Beyond The Stage ● Lauren/OC

Chapter 8 - Not Yours

BRANDON

I sat on the side of the hotel bed, listening to the shower as it continued in the bathroom.

"Brandon! Kinda lonely in here!" Lauren hollered from the shower.

I laughed and shook my head, "You'll survive!" I said, smiling to myself.

It was only a couple more minutes until I heard the shower cut off. Within a couple seconds I heard a gasp and looked over to find Lauren standing there.

"You jackass, there's no way I'm going to be able to cover this one up." She said, pointing at a hickey. I tried to hide the smirk on my face, but was unable to. "Don't look so proud of yourself, B."

"Sorry Laur, my bad." I said, pulling her closer and wrapping my arms around her waist. She ran her hand through my hair, tugging at it. I let out a groan, looking up at her.

She smirked slightly, "Bran, I swear." I grabbed her and pulled her down onto the bed, hovering over her as I pressed my lips against hers.

I felt myself getting hard as she wrapped her legs around my waist, and I blindly felt at the table - trying to find a condom. When I couldn't find one, I looked over and saw none.

"Fuck." I muttered, rolling off of Lauren and slinging an arm across my face.

"Brandon." Lauren said, leaning up and looking at me.

"Outta condoms, Laur." I muttered, glancing over at her.

"Well shit." She said, shaking her head. She ran her hand down my abdomen, stopping right before she got to my bulge. "Sorry baby."

I let out a moan, leaning my head back against the pillow. "Laur, oh god." I said, gently grabbing her wrist. I sat up quickly and got off the bed. "I'm gonna go take a shower. A cold one. Alone."

She shot me a grin while I walked into the bathroom.

TIME SKIP

I was sick as fuck. I felt like I was dying and I was about to be convinced that I wasn't going to make it. Our tour bus had become a breeding ground for whatever virus was making it's way through our group. And now it was my turn to go through the hell that it caused.

I was laying on a couch in the front of the bus, wrapped up tightly in as many blankets as I could bring with me. The others were inside performing which left me to fend for myself.

I had dozed off when the door to the bus opened, I opened my eyes and was greeted by Lauren.

"Hey how are you feeling?" She asked, smiling over at me as she sat down on the couch.

"Oh just peachy." I said sarcastically, coughing.

"Yeah you look it," she said, shaking her head slightly. "Bran, go on to bed."

"I'm fine, Laur. Plus I'm comfy here." I replied, shrugging. It was kind of the truth, I had managed to get comfortable enough on the couch where I was. And I didn't feel like moving.

She leant over and pressed a hand against my forehead. "Brandon, you're burning up."

"If I go to my bunk will you be happy?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her. She nodded and I huffed, standing up and grabbing my blankets.

I shuffled my way back down the hallway, finding my bunk and sliding in - shutting the curtain behind me.

"Love you Bran!" She hollered from the front.

TIME SKIP

I wasn't sure exactly when things went bad, maybe toward the end of the tour - maybe after the tour ended already. But either way they did. And all I was left with when I woke up the morning after a big blow up was a text informing me that she wasn't mine. Not anymore.

It had been about a month and I honestly wasn't over it. The guys and four of the girls tried keeping me upright, but not even the constant support from them helped really. Lauren had left me, and she had practically killed me in the process.

"You need a night out, just go have some fun." Jeremy said, he was sitting down the couch from me.

I shook my head, and Normani - who was sitting beside Jeremy - sighed. "I'm not gonna go out somewhere guys, I'm fine. Just give me time."

"Its been a month, Bran. You've had time. A ton of it." Lex said, walking into the room. I looked over at him and was met with a look of pity. The look I got from all of them most of the time now.

"Brandon, you've got to move on. This isn't healthy." Normani said, scooting closer to me and putting her hand on my shoulder.

I stood up, sighing. "Just give me my time, guys. I'm fine. It's not like I'm about to go walk into traffic anytime soon." I said, shrugging and walking out of the room.

TIME SKIP

We were working on our next CD, the girls had gone back out on tour and so Dinah, Mila, Mani, and Ally were only around every once in a while now. Lauren wasn't around anymore.

I was still processing the fact that I couldn't just pick up the phone and call Lauren or text her about things. About writing songs. I had to look at the contact name in my phone every day because I was unwilling to delete it out.

And it hurt me to realize that I was slowly returning to my normal old self. I had wanted to stay in the bitter, hurt phase of the breakup. Because then it didn't feel like Lauren was that far gone.

The healing part only signaled to me that I was moving on, that Lauren was floating further away from my reach. The pain part had meant that it was still a fresh wound. Now it was healing.

Which meant that I was probably already a distant memory in her mind. I knew I had been more hurt by the breakup than she had been. So if I was starting to get over it - I was long gone from her mind.

The guys tried keeping my mind off of her, but I still caught glimpses of her when they were facetiming one of the other girls. Whenever I got a FaceTime from one of DJ, Mani, Mila, or Ally it was always from within a bunk - curtain drawn and all. No chance of me seeing her there.

Fans seemed to know something was off, we all went from being so intertwined in each others lives to not so much. The other girls were still featured heavily in our lives, but Lauren wasn't. And it brought up questions amongst the media.

The questions were easy enough to stomp out, quick statements from some of the guys saying that Lauren was still a close friend - Just busy. I didn't release a statement.

Smiling and laughing were the hardest parts to bring back to myself. Because that had to be the ultimate sign of moving on. When you could feel happiness again.

My brother moved out to LA and into our group house to be with Logan more often and it was decided that he would be allowed to tour with us whenever we went back out on tour.

We also worked it out with our management that we could all do our own shit if we wanted to. Which mean Alex could do his own rap songs, Dylan could act in some shows - freedom. We wanted to move that we could do the group and also still do our own shit. And it worked, helped ease any tensions in the group too.

TIME SKIP

I walked back into my room to find my phone ringing, I walked over and picked it up - immediately seeing Olivia's name on the phone.

"Hello?" I answered, unsure of what else to say.

"Brandon, I'm at the hospital. Been here for a few days. The babies here." She said, trailing off.

"So what's the verdict?" I asked, looking around my room.

"He's yours."