“I can explain, okay? Please, damn it Zachary, stop running away from me and hear me out!” Zack’s steps had a certain speed Jess never saw him using before. She made a great effort to get to him as he was apparently walking back to the hotel, a few meters from there.

“Don’t fucking call me like that if you want me to ever speak to you again!” when she finally reached his pace, she stopped in front of him, abruptly. She held his arm gently but he pulled it away roughly and kept staring furiously at his girlfriend.

She never had that kind of glare from him before, they never fought.

“Hey, hey! Calm down, alright? I didn’t even talk to them! They didn’t allow me.”

“It doesn’t change the fact you made the biggest effort to go meet them and… you asked Jason’s help for that?” he gasped an ironic chuckle and grabbed the fake press card around her neck to his sight. “Unbelievable…”

“He told you I was there?” she couldn’t believe Emily hadn’t made clear for Jason this was a secret.

“Yeah, I was looking for you everywhere, you sneaked out without saying a word to me. You… you could’ve at least told me you wanted…” he finish with a sigh heavily escaping from his nostrils. She placed her hands back on his arms but he shift back and diverted from her this time, walking straight to the hotel.

Zack never thought he would have to go through this again, not with Jess. She had never mentioned about liking that band before, not even a word. She just let him go on and on and on about how hurt that stupid ex made him feel. He felt even more stupid now, his blood boiling on his head as he took the stairs. Didn’t feel like waiting for the elevator.

“Zack, baby, please, believe me, I liked them before, it was just a teenage crush. What I really wanted there today was to talk about music. I love their music.” Jess followed him and wasn’t thinking about giving up on that arguing now.

“Can’t you just talk about music with me or with my band mates? Oh, no, guess we are too underground and lame for your level of knowledge, right?” he laughed, pouring irony over her throughout all his way to their room.

“Now you’re talking bullshit…”he stopped in front of their room and opened it quickly, turning around to face Jess in the doorframe before he could go inside. Sweet green eyes faded into a dark and threatening forest to her, even worse than his usual pose on the stage.

“Yeah, I can only talk shit, I’m not enough for you. Go ahead, go after them. Go talk about ‘music’ and wherever the hell you want with them. Maybe I can talk to the walls here while you bang one by one.” He turned his back after yelling all of this and slammed the door practically on Jess’ face.

She stood motionless for a few minutes, not really sure what to do or where to go while the tears blurred her sight. She was stunned with his last words, he never treated her like she was a groupie before. And now he clearly thinks she is one.

“Hey, what happened here? I heard people shouting.” Jason’s head showed in the door of his room and glanced at Jess, frowning after seeing her crying. “What’s going on here?”

“Shut the fuck up!” Jess yelled with her teeth clenched and knocked on Emily’s door. She opened it quickly, giving the same worried look Jason gave her. “It’s all your fault!”

“Hey, what’s up with that attitude?” she flipped him off and entered as Emily moved back for Jess to enter. She wanted to punch him so bad but she held it. “Hey!! What’d I do wrong?”

They closed the door on his puzzled face.

---

Brian finished fixing every lock of his precious hair on the mirror when he noticed Emily had appeared on the door of her private dressing room (the only person with that privilege this time), apparently looking for someone. Someone that had decided to stay on the hotel crying her ass off in regret of coming to this tour.

He tried to contain the hot feeling he suddenly had after seeing Emily wearing a white robe with her red hair falling on perfectly-shaped curly locks over her shoulders. He knew she was dressed already but he couldn’t control his curiosity over what she was hiding underneath that robe.

He thought twice before going after her this time because she had made clear to him she was happy with Jimmy and their relationship and he shouldn’t stay on their way. But something deep inside him was telling he should insist on her, cause they didn’t have only chemistry on music, they also had it on bed. Isn’t that kind of love everyone is looking for to be happy? The complete and full experience of being with someone, mentally and physically?

She fit perfectly with him even if she was trying hard to ignore it and push him away. And Jimmy was surely doing a great job to keep her with him by giving what she wants. Guess fancy and expensive guitars can’t provide her the same high as dope, huh? But he knew he could take her to the heavens better than anything else with his way of loving her. He didn’t need drugs to achieve that. He had that advantage over him.

With all those thoughts, he got even more determined to have her. And this time, he wanted to convince Emily he was the right man for her and wasn’t planning to stop trying. Without even thinking about Jimmy’s feelings, which he still had doubts about the veracity of them, he glanced at both sides of the corridor that leads on her dressing room and waited by the door, careful not to let someone see him. Lust driving his moves as he knew she would appear there again. And when she did, he pushed her back inside the room gently, locking the door behind them. Yeah, he had learnt to always lock the doors now…

“Looking for someone?” his sexiest smile appeared to greet Emily as she had no option left but to let him in. She felt a sudden twinge in her womb just after being hit by a flustering wave of perfume his body was exhaling. Oh, those pheromones…

“Yeah I… I was looking for Jess. She was supposed to help me with my… you know, my makeup and those damn tight and flashy clothes she bought me.” she didn’t show her clothes to him but he was trying to imagine how they look like. Trying too hard.

“I don’t think she’s here. In fact, I didn’t see her with Zack today. Those two don’t get their hands off of each other, it’s weird not see her around him.”

“Well, they had a fight today. Bad fight.” she pursed her lips

“Ohh, that’s why Zack is lying on the couch not talking to anyone and holding his guitar on top of him probably playing shitty love songs?” she nodded. He drove closer as she sat on the table, fixing her robe to cover her cleavage. “Well… I can play Jess for a few minutes. What can I do for you, babe?” he used a high pitched and girly tone, impersonating her friend. Emily chuckled, rolling her eyes.

“I don’t think you can help me in this case, Brian. I’m having trouble with this fucking eyeliner. Yeah, I know, how can a girl not know how to handle that shit…”

“Oh, you’re talking to the master of eye makeup, baby. I can definitely help you with that.” she laughed more cause he kept his girly tone. It was getting awkward already.

“Hey, okay, you can try, but please, lose the voice. I prefer you as a man.” she only noticed what she said and how it had really sounded when it was out, making her blushed right away. Brian had to lick his lips and cock his eyebrows at her, feeling seduced just by those simply words with two meaning.

“Hmm, okay, since you prefer me as a man, I’d be more than glad to help you with your clothes too. Getting rid of them is my best offer.” he brought back his manly voice he knew that could shake her insides, held his hands on the V of her robe and had to control himself not to open it without her orders.

As his lips was slowly going forward to meet hers, she got the eyeliner in her hands and brought it in front of her face, preventing him from reaching her mouth. He drew a half-hearted smile and nodded his head, picking up the eyeliner from her hands and positioning himself in between her legs, knowing he would have to settle without having what he was aiming for.

“Alright. Close your eyes and hold still.” she did what he asked and she could feel his warm breath blowing on her face as he was delineating the top of her eyelids carefully. Too close not to start thinking about having his body once again. Just once again.

“Well, Brian… where’d you learn this technique? It’s unusual to see a man… you know, learning how to… you know.” she started blabbering just to whisk her thoughts and the itching on her hands to roll from her legs to land on his torso and drag him against her once and for all.

“I learned with a makeup artist I once slept with. Shh.” she opened one of her eyes, the one he wasn’t occupied with, and noticed how mindful he was to make the best job he could. Once a perfectionist, always a perfectionist.

“Wow, now I’m… feeling like I’m the person who should’ve been born with balls and a penis in this room.”

With her remark, Brian had to stop his work to cough out a few chuckles. She joined him.

“I can’t believe I heard this. Shut up, you’re ruining my magic.” he said in between laughter.

“It’s impossible to ruin your magic.” their smiles faded away to give place to the quiet love making of their gazes. They even forgot to breathe.

Before they could reach their mental peak and surrender to their feelings one more time, Emily got back to her senses and looked away a few seconds before closing her eyes again. He got her message, he needed to finish his work now. Without expecting any reward for that.

“Okay… I guess I’m… done. You can give your own finishing touches now.” he backed off and she got down from the table to turn her back to face the fancy mirror surrounded by light bulbs.
She couldn’t have done it better. It was flawless.

“God, I gotta start sleeping with makeup artists.” Emily made a few arrangements on her eyes with black eye shadow and mascara while Brian kept watching her moves from behind her.

“Well, technically, you did…” he smirked and winked at her through the mirror as she drew a disguised but dirty smile.

She chose the reddest lipstick she had and skirted her mouth slowly, hypnotizing Brian at each brush of her lips. He wished he had kissed her before, now he was pretty sure it wouldn’t happen so soon, she wouldn’t want to mess her makeup with his hungry lips. Would she?

When she was finishing spread compact on her skin, they both had a jolt in response to a knocking on the door. It was Brad’s voice.

“Hey lead guitar, time to go…” her eyes widened and she increased the pace on her skin.

“Okay, Brad, I’m almost finishing here. I’ll meet you up there!”

“Don’t be long.” they heard them passing through the corridor, one by one until it was silent again. Brian breathed in relief.

Emily got up from her chair, fixed her hair a bit more and untied her robe slowly, letting it fall from her shoulders to her waist and away from her tight black dress covered with dark burgundy velvet details spread all over it. She finally showed what Brian was longing to see while looking inside his lured eyes still through the mirror.

“How do I look?” he lowered his gaze to her every well-marked curve, noticed how short the dress was just to cover only half of her thighs and how it had a big opening on her back, showing all her tattoos and a lot of skin.

She was stunning to his sight. But he didn’t want to have to share that with a ten thousand people crowd.

“Owow, hold on, you can’t wear that on stage! I can see your stomach with that cleavage!” she turned to him and her smile disappeared to narrow her eyes. Then she looked down discreetly and had the same conclusion as he did; that dress showed too much.

What the fuck, Jess!

“Well, I don’t have anything else here so… I can play naked if you prefer.” she answered him sharply when he started to move towards her. That was when his rationality stopped working for good.

“You can only play naked for me.”

His lazy eyes descended to her breasts again and his hands traced from her thighs to her butt, bringing her against him, and travelled through the curves of her slim waist until he cupped her breasts slowly. Emily’s breathing pace increased, noticeable with her chest moves, as he held the fabric of her dress and tried to pull it a little upward, to cover at least the guitar neck she had inked on her left breast.

She could only laugh at his failed attempt to cover her cleavage. But when his nose touched her left ear and his lips started scatter little noisy kisses along with his breathing on her neck, her need to laugh was gone again together with her insistent pre-concert anxiety.

“Brian, I won’t mess my makeup for you. I gotta go. For the sake of our friendship.” she whispered on his ear, trying to be stronger than her cravings for his touch.

“Break a leg.” he replied also on her ear before his nose could drive to her face and his lips plant a soft kiss on the corner of her mouth. Not a single inch of her lipstick was damaged.

That wasn’t enough for any of them but she had to let her hands fall from his back and step away now. And he watched her hips swagger through the corridor until she was gone.
Brian hissed at the feeling of his shoulder muscles relaxing again without her closeness. And so relaxed his dick.

He waited a little until he could go back to the main room, where his band mates were. He pretended he was at the bathroom and observed as Jimmy guided Emily to the stage entrance, his hand grabbing more her butt than her waist as they walked embraced. Brian felt jealousy punching his nerves once again, even if he didn’t have the right to feel that way.

“I hope we have enough booze for tonight. I need to get wasted. Fast.” Zacky’s grumble from the couch interrupted Brian’s thoughts and he faced his friend.

“Wow, what did she do, met a better guitarist already?” Zacky only sent his sharp glare to his friend in reply.

“Well, if she wanted a better guitarist, she didn’t need to go far.” Johnny appeared out of nowhere with his devilish grin and stopped by Brian’s side, making Zacky more than angry at his remark and throw a cushion on him. “Let his girlfriend alone, Gates.”

“Ha-ha, very funny, Christ. I wouldn’t mess with HIS girl...” Brian smirked and left the room straight to the stage entrance, letting his both friends frowning with a few questions on their heads.

When Brian reached Jimmy, Emily was putting out a great solo line. He recognized those notes promptly from their first night together. He took that as an assurance that he’s reaching somewhere even more special within her heart.

The crowd was digging her style of leading more than the last time, the acceptance was better than expected for a classic rock band as the opening act. But Brian couldn’t help but notice how the guys in the front row seemed to be drooling over her bare legs and not even giving a shit about their music.

“You let her wear those clothes?” Brian shot at Jimmy, who wasn’t even aware of what was happening in the crowd. He only had eyes for Emily.

“She is free to wear anything she wants. Who am I to forbid her?” Jimmy thought that was a really indiscreet question for him to make.

Brian bobbed his eyebrows quickly.

“Why do you care anyway?” Jimmy crossed his arms on his chest and looked down at his friend, squinting his eyes a little in suspicion.

Brian shrugged, pursed his lips and tapped Jimmy’s shoulder before going away.

“I don’t.”

---

Zacky shot killer lasers at every single Linkin Park member that entered the backstage room they were about to leave, specially at the drummer. He didn’t go forward to greet any of them as his friends did. They were pretty nice to them, he had to admit it. But he just couldn’t look at them and not remember what he had to go through, twice now.

It’s not like he didn’t trust Jess but it was hard to control his jealousy. He suffered with this his entire life and it destroyed a lot of his relationships before. It’s just who he is. Maybe staying so many years at the shadow of Brian and his awesome guitar technique haven’t helped him with the insecurity he always had. In fact, it was getting in his way now, more than ever.

He couldn’t stand not being Jess’ only target of love and attention. So he chose to drink all his sorrows and insecurities away tonight, hoping he could have the strength to apologize to Jess tomorrow.

He was the first one to leave, telling the guys they shouldn’t look for him, he wanted to be alone. Emily tried to talk to him but he went away anyway, letting her behind speaking to the air.
The closest bar he found was the one he spent the next hours drinking alone, hoping that no fan would recognize him there. At 3 am, when he had ignored all the phone calls Jess gave him and drunk enough shots of JD to at least sleep peacefully, he thought it was time to get back to the hotel.

He opened the door quietly and through the darkness, he searched for his girlfriend figure with his eyes. She wasn’t in the bed, so he walked into the bathroom and lighted it up, just to find Jess sleeping on a fetal position on the tiny couch under the window. She didn’t even have a pillow under her head.

He couldn’t just let her sleep in there, uncomfortable as she seemed to be. He was a little drunk but not insensitive.
He walked towards her and brushed the hair out of her face to plant a sweet kiss on her cheek. She woke up instantly.

“Hey… what time is it? Where were you?” Jess sat on the couch and Zack stepped away as she wasn’t too receptive to his affection.

“I was... around.” he turned his back and walked back to the bathroom, trying to run from the interrogatory that would come now. He wished he could just let the fighting for tomorrow.

“Around. Drinking.” Jess shook her head, she could smell whiskey surrounding the room. Emily had told her he could only have gone to a bar, she was right. “Do you even realize you were sick and couldn’t stand up just a few hours ago?”

Zack didn’t reply to that. He just appeared in the doorframe and shrugged, looking at the ground.
Jess knew he was angry. But she wasn’t willing to put up with that childish behavior. She hated having to talk to altered people, it was what she hated the most.

“You know what? I’m gonna get my stuff and go sleep in the bus tonight, so you can talk to me when you wear off all that alcohol.” she said it in her rudest tone, like she was talking to a stranger, and started collecting her stuff around the room.

Zack watched her moves for a few seconds, breathed heavily and gave a few steps towards the door room. She was ready to get out when he leaned on the door and stared at her. She had teary eyes but was trying to hide it.

“You’re not going anywhere.” he crossed his arms, determined not to let her leave.

“You can’t just… lock me in here! I’m gonna call the police.” despite of her threat, she didn’t reach for her phone on her pocket.

“You’re not leaving until I… can apologize for all the stupid things I said earlier. I’m sorry, I… let my obsessive jealousy speak for me and act for me tonight. I just wish you could’ve… trust me. Cause you can trust me for anything, I hope you know that.” he said it all softly, without stumbling on words. He didn’t seem as drunk as Jess thought at first. “Now you can leave if you want.” he opened space for her to reach the door.

She didn’t move.

“I trust you, Zack, I really do. I promise I won’t hide anything from you anymore. That was never my intention in the first place. I just thought you would be really angry at me. Turns out you got even angrier…” she let down her guard and walked towards the bed, sitting on the edge and waiting for him to join her.

“Yeah, I got angry but… I shouldn’t have treated you like that.”

“Like a groupie?” she smiled ironically and quickly and he felt even worse.

“Yeah, that was… really uncalled for. I didn’t mean any of those things.” He finally got out of the door and sat beside her. “When you’re on this world of turmoil for too long, you start losing all the good principles you once learned when you had a ‘normal’ life. It all turns black eventually and you can’t see through the smoke of degradation and fame. You come from a whole different music world so, I’m lucky to have you by my side. But sometimes I can get confused, you know.”

Zack finally faced her, eye to eye.

“Don’t get confused with me, I’m here for you. Only for you.” she tried to smile, truthfully this time, but she still had some kind of hurt glare stuck on her deep grey eyes. “I just… want you to know that my life isn’t really a bed of roses all the time. Don’t put me on a pedestal.”

“You travelled the whole world, you made incredible friends everywhere, you’re a brilliant musician. What’s there not to like?”

“You know why my dad had to retire from his ambassador job?” he shook his head. “Cause with all those years of unceasing travels and a lot of work to do, he developed an addiction. Alcohol.”

Zack looked away, trying to swallow the shame that grew suddenly on his guts. There it was something she also had never told him.

“He started getting home late every night and treat my mom like crap. She didn’t have enough autonomy to fight, so I took her side and defended her all the time. That’s what I thought I was doing…” Jess gulped a lump of sadness on her throat and continued. “But no, instead of helping her, I was making her watch my arguing with him every night and that was eating her alive. I only noticed when she started to refuse to get out of bed for a week. When I was nineteen, I finally noticed I couldn’t help them, I couldn’t fix my own home, I was only making it worse. So one sunday, when my dad was passed out on the couch from drinking and my mom was enjoying one of her endless drug-induced sleep, I left home.”

Zack grabbed her hand and held it tight. He wasn’t expecting for that kind of confession now but he had to comfort her somehow, even though he know he’s probably not in the best state of mind to do that.

“You keep in touch with them?”

“Well, I never came back to my house after I left. They asked me to come back once, they call me and stuff, pay a visit sometimes but… I feel like they are strangers. My mom is still the same submissive person that allows him to treat her like his slave as he drinks the entire liquor store so… I’m just, expecting the day I’m gonna have to settle a funeral. Or even two.”

Jess closed her eyes and two tears, one from each eye, slipped through her cheeks. He brought her closer in a tight embrace, wishing to find the right words to say there. But he had any.

“I’m a coward, Zack, I’m running away from it every single day of my life. I don’t drink cause I think it’s in my blood, I’m trying to be stronger than this damn disease so… please, promise me you’ll take care of yourself. I don’t wanna have to see you or Emily, or any of our friends… end up like them. I can’t handle it.” she cried hard on his chest as he kissed her forehead and rested his lips there for a while. It was breaking his heart to see her like that.

“Okay, baby, I’m sorry, I won’t end up like them, I promise you. Shhh.”

Zack brought her to lie her head on the pillow, undressed himself leaving only his boxers and shut the lights off before he could go back to embrace her. She was still sobbing, holding his hand on hers as if she was waiting for him to take away all her misery. But all he could really do was to feel really regretful and shameful of drinking that much that night.

Notes

ohh those jealous booysss =p

next chapter things will start to twist again soo...stay tuned <3