Through the Fire (a Les Twins fanfic)

Chapter 21: Exposed

The shuttle bus screeched to a stop in front of the auditorium where Beyoncé was holding rehearsals that week.  Larry leaned back against his seat and looked out the window.  He was in a conundrum.

A few moments earlier a text had popped up on his phone from Shauna with two kissy lip icons and a pink heart and he'd felt a flash of excitement.  It was an unfamiliar feeling.  Well, not exactly unfamiliar, but rare.  He tried hard to never let his raw emotions get mixed up in his personal affairs with women.

He didn't want to be vulnerable like that.  But now it was happening, apparently completely out of his control, and he wasn't sure if he liked it.  Suddenly feeling exposed, he knotted his Gucci scarf a little tighter around his waist as a scene from the club the night before replayed in his mind.

He had been upstairs by the V.I.P. bar on the second-level waiting for Laurent to arrive when two club rats approached him.

"Where's the party tonight?"  The taller one wearing black stretch pants and a leather jacket with her boobs hanging out asked.  (Club rat translation: Can we come home with you tonight?)

"Hey, what's up?"  Larry took a sip from his drink and mentally sized them both up as he greeted them coolly.  Small waists...check. Nice chests...check.  Big butts...half a check, but overall not too bad.

Her friend latched on to his free arm.  "I think the party's right here."

Larry reached for his phone out of habit thinking he'd add them to his inventory and review his options at the end of the night in case he came up on something better between now and then.

The club rats perked up thinking they might have scored a celeb for the night until he unexpectedly changed his mind and stuffed the phone back into the backwards front pocket of his jeans.

"Sorry, uh, my battery died."  He made up an excuse on the fly. (Celeb translation: I'm not interested.)

"Boooooo!"  The one in the stretch pants pouted.

"Yeah, we heard you were big fun,"  the other one chimed in disappointedly rolling her fake-lashed eyes.  "Guess we heard wrong."

With that, they had breezed off leaving him standing there alone sipping his Shirley Temple in deep thought.

Why?  He wondered and frowned to himself.  Why didn't he just get their info like he normally would have and then maybe DM them to come by his room later if he felt like it?  Larry gritted his teeth.  He cared for Shauna more than a little bit and she was definitely getting under his skin.

In the next seat over Laurent was in deep thought, too.  Cinnamon walked down the middle aisle and shot him a death stare on her way to get off the bus.  When she passed his seat she "accidentally" let her duffle bag slam into the back of his head.

He threw up his arm.  "Hey!"

"My bad."  She uttered the words, but kept walking without skipping a beat.

Laurent rubbed his head watching her retreat.  But he had even bigger problems.  He'd missed his webcam date with Gabby last night.  While everyone else unboarded he remained in his seat gripping and ungripping his phone trying to think of what to say when he called her.

"C'mon, Lau.  Let's go!"

"Okay, I'm coming!  Stop yelling."

Larry rushed his brother and snickered at his phone as he pressed the "Like" button on an Instagram photo of a cartoon dog with bulging eyes.  Somehow trolling the tags for silly pics always had a way of cheering him up.  He thumbed the screen to navigate back to his dash and was just about to close it when a new video rolled by.

"Uh oh."

"What?"  Lau slung his backpack over his shoulder and looked at Larry quizzically.

"This is bad."  Larry held the phone up to Laurent's face.  "Really bad."

Laurent focused on the screen.  "Oh no."

It was a clip of Cinnamon storming down the hotel hallway that morning.  There was no sound, but close in the background you could clearly see Laurent, shirtless and pantless, standing inside his open room door and Larry's head peeping out from the room next to it.

Caption: @lestwinsoff blew me off last night but at least it was for HER. she's so perf! @CinnamonDancer #HappyBirthdayMzCin #lestwins

Laurent grabbed Larry's phone. The profile pic of the person who posted it was some girl with bright red hair.  He scrolled down quickly.  There were already 2,777 likes with 227 comments and counting:

---dang Cinnamon REALLY had a happy birthday!!! #jealous

---ooooh wish we had a video

---why she look mad tho? lover's spat?

---um but I thought he had a girlfriend

---^^me too but I still ship them tbh

And those were the tame comments.  The rest were speculating about every crazy thing from the size of his member to whether or not Cinnamon was having his baby.   Laurent closed his eyes.  Things had just gone from bad to worse.

****

When Gabby woke up she sat up in bed and stretched uncomfortably.  She'd waited up for hours last night until she finally fell asleep still wearing the hot pink bra and panties she'd bought special for her and Laurent's webcam date.

The sexy straps and push-up cups that were so cute then were now cutting off her circulation and the thong was chafing.  She reached for her phone on the nightstand.  No missed calls or new messages from him. Slightly perturbed she stripped off the pricey lingerie and went to take a shower.  At least he could've sent a text or something.

After her shower she checked the phone again.  Still nothing.   Irritated, she dressed and left for work trying to put all thoughts of Laurent out of her mind.