2: CELEBRITY CRUSH

Damon Salvatore, bassist and vocalist of "My Bloody Vampire," stared intently at the misty night sky that was speckled with faint starlight. One star sparkled in radiant glory, seemingly undaunted by the obscuring mist. Damon resolved that it was Bree's soul watching over him, as its brightness filtered through the tour bus window.

Six painstakingly difficult months had dragged since the accident. Damon accused Bree of "slutty" infidelity after he had discovered her dresser drawer crammed with mysterious love notes and presents that were not from him. She had earnestly denied his accusation, but the insecure Damon Salvatore was not even slightly convinced. In a panicked frenzy, he massacred her with a cavalcade of profanity and she got "the fuck out of" his house. She could barely see oncoming traffic through her blurred vision. Her recklessness proved to be fatal, as a speeding driver's car collided with her. Her last breaths were full of cold, lonely regret from atop an ER gurney. If even possible, the aftermath of her tragic death was worse. Bree's best friend Lexi ENLIGHTENED Damon with the truth: The items were actually from a crazed fan of My Bloody Vampire, and they were meant for him. Bree had been contemplating what to do.

Bitter, bitter regret pressured from behind Damon's exhausted eyelids, and it eventually forced its way down his cheeks. His ashen hands were useless, as the tears that were wiped were recycled into new ones. All of a sudden, Sage Finn invaded Damon's private moment of mourning with a piercing scream that echoed throughout the tour bus.

"Fuck, I forgot Schismatic's on TV tonight," screamed Sage, the My Bloody Vampire guitarist. Her voice was a blinding contrast to the previously silent bus. "Shit, it's on some local channel. Like Vancouver Television or something. What channel is that?"

"Keep it down Sage, I'm trying to get some fucking rest!" Ric Saltzman, the drummer, yelled in response.

"How the fuck should I know, dickwad? Do I look like I'm from Vancouver?" Damon answered angrily, posing questions as answers. "Can't you channel surf, for fuck's sake?"

During her outrageous outbreak of emotion, Sage had overlooked the most obvious solution to the problem. After a few seconds of remote clicking, a gorgeous Elena Gilbert was dancing across the screen in glittery blue jeans and a formfitting top of matching color.

"Shit, she's so fucking hot. I'm so in love with her. How I'd like to F-U-C-K her. God, just thinking about it isn't enough," Sage panted, as she started to make pelvic thrusts at the television screen.

"Listen. You're fucked in the head, you fucking teenybopper. Go bop your teenaged dirtbag head in your own fucking bunk," Damon shouted at Sage.

"Why don't you just look at her first before you judge her. I guarantee that you'll like what you see," offered Sage, in attempts to appease Damon. Sage even relocated to a position at the side of the television.

Damon admitted, "Okay fuckface. She's alright." However, he was secretly smitten with the half Oriental beauty playing radical rock rifts on her Ibanez guitar. True, Schismatic had outclassed My Bloody Vampire at the recent MTV Europe Awards when they won "Best Rock Artist." As well, to date, A Scholar's Philosophy had sold three times as many copies as My Bloody Vampire's latest release Fang You Real Good. Naturally, resentment towards Schismatic festered in Damon's mind, but all those loathing thoughts diffused as he beheld Elena's swagger across the stage.

"God dammit, she's heating me up. I wish she was eating me right now," whispered Sage, as she leaned back her head and released a yelp of pleasure. "Yeah baby, right there, that's the spot baby."

As Tyler strummed the final chords of the song, the Vancouver Television crew strolled over to the band to praise them on their performance and escort them to the chair-couch ensemble for an in-depth interview.

"The Canadian leg of your world tour is coming to an end, with the last show at GM Place in two days time. Do you finally have some time off after this?" the VTV woman queried with artificially enthusiastic interest.

Elijah replied, "The Vancouver date at GM Place will actually be the final concert of the entire tour. We have had an amazing time traveling around Europe, Asia, Australia and North America, and the fans were incredible, but time to rest will be a welcome relief."

"Actually, we're not all resting. Tyler and Elena still have some promotions around town. And Elena will be the busiest of all," Stefan informed, while the corners of his lips crooked into a devilish smirk.

"What type of stuff will be keeping her busy?" the woman probed, this time with more genuine interest.

"Of course, I don't wanna embarrass her or anything. Our little Elena Gilbert has turned sexy and many male magazines are trying to get her on their covers. I think 'Maxim,' 'Gear,' and even 'Playboy' have contacted her," deliberated Stefan, aware that his chatter would enrage the otherwise well-tempered Elena.

The woman continued, "Is this true? You are usually shy about your body, do you think this will tarnish your image in any manner?"

"Actually, Stefan has been somewhat misinformed. The magazines he mentioned did contact me, but I rejected their offers. The only cover I have appeared on recently is 'Rolling Stone,' and that was with my bandmates," a composed Elena explained.

"Then let me go in the other direction. Since you have been known to be rather conservative, both in style of dress and attitude, will you ever be doing anything risqué in the future? Do you therefore find it strange that men see you as a sex symbol?" the woman asked, now engulfed in curiosity.

"I can honestly admit that it's surprising to see the guys at our concerts with the "Elena is a goddess" signs, since I see myself as a very plain, very unspectacular person. In terms of rock musicians, I think Gwen Stefani of No Doubt carries a sexier aura than I ever will, so I do find it odd that some guys find me attractive," Elena confessed.

"Let me answer the question about her doing something risqué, since she probably won't want to tell you about it," Stefan suddenly interjected. "As the testosterone-driven, horny bastards, whoops am I allowed to say that word? Okay, as the testosterone-driven, horny guys that the three of us are, we've been trying to transform our shy and quiet front woman into a sexpot. We're forcing her to do something at the Vancouver concert, since we want to end the tour with a fangin' bang. She'll be doing a little number for a lucky, random guy in the audience. You know, retro Madonna Tour style. Of course, because we're talking about Elena here, it'll be a very watered down, very dilute version of a Madonna routine. And until the show night, she'll be practicing the routine over and over again, until it's perfect, and I might have to be the unlucky victim that she practices on." As those lethal words overflowed from Stefan's lips, Elena turned an interesting shade of crimson. However, his comments did conjure laughs from the male audience.

"Speaking of practices, I see here that your last rehearsal has been described as an open practice. What does that mean?" the woman blurted to derail the topic, since she could sense Elena's discomfort.

"An open practice is a practice session that is accessible to the public. The first 1000 people in line at noon tomorrow, along with other people who have won contests or are from the 'Make A Wish' foundation, can attend," Tyler clarified.

"Actually, I wanted to ask just one more question about Schism-Bridge Communications. The four of you actually started this company, which was bought out by Bell Canada?" the woman questioned the Schismatic members, fascinated with their entrepreneurial endeavours. Although she had started the interview with false fascination, she became more intrigued with Schismatic as the interview progressed.

"Yes, we started the company back in 1996 while we were studying at UW," Elijah narrated the well-known story once more.

"And you all actually attended MIT, with all of you graduating in the top 20% of your class. Elena was actually the top student! I find this interesting because I have read articles about many musicians and very few of them started as scholars. So many rock bands out there knew they wanted to be in the music industry from the get go, so they have been together for years and years, 'paying their dues' before they made it big. For that reason, some people have said that Schismatic's success was served up on a silver platter. You guys never really had aspirations to be a big time rock band. In fact, you started playing your self-written songs on the Schism-Bridge commercial campaign. That campaign was such an intelligently humorous and witty one that it was even honoured at the Telecom Marketing Awards. It attracted the attention of Bell Canada, who bought out the company, and Geffen Universal, who signed you to a record deal. Here you are now, battling with the best of them," the woman observed.

"We admit, we came into a ready-made rock market, a market that had been revived by the likes of My Bloody Vampire, Limp Bizkit and Creed. But we, along, with all the other new acts like Lifehouse and Linkin' Park, are just trying to find our niche in the rock genre. I think that every band has something unique to offer. And I do NOT think, for one second, that just because we had success with our first album, as opposed to My Bloody Vampire who only started to see mainstream success with their 3rd or 4th album, our credibility as artists is any less. It's all about the music! Making good music that people enjoy and can relate to," Tyler elucidated, dismissing the claims that Schismatic's success was handed to them.

"Each and every rock band has a distinct history. Some bands have made more sacrifices than others, but so goes life. We may not have begun as an underground band, but we have put in the hours, tears and sweat into just as many practices as any other band out there. Elena and Tyler grew up in the same middle class neighborhood in Vancouver, playing their acoustics when they were bored. Stefan and I always disturbed the peace in our downtown Toronto apartment complex, with me strumming on the bass and Stefan mercilessly banging at his drum set. Our beginning is unique because we started realizing our potential because of the commercial campaign. Very few people know this, but we were actually very tentative about playing our own songs on our commercials. We were afraid that people would think we were somehow mocking rock music or something. But people should realize that we have always loved to write and play music. Quite therapeutic. I mean, we learned a lot trying to balance writing and recording a debut with studying at university. I think that that unique experience gave the debut the distinctive sound that made it so popular. We actually toured some university campuses for some time as well. We all began playing music at young ages. So in other ways, our history is just like any other rock band. We have always loved music, loved to play it, loved to write it and loved to hear it. We just had a very different beginning and entry into the business, but we hope that people will realize that our music is for real. We write, play and produce, and every word we write and sing comes straight from our minds and hearts. I sound like one of those boyband dudes, don't I?" Elijah joked.

"Well, thank you very much Schismatic for taking time out of your busy schedule to chat with us. They are playing to a sold out audience at GM Place on August 17…" the woman's voice trailed off as commercials proceeded to air.

"Fuck. We've got to get into that open practice. And I've got to be the lucky bitch that she practices that routine on, over and over and over again...Holy I'm already exited. Can we contact their 'people' or something? I mean, I'm fucking famous. I should be able to pull some strings," plotted Sage, as some sinful ideas churned in her head.

Damon berated, "How can we attend the practice tomorrow? Sage, need I remind you, again, that we are a band too and we have to practice for our own show. We fucking perform one night after they do!" In reality, he was thankful. However, those thoughts dissolved as images of Bree overpowered them. "Elena is just another girl...She is NOT attractive at all. Only six months. Bree would be disappointed," he reasoned with himself.


Author's Note: Thank you for the feedback, follows, and favourites. Special thanks to dreio.