Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous

The summer dragged by. I talked to the guys every day. It sounded to me like they were getting a great response and having the time of their lives.

The hardest two days away from them were Brian's and Matt's birthdays. Ironically, Brian's birthday fell on a day that I had a midterm, and Matt's birthday was right before my finals, when I was studying basically every minute of every day.

My last day of school was August eighteenth, four days after the guys came home.

I pulled my car into the driveway and jumped out, slamming the door and running inside. Brian, Jimmy, and Zacky were in the living room.

"I'm a college graduate!" I yelled happily, on my way to Brian.

Jimmy seized me in mid-dive and we tumbled onto the sofa, half on top of Zacky.

"Congratulations, sunshine!" Jimmy crowed.

"Jimmy!" Zacky shifted, wincing as my elbow dug into his ribs.

"Horse tranquilizers," I suggested. "That'll slow him down."

Brian dragged a giggling Jimmy off of me and deposited him unceremoniously onto the floor. He then picked me up, carrying me to the armchair that matched the sofa. He flopped down with me on his lap.

"What day is your graduation?" Zacky asked.

"There's no ceremony for the summer semester," I said.

"With all the money you pay to attend school there?" Jimmy yelped. "That's crazy!"

"So they're just going to mail you the diploma?" Zacky guessed.

I nodded. "Yep. Personally, that's fine with me. I hate graduation ceremonies. And I've already attended two because y'all made me go when I got my Associates."

Brian was totally unrepentant. "It was an important day."

"Hey, guys!" Matt's voice preceded him as he came through the front door and strode into the living room. "Look what hit newsstands today." He held up a copy of Revolver. And there, on the cover, were my fiancé and four best friends.

Jimmy sprang to his feet and reached for the magazine, but I beat him to it. Snatching it from Matt's hand, I retreated back to the safety of Brian's lap and flipped to the article.

There was a full-page photo of the guys, tied up and surrounded by half-naked women. I arched an eyebrow. "Wow, guys." More photos featured each of the guys alone with one or more of the scantily-clad models.

"Jealous?" Zacky said, smirking.

"No." I glanced over my shoulder at Brian. The truth was, I wasn't sure how I felt about the photo of Brian with two of the girls. He seemed really comfortable with his hand curled around the blonde's tiny middle.

"Um, I think it's time to go," Matt said meaningfully.

"Later, Gates," Jimmy called. He and Zacky followed Matt out of the house.

"Baby, it's just image," Brian said, taking the magazine and tossing it aside.

"That's how you want to portray yourself?"

"We're straight guys in a rock band," Brian said patiently. "We have tattoos and we like to drink and we appreciate attractive women. People are going to assume we're those kinds of guys anyway." He cupped my face in his hands. "Jordan, it doesn't matter. That's the face we show the world. What's real is this, right here, me and you. Don't ever forget that."

And he kissed me gently.

*****

September passed in a haze of activity. The guys were constantly doing promotional stuff for the album as well as gearing up for their "Cities of Evil" tour. The first date was set for October seventh in San Diego.

I didn't see Brian much during this period. The guys were always off somewhere, being interviewed or at a photo shoot. City of Evil featured some absolutely wicked guitar work by Brian and Zacky and that fact had not escaped notice. Brian and Zacky were not only scheduling interviews with the usual rock magazines, they were also hounded by journalists from such publications as Guitar World.

I attended every show the first week of the tour. On the fifteenth, we flew out to St. Petersburg, Florida. This was the closest to home that I'd been in a long time, so after the St. Petersburg show, I rented a car and drove home to Danville, Alabama. I decided to stay with Mom and Dad for six days.

I missed Brian, but I didn't really mind the time away from him and the guys. I kept up with pretty much everything going on. When I wasn't enjoying my time with my parents, I would scope the web to find out what the fans, old and new, were saying about the boys, the tour, and the album. I quickly discovered that Brian had been right; the boys were generally judged as honest-to-God wild and crazy rock stars. Sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll. Live fast and die young. And every other cliché.

Most fans seemed to think the guys were single and indulged greedily in groupies. Their favorite hangout was rumored to be the strip club. They downed liquor like it was water and loved cocaine, heroin, etc. Bar brawls were a daily event for the one they called M. Shadows.

Some of the things I read made me laugh out loud. These personas the guys had taken on were absolutely ludicrous, nothing like the five guys that I knew and loved. One of the only "facts" listed that was actually a fact was their alcohol consumption. The guys did have a tendency to get a little out of control when it came to liquor.

I didn't think much about it. That talk with Brian had steadied me and I realized the guys allowing the fans to perceive them that way was harmless. If it sold records and concert tickets, who was I to judge? I knew the truth. That was what mattered.

I drove back to Florida on the twenty-first and joined the guys in Lake Buena Vista, where the show the next night was being held.

"SUNSHINE!" Jimmy almost took me out in the hotel lobby, but instead of tackling me to the ground in usual Jimmy fashion, he scooped me into his arms and spun me around.

"Jimmy!" I squealed, laughing.

"Check. This. Out." Jimmy paused and glanced around furtively, then leaned close and whispered "We have paparazzi."

I scanned the lobby and saw no one but Matt, Brian, and the desk clerk. "I suppose they're just hiding at the moment, right?"

Matt and Brian both chuckled.

Jimmy rolled his eyes. "Not here! But, like, outside the venue in Atlanta..." He shook his head. "There were so many flashes going off, I thought I was having an epileptic attack. People are fascinated by us." He smirked, eyes gleaming wolfishly. "Girls are fascinated by us."

"Jimmy, please," Matt cut in. "I can't hear this again."

"So close your ears," Jimmy retorted. "Sunshine hasn't heard it yet."

"Sunshine doesn't want to hear it," Matt said. "Do you, sunshine?" His hazel eyes pleaded with me to say no.

"Um..." I grimaced apologetically. "Not really. Sorry, scientist."

Jimmy exhaled loudly. "You guys are no fun. No fun at all." He wandered vaguely in the direction of the elevators.

Matt hugged me. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"How are your parents?"

I shrugged. "They're great. They're actually planning a vacation."

"Oh yeah?" Matt said. "Where are they going?"

"They don't know yet. Dad wants to go to the beach. Of course, Dad always wants to go to the beach. Mom would rather go to, like, the Smokey Mountains or something like that."

"Your mom has the right idea. Hell, if your dad loves the beach so much, he can just come out to Cali and crash with you guys for free."

"That's what my mom said."

Matt sighed. "I guess I'd better go get Jimmy. I've never understood how a grown man can just roam off and find himself in some of the places Jimmy has found himself over the years." He kissed me on the forehead. "I'll see you tomorrow, baby doll."

"Night, Juggernaut."

Matt raised an eyebrow. "Juggernaut?"

"From X-Men?" I said. "According to the internet, you're a destructive force blowing through our nation's most seedy bars, dealing out knuckle sandwiches."

Matt laughed. "Oh yeah. That's me." He flexed one heavily muscled arm. "Fuck with me and I'll rearrange your face."

I giggled. Matt ambled toward the elevators.

"Finally! We're alone." Brian slipped his arms around my waist and kissed me passionately.

I broke away only when I had to breathe. "We're not alone." My eyes strayed to the desk clerk, who was trying to pretend he wasn't watching us.

"You know, if you hated all of my friends, we never would have been stopped in the lobby and we could already be in our room, doing much more enjoyable things. Just something for you to consider."

"Brian Elwin Haner, Jr.! That is a terrible thing to say!"

"Shh!" Brian covered my mouth with his hand. "For fuck's sake, Jordan! Do you want everyone within a ten-mile radius to know my middle name?"

I pulled his hand down. "Who the hell is going to care what your middle name is?"

Brian was now regarding the desk clerk warily. "The fans." He began ushering me across the lobby. "Jimmy wasn't lying about the paparazzi. Obviously, it's not, like, real paparazzi, but we do have a lot of people following us around and trying to find out personal stuff about us."

"Aww," I mocked. "And you thought you wanted to be a famous rock star."

Brian gave me a dirty look. "Shut up."

I laughed. "Would most of these people be female?"

"Yeah," Brian mumbled, focusing way too intently on pressing the button for the elevator. There was a faint blush to his cheeks.

"Well, duh!" I exclaimed. "Jesus, Bri. You're gorgeous and you play guitar and as far as they know, you're single--"

"I never said I was single," he interrupted. "None of us did. Matt just let the journalists draw their own conclusions. He figured it wasn't their damn business anyway."

"And he's absolutely right," I said calmly. "Bri, I'm not mad. We talked about this, remember? People can assume what they want about you. I don't think that you guys should share every detail of your personal lives just because people are interested. I'm leaving it up to you what you tell or don't tell. You're the one that it's going to affect. I'll just be the girl that gets trash-talked on all the fan sites."

He looked at me and I could read the relief in his dark eyes. He brushed a kiss across my lips. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

The elevator doors slid open and as we walked in, Brian reached over and twined his fingers loosely with mine.