Don't Wanna Try
Chapter 24
“Marshall, is it okay if I take tomorrow off?”
“Yeah, why?”
“To visit my mother and brother.”
“You’re going to visit that bitch?”
“She’s been…better. She’s been a better mother after my father died.”
“That doesn’t excuse her behavior from before!”
“It’s okay. It’s all in the past. Water under the bridge.”
He groaned in frustration.
“Go take a shower and order us something to eat,” she commanded. “You’ll feel better. I’m going to go downstairs to buy a few things.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Please?” she begged.
“Fine. Don’t be gone too long.”
She rolled her eyes at his protectiveness. It was warming, though, to have someone so fiercely protective of her.
Vanessa wandered into the hotel’s gift shop to browse the magazines, and nearly screamed as she saw her face plastered on all the tabloids..
“Fuck!” she cursed softly.
“Hey, it’s you!” a stranger remarked as he held up the cover of the tabloid towards her.
Quickly, she plucked all the copies of the tabloids, went to the register and charged the bill to the room. It didn’t bother her too much to see herself on the tabloid pages; what worried her was Marshall’s reaction to it all. Vanessa couldn’t decide how angry he would be so she was slightly fearful to find out.
She spread the five different tabloid magazines on the bed, trying to figure out which was the least damaging.
“What you got there?” Marshall asked as he adjusted his towel. “Shit,” he remarked as he saw his face on the covers. “Well, they sure had a field day, didn’t they?” he chuckled.
“You’re not angry?”
“Oh, baby, they always have somethin’ on me in the tabloids. I think this is the first time I’ve ever been on the cover, though.”
“But you’re not angry.”
“Should I be?”
“I don’t know,” she shrugged.
“I learned not to take the press to heart so much. They never print the truth.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” she sighed.
“Have you read them yet?”
“No, not yet. I’m trying to decide which is the least offensive.”
He picked one up and laughed, “Is Eminem playing Superman for new brunette?”
“Superman?” she repeated, confused.
“It’s a song I did.”
“Oh.”
He felt a little embarrassed; it was always awkward explaining his songs or lyrics. “I’m not even gonna bother explaining it. You have to listen to my CD,” he replied.
She laughed. “Have a copy with you?”
“Yeah.”
“Get it for me, please?”
“Later. Oh, I like this one: ‘Mariah, look out. Competition comes in THIS gorgeous package.’ Where do they get these lines?”
“Competition? Oh, please. Mariah has nothing on me.”
He kissed her nose. “I agree.”
“You better!” she giggled and playfully swatted his arm. “So, it’s true? You and Mariah went out?”
“Yeah, briefly. Very briefly. Like a week.”
“The media made it seem like months.”
“I wouldn’t have survived if it had been months.”
Laughing, she struggled to read the article about them out loud. “Rapper Eminem and new joy toy were seen at a charity benefit a few days ago. The two then showed up and wowed everyone at the MTV Movie Awards where rapper-turned-actor picked up several awards and did a surprise performance of his hit song ‘Lose Yourself’. We ran into a young fan of his after the show who reports that this new girl on his arm is indeed his latest girlfriend! At the MTV after party, it was reported that Eminem and the brunette couldn’t keep their hands off each other, and they were even told to ‘get a room’ by fellow celebs! Just how serious is Eminem’s latest fling?”
“Hmm, that one is pretty accurate, surprisingly.”
“Oh, god!” she cried.
“What?”
She handed him the tabloid she was reading which had several pages of candid photographs of them.
“Jesus! How the hell do they get these kind of things?”
“How do you handle always having your private life trashed and exposed for the world to see?” she asked.
“Because, normally, what they print are lies. I don’t like it when they start prying too deep, though, like there was this one time where they managed to snap a photo of Hailie. I wanted to punch the son of a bitch who took it.”
“Aw,” she sympathized. “I know Hailie is very special to you.”
“Yes, she is,” he agreed.
“I didn’t think they’d take such an interest in us,” she admitted. “It’s a little daunting.”
“You get used to it,” he shrugged.
“I think I really need to hear this ‘Superman’ song of yours. There’s another headliner about it: ‘Looks like Eminem has found his Superwoman!’ Well, we made five covers in just three days!”
“But let’s not try to make it six, okay?”
“Marshall! I wouldn’t dream of it,” she replied with a chaste kiss on his lips. “I wonder if my brother’s seen this. He’d flip.”
“Why?”
“He’s in love with you.”
“Oh, so you mean someone in your family appreciates me?” he teased.
“Hey, I appreciate you plenty,” she countered and moved to straddle his hips.
“Oh, yeah?” he raised his eyebrows. “How about I meet this brother of yours?”
“Really?” she asked, surprise evident in her voice.
“Yeah, tomorrow, right?”
“I think you finish your day at four tomorrow.”
“How long are you staying with your family?”
“Probably until after dinner.”
“Then I’ll come by as soon as I’m out of my last meeting?”
“Oh, Marshall, you don’t know how much this’ll mean to him. Thank you!” she said excitedly and kissed his face.
“If I knew this was the kind of thanks I’d get, I’d have offered to a damned meet and greet with everyone you ever knew!”Author: zines@aol.com
These stories are for entertainment purposes only. They are completely fictitious, and the authors mean no harm to EMINEM, his family, friends, or anyone else that may have been depicted as a 'real life' character. No money was made on the fiction here, either directly or indirectly, i.e. paid advertising. In other words - it's just a bunch of shit we wrote for fun. Please don't take it seriously.