"Hm, well isn't this amusing." Gabriel said, cocking his head at her.
Selina jerked back, almost dropping her phone as she did. She turned and saw Gabriel smirking at her.
"How much did you hear?" She asked quite firmly.
Gabriel shrugged. "Just enough to know you have a lover."
The word lover seemed to hit her as she flinched and began rubbing her arm nervously. She looked at Gabriel, her eyes pleading to him.
"Please, can you ignore whatever you heard? I don't want this to go public, no one has to know."
"Sure, I don't care about your love life. As long as it doesn't affect our company and public image, then I can't be bothered."
Selina shook her head vigorously. "I promise, I won't let it get in the way of this marriage or affect the companies."
Gabriel studied her for a bit. Something about her face irked him in a way. It was strangely familiar. "Just out of curiosity, do your parents know about this?"
Selina looked grim for a second and shook her head. "They don't. If they did, they wouldn't even approve of our relationship. My lover, Bryan isn't a rich conglomerate or anything fancy. He's just a normal office worker."
Selina sighed, her face filled with pain.
"I see," He looked at the crew and saw Dolce signalling for them. "Seems like it's time for out next shoot."
Selina nodded and adjusted herself as she walked over her dressing room. Gabriel honestly didn't care about Selina's situation or love life, he didn't want to press further.
The only thing he feared was that it was going to affect them. Brushing those thoughts away, he walked back to his dressing room.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°
"You've been staring at your phone a lot lately." Tory pointed out as munch on a fry.
Melissa sighed and placed her phone down on the table. She looked up at the small tv screen that was alive and looked down at the table filled with fries and fried chicken.
"I've been waiting to see if my application got accepted. It's a painful wait."
"You applied for a job?"
Melissa nodded and grabbed some fries.
"Yeah, the pay was a lot. I just had to apply for it." She replied and threw the fries into her mouth.
"How much was it?"
Melissa looked around her small living warily and whispered the price into Tory's ears like someone would jump her if she said the price out loud. Tory almost gagged on her fries and grabbed her bottle of soda, chugging it down.
"Are you serious?!" She screamed.
Melissa nodded. "I almost didn't believe it. It's an event planning job for this huge wedding, like a really, really huge wedding."
Tory's mouth was still agape, her face showed she was still in disbelief. "Are you sure it's not a scam?"
Melissa shrugged. "I can only hope that it isn't. That amount of money is what I need."
Tory threw herself back on the chair and grabbed a drumstick. Her eyes wandered to the clock and she looked at Melissa.
"Mel, Brandon's not him yet and it's 9pm."
Melissa paused as she was about to pick up a drumstick and sighed. She rubbed her temples and exhaled sharply.
"Lately, he's been getting home late. I don't know why Tory, and Brandon won't talk to me. I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I'm always walking on eggshells around him. This isn't how it's supposed to be."
Tory moved closer to Melissa and gave her soft pats on the back. "I think he's just being rebellious. Just give him some time, he'll definitely come around."
Melissa looked up at Tory and gave a small smile, the only smile she could muster. She knew Tory was just trying to comfort her, but she was wrong. Melissa knew exactly why Brandon was acting like this towards her. It was a memory she didn't want to remember or even think about.
They both went back to munching on the fries and drumsticks as they watched the soap opera playing on the tv screen. At 10pm, the door click open, making the usually creaking sound it always made, but this time a little bit quietly. Tory was fast asleep, but Melissa was wide awake. She looked towards the living room door until Brandon walked in. He paused as soon as he saw Melissa sitting on the couch, looking at him. His expression showed that he was not expecting her to be sitting in the living room by this time.
Melissa wasn't going to let him go this time. She stood up and walked over to him.
"Where have you been? Do you know how late it is? It's not normal for a high school student to get back home this late."
Brandon remained silent, refusing to even as much as give her a glance. Melissa was getting furious.
"Where were you Brandon?! You've been getting home late nowadays, do you know how much I've been worried out you?! The other day, you came back with injuries, and the next you went out to drink Brandon!"
Melissa felt herself get weak and she sighed, tired.
"What more do you want me to do Brandon, I don't know to do anymore..." Melissa teared up as her lips quivered.
"I got a part-time job at a small restaurant."
Melissa blinked at him. "What? A part-time job? Why didn't you say something to me? You're supposed to talk to me about things like this! About everything!" Melissa bellowed.
Brandon finally looked at her, a glare. He was glaring at her. His eyes held anger in them as he looked at her. "We both know why our relationship is like this Mel, or do you want me to spell it out for you huh? I'm sure you don't want to think about past memories, and neither do I."
Melissa felt blown in the face and she couldn't recover. She took a step back, a retreating step as her tongue was tied. Brandon walked away from her and all the way to his room, slamming the door behind him.