The Voice

Chapter 8

Lucas POV:

“He’s right, I am no one”

Those words and that look in her eyes will never leave my brain; they’re ingrained in there forever. I knew I should have just left her alone at the club last night… but my stupid brain couldn’t resist and I was going to start off on a good foot with her this morning until Holly came in and fucked everything over.

I couldn’t defend her from Holly otherwise Holly would have made her life miserable, he knows so he just had to get her away…. But that look of hurt in her eyes-

“Lucas! They’re ready for you at make-up” I walk aimlessly towards the make-up trailer just as Grace walks past me, probably done already “Hey, Gracie” she raises her eyebrow “mmm” and walks on.
What the hell just happened?

After twenty minutes they’re finally done, I hate the make-up so I only allow them 20 minutes, whatever is not done, is not done.

I walk to set after getting changed and see Grace is waiting while speaking on the phone. She looks at me and quickly ends her call “Bye, Love you. I’ll bring dinner” she continues tapping on her phone, ignoring me which is weird.

“Grace” no answer “Earth to Grace” still no answer. I grab her phone and that finally gets her attention “Grace! Why are you ignoring me?” she looks to be fuming and mumbles something along the line of “I know she said not to be mad but-”

“Grace, who told you what now?” she suddenly punches me on the arm “I can’t slap or punch you because unfortunately we need your face for this movie” I’m now so confused “Grace?”

“Oh, so I’m someone enough for you to speak to me and acknowledge me, huh? Or is another one of your women going to shout at me or grab me for speaking to you?” she walks away as her name is called for a separate shoot somewhere else.

Oh, shit… Lottie… they must probably live together and-
“Lucas, honeybear!” the source of my problems, why is she here on set?

Where is the security when you need them? Then again, supermodel actress Holly probably walks wherever she wants. I roll my eyes but turn towards her

“Holly, what are you doing here? I thought I made it clear this morning that we are not getting married neither are we still going out” she clicks her tongue “but, baby…” I remove her claws from my shoulders and turn to walk away but something catches my attention “but we’re co-stars, Lukie”  the fuck??

“Holly, what do you mean co-stars?” just then my manager Mikey decides to appear. “Lucas, Holly over here will be part of the cast, it was a recent announcement and will be made public tomorrow” she smirks and walks away waving at us as she is also called for journalists who are here to interview her.

“Mikey, why? That chick is bat shit crazy” he laughs “Lucas, they needed another big name just to secure the movie as the lead actress is unknown and she was available to do it” I rub my forehead just knowing that she’ll be a pain in the ass.

Speaking of, I needed to sleep before the group shoot as my headache was killing me.
Walking to my trailer I see Grace “Grace!” she just gives me a look and is about to walk away before I grab her and drag her to my trailer. “What! Let go of me!” I keep her down “Grace, please, can we talk” she stops fighting but just sits there and says nothing. I sigh and sit opposite her taking two painkillers and downing the bottle of water. “I know this is about Charlo-”

“Do you know how hurt she was? How she cried because someone had called her a no body? Hurt because the same shit keeps happening to her!?” I don’t think she knows, but tears are now streaming down her face. I hand her a tissue and she wipes her face and sniffles “She tries to hide it but I know she cried herself to sleep when she got back…” I hug her and keep repeating “I’m sorry, I was stupid” over and over again but I know I should be saying this to Charlotte.

After she calms down we continue talking and she asks me why and I explain to her that Holly was there and Holly is capable of doing horrible things so he had to just see that she left before things got out of hand “She’s stronger than you think, than she even knows herself” there’s a beat of silence “Lucas… you need to make this right” I nod agreeing with her

“How do I start?” she seems to think for a moment “you’re doing the recordings for the next few days right?” I nod again “Be nice to the lady that’s singing and maybe bring her flowers” she smiles “Why would I… Grace, this is not helping” she looks around

“They did tell you that I have a voice double right? That I’m not singing all my parts” he nods and the puzzle slowly begins to fit together. The night at the hotel! There was singing but it was just- “Charlotte??” I’m shocked. My manager told me about this and I had to sign a NDA because the singing double didn’t want to be seen but she’ll just sing on the movie.  “So that means…?” she nods fully understanding “but she thinks no one knows that it’s her” and so my planning begins…
Announcement: Everyone to set B please for group shots, thank you.
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For the next week, I send flowers to their apartment, each day the same flowers, 50 red roses as Grace mentioned it was her favourite flower. I know it’s not much, but I was in the studio recording my solo things and doing some backgrounds in preparation for when we sang together. I would text Grace every night asking if the flowers had arrived and she said yes and that for the first two days Lottie was very confused but smiled whenever they arrived, but Grace warned me that she didn’t say anything to Lottie and so she doesn’t know who the flowers are from.

Just as Grace leaves, I take out my phone and start typing. I pray to God this doesn’t backfire as I put my phone on the table and rest before my last session before the weekend.