Adult-FanFiction.org : Celebrity

Teardrop In The Fire	By : MysticNight Category: Singers/Bands/Musicians > Incubus Views: 3776 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. I do not know the members of Incubus. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 18
- 19
- 20
Quick Note: Hiii! I must, must, must apologize for the lack of updates. We moved, so it took me a while to get my connection and everything back up. Thank you for the concerned posts and reviews because i truly value them:) I would never just abandon this fic because i would hate to read something only to have the plug pulled right in the center of everything.
Anyway, again sorry for the delay and i hope you enjoy this quick update!

Ps. I had to put the other half of the fic on another page, for some reason the whole thing wasnt showing up, so just hit next page when your finished with this one.
*

The next morning he half expected it to be all better.

Brandon had the bitter taste of dread in his mouth when he awoke, but also a vague idea that all the bad things could only have happened in nightmares.

In the kitchen Claire was swigging from a large mug of tea. It steamed so much that it appeared liable to burn anything it touched.

Her lips were red-raw, as were her eyes. She clutched the cup tightly, knuckles white, thumbs twisted into the handle.

She looked as though she never wanted to let it go, which left Brandon with a sinking feeling in his stomach when he saw her.

There was a pot of hot coffee on the stove, so he took a spare mug and poured himself a cup of the black steaming brew.

“Good morning.” he greeted, taking a sip and now sitting down opposite of her.

“Hi.”

“Where is everybody?”

“Packing, I suppose” she answered quietly.

Brandon nodded slowly. For some reason it seemed as though she did not want to be around him from her constant wandering eyes that settled on anything but him. But he pushed his thoughts aside for the time being, feeling that it was just his own lunacy descending upon him.

With awkwardness looming, Claire decided to disrupt it with telling him

“You look like shit, today” Her eyes still cast down the hallway.

“Really…I was so going for that look today.” He tried to lighten the situation, and he heard a small smirk on her behalf.

After that, things remained hushed. This was the first time they couldn’t find the words to talk to one another and it bothered him.

He understood the possibility that anything they conversed about would very likely end up being about Marissa, but in his eyes that would only be therapeutic.

Besides, she was not the only one reeling from the situation.

“Brandon?”

His ears perked up at hearing her finally say his name after a good 15 minutes in the same position.

“Yes?”

“Would you mind if I go lay down?”

“No. Ofcourse not, go ahead.” he insisted.

Claire stood up shakily and crossed the kitchen to the bedroom, the complimentary robe dragging against the floor from being much too big on her.

She was curled up into a ball with her knees pulled up to her chest and her forearms covering her face, when he walked in after deciding to follow her.

Claire felt him kneel down at her side of the bed and could feel his hazel eyes looking over her featureless face. As his fingertips sought out the tangled wisps of hair splashed over her nose, cheeks, and shoulders, the pain suddenly became unbearable. Her breath caught in her throat and the hot tears that had warmed her delicate eyes now burned like the very sting of the sun.

"It'll be okay," He tried to console her as best he could. "We'll rise above this."

Finally opening her eyes, she beseeched "Do you promise?" with a shaky hand wrapped around his wrist.

“I do.”

She nodded, believing him.

*

Brandon hadn't been able to feel his left arm for at least fifteen minutes from Claire still holding onto it after drifting asleep. But he was so avid on not disturbing her rest, that he simply accepted the fact that his arm could need amputation in the near future.

Chris walked not to long afterward to notice Brandon on the floor beside his bed with Claire holding his hand securely, almost like a stuffed animal.

He chuckled at how uncomfortable Brandon must have been.

“Rule of thumb…never let her get the hand.”

“Thanks for reminding me of that now.” he nodded.

“How is she?” Chris asked.

“Hard to say.” Brandon truthfully answered shifting his focus to her.

Her eye brows were furrowed, not that he expected her to be sleeping peacefully but he still hoped that in her dreams she could gain some sort of solace.

“So where’s everyone?”

“Packing...on the phone...who knows” Chris held back on the fact that their manager as well as the rest of guys were in the midst of trying to get the press to back off of the situation.

“When are we leaving. I hate this place.” Brandon plainly asked.

“Steve says two days, if everything goes accordingly.”

“Why not today…”

“Brandon I don’t think you‘ve really grasped just yet, how infatuated everyone on the outside looking in is with this situation. I think Steve doesn’t want to make it look like we‘re running or something--that we‘re remaining cool throughout all this.”

He shrugged in response.

Feeling the pressure lessen off his arm, Brandon looked over to see Claire staring back him.

It was not the same blank stare he saw back in the kitchen.

The only way he could portray it, was a sort of melancholy equanimity.

“Hey” He greeted, unsure of whether or not she noticed Chris in the room as well.

“Can we go for a walk, please?”

Taken by surprise at her request, he looked at Chris who didn’t seem to have a response which led him to answer “Sure.”

She sat up, slipping out of the large robe that left her in the shorts and t-shirt she wore from the night before.

“Chris, did you bring any of my clothes down?”

“Yeah, they let me grab some of your things. Hold on.” He disappeared momentarily to return with a medium sized duffle bag. “I don’t know anything about matching blouses from Jeans to skirts, so this was all I could come up with.”

“Thanks.” she took it and walked into the bathroom.

Rubbing his arm, Brandon stood up.

“Do you think…”

“I don’t know, but if it’ll make her feel better I’ll try anything.” Brandon answered Chris’ silent inquiry.

“What about you? How are You taking all this in?”

Brandon shook his head indifferently trying to figure out how best to answer, but was interrupted by Claire’s presence.

“Ready” She told him brushing out her hair, now in a pair of loose fitting jeans and a simple vintage t-shirt. “Where are my glasses” she rustled through the bag.

“Bifocals or designers?” Chris asked.

“I don’t wear bifocals, dumbass. I use basic reading glasses, very basic. And I meant : Did..you..bring..my..Sunglasses?” she asked, enunciating each word carefully.

“Somehow, while rushing to get out of the way of those feds, I managed to forget your stunning 'Christian Diors' ".

“Well remember next time.” She ignored his sarcasm.

“Hopefully their wont be a ‘next time’” he responded.

Claire looked up at him.

“Just be careful out there.” he walked over giving her a quick hug and she nodded.

“I'm going outside Chris, Not the army.” She answered dully.
“Ready?” she turned to Brandon, grabbing one of her brother’s hats off the dresser.

“Yeah.” he followed behind her.

On the way out, he told the security guards to lay low with following them after imaging the amount of attention two outsized body guards trailing them could bring if people didn’t already know who he was.

In the elevator, Brandon touched the tip of her cap.

“Don’t feel like having any eyes on you today?”

He knew her too well, she thought. But after glancing up at him she realized it was because he was thinking the same thing, now pulling the hood of his sweater over his own head.

When they got down to the main lobby, Brandon took hold of her hand.

So far so good, he thought while they walked through the main lobby with no one stopping them.

Claire didn’t look up. Her gaze was kept to the floor following Brandon’s lead.

It was when the two automatic doors slid open for them, a group of photographers appeared out of nowhere and immediately set about taking pictures of the shocked young woman whom hadn’t seen them coming.

“Brandon! what happened? Did you cheat on her with Chris’ sister? How‘s your arm?” One shouted.

Claire could see the flashes, but refused to look up.

Holding a hand before her face, she could hear the body guards, yelling and pushing them away as they persisted.

“Brandon, how are you holding up?” another one inquired, but he ignored the senseless question.

Claire glanced up, stunned at how many photographers were actually surrounding them.

“Come on Claire, just a few photos for a magazine.” A man pleaded.

“Leave her alone.“ Brandon’s voice resonated from beside her, and at the same time she felt one of his hands slide protectively around her waist.

Although she appreciated the gesture, Claire somewhat felt that Brandon had made the situation worse when some of them cheered.

“Are you dating her, Brandon? How long has it been? Were you cheating on Marissa?”

Biting his lip, Brandon disregarded the questions, following a bodyguard who now made way for them to get back inside the hotel.

“Murderer…”

They both heard behind her back just as she stepped behind the sliding doors.

Brandon whirled around instantly, marching back through the doors asking
“What the fuck did you just call her?” on a mission for whoever it was that launched the cruel accusation at her. A rage that Claire had never seen before embodied him and it brought tears to her eyes to see him that way. She watched him feeding into their game, as he met the ring leader of the paparazzi head on, “Do you want to repeat yourself?”

“I think you heard me.” he challenged, as if readily anticipating to have it out with Brandon.

“Brandon! Ignore him. please, let’s go.” She implored, knowing the worse thing anyone could do was provoke his emotions.

But it was too late. The rage had built up in both men, and she couldn’t do anything if she tried.

“Go inside, Ms. Kilmore. We’ll handle it from here.” One of the body guards assured.

“...Because you’ve done such a fine fucking job already!”

Finally both guards separated them, dragging the smack talking paparazzi to the curb ready to do whatever he had to, in order to keep him away from a tempermental Brandon.

Now being escorted inside, Brandon noticed that Claire was gone.

On the other side of the door, the same paparazzi walked back amongst the others asking

“Did you guys get shots of that? It’ll make front page for sure.” he chuckled.

*

Chris was inside the bedroom when he heard rapid knocking on the door.

He jogged over looking through the peep hole before opening it.

“Claire.” he could already see her fighting the tears that began to well up in her eyes.

“Chris” She brought her hands up to her face to wipe away her tears as she let out a cry that started a flood of tears.

“Hey.. Hey, what happened?.” he brought her in for a hug.

It was almost like the previous night all over again.

“They were horrible. They-they blamed me .” she hiccupped in-between her sobbing making it almost impossible for him to hear her clearly.

“Okay. Claire you’ve got to calm down and tell me what happened.”

She nodded, pulling her face away from his shoulder as he tossed the cap she wore to the side so that he could see her face better.

“Who’s they? And what did they say to you?”

“Those fucking cameras! They called me a murder.”

“Cameras?” he said to himself, realizing she meant the paparazzi. “..Oh Fuck.” he finally exhaled, knowing it was a bad idea to let her go out there from the begining. “You know you didn’t do a thing. They were just talking shit to jeer you, that way they can get a story for their paper.”

“I know, but”

“No buts. You had nothing to do with the fact that Marissa was fucked up on more level’s than one.”

She couldn’t agree with him.

“You think you caused her to shoot herself?” It was apparent that by now Chris could read Claire like the back of his hand.

“You didn’t see her.” Claire shook her head. “She was so hurt and distraught by the thought of Brandon being with me and not her. She felt like she had nothing left because of me. I should have just stayed away like she told me to.” She continued to weep.

“No…No. you are not going to think like that.” He had his hands on both sides of her face hoping to get through to her, “Marissa tried to come between something that was already there. And Claire, if you think that it was just recently that you and Brandon have had these 'feelings' or whatever, you two are trying to convince yourselves more than me, or anyone else of that matter. We all knew something was bound to happen, and so did Marissa but what everyone fails to realize is that you can’t force someone love you no matter if, or how much you try. Either it’s there or it isn’t. And with her, it just wasn’t, so you can‘t blame yourself for that.”

Nodding, she sniffled “I guess”

“No, I want to hear ‘You are completely right Chris like you always are, and I will make you a sandwich in compensation for your great knowledge

She smirked telling him “Nice try”

“Well, can't blame a man for trying.” he shrugged

Moving on, she told him “Thanks for trying to help.”

“Have I ever NOT been there for you?"

"No,"

"Nothing's going to change that." He stated strongly, “Now promise me no more water workds for the rest of the day... It’s exhausting.”

She laughed with a few more tears brimming her eyes.

“What did I just ask you…” he sighed in mock disparity.

“Shut up.“ she reached up hugging him “I love you, you dumb whore.”

“The feelings are mutual, Slutbag.”

She laughed, punching him on the shoulder after stepping back.

“Where is Brandon anyway?”

“That’s another story in itself… I’ll be back.” She walked into the bedroom leading her to the connecting bathroom.

After washing her face, she frowned at her eyes still raw from the tears, and thought back to the taunting paparazzi.

Realizing her hands were still shaking slightly, Claire placed both hands on the bathroom counter to keep steady.

She prepared to do the only thing she could think of at moment, make silent prayer for everything to be okay.

As she prayed, she didn’t know how, but she sensed Brandon standing behind her.
His arms lightly wrapped around her shoulders and his head became aligned next to her own. Claire brought her hands up and curved them around his forearms feeling somehow comforted by his touch.

Although Brandon wondered how this God she believed so much in could allow such a thing to happen along with many other occurrences in the world, he was interested in hearing the things she had to say to him and why she believed so firmly in this higher being.

“Pray out loud,” he requested as she leaned back into him, and without a question she did.

After she was finished and they both walked out Brandon stumbled into Mike, and Claire walked around him and into the main area with a simple ‘Hi.’

"Hey" he responded, waiting for her to be completely gone before quizzically asking "What were you two doing in there?"

He expected any other answer but the one Brandon gave to him.

“Praying.”

“Praying?” Mike had to repeat, “You?”

“Not really, but I will try anything at this point to gain some sort of peace of mind”

“I don’t pray at all,” Mike started “But I will pray for Marissa not to come back and haunt my ass, that girl hated me.”

Brandon shook his slowly, letting the first smile of the day tug at his lips.

“So I heard about that douche getting in your face. Me and Ben were going to jump him, but thought it best not to, given the circumstances…”

“…Thanks?”

“Anyway, I didn’t want to bring this up. But, Marissa’s parents are headed down here from New York. And speaking of parents, you might want to turn your phone on long enough to get to your mom. She called me this morning freaking out.”

“Shit. She‘s going to fucking kill me that I didn’t call.” He cursed, pulling his phone from his pocket.

*

With evening settling in on them, Claire turned on the television and of course the first thing she saw was a shot of Brandon‘s angered face from this morning.

“Incubus front man, Brandon Boyd blows up on the paparazzi earlier today in Vegas. We have exclusive footage, and details you’ll only see here first after the break on Entertainment tonight.”
- 18
- 19
- 20
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

Teardrop In The Fire