fangirl 01 - an unconventional meeting

by E V Darcy

  Marc had no idea what to say or do. Shouldn’t they all be demanding answers, trying to get into his personal life? Why were they defending him so readily?

  ‘Jake, Adam,’ he heard Sonya direct his hired manpower. ‘Kindly escort this woman from the convention. Remove her ticket and credentials. She’s banned—I’ll have the network and the convention company back me up.’

  The woman rose to her feet, as cool as a cucumber, unfazed by the fact she had fourteen pissed-off fangirls about to rip her to shreds.

  ‘No problem,’ she said flippantly, walking towards the door. She had to pass Marc and as she stepped behind him, she bent to whisper, ‘I know everything and I’m going to make a fortune.’ He pulled away as she dropped a kiss to his cheek, her red lipstick smearing across it.

  She laughed at his reaction and continued laughing even as she was pulled away—and out of the room—by Adam.

  How did she know about Kelly? About the psychiatrists’ reports? What the fuck was he going to do?

  Marc’s chest felt tight and he couldn’t breathe again. It was all going to get out. Tyler would know, he’d find all this out one day from the internet or a classmate gossiping about his psycho mother because they’d read it on the internet. They’d mock him, bully him, make his life a living hell.

  How had she known? He’d been so careful. They’d all promised, signed contracts; no one was to speak a word of it until he was ready to tell Tyler what had happened to his mother.

  Oh, fucking hell. It was all going to be out there for anyone to read. How? How had it got out?

  He couldn’t breathe… He couldn’t breathe and the room was spinning. Why couldn’t he breathe? Why couldn’t he—

  ‘…Marc, stop fighting me, it will help you to calm down,’ a voice told him, but he didn’t know what they meant. ‘Please, Marc, stop. You’re going to hurt yourself.’ The voice was nice. Soft and husky. He knew that voice—that was a good voice, that voice wasn’t going to hurt him. But he didn’t understand; he wasn’t fighting—he just couldn’t breathe.

  ‘Let me help you,’ the voice came again and he nodded, unsure what it wanted him to do. ‘Just relax,’ it told him, so he did. He could trust that voice.

  But then, something was put over his face.

  No, no, he didn’t want anything on his face.

  ‘Just breathe into the bag Marc, you’re hyperventilating,’ the voice cooed and a gentle hand stroked his hair. ‘In and out, let’s calm down your breathing. Just focus on my voice, listen to what I’m telling you; breathe in and out, we’re going to slow all this madness down.’

  Yes, yes, he had been going mad with too many questions circling in his head. The room slowly stopped spinning, his eyes refocused and he became aware of his surroundings again. He was leaning against someone; they spoke soft words of comfort into his ear as they ran one hand through his hair. The other helped him hold a paper bag in front of his face as he breathed in and out of it.

  ‘That’s good, Marc, that’s so good. You’re doing well.’ It was Ellie. He relaxed his body against hers. ‘That’s it, keep breathing.’

  He tried to say her name, but it was muffled by the bag. ‘Don’t try and talk,’ she told him. ‘Just concentrate on breathing for me.’

  He did as she asked; slowly, his body calmed down and he was able to push the bag away.

  ‘Thank you,’ he said, and raked his fingers through his hair, leaning forward and out of Ellie’s embrace.

  He was such an idiot. Of course, it was going to get out one day. Nothing stayed a secret forever, especially in this day and age. He was lucky it had taken this long for people to put the pieces together. He had so much damage control to do and there was no way he’d be able to recede into the shadows again like he had all those years ago.

  Fuck.

  ‘Marc?’ He heard Ellie move behind him. She shifted to sit at his side, facing him. ‘If you want to talk—’

  ‘I’m not talking about it,’ he said, short, cutting her off. He was going to have to, but not right now, not with Ellie, not with anyone. Later. Later he’d talk to them, first Roger, then the rest, in fact, everyone who was involved with the Kelly fiasco.

  But, right now, he just needed time to himself to deal with the turn of events. He needed to be with his son, to remind himself why he had gone through what he had. Why he had done what he had done.

  He picked himself up, unable to look at Ellie who remained seated on the floor. Her face was probably painted with confusion and he knew if he looked, he’d end up spilling all his secrets, and he couldn’t. He couldn’t drag her into this, couldn’t put the burden of this skeleton onto her too.

  He wanted to speak, but he couldn’t. Just couldn’t.

  Instead, he left her sitting there as he went in search of his son and solitude.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  Ellie sat and stared at the door long after it had swung shut behind Marc. Had she done something wrong?

  No; she shook her head. She hadn’t done anything wrong, that stupid bint had. Who the hell was she, and what did she think she was doing ambushing Marc like that? But, more to the point, why had he reacted the way he had? Who the hell was Kelly Tilson?

  She’d watched his face turn pale and he’d flinched when that bitch had mentioned the name. No one did that unless there was a story, one that had seriously affected them. Marc’s whole reaction had been one of sheer fear. He was terrified to the point of panic at whatever that cow knew, at whatever this Kelly person had done to him in the past.

  Ellie frowned as she dropped her gaze to the floor. What had the woman said exactly about that Kelly, again? Crazed fan, committed, psychiatrists, ex-assistant… For two years before they dated…

  They dated.

  Marc had been with a fan, who had been committed to some institution and was still there! Tyler was over four years old—how long had the woman been in an asylum?

  Bloody hell! That was why he hated his fans! That was why he didn’t want anything to do with the fandom. No wonder he thought they were all crazy; they dressed up, ran around squealing, came up with theories and told him he’d saved their lives…

  Ellie rubbed her temples as she felt a headache begin to form behind her eyes. Her heart ached for the man. He obviously lived in some form of fear of the public now, and she doubted he even understood that was what he was suffering from.

  She fell backwards and stared up at the ceiling.

  What the hell was she supposed to do now?

  ‘—my friend and I will go in!’ Marie’s bossy voice interrupted her quiet solitude as the door swung open with such force it hit the wall and began to rebound. Ellie sat up at the commotion and watched as Marie marched into the room with two convention employees hot on her heels.

  ‘Ellie!’ she exclaimed with relief, hurrying to her side. ‘Are you okay?’

  ‘He just left,’ Ellie whispered as she looked at her friend, tears suddenly welling. Marie pulled her into her arms and shushed her.

  ‘I know, I know, but it’s not your fault, okay?’ Marie rocked her as she cried softly. Ellie wasn’t even sure why tears were falling.

  ‘What happened with the woman?’ Ellie finally asked as she pulled herself out of Marie’s arms and wiped her face with her hands.

  ‘The bitch was marched to her room and made to pack by hotel security. They’re completely kicking her out. But she wasn’t lying.’

  ‘About Marc and this Kelly?’ she asked.

  ‘No idea about that, I was referring to the pictures on Action!’ Marie pulled her phone from her back pocket and unlocked it.

  There on the screen, clear as day, was Ellie leaving Marc’s suite the day before, dressed only in his shirt. A very short shirt that left nothing to the imagination.

  ‘Shit,’ she breathed as she took the phone and read the article. It didn’t reveal who had given them the photo or the story, but it had to be someone who either worked for the network, the event company, or the hotel. Only they had
access to that floor.

  ‘This will probably piss his lordship off,’ Marie admitted, sombre.

  ‘Bollocks,’ was all Ellie could say. Her boss had very strict rules on public exposure and the potential to bring the family into disrepute.

  ‘Come on, let’s go and find Mallory and Trent—he’ll be able to help us a bit more.’

  ‘Marie!’ Ellie exclaimed. She stared at her friend as if she was a genius rivalling Einstein. She’d completely forgotten about Trent Dryer! ‘That’s brilliant! Let’s go.’

  She scrambled up off the floor and all but ran to the door. The two convention staff tried to address her as she darted past, but she didn’t have time for whatever it was they had to say. She had to get to Trent and get this mess sorted out. And then she had to find Marc and tell him he had the best damn lawyer in the whole United States on his side!

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Marc had spent the afternoon with Tyler, watching television and playing games—the kid was getting far too good at hide-and-seek for his comfort. Frank had now taken him to get food and ice cream—as promised—for being so well-behaved. Marc couldn’t face leaving the suite at that moment and was happy to sit pretending nothing hideous was amiss with his life.

  He didn’t really have anything to do; Sonya was dealing with everything professional, from the convention people to the media, and Jen was keeping an eye on all the social media outlets. Apparently, they made for some interesting reading, she’d reported half an hour ago when she came to check on him. The regular social media sites were blowing up, sure, but in a very surprising way. The fans from the Meet and Greet were getting out and rallying the masses to find out who bad-dye-job really was.

  Not a single word of what the vile woman had said appeared online so far, and Marc was starting to wonder if perhaps he’d just had a psychotic episode and hallucinated the entire thing. Ellie had tried to tell him not all fans were bad, but he just couldn’t believe not a single one of them had immediately poured out, word for word, what had happened in the meeting.

  It was gossip gold, the mother lode of getting your fifteen minutes in the spotlight; why hadn’t anyone taken it?

  ‘So, I just heard what happened,’ Luc declared loudly as he walked into the suite, unannounced, with Nick and Robson on his tail. ‘Did someone really know about Kelly?’

  Marc groaned and buried his face in his hands. He wanted it all to go away. Why had this weekend become such a disaster? ‘How did you lot get in here?’ he asked, into his hands.

  ‘I’ll take that as a yes, then,’ Nick said as he sat on the armchair facing the sofa.

  ‘And now these two know?’ Marc asked as he slouched back into the cushions. ‘What the fuck, Luc?’ Luc had the decency to look guilty, and if Marc hadn’t been wallowing in self-pity, he may have noticed that all was not right with his co-star and closest friend.

  ‘We love you too,’ Nick said with a straight face.

  ‘Fuck off,’ Marc snapped. ‘You don’t know what we went through.’

  ‘Look,’ Robson finally spoke up, Marc had always respected the quieter actor, ‘We’re not here to judge or be little old women gossiping over your love life—we all have skeletons somewhere. We came to see if there was anything we could do.’

  ‘Fucking hell,’ Luc breathed as he fell onto the couch next to Marc. ‘I can’t believe it’s gotten out. I mean we were all so careful. Who’d you think leaked it? Gotta be someone from the hospital.’

  ‘What exactly happened?’ Nick asked. Marc declined to answer him.

  ‘Dude, we said we wouldn’t ask,’ Robson admonished the younger actor with a frown. ‘Anything we can do for you?’ he asked Marc.

  Marc shook his head. ‘No,’ he said, defeated. ‘We just have to wait and see if anything comes of it. Sonya and Jen are holding the fort. It’s not like we did anything wrong,’ he swallowed against the lie. ‘It was just so… personal we never wanted it revealing.’

  ‘Like hell, we did anything wrong,’ Luc shouted as his fist thumped the sofa’s back. ‘If anything, we went easy on that bitch by doing it this way.’ Luc put his hand on his friend’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze of reassurance. Marc frowned as he caught the smell of alcohol from Luc again. Luc never drank this early in the day if there wasn’t a meal attached, and even then it was usually just one beer or glass of wine. ‘She’s getting the help she needs and Tyler is safe and loved with you.’

  ‘Yeah, I know, it’s just—’

  A knock at the door interrupted them; Robson waved everyone to stay seated as he went to see who it was. There was a lull as everyone strained to listen; he was talking to someone, agitated, before the door closed and he returned with a face like thunder.

  ‘Bloody security here’s a joke; some British woman got onto the floor,’ he said. ‘I gave her a good piece of my mind. You’d think after what had just happened down—’

  Marc and Luc jumped up at the same time and all but fell over themselves to get to the door. Ellie was still standing there when Marc flung the door open; Ellie stared, a completely unimpressed expression on her face.

  ‘Sorry, Rob didn’t recognise—’

  ‘First of all,’ she said as she pushed past and marched into the suite. She dropped her bag on a chair and shrugged out of her jacket. ‘I do understand you were having a panic attack and you needed space, but do not just leave me like that again, you prick.’ She paused a moment as her eyes landed on Robson. She glared, before facing Marc again.

  ‘Second of all, you need to get on your knees and kiss my feet to thank me.’

  ‘And what exactly am I thanking you for?’ He couldn’t help but smile at her attitude, it reminded him of the day they met and it turned him on immensely—even if now wasn’t exactly the time.

  ‘Trent Dryer is happy to represent you. He’s your new solicitor—no wait, it’s attorney over here, isn’t it? I told him what happened and he’s already on the case. He’s on the phone to the convention company as we speak, calling for blood if he doesn’t find out the name of that witch. After that, he’s going after that website that posted the photos.’

  ‘Holy crap, Batwoman!’ Luc breathed. ‘Trent fucking Dryer! How do you know him?’

  ‘Have you been drinking?’ she asked Luc. She wrinkled her nose in distaste and glanced at Marc, who bobbed his head in assent. ‘Whatever. Trent is Mallory’s husband-to-be.’

  ‘Marc, marry this woman,’ Luc demanded, his face completely straight. ‘Right the fuck now. I played a priest once, I can do it. Dearly beloved—’

  ‘Seriously! Just how much have you had to drink?’ Marc asked his friend.

  ‘Shh! I’m marrying you!’

  ‘Guys, take him back to Linda will you.’

  ‘No!’ Luc all but shouted, and even Marc recoiled at the hostility there. ‘I mean, no,’ he lowered his voice back to normal levels. ‘I’m going back to the bar. I’ll look at all the fangirls I want. Maybe I’ll even bang one.’ He jabbed Marc in the chest with each of his next words. ‘Just like you.’

  Marc smacked his hand away. ‘Rob, get him back to Linda please.’

  Ellie and Marc watched as the two other actors manhandled Luc towards the door amid protests. Marc worried his friend was actually going to try and fight them off, but Luc seemed to surrender the moment he was faced with the door. His whole body sagged with defeat; if Marc wasn’t so preoccupied with his own problems, he’d have sat his friend down and really got down to what the hell was wrong with him of late.

  ‘I am so sorry about him,’ Marc said as he turned back to Ellie. ‘And I am so sorry about leaving you before.’

  ‘I’ve dealt with worse than him,’ she said, her voice softening as she turned back to him. ‘And I forgive you. Trent said he’ll see you after the convention ends tomorrow. He said he needs time to do some legwork tonight, and he’ll have a better picture and understanding by then.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Marc said as he took her hands and sat down with her. ‘Y
ou know you didn’t have to right?’ She shrugged and looked away, but Marc could tell she was pleased by his sincerity. ‘And thank you for helping me downstairs, too. What happened after I started to panic?’

  ‘Oh. Well, I came and helped you while Marie and Sonya got everyone out. Apparently, once they got outside, one fan threatened the rest that if anyone spoke about it, she’d ensure their life was over. They all agreed to find out who the woman was and expose her as a fraud.’

  ‘But she’s not.’ Marc stood up and moved toward the window to take in the city below. ‘Everything she said was true. Kelly was—is—Tyler’s mother. She was my assistant and I suppose, with the way she became, you could say she was my biggest fan. She’s currently undergoing treatment in a private hospital in New Jersey, her hometown. I send money to her brother every month to pay the medical bills and any expenses he might have. He moved back there just to take care of her because I couldn’t. Wouldn’t.’

  ‘What did she do?’ Ellie practically whispered from behind him. She knew it must be something awful. for such a matter to be kept such a guarded secret.

  ‘I— Fuck.’ He screwed his eyes shut and smacked his fist on the window in frustration as the memories repressed for so long fought their way to the front of his mind. He didn’t want them back, didn’t want them in his mind in the first place. He didn’t want to talk about it at all.

  ‘Hey,’ Ellie’s voice was soft in his ear and her arm warm about his waist as she came up behind him. bringing him back to the present. ‘You don’t have to tell me; you never have to tell me anything you don’t want to, but sometimes talking helps.’ Marc glanced at her; her blue-grey eyes were filled with honesty and warmth and he knew that she wouldn’t push him if he didn’t want to talk.

  He turned, leant against the window and pulled her into his arms. Her head reached towards his instinctively and he pressed his lips against hers in a long, unhurried kiss. He wanted to sink into her, to disappear within her arms for a time so the world would stop and leave him alone.