Girl That You Love

“He really did that?” Pete said in amazement as Emma recounted the story of Patrick’s outburst at dinner. Pete looked over at Patrick proudly. “Look at you, buddy, growing up and being a man.”

“Oh whatever, I just couldn’t take him giving Emma a hard time. Or him ruining Thanksgiving,” Patrick replied, looking up from his laptop.

“Ha, that is what happens on the holidays. Family gets drunk and brings up stupid shit from the past,” Joe remarked. “Sounds to me like your dad was just trying to keep that tradition alive.”

“Yeah, he was,” Emma said morosely. “Luckily he was quiet the rest of the evening. But it was embarrassing that we had to explain the whole thing to Kevin and David afterward.” She looked over at Patrick who grimaced.

“Yeah, dad was not happy about that. He smacked me in the head,” Patrick replied. “Can’t say I didn’t deserve it.”

“Patrick,” Emma started.

“I know, I know, it’s in the past and we are moving forward from it. Can’t help getting down about it at times though,” he said.

Emma glanced at Pete, who just shrugged and then picked up his hacky sack. “Well, cheer up man. We’re about to get on stage and kick some serious ass. Plus, You owned your future father-in-law yesterday and that should make you feel pretty damn good about yourself.”

It was the day after Thanksgiving and everyone had come together for the Grammy foundation concert that the guys were doing later in the evening. They were already at the venue, Patrick trying to get an earlier start on his vocal warm ups and Pete wanting to hound Robb, their lighting designer, about some segments of the show that he wanted to change the arrangement on.

Emma hung around the backstage area, chatting with their guitar techs Brian and Josh and then eventually found herself in the green room area, exchanging emails with Christian and Dan from Imagine Dragons about scheduling her a time to come to their recording sessions. Patrick had left to lock himself away and focus on his warm ups, leaving Emma in the green room with just Joe and Robbie.

“Whatcha doing?” Robbie asked her, peeking over her shoulder as she was typing away.

“What?” she took her headphones out and looked up at him, his bulky figure blocking her light. “Oh, I’m just arguing back and forth with Christian.”

“He’s working right now?” Robbie said with his nose wrinkled up.

“Robbie, Christian doesn’t NOT work. There are always stories to be told, interviews to be set up, staffers to harass – like me,” she gave him a wry grin. “It’s okay. Christian and I have built up a nice rapport that consists him trying to order me around, me giving him lip and then both of us coming to a mutual understanding where he usually wins.”

“Sounds like fun,” Robbie said jokingly. “So, fun times with mom and dad huh?”

Emma sighed. “Yeah, it was almost a complete trainwreck.”

“Patrick must really love you to go through all of that,” Robbie commented.

Emma shut her laptop and looked back up at him. “I guess. I mean my parents were never fans of his. Before, it made sense because we were young and I was still freelancing and working at a crappy music website that paid crap. I was pretty much just doing that and following Patrick and the guys around. I mean my early twenties were consumed by Fall Out Boy,” she laughed, “It’s a good thing I like their music, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess,” he replied. “That’s crazy though. I mean, has Patrick been the only guy you’ve been with?”

Emma blushed. “Robbie, if you weren’t you, I probably wouldn’t answer that question. But, no he’s not the only guy I’ve ever been with, I had two boyfriends before him, but since him? No, he’s been the only one.”

“Wait, even when you were apart?” Robbie looked at her amazed.

She nodded. “Yeah, the break up really got to me. Yeah there were guys who hit on me and guys I went on dates with, but nothing ever got physical or serious.”

“So you don’t even know if there might be something else out there for you that’s better,” Robbie pointed out.

“Robbie, I don’t need to sleep around to know that Patrick is the right person for me. I think deep down , I always had the notion that we might get back together.”

“But he dated someone after you right? So did he?”

His comment stung her a little bit. “I don’t know. I don’t think it matters though , does it?” she said with an edge in her voice.

“Whoa, no, sorry, I didn’t mean to bring it up,” Robbie said, holding his hands up defensively. “I’m just curious, that’s all. Remember I only came into this whole thing like two months ago.”

“Yeah,” Emma sighed, “I know, I shouldn’t get upset at you. That whole, thing, is still something I like to avoid at all costs. That girl was um, not a very nice person, let’s just put it that way.”

“Gotcha.” A moment of silence passed between them and then Robbie said, “Hey, you know I have to go pick up the food for the guys right about now, you want to come with me? It’s a pretty big order, could use the extra hands.” He gave her a remorseful smile.

She really had nothing better to do at the moment, so she said yes. She stood up and looked at Joe was scrolling through his phone. “Hey Joe, I’m going to go with Robbie to get your guys’ food.”

Joe waved at her in recognition and she followed Robbie out of the green room, grabbing her coat as she went.

It had snowed a few days before they had arrived, and the wind and temperature did nothing to melt what had fallen over the cityscape. Emma had remembered how much she missed snow when she was living with Patrick out in LA, but after living in New York City, she realized how much she missed the warm weather of LA. Grass is always greener, she thought to herself ironically. As she and Robbie made their way to the SUV, there were a handful of fans that were waiting for a glimpse of the guys coming out of the building. Emma wanted to tell them that the guys weren’t coming outside any time soon, but she also was wary about talking to them. After all of the things she saw on the Internet and eerie death threats she had been receiving, she wasn’t sure which fans liked her and which ones wanted her dead.
She and Robbie started walking past them, and she could hear the voices of the fans start to heighten as they saw them approach.

“Is that Emma?” she started hearing them murmur. “Yeah, that’s Patrick’s fiancé!” one of them exclaimed.

She kept her head down and moved forward, trying to avoid eye contact.

“Hey Emma! Emma!” She heard one of them shouting. “Can you give this to Pete for me!”

Emma paused and turned around, suddenly feeling obligated to these fans who were waiting to see their favorite band. She remembered being that girl before. There was a girl holding a small t-shirt that said Little Wentz. Emma started walking toward her.

“Emma, what are you doing?” Robbie said, stopping in his tracks.

“Oh, she just wants me to give Pete something, go to the car, I’ll be right there,” Emma said, walking over to the small crowd of fans. She looked at the girl and smiled. “Hey, sure I can give Pete something for you.”

The girl cried out with glee and handed her the shirt. “I made this for Bronx, can you make sure it gets to him? Tell him it’s from Madison Levy!”

Emma took the shirt and smiled at it. “That’s cute. Yeah, I can do that. Bronx will love it.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” the girl reached out and grabbed Emma, pulling her into a hug. Emma could feel the metal barricade poking against her hips.

“God you are such a fame whore,” she heard another fan exclaim. Emma pulled away from the girl and looked into the faces of the fans, mostly female she quickly realized, looking for the girl who made the comment.

“Who said that?” Emma asked, her voice getting annoyed. A girl in a black Fall Out Boy hoodie stepped forward.

“I did you cheating, lying bitch. How dare you hurt Patrick like that! I can’t believe he still wants to be with you!”

Emma was rattled by the girl’s verbal attack. “Um, I think you have the wrong idea…”

“No I don’t!” the girl cried out. “You’re only in this for the money! You don’t love Patrick!” Emma could hear a murmur of agreement from some of the fans around the girl.

Emma bit her lip, trying to fight back tears. She looked at the girl who had given her the shirt. She gave Emma a sympathetic look. “I’ll give this to Pete,” she said quietly, ignoring the other girl. She quickly spun around and started walking toward the car that Robbie was in.

“Bitch!” the girl continued to shout. “You know I’m right! Patrick deserves way better than you! Hey! Hey! Don’t walk away from me!”

Emma quickened her pace, but suddenly felt someone tugging her hair, pulling her back. She heard loud gasps and cries coming from the group of fans she had just walked away from. Emma gasped in pain as she felt the girl’s nails digging into her neck.

“Stay away from Patrick!” the girl exclaimed, shoving Emma to the ground and jumping on top of her.
Instinct told Emma to fight back, but her mind told her that if she did, what would follow for her and Patrick could be worse. She felt the girl’s hands claw at her face, and she could hear some of the other girls in the crowd cheering. Emma wrapped her hands over her face to shield herself from the girl’s blows.

“Go screw around your other guys and leave Patrick alone!” the girl shouted.

“HEY!” Emma peeked through her arms and saw Robbie grabbing the girl by her hoodie and literally throwing her off of Emma. He grabbed Emma’s hand. “Get into the car,” he hissed. She nodded and ran to the SUV. She could hear Robbie yelling at the girl as she ran. “All right, you want to go to the show tonight? Because that ain’t fucking happening now!”

Emma shut the car door and looked at her hands which were shaking and covered in mud. She started wiping them off, and realized her pants were also covered in it too. She started rubbing them hard, tears silently falling off her cheeks.

Robbie climbed into the driver’s seat and slammed his door shut. He pulled out of the venue parking lot and started toward the restaurant they were picking up the food at. When they reached a stop light, Robbie turned to Emma. “Emma, what the hell were you thinking?” he asked her angrily. “You know with the death threats that you can’t trust any of those…” he trailed off, seeing how upset she was. “Emma,” he said quietly. “Are you okay?”

She looked up at him, her hands still shaking. “Y..y..yeah, I think so,” she stammered, a sob quickly overtaking her. She bent her head down and started crying.

“Emma, Emma,” Robbie said soothingly, unbuckling his seatbelt to lean over and give her a hug. “It’s okay. Don’t listen to her, she’s clearly got a screw loose.”

Emma wiped her tears on the sleeve of her jacket. “I know, I just… Oh my God, that has never happened before. I mean like, what the hell?” She looked at the light. “It’s green.”

Robbie pulled away from her and started moving forward. “When I get back to the venue, I’ll speak with Marcus. If you want we can track her down and try and press charges,”

“No,” Emma said firmly. “No, don’t track her down, and DON’T tell Marcus.”

“Emma, that’s my job. If something like that happens…”

“No, just like the death threats, I don’t want anyone to know, especially Patrick. He doesn’t need that anxiety okay?” She gave him a pleading look. “Please Robbie, don’t say anything. You kicked the girl out, and I’m not hurt, just dirty a little bit. I’ll be okay.”

She gave him a challenging look and he eventually gave in. “Okay, I won’t, but Emma, you can’t hide this stuff from him forever. It’s not healthy.”

“I know,” Emma said, turning her attention to the buildings outside. “I know.”

She tried to focus on anything else but what just happened to her, yet her mind kept reeling back to the girl’s nasty words and how angry she was at Emma. Emma had seen hatred in someone’s eyes when they looked at her - Patrick’s ex-girlfriend Natalie hated her a lot – but seeing it in the eyes of someone that didn’t know her that she had never met was a little disconcerting. She suddenly remembered the shirt and pulled it out of the pocket of her hoodie. She smiled, happy to see that the shirt was clean. It reminded her that there were some fans out there, hopefully more than she thought, that actually liked her and respected the fact that she and Patrick were together.

After she and Robbie got the food, they headed back to the venue and Robbie made sure to pull up close to the backstage door. Luckily, the venue had opened so the fans had pretty much scattered, and the back lot was empty. Emma and Robbie made their way to the green room to deliver the food to the guys.

When they walked into the room, the guys were all laughing and joking around with a few of the crew members, including Brian and Josh, the guitar techs. “Food’s here!” Joe exclaimed, jumping up to grab the bags from Emma.

“Whoa, Emma, what the hell happened to you?” Andy spoke up, eyeing her muddy jeans and jacket.

Patrick jumped up and walked over to her with a troubled look on her face. “Babe, are you okay?”

She blushed and glanced at Robbie. “Yeah, just slipped on a patch of ice and got a little muddy,” she lied.

“Gotta be careful with that black ice, it’s a bitch,” Andy said, opening his tofu salad.

Patrick wetted his thumb with his mouth and wiped some of the mud off of her forehead. She felt like crying at his intimate, caring gesture. “I have some sweatpants I was going to change into afterward. Why don’t you put them on?”

“Yeah, that’s a great idea, babe,” she replied, kissing his lips softly. “I’ll go do that now.” She hurried out of the green room and into the dressing room where they kept their clothes. She grabbed the sweatpants he had out of his backpack and shut herself away in the women’s bathroom.

She went over to the sink and started splashing water on her face, watching the mud start to wash away. Once her face and hands were clean, Emma stood in front of the mirror and took a few deep breaths, counting to ten. It helped calm her down, and she pulled off her dirty jeans and her hoodie, leaving her only in her Fall Out Boy t-shirt and Patrick’s sweatpants. She bundled up her dirty clothes and left the bathroom, nearly colliding with Robbie.

“Oh!” she exclaimed, stepping back.

“Hey, I was just checking on you,” he said, and she thought she saw his face get red.

“Thanks, I’m good now.” She gave him a smile and started walking back to the green room. As she did, Robbie caught up with her.

“Emma, I have been really thinking and I think you should really tell Patrick,” he whispered.

“Robbie, no. I’m not telling him. It will just make him upset and they are about to go on in an hour. Just drop it okay?” she said, getting snippy. She hated being mean to him, but she was tired of him bringing it up.

“Emma,”

“Robbie!” She spun around and glared at him. “I don’t like to pull this card often, but they hired you to take care of me, so technically you kind of have to listen to me. And I’m telling you NOT to say anything to anyone, especially not Patrick.”

Robbie’s face went stone-blank. “Okay,” he said and then walked off.

She watched him walk away, and she felt a little guilty for being rude to him. She had always treated Robbie more like a friend than her security guard, and she never wanted to be mean to him. She sighed and walked back into the green room, where the guys were chowing down on their food.

“Emma, come here and try some of this, it’s amazing,” Patrick cooed, beckoning her over to an empty spot on the couch next to him.

She smiled and sat down next to him, grabbing his fork from him. “Okay, let’s see what this is.” She put some of it in her mouth and moaned as the sweet flavor filled her mouth.

“Jesus, Patrick, I think that’s the biggest orgasm you’ve given her the entire time you’ve been together!” Joe exclaimed.

Emma swallowed and looked at Joe. “Clearly you don’t know what he can do with his mouth,” she replied and Patrick blushed at her response.

“I always knew that Patrick had some skills,” Pete said, chuckling.

“Must be a singer thing,” Andy added. “All those vocal warm ups and stuff, loosening up that tongue.”
“What? Oh God,” Patrick groaned, sinking lower into the couch.

Emma giggled and kissed his cheek. “Sorry babe.” She knew that Patrick hated being the center of attention, but she couldn’t help not defending him against the guys some times.

“It’s okay, I’m not mad at you, these guys though,” he looked at them and rolled his eyes.

“Hey, we commend you for your efforts at pleasing your fiancé. That is why you’ve been able to keep her for such a long time,” Pete said with a grin.

Patrick looked over at her with a satisfied smile and she smiled back at him, feeling a moment of bliss of just being with him in there in that green room surrounded by the familiar. She then caught Robbie’s eye, who was staring at her disapprovingly, and his look brought her out of that false sense of happiness and she glanced away, her stomach churning uneasily, her fingers playing nervously with the strings of Patrick’s sweatpants.