Beneath Your Perfect

“I think you need to talk more with your boyfriend.” Aria’s voice floated through my phone. My face screwed up in confusion as I pushed open the door to my flat.

“What are you talking about?”

“Well he doesn’t know anything about you.” She said bluntly. I paused on my way to the kitchen.

“Why are you talking to him?” I asked even more confused than before.

“I’m not. I’m watching an interview him and his group is doing. They’re asking questions about you.”

“Crap! What channel?” I asked her panicked as I ran to the TV and dumped my bag on the floor before searching for the channel Aria told me. I left the phone pressed to my ear as I sat down on the couch and listened to the interview.

She seems like a lovely girl. How did you two meet?” The interviewer asked politely. I watched as Liam shifted in his seat nervously before replying.

“Well we met at a club actually. And well we just hit it off from there...” Liam trailed off lamely.

“Can we get any more juicy news out of that?” the interviewer laughed. Liam just shook his head. There was a small silence before the interviewer asked what I did for a living. Liam seemed happy to know the answer to this question.

“She’s a writer.” He told them honestly. I listened as the interviewer asked a few more question before finally moving on to other questions.

“That was horrible.” I muttered into the phone at Aria, slumping back against the couch. She laughed.

“I think other people who don’t know you probably would have bought it.” She tried to reason. “Maybe you should try to talk to each other more.”

“Easier said than done. He’s like a brick wall.” I told her grumpily.

“Maybe don’t try to get information out of him like your interrogating a character from your book. Instead actually act interested, care about him and not just what you get out of his response.” I sighed knowing she was right. We said goodbye and I promised to call her later.

I got off the couch ready to head to my room when my front door was suddenly opened. I turned to stare wide eyed at both of my brothers strolling in through the door. I froze completely as they both glared at me.

“Hello baby sister.” Jared said to me angrily.

“Thought we would come visit and make sure you’re a live since you’ve been ignoring our calls.” Tyler added on to his older brothers greeting. I sighed and bit my lip knowing that an apology wouldn’t cut it. But I wasn’t exactly ready to explain to my family about how I was fake dating an international popstar that had a bad reputation to better his career and my own. And for some other reason that remains unknown.

“I haven’t ignored that many...” I trailed off awkwardly. They both rolled their eyes at me.

“Mum and Dad want to meet him.” Tyler said moving to sit down on my couch. My eyes followed him before the flickered back to Jared who stood there with his arms crossed across his chest, his large biceps showing off his muscles. Looking every bit like a cop at this point. My other brother Tyler was a personal gym instructor. So they were both pretty big guys.

“So do we.” Jared said narrowing his eyes at me. I sighed and moved to sit back down on the couch.

“Why so you can threaten to bash him?” I grumbled at them. They both glared at me.

“You know we are just protecting you and after the last douchebag, can you blame us for being worried that our sister is dating a celebrity.” Tyler said to me.

“And one with a bad reputation. Do you know how many times he has had noise complaints from neighbours about his parties at all hours of the night, he has been picked up by cops numerous of times from being passed out in the streets. He has spent nights in jail that his management has kept quiet, after public brawls at bars. His family and friends have even filed several times missing applications for him. Most times he would be found drunk and lost somewhere.” Jared ranted to m.e My mouth fell open in shock.

“I cannot believe you did a background check on a guy that I’ve been dating for a week.” I exclaimed annoyed at him.

“That’s nothing, do you remember that guy that gave you his number at the restaurant we were at last Christmast?” Tyler asked me.

“You didn’t!” I gapsed at Jared.

“Well giving you his number while your whole family surrounded you was a douchebag move so I had to check him out.”

“I didn’t even call him!”

“Which was a good decision because did you know that he...” I quickly cut him off by holding up a hand.

“I do not want to know!” I growled at him. “The point is you need to back off!”

“Then you need to tell us. What do you expect me to do if we find out you have a boyfriend through Lilly finding out in one of those bloody magazines she reads.” Jared said referring to our 12 year old sister before taking a seat down next to me. I sighed and rubbed my temples, I could feel a headache coming from the yelling we had been doing. I was never one to raise my voice often and when I did I usually received headaches as a reward.

“I’m sorry okay, it just sort of happened and I didn’t know how to tell you all.” I said honestly.
“A phone call would have been a good start.” Tyler pointed out.

“Okay, okay I get it. I’m sorry. I’ll call mum and dad and apologise.”

“You should probably visit them instead.” Jared said to me sternly, I rolled my eyes at his bossiness. Before anything more could be said Aria and Sarah bounded through the door. They froze slightly when they saw my brother before smiles lit up their faces and they greeted both of my brothers with hugs.

Aria and Sarah had been in my life for a long time and because of that had become a part of my family. My brother treated them like sisters.

“So did you hear Sarah broke up with her boyfriend a month ago.” Aria said suddenly to Jared. He eyed her for a moment before turning to look at a blushing Sarah.

“It’s about time you got rid of that tosser.” He said to her bluntly. She smiled at him softly. I watched them both confused for a moment.

“Be careful Sarah, he probably did a background check on him as well.” I said glaring at Jared. He just muttered something about me being childish. Sarah and Aria just looked confused.

“So did you girls know about our darling sister’s new boyfriend?” Tyler asked them both suspiciously. I watched as both girls squirmed on the spot and eyed me awkwardly.

“Well yeah...” Sarah trailed off as both my brothers attention turned towards her.

“Leave them alone. It’s not up to them to tell you. Now can we just move on.” I groaned in annoyance. Jared and Tyler both eyed me for a moment before my phone started to ring. I slapped Jared in the back of the head as he leant forward trying to see who was calling. I grabbed my phone and saw Liam’s name across the screen. I stood up and made my way out of the room ignoring my brother’s questions.

“Hello.” I answered the moment I had entered my room and shut my door.

“Hey,” His voice came through the phone. “So um did you happen to uh watch the interview I was in today?” I heard him ask awkwardly through the phone. I could hear a lot of noise in the background and I assumed he was probably still at the venue that the interview was held at.

“I caught some of it.” I told him honestly.

“Oh you did?” I could hear the honest surprise in his voice. “Well you obviously saw that I didn’t do too well with answering questions about you.”

“No you definitely didn’t.” I said softly not wanting my brother to hear at all.

“We should probably get together and maybe sort some things out about each other if we’re going to make this look real.” He said to me through the phone.

“You could come over tonight for dinner if you wanted?” I offered to him, falling down on my chair at my desk. There was silence on the other end of the line before he finally responded.

“I can’t I’m actually flying out to America tonight for a few meetings...” He trailed off. I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

“That’s probably something you should tell me a lot earlier Liam.” I scolded him.

“Yeah I know.” He said lamely. I sighed.

“We can do it when you get back then. For now if anyone asks, my favourite colour is green, I have no allergies and I’m afraid of large animals.” There was silence on the other end again.

“Okay, I’ll be sure to remember that.” I could almost here the smirk in his voice making a smile slide across my face.

“And Liam?”

“Yeah.”

“Since we’re going to be spending a lot of time together maybe we could you know try to be friends?” I asked him softly, biting my lip. His reply came quicker than I expected.

“I would like that.” He told me. I smiled largely.

“Great!”

“I have to go. But I’ll see you in a week. Bye Jade.”

“Bye Liam.” I said just before I was met with the dial tone.

“So was the your not so secret boyfriend?” Tyler asked me.

“Let it go!” I growled at him. “And yes it was.”

“Is he coming over?”

“No actually he’s going to be in America for a week on work business.” I told them all. I felt Aria’s and Sarah’s stares on me.

“Don’t trust him.”

“Enough.” I growled, glaring at Jared harshly. He held his hands up in surrender, I sighed in relief. Defending Liam to my family was starting to become tiring and he wasn’t even my real boyfriend.

“Let’s go out for dinner.” Jared suggested. I smirked at him.

“You’re offering to pay? Sure I’m in.” I said jumping up and grabbing my stuff before he could protest. He grumbled and ruffled my hair as we left the building. I laughed and avoided his hand by hiding behind Tyler who picked me up and practically chucked me back at Jared who began to tickle my sides. Laughter fell from my lips as I squirmed out his hold and ran down the stairs away from them. It felt good to experience this normalcy with my brothers after the experience I had been having lately.