‹ Prequel: Trouble-Maker
Sequel: Summer Boy

Infinite

Coercion

February sixteenth came too quickly and it was a busy day for everyone. Derek, Ron, and Ryan spent the early morning with their girlfriends, getting ready to say goodbye for six months, just like I was going with Ronnie. Jacky offered to get the bus organized, so the guys had all dropped off their things the night before at his place and he happily loaded instruments, luggage, and other essentials.

In the morning, Arch and I woke Ronnie up and we all had breakfast in the kitchen of the apartment, which was practically bare. The last couple days we'd been in the process of moving all the important things to the house in Pasadena. Our apartment would stay vacant for the next six months while Arch and I lived in the house and Ronnie on the bus.

Just looking at the inside of the apartment made me homesick. Everything was about to change and I honestly didn't want it to. After our breakfast, I washed the dishes and stuck them back up in the cupboards where they would remain. The fridge was empty now and the house pristine.

Ronnie raced to get ready for the last interview before tour, which somehow managed to get scheduled on the same day that they were leaving. At 11:30 am, we all needed to be at some small studio downtown and by 1:30, the guys would be pulling away from us. The schedule had to be followed exactly.

Arch changed into the only outfit that was left at the apartment and I did the same, picking something nice out of what was left in our closet. Most of Ronnie's clothes were on the bus and most of mine were at my house, but there were a few items left behind.

"Ronnie, hurry up or you're going to be late!" I shouted down the narrow hall to the bathroom where he was messing with his hair, "We don't have time to get behind schedule today!"

"I know that," he said back in a calmer tone, "I'm almost done. Just hold on a fucking minute."

I stepped out of our bedroom and peered down the hall, even though I couldn't see him in the bathroom. I rolled my eyes and called Charlie from the bedroom so I could shut the door for good. "Do you have everything out of the bedroom?" I asked both Arch and Ronnie, turning around to see Arch sitting on the couch, "Did you drop Charlie's kennel at the house like I asked you to?"

"Yeah, everything's on the bus already," Ronnie shouted back to me without leaving the bathroom, "And yeah, Ry and I put it in the kitchen behind the table."

I walked into the living room of the apartment. "It's not going to work, Sweetheart," I said to the five year old who was channel channels on the TV, trying to make one of them come in, "We turned the cable off for the next few months and transfered it to the house instead." I leaned onto the back of the couch and smiled at Arch, who'd been pretty quiet all day. "Come on," I encouraged, motioning for him to put the remote down and get up, "Why don't you get Charlie's leash."

"Okay." He nodded and walked over to the dark brown dog, who was growing more and more everyday. It seemed that he went from being such a small thing to this brawny pittbull practically overnight.

The dog raced over to Arch when he called him. I hoped that Ronnie would do the same.

"Ronnie Radke, we have to leave now!" I shouted again, wondering if he was ignoring me on purpose or if he'd just trained himself to block me out. I was relieved when the bathroom light turned off and he walked out of there with his last bag slung over his shoulder.

"I'm ready," he said in a relaxed voice, completely ignoring how stressed out I was, "Lets go."

I huffed, but nodded, deciding not to argue with him about how long he really should've been in the bathroom. Instead, I told Arch to put his jacket on and grab Charlie, and the four of us took one last look at the apartment.

The blinds were shut, everything was unplugged, the doors were closed and it was spotless like it had never been before. Ronnie closed the front door.

"I already can't wait to be home again," he said as we stood in the hall. He locked the apartment for the last time in six months and sighed, checking the handle. "I think we're good to go."

I nodded and took both of my guys' hands. We went down the stairs and out of the building to the Escalade. We'd taken my car over to the other house days ago, seeing as I would mostly be driving Ronnie's Cadillac while he was gone.

I strapped Arch into the back and Charlie sat on the seat next to him. Ronnie drove and I nervously fiddled with my clothes in the passenger's seat. Interviews usually made me anxious, but today it wasn't the reason for my hectic moods.

It was a quick drive with the GPS telling us exactly how to get there. We pulled up to a small store front that had been converted into a small studio. Jacky was standing outside on the sidewalk in front of the blacked out windows, ripped jeans and a cigarette in his mouth. He smiled and nodded when he saw us pull up and park out front.

"Can Charlie come inside?" Arch asked when Ronnie shut the car off, "It's not fair that he has to stay in the car by himself."

"No, baby, Charlie will be fine out here for a little while. We'll come check on him during Ronnie's interview, I promise." I got out of the car and opened the back door. I pulled Arch out and set him on his feet. Charlie whined through the cracked window as I shut the door with him on the inside.

Ronnie walked around to Jacky and greeted the guitarist. The Escalade was locked, so I pulled Arch over to the two men. "Are you guys ready?" I questioned as Jacky snubbed out his smoke, "It's already past 11:30."

"Yeah, we should go in." Ronnie took my freehand and Jacky nodded, leading the way back into the building.

"The guys are already 'ere," Jacky said as we walked down a narrow hall that held pictures on the wall.

I pulled Arch up into my arms as the hallway opened up into a much larger room.There were cameras and lights pointing at a long, maroon-colored couch that was pushed up against the far brick wall.

Besides the band, there were about six other people in the room. A couple guys rushed out, two sat behind a desk full sound boards, computers, and other things, while another stood behind the camera, obviously testing some things while a woman with white-blonde hair stood in front of it, easily chatting with Ron, Derek, and Ryan.

"Ay, Ronnie you made it," Ryan said, interrupting the conversation that the four of them were having, "We were starting to think that you'd bailed on the tour. We were just about to put out word about auditions for a new singer."

Ronnie rolled his eyes at his friend. "I'm here, alright? There's a lot of shit to do last minute."

"Yeah, that's true," Derek defended, raising his eyebrows at Ryan, "Chris was going crazy when I stopped by this morning. She had a whole check list ready for me."

I grinned at the thoughtfulness of Derek's girlfriend, even though Derek had never let us meet her in the few weeks they'd been dating. He'd moved into Ryan's room after the drummer moved in with his girlfriend, but he barely spent any time at the duplex anyway.

I followed Ronnie over to introduce myself to the woman that would be interviewing them. She was smaller than I was, but taller which made her look incredibly skinny. Her hair fell just below her jaw and her bangs went straight across her forehead. She smiled politely at me as I stood just back from the guys, but was mostly focused on the band. Ronnie, however; was in professional mode. Mostly, his playful side was gone and he was straight down to business, ready to talk about the tour and nothing else.

The interviewer's boss seemed to have other ideas, however. One of the men from behind the desk called over over. She had introduced herself as Cassandra. She excused herself after being introduced to all of us and walked over to see what he could want. When she returned, she asked Ronnie if I would join the interview.

"What?" I asked, surprised by the question, "No, I'm not ready to be in an interview. I mean, my hair is up and I'm in old clothes. No."

She smiled hopefully. "Please, Atticus? It would be awesome if the fans could see you and Ronnie together. Despite everything, you manage to remain pretty incognito."

"That's because I stay out of interviews," I said, glancing at the guys for backup. Ronnie didn't look particularly pleased, but he didn't argue along side me. He let me fight my own battles, even though it was obvious I was losing.

"You look beautiful and down to earth," Cassandra promised, despite the fact that she wore heels that were so tall and skinny you'd thought they would snap the second she moved.

"Ronnie..." I trailed off, glancing at the singer for backup.

Cassandra then turned to him. "Ronnie, I know you're not big on sharing everything about your personal life with the entire world, but when Atticus became part of your family, she also became back of the FIR family and the fans just want to get to know her like you do."

I glared when Ronnie faltered. "You do look beautiful," he said, and I knew I'd just lost.

The plan was that most of the interview would just be the guys talking about the tour that they were leaving for today, but near the end Cassandra and her bosses wanted me to sit next to Ronnie so she could 'show the fans' what we were really like together.

I didn't like it, but I could see that Ronnie was slightly eager to talk about us. We'd kept our relationship quiet for so long that there was never a moment with the fans where we presented ourselves. They all just sort of found out and had been curious ever since, especially after the stunt my father pulled. But to us, it was just another reason to try to appeal as though we were a normal couple.

I went to the bathroom to make sure I looked alright, even though Ronnie had assured me ten times already that I looked good, using a different adjective each time he did. I took my hair down and let it naturally wave around my face. I was thankful that I'd done my make-up this morning, even if it had only been as an incentive not to cry in front of Arch when Ronnie had to leave.

I looked like myself, which I was glad about. I didn't want to be one of those girlfriends who made herself up all extra nice to impress the fans or the people around who they were dating. Ronnie accepted me, everyday, in a t'shirt and jeans so why would I pretend to be something different for his fans?

Arch took my hand when I came back. The interview had just begun and I became incredibly nervous. While the guys talked about the tour they'd be leaving for in a couple hours, I tried to relax. That plan, however; was completely shot to hell when Cassandra asked the guys about their love lives, and Ronnie mentioned my name. He grinned as he, and everyone else, looked from the camera to me.
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Guys, we've hit over 100,000 words. Trouble-Maker ended just a few thousand words more than this, so this is going to be pretty long. We're getting into the meat of the story now, so I would really appreciate some comments. I've noticed that you guys don't leave me any very often. :/