Scream

"Bye Aunt Vanessa," Courtney said, hugging Aunt V. When they let go, Vanessa walked back over to me, embracing me.

"Everything will be okay," she whispered in my ear. I nodded and let go. She got in her car and drove off as Matt yelled out his bus door.

"Time to get going!" His door shut and Court made her way back into our bus but I stayed where I was. I couldn't do this. I couldn't tell her. I had no idea how she was going to react, I knew how she could get. She was a loaded gun always ready to go off.

"Brian," she said, snapping me back to reality. She stood in the doorway, looking worried. "Are you okay?"

I felt the weight of her certificate in my back pocket. "Yeah."

We went inside and as soon as we were in our room, the bus started moving. I had to tell her.

"Something's wrong," she said quietly, taking my hands in hers.

I nodded hesitantly. I could hear my pulse in my ears. As much as I loved her, I was still nervous around her about anything I did. I didn't want to set her off and I knew this might.

She pulled me over to the bed and we sat down across from each other. Before I got comfortable, I took the envelope out of my pocket. She glanced down at it and looked relieved.

"Good, she brought it," she said, smiling.

"Yeah," I said, setting it aside. "We talked about some stuff."

"I know, about Mom and Dad and whatever. I don't need to know the specifics-"

"Yes you do," I cut her off sternly. She shrank back the slightest bit.

"What's going on?" she asked.

I held her hands and stared down at them.

"There's something Vanessa told me. I don't know how to tell you, because I don't know how you'll react."

"Okay..." she said slowly. I met her blue eyes as they watched me in waiting. I swallowed back what fear I had.

"I told you that Suzy was your mom, not mine, right?"

She nodded.

"And that Brian Sr. was our dad."

She nodded again.

"That wasn't true."

She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean?"

I let out a breath and said it. "We aren't related."

We stared at each other for minutes in silence, me waiting for her to react somehow and her probably unsure how to react. Finally she gently pulled her hands from mine and squinted at me.

"Can you explain in a little more detail?"

The way she said it already told me this wasn't going well.

"Suzy was pregnant with you when she met Dad," I whispered. "We don't have the same parents at all, so we aren't related by blood. Only by marriage."

She didn't say anything, so I took the opportunity to keep going.

"Aunt Vanessa told me tonight. She brought your real birth certificate, not the one with Dad's name because that one was after he adopted you. The one with your biological father's name on it."

"You had no idea," she asked quietly.

"No. I never had a clue."

She nodded slowly, looking around.

"But this is good," I said. "This means the only thing wrong about us is the age difference, but once you're 18, it won't even matter."

She looked back at me, narrowing her eyes.

"Is that all you care about?" she asked sharply. "That we can fuck without it being disgusting to everyone else? Do you not understand I was lied to my whole life by everyone?" She stood up and I saw tears begin to fill her eyes but she wiped them away as quickly as they formed.

"I understand, Court-"

"No, you don't!" she shouted. "I went my whole life thinking one thing, and in a matter of two days, everything's fucked. In fact, my whole life is fucked. Nothing about it is normal and I don't even know what to believe!"

I didn't say anything as she walked around, processing everything.

"And step sibling relationships are still taboo," she said like it was obvious.

"That didn't matter to us before," I said.

"Because we didn't know this was going to fucking happen, Brian!"

"Courtney, calm down-"

"Don't tell me to calm down! You have no fucking clue what I've been through, you could never begin to understand. We went through everything for nothing-"

"I know," I said loud enough to shut her up. "I realized that."

"But were you the one sitting in a hospital for a year going crazier everyday because of something that wasn't her fault?"

"Excuse me?" I yelled, my emotions spilling over.

"What?" she asked, almost laughing. "Are you surprised? You haven't suffered whatso-fucking-ever during this whole 'relationship' or whatever you want to call it, you're not even realizing this makes it all harder."

"How so?" I asked.

"Everyone still knows me as your sister, Brian. This changes nothing to outsiders, to fans or family. I am still your sister, I was raised as your sister. This is no different to them than if it was by blood. Sure, legally we can do whatever we want, but no one will accept it. You think Aunt Vanessa or basically any of our family would react kindly to this? Or do you think they would show up to the wedding? Of course not. This means fucking nothing, except that I was lied to for fifteen years."

"I was lied to, too!" I yelled, standing in front of her. "I spent all this time thinking something was wrong with me and that I was this sick, vile thing for doing what I've done to you. So don't you dare say I haven't suffered, because I fucking have. Therapy was a bitch without you, hell everything was a bitch without you. I drank to the point of losing whole days because I couldn't live with knowing you weren't there with me. I have loved you through everything, no matter what."

I stared at her as she stared at me. I didn't know what else to say. I walked to the door when her voice stopped me.

"Aren't you going to take my pills for leverage again?" she said snidely.

I bit my lip and took a slow breath. Turning to her, I said, "You're such a bitch, you know that? Do whatever you want with your goddamn pills." I walked into the living area, slamming the doors shut behind me. I collapsed onto the couch.

I knew she wouldn't do anything. As angry as she was, this wasn't the mood she had to be in to do something stupid. I knew her comment was just her getting under my skin. She was trying to push me away.

Let her.

***

I had totally forgotten the next day was the party.

We'd arrived in New York, where we had a couple days off and tons of music friends hanging in someone's mansion. Whose was it? No idea, but it was bound to be a good time. So many bands, so little time. But just enough beer and that's what mattered.

"Are you done?" I asked as Courtney walked out of the bus to where all of us were standing. We were waiting on Gena, too.

"Yeah," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. Considering it was September, it was actually really warm so we were all in shorts and T-shirts. Gena appeared also, so we began up the path where we already heard at least a hundred people conversing along with music.

Courtney and I hadn't really talked much since last night, so I wasn't totally sure how this was going to go.

"If anyone asks, you're 21," I murmured to her.

She just nodded with a straight face.

We were greeted by a dozen people right off the bat, and luckily I already discussed with Matt how to introduce Courtney.

"Who's this?" Chester Bennington asked, shaking her hand.

"This is my girlfriend, Courtney," I said, slipping my arm around her waist. I couldn't tell if she was surprised by what I said, or by shaking Linkin Park's lead singer's hand.

"Nice, nice," he said. "Good to have you guys here, enjoy yourselves." He went off to talk to someone else and Courtney turned to me.

"Is that how we're doing this now?" she asked quietly but urgently.

"Yes," I said. "Matt thinks it's best."

"Does he know?"

I looked around, knowing what this was gonna do. I nodded.

"Great." She turned but I took her arm.

"They needed to know what the fuck was going on," I hissed. "Gena and Lacey know, too. The basics, at least."

"Are you fucking kidding?" she asked, but walked away before I could answer. She found Matt across the room and grabbed a beer from the table next to him.

He flashed me a worried glance before anyone noticed.

"Dude!" Austin Carlile slapped me on the shoulder.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked, grabbing a beer of my own. "Enjoying the celebrity life?"

"It's finally settling after two years," he chuckled. "I was gonna fuck around on the piano, did you wanna join on guitar or anything?"

I glanced over and saw Robert from Escape the Fate on drums. "Yeah, I'll play for a bit."

I went over with Austin, slipping the strap onto my shoulder and aimlessly strummed with whatever the guys played.

"Boo, you suck!" Zacky yelled. I flipped him off, laughing.

"Is that Tonic?" Chester asked, walking over. I looked at him confused until I realized what he meant. I was playing a Tonic song without noticing.

"Yeah, I guess," I chuckled.

"Then own it, man," he said. "Sing it."

"Nah."

"Not much of a difference between back up and lead," Austin agreed.

"You guys sing, why don't you?" I asked.

"Because we don't have our girl watching us from across the room," Chester muttered. I followed his gaze to Courtney, who was still with Matt but watching me. I felt my pulse quicken, knowing what I was about to do.

I walked forward to the microphone stand they had set up, pulling it upward a little so I didn't have to bend down.

I started playing the song over, louder than before.

"If you could only see the way she loves me, then maybe you would understand," I sang, keeping my eyes on her, "Why I feel this way about our love and what I must do. If you could only see how blue her eyes can be when she says..." I stopped playing and sang, "when she says she loves me."

Johnny had joined at some point on bass, so the four of us continued playing with Austin playing random notes on the keyboard that he thought fit, which made it fun. About halfway through the song, Matt went over to him and helped him out.

"If you could only see how blue her eyes can be when she says..." We all stopped playing as I sang, "when she says she loves me." People clapped and went about their conversations and whatnot, but I watched Courtney as she made her way to me.

"Can we talk?" she asked quietly.

I nodded, handing the guitar to Chester and went outside with her toward the low stone wall. She hopped up on it as I stood in front of her.

"That was really good," she said with a small smile.

"It was for you," I said. She blushed and looked down, making me smile back.

"I'm sorry about last night," she whispered.

I stepped closer to her and set my hands down on the wall on either side of her legs. We were almost eye to eye, I was still taller.

"Don't be." She looked up at me and I shrugged. "I know it's a lot to take in. And it is a huge deal, you were right. Things might be more complicated now. But we'll figure it out, right?"

She nodded, wrapping her arms around my neck. I instinctively wrapped mine around her waist and held her against my chest.

"I missed you last night," she murmured against my skin.

"I was twenty feet away, baby," I said.

"It felt like miles."

I pulled back and moved the hair from her face, pressing my lips to hers.

I broke away and looked into her eyes. "What did you do after I left last night?"

"I took a couple Xanax and went to sleep," she said quietly, almost as if she were afraid of upsetting me.

"Promise?"

She nodded. "What did the guys say?"

I chuckled. "They were shocked. Confused. It's a lot for all of us to take in."

"What about Gena and Lacey?"

"That was... kinda bad, actually," I said, thinking about it. "They were definitely disgusted, they thought it was horrible. They were pissed that they didn't know this entire time, but now with this new information it isn't as bad."

She nodded, thinking. "It's gonna be hard for a while, isn't it?"

I ran my hands up and down her arms, thinking about it myself. She was right; a lot of people already knew her as my sister. How could we just change that? And she was still fifteen, so we had to wait years before we could even act on it, really. Then there was what family we had left to worry about once they found it, which they inevitably would.

Finally, I said, "Yeah. I think it is."

Notes

Chapter title credit: Tonic
Phew. I guess this was kinda eventful, feels a little fillerish to me. I dunno. But since I'm not too sure how much longer this story will go on, if you have any ideas or anything you would like to see happen, feel free to message me and we can talk. (Sequel is still good to happen, but I won't say much more on that matter lolol)
As always, thank you for reading and don't forget to comment!