When The Lights Go Down

Quit Breaking Up With Me

"Maybe it's not about you?" Mary suggests. "It could just be a coincidence."

FP gives her a knowing look. "Pretty big coincidence don't you think?"

She opens her mouth to respond but just sighs, there's no doubt it's about him. That's when Fred comes bursting into the room.

"I have big news!" He announces, practically jumping for joy.

"So do we," FP begins but June beats him to the punch.

"Mommy's on the radio!" She announces proudly.

Fred raises an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"She has a new song, come listen!" June waves her little hand at him and he trepidatiously obliges.

FP is pale, and it immediately worries Fred as he listens to the new song.

Well,
We're always fixing something that was never broken
We're on and off again like sobriety
Get back together every time you're done throwing a fit
So when you gonna quit breaking up with me

Well,
You think by now
We'd finally get along
But we only feel right when everything is going wrong
And we're back in the habit of cussing each other up and down

Fred turns the radio off, much to June's disapproval.

"Hey!" She scolds.

"Sorry, honey." Fred apologizes and he picks up the portable radio and passes it to her. "Why don't you go listen over there? We have to talk about grown up stuff."

She scrunches her nose up at the mention of boring adult talk and scurries off to make herself comfortable.

"So this is-"

"Gladys' new song about FP." Mary finishes for him. "How bad do you think it is?"

Fred sighs. "Well it doesn't exactly seem good."

"But people write breakup songs all the time," Alice adds in. "Maybe this is just that, a harmless cheesy breakup song?"

"With these two? No one is going to take it as a harmless breakup song." Fred points out. "With how public the divorce was and how big of names you two are, there's bound to be talk."

"Let them talk." FP decides. "Let them say whatever they want to say, let them smear me all they want, if she wants to be petty than that's her prerogative."

"FP-"

"No, I'm so tired of this, I just want to move on and it seems like that's just never going to happen. If we hadn't of gotten into a stupid argument before she left this probably wouldn't have even happened."

"Actually, from the looks of what I've read it seems she's had it recorded for a while now and was just unsure about releasing it." Mary says, reading over an interview she had found online.

"Great so I brought it all on myself." FP scoffs. "Fred, didn't you say you had good news?"

"Well, news, yeah. But I don't know how good it is now." He blushes. "The Greendale Gazette wants to do a cover story with you." He announces, looking pointedly at Alice. "Both of you."

"Both of us?" Alice repeats.

"Mhm, and I was going to say yes because it would be great publicity, but now I'm worried all of the questions will be about this new song and not about the two of you."

"I can make arrangements with them," Mary informs him. "Tell them there are some questions we don't want asked, that we want a strictly professional, drama free story."

"Are you guys interested?" Fred asks.

"Absolutely!" FP grins. "Al, this is huge!"

"It's very exciting." She replies, though her voice shakes with unease. "When is it?"

"They want to do it as soon as possible, we could probably squeeze in the time at the end of the week!" Fred tells them, clearly having thought this over.

"That sounds great." FP agrees, before looking towards Alice with a smile. "Your first big interview, how do you feel?"

She smiles weakly. "Like a superstar."

<>

All day it's felt as though she's swallowed rocks, her stomach so heavy with fear and dread that she hasn't been able to think about much else. Of course the interview is a good thing, an incredible thing really, and as FP said, it's her first big interview. This could be a big push into the limelight, and she knows she should be happy, should be thrilled by the opportunity, but all she wants to do is cry.

"Hey, do you have a minute?" Alice wonders, approaching Mary who's answering an abundance of emails.

"For you? Always." The redhead smiles, closing her laptop to give Alice her full attention.

"No one's here right?" She looks around the bus but it's ghostly quiet.

"No, Fred's at the concert venue finalizing things, June and FP are sightseeing and the band went to grab food. Is everything alright?"

"I need to tell you something." Alice sits down across from Mary, nervously fiddling with the rings on her fingers.

"You're starting to freak me out, Alice. What's going on?"

"I've never told you why I stopped making music." She begins, and it all sort of feels like a blur after that, she's not even sure she remembered to breathe the entire time.

She explains everything to Mary, every moment of her past, not leaving a detail out. She's never told a soul before, it never felt safe, there was never anyone who she could trust. But Mary has done nothing but show how loyal she is, how much she cares, and Alice is surprised by just how easy it is to unload all of her emotional baggage.

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?" Mary scolds gently.

"I've wanted to it's just never felt like the right time."

Mary's eyebrows shoot up towards her hairline. "You needed a right time for this? Alice, you should've told me from the get go! I could've prepared better security measures, brought FP and Fred up to speed so-"

"No!" Alice blurts out. "I don't want them to know."

Mary's expression softens. "Alice-"

The blonde shakes her head furiously. "No. Fred already thinks there's something off about me, and FP will worry too much, you know him. Please Mary, let's just keep this between us."

Mary is silent for a long while, milling over the weight of everything she's just been told. "This is a lot to keep secret, Alice."

"Please don't make me regret telling you, Mary. I just... I needed to tell someone in case..." She takes a deep breath in to ground herself, feeling her whole body shake violently. "Just worst case scenario, I wanted someone to know. And with FP and I getting more and more publicity, I just felt it was better that you know. I trust you."

"I won't tell anyone." Mary agrees, albeit reluctantly. "But you have to tell me immediately if you sense something is wrong, okay? And if there's ever an interview or publicity opportunity you're not comfortable doing, tell me and I'll find a way to get you out. Okay?"

"Okay." Alice agrees, giving the woman a small smile before reaching for her hand. "Thank you."