“Cecelia…” called out a deep familiar voice
“Thaddeus…?” questioned Cece
“Cecelia…I love y- ” his words were cut short.
Her eyes flipped open, her dream came to an end. Cecelia lay amongst her bed with tears slipping from her eyes, down to her cheeks, and eventually onto the bed. All she could think of was Thaddeus and the words he mentioned to her the night before. She had never felt so unwanted and unneeded in her life before, she was a star after all. Thaddeus was the first to achieve this no matter how hard she tried to break down his walls. In the end, he has always chosen himself over everyone. Her tears rolled harder and the more she thought of Thaddeus the more tears flowed creating a wet stained bed.
The night before, she had received many text messages, and many calls– around ninety-seven calls and two hundred messages to be exact. The calls were usually from the same people– about ten from her mother, thirty from her managing agent, fifty from a mix of friends and job offers, six from the John (the director), and exactly one from Thaddeus. Every single one of them she ignored, except for the little green arrow that appeared next to Thaddeus’s name. Cecelia was convinced that her loyalty for him was above everything else, and yet his loyalty was only for himself but she still picked up the phone for him that night.
“Cecelia, you there?” Thaddeus’s deep, smooth voice echoed through the phone, entering CeCe’s ears without permission.
“Y-yeah…I am.” She responded, her whole boy tingled to hearing his voice through the phone, she wasn’t used to it. This had only been at least their fifth time on the phone, they would usually only communicate through texting.
“Listen, I’m sorry how things ended today but I don’t regret my decision. I really didn’t want to hurt you but I think it’s best for us to separate,” he continued, “It’s best I end things like this for us until I finish my diploma, I mean you’re twenty years old. You’ve already received some backlash from the media about dating a seventeen-year-old, and now since I’m going back to high school, it’s probably going to get worst. I don’t want you to have to go through something like that again.” He finished off.
“Then don’t go.” CeCe rebutted, “Don’t leave me…”
Thaddeus didn’t respond, the call fell silent.
“Tomorrow…” he finally spoke, “John said he’s going to make the episode we were working on today into the season finale since it’s a good stopping point. He said it’ll buy me some time to work on getting my diploma, so I should be back before the next season. That’s why John was wondering if you’ll work with us to give it a good final-” Thaddeus was brutally cut off by CeCe.
“I don’t care about the show!! I don’t care about John!! I don’t care about my character or any of these people!! I care about us!! I care about you!! SO WHY DON’T YOU CARE ABOUT ME!?” her lungs felt like that were tearing and her heart was doing the same. CeCe’s whines pierced so loudly through the phone that it echoed right back into her own ears. She was steamed, Thaddeus had pushed her off the edge when she was already in the deepest depths of the fall.
“Why do you do this to me Thaddy…you know how much I love you…you know I would do anything for you, so why…?” she questioned, her voice resonating the pain and hurting she felt.
Thaddeus sighed through the phone, there was a long pause of silence only until he decided to speak again.
“I tried to end this pleasantly by putting everything nicely…but you even ruined that.” he advanced, “I didn’t want to tell you this Cecelia, but if I don’t, I don’t know who will.”
“What…?” CeCe responded with a perplex expression written across her face.
“You’re controlling, demanding, manipulative, selfish, and ten times worst of a narcissist than I am. You believe the world revolves around you. You blatantly ignore the things I want to try and every time I attempt to do something you make me the culprit while you become the victim.” Thaddeus’s voice was now even deeper, louder, and full of rage as his harsh words had continued to come at Cecelia in full force like darts being shot at the bullseyes on a target.
“Not only that, but you’re hella unappreciative. Every single time I buy you something nice and that, may-I-remind-you, COSTS MORE THAN YOUR GODDAMN HOUSE, you’d throw it in the trash and voice to everyone how much you hated it. I constantly racked my brain in order to find something you may like. It pushed me until the point where I thought you wouldn’t like expensive things but something from the heart. So when I made you that home-made card AND YOU BURNED IT RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY EYES, I didn’t know what to do– I came to the conclsuion that I would never be able to satisfy you.”
“W-wait!!” Cecelia attempted to cut off Thaddeus but he was no where near being done.
“Cecelia you may think I am some oblivous little boy but I know you’ve been cheating on me with several guys and while pretend like you’ve done nothing. Yet, there are never-ending messages and calls from guys on your phone that suffice as evidence.” he continued.
“But that’s not even the worst part. The worst part is that this is not our first rodeo when it comes to breaking up. You threaten to break up with me everyday but come nighttime and your’re begging me to stay. When I try to break up with you, you cry, make a huge fuss, make me seem like that bad guy, completely RUIN your lines in the show, and then about a week later pretend like NOTHING happened!! And you know what, everyone looks at me as the cause of it and tells me to fix it! You end up trapping me over and over again, every! single! damn! time!” Thaddeus, after holding his composure up for so long, was no finally losing it. He may have been running out of breath but it didn’t stop him from what he needed to say.
“Thaddy…” replied CeCe softly.
“Not this time…you’re not doing the same crap you do to me every time I try to do something for myself, I’m leaving and I’m breaking up with you for good this time, with no regrets.” Thaddeus was now gaining back his breath and was feeling highly accomplished. Cecelia was in utter shock, as she went to respond she felt stuck as she could find no words to say.
“That’s who you are Cecelia Mable…and I have nothing else to say to you other than to meet us tomorrow on the set for the season finale.” there was a sharp cut on the other side of the call before it was replaced with a long beeping sound. Thaddeus was now officially off the phone, leaving no room for CeCe’s rebuttal.
Cecelia had labelled that night as one she would never forget. Her body took a full turn to look at her clock– it was 5:50 in the morning. Unfortunately, due to not being able to get sleep that night, the last time she had looked at the clock was 5:20. For only thirty minutes was she able to shut her eyes and within those thirty minutes she dreamt of Thaddeus.
“He’s right…” Cecelia thought. Her feet pointing out from the sheets of her bed curled, her body twisted, and a scream was released from her lips.
“Arghhhhh what the hell Thaddy!! You’re the absolute worst!!” She cried. Cecelia continued to twist around her bed becoming all sprawled out. Yet, the disappointment and frown that once laid on her face was gone, instead a grin was now causing her lips to stretch.
“I hate it…but I love it! Ugh!! I love it!!” She yelled in excitement.
“I love it so much! I love you Thaddeus! You don’t know what you do to me! Oh I know you love me…and that’s the real reason why you’re leaving me. But you can’t stay away from me for too long, you always come back.” She preceded to move as she hopped out of her bed and onto the ground. She remembered the words Thaddeus said the night before and it became her drive for the last episode’s finale.
“I’ll show you a good last finale.” she finished before lively prancing around her room as she got ready.
———————————————————————————————————
“Thaddeus! What the hell is this!?” a woman’s voice had echoed throughout the polished marble halls of the large mansion she sat in. This room was open and filled with large overarching windows that allowed sunlight to fill it and the rest of the house. Thaddeus had followed her voice and headed down the winding spiraling stairs that wrapped around the other half of the house.
“Mother.” He responded with a sharp tongue before the very tip of his toes has touched the last marble step. He preceded to enter the living room where his mother had sat comfortably on a large white couch that circled the room.
“Don’t mother me, what the hell is this?” His mother held a magazine out towards Thaddeus while her eyes stayed glued to the large 80 inch tv that was propped in the middle of the room. she handed him the magazine then used her pointer finger to direct his attention to the TV where StarPopLive was broadcasting. On the magazine was a huge picture of him and CeCe throwing hands and arguing. Labelled on the cover were words that were beginning to shape the situation.
“Thaddy&Cee In a Dilemmy” was printed largely across the front cover in blue words. There also happened to be sub words just beneath the large blue words.
“A possible rumored breakup following the rumored leaving of the Famous RTH cast, Thaddeus Banquo.”
“Dilemmy…the cringe is strong.” Thaddeus mentioned before handing back the Magazine to his Mother.
“You didn’t even read it!” her voice echoed throughout the living room.
“I don’t need to,” Thaddeus continued, “I already know what they’re saying, and it doesn’t matter, they’re not wrong.” Thaddeus’s mother snapped her neck in order to face her son directly.
“You didn’t…” her lips trembled.
“I did, I broke up with her.” Thaddeus ignored his mother’s face going a whitening pale from his words. He scuttled to the large marble-covered kitchen where he attempted to find breakfast.”
“THADDEUS DUTCH BANQUO ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR DAMN MIND!?” She wrecked havoc as she pushed herself off the couch and stormed into the kitchen where her son stood aimlessly. Before he could face her, her right hand had flung up in the air and aggressively landed on Thaddeus’s smooth face leaving only the sound of two surfaces smacking against each other. A red bulging outline of her hand was printed on his face. Thaddeus stood still is his place, the pain may have resonated throughout his entire body but his position remained upright and his head continued facing forward towards his mother.
“Why the hell didn’t you come to me first!!? We could’ve talked out all of your problems with CeCe and resolved it like we usually do!!” his mother claimed, she placed the palm of her left hand upon her forehead to indicate her stress and disappointment.
“There’s no point in dragging it out anymore…I don’t love her, I never did. Our love was fake.” his voice that responded sternly had held a faint touch of solemn in it.
“I don’t care. Whether you loved her or not, she was good for you.” His mother sighed.
“Good for my career…” Thaddeus had rebuttal.
“You just don’t understand Thaddeus…she’s puts you on another level of fame.” She continued, “Being with her…it helped boost your career tremendously. That was the whole point–” her words were cut sharply by Thaddeus’s.
“It wasn’t! It wasn’t supposed to be like that!”
“Yes it was!!” his mother had won the argument through her roaring voice that filled the entire room. She had took a few breaths before calming herself down, both her hands now placed firmly on her face, and he eyes swaying far from her son’s.
“Y-you two have the same goal…that was all that mattered. That’s why we worked things out. Don’t you see, things won’t work with the person you love if you don’t have the same goals in life. Just look at me and your father.” She took another breather before hesitating to finish the rest of her conversation. Although reluctantly, she said what she believed needed to be.
“We didn’t last because we simply had two different goals in life. But you and CeCe do, so that’s why you can’t do this to us. We’re going to meet up later after the shoot and work things out.” she looked toward the large clock hanging off of the kitchen wall.
“It’s almost time for your shoot,” She sighed, “Go clean yourself up, and do something about that red mark, it’s bruising. I didn’t want to do it but you left me no choice, first it was the school thing and now this, I’m not letting get your way anymore.” She had finally finished. Thaddeus only responded in a nod and began making his way towards the bathroom.
“You left Dad because he supported my every decision, and he would’ve supported me even now. ” Are the words that should’ve came out of Thaddeus’s mouth that moment but despite his overconfident personality, he couldn’t muster up the courage to say it. His mother was the last person he ever wanted to disrespect, no matter how bad she hurt him. She was his mother after all. She had raised him having absolutely nothing but a few food stamps here and there, and (if they were lucky) a roof over their heads. Yet, she fought her way out of the slumps and made it up the social ladder where she began managing her own commercial business. Thaddeus had been sheltered from that world for as long as he could remember.
The only thing he could ever reminiscent over would be the early years of his life that he modeled for various companies, acted in commercials, and before he knew it, was hanging out with famous celebrities. He lived the good life, it had been a dream that had became reality and the woman who made this all possibly for him was her…so how could he possibly go against his mother, who has done so much for him. These thoughts resonated and repeated throughout his mind.
