Unforgettable ~ A Jared Leto/MARS Fanfiction

4 - Lanie

Getting papped is a strange experience. Strange, harrowing, and thoroughly scary when you're not used to it.  I'd thought with Jared in Europe and being photographed with Katia in each city they've been to, that I would've become persona-non-grata to the tabloids and subsequently left alone.

I should have known better. Even with Jared out of the country, the compound is fair game. Especially when the woman he was photographed having sex with in his pool comes and goes from the compound while he's off in Europe with another woman. Gossip fodder, indeed.

Before he flew to Madrid, Jared asked the two bodyguards he'd brought in for me and Shelby to stay at the compound during his absence. David and Gene are good guys; unobtrusive, but good at what they do. Even with Todd in jail and about to be extradited to Minnesota to face a number of charges there, David and Gene accompany Shelby to school and back, and they go with me anytime I leave the property. No longer in protection from Todd, but from the vultures swooping in hoping for a juicy scoop on an A-list celebrity.

At first, David and Gene's constant presence shadowing me was irritating as hell. I couldn't fathom why someone like me would need security detail when I'm by myself, but it soon became very clear that I did. Not only outside of Bouchon, the night Katia and Ivan Valkov's blackmail was revealed, but every time I have gone out in public since first being papped with Jared. I've had perfect strangers try to come up to me firing questions, paparazzi, and on a couple of occasions, legit news reporters. Me of all people, suddenly the target of so many journalists? It's surreal. I've had to learn to spot them quickly and escape. With the help of our security detail, I've been successful so far.

Frankly, the whole fame thing sucks. I don't know how Jared's lived with this as long as he has, because just a few weeks' worth has made me come close to snapping like I did outside Bouchon, when I grabbed a pap's camera and smashed it on the sidewalk.

Stepping out of the supermarket this Saturday morning, I spot the pap at the same time David and Gene do. "Shit," David mutters as a man toting a camera with a high-power lens appears from behind a parked car and hurries in our direction, taking pictures the whole way. "I know this guy. He's a major contributor to ONTD. Head down, Lanie. Don't look at him."

Oh, wonderful. ONTD is the same tabloid that Todd sent the pool pictures to. I duck my head, covered in one of Jared's ball caps, and shove my sunglasses up to shield my eyes. Clutching my bag of groceries, I allow Gene and David to hustle me into David's white BMW.

I can just imagine what the articles are saying, not to mention the commenters and the fans of Jared and Mars. No, I haven't yet caved in to my curiosity and gone online to read the gossip myself, but with each passing day I'm becoming more tempted. I suppose it's natural when every move your husband makes is news. I suppose it's even more natural when your presence in his life is questioned and speculated about. And yet even more natural when your husband is currently out of the country with another woman.

Once I'm safely home and the groceries are put away, I take my phone into the living room, sit on the big red sofa, and study the screen. I've become adept enough with my iPhone that I can browse the web without difficulty—almost as well as Shelby can. Funny, how kids can pick up newfangled technology so quickly. Before coming to California, neither of us had had much use for any of this stuff. My ignorance was so great that Flora had had to explain to me what social media was, and helped me create accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. I have yet to use any of them, however. I wouldn't really know how to.

Don't do it! I can almost hear both Flora and Jared say. So far I've heeded those warnings—what's been seen can't be unseen and all that—but before I can stop myself, I open a search and begin to browse.