Fragile

We all slowly made our way back to the bus about two hours after Brian dumped Denim for good. He hadn’t stopped smiling like an idiot since then, he claimed himself as ‘free’ from now on.

“We gonna have hot sex tonight?” Brian whispered into my ear.

“Hell yeah,” I laughed.

“We have too much sex,” he stated.

“Nobody can ever have too much sex,” I laughed.

“Do you think people could get bored of sex?”

“Maybe, like boring people must. And old people,” I said.

“Well, when we’re old, I hope that we are still doing it,” he laughed.

“Aww, I like that, you talking about us still being together when we are old.”

“Well, we will, and one day we shall be married and have sex until the cows come home,” he said dramatically.

“So, we’re getting married now?” I quizzed.

“Well, you haven’t taken your ring off,” he said, grabbing my hand and pulling me to a stop making the others walk slowly ahead of us, he pulled my ring off my middle finder and replaced it on my ring finger, “There we go, if you will still marry me that is?”

“I think I may just do that,” I laughed, pulling on Brian’s arm so we caught up with the others.

We reached the bus and piled on to see the entire place had been trashed. The couch cushions were strewn all over the place, the draws in the kitchen had been pulled out and their contents all over the floor. Every plate, mug, glass had been smashed into a heap on the floor and all the food out the fridge was tipped out.

“My God,” I said as I looked at what was our nice, clean bus was now a dump. I slowly made my way into the bunkroom, careful not to tread on any glass while the other guys stared at the damage. The bunkroom was ten times worse, the duvets and pillows were all off the bunks, suitcases were thrown, the contents on the floor, clothes were ripped and shredded and all our possessions were ruined.

It wasn’t long before Brian walked in behind me, the rest of the guys following.

“What the fuck is she on?” Matt asked, picking up his ripped jeans that lay on the floor.

“Brian, we’re going to have to call the cops, we cant just let her get away with this,” Johnny said sadly, picking up his torn photos of him, Mayotte and Harry.

“I know, where’s David, he should be watching the bus,” Brian asked.

“He fell ill and had to stay at a hotel for some reason,” Jimmy said.

“Fucking Bitch!” Matt yelled as he slammed his fist down on the bed.

Brian moved all the crap off his bed and sat down on it, looking up at his photos. He pulled something off then began reading it, a note or something. He then lifted his eyes and looked up at the photos, pulling one off. He stared at them for a minute before handing them to me.

It was a sticky note, reading ‘You’d better fucking watch more backs than your own.’ I then looked at the photo and saw it was the photo with all four of us at the beach, but this time, there were circles around Jake and Jordan’s faces.

I heard Brian sob loudly into his sleeve, chocking on his tears. I put the paper and the photo on the floor and moved into his lap, wrapping my arms around him as he cried into my chest, my own tears falling as I came to the realisation that the twins were at danger.

“Oh my God,” I heard Jimmy mutter as he read the note.

“We’ve gotta get back, Brian if we get there before she does then we will-”

“NO! Do you think she’s stupid, she would have thought of that and already phoned someone, she knows people Jimmy, like we know people, except these people will blow your brains out just from a glance, she isn’t the angel everyone thinks she is, she comes across as soft when deep down she‘s as hard as fucking nails,” Brian cried, cutting Matt off.

“I don’t care we are going to give it a try whether you like it or not, you’re not giving up on your kids,” Matt’s voice thundered, before the three of them exited the room

“What’s she gonna do to them?” I whimpered.

“I don’t know, but lets do what Matt says, maybe we can beat her too it.”

“Yeah,” I said standing up.

Brian grabbed the photos of the twins and the passports that were in the bathroom and we rushed to get out of the bus and out of the venue, to meet with Jimmy who was hailing down a taxi. We all piled in and Johnny told the driver where to go.

“Matt what if she’s going to do something really bad,” Brian whispered.

“She wont, I don’t think even she could do something like that, even if she does know people I don’t think she could be that heartless,” Matt said, not disturbing Jimmy who was currently on the phone to the cops. I quietly listened into the conversation.

“...Denim Swann, she lives in Huntingdon Beach, but I think she has previously lived in Chicago and Long Beach with her friend… She looks around thirty, because she is, she’s about five six with long brown hair… I don’t know… her boyfriend, Brian Haner, dumped her earlier and we came back to find our tour bus smashed up and there was a note saying ‘you’d better fucking watch more backs than your own’ with a photo of Brian Haner, Zack Baker and Jake and Jordan Haner-Baker with Jake and Jordan’s heads circled… they both kinda look the same, they are twins… Jake his brown eyes and short dark hair, he takes after the dad and Jordan has green eyes with also dark hair taking after the mom, there are photos on the internet I think… well Google it…”

I struggled a smile at how formal Jimmy was sounding, except for the fact he just told a cop to ‘google it’. I shifted in Brian’s lap and ran a hand through my hair that was slowly getting damp by Brian’s tears falling onto my head. Deep down I know I could never be as upset as Syn, I’ve known them for what, two and a bit months while he has been there through everything.

We soon pulled up at the airport, Johnny paid the driver as we all rushed into Miami International Airport. There were queues galore, obviously these people like to fly at night.

“Fuck this,” Brian said, looking over the crowds of people. He grabbed my hand and dragged me to the front of the queue earning yells of profanities and threats.

“Look man,” Brian said getting up close to one guy who yelled something about queers, “my psycho ex girlfriend has just threatened my kids, they could be anywhere by now and I really don’t give a shit what you have to say about the way I choose to live my life.”

He then walked away and pushed up to the desk, the rest of the guys hot on our trail.

“Excuse me sir, you cant do that,” the woman behind the desk stated.

“I know, but its urgent, I need five tickets to the nearest airport to Huntingdon Beach in the quickest time possible,” Brian said.

She looked down at her computer and typed a load of words in, “California?”

“Yeah,” I muttered.

She found one in no time, Brian not paying attention to what she was saying and slapping his credit card on the counter.

“I don’t care how much, just get us on that plane,” he sighed.

I couldn’t believe that Denim is such a heartless bitch, I’ve been dumped hundreds of times in my life and I would never go to such extremes.

We quickly got our tickets and rushed into the departure lounge.

“Where the fuck is gate 2b?” Matt yelled, looking around.

“Sir, if you would refrain from using that language please, and that gate is through gate 2a, then to your left,” a man in a green uniform told us.

Brian dragged me in the direction the man told us and we ran up to the counter, slapping our tickets down.

“This plane leaves in a few minutes so if you hurry you will make it,” the man behind the desk said.

“And its non-stop right?” Brian asked.

“Yes.”

“Good,” Brian sighed.

I squeezed his hand as he let out a tearful, shaky breath, the type you do when you’re trying not to cry, the man checked our passports and we were soon sat on the plane. Me and Brian were in front of the other three with a spare seat next to us.

“It’s gonna be okay, I promise,” I said quietly.

“What if it’s not, I’m like the worlds worst fucking dad, I swore to them I would never let anything bad happen to them, I thought she was after us, you know, because of what we did, not our kids, Zack,” he whimpered.

I sighed and lay my head on his shoulder, rubbing soft circles on his leg to try and calm him down. The plane took off and second by second we were getting closer to finding the truth. It wasn’t long before Johnny turned up and sat in the seat next to me.

“Did anyone tell the roadies that we’re gone?”

“No, I don’t think so, we can call them when we get there, I’ve gotta apologise to the Berry’s anyway, I said I’d go out with them today, well” I looked at my watch, “Yesterday.”

“Is he okay?” Johnny asked, nodding his head towards Brian.

“I think so, but you know, I think it’s not knowing more than anything.”

With that, Johnny nodded and walked away. I turned back to Brian and once again laced my fingers with his.

“I am so fucking stupid, no other parent would leave their kids alone with a babysitter for six weeks,”

“You’re not stupid,” I said.

“Yes I am, I knew it was bad leaving them, but I shrugged it off and now fucking look what’s happened. Getting the band back together was a bad idea,” he muttered.

I sighed, not knowing what to say, sometimes I think it would be better if I didn’t wake up from my coma, I mean, they would be better off if I didn’t turn up and begin fucking everything up. Brian and Denim would still be together with no problems, the twins being at their side, no band, nothing to worry about, just normality. But no, my stupid brain had to regain function and force me to wake up.

I voiced this to Brian who just sat and shook his head.

“Don’t be so stupid, I love you Zack, I…” he trailed off and resumed looking out of the window.

Now was just the wait.