Fic: RunAway - XXIX. Consequences, part two
Series info, summary, warnings, and disclaimer
Previous chapters
Chapter Title: Consequences, part two
Chapter Summary: After the tabloid article about Billy's fight
A/N: I'm sorry the last post didn't work right for some of you. I still dunno what's wrong with it. >.<
Later that week, Dom walked to a grocery store a few blocks from his flat. He didn’t have a lot of money, so he kept his list simple; milk, cheese, pasta, and a loaf of sliced, whole-wheat bread. As he stood in line to check out, the brightly-colored tabloid magazines caught his eye. On the cover of one was the headline “When Hobbits Attack!”
There was a picture of Billy, Orlando, and Elijah with some guy Dom had never seen before. He picked up the magazine and flipped through it, searching for the article. It wasn’t hard to find. There were two full pages of photos showing Billy and Elijah fighting, physically fighting, the other man. One picture was of Orlando holding Billy and the man apart at arms length, and Billy and Elijah both had blood on their faces. The last one had Orlando, his hands fisted in the other man’s shirt, glaring and what looked like threatening the man, who was sneering drunkenly. There were also pictures of Dom himself dotting the pages.
“Excuse me, sir?” the girl at the cash register called, breaking Dom’s thoughts. Dom nodded and put the magazine into his basket.
On the way back to his apartment, Dom stopped to buy a six-pack of beer, even though he knew it wouldn’t be enough.
***
Billy wanted to throw something, to break something, but he refrained from showing the extent of his anger to his friends. Elijah was pacing nervously, waiting on hold to talk to his agent. Orlando was the calmest of the three. He was actually reading the rest of the tabloid magazine.
“Aww, Reese and Ryan are splitting up,” he said in a sympathetic voice. “I always thought they would make it, y’know?”
“Orlando, would you shut the hell up? We’re dealing with a crisis here!” Elijah shot back, glaring at his friend.
“I think you’re making it worse than it is, Lij.”
“Billy, back me up, please.”
“I can’t stay in here. I have to go do something. Can I take your car, Elijah?” Billy mumbled, already reaching for Elijah’s keys and his own jacket.
“Sure. Wait, where are you going? Don’t go, like… kill the guy or anything. That would be even worse.”
“I’m not going to kill him. I have my mobile; call me after you talk to your agent.”
After Billy left the room, Orlando turned back to Elijah with a worried expression on his face. “He’s not doing too well, Lij. Where d’you think he’s going?”
“I dunno. And as long as he doesn’t kill himself or somebody else, I don’t really care.” Suddenly, his expression brightened. “Yes, hello? I’ve been on hold for nearly an hour,” he chirped into the phone. Elijah had always been taught to smile when speaking to anyone over the phone.
“Yes, I saw the article… I don’t know what… Oh, yes, it was… No, not until afterward. I don’t think so… Orlando’s here now, yes… No, that part’s not true… You can’t tell something like that from pictures. I don’t know where the writer got that… No, Billy left. I don’t know.”
“Do you want me to call him?” Orlando mouthed, holding up his own cell phone. Elijah shook his head.
“Yes, thank you… I won’t… I promise, I won’t say anything… Yeah. Okay, bye.” He pressed the button to hang up the cordless phone, then he threw it onto the sofa cushions. “She’s looking into the sources. I don’t know how much damage control she’s going to be able to do, though.”
“We should call someone. Viggo or Sean or something.” As soon as Orlando finished talking, the phone rang. Elijah answered it cautiously. Orlando could hear Sean Astin’s voice from three feet away.
“What the hell did you do?!”
“Sean, calm the fuck down!”
“No, Elijah, tell me what happened. Now. And where the hell is Billy? I want to talk to him too.”
“Billy’s not here but Orlando is. Hold on, I’ll put you on speakerphone.”
“Why the hell didn’t you stop them, Orlando?!” Sean shouted. Orlando cringed.
“I tried! And I didn’t threaten the man. That was a lie.”
“It’s not a lie that you three fucking beat him up! There’s fucking pictures! I thought you were smarter than that. All three of you!”
“Sean, calm down. He was outta line. And I didn’t actively participate, anyway!” Elijah squeaked, running his fingers lightly over the bruise on his jaw.
“Where’s Billy?”
“He left.”
“Alone? You let him leave alone?” Sean yelled disbelievingly.
“It’s not like he’s gonna kill the man,” Orlando muttered. “But okay, I see your point.”
“Sean, the guy was talking shit. He was asking for it. Almost literally asking for it,” Elijah protested. “I bet even you would have beat the crap out of him for what he said.”
“God, guys, if you want to beat somebody up, do it where there’s no fucking paparazzi!”
“Alright, Sean, we get it! We fucked up. I’ve called my agent, she’s gonna try to do some damage control.”
“Tell me exactly what happened. How much of the article is a lie?”
Orlando tossed Elijah the magazine, and he read through it aloud, interjecting wherever the article had a fact wrong or distorted.
“Okay, the fighting; obviously true, there’s pictures. And the guy was talking about Dom, but he wasn’t just saying stuff about him killing himself. He was insulting him left and right, Sean!”
“And he was taunting us. Every time we turned away, he’d say something else, trying to spark a fight,” Orlando added.
“Okay, go on.”
“I did not threaten him. Well. I guess technically…”
“Orlando!”
“I just said ‘you don’t want to mess with us,’ basically.”
“Orli just stopped him from goading us again. If he’d said anything else, I’m betting Billy would’ve killed him. You should’ve seen his eyes, man, they were like… evil-looking.”
“Do you know yet if he’s pressing charges?” Sean asked tiredly. Shouting took a lot of energy.
“We haven’t gotten a call yet, but they’d have to contact Billy’s agent in Glasgow, right? We’ll call her once Bill gets back.”
“And we’re not sure how true the stuff is about Billy snapping at fans. Before last night, I would’ve said that Billy would never snap at anyone except Dom, but now…”
“Billy wouldn’t snap at Dom,” Elijah said in surprise. Orlando raised his eyebrows.
“Dom was the only person Billy ever got angry at.”
“But they were always tight; I don’t remember them getting into fights before…”
“It doesn’t matter!” Sean interrupted. “The point is, did Billy insult the woman or not?”
“We don’t know.”
“Oh, and the ‘several sources say that Dom killed himself’ bit; what sources? Where the hell did they hear that?” Orlando asked, pointing Elijah to the bottom of the page.
“Could’ve come from anywhere. Someone probably told a friend who told a friend who told a reporter, y’know?”
“Okay. I’ll see what I can find out about this Evans guy. Call me when Billy gets back,” Sean said.
Next: Secret