Chapter 6: A Proposal-Girlfriend?

“Just what the fuck do you mean by we are trending?” Danica got up from where she was sitting on the end of Troy's bed.

After she and Troy returned to the Rose mansion from their jog, Hernan made them sit down in Troy's room before telling them about the current situation on social media.

“This cannot happen. This photo was taken when we were casually talking, and the kiss was the live prank gone wrong. How can people connect the non-existent dots and create a ship name ‘Tronica’ by themselves? Also, how can this goddamn thing be trending? It makes no sense.” Troy was checking his Twitter and other social accounts. He got plenty of comments and his private messages were filled with people asking why he didn’t tell anyone about his girlfriend. Some texts were even die-hard fans making collages of him and Danica. Damn social media made people work faster than ever. “And what the fuck is up with this statement? I never told Marker to write such bullshit.”

Trevor, who was chilling on the couch, just sipped his coffee with an innocent look.

“I know, right? I was so shocked when I saw that tweet on your account this morning. Everything changed within a night. And—” Hernan was interrupted by the constant notification sound.

“I'm going to kill Marker today.” Troy picked up his cell phone and dialed his assistant's number. After the third ring, Marker answered the call. Before he could even greet Troy, he spoke up, “Marker, who told you to make that tweet?”

Troy heard some shuffling over the phone before Marker spoke up, “Hello? Hello? Sir, I can't hear you. The network is really bad here. Hello?”

“Marker, where are you? Are you in the mountains or what?” Troy hollered.

"Hello, sir? No signal—" With that, the line went dead.

Troy scoffed. "That troublemaker. I can't believe he hung up on me."

"Leave it, Troy. He must have made a mistake," Trevor suggested innocently.

"Don't even speak. It's all your fault," Troy rebuked.

Trevor let out a nervous laugh and sipped his coffee. "Why would it be my fault?"

"You pushed Danica towards me—" Troy was cut off by the constant notification of Danica's phone. Her phone was illuminating, vibrating, and at the same time, making ‘ting’ sounds.

Danica looked at the table where she kept her phone after Aziel posted pictures of him and Hernan on her Instagram account. Instantly, Troy took her phone to hand it to her, but Danica said, “1809.”

Troy nodded his head and unlocked Danica’s phone. It was all of her Instagram notifications. She was getting followers, likes, and comments in her old posts, also different private messages. He checked her Instagram account, which was now public.

“Shit,” he mumbled under his breath.

Danica looked at him, feeling her fastening heartbeat. “How are all these people getting connected with me?”

“Your account is public, Danica,” he answered as he started checking whether Danica was getting any threats or hate comments. He gritted his teeth as he saw he was already following her account, meaning it was his assistant's deed. How come Marker was so meticulous with creating a misunderstanding to the whole world?

“Then make it private again. I will remove these followers.”

“You can’t, Hazel,” spoke up Hernan this time. “You have more than 600k followers now. It increased more after my picture with Aziel was posted from your account. And Gabrielle tagged you in an old picture she posted of you and her, saying ‘Welcome back, bestie.’ Fans are now guessing that you are close to every celebrity in the Rose mansion and—”

“Just get to the point, Hernan,” Danica uttered, getting annoyed and also scared about the situation.

“Your account is verified,” said Troy, and handed her the phone. “You are a celebrity now.”

Danica felt like her whole world was spinning out of control. She never thought she would be hearing such kinds of words. Her and celebrity…in the same sentence? She just wanted to lead a normal life. But each time she wanted a normal happy life, her life would get more complicated.

“Danica,” Troy called out and grabbed her shoulder. “Sit down.”

She sat along with Troy once again and Hernan quickly handed her a glass of water. Without any hesitation, she took the glass and gulped the water in one go.

“What is my role here? How do we stop all this?” she asked the two boys with hope, but they didn’t meet the intense gaze of her hazel eyes.

“You are known as Troy’s girlfriend by the entire world now,” said Hernan.

Taking a deep breath, she said, “Okay. Even if I am known as Troy’s girlfriend by the people, how does that make me a celebrity? This makes no sense.”

“The dresses you wear are your own designs, right?” questioned Troy, and Danica nodded her head. He sighed and said, “This is now in Google as well. A fashion designer is dating Troy Kingston.”

Danica slapped her forehead in the complexity of the situation. “What do we do now, Troy? I am not your girlfriend, nor are we dating each other. I don’t know anything about all this stuff and I—”

Troy cupped her cheeks. “Hey, look at me. Listen. We will face this together. We faced everything together and there have been ups and downs too. But I won’t leave you alone in this situation. Just have faith in me.”

Danica looked intently into his blue irises, which showed that nothing could go wrong if he was there for her. It reassured her. His words never failed to calm her down every time she was panicking. She really missed him in all these years, and the feeling was getting stronger than ever the more time she spent around him.

“Just go and get some rest. Hernan and I will come up with a solution. Trust us,” he further said, rubbing his thumb on her soft cheek.

Hernan cleared his throat. “It was a nice show, but can both of you stop this? We have to come up with a solution. Hazel, Troy is right. Leave it to us. We will let you know if we come up with an idea.”

Troy removed his hands from Danica’s cheeks, which he was cupping, and instantly, Danica felt the loss of his presence like a visceral force. She got up and walked out of the room, making her way to her bedroom. Aziel was playing video games on the television there.

Seeing Aziel, suddenly a question crept into Danica’s mind. How was her private account made public? The last post was uploaded by Aziel.

“Aziel, did you make my account public?” Danica asked abruptly, startling Aziel who was busy playing the game. “Answer me,” she said sternly.

Aziel looked at his older sister, getting scared of the glare she was giving him. “Public? Why would I make your account public, Dani?” He stood up from the beanbag, keeping the remote on the table.

“My account is public now, and you were the last person who uploaded a picture.”

He was trying to understand what happened and then said, “Maybe by mistake, I had hit the ‘public’ button. I didn’t see, Dani, I swear.”

Danica placed her hands on her hips, throwing daggers with her eyes at Aziel. “Do you have any idea of what your moment of irresponsibility cost, Aziel? I am now fodder for every gossip column in the world! How could you make such a huge mistake?”

Aziel shuddered at the sudden loud tone of Danica. It was very rare for Danica to scold him and when she did; he knew that he messed up very badly.

“I am sorry, Dani. I—” he was cut off by Danica.

“Your sorry won't fix anything now. No games for a month is your punishment. I hope you know how much you messed up this time, Aziel.”

Tears started streaming out of Aziel’s eyes. He was not sad because of the punishment he received. He was sad because Danica was angry at him; it made his chest ache.

“Dani, I—”

“Don’t talk to me.” With that, Danica stormed out of the room, letting her tears out which she wiped with the back of her hand. She cried every time she scolded Aziel. Everything was screwed up now. She made her way to the terrace and sat there, pulling her knees up to her chest.

Someone put a hand on Danica’s shoulder, which alarmed her. She glanced over her shoulder, only to find Gabrielle, who smiled with her big dimples flashing. “I never thought this is how we would be talking after three years, Dani.” She sat on the floor of the terrace along with Danica, who smiled through her tears and pulled her into a big hug. She missed her only female best friend.

###

“So, have you two come up with a solution yet?” asked Danica, looking at her hand nervously. After her heart-to-heart talk with Gabrielle, Troy texted her to come to his room. He and Hernan must have come up with a solution. This was what Danica thought.

Hernan wasn’t in the room when she walked in. Only she and Troy were there.

Troy stayed silent, looking at Danica, admiring her beautiful and sweet self.

“Well…?” Danica eagerly waited for him to reply.

Troy heaved a sigh before he started speaking, “Will you be my girlfriend, Danica?”