You Stole My Heart

“Suzy told that I need to change - ” Johnny cut the girl off with a quick ‘no’.

“Marco, that’s top secret information for girls. You’re not suppose to tell guys,” Johnny explained with a sigh. Marco nodded and Johnny smiled, happy the small girl had just went with it. As he pulled into a parking spot of the local Wal-Mart he pulled some sunglasses off of the dashboard. With that and the beanie he had been wearing, he eliminated all chances of someone recognizing him. Hopefully.

“So what are we doing here again?” Marco asked innocently as Johnny helped her down from the backseat. He grabbed her hand and led her towards the front of the store.

“We have to go get more of the things that Suzy gave you,” Johnny replied. Sadly it was true. He had begged Suzy for extra pads, but she was clean out. So Johnny had ditched Jimmy with the guys and left to go get some before they headed home. Marco nodded as the two walked inside the building, a gust of cool air meeting their faces.

“So Johnny?”

“Yeah?”

“Does Brian have an Aunt Flow too?” Johnny snorted and choked on his breath at the same time. Two knowing teenaged girls giggled at his reaction as he blushed a light pink color.

“Why would you think that?”

“Well Suzy said only girls get it, but Matt said that Brian takes longer than a girl to get ready. And then he complains like one a lot and he wears makeup, and Ray makes fun of him for it a lot. Maybe Aunt Flow is confused and doesn’t realize he’s a boy and visits him?” Marco piped as if she had been thinking of it for a long time. In reality she had been thinking about it since Suzy was talking to her about it. She had forgotten to ask.

“You know what Marco? I think you might be right,” Johnny replied, trying to stop himself from snickering. Wait until Brian got a load of this. Now Marco’s earlier statement of Brian making a bad husband made sense, he was really a girl. Finally they pulled to the aisle for ‘female products’. A man who looked a little older than Johnny was the only other one in the row. He looked up, nodded with a smile to show he knew how he felt, and grabbed a box of tampons. As he left Johnny cleared his throat. “Do you remember what box Suzy had Marco?”

“Yeah. She had - ” The young girl trailed off as her eyes examined the boxes. She pointed at one with a definite nod. “It was this one. I remember from - ”

“Please don’t tell me Marco,” Johnny whined. He grabbed the package she was talking about and placed it in her hands. He led the way back to the front, Marco right next to him.

“Suzy was right,” Marco mused, a smirk on her face.

“About what?”

“Boys are scared of anything to do with Au - ” She cut herself off with the wince that crossed Johnny’s face. “Well, you know what.”

“To be honest Marco, that aunt scares the living crap out of us guys,” Johnny said bluntly. It wasn’t a total lie. The side effects of it is what terrifies most guys and turns them back into five year olds that piss their pants at the sight of a horror movie kill costume on Halloween. Marco giggled at him.

“Really? You’re afraid of that? Once I figured out I wasn’t dying, it didn’t scare me in the bit.”

“Well that’s good. You’re going to have to deal with it for a long time.” They got in line in the ten items or less line, lucky since the person before them was already grabbing their receipt. As Marco placed her package on the belt the cashier, a woman Johnny noticed, smiled knowingly.

“Is that all sir?” she asked politely.

“Johnny, can I get one of these?” Johnny looked down to see Marco holding a Twix candy bar in hand. Johnny’s face fell, but he nodded anyways. The cashier openly laughed as she rung up the candy too. He quickly handed her a ten and took his change. Once given his receipt he hurried from the store, bag in one hand and Marco’s hand in the other. “Slow down Johnny!”

“Sorry Marco, but - ”

“Excuse me.” Johnny and Marco turned around as soon as they were outside Wal-Mart, finding a small girl connected to the voice. In reality she looked to be thirteen or fourteen. She smiled nervously, clenching a marker and iTouch. A few feet behind her stood a couple, about forty, smiling apologetically. “Are you Johnny Christ - I mean Seward?”

Johnny looked at the young girl who was obviously a fan. In his mind he was wondering if he should just sign, but if he did more people might flock for him. He sighed, just deciding to do it. “Yes I am.”

The girl, who had been biting her lip in anticipated fear, now smiled widely, knowing she was going to get exactly was she was courageous enough to ask for. “C - can I get an autograph?”

“Sure.” He handed Marco the bag and let go of her hand, her now empty hand clinging to his pant leg. He took the iPod and sharpie, uncapping it and poising it over the silver back. “What’s you’re name?”

“Megan, M - e - g - a - n. You would be shocked how creative people get with my name,” the girl, Megan, explained as he wrote her name in cursive along with the initials “JC”, his ‘signature’. Once he was finished he capped the marker again, noticing Megan’s eyes studying Marco. He cleared his throat causing the teen to look up. She smiled, taking the iTouch and already started to put the clear cover on over it. “Thank-you so much!”

“No problem Megan.” He gave her one last smile and a quick hug before taking the bag and Marco’s hand again. Johnny led them over to the truck, making sure Megan was inside before he actually unlocked it. He never knew what kind of fan would be crazy enough to get his license plate and try to track him down. He never felt to risk it.

“So that’s what it’s like when fans ask for your autograph?” Marco asked as Johnny helped her into the backseat.

“No, we got off lucky. Usually its an autograph, about twelve pictures, talking for five minutes, and about twenty people instead of one,” Johnny informed. Marco’s mouth just fell into an ‘o’ as she made a sound of awe. He shut the backdoor before climbing into the front seat. As he started up the car Marco coughed a couple of times, her coughs become ones that lacked air. He turned around to see her calming down, her face a bright red. “You okay?”

“Yeah, fine.” Marco waved it off, taking out her candy bar. Johnny backed out of the parking spot before turning back around in his seat. He drove home at a leisurely pace as him and Marco sat in a comfortable silence, only the radio filling the car. Johnny’s eyes narrowed in confusion as a car he didn’t recognize took up the left half of his driveway. He parked his truck on the right side, examining the vehicle as he turned off the engine. “Who’s that?”

“I don’t know Marco,” Johnny replied honestly. He climbed out, taking Marco’s hand to help her out. He left the bag int he back, even with Marco’s protesting. At the moment he was a bit more interested in who the fuck was in his house. He turned the knob to find it already unlocked. A shiver went down his spine as he remember he had, in fact, locked his door before they left. As he opened the door he could hear movement in the living room. Johnny automatically pushed Marco towards the kitchen as he silently grabbed the baseball bat he kept next to the front door.

“But Johnny - ” He silenced her with a finger over his lips. He tip toed to the living room, bat poised to swing if he found it necessary.

“Now Johnny, do you really have to be so violent?” Johnny’s arms dropped to his sides as he took a long look at Lacey, his ex-girlfriend. Her short, brown hair was pulled into a ponytail it could barely reach and her brown eyes twinkled with amusement.

“What the hell are you doing in my house?” Johnny growled. Marco, who was eavesdropping from the kitchen, shuddered with fear. Johnny didn’t sound like Johnny anymore.

“Well after you oh so rudely shoved me out, I didn’t get to claim all my things.” Johnny’s eyes trailed to the purse that was over her shoulder which had some clothes sticking out the top.

“Rude my ass. I caught you in bed with some other fucktard. In our bed,” Johnny snarled. Lacey rolled her eyes, placing down the picture frame which had been in her hand. Behind the glass was a picture of the two of them along with the rest of the guy and girls. It was when they had all took a boat out of the ocean for the day six months ago.

“Well either way I wanted my stuff. I decided after three weeks you might have calmed down a bit. Obviously that wasn’t long enough,” Lacey stated, her eyes trailing over the man shaking with anger.

“Get the fuck out of my house!” Johnny shouted. Marco - who couldn’t hold herself back anymore - ran into the room, hugging Johnny’s leg.

“Please stop yelling,” Marco whimpered. Lacey’s eyes grew wide as she turned to look down at the short girl. Johnny was still shaking with rage, if not worse as Lacey studied the girl like she was an insect.

“Who is this?” Lacey demanded.

“That’s none of your fucking business. Get out before I call the cops.” Lacey scoffed, but headed towards the front door. She paused next to Johnny , staring down at the trembling Marco.

“I hope you have a good day Johnny. You should be careful of what you say to me though. Wouldn’t want anything to happen to your little friend, would we?” With that Lacey left, her tires squealing on the concrete. A sudden rage filled Johnny as he processed the threat that was just sent. He tore his leg away from Marco and stormed up to his room. In there he noticed his room ripped apart, no doubt Lacey’s fault. The rage broke free and he began to shout every name in the book he knew, tossing shit around the room and destroying the upper half of the house, besides Marco's room.

Marco began to freely cry, running to the house phone that sat in the corner of the living room on an end table. With trembling fingers she scrolled through the names, stopping once she saw Zacky’s name, the first since it was organized alphabetically. She quickly pressed the green ‘call’ button as she curled into a ball in the corner of the room, still able to hear the crashes and screams from Johnny. After what seemed like forever Zacky finally answered.

“Hello?” Marco let out a sob at hearing his voice. Zacky was instantly concerned, the rest of the guys who sat with him in the living room falling silent. “Marco? Hon, what’s wrong?”

“J - Johnny. Some lady was here and said something and then - Zacky, he’s scaring me,” Marco sobbed. Zack jumped to his feet, heading to the front door of Matt’s house. They had left Brian’s parents’ house not long after Johnny and Marco had left. The guys were on his heels as he motioned for Matt to open his car up.

“It’s okay Marco, we’re on our way. Just stay away from him for now, okay?”

“Okay,” Marco sniffled down the phone. As they hung up both could only hope the guys got there before Johnny did or said something he’d regret.