(Vincent's Pov)
I woke up to the hotel alarm going off and I turn my head to the side to see the time flashing seven in the morning. I get up slowly and look around the room a bit and head into the bathroom to do my morning routine. I looked to see the stubble on my face but I decided not to shave this time. I head out to my car and head to the closest cellphone store in the area and I walk in and took a look around.
"Hello." I hear and look up to see a man waving at me a bit.
"Anything specific you looking for?" He asked and I looked to the phones a bit.
"Uh just a simple smartphone is all I need." I say to him.
"Hmm, simple but reliable right?" he asked and I nod as he showed me around a bit. I got to thinking about the type of phone Clem had.
"Uh, any phones that have video chat already installed?" I asked and he nods and shows me the suggestions he had. I ended up buying an ok phone and I sent Brody a message, then Clementine.
'Hey got a new phone, just so you know.' I messaged Clementine and she responded back.
'That's good, I'm surprised you remember my number.' She messaged back and I chuckled.
'It's not a number I would forget.' I tell her and she sent laughing emojis and I chuckled at this.
'So, what are you doing today?' I asked.
'School, I shouldn't be texting in class but I'll message you when I get to lunch if that's ok with you.' She messaged.
'Yea that's fine, I'll hear from you then.' I send and I think as I get all my apps on the phone and head to the diner and sat in my usual spot with Bonnie coming up to me.
"Heard about the issue on the news." She says and I nod.
"Knew people would know, but it's not true through." I say as she gives me my usual meal but I asked for a coffee only this time.
"Has to be tough, but I hope you're able to get it cleared up." She says and I nod.
"I hope so, I called Minerva and said she better tell the truth or I could take legal actions on her." I muttered as I took a drink of my coffee.
"Hmm, I didn't think of that, though I didn't have much character myself." She says and I look at her.
"You do, everyone does, so long as it wasn't true then legal action can be taken." I say and eat a bit.
"Yea, I've been on the receiving end of that, but it would have been more of a hassle for me then to just drop it, that's all I can say about myself in that type of situation, so I can't say much." She says and I nod a bit. We chat for a bit then the news station comes on.
"As you all know we have a scheduled interview with Vincent and Minerva at the end of the month, but not with the other band mates from 'The Walking Dead' after the information we were given last night about their past with Vincent taking drugs and abusing Minerva we have some thoughts from the people." A woman said on the radio.
"Oh yes, indeed in all honesty we were all shocked to hear about this, people have had theories on Vincent taking drugs, what with the photo that was plastered around the media years ago, Vincent himself had aid it was because he was crying over his grandfather's death but now, I personally don't think that's true." A man says a bit pissed or it sounded like it.
"You can't say that though, we don't know the situation his grandfather did pass away and that was when the photo was taken, at his grandfathers funeral, he was wearing all black and Minerva was holding him a way a girlfriend would hold a grieving partner." A woman said.
"Or maybe she was holding him because she didn't want people to know he was high off his ass." The man argued back to the woman.
"Hey now if we're going to start this what about the abuse, Minerva would have never agreed to marry him if she knew about it, plus Vincent was the one to instill that rule to the band as said by the manager when he started the band with Louis, they both made the contracts together and they all agreed on it, it's fine for them to have a drink or two but their band has made it clear that drugs were not allowed at all and it would result in immediate kick out." A different man spoke up on the matter.
"And with him being the bands main brand he thought he could get away with it because who would go against the one person that helped give them a paycheck, and also many women stay in a relationship with the abuser if they're to scared to do so, what if she threatened to kill her if they broke up or anything, what if he's planning it right now." The man argued once more.
"Oh, shut up about that bullshit yo-." The radio was then cut off and I sighed a bit at this and I rubbed my head as I looked to the social media platform and I sighed as the story of me on drugs and being an abuser spread like a wildfire.
"Oh dear." I hear Bonnie say and I placed the phone on the table and took a breath as I finished my food and drink.
"I think I'm done." I say as I leave her a tip and the rest for the bill. I walked out and headed to my car and saw that I needed to get some gas so I made a quick stop. I filled up at the pump and sighed as I rubbed my neck a bit and saw a few people talking as they looked at me and I looked down to try and hide my face. I decided to go to the batting cage and get a few rounds in. I got a few hits here and there as I let my anger out and I moved a bit to far to the left and I ended up getting hit by a ball.
"AH FUCK!" I yelled as I swing the bat on the ground and I moved back a bit as another ball came flying and I held my shoulder a bit and sighed.
"Hey you good?" I hear and look to see Javier.
"Yea… yea I'm good." I say and I shut the machine off and sighed as I held my shoulder a bit.
"You upset on something?" He asked and I sighed.
"Just some bullshit going on with an Ex and just…. Stupid stuff." I say and I looked at my watch.
"Oh, I heard about that." He says and I get pissed.
"And?" I asked.
"I don't believe it in all honesty, I know how media is and how old friends could be." He says and I sighed.
"It's fucking stupid shit that's all I can say." I tell him as I leave the cage and hand him the bat and helmet.
"Yea, but it's a bad thing for them to do that to you, and your other friends aren't helping." He says.
"One friend I called said they didn't know but, in all honesty, I think they know now but they don't want to get involved which I can't blame them because Minerva might turn on them too." I say as I looked back to my watch again.
"You in a hurry?" He asked.
"Hmm, just waiting for a friend to get out of school is all." I say and looked at him.
"Is that friend Clementine by any chance?" He asked and I looked to him.
"I uh… yea." I say.
"Hey no shame, she's a nice girl." He says and I look at him.
"You implying something?" I asked and he looked at me.
"You got a crush on her or something?" He asked.
"No, we are just friends that's all." I tell him.
"In all honesty when Clem and my nephew were dating, she never hung out with him this much, she must really like you." He says and I lean on the side of the fence.
"Look, if she doesn't want to tell me that's fine, but she's a friend as of right now to me and id like to keep it that way for a while… I wouldn't want her to get involved in all this mess if anything goes south, so please leave it at that for me." I tell him and he nods.
"Alright I can agree with that, but let's just say you two do end up dating, you're going to have to watch out for a lot of people, Clementine is very well known here and she's a sweet girl, I don't want her getting hurt." He says and I nod and my watch goes off and I check the time and head to my car. I drove to the school and I see Clementine at practice again and I walk up to the fence to watch her. She looked so in the zone when she was practicing, this must be how she is in a game, or so to say she would be more focused in game than practice. She had gotten two strikes before they ended practice and I watch as she goes to grab her bag, so I head up and sneak up behind her.
"Well, it seems practice was good?" I asked and she turned to me and smiled.
"Oh yea, very good." She says and I chuckled.
"So, you didn't answer my text." She says as I help take her bag to my car.
"Yea I was… I was busy trying to vent my anger, heard more stuff on the news and it pissed me off." I explained and she nods.
"Alright I'll let this go just once." She joked and I smiled at her.
"Want to get something to eat? That burger joint is calling to me again." I say and she laughed at this and nods. I set her stuff in my car and I drove to the restaurant, we ordered our food and I got some extra fries for us, once we got the food we took a seat in the back seat again and she laid her feet on my lap and I placed my burger on her legs and she looked to me.
"So how was school?" I asked.
"It was boring, learning math sucks but I'm good at that subject surprisingly." She says and I nod.
"Can't say anything about that, I was great in my history class." I say and she looked to me and I smiled as we ate our food.
"So, anything you want to talk about?" she asked and I think.
"The bullshit Minerva said, she never told the press she lied." I say as I take a fry and eat it.
"Not to be rude but what if she did tell them but the media doesn't want to say it because they don't want to be wrong… there is an old saying." She says and I sighed.
"Bad news gets the views." I muttered as I took another fry.
"I was going to say any news is good news but I like yours better, but I will never understand because this is bad news and makes you look bad, even though it's not true, it's messed up in all honesty but some people think otherwise." She says and I lean my head back.
"Any bad news gets people talking, you got the people who think that what the news puts out is true but then you have the ones who will defend the person getting picked on by the media, I heard them on the news talking about my grandfather, basically saying I was fucking high at his funeral, and Minerva was comforting me or at least trying to show that I'm not high to the media." I rant and then take a bite of my burger.
"I heard that..., My mom works in that news station you're going to be talking on, she's actually trying to do a cover on the story." She tells me and I look to her.
"Yea well she's probably heard it all… she know you hang out with me?" I asked.
"She does, she found out when AJ talked about you." She says and I nod.
"She doesn't want to do an exclusive interview does she?" I asked.
"I told her not to bother you, that you were simply on vacation and don't want to get involved with the press… but now that she knows about the interview, I'm not sure but I think she wouldn't ask if you tell her not to, well until the interview… though my dad did hear about it on the news." She says.
"What did he have to say?" I asked and she sighed as she pulled out some pepper spray from her pocket.
"Ah… nothing better than a fathers love." I say and I ate another fry.
"He's not much on knowing things but when he heard that he's just trying to keep me safe, and he did say that he would like to talk to you when you drop me off… you know to make sure you really aren't that bad." She says and I groaned at this.
"It's like a boyfriend meeting the parents thing." I muttered and she laughed.
"I'm sorry, that's how my dad is." She says.
"I can't blame the man though; I wouldn't want my daughter hanging out with any bad apples if I found out… I'd do the same thing." I say as I point to the pepper spray and she looked at me.
"You want a family?" She asked and I nod.
"Yea, medical science has come a long way where they almost have it to where I could have a child with a woman in a natural way." I say.
"Natural as in through sex?" She asked and I turned red and coughed a bit at that.
"Well Yea I mean in that way, nothing wrong with other ways of having a baby I mean." I stop talking as Clem laughed at my embarrassment and I sighed at this.
"Well, that would be good for you in all honesty, I read about it in the papers, people don't agree with it but I think it's the best thing ever." She says and I look at her.
"I mean, you can have a family of your own, you and your partner can have a child made from both of you in a uh…. Intimate way." She says and turned red.
"Yea… I might get that surgery when it's available to use." I say to her.
"So, again you want a family?" She asked and I nod.
"Yea… yea I do… always have." I tell her truthfully and she sits up a bit.
"Sorry to ask but… do you uh… react like a man?" she asked and again I was turning red as I nodded at this.
"Yes… I uh do… react like a man." I tell her.
"Hmm… interesting." She says and I nod.
"Yea… it was uh… shocking at one point for me because they said I might not be able to it's worked about eighty percent of the time so there was a twenty percent chance I might not have been able to…. Get it up." I say and rubbed my face a bit.
"Sorry if asking is too personal." She says.
"No, no, no it's ok to ask about this stuff I mean we're… we uh… curious adults." I try to find the right words to say.
"Did you… did you ever… try it?" she asked and I looked to her and think.
"No… I haven't done it since the surgery if that's what you're asking." I tell her truthfully and she nods at this.
"Uh what about you? Did you ever… do it?" I asked her.
"No… not once." She says.
"Not even with your boyfriend?" I asked.
"No, never had sex with anyone." She says and I nod at this.
"Um… so do you ever want a family?" I asked.
"One day, yea I would." She says and I nod.
"Anyway, let's talk about something else how about what your dad might do to me?" I asked as a joke.
"He's just going to talk nothing too bad at all." She explained and I nodded as we finished our food. We talked a bit about anything and I looked at her as she did her homework as well. We finished up and got into the front of the seats and I drove a bit.
"So, you really want to come to my game?" She asked and I nod.
"Yea it seems fun, plus I could cheer you on." I tell her and she smiled.
"That would be fun, plus you can meet the rest of my family at the cookout my dad has planned." She says and I chuckled.
"Ah, got to mee the rest of the family… no pressure at all." I say and she laughed at this.
"It's going to be fine; you only have to worry about Kenny… and maybe Lilly." She says.
"Oh boy." I say as I take her to her home. I look to see her dad standing at the porch and I cleared my throat a bit as I looked to her then her dad.
"It's ok." She says and I nod as we stepped out and I grabbed her bag for her. We got up to him and her dad looked at me and I clear my throat.
"Do I have to worry about my daughter's safety?" He asked.
"No, you don't have to worry about her safety, I have not done drugs, I would never ask for your daughter to do drugs or even drinking, I would never put her in any danger…. Sir." I tell him. I was scared as all hell as he looked to me.
"… Dad?" I hear Clem ask and he looked to her then back to me.
"… I trust my daughter's judgement on people she knows and hangs out with… and you don't seem like a bad kid, so I will trust you…. But do anything to my daughter that makes her uncomfortable in any way and she tells me, you'll be in a lot of trouble." He says and I nod.
"I know sir and I wouldn't argue with that." I tell him and he nods at this.
"Alright…. Would you like to come in for some coffee?" he asked and I looked to Clementine who nodded and I nod as well as we all head inside and he hands me a mug and I drink some of the coffee.
"So, what I heard on the news?" he asked.
"It's not true at all, I don't know why she would say that, I just… got mad." I tell him and he nods.
"How mad?" He asked.
"I uh… punched my car and yelled at her on the phone." I tell him and he nods.
"That's what Clem told me, so I know you aren't a liar." He says and I nod as I take another drink and I hear the door open.
"Well today was good, we talked about- oh hello." The woman says and I nod to her.
"Who is this?" The woman asked.
"Vincent… Vincent Aldon." I introduced myself.
"Oh, I uh… you." She tried to say.
"Carley, he's not what his Ex said he was." Lee says.
"That's why I asked to do the interview… because she was lying and… I just want to clear things up." I tell her.
"I uh… won't ask questions on that subject." She says and I nod and I take another sip of my coffee. Clementine came next to me and AJ ran up to me as he hugged me and I patted his back a bit.
"Hey AJ what's up?" I asked as I set my coffee on the counter and looked to him.
"I didn't get in trouble at school, and I got to take our class pet today." He says.
"Really now?" I asked and he nods.
"Yea, come look." He says and he grabbed my hand and took me to his room and showed me the fish he had and I look at it. I feel a hand on my shoulder and looked to see Clementine and she smiled at me and I smiled back.
"His name is Goldy, cause he's a gold fish." He says and I chuckled at the name and he fed the fish and I hear Clementine's parents talking down stairs.
"Hey where is the bathroom?" I asked Clem.
"Down the hall and to the right." She says and I nod as I head in the direction but I listen in by the stairs.
"Lee, I don't think Clementine should be around him, we got news about him… doing things to one of his friends and I don't want Clem around it till we know the full story." I hear her mom say.
"Carley doing what?" I hear him ask.
"… I was told that he raped his Ex-girlfriend I don't know if it's true but I would rather have him gone just in case." I hear her say and I looked down a bit at this and I rubbed my neck and looked to see Clementine looking at me. And I looked down.
"I think I should go now." I tell her but she grabbed my shoulder.
"No, don't I will have a talk with her." She says.
"No point." I say and I walk down the stairs and head out the door. I get to my car and drive off to God knows where and I hear the news station.
"More information on Vincent, now we are being told he had forced himself onto Minerva, this seems like a bad day for Vincent since he isn't really trying to defend himself, I guess the guy knows he's been caught." I hear and I get pissed as I drive faster on the road and I grabbed my phone and called the news station.
"Hello?"
"Hey I'd like to do a call in on the current news group doing a story on Minerva, this is Vincent." I say as I drive more.
"Oh um, ok." I hear them connect me.
"Hello Vincent finally glad you called us." I hear the man say.
"Hey stupid fuck, let me explain something to you and everyone listening in, and don't hang the fuck up on me because I'm pissed off at you, and especially Minerva, I NEVER did drugs, I have never abused that stupid bitch, and I NEVER RAPED HER! DO YOU FUCKING HEAR ME! You want to bring up my grandfather's funeral I will fucking tell you I was drunk; MY GRANDFATHER FUCKING DIED THE ONLY MAN WHO SHOWED ME HOW TO DEAL WITH LIFE SOMEONE WHO WAS LIKE A SECOND FATHER TO ME JUST FUCKING DIED AND YOU DUMBASSES WANT TO SAY I WAS HIGH AT HIS FUNERAL? HE WOULD BE ROLLING IN HIS GRAVE IF I EVER DID THAT!" I yelled into the phone as I drove faster.
"Woah, woah, woah hold on Vincent calm down."
"CALM DOWN? FUCK YOU, FUCK ALL OF YOU, YOU WOULD BELIEVE A WHORE LIKE HER, HEY MINERVA IF YOU'RE FUCKING LISTENING TO THIS TELL THEM ABOUT THE ABORTION YOU HAD, HOW YOU FUKING CHEATED ON ME AND GOT KNOCKED UP, AND I STILL WANTED TO MARRY YOU, I WOULD HAVE TAKEN CARE OF THAT CHILD AS IF IT WAS MY OWN, I DIDN'T CARE, I WAS AN IDIOT TO BELIEVE YOU ACTUALLY CARED ABOUT ME BUT YOU NEVER FUCKING DID!" I yelled and looked to the road a bit as I got to the highway.
"Hey woah, no need to get mad Vincent."
"Mad… mad… THAT BITCH LIED TO YOU AND YOU ALL JUST EAT THAT SHIT UP, YOU DON'T WAIT TILL THE END OF THE MONTH TO GET THE FULL STORY BEFORE YOU FUCKING SPREAD IT LIKE WILDFIRE, NOW I CAN'T BE NEAR MY FRIEND BECAUSE HER FUCKING MOTHER THINKS I'M A GOD DAMN MONSTER, AND MY FUCKING GRANDMOTHER AND PARENTS PROBABLY THINK THAT TOO… YOU ARE THE REASON PEOPLE LIKE ME SHOOT THEMSELVES BECAUSE NO ONE WILL BELIEVE THEM BECAUSE OF ALL THE BAD PRESS!"
"Vincent, are you ok, you aren't going to?" I hear them say and I laughed at this like a fucking crazy person.
"Oh no, I'm not giving you all the satisfaction of me blowing my brains out on the radio…. No… that's good for your views, first to get the death of Vincent Aldon on your show…. No, I'm just thinking about ramming my fucking car off the god damn bridge and blowing it up…. that would make everyone happy because…. No one would look at me the same after all the lies about me was made." I say to them as I drive more and look at the bridge and then to the road.
"And don't let anyone lie to you, I'm not drunk right now I'm sober as all hell right now, but what do you care, you would all lie and say I was drunk just to get points… well fuck you." I say to them.
"Vincent, we honestly don't want you to hurt yourself or others so just… slow down the car and just talk things out."
"I was going to talk it out… I was in the interview but no… you guys just wanted to go and spread those lies, hell you all just said I wouldn't defend myself because I had been caught…. I didn't want to call or anything I wanted to get out of this life because I just wanted to go and travel alone and just take a break, a simple break was all I wanted…. I bet the reason why Minerva said that was because I made one post with a new friend… she automatically assumed we were dating like she always done, a fan that's a girl wanting my autograph it's her thinking I'm cheating on her, but fuck if she cheats on me, and I have to be fucking fine with it?" I asked as I drove more.
"Well fuck that, she's just pissed because we aren't dating, fucking Minerva has to get what she want's all the time right? Try and get me landed in jail with the fucking rape accusation, no fucking way, bitches like her want to screw me over because she's fucking jealous and we aren't even dating, so fuck you and fuck her too, you all feed into her addiction of attention like she wants and you fuckers that agree with her are fucking morons, look at her history there's thousands of pictures of her kissing other men while we were dating…. but no one cares because she so hot right? Whatever doesn't fucking matter anymore."
"Vincent just stay on the line with us, and slow the car down, we can do a proper interview sooner if you want, we were just told what she said and you never said anything on it of course people are going to believe her." A woman says and I shake my head and laughed as I made a turn.
"The fuck makes you think I would listen to you of all people?" I asked and made a hard right turn almost losing control of the car and then another call comes in and I see the number so I hang up.
"VINCENT SLOW THE CAR DOWN NOW!" I hear Brody yell and I laughed.
"No way in hell Brody, I know you didn't want to get involved with this stuff, I don't blame you or the others… but once she said that none of you were on my side…. Did you think she was telling the truth… you've known me for so long, you know I have never done anything wrong." I tell her.
"Vincent, we didn't know about it till we heard it before you went on the air and started that yelling, for god's sake please slow the car down and just talk to me, I'll be on the next flight to wherever you are and we can just talk things out, I don't want to lose you, you're basically my brother." She says and I looked to the side of the road.
"I, don't want to lose you Vincent please just slow down and talk with me, that's all I ask of you, we can deal with all of this, ok?" I hear her cry and I think as I nod and slow the car down and pull off to the side of the road.
"Ok… I pulled over." I tell her.
"You aren't lying to me?" She asked and I nodded and I saw another call coming in.
"Brody I'm going to let you go… I'll call back I promise, ok? Give me ten minutes." I tell her.
"Ten minutes or I swear to god." She says and I nod.
"Yea, I know… ten minutes." I say.
"Ok." She says and I hang up and answer the call.
"VINCENT WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" I hear and I sighed a bit.
"Hi Clementine." I simply say.