Pure Morning

10

BRIAN

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Brian muttered under breath and yanked out his in-ear monitors, harshly setting them on the sofa.

That sofa, where not even two hours earlier he had made the irresponsible mistake of letting that girl in the room and had sex with her right on top of it. He looked over at the sofa with winced eyes and couldn't help but re-picture everything that went on in the morning. It only made him feel stupider. He then walked over to the sofa and snatched his in-ear monitors, throwing them against the wall. Another pair he would have to purchase, great.

"You mind explaining what is wrong with you now?" Stefan questioned and put his hands on his hips.

Steve went over towards the ear monitors and bent down to pick them up.

"Oh, don't even bother, Steve. They're most likely broken. Weak things, those are," Brian sighed and sat down, only to rapidly stand up once realizing he had sat down.

"So what now? You just annihilated yet another pair. What is going on with you, Brian?" Stefan asked as he looked at Brian with wide eyes.

Brian sighed in response, eyes meeting Steve's expectant gaze.

"If you want, I can leave. I know it has to do with whatever you had to talk to Stef about earlier, so I'll just leave you two so you can talk properly."

"Oh no, no, no. You can stay if you want," Brian said and motioned for Steve to sit down.

"Oh, no. I have to go to the restroom anyway so I'll leave you to so you can talk. Be back soon," Steve said and walked out of the room, a dry expression across his face.

"Well?" Stefan insisted.

"It was her, damn it," he muttered.

"Who? Be more clear, will you?"

"That so-called merch girl. I saw her."

"Really, where did you see her?"

"In the fucking crowd. I mean, she was right there. At first, I wasn't sure it was her, but as I kept looking at her, I fully recognized her," he said in distaste.

"You say it like it really bothers you. You used to not care at all about the random people you slept around with," Stefan pointed out.

"Yeah, well I've grown up. And it's not just that..." he trailed off and began to pace.

"What else?"

"She was with a guy in the crowd!" he shot out in disbelief.

"Uh, in case you haven't noticed, both guys and girls go to concerts and stand next to each other. It's nothing new."

"No, it wasn't a random guy next to her, it was her boyfriend or something. He was all over her. I just can't believe it," he said and began thinking of why she would do that if she was obviously with another guy.

What were her intentions? But most importantly, why did he let her come onto him like that? Now he really couldn't wait to get back home and forget anything ever happened.

"And why can't you believe it? You said so yourself that she claimed to be a merch girl and everything. So if she went as far as lying and seducing you like that, it should come as no surprise that she is already involved with someone else. For all we know, she could have just met that guy in the crowd and might be planning on seducing him as well," Stefan suggested and nodded.

"Probably. All I want is to leave already. I'm sick of being here."

"At least we already performed so that's over with. We're on the last date of this tour so we can pretty much sit back for the rest of the day," Stefan sighed, visibly tired.

"We should just leave now," Brian suddenly said.

"Leave where?"

"Go back home, you know? Just get on a plane and leave."

"But our flight isn't booked until later this evening. What's the rush?"

"You still have the nerve to question me? Really? The rush is that I just don't want to be here any longer. I'm ready to leave. Especially since I behaved so foolishly this morning; it just makes me want to take off even more."

"Well, I think you can handle a little more--"

Stefan was cut off as the door abruptly opened. A large, burly security guard stood at the entrance, a serious expression on his face.

"Yes, what is it?" Brian shot out, not directly looking towards the man.

"I've got some people here with passes to meet you. Is it alright if they come in now?" he asked through the crack of the door.

Stefan looked at Brian and rose one eyebrow in question.

"Is it alright, Brian? Because it's fine with me."

Brian felt dazed and really wasn't in the mood to have anyone come in the room. But he felt that perhaps talking to more people could serve to distract him and take the unpleasantness of the morning from his mind.

"Sure, just let them in," he said and weakly smiled.

The security guard then fully opened the door.

"Have to find a way to get out of this situation," Jenna thought as wiL helped her towards the rear of the stage.

Anything to help her get out of the mess she had created. Simply anything.

"Feeling pumped?" wiL suddenly said, breaking the ice.

"Pumped? That's what they're gonna have to do to my stomach from how hard I feel it kicking. I really want to go home, wiL," Jenna retorted as they walked towards security.

"Well we're pretty much already here so there's no point in turning back. Besides, you wouldn't want your stomach pumped. It's not fun, believe me," he said and gave a dry pat to his abdomen.

"Damn it, wiL. Why are you dragging me back here? I have told you about a billion times I feel terrible."

"So you don't want to meet Placebo now? What's going on?" wiL asked and clutched Jenna's hand tighter within his.

Jenna didn't answer right away. She looked over wiL's shoulder and saw Josie tensing her jaw as she mouthed, "Shut the fuck up."

Jenna rolled her eyes and resumed slowly walking as wiL held her hand, helpless.

"Yeah, sure. I'll try to feel better," she muttered, anxiety building within her.

"Look, I guarantee you're gonna feel much better as soon as you see them. Knowing you, you'd forget about the entire world around you and get caught up talking to them. Forget I even exist," he said and lightly laughed.

"In any other circumstance," Jenna sighed and looked back at Josie, a huge grin printed on her face.

At this point, Jenna actually envied Josie. She envied the fact Josie could be that carefree and enjoy herself properly without any preoccupation. Jenna on the other hand couldn't even breathe without feeling paranoid about her surroundings. Everything and everyone somehow alarmed her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Where are you guys headed to?" a large member of security sternly questioned and held his hand out, motioning for them to come to a halt.

wiL crookedly grinned and smugly pulled out the VIP passes for the man to see. He let go of Jenna's hand briefly, a clammy mess imprinted within her palm.

"Alright, right this way," the stocky man said once closely observing the passes.

Jenna knew she had to do something to rid herself of any possible confrontation. Any spur-of-the-moment thing to save her.

"Ah!" she grunted and bent down midway, yanking her hand from wiL's and firmly pressed it againt her stomach.

"Hey, what's wrong?" wiL worriedly asked as he firmly held on to Jenna's shoulder to prevent her from falling to the ground.

"I don't know, my stomach is killing me!" she heaved and slipped further away from wiL's grasp.

The security guard stood and looked at her with a skeptical expression, one eyebrow rose.

"Is there a bathroom anywhere around here?" she forced out, making sure her legs were limp.

"Down the hall, to the right," the man said and continued skeptically observing Jenna.

"Damn, sorry for bringing you back here. We should just go home then," wiL said and supported Jenna against his chest.

"No, you guys go ahead. I know how badly Josie wants to meet Placebo. I know you do as well. Don't hold yourself back because of me."

"But where am I gonna leave you?"

"The restroom, of course. Just go. I'll be fine," she sighed and separated from wiL's side, toward the restroom.

"Sure you're gonna be okay?" Josie said and walked up to Jenna, putting her hand on her forehead yet again.

Must have been like the third time.

"Yeah, please go already. Meet them for me and tell me all about it. I seriously feel like I'm going to hurl so I better go already. Have fun."

"Gosh, I feel bad for going off to meet Placebo without you," Josie said and turned to where wiL was standing, his eyes as if glued to Jenna.

"We'll be quick and as soon as it's over, I'm coming for you," wiL called out.

"Alright, go," Jenna called out in response and resumed walking in a slouched position to the restroom.

She slightly turned her head to take a quick glance back. They were already nearing the other end of the hallway and not even two minutes later, would be meeting Placebo.

"Fuck," Jenna angrily muttered and pushed the door open.

She didn't even feel the need to go. It was all just a stupid charade she momentarily came up with to avoid going with them. And to her surprise, it actually worked. She stood in front of the mirror and stared straight into her clammy reflection. This whole mess would soon be over and she would be going home soon. Finally home, to forget anything ever happened. Her eyes widened in slight surprise as she spotted a few red spots with a purple tint located towards the base of her neck, near her collar bone. She immediately ruffled her hair in place to cover as many of them as she could. Who knew, maybe wiL had seen them. But he would have most likely said something to her so that wasn't likely. Or maybe Josie had seen them.

"Nah, they would have told me something. Josie would think wiL did it, anyway," she sighed and leaned forward to sprinkle water over her face.

"Wait," she said and began thinking.

She had to make sure to look genuinely sick. She couldn't come out of the room looking normal. She resumed to dampen her face and the front of her hair to make it look like she had actually broken a sweat. She already felt like she had spent well over fifteen minutes waiting around. The meet & greet was bound to be finished already. Jenna took one last look at herself in the mirror.

"Good, I look like shit," she said and cautiously opened the door.

As she walked, she kept staring at her shaky hands, attempting to hold them as still as possible. She suddenly saw two feet in front of her and before she knew it, had collided against someone pretty roughly.

"Whoa, are you alright?" a strikingly familiar voice questioned.

Jenna's eyes opened widely as the vivid tattoos became more pronounced to her. She hesitantly rose her head to see Steve looking at her as he sustained her. Now her stomach really started hurting as she felt a large pit in it.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Sorry I ran into you like that," she said, almost in a whisper.

"Alright. You just seemed, I don't know... out of it as you were walking. You weren't even looking up. Are you sure you're alright? You're sweating quite profusely," he said as he closely looked at Jenna.

"I'm fine, I just started feeling a little odd. But I'm better now. I really should get going, Steve," she said and tried to make her way past him.

"Hey, you know my name. You here for Placebo?"

"Not really. I just came here since my friend are somewhere around here. I really have to go now. Sorry again for bumping into you like that," she said and began walking away.

"What's your name?" Steve called out from behind her.

"Nothing!" she called out in response.

"So you're alright, nothing?" he chuckled.

"Yes, positive," she replied and continued rapidly waking, pacing, rather.

"Oh, gosh," she whispered and let out a massive sigh of relief.

"Thank gosh he hadn't seen me before or I'd be so busted," she said amd leaned against the wall, sliding down.

She soon saw wiL and Josie come into view as the approached her.

"Babe, are you feeling better?" wiL asked and lightly kissed her.

"Yeah, can we just please go home now?" she insisted. "Yeah, meet & greet's over. Sure you don't want to meet them? We could go back quickly and say that--"

"No! I just want to leave," she pleaded.

"Fine, you look pretty sick. Let's go," he said and took Jenna by the hand.

"It was amazing, but Steve wasn't there. Wonder where he could have been," Josie said, widely smiling.

As they walked towards the parking lot, Jenna couldn't help but repeatedly sigh. The ordeal was finally over and no one would ever find out.