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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
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*

Chris immediately looked over when noticing Mike, Ben and Jose focusing onto her face.

“Claire, what the fuck happened to your face?” he raised her chin to observe.

She glanced at Brandon in resentment for exposing her.But he had no time to take it personally.

Yes, he had a feeling that something was wrong, but had expected anything but that.

The bruises on her cheeks were a moderate shade of purple against her fair skin, and one of her eyes appeared to be black and blue.

“Answer me!” he demanded.

She bit her lip, she hardly ever saw her brother get mad, especially at her.

“Nothing” she answered.

“Does this look like fucking nothing?”

“Dude stop swearing at her” Brandon insisted noticing her eyes glossing over with tears.

“Brandon, look at her? All I want to know is what happened so I can kill someone, is that so hard to ask?”

“You okay cupcake?” Mike inquired through all the commotion.

“I’m fine” she smiled at him. “Look, its just a few bruises, okay? Nothing to worry about. Chris it’s not like you’ve never seen me bruised up after a fight at school. I can handle it.”

“Not okay” He told her.

“And this isn’t high school” Brandon added.

“Will you two fuck off already?” She annoyingly asked pulling the hoodie back over her head.

“Yes” José butted in “Will you two fuck off already, so we can all eat?”

Ben reached over shoving a roll of bread in his mouth, “There. Eat”

“If it’s nothing why cant you just come out with it and tell us” It was evident Brandon was now losing his patients.

“Why are you guys always worrying about me? I’m a grown woman” she protested.

Chris flung his hands in the air in exasperation, and she immediately flinched.

“Brandon, you deal with her, she’s too fucking stubborn for me right now. You can get through to her” He practically shoved her out the booth in order to get out. Tt the moment he couldn’t stand to be around her.

Claire hated upsetting her brother, as rarely as it occured. But she really didn’t want to get into up her earlier incident.

“Guys, we’ll be back” Brandon stood up as well, “Come on”

“I’m not going anywhere with you, Brandon”

“Do you really want to test me right now, Claire?” His usual unobtrusive demeanor vanished into a serious expression that told her he was not about to back down as Chris had done moments ago.

She cursed to herself before standing up following behind him.

She followed him all the way outside of the restaurant and to his car, he stopped on one side of the SUV so no one could clearly see them if they came out.

He turned around, now looking down at her.

“Claire” he started again “Tell me what happened to you tonight”

“I fell” she lied.

“You fell” he repeated unbelieving “How?” he decided to indulge.

“On-I-I was going through the door and someone pushed it and it hit me-”

“For a university graduate carrying out her masters, one would think that your ability to come up with a alibi would be more elevated ”

“I’m not-”

“Cee, cut the bullshit. I know you. You need to understand that, and I mean really absorb it. It’s disappointing that you feel you have to hide shit from me, I thought we were better than that”

She did owe it to him to be a good friend, after all that’s all he ever was to her.

“Fine.” she breathed “…I was one my way out the library and some stupid kids jumped me.”

“Which ‘kids’”

“Just some druggies. They wanted me to give them money to buy they’re… whatever, and I didn’t so they attacked me.”

“You live in a pretty refined area.” he tried to process “That’s never happened to you before, and you’ve been going to that library for nearly 2 years now.”

“Well I would hope it had never happened to be before, Brandon” she sardonically answered.

Her answer seemed too easy, so he went on to ask.

“You sure, it had nothing to do with us?”

“What, like you’re groupies?”

“I don’t know, we don’t really have groupies but …” he shrugged.

“I don’t know, maybe, I don’t remember. It just happened really fast and I got out of there before anymore damage could be done…So see, there. It was nothing.”

“Nothing? look at you’re pretty little face” he gingerly touched her cheek with a light laugh.

“Brandon, really. I’ve gotten worse bruises during surfing, not to mention YOU guys have given me bruises that have lasted weeks”

“But not on your face-”

She raised an eye brow to him

“-That was one time!” He shot back defensively “And you were the one who ran into my elbow. Wasn’t my fault.”

“Whatever.”

“And that was years ago, we cant virtually hit you the way we did back then with those in the way” he gestured to her chest.

“Fuck you, Brandon”

“Claire, we’re talking about something serious here. Get your mind out of the gutter, please...”

She sighed in provocation “I’m fine okay? I’ll be more careful next time”

“You’re damn right you will be, you’re not going anywhere at night by yourself. And you would think that asinine boyfriend of yours would make sure you were safe”

Her eyes welled up again. “It’s not his fault” she stated strongly, refusing to let any tears slip.

“I’m sorry” realized he was upsetting her “I don’t want to make thing worse. It’s just that I worry about you. You mean a lot to me, the guys, everyone. How else did you expect me to react? What would I do if something happened to you, huh?”

“Live on”

“You’re humor has horrible timing”

“Like you”

Brandon remained studying her for a moment,

“Okay” he moved on “You're going to tell Chris what happened to you when you go back in or he’ll drive himself crazy”

“I will”

“Good” He then pulled her in for tight hug.

Meanwhile many thoughts coerced through his mind. If that truly had been the case, why hadn’t she initially told them, and if not them, why not him? Claire had never been a woman of modesty when it came to fights, and this also puzzled him. She rarely fought but when push came to shove, her opponent usually went down, hard.

He knew that she clarified there was more than one person so he understand how she would have trouble fighting them all off, but for some reason, something still sounded off.

“Brandon, you’re squeezing too tight” she managed to muffle from her face being smothered against chest.

“Let’s go back in, I think everyone else has already ordered”

“Yeah, I am kind of hungry.”

Before she could make a proper step toward the venue, Brandon caught hold of her one of her arms, stopping her in place.

“What?” she asked

“You would tell me if something were wrong, right?”

She stood there absorbing his question for what felt like minutes, then simply replied.

“I can handle anything that comes my way, Brandon. I’m a strong girl, You know that.”

Before he could say anything, she insisted “Let’s go, now.” pulling him with her.

When they both sat back down, Chris had already come back. It was apparent he was still upset, and the rest did not want bring it up again.

“Okay, look. I’m only going to say it once and then we’re going to eat and forget about my face.” They all looked over at her. “ I was coming out of the library and some kids wanted money to buy cigarettes or whatever. I said ‘no’ and they didn’t like that so there was a little altercation that resulted in the bruises you see now. Good. Now since we got over that, let’s eat!”

Chris stared at her “Where are they now?”

“How the hell am I suppose to know, Chris? I’m sure they’re not over there waiting on you to return and kick they‘re ass.”

“Does Michael know?” Mike asked.

She paused for a moment and dryly answered

“He knows”

Brandon watched the way she answered Mike, as well as how touchy she became when Michael was brought up.

“Guys, can we please just eat. Please.”

“You sure you’re okay?” José asked for the
final time.

“Yes José I am fine. I’m okay. I just don’t want this to ruin our evening.”

They all somewhat nodded.

“You know Claire...has anyone ever told you, you kind of look hot with a black eye?” Ben inquired.

She laughed “No, I don’t ever recall being told so. What do you think, Brandy?” she smiled.

He gave her unadorned look
“Guess not, well you’re not all that cute yourself, Boyd.”

After that, things got better. At first conversation was a bit hesitant but when the meals arrived and José found something else to complain about everyone began to speak up.

When they paid the bill, Claire stood up

“Okay guys, I’m going to get home. I have my final exam tomorrow and it‘s online at 7:00 so I‘ve got to get some rest.”

“I’ll drive you” Chris told her.

“Christopher, I drove my own car here”

“Claire, I don’t-”

“Chris…”

“I’ll walk her to her car and make sure she gets in and locks the door. Sound fair? I’ll even watch her drive away” Brandon rationalized.

“Perfect, c’mon Brandy”

“I’ll meet you guys at the house” he stood up following behind her.

When they approached Claire’s car, she opened the door, but before getting in she turned around embracing him tightly, almost needily.
At first he paused at how fast she turned into him, then he effortlessly drew his arms closley around her curvy body.

“Thank you” she whispered into his sweater.

“I didn’t do anything”

“You being here for me is more than I could
ever ask for.”

“I’ll always be here, you know that” he gave her a peck on the top of her head. “Even though you have Michael, I don’t want you to hesitate to call if you need anything, understand?”

“Yeah” she was still holding him fairly tight, as if she didn’t intend on letting ago.

He knew Claire, and she wasn’t the clinging type, she only got that way she when there was something on her mind, something bothering her.

Finally, she released her arms from around his body and looked up at him with a small smile.

“I’ll talk to you tomorrow”

“Okay. Goodnight” he told her, watching as she got into her car, closing the door.

She looked over at him and intentionally raised her finger pressing the 'lock' button for him to see.

With that, she put her keys into the ignition, switching her car into drive and drove off.

When Brandon walked back inside, everyone was standing up and ready to go.

“Guy’s I’m driving back with Brandon” Chris declared.

Brandon didn’t really care, instead he just told him to ‘come on’, he really didn’t have much to say tonight.
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Teardrop In The Fire