"Hey."

I looked up to see Trish, one of Mitchie's bandmates, standing a few feet from me. As soon as we'd gotten off the plane back to London, Mitchie had to go to a photo shoot with the rest of the girls and had invited me to come along. I wasn't about to pass up an opportunity to be with her, so I didn't hesitate to accept.

As predicted, I'd already gotten a call from my publicist, screaming at me for some pictures that showed up in the tabloids this morning of me and Mitchie at a club last night. I told her we were just dancing – she said it wasn't dancing, it was groping. But whatever. I let her yell for a few minutes and then told her I had to go. I didn't care. I had fun. More fun than I'd ever had maybe in my entire life. We stayed at the club until it closed, and then we just walked around Paris until our plane back to London left in the morning. I don't think I've ever actually stayed out all night before. I was dead tired now, but it was worth it. Mitchie was incredible.

"Hey," I replied.

"Can I talk to you for a second?" Trish asked, sitting in the chair next to me.

"Sure…what's up?"

I tore my eyes off of Mitchie for the first time since we got there. Trish was pretty and blonde – very much Shane's type. Mitchie introduced me to all of the other girls when we got here –Trish, Ella, and Caitlyn – but they didn't acknowledge me with much more than a 'hello,' so I was curious as to what she wanted to talk to me about.

"Look, Nate…I'm really not one to stick my nose into other people's business, but…" she started. She looked away from me and to Mitchie. "I just…I think I should warn you about Mitchie."

"What do you mean?" I asked, a little defensively.

Trish sighed and ran her fingers through her hair, noticeably uncomfortable. "I just mean that…Mitchie…she toys with guys. I love her, don't get me wrong, she's one of my best friends…but she does. It's like, she leads guys on until they fall in love with her – and they do, they always do – and then she moves on. She doesn't really do relationships, I guess. I usually mind my own business, but I know what the music business is like, and I know how quickly you can lose everything if you get distracted. I just wouldn't want you to get distracted for a girl who probably isn't going to commit to you in the end. I mean, she has her reasons and everything, but…"

"She told me about her mom," I interrupted her.

She stared at me blankly for a moment. "Really?"

"And her brother."

"She told you about Brandon?" Trish asked, shocked.

I nodded. I swear, her jaw almost hit the floor. It made me feel great that she was so surprised – between her reaction and what she had said, I'm pretty sure it meant that Mitchie had never told another guy what she'd told me.

"Oh, well…wow. Um…well, just be careful, okay?"

Why did she feel the need to warn me about this, anyways? It's not like it was real…

And then I realized – Mitchie didn't tell them. She didn't tell them that this was just an act. She let them believe that we were really together. I didn't know what to make of that. I told Shane and Jason, so I guess I just assumed she would have told them, too. Why wouldn't she?

"Yeah, okay," I replied, trying to hide my confusion. "Don't worry about me."

"Okay. I'll, uh…I'll talk to you later," Trish said quickly as she stood up and walked back towards the other girls and the photographer.

"What was that about?" Mitchie asked, sitting down next to me.

"Um, nothing," I lied. "Hey, why didn't you tell them that we aren't really dating?"

I tried to sound casual. I think she bought it. Even after no sleep, she still looked gorgeous.

She shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I thought they couldn't be mad at me about the picture if they thought you were really my boyfriend. Like, it's not slutty to kiss your boyfriend, ya know?"

"They didn't think it was weird that you hadn't told them that we'd been dating for months?"

"Well, Caitlyn liked this guy awhile ago, but she said she didn't go out with him because she thought it might distract her. So I told them that I remembered that and I was afraid they would worry that I would get distracted, so I figured that if kept it a secret for a little while, when I told them they would know that it hadn't distracted me and they wouldn't have to worry," she explained.

I was beginning to think she was kind of an evil genius. I never would have thought of anything like that.

"MITCHIE!" her manager screamed as he stormed into the room.

She sighed, annoyed. "I'll be right back…"

I watched her walk over to her manager, who looked furious. He was waving around a magazine – I bet it was the same one my publicist saw. He seemed to calm down after she talked to him for a few minutes. She took the magazine from him and came back over to where I was sitting. She had a huge grin on her face.

"Look," she laughed, handing me the magazine. "They think we're engaged."

On the cover was a grainy cell phone picture of me putting the ring on her finger. The quality was terrible, so I could see that you really couldn't tell it was just plastic. If the picture had been of anyone else, I probably would have thought it was real, too.

"This is a good thing?" I asked, trying to figure out how she walked out of that heated argument with her manager still smiling.

"Yes! Don't you get it? If we keep them guessing…and don't tell them whether or not it's true…it's all they're going to be trying to figure out! They won't give a shit about my family anymore!"

Mitchie caught me off-guard when she crashed her lips into mine. Not that I was complaining, of course. The reason it really surprised me, though, was that she did it when there were no paparazzi around. She wanted her band to believe we were really dating, yeah, but still. They obviously believed her already, so she didn't have to prove it to them. Maybe she was actually kissing me because she really wanted to.

"Mitch, come here," her agent called to her.

"I think we'll be done here soon, okay?" Mitchie said to me.

I nodded and she kissed me quickly again before she jogged over to her agent. Another one of the girls, Ella, came over to me and sat down. She was tall and tan, with dark hair and eyes.

"Get ready, this is going to be hilarious," she warned me.

"What is?" I asked.

Ella grinned. "You know how Mitchie doesn't talk to the press, like ever?"

"Yeah…"

"Jennifer is about to tell her that she has to do an interview with the European MTV guys. It's already all set up," she smirked. "And three…two…one…"

"WHAT THE FUCK, JEN?!"