Claire stared at the front cover of the latest edition of SugaRape! Magazine and began to understand why Dan had jumped out of that window. Jumping out of a window seemed like a perfectly reasonable alternative to her life right now, and things were about to get worse.
SugaRape had done some messed up things in it's time, most of them since it had changed from SugarApe to SugaRape, but this seemed the most perverse. Even the worst tabloids weren't quite this whorish in their attention seeking and sensationalizing, surely, and she hated that on some level, this was actually her fault.
She looked down again at the glossy magazine in her hands and immediately wanted to vomit.
SUGARAPE! THIS ISSUE: DRINK, DRUGS, SUICIDE AND UNDERAGE SEX!: EX-SUGARAPE WRITER REVEALED TO BE IN ILLICIT RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUNGER MAN
DAN 'THE PREACHER MAN' ASHCROFT'S DARK SECRET! : LIKE A PROPER PREACHER ASHCROFT LIKES THE BOYS AND LIKES THEM YOUNG!
EXCLUSIVE PICTURES AS THE PREACH MAKES HIS CHOIR BOY SING!
SOURCES CLOSE TO THE COUPLE REVEAL DAN'S DOMINEERING WAYS AND WHY THE RELATIONSHIP WAS KEPT A SECRET...
PLUS: THE TRUTH BEHIND ASHCROFT'S LOVER, HOW OLD WAS HE REALLY WHEN ASHCROFT SEDUCED HIM?
The headlines were plastered garishly over a grainy picture of Dan and Jones kissing and obviously unaware that they were being watched. It wasn't one of her photos but one of the headers promised more photos inside and she didn't doubt that the one's she'd shown Jonatton yesterday would be in there. Just like she didn't doubt that the "source" they were referring to was her.
As soon as Dan saw this he was going to kill her, but Claire knew that she had to be the one to show him. Dan'd die of shame if he had to find out about this from anyone else but this was not going to be fun for either of them. And then there was Jones...
Claire hurried down the street. The magazine had only been printed that morning and she'd happened to be passing the office when the delivery truck arrived. Jonatton Yeah? had grinned at her as he handed her a free copy and she'd actually smiled back and walked on before she looked down and realised what was on the cover. Jonatton had stitched them all up and then grinned at her as he presented her with her own order of execution. She'd always known he was a prick. But that didn't change the fact that she had been the one to give him most of the information he needed.
She tried to walk faster without actually running but ended up doing a weird hop-step as she turned the corner. She really had to get home.
The House of Jones was quiet, which meant that Jones was probably asleep for once, but she slammed the door when she entered anyway. This couldn't wait and by the end of the day everyone they knew would have seen this.
"Dan!" she yelled as she shrugged off her bag and stormed into the sitting room. "Dan?"
"Wha?" Dan snuffled, jolting awake on the couch. Jones, face down on the other sofa, didn't move and Claire groaned in frustration because it didn't seem fair that Jonatton couldn't have just walked in on the two men when they were like this. This was their most natural state, surely? passed out on separate couches rather than locked in some sort of passionate embrace. Why couldn't they have been more careful?
Claire stopped. She'd been about to throw the magazine at Dan, so full of her anger at the situation that she would have berated her brother and housemate for simply being a couple. Being gay wasn't a crime. Being in a relationship and choosing not to tell people wasn't a crime either, and if it was a little odd, well, they were both very private and rather odd men. None of this was really their fault and she couldn't be angry at them for it, not when they would probably be angry at her, and with good reason. No, Claire realised, she needed to be mature and calm and take her share of the blame for this debacle, even if it was hard. It was the only way.
She chewed on her lip and passed the magazine carefully to Dan, who sat up blearily, rubbing at his injured arm and giving his usual, smoker's morning cough. He started to ask her what her problem was but stopped when he saw the SugaRape cover. His eyes, which she had always teased him about for being small and suspicious, went wide, and his mouth opened slowly. He looked like a film done using a slow-motion camera, like those adverts when the protagonist just can't believe that there's a way to get a much better deal on their car insurance. It was almost funny, except it wasn't.
She'd expected him to yell and rage, or sulk and swear, and so the cracked whimper he let out instead caught her off guard, and was much more frightening. And it was that noise which woke Jones.
"Whazzit?" he asked blearily, jolting up off the couch with a start, his bed-hair halo framing his pale face a bit too perfectly for someone who'd been fast asleep only seconds ago. "Dan, what's the matter?"
Dan, whose eyes were still roving back and forth over the magazine cover, just whimpered again and Jones was on his feet in an instant, stumbling over to sit beside Dan and brush his hair out of his eyes with such tenderness that Claire felt like kicking herself. The affection was obvious when she actually looked, but she obviously hadn't been the only person to not see it, if Jonatton Yeah? had thought that revealing it would create this much scandal.
"I..." Dan panted. "I need my pills."
Jones nodded and headed silently down to the bathroom, returning with a glass of water and a box of prescription tablets. He watched closely as Dan took his meds before returning them to their place and it was several minutes before they were all in the room with nothing better to do than see what damage Jonatton and the SugaRape team had tried to wreak on Dan's reputation. Jones hadn't even seen the cover yet and no body had said word but Dan's face had settled into a deep scowl that was directed straight at Claire.
Claire stared straight back, even when Dan threw the magazine onto the coffee table with a loud smack and Jones looked at them both in confusion.
"Dan? What's up? Why are you- Oh, holy shit!"
Jones had spotted the mag. He scooped it up and jumped to his feet in one swift movement and began to pace the small lounge room as he read it, mumbling to himself.
"Likes them young? Likes them young? Choir boy! Dan have you seen this?!"
Dan looked up but instead of answering simply opened his arms and let Jones climb into his lap. Claire looked down at the ground but Dan snorted in her direction.
"No point trying to be subtle now, I suppose. And don't try to pretend you didn't have some hand in this, Claire."
His voice was a whip. It was their dad's voice and Dan didn't use it often but it was a voice that Claire found very difficult to argue with.
"But Dan," Jones whispered, his voice going high in his panic. "Have you seen the article. There's pictures! Of us kissing and in bed, and... What are we gonna... I can't!"
He struggled out of Dan's arms, which wasn't hard given the other man's weakened condition, and sprinted for the kitchen. Claire heard his fill the kettle at the sink and begin to bang coffee tins and mugs around, and sighed. She'd expected Dan to be the one panicking and angry but she'd half thought Jones would shrug it off, because surely he had nothing to lose?
She glanced back at Dan, who looked much too tired for a man still one month shy of his thirtieth birthday.
"I can understand why Jonatton would do this," he said in a low rumble. "He's a vindictive dick, and the other idiots at that magazine probably just think it's funny. But you, Claire," he sighed, picking up the magazine from where it had fallen when Jones stormed out and opening it to one of the eight pages dedicated to his public humiliation and slander. "What could you possibly gain from this? What could you possibly gain by hurting Jones?"
Claire frowned at his insinuation that she'd been in any way malicious. Yeah, she'd taken some photos, but that'd been to have a go at Dan, not Jones. Jones was barely on her radar at all, most of the time. He was just the idiot who kept her awake all night with his horrific noise and Dan treating him like some sort of precious flower - even if they were carrying on some sort of affair - was just strange and out of character.
"I don't see why he's this upset. He's got a fit body and surely all publicity is good publicity in his business."
"Can you hear yourself? Those photos were taken and published without his consent. And did you ever stop to think that Jones prefered to keep his and my relationship private because it was better publicity to appear available and fuckable to the nightclub hordes? It's not that uncommon in the music industry."
"Oh, fine," Claire rolled her eyes. "But still-"
"They published his address, age and full name, Claire," Dan told her through gritted teeth. "Try to imagine how that would feel. You're supposed to be the queen of empathy, so why isn't your big, fat, heart bleeding for Jones, hmm?"
He tried to shift his weight on the couch and Claire saw him wince when he knocked his leg against the coffee table. She could see what he was trying to say but she still thought Jones was overreacting. It was Dan who was being targeted. And she hated being told what to think and feel.
"Fuck, it hurts," Dan muttered through clenched teeth but Claire folded her arms and refused to feel sympathy.
If Dan had just been upset or embarrassed like he was supposed to be she would have been ready with apologies and comforting words but of course Dan had to be self-righteous dick instead.
"Why don't you just pop another pain pill," she sniped, and wanted to thump Dan when he rolled his eyes at her.
"I'm not on anything stronger than paracetamol at the moment," he told her and smirked at her look of surprise.
"Then what-"
"Anti-depressants," he growled and suddenly Claire did feel bad.
"Oh."
Dan was good at hiding his problems. He'd push other people away and act like he didn't care about anything or anyone and she'd expected him to have a meltdown when he saw the SugaRape article in a melodramatic and self-indulgent way. She wasn't used to Dan being mature or thinking about other people. It actually made a nice change, even if he was still infuriating.
He snorted at her, and managed to shift himself into a more comfortable position.
"Yeah," he said with a snigger that still made her want to smack him up the side of the head. "Oh."