Stranger Things Have Happened | Marcus Bontempelli

one-hundred & seven.

It had been a week since the events of Saturday night were plastered across every newspaper and online tabloid in Australia. Naively after Liv showed me the Daily Mail article, I stood in front of the people who were basically my version of a Holy Trinity plus one and told them that it would all blow over. And it would eventually but for now, we were stuck in a time warp where there was nothing we could do besides wait it out whilst our names got dragged through the mud, also known as the Australian Media.

Tom, Lachie and JJ had gone into the club for several meetings to find out their fate, which would become known in a couple of days whilst Connor who had only recently moved into our tour managers place in St. Kilda had the police come and raid the house for the drugs seen in the photographs. We were no closer to finding out who had taken the photos and sent them to the scummiest media outlet on planet earth but what we did know was that it had nothing to do with Marcus' stolen phone. At least that's what the police told us when we went down to the station and answered a plethora of questions the night after the story broke. 

"So they're investigating the nightclub now because they didn't find anything on Connor... which is a good thing but I feel bad for the owners since the guy who gave Con those drugs is long gone by now," Tom sighed as I took a sip of my glass of wine and looked into his tired eyes.

"Well we don't know if they were the ones who leaked those photos so I'm not feeling too bad yet... I got so much hate for the apology I sent out. Literally spent all day yesterday crying," I admitted to Tom before he reached out and clasped my hand tightly, sensing that I was getting upset again.

"Its fucking bullshit that they could just write that shit about you when it wasn't even true. What we did was dumb but everything in that article was a lie when it came to you," Tom snarled angrily before letting go of my hand and taking a sip from his own glass, attempting to calm himself down.

"Yeah it's upsetting but it's not the first time or the last I guess," I replied as I watched Tom dip his head and nodded slowly as I realised that he was suffering the most from this whole thing.

"Has Jose brought Oscar around this week?" I asked hopefully before Tom shook his head, the sadness completely taking over his expression, "I'm sorry" I added.

"Don't be. I've only got myself to blame. The reason she left me was because of this shit and I've gone and proved her right again and my careers on the line... I really don't know what to do Sull," He breathed, the tears welling up in his eyes as I reached over and comforted him like he had done for me.

"We'll get them back, Tommy. I promise you that," I firmly stated as our eyes connected, the unspoken promise of piecing his family back together being exchanged between us.

"The other thing I'm not so sure about," Marcus mumbled as he walked into the kitchen, the pissed off expression that had been permanently plastered across his face for the past week still present.

"What? His career?" I asked, slightly annoyed at the tone of his voice considering Tom was one of our best mates and was clearly going through hell without his son.

Marcus shrugged, "This whole thing is completely out of my control at this point. I don't even know if I can do anything to change the boards decision and I don't even have an inkling on what that decision will be," He said before taking a deep breath, "I'm trying though."

"None of us boys want you sticking your neck out for us. We fucked up and you've done everything you can mate... I for one don't want you coming down with us, all right?" Tom said as he stood up, looking between both Marcus and I.

Marcus nodded, "I know you don't but you're my mates and we need all of you running out beside us in a week's time so we've gotta work together," He said as Tom pulled him in for a hug, the sound of Marcus patting him on the back made me breathe a sigh of relief.