Chapter Twenty-One

Indie

 

 

Cross Rhodes sure knew how to kiss. I’d expected him to be fantastic, to be honest. He had the experience to be sure, but the kiss was tenderer than I’d expected. More so than the hard muscles I ran my hands over in those moments. Cross was what I’d expected in some ways and not at all what I’d thought in others.

At least with Courting Chaos doing soundcheck, I had time alone to see if I could figure out why the hell Eric would break my camera. Yes, he’d said he didn’t want me taking pictures of him and I hadn’t. I didn’t want pictures of Eric Drinkswine unless it was with Courting Chaos and even then, he was there strictly because he was part of the band.

The first thing my eyes saw when I got on the bus was my poor broken camera. I loved that camera. I had so many lenses for it so I’d have to make sure that whichever one I picked out to replace it could use those lenses. I’d hate to start all over.

As I booted my computer, my text alert chimed over and over. This was more important.

Then it dinged six more times and rang. What the hell?

“What’s up, Bellamy?” I answered.

“Holy shit, Indie. Have you seen the news?”

“What news? I’m on the bus.”

“I bet if you look outside the bus, you’ll notice something a bit… different.”

Although I was getting really irritated, I moved to the window and pushed the curtains aside.

Holy. Shit.

The normal crowd of fans that usually gathered had been overwhelmed with reporters and news cameras. At least a dozen of them. Sure, press of some kind came to each show. A good local story about Kissing Cinder visiting, but this… this right here wasn’t normal press.

“Bellamy, what’s going on?” I couldn’t look away from the mob outside.

“Check Twitter or literally any news site, Indie. There’s a girl saying that she had sex with Eric Drinkswine of Courting Chaos.”

“How does that get this kind of response? There’s probably a thousand girls who could say the same.”

“Uh, because the girl saying it is fifteen and her parents want to press charges. They’re pissed as hell. She posted on her social media because someone found out her name and she’s getting a hell of a lot of hate from fans.”

My heart stopped before speeding into overtime. “Fuuuuuck,” I said with a groan and fell back onto the seat.

“Yeah. She posted admitting she slept with him but it’s her parents who are pushing for charges against him. If you look online you’ll find her posts. It’s pretty viral right now.”

It seemed my instincts to stay away from that guy had been on point. But so many thoughts ran through my head. This wouldn’t mean good things for Courting Chaos or Kissing Cinder. Not to mention how it would affect the guys outside of how it would affect the band.

“Bellamy, I have to go,” I said quickly.

“Indie, I need details.”

I slammed my computer shut and searched for my keys. “And I will give them to you when I have them, but I need to get inside the venue. Find my dad. Find Cross.”

“Oh, really… ”

“Those details later, too. Promise.”

I pressed the end call button, snatched my keys off the counter, and headed out the door. Then I stopped myself. There was a picture that flashed through my mind. One that I thought had been random as I’d searched for the reason Eric was such a dick to me. I pulled open my computer again so I could search for it.

The picture was one I’d snapped inadvertently. Didn’t even have Eric in it. It was from the morning when I’d been testing out the settings on the camera. I’d click a couple random pics to see if the lighting setting was accurate.

Well, I’d caught a couple of girls coming of Eric and Dixon’s bus. They looked young, but one looked really young.

Shit.

I hit the print button and waited the thirty seconds it took for my portable photo printer to shoot the picture out, then slammed the laptop screen down. I needed to talk to my dad. And Cross if I could find him. He was the first person I came across once I got inside the venue. I turned a corner and there he was in a heated conversation with Eric. I slid to the left to keep them from seeing me until they were done.

Their voices quieted and I peeked around the corner. Cross was headed in my direction. When he turned the corner where I was hiding, I reached out and grabbed him.

“Hey.” He smiled widely. Sad that I was about to wipe that smile off his face. “You scared the shit out of me.”

“Let’s go talk somewhere.” I pulled him by the tattooed arm until I found an empty room.

“Miss me already?” he asked, his hands on my hips as he leaned in like he was going to kiss me.

“Yes, but that’s not why I’m here.”

He snapped back to his full height. “What’s wrong?”

I took two deep breaths, then said, “Outside there are so many news vans, reporters, cameras.”

“That’s not new.”

“This many is.” I swallowed the acid in my throat back.

“What’s going on?”

“You haven’t heard?” I asked with surprise. I’d figured he did if Bellamy did but then again, we didn’t keep the same hours as she did.

“Ransom and I were working on some music all morning.”

I pulled out my phone and went to one of the news sites to back up what I was about to tell him. Not that I thought he wouldn’t believe me, but I had to see it to know it was real. I couldn’t expect anything else from him. “There’s a girl saying she had sex with Eric.” This didn’t impress him. “She’s fifteen.”

His face hardened and his jaw clenched. “What?”

“That’s what she’s saying. Or rather her parents are saying. From what I gather, her parents want him prosecuted.”

“Fucking hell.”

“Did you know about this?” I asked, though I probably shouldn’t have. No way would Cross put up with something like this. Underage girls… no way.

“Fuck no. Of course not. I’m going to kill him.” Rage burned in his eyes and his voice. “My sister is fifteen. That’s fucking disgusting.”

“This is really bad.” I didn’t need to say that. How bad this whole thing was didn’t need to be pointed out, but even worse… “I have to talk to my dad. Apparently, it’s all over the internet. Someone got her name, she posted something… I haven’t read it yet but Bellamy says fans aren’t being kind.”

Cross swallowed hard and nodded.

There went our quiet movie night.