Second Chance

I learned everything that I needed to know from Deathbat News.

The guys had a day off. That was what they called it, but I hardly saw it as such. Granted, they didn't have a show to be prepared for that night. Their day was instead filled with doing interviews for both radio shows and magazines, leaving them busier than they usually were. Day off? Not so much.

I kept myself out of the way by borrowing Zacky's laptop. I wanted to know more about the website that the fan had told me about. More about what was going on online. It didn't take me long to find it, either. It was a place that the band had visited a few times themselves. Enough times that Zacky mentioned I could find it in his bookmarks.

I scrolled down the page, briefly reading through stories. For the most part there were posts linking to photo galleries, where people could take a look at pictures from the shows that the guys were currently playing. Occasionally there were radio interviews mentioned, or scans from magazines where the guys had appeared. I stopped and read through a few of these out of curiousity, though didn't learn much that I hadn't already through hanging around with the guys.

"You should try checking the comments if you want to know what the fans think of you."

I glanced over my shoulder at Larry, startled by his sudden pressence there. I hadn't realised that he was on the bus, let alone at some point behind me. I returned my attention to the screen, my eyes immediately searching the page for where the comments where. I'd been scrolling past the links all along, never giving them a single thought. But it occured to me now that this was exactly where I should have been looking, especially if I was searching for the arguing that the fan had been talking about.

Larry lent over the back of the chair and took control of the laptop. I held my breath. Having him so close to me was uncomfortable, even if he wasn't being openly hostile. I kept my eyes glued to the screen, watching as he scrolled back and forth through the pages, clearly looking for a specific article. He came to it at last and clicked straight through to the comments.

"Check that out."

He stepped back. Far enough that I didn't feel like I was being crowded anymore, but still close enough to be able to watch my every move. I chose to ignore him, focusing on the article instead. It was one of those that linked to a set of photos from one of the shows a few weeks ago. I bypassed looking through them and went straight to reading what people had to say about them.

There was a lot of, "The guys look great!" and "I wish I could have been there..." going on. Occasionally there was the addition of, "I was there, it was an awesome show!" I kept scrolling, unsure of exactly why Larry had directed me to this specific page. There didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary.

And then I saw it.

Who's that little girl with the band?

That was where it began, and from there it went out in different directions. For the most part it seemed to be a lot of, "Probably just some fan..." but there was almost equally as much, "We've seen her, she travels with the guys." And then began the theories: Brian's younger sister ("That's not what McKenna looks like!"); a secret child ("She's too old to be one of their kids."); a new member of their crew, a contest winner, a cousin or some other family member.

And then, "I met her at their show in Auckland. Zacky said she was a friend of his. But he wouldn't say anymore about it, except that she was gonna be sticking around." This was closely followed by, "Well, she's definitely his new girlfriend. ...isn't she a little young for him?"

From there, opinions were divided. Reading through it was a lot like seeing Zacky and Brian fighting because of my being around - it was painful to know that I was causing such drama between people that I hardly knew (or, in this case, didn't know at all). A lot of them appeared to share Brian's earlier opinion of me - one person stated outright that they believed me to be taking advantage of Zacky's "situation", moving in while he was vulnerable. A whole line of fans chose to agree.

Then somebody decided to add that they'd heard one of the roadies state that this was the truth.

Shock. That was the first thing I felt. I had come to know a lot of the roadies over the weeks, had even come to like some, and hadn't thought any of them had such a big problem with me. The worst part was that I didn't know where to start when it came to suspects - my trust in every last one of them dimmed and faded faster than I had ever imagined it could.

"Even the fans see right through you."

"But it's not me," I said weakly. "That's not who I am."

"You've got the world against you. May as well give up while you're ahead." He put his hands on the back of the chair I was sitting on, placing them behind my shoulders. "Tell you what. If you admit it to me now, I'll put you back on a plane home and we'll call it a day. Nobody else will have to know what you've done."

I turned and looked up at him. It only took one look at his face to know that he was completely serious about every word that he said. Whether or not he was telling the truth, however, was a whole other story. I was thankful that it wasn't a decision I had to make. I wasn't about to lie to him just to give him what he wanted. I turned back to the laptop and quickly navigated away from the comments, back to the main page of the site. No reason to keep looking at them. I got to my feet, determined to make my point by leaving the room without saying another word to Larry.

He put his hands on both my shoulders and shoved me back down.

"Hey!"

"We're going to stay right here until you tell me the truth, girly."

The guys were at the other end of the bus, out of sight but I hoped not out of hearing range. I could yell for them, I was sure. But they were in the middle of an interview, and I didn't want to cause a scene when there was really no need for it. There wasn't much that Larry could do. I could stand him pestering me for answers for a while.

His grip tightened.

"Well?"

"I have nothing to say to you."

I didn't need to see the look on his face to know that he didn't consider this a suitable answer.

"Do you think this is a joke?" His fingers seemed to grab at me harder, as if they were searching to take hold of the bone. I winced. "You're in my way here. I need you to g-"

He cut himself off mid-sentence as Johnny came running into the kitchen. The smaller man simple yanked the fridge open and grabbed a beer, twisting the lid off and taking a mouthful as if his life depended on it. Only then did he turn to face Larry and myself.

"Interview's done," he informed us. "We're about to head off to the next one." He took another mouthful and swallowed. "Wanna come with, kid?"

"Of course!" I said at once, snapping the laptop shut to show him just how eager I was. "Lead the way, Christ!"

Seeing that he had lost this time, Larry let go of my shoulders as I determinedly stood again. I caught sight of his expression as I swiftly followed Johnny from the room, and understood its meaning a little too clearly for my liking.

This isn't over.