Status: In Progress

Set Fire to the Rain

Truth and Lies

“Hey there everyone.” The smooth as silk voice of Jared came from the doorway as he eased into the room and looked straight at me. The man did not look happy. More to the point, he did not happy with me. That was not a good sign. ”So, I heard you all had a great time.”

He had literally started bouncing around the room like a fucking rabbit, and the smile was suddenly back in place, if you hadn’t noticed it was gone in the first place, you would never have known it was missing. Jared joked about stupid shit and was acting like Jared and being amazing while he talked with everyone doing a mini meet and greet just for us I guess you could say.

Shannon had stepped away from me, and the second he did, Jared made a bee line for me. He leaned over wrapping his arms easily over my shoulder, pulling me close and whispered into my ear, “You and I need to talk, right now.” And he jerked his head towards the side of the room where there weren’t any people, starting to walk in that direction.

“Ooookaaay.” I said with a confused look on my face, but followed beside him.

“What’s up Jay?” I asked when we were standing by the wall and I was sure that no one was listening in on our conversation.

“I want to know what happened tonight. And don’t you dare tell me it was nothing, because I know that it’s a load of crap.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. The only thing that happened was that I went to the rest room and got lost, oh and there was a long line. That’s it, nothing else.” I said quietly, not being able to look the taller man in the eyes.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. I can’t believe the lies Eliza.” He said slowly shaking his head. “Please talk to me, and tell me the truth. Am I that horrible a person that you won’t open up to me?” He asked looking down at me with his crystal blue eyes full of concern.

“Why would you think something was wrong in the first place?”

“I noticed you left early on during the set and were gone for a while, that and Emma came to me a little while ago because she is worried about you. She thinks that…” Leaning in closer and lowering his voice, Jared glanced nonchalantly around to make sure that we wouldn’t be interrupted any time soon. Taking a breath as if to calm himself, he looked at me and continued on with what he was saying. “Well, she thinks that maybe your ex-husband may have shown up here tonight and hurt you; I just don’t know when or how it happened exactly. Can you just tell me if we are right with any of it, please?” He was pleading with his damned eyes. I looked up at him and took a breath. I was crumbling.

“I can’t do this right now. This isn’t the right time or place Jared. I appreciate what you and Emma are trying to do, really I do. I just can’t handle this right now. I neither admit nor deny anything. Do you understand me?” I asked him not really wanting him to answer me back, it was more to make sure he knew that this wasn’t the time or place. However the fact that he cared enough about me and his brother in a way, meant a lot to me, and I wanted him to know that. There are so many times when things like that go unsaid, I didn’t want this to be one of them. “Thank you for caring that much about me and your brother.” I smiled sadly at him placing a hand upon his arm.

“Then are you and I going to sit and talk alone and soon?” Jared asked.

“No, I have nothing to say right now that needs to be said.” Damn the man is stubborn!

“Arghh. Come on Eliza, please, meet with me for lunch tomorrow at least and we can talk there.” The frustrated sound that Jay had made at me had gained more than an odd look or two from the group, so I needed to make a fast decision and calm the man down.

“Fine, fine, I will meet you for lunch. Emma has my number so just get it from her if you don’t have it already. I don’t want Shannon finding out about this, got it bud. You can call me in the morning and we can make plans for where and when alright?” In my mind, I had already started to think of ways to find a way out of this lunch. No problem…

“Sounds good, and as far as telling Shannon, it depends on what happens tomorrow.” He looked at a clock on the far wall noticing the time, and said,”Fuck, we need to groove over to the meet and greet now. Oh, and by the way El, if you call out of work, or try to hide out from me, I will simply hunt you down and find you or just show up at your house for lunch uninvited. Thank you for trusting me Eliza. See you tomorrow.” Winking at me over his shoulder, he hopped around the rest of the room saying good bye to everyone. I just stood there watching him in shock for a moment. I think he would actually do that, show up at my house uninvited if I called out of work and didn’t tell him. Brat.

A moment after Jared had bounced off to say goodbye to the group along with Tomo, I felt a pair of warm soft lips with a mixture of soft scruff tickle and nip at the back of my neck in a random pattern up to my ear giving me chills, and making me shiver from head to toe then I heard in the low tone of Shannon’s say into that same ear, “Hey beautiful, sorry my brother ended up monopolizing you, we didn’t get any time alone together and now I have to take off again. I will be back later though. You going to wait around or are you going home?” Shannon said in a tired and slightly disappointed tone.

“I think I am going to head home when y’all go to the meet and greet. I am beyond tired. Is that alright with you?” I asked hoping that he wouldn’t be upset. I just figured that it would make things much easier to get home and back to work tomorrow. “If you would rather me stay, I would be more than happy to do that you know. Just say the word.”

“I think you going home and getting some much needed rest is a great idea. I will miss seeing you after, but I will live.” He moaned into my neck as he pulled me closer and wrapped his strong arms tightly around me from behind. I could feel the hard muscle of his chest as I leaned back into him. We were so close to each other, it felt like we were melting and becoming one person. I lifted my arms to rest over his, so that I wouldn’t experience any pain from my bruises.

“You sure? Especially since its’ your big night and everything.”

“Yep, you were here very late last night and you have a full day tomorrow. Besides, we have the Church of Mars shows on Thursday and Friday if you want to come. So I don’t mind at all. I will call you when I am finished here, is that alright baby?”

“That sounds great.” Smiling as I turned my head back at him as he rested his face into the crook of my neck. My smile began to falter and when our eyes met briefly he had a questioning look in them.

“Hey, is everything alright” Shannon asked looking deep into my blue eyes.

I was barely able to keep my eyes level his, the knot that had formed in my stomach earlier, was getting worse. Feeling sick the second I told him that everything was fine, I had never lied to this man before. Now that it was done, there was no taking it back. There was no telling how Shannon would react to the fact that I wasn’t alright, that I had lied to him about it, and tomorrow, behind his back I was going to meet with Jared. For all I know I would be telling Jared about all of the events that had happened to me tonight. Not him. How completely fucked up was that?

Spinning me around slowly in his arms while keeping his arms in place, mine went around his body as if by memory; Shannon pulled me close with his mouth ghosting over lips softly as he kissed me.

In the background, the chorus of loud coughs and “excuse me’s” and ‘what do you think you are doing’s’ began to echo all around us from our friends and my family. It was funny, and we started to laugh both turning quite red. Then Shannon gave me a quick peck on the cheek saying he would see me tomorrow and talk to me later, I wished him a good night, asked him to be safe, and we waved goodbye

. We started gathering up all of our belongings, getting ready to go leave. Once we had everything that we needed, we made our way out the door of the room and towards the exit of the venue. It was late, nearing 12:15am. I was so physically and emotionally tired. The events of tonight were starting to hit me like a weight. Yawning as our group walked out into the cool night, I noticed that it had started to drizzle a little bit harder than earlier. Pulling my coat tighter around me and snuggling into it for warmth I scanned the area to see if there was any sign of David. Not seeing any sign of him around us, I automatically looked at my family and friends who surrounded me.

Evan and Ryan walked towards me after talking to the girls who were standing at the edge of the sidewalk with JT and Ari deep in conversation. When the boys reached me, they each took a turn wrapping their arms around me in a tight hug. Ryan was the first to hug me and Evan was second, his long hair hanging around his shoulders, then he placed a gentle kiss on my forehead.

“After you talk tonight, would you please let me know if you can, please?”

“I’ll try. But I plan on telling her as soon as we get back to the dorm. My guess would be that you will hear from her either tonight or tomorrow morning first thing. You know she is going to be really pissed at you for this.” Evan said quietly, looking down at me.

“I know, pissed will be the understatement of the century when it comes to my daughter. Then tomorrow I am meeting Jared for lunch. He knows something happened tonight, just not specifics.” I whispered to them.

“Why don’t you just tell everyone here and now, while we are all together?” Ryan asked.

“Y’all wouldn’t understand.” I said softly looking down at the ground scuffing my feet back and forth.

“I may not have experienced what you have gone through, Ms. C, but I do understand why you are doing what you’re doing. It’s a protection thing. You are only protecting the ones that you love and care about. That I get. But I also know that sometimes, we all need someone to look after us. You have a family who loves you, and only wants to help, love, and protect you when you need it, if you were to let them. But you won’t allow them that chance. Give us that chance. Think about it.” Evan said.

“What are you going to do and say if JT sees you in the morning when you have nothing covering the bruises when you are at home, or if Jack stops by unexpectedly? You can’t protect everyone all the time Eliza. You need to let people in and let them take care of you sometimes.” Ryan whispered sternly from beside me.
I didn’t respond to what they said, I only nodded my head. What more was there to say.

“Guys! The cab’s here! Let’s go!” MJ yelled from the edge of the street where she was standing with Julie, JT and Ari.

Making my way over to her with Ryan and Evan in tow, I asked “So baby girl, did you have a good time tonight?” wrapping my arms around her tightly as I did.

“Fuck yes I did woman! It was amazing. Thank you so much mommy.” She said as she held on to me with just as me ferocity, then we let go of one another slowly knowing they had to go.

“Good night Jules. I hope you had a great time.” I said wrapping her in a tight hug.

“I had an amazing time Ms. C. Thank you so much!” When I let Julie go, I noticed there were some looks between her and Ryan. Definitely some flirty looks going on, and being that I happened to be really big fans of both boys, I was ok with that. They all managed to cram into the back seat of the cab of course the girls ended up on Ryan’s and Evan’s laps, but they were all happy. Julie and MJ were snuggled on the laps of their dates and had their heads placed onto their chests making their way home.

Turning to Jack as JT and Ari walked over to him Kym, Errik, John and Scott all started to talk about what was next in the plans for the evening. Scott and Jack decided they would go get their cars from the parking garage that was right next to the venue. It was very easy to get too. Errik walked to the edge of the sidewalk raising his hand in the air for a cab and Kym walked over to me wrapping an arm around my waist placing her head on my shoulder. I looked all over the area making sure the coast was still clear and checking on JT and Ari who were just fine standing against the wall of The Hammerstein behind us.

“What a fucking night, huh?” Kym asked.

“Yeah.”

Kym pulled away looking up at me with an odd look as I just stared across the street. I left it at that.

“Your man is a maniac on the drums. Yummy. Really El. How have you kept your hands out of his pants for this long and not fucked him senseless?”

“Oh my god, really!!! Kym, just stop! We are friends. Why does everyone think there is more going on between us than there is! You need to just go home.” I started shaking my head slowly in disbelief, looking towards the ground with my left hand lightly covering my face.
“Well, first off, the two of you were sucking face in the middle of the holding room with all of us watching. Besides, I can’t say I blame you, I mean, if I were you, I would be all over that beautiful piece of ass like yesterday. Mmm, the things that I would… Or rather, I am not going there ‘cause he is your man. You know you want him, and badly. Really bad.” She said to me nudging me in the side lightly with a wink, though I know she was completely serious. “You want ‘Shannimal the Animal! Oh baby! Oh baby! Yeah!! You want to do him so dirty baby and oh my god, I could give you pointers too lots of kinky shit!” She was now dancing around moving her hips in a gyrating motion and then ending with major hip thrusting action. Kym scares me, a lot! I love her, and consider her family. But shit, I couldn’t listen to this anymore!!!

“Kym! Fucking hell, stop it! I don’t want anything alright! For god’s sake stop talking about your kinky shit! I don’t want the pictures in my head alright!! Please for all that’s holy, just stop, stop all of it!!! I love you, but please, I have a crushing headache and I can’t take any more. Besides, don’t you have a boyfriend over there that would be really happy with all that, ummm, energy and all those wonderful ideas?” God I could feel the heat rising in my face. Sad truth was that everything she was saying was all true. Half the time I was around Shannon lately, all I wanted to do was to touch him and he made me feel things I had forgotten you were supposed to feel. Seriously, it’s been a long fucking time since I have been with anyone. Shannon is fucking lucky to still be standing when I am anywhere near him. However, until I have a clearer understanding of what exactly our relationship is, or if we have the possibility of there being an ‘us’ in the future, I will continue to not approach the physical with anyone, especially Shannon. . I always seem to remember the really important piece of information that he will be leaving in a week to go home to his life. What do I do with that? I don’t know, cry maybe… So I will remain on bread and water until then.

“Oh, honey, don’t you worry about Errik, he is very well taken care of. Extremely well taken care of, so he isn’t who I am worried about. I am very concerned about you though. You know I only give you shit, because I love you so much, right?”

We both looked up as a very tall blonde, blue eyed muscular man who was very, very hot, came striding over from the cab he had just hailed. “She’s telling you about her dirty fantasies again, aren’t you darling?” Errik chuckled, as he wrapped his arms around her from behind and kissed her head. “We have to go baby, cab’s waiting.”

“Errik, I would much rather not hear about her twisted fantasies, ever, thank you very much.” I said to my friends with a giggle, as we walked towards the cab.

“You wouldn’t say that if you were me in the bedroom.” He joked.

“So don’t want to know! And you, sir, are just as disturbed as your girlfriend. Now get the hell out of here and go home.” I said giving them both hugs.

“Love you El.” Kym said giving me a kiss on the cheek. I flinched slightly as she turned away, so she didn’t notice it.

“Love you too Kymmie. Be safe. Take care of her Errik.” I said leaning onto the cab door with my hand gripping the top for stability.

“I always do. See you soon, and thanks for tonight, we had a great time.” Errik winked and pulled Kym close to his side safely tucked away inside, as I slammed the door shut and stepped back from the street.

I turned around spotting Jack’s Jeep Grand Cherokee waiting just outside the parking garage with John and Scott in their new red Chevy Camaro right behind him with John sitting behind the wheel. JT and Ari were already climbing into the back seat of Jack’s car together. Putting my hands into my coat pockets, I walked with a quickened pace around to the passenger side of the Cherokee, opened the door, and climbed up into the warm interior. I glanced into the back and looked at Jake who had a smile on his face as he and Ari were putting their seatbelts on.

Turning back around and looking out the front window then back at Jack taking a deep breath, I gently placed my head back onto the headrest, immediately feeling pain, so I turned my head slightly to the side facing out the window next to me. Knowing I was now safely tucked inside with my brother and my two friends behind us, I could finally relax for the first time since I had the run in with David earlier. Taking full advantage, I let the weight of everything that had happened take over me, and felt my eyelids slowly slip shut, and for the briefest of times I could be in a world completely free of the devil that was David, and filled with the angel that was Shannon. I was finally happy...
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Ok, this is actually a re-post of update number 2 for last night, I was feeling super generous!! I woke up this morning and I wasn't happy with it. so I went back a made a few changes here and there with it.. It's not much, but I hope you like it! Truthfully, I have missed y'all and posting for the story. I hope you enjoy! Show it some love, subscribe and Comment please!!!!!!! Thank you all for reading and commenting if you do. To those that have subscribed thank you so much! Means a lot! Readers love y'all so much!!!
Love y'all! Love y'all! I do!!!! Have a great night/day! :)
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