Hard Fucking Death Core

TWENTY-SEVEN (Iselen POV)

"Ruby! Where the hell were you? I've been trying to reach you for almost one hour, I've called you a dozen times..."

"Calm down, Zuzana..." The singer answers angrily and I walk out of the bathroom, frowning puzzled when I hear her saying the drummer's full name which means she's upset, because Zu has yelled at her as if she were an idiot, probably. My girl has put the phone on speaker while getting dressed and that's why I can hear the Hardcore grumbling. "We were having breakfast in the outdoor living room and then we enjoyed the swimming pool for a while, I left my phone in the bedroom..."

"Zu, what's wrong?" I cut her off, worried.

"Madison has been arrested." I look at Ruby in shock and she opens her eyes wide surprised by the news.

"All right, sister, I'm sorry I answered you so harshly and I should've taken my phone with me to the garden... Now tell me what happened, have they caught her with blow or something?" The singer bends down to take her sneakers and jumps on one foot to put them on, looking pretty nervous.

"I don't know, this is crazy. Vincent called me because he was unable to reach you, our lawyers have arrived some minutes ago to LAPD Headquarters and they're trying to find out what the problem is, Taylor and Lzzy are here with me in my house but we don't have news and they're getting very anxious, I think journalists know something weird is going on but they're trying to gather more information before publishing anything and our manager wants to release a statement but he wants to talk to Iselen first because she's our press liaison girl..."

"A statement saying what? We don't know what the hell is going on," I answer frustrated and very stressed while obeying the singer who's waving her hand at me ordering me to get dressed and take my bag quietly.

"Ruby, what are we going to do?" Taylor sobs at the other end of the line while fighting with Zu to take control of the phone.

"Have you said she's in the new central police station near Grant Park? Jump on your car and we'll meet there, right in front of the main door, it'll take half an hour since there's no heavy traffic now. At least Vincent is there to inform us in person." My girl hangs up the phone and shoves it in the pocket of her denim jacket along with a charger, just in case.

"What about the press?" I ask following her downstairs in a rush.

"Journalists can go fuck themselves," she answers angrily looking for the car keys.

*****

It took us 30 minutes exactly, as Ruby predicted, above all because the Hardcores are smart girls who have rented a handful of parking spaces in some buildings of the city to be able to park their cars in downtown LA without going crazy dealing with traffic jams. Paparazzi are here too although they stay at a safe distance at the other side of the gardens to avoid having problems with police officers and they've taken some pics of my girl smoking nervously while we waited for her friends to arrive five minutes later. We all run upstairs towards the glass door and climb another long staircase to get to the luminous lobby: it's full of people looking at us shocked, maybe because they've recognized HFDC band or because we look like weirdos with messy hair.

"Vincent! What the hell is going on?" The Hardcores surround the manager who gestures at them to lower their voices frantically, looking around concerned, and he leans forward to whisper carefully.

"A girl says Mads has molested her..."

Stony silence for almost one minute while we all stare at the manager as if he'd told us that an alien invasion attacking the planet is the reason why the band's next concert will be cancelled. In fact, that explanation would be more credible than what's really happening here.