Dedicated to @wolfi__ for the cover above!! Thank you💖💖

Happy birthday to my daughter and one of my fav readers UDnakedpalette 💓

Heads up for this chapter. I can already sense the messages I'll be getting after this.

Chapter Thirty-Three: "Bury Her Alive."

"CALEB, CAN YOU stop talking?" Maddy told him as we all walked into the store. Caleb was in the country for the weekend before heading over to New York for the press conference next week where he would reveal himself.

Every time that topic was brought up I could see how nervous he was.

Maddy wasn't really walking though. She was currently having a piggy back ride on Caleb's back and most of the eyes in the store turned to them. "Mads, I don't know about you but I need new clothes. What if the people don't like me? What if they think I dress like a slob?"

"But you don't." I said when we walked to the men's section.

"That's your opinion. I need the people's opinion."

"As a part of the people and one of your readers, I don't think that you dress like a slob."

"Plus, Caleb it's kind of hard not to like you." Maddy said.

"Thank you Maddy. I appreciate that."

"You're welcome." She patted him on the back and he put her down. Maddy looked through jeans and started handing them to Caleb. "Take these." She continued walking over to the section where there were shirts and handed them to Caleb as well. "And these."

"What about this?" Caleb pointed over to a plaid shirt and Maddy groaned.

"No, no, no you are not wearing plaid. I refuse for you to wear this." She smacked his hand down. "Take these and go to the changeroom, we'll be right there."

Caleb stared at the clothes in his hands and then looked at Maddy dumbfounded. Maddy stared right back at him. "C'mon let's go. Get changed. Now."

I heard Caleb mutter a curse in Spanish under his breath. "I heard that." Maddy told him as he walked away.

Caleb laughed disappearing from our sight and Maddy started picking out more clothes for Caleb to try on. "So, we get to London and the first thing you and Caleb want to do is go shopping."

"Yes," Maddy told me, picking up a pair of sunglasses and putting them on. "How do I look?"

"Like they are way too big for your face." I said honestly.

Maddy took off the sunglasses and put them back. "Besides, Sam and his mom are at that meeting and we might as well do something to kill time."

"But did we have to go shopping?"

"I get that you aren't fond of shopping but suck it up. We're only doing it for Caleb. If we just so happen to find clothes that would look cute on you then we're going to have you try it on."

"Maddy..."

"Ooh and after this we're getting our eyebrows done. I haven't done my eyebrows in like a month and I haven't had time to."

"I never agreed to that."

"Well we're doing it." Maddy grinned, putting a pair of trousers in my hands. "Now, let's go see how Caleb's doing."

About three hours later, Caleb was carrying a bunch of bags as we headed back to the hotel where Sam was sitting on a bed with his phone in his hands. He glanced up from his phone and started laughing. "What the hell? Caleb, I can't see you man."

"Wow, you're so funny." Caleb said dryly, putting the bags on the bed and stretching. "Remind me to never go shopping with girls again. Actually no. Remind me to never go shopping with Maddy."

Caleb lied down on the other bed in the room, spreading himself out on it and groaning excessively loud. "Ooh, Mace. There's a mini fridge in here." Maddy said, walking over to it.

"Get me a drink, would you?" Caleb yelled, his face stuffed in a pillow. "I must've lost a hundred pounds walking around London with all those bags."

I sat down on Sam's lap, slinging an arm around his shoulders. "How did it go?"

"Pretty good but I'm going to be kind of busy for most of these weekends."

"That's normal Sam." I think since September and moving here that we've established a sort of understanding in our distance and time. With me working whenever I didn't have school sometimes, Sam doing modeling stuff whenever he could, school and soccer it was getting a lot harder to see each other.

"I guess it is." He sighed, pressing a kiss to my hand.

"Also, if Macy asks you to feel her legs just do it." Caleb yelled into the pillow and I heard Maddy laugh from the other side of the room.

"Why?" Sam asked curiously.

I pulled up the leg of my sweatpants and grabbed Sam's hand. "Feel how soft my legs are after I shave."

"Are you serious?" Sam stared at me.

He put his hand on my leg. "Feel."

"We're at the store and what does your girlfriend say? 'Caleb, feel my legs'. We go to another store, 'Caleb, feel my legs'. We go to the restaurant and she literally takes her legs puts it on the damn table and says 'Caleb, feel my legs'. You are in love with a psychopath."

"Well, they are really soft." Sam said, his hand running up my leg and I held in a shiver at the feel of his fingers.

"See?" I turned to Caleb who rolled his eyes and stuffed his head back into the pillow.

"This is what you've been doing all day? Making Caleb feel your legs?" Sam asked when I pressed a kiss to his lips.

"Shut up." I told him just when the door opened and Liz came through.

"Okay, everyone get ready," She clapped. "I have clothes for tonight in the next room and don't worry Macy no one is wearing a dress today."

"Do I really complain about wearing dresses that much?" I asked.

"Yes." Caleb said into the pillow.

"Caleb get up. Maddy darling, keep your shoes they'll go well with your outfit. Samuel, no one understands how happy I am that you're finally not wearing converse or else you would have gotten flat feet. Macy, no Jordans. Okay, everyone, let's go."

Many hours later, we were all in the underground of a building and people were taking their seats and passing through waiting for the show to start. I glanced at one section where some famous people were taking pictures and a bunch of photographers were snapping pics, the flashes bright.

"I follow him on Instagram." Maddy mumbled, holding onto my arm as she ogled at a guy a distance away.

"That's the seventh time you said that." Caleb mentioned.

"Because it's true," Maddy took her phone out and took another of the many pictures she had already taken while being here. "I suddenly love fashion."

Sam squeezed my hand. "I'm going to find Lexi backstage. I'll be back in a bit." The glint of the dim light against the laminated pass hung around his neck flashed as he left.

"Can we find seats? This runway is long as hell." Caleb commented.

"Macy." Liz walked over to us with a man who was holding a camera in his hands. A type of camera even I recognized.

"Yes..." I trailed off, wondering what she was up to this time.

"We've all come to terms that you never want to be in front of the camera-"

"Finally." I exclaimed. She would not stop telling me this yet again since we arrived in London.

"This is-"

"Holy crap, you're the editor of that gossip site," Maddy nudged me. "The one that's everywhere. The one Matteo gets all his information from."

The man cracked a smile, probably flattered to be recognized. "Yes."

"The show starts in five minutes and one of his photographers happened to run out of here to the side bathroom where he-"

"Spewed his guts out?" Caleb asked. "I passed by him and it doesn't look like he'll be coming back out anytime soon."

The editor guy handed the camera to me. "Elizabeth said that you'd be able to help."

"What? Don't you have enough photographers as it is?" I asked, looking at the hundreds of people getting in position to take photographs of the show around us.

"The runway is long and most of our photographers are at the end. We're missing one from an angle that Liz said all of you will be sitting at anyway."

"Um-"

"Macy, take the camera." Maddy demanded.

"But-"

"Oh for fuck's sake," Caleb snatched the camera out of the guy's hands and put it in mine. "Do the job. You going to pay her for this?"

"Yes." The editor guy looked bewildered by Caleb even as Caleb took my own camera off my neck and held it in his hands.

"You get money and experience in the field. Take it. Remember when we were talking about Plan B and Plan C's months ago? This could be your Plan C." Caleb told me.

I inspected the camera in my hands. "This has a lens of 200 to 400 millimeters. And the settings on this kind...oh my-"

"Macy, we'll see you later." Suddenly I was dragged away and pulled into something else I was sure would be out of my comfort zone. Again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was waiting in a room backstage where I was supposed to meet the editor of that gossip magazine to give the camera back. I looked at each of the photos as I hooked it up to the computer.

I caught my eye on one of the hundreds of photos I had taken in a span of the 15-minute show. The one of Alexis. I remember when she walked with confidence and I would say she was good but I didn't have any right to criticize on anything I had no knowledge in. She had seen me with the camera in my hands and I did expect her to have shock on her face but she didn't react. She held her stance the entire time.

I was going through the rest of the photos, when my phone suddenly rang in my pocket. I took it out, looking at the caller ID and answering it.

"What do you want?" I asked in to the phone.

"This is why I don't call you often," Ivan Cahill responded. "You're always giving me attitude. What did I do to deserve this treatment?"

I sighed and smiled. "Hi Ivan. What do you want?"

"Have you spoken to Drake?"

"Um...not in a while no."

"Well, can you call him and tell him I need him to answer my calls?"

"What for?"

"He's an interior designer," Ivan deadpanned. "Natasha and I are having a baby. We need to design the inside of our house when we move to New York. He needs to call me back because I want to give him the job. Got that?"

Why was he speaking to me like I was slow? "I got that," I snapped because not helping myself by laughing. "Just try calling him again."

"I have like ten times. He hasn't answered."

"And what makes you think that since he didn't answer your call that he'll answer mine."

"You're like his little sister. I'm just his acquaintance. The last time I saw the man before my wedding was the summer and I threw a water balloon at his chest and ran away."

"Hmm," A thought popped into my head. "Wait, can I ask you a question?"

"Are you going to call him?"

I ignored him. "Why did you invite Drake to your wedding? Now that I think about it, it's kind of odd."

There was no sound from the other line for a second before Ivan's voice cut in. "Believe it or not, when Drake was um, with Bethany, we were friends. The only person that truly blamed him for Bethany's death was Sam. Then Sam forgave him and Drake and I may not be friends like we used to be but we acknowledge each other. So I thought why the hell not? And to be honest Natasha and I both wanted a huge wedding and that meant that-"

"You should invite 800-1000 of your closest friends?"

"Did you see how many wedding presents we got? Best day of my life."

"It's not just about the presents Ivan. Your wedding day isn't like Christmas."

"Of course it isn't. I got to exchange rings with the love of my life and I right now I am on an errand to buy her the pickles she's craving now."

"But Natasha doesn't like pickles." I reminded him.

"I know. That's what makes this situation funny."

"Just call Drake again, would you?" I told him.

"Ugh fine. Thanks for your help, Macy." He said, not thanking me at all.

"Anytime." I grinned before hanging up the call and sliding my phone in my pocket when Maddy entered the room.

"Who was that?" She asked. She took a seat in the chair, spinning around as I looked through the photos and unhooked the camera from the computer. 

"A Cahill." I told her.

"Which one?"

"Blue eyes. Brown hair."

Maddy took a moment to think and I smiled at this. There were so many times when Maddy and I first met that I made her guess who was which in the Cahill family. "Okay, that narrows down to Phillip, Ivan, Toby and Cedric."

"No Cedric's eyes are more grey than blue. They're kind of like his mom's eyes."

"Okay cross out Cedric."

"The one that's married."

"Oh Ivan! See I know all of them by now."

"Sure you do."

"Anyway," Maddy smiled. "If Sam goes to anymore stuff like this then tell him to invite me if he has another ticket okay?"

"I could tell you were having a fun time the entire time. You kept taking pictures."

"I want half the clothes. Some of them were bizarre though. Like that fur coat that one girl had to wear looked like it was going to bury her alive."

"Well that's nice." I mumbled just when the door opened.

Alexis stepped inside, in a halter crop top and jeans. She had a handbag hanging on her arm and sunglasses on her head as she fixed her stare on me. I wasn't going to question why the hell she had sunglasses on her head when it was raining and cloudy outside but whatever. "Can I talk to you?"

Those words didn't sound very nice. "Talk."

She didn't speak. She took the glasses off her head and put them in her handbag. After doing so, she glanced at Maddy, giving the hint for her to leave.

Maddy looked at me and I pleaded with my eyes, hoping that she would stay. Please don't leave me alone with her. Please don't leave me alone with her.

"I'm going to get your camera back from Caleb." Maddy told me, walking past Alexis as she left the room.

I knew it.

"What do you want to talk about?" I asked, leaning against a table and putting the camera on it as Alexis put her handbag on the dresser on the other side of the room.

"Why is it that every gig I'm having you just so happen to appear with it?" She inquired, facing me.

"Sam invited me then Liz kind of urged me to come out of my free will."

"So you can't leave Sam alone for five minutes?" What?

"I'm not with him all the time." I think you would know that since whenever I'm not in his presence, you manage to swoop in and try to get his attention.

"Sure."

"What do you mean by 'sure'?"

"I mean, you're always there don't you think? Kind of like his shadow."

"I'm girlfriend. Not his shadow. I think I have the right to be there." Where the heck was this conversation even leading to?

Alexis pursed her lips and sighed. "Let me just say something."

Like you weren't already, I thought as she walked closer to me.

"You need to step back." She got into my face. Well, she tried to get into my face even though I was taller than her by a couple of inches.

"No, you need to step back." I demanded and she did as I asked except that she didn't move as far back as I hoped that she would.

"You literally get everything handed to you on a silver platter." She accused and I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.

"No. No I don't."

"Yes, you do. The photoshoot. You didn't even do anything and the next thing I notice is that you and Sam are practically the focus point of the entire thing when you shouldn't have been in that spot. That wasn't supposed to happen and because you showed up it did."

I frowned. She was right. "Okay, Alexis that I am actually sorry for. I didn't want to do it and I'm sorry if you think I stole your spotlight or something-" I tried apologizing but she did not want to listen to me.

"Then, you just so happen to walk into this place and I walk down the runway and you're taking professional pictures that I'm sure would end up on a huge magazine tomorrow. I'm not even sure how the hell you got this job."

I opened my mouth to speak but she again wouldn't let me voice my opinion.

"It's like you don't even have to try and everything gets handed to you." She repeated.

"That is not true."

"It's not? What about Sam?"

"What about him?"

"I remember when you guys weren't dating. That spring break in Redmond. You went out of the house in sweats. Sweats. You didn't even try and before I knew it he tells me over the phone that you're his girlfriend before I even have a chance to react."

"Alexis-"

"The funny part though is that I remember talking to you one time before he said that. I remember you telling me you had a boyfriend and little did I know that it was Cedric. His brother."

I didn't say anything. She was getting into my head and she knew it. She knew it.

"It wasn't even that you just happened to cheat on someone but you did it with his brother. I don't care if the brother was Sam but for someone to stoop that low? Tanya was right."

"Right about what?" I said, making eye contact with her. Can those two stop talking about me with one another like they're suddenly best friends?

"Right about you. That for some stupid reason you might actually cheat on Sam."

"I'm not going to do that."

"Really? You cheated on Cedric with his own brother. What makes you think that you won't cheat on Sam? But of course, you wouldn't. Who would actually fall for you?"

"I don't know where you're getting at Alexis but you're not getting to me." I lied.

"I'm not?" She came closer to my face. "Maybe because you already know."

"Know what?"

"That Sam doesn't belong with you. That you're going to cheat on him or he's going to find someone better."

"Someone like you? Someone who's getting famous? Looks good with him on camera?"

"Exactly."

The way she was holding herself made it seem like she was going to fight me. Like physically fight with me over Sam. "I'm not fighting you."

"Why?"

"Because I have self-respect and I don't need to fight you of all people. You're not worth it."

"I'm not worth it? In case you haven't noticed I've known Sam longer than you have."

"I realize this. Thanks." I said sarcastically.

"I've seen him at his worst and you just so happen to walk into his life and-"

"And what?"

"Look, you may not understand this but Sam and I actually have something."

"Then why isn't he with you? Why is he with me? Why is he in love with me?" I retorted. Alexis flinched and I knew I had struck a nerve by saying that out loud.

"I don't know. But he's going to come to his senses one day. Besides, I can actually give him something he wants that you can't."

"What?"

"He's going to get tired of you. He's going to get sick of waiting."

"Alexis, shut up." I said quietly, trying not to get my irritation get the best of me.

"He's going to eventually find someone else who can actually give him what he wants. He's a man Macy. He's going to get bored of waiting around for you and when he does he'll come to me."

I stayed silent, clenching my fists at her words. Don't do it. Don't do it.