly.” Sarcasm laced her voice.

“What happened?”

“Fucker is sending me to the States.” She growled. An excited cry from the other side of the line startled Chloe, instantly snapping her out of her grouchy mood.

“No way! When are you gonna be here?! How long are you staying?! Where are you staying?! Why are you coming?!”

Zack’s excitement made most of Chloe’s anger vanish, after all she really did want to see her cousin, but Chloe was known to hold grudges. Chances were she wouldn’t accept the situation for a week or so. And until then, she would be a moody bitch to almost everyone.

“I’m in the airport right now, my flight is supposed to leave in an hour or so. I’ll be in LA in about 11 hours. And don’t ask me to do the math to figure out what time that will be, cause I won’t. Oliver decided it would be a fantastic idea to loan me to Glamour Kills while he’s on tour. Some bullshit about not wanting me to be staying home alone and getting out of Sheffield.”

Chloe’s seating section was called and she got her ticket scanned before making her way through the tunnel and into the flying steel trap she would be stuck in for the next 10 and a half hours or so. The phone was still glued to her ear, Zack’s enthusiastic voice still chattering away.

“So you’ll be here for a month? You’re not just gonna stay in LA the whole time, are you? You have to come back to Baltimore at least for a little while. Please?”

“Oh that asshole is laying it on thick.” Chloe muttered, forgetting Zack was still on the line. She had made it to her seat. First class. Oli was already begging for forgiveness. She took the window seat before responding to her cousin’s questions. “Yes, Zack, I’ll come to Baltimore. You can thank Oliver for making sure of that. I’m spending my last 10 days there.” Zack whooped and Chloe sighed, forcing herself to stop being so pissy.

“Zaaaaaaaaack! We’re stopping for lunch!” Jack’s voice sing-songed from the other line.

“Go eat.” Chloe told him, before he could wave off Jack to continue talking to Chloe. “I’m on the plane now anyway so I’m gonna have to hang up soon. I’ll call you when I land, okay?”

“Okay. Love you, Bo!” Zack was obviously still bursting with happiness at the fact that his cousin would be back in the United States in a mere 11 hours.

“Love you too, have a good show tonight.”

Zack said he would and Chloe ended the call. She relaxed into her seat, rubbing her temples. This was not a trip Chloe was prepared for. She had left Baltimore years ago. She saw no reason to ever go back there. It wasn’t as if she never got to see Zack. Whenever Oli would tour in the States, he’d fly Chloe out for a few days and then she’d meet up with Zack somewhere on her trip back to the UK. And Zack had tours that brought him to Europe, which in turn brought him to Chloe. And her aunt and uncle had come to Sheffield before for Christmas, so Chloe saw them as well. To her, this arrangement was perfect. But now Oli was going to fuck it all up by forcing her back to the one place she hated the most.

A light tap on Chloe’s shoulder caused her attention to shift to the seat to her left. A guy sat down next to her, smiling. She gave him a cursory glance. His teeth were perfectly white and straight, his dirty blonde hair only slightly shaggy. There wasn’t a tattoo on him, which caused Chloe to frown slightly. She was used to the boys in her life being covered in ink, but the stranger’s skin was perfectly clear.

“I’m Josh.” He smiled. Chloe nearly started when his words came out clear. She was so used to hearing everything marred by thick British accents.

“Chloe.” She said dismissively.

“So I guess we’re gonna be stuck with each other for the next few hours.”

Chloe snorted. A few hours? Try a full day. She moved her hand to cover her mouth, feeling slightly guilty about the snort. This Josh kid seemed like a nice guy. Chloe was just taking her frustrations out on him, which he didn’t deserve. It was then that she became conscious of the jacket she was wearing. She smirked internally. It was Oli’s absolute favorite jacket, hence the reason Chloe had taken it. She knew he would be home from tour before she would be home from Baltimore and she could just imagine his alarm at finding it missing. A devious plan hatched inside of her mind.

Fuck Oli.

“I guess so.” She sent him a stunning smile. The flight attendants came over the intercom to begin a safety presentation, which Chloe and Josh both chose to ignore.

“So, Chloe, what are you doing on a plane from London to LA?” Chloe tried not to grimace.

“Work.” She shrugged. “What about you?”

“I’m headed home.” His eyes lit up. “I couldn’t help but notice, you don’t have an accent.” He pointed out as the plane finally took off. Chloe internally felt anger build in her system as she began her journey away from what had been her sanctuary. But on the outside, she made sure to keep her composure.

“You’re right.” Chloe giggled flirtatiously. “I grew up in the States. But I moved here when I was 20 for work.”

“What’s your job?” He sounded truly interested. It wasn’t every day that a young man met a beautiful girl who had made a life-changing decision to up and move to London at the age of 20.

“I’m a model.” Chloe’s grin was just the right amount of seductive, subtle yet effective.

“Somehow I’m not surprised.” Chloe let out a laugh.

“You’re quite the charmer aren’t you?”

“Only if it’s working.” Josh gave her a cheeky smirk.

“Consider me charmed.”

And that was how their conversation continued for the next three hours. The pair bantered and flirted and Chloe actually learned about this boy she had originally only used as a distraction. She learned he was a photographer and he had been in London on a quick vacation. He seemed nice and Chloe felt herself warming up to him. Obviously, she wouldn’t be leaving Oli for some random person she met on an airplane, but she also didn’t feel the need to be bitchy to her the way she normally was with guys. But then he had to go and ruin it all.

It hadn’t seemed like a big deal at first. Chloe had to pee, badly. So she stood and turned to face Josh as she made her way to the aisle. She was gone maybe a max of five minutes, but in that time Josh’s facial expression had changed dramatically. Instead of that happy-go-lucky grin he’d been wearing, he looked confused and slightly awed. Chloe raised an eyebrow at him as she sat back down.

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah.” He breathed out. “I have a question for you.”

“Okay…”

“Are you a model for Drop Dead?” Chloe’s face turned a light shade of pink. “I knew it! You’re that Chloe. I knew you looked familiar.” He grinned victoriously.

“What are you talking about?” Chloe snapped. She was mad again.

“You’re Chloe Danske.”

“How the fuck do you know my last name?” Chloe lashed out at him. Josh flinched slightly. He obviously didn’t know about the fiery temper the blonde possessed. “Are you some kind of stalker or something?”

“N-no. I’m just…familiar with your work.”

“You’re fucking creepy.” Chloe seethed, quickly rising from her seat.

“Okay, wait.” Josh reached up ad loosely grabbed her sleeve. Chloe snatched it away and glared coldly at him. “That totally came out wrong. I told you, I’m a photographer. That means I’ve seen other people’s work. Like Tom Sykes.” Realization dawned on Chloe.

“Damnit, I told him to take those pictures down.” Chloe muttered, plopping back down into her seat. Josh laughed lightly.

“I thought they were pretty cute.” Chloe scoffed.

“There is nothing cute about a camera being shoved in your face when you’re still sleeping.”

“Do you really snore?”

“I’m going to murder that boy with a grapefruit spoon.” Chloe swore under her breath. “He really fucking put that as the caption?” Josh stifled a laugh.

“Yeah.”

“Looks like Oli won’t be the only one dropping dead when he gets home.” She growled.

“So it’s true then?” Josh sounded a little dejected. Chloe gave him a confused look. “You and Oliver Sykes are together.”

“Your stalker side is showing again.” Chloe said in an attempt to avoid the conversation.

It wasn’t like it was a secret. Everyone that actually mattered to Chloe and Oli knew they were together. But Chloe didn’t like flaunting her relationships. She never had. Even when she had been with Alex him. She had refused to be called his girlfriend. Things were a little different with Oli. She did live with him after all. But there was a never a time that Chloe had admitted that she was dating Oli and she made damn sure he didn’t say anything either. Of course rumors would sprout up about them, Tom and Oli had never been able to resist posting personal pictures on their blogs, most of which had Chloe in them. There wasn’t a single picture of the couple kissing, but there were a few of them holding hands. And Chloe had found one where they were cuddling, which she had forced Oli to take down. Damage had been done however, and the picture was still out there, which irked Chloe to no end.

She had never given Oli a reason for her extreme aversion to being in an official relationship. Chloe herself didn’t even really know why. Maybe it had something to do with Marcus. Maybe it had something to do with…Alex. After all, he had been the first boy she had been close to. Sometimes she would regret leaving him, but at the same time she would never be where she was now if she had stayed with him. And neither would he.

“Nice try.” He laughed. “If I wasn’t so interested in asking you out, that distraction probably would have worked. I’ve got a reputation to uphold after all.”

Chloe frowned. She hadn’t planned for this. Yes, she had been flirting up a storm, but that was mainly because it made her feel like she was getting back at Oli. Nothing would ever happen with this boy though. Chloe wasn’t a cheater. And she did have genuine feelings for Oli. Just not feelings she liked admitting very often. Or to anyone that wasn’t Tom or Oli.

“Because if you aren’t dating Oli…well then I’d love to show you around LA.” He grinned.

“That’s really sweet, Josh. But I can’t. Sorry.”

“You won’t admit it, will you? Not even with another guy asking you out.”

“There’s nothing to admit. I’m tired. Goodnight.”

Chloe didn’t wait to hear what his response would be. Instead she stuck her headphones in and curled into Oli’s sweater before closing her eyes and forcing herself asleep.