Cursed Popstar - 14

Chapter 14: Living the New Life

The feeling of the music was wonderful. It shook her to the bone as she performed on stage, a cheering crowd thrilled to get a concert from the Fire Hearts at their local music festival.

The only issue with it all was that she was having to be Romeo. On a day where her masculine body felt like she was stretched and pulled by bones that were too large for her. She did her best to drown those feelings in the music and the roar of the crowd, and did a pretty good job in her opinion. It wasn’t perfect, but she was pretty sure no one would notice how she was feeling inside. They would probably chalk any oddness up to that recent push to try to be ‘artistic’ that the official releases claimed Romeo had been up to.

At last, the number ended, and she was able to slip off the stage.

Slipping back into the change room, she grabbed a bottle of water from the counter. It had been cold enough that she hadn’t managed to sweat the sigil off, which she had accidentally done while in the studio sauna the other day. (That had been awkward, when Hank had stepped in and then done a rapid 180 to give her privacy.)

They were going to have to figure sweat issues out later, when she had shows in the summer, and would be sweating like crazy. In the autumn, like it was now, she was rather less sweaty. Which was good for performances, but annoying when she wanted an excuse to be a woman.

Before she could apply to water to wash the sealing sigil off, however, Rachel pulled the bottle from her hand.

“Not until we’ve left. We don’t want any confused photographers showing Romeo perform and then Rosalind leave,” Rachel said.

“Why? No one is going to figure it out,” Rosalind muttered in a too deep voice. “They’ll just think they missed Romeo leave and Rosalind was being sociable.”

Rachel narrowed her eyes. “It’s a cover story. You’re two primadonnas we can’t handle having both in the same place. That explains why you’re never performing together.”

“Why do I always come off so poorly in these explanations?” Rosalind asked.

“Gee, I wonder,” Rachel said, rolling her eyes.

Confused, Rosalind decided to focus on pouting for the next few minutes as she cleaned off her makeup. Then it was time to leave. They were still in Toronto city limits, even if they were in deepest Scarberia, so there was no tour bus to file into. There was just the rented high end SUV and then Rachel’s car.

Rosalind decided to go with the latter, wanting to figure out what she’d done to tick her manager off so much. She got a glare from Rachel when she slipped into the passenger seat, but it wasn’t like she could change in the SUV, which had a driver.

As such, Rachel stuck to fuming silently while Rosalind pulled out some water to wash her sigil off. She let out a sigh of sweet relief as she returned to her female form. Then they both sat in awkward silence for a few blocks.

“What did I do?” Rosalind asked at last, not able to handle it any longer.

Rachel’s eye twitch slightly, her cold demeanor struggling to keep a balance on her annoyance. “Nothing.”

“I definitely did something,” Rosalind replied.

That saw Rachel blush slightly. “It’s what you didn’t do… and then, I suppose, the things you did do afterwards.”

“What didn’t I do?”

Rachel let out a sigh. “I—it’s weird to talk about it when you’re a woman.”

“Why?” Rosalind asked, genuinely confused.

“Be—because… it’s… I’m straight,” Rachel muttered.

“Ok?”

Rachel turned, glancing at her, before shaking her head. Then it was back to the silence. Silence that told Rosalind she’d missed something important. Something that was somehow relevant to Rachel’s sexuality.

“It’s about sex, then?” she asked, as they pulled onto the highway.

Rachel didn’t say anything.

“I… ah! I get it. I was kind of a jerk, sleeping with you when I was like… this, even if I was guyish inside that day. And… um… you want to sleep with me again when I’m fully—THE ROAD!!” Rosalind shrieked as she realised Rachel had turned to stare at her.

The car shuddered slightly, but then Rachel turned her attention back to drive.

“No… that’s not—no,” Rachel said. “Not—well, not that transactionally. I just… I just like clarity.”

“Ok?” Rosalind replied in a quiet voice, not quite sure what to take from that.

Instead she decided to drop it, at least for the sake of surviving the rest of the drive back to the studio. While wondering what sort of clarity Rachel was after. (That wasn’t sleeping with Romeo, to leave her sexuality less confused.)

-

“So, we’ve noticed you and your cousin don’t spend much time together,” the tv host said, his tone casual. “Is there some sort of family vendetta going on there?”

“I…” Romeo started. “No?”

“Ah. Do you and her get along?”

Romeo felt the gears in his brain trying to turn. Trying to find an answer to insert into the question asked. He wasn’t finding anything, though. What was he supposed to say? That he got along with himself?

Sure, he’d tried practicing, but it was still so abstract to talk about himself in the third person like that. It melted his brain.

“They get along too well,” Logan said, sliding in with the rescue. “If we put them together they get up to so much chaos.”

“Pranks like you wouldn’t believe,” Jovita added. “The Collinses insisted that we only have one of them in the studio or at a concert at any one point. Otherwise… well, let’s just say that Hank is still cleaning glitter out of things.”

Romeo offered a strained sort of smile while nodding along, pretending like it was true. “I don’t think we’re that bad together.”

“You haven’t seen what you’re like from the outside,” Logan said, wrapping an arm around Romeo’s shoulder. “It’s very overwhelming for the rest of us.”

Something about the tone he used and the proximity of their bodies left Romeo wondering if there was something more to the statement. He’d have thought it was flirtatious from almost any (gay) guy other than Logan, but, well… it was Logan. They’d known each other for years and nothing had ever happened.

As much as Romeo might sometimes wish it would. Despite that being a terrible idea for the stability of the band.

Thankfully, the interviewer moved on to less confusing topics, so Romeo was able to answer questions without having to melt his brain. It was enough to just try to figure out what was going on with Logan lately.

Or Rachel.

Why were both of them acting so oddly?

Well, ok. He’d slept with Rachel again, and the last time he’d done that had led to things being awkward for a while. He hadn’t done anything with Logan that was different, though.

Maybe it was just improved bonding around Romeo now also having stumbled into a sort of transness?

That probably made sense.

It might be smart to ask the others what they thought, though.

After the interview. And then after the recording session they had planned for the evening.

-

Slinking off down the hall after finishing his recording session for the day, Romeo ran across JK in one of the more relaxed hallways. He was lounging on a couch, playing a game of some sort on his phone.

“Hey, do you mind if I ask you for an opinion?” Romeo said, leaning against the wall.

“It depends on what it’s about,” JK replied, not looking up from his game.

“Logan and Rachel have both been acting a bit… odd, right?”

JK paused what he was doing to give the matter a moment’s thought, and then shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. Maybe? I’m not really what most folks call a ‘people person’.”

“Right… very true,” Romeo muttered, standing up properly again. “You were not the one to ask. Though, I suppose, at least it’s not obvious enough you noticed it.”

“I try not to notice things. Noticing things leads to drama and drama is bad for bands,” JK said.

“It can be better to vent before things explode, though,” Romeo replied, starting to walk away.

He heard a quiet ‘touché’ from JK as he left.

Heading down the hallway, Romeo passed Hank’s office and, very briefly, thought about asking him for advice. He was vaguely akin to a ‘father figure’ and offered wise advice from time to time.

He was, unfortunately, also an actual father to Rachel. So, not the best person to talk about the current issue with. Too much risk of a push to make things serious, instead of recognising that both Romeo and Rachel had more of a ‘coworkers with benefits’ thing going on. Since they both knew that relationships lead to drama, and, as JK had said, drama was bad for bands.

Plus, Rachel could do better than Romeo for a serious relationship partner. He knew that, through and through. Hardly a week went by without Rachel finding some serious flaw of Romeo’s to rant about. Even if he did his best to fix most of those issues, taking them as Rachel’s professional managerial advice, there were some things he saw as non-negotiable and surely other things she simply hadn’t pointed out yet.

“Jovita!” he said, seeing the tall and muscular drummer walking down the stairs.

“Oh, hey Romeo, have you seen JK?” she replied.

“He’s just down the hall,” Romeo said. “I—but, before you go, can I ask for your opinion on something?”

“Sure?” she replied in a questioning tone.

“I,” he began, before he remembered that Jovita was exceptionally aro-ace. So, also maybe not the best person to ask about current confusion. Though, maybe it would also mean she was objective. She did pay a bit more attention to things than JK tended to.

She was also staring at him, one eyebrow slowly raising.

“Have you, um… have you noticed that Logan and Rachel both seem to be acting a bit… different? At least towards me?”

“I—a little? I think Logan has real ‘protect the new trans’ energy going on? Classic queer—well, not ‘elder’ behaviour, but… ‘sempai’ behaviour? If you’ll forgive the Japanese-ism,” Jovita replied.

“If I remember what that means right, then… that was what I was thinking, but I wasn’t sure if I was right,” Romeo said.

“Mhm. And then Rachel, well… you did sleep with her, and now you’re flipping sexes on a nearly daily basis. I think she’s just trying to work out if she’s as straight as she thought she was?” Jovita said. “Or… something like that?”

“Ah. That… that makes sense,” Romeo replied.

“Probably just a matter of time before she pops over to a gay bar, gets wooed by a dashing lesbian, and then finds out if she actually likes it or not,” Jovita said, nodding sagely to herself.

“Maybe,” Romeo replied, not sure if Rachel actually did casual one night stands with strangers all that much.

Hiring a professional seemed more her style, considering her tendency to trust money over people.

“Thanks for the input, though,” Romeo replied, feeling better about things.

“No problemo,” Jovita replied, before heading off towards where JK had been.

It was a good relief. Romeo had been worrying that Hermaphroditus had been messing with his friends. Changing platonic feelings to romantic all in the name of trying to get someone into a wedding dress and a ring on Romeo’s finger.

With his mind now clearer, Romeo decided to head off and go through some fan mail. There was a nice pile of it near his dressing room, all checked by mildly paranoid security personnel for anything suspicious.

He grabbed the basket and started sorting through it. Someone had sent him a package with a lacy thong in it, which was… odd, but only a little bit stranger than having similar things thrown on stage. There were plenty of love letters from adoring fans. Other letters were simply more friendly. A few people had sent him snacks from around the world (which he checked to make sure was still properly packaged). There were marriage proposals, which stuck out to him due to recent worries, but there had always been marriage proposals. Generally as jokes.

At least he hoped.

One, however, stood out. It was a letter from a woman in Krakow, who had included a picture. A picture containing a face he recognised. Also included in the letter was a very major claim that he did not know how to process.

The woman was insisting she was pregnant. With his child.
—————

So, an update. But it probably won’t get another one for a little bit. I need to finish editing up Lessons in Lesbianism, and have to write a couple of shorts for some bundle entries that have deadlines. But then I’ll get back to it.