But It Isn't Right (Duskwood Fanfic)

Episode 7 - Found and Lost

Richy was trying to quietly slip out of bed early the next morning, but the movement woke me up. "Umph," I said. I was not a morning person.

"Sorry," he said softly. "I have to get ready for work, but you can sleep as long as you want."

"No, it's fine," I said. "As long as you have coffee."

Richy smirked. "Of course I have coffee."

I got dressed while Richy made us some toasted bagels and brewed the coffee. He looked at me and grinned as I half-heartedly munched on my food. "You're very cute first thing in the morning."

I blushed. "Thanks."

"Do you need to go home right away?" I shook my head. "Do you maybe wanna come to hang out at the shop with me and Jessy?"

I smiled. "That sounds like fun, actually." I hadn't gotten to spend too much time with Jessy so far, and it would be interesting to watch them work.

We walked over to the shop. Richy unlocked the office and then went over to roll up the garage door. There were already people milling about. When they saw us together, they started whispering in a completely conspicuous way. "Ugh, sorry," Richy muttered. "I thought the excitement would have died down by now, the whole 15 minutes of fame or whatever. Jessy usually doesn't come in for another hour, are you going to be OK?"

I laughed. "It's fine, go do your work." He started greeting customers, and to my amusement and his embarrassment, several asked to take selfies with both of us, and even asked for our autographs. Others asked where they could buy a copy of the song, and I directed them to my website.

Richy was completely flustered by all of the attention. But he stayed close to me, a protective arm over my shoulders as if he wasn't sure whether he could trust any of these new customers with my safety. I could sense he was stressed out, even though he remained polite to everyone. "We really do appreciate this," I said to the group. "But Richy needs to get to work."

Jessy arrived then and was able to corral everyone over to her desk and form a line, where she efficiently checked them all in. Richy wiped the sweat off his brow after they walked away. "Being a celebrity is hard work," he joked. "I don't know how you manage it all the time."

"Get used to it, because if we sing any more songs together, a whole flood of new groupies is going to come looking for you."

"Hey, what's this?" Jessy came up to us, showing me her phone.

"Oh," I said, seeing the #IAmJake posts all over her feed. 

Richy looked curiously. "Did you do this?" he asked me.

"Actually, it was Lilly," I said with a small smile.

They both looked at me in disbelief. "You're working with Lilly to help Jake?" Richy crowed. "How in the world did we get here? Is it an upside-down day?"

I laughed. "I'll explain later, but I have to talk to Lilly first about it, OK?"

I walked around to the side of the garage and decided it was time to make my own post. I made a quick video explaining what was happening and put in the hashtags, asking all of my followers to participate. Then I called Lilly. "Hey, the others have seen the campaign you started. How much do you want to tell them?"

Lilly sighed. "I'd completely blocked them out. I guess we have to tell them something, right? But just not everything."

"It's your call, Lilly. I'll follow your lead on this."

"Well, I guess we'd better just bite the bullet and explain then, but tell them as little as possible."

"Sounds good. See you in the group chat."