"G-God! Damn it!" Amber cried; fist clenched tight to his shoulders. "You needed her. I dealt with all her shit just because I knew she would protect all of you."
The panic burst through as she spoke, her voice pitching higher as she held JieMi. She wasn't in her right mind, distraught by the situation, wrecked by defeat. Amber had plenty of faith for humanity, but at that moment she was almost completely convinced that the world was filled with convicts and criminals.
"What the fuck am I supposed to do if you're her enemies too? She hates me, there's no holding her back now that she's scared that we'll sue her! She'll lash back at you!" Her breath caught in her throat, her eyes flooding with hot tears. Trauma lashed at her—waves of drowning waters that dragged her back into the depths of the darkness in her mind. "S-she'll hurt all of you—"
"No she won't, Amber, she won't."
"But the money, your dreams, your tour—"
"Enough about that, please if you want to blame someone. Blame me Amber." His eyes went red as he spoke, fist stabbed to his chest in a war cry. A shaky inhale dripped as emotions unfurled on his face, ardent answers to her words. "Please, our entire career isn't held up by her hands. We have our fans."
"Fans that put us in this situation! Fans that—"
"There are always better ones out there, you know that." He shushed her, caressing her cheek. But his words were shaky with distress. "We'll be fine."
"Not when we have an enemy in the media and all of you will get cancelled. If she finds anything—"
"Stop worrying." He took her hands then holding them tight in his, laced and secured. They both paused to breath, a moment of weakness was followed by a pause for strength. "We will hire better security. Our own security. We will get compensation from the contract we have with Claudia. We'll use what we have left to scrape through the tour. The media is always looking for scandals. This is nothing new."
"B-But—"
"Our concerts are sold out. Our songs are popular. We will be fine." He moved to straddle her, choosing to hug her with his arms wrapped over her shoulders. Her breath hitched as she whimpered against his warmth, appreciative of the gold that shifted between them and uncaring of the sweaty heat. "This situation is unique. It will not happen again, okay?"
And he continued with soft words of reassurance.
"This is part of our jobs; we are prepared for this. We have experience in this. You don't have to worry for us. We'll deal with it." He chuckled, holding her closer, dragging her deeper into his embrace. "We'll be prepared if she comes for us, okay?"
She nodded, tears darkening the fabric of his sleeves and he rubbed circles in her back.
"This is just work, Amber," he smiled, chuckling softly as he kissed her hair. "This is just a job."
It wasn't just a job.
It was ecstasy to her soulmates, life to the artists in their soul, their reason for existence. This was their motivation, their passion, their dreams carved from blood. They'd risked their health, given up their youths, thrown away family, privacy, luxury for a dream that started to break the moment she'd stepped into their lives.
But they would never say that to her.
Selfish dreams had no place in the realm of family and love.
"Okay," she sighed, relaxing into his warmth. His words calmed her, drew the stress and the panic free from her body. It was medication to her racing heart, a gentle warmth to a blast of cold. "You're making me sticky."
"Sorry for being sweaty," he teased, wiping a sweat stained forehead against her clothes. She giggled and he grinned, pleased that he'd managed to make her smile. "We'll go back and watch a nice movie, yeah?"
"Yeah." She licked her lips, then cleared her throat. "Uh, could you get off me for a second? T-that is unless you're still dizzy."
He got off quickly, leaning back with a raised brow. "Am I too disgusting for you?"
"I just need to pee," she said, pursing her lips, feeling a strange tackiness to her underwear. "Look away." He smirked, waggling beautiful brows as he stared at her with big wide unblinking eyes. "JieMi…" He turned, finally giving her privacy. She was quick to peel off her pants, but paused when she noted the rust of blood on the white fabric in a big solid patch of violent red.
Fuck.
"What?" JieMi's voice startled her with its sharpness, and she realised she'd vocalized her concerns.
"My period's early," she explained reaching for tissue. She folded it into a thick wad, stuffing it to her panties hoping that would help. It explained the ache in her back and the pulsating pain at her belly that only grew in magnitude over time. "It's heavy too." She groaned. "Your fan site is going to be filled with images of my blood-stained ass in your arms."
"I'm sure they won't get a good picture; I was pretty darn fast." He flexed at that and she snorted.
"Yeah, faster than shutter speed."
"You'll be fine Amber, I held you in my arms remember? I'll mention that I was bleeding a little if you want. Had ketchup on my hands."
"Ketchup in your hands that got to my crotch. Sounds absolutely reasonable."
"I could have been eating french-fries while fingering you. They would never know."
"What the fuck?"
The bark of laughter from him had her smiling as she took a piss. She cleaned herself up, then rose to pull up her pants, struggling a little with the crispy jeans that crumpled at her knees.
"Do you need to pee?" she asked as she pulled. "I'm not convinced that you're okay."
"I'll pee, but I'm fine. The giddiness is gone, I'm an exercise junky baby, I recover fast."
"Thank Go—" There was a gush between her legs and Amber stared as a fountain of red spluttered down her skin. It ran straight through the fabric soaking her shoes and spilling into the puddles of vomit on the floor. And her heart lurched, throat clamped so tight she could only whisper the word. "Fuck."
"What?" JieMi was alarmed as she dragged a tissue through the spillage.
It was soaked immediately in vibrant hues. The blood continued splattering on the floor, not as much as the first of floodgates but enough to scare the ever-living crap out of her. Period blood didn't run this fast and this much, she knew that with great certainty.
She'd never seen that much blood come out from someone living in her entire damn life.
"This is possibly the heaviest period of my life—"
-
Read 50+ chapters ahead on Patreon patreon.com/tinyeyecat