Pretenders

The Bottle

Three weeks. It's been three fucking weeks. I hate this.

Mike looked out the back window of his kitchen, his eyes coasting over the gray concrete walls that surrounded the house he no longer thought of as his home. That transition hadn't even been gradual, and much like everything between him and Chester, he couldn't pretend in his head it had been slow. He'd quietly moved into Chester's small apartment after coming home from tour, and returned there after Linkin Park's stay at the Laurel Canyon house. Despite the size, it had been perfect.

Perfect. Everything was perfect.

He scowled at the concrete walls that guaranteed his privacy. Was it worth it, if privacy meant he had to sleep away from Chester? Did privacy really mean as much as he used to think? There was one thing Mike knew for sure, and it was that his divorce lawyer certainly thought that privacy was important. As soon as the tabloids picked up on news of his split with Anna, everything that had seemed so perfect in Mike's world had been put on hold. His lawyer had told him in no uncertain terms that he needed to keep a low profile for a while, to keep his name out of the news.

To not be seen with other women... or men.

So the nights spent curled up in bed with Chester had come to an abrupt end, and Mike was missing that closeness and intimacy more than anything else. Chester had become an addiction from the moment they crossed the line from friends to lovers, and nothing in Mike wanted to go back to the way it was before. They had spent too many years on the other side of the line, and just when things were perfect, Mike had to step back and hide.

Fucking TMZ, he snarled in his head as he turned away from the window. Chester had been understanding, but it was hard on both of them. Limiting their time together to what seemed like only bandmates would do was almost impossible. They had never really been only bandmates, so how did they know where to redraw the line? Apparently the line was living together, and Mike had reluctantly come back to stay at his Mulholland mansion alone. It was huge and quiet and dusty from lack of life, and Mike had no desire to clean it up past the one bedroom he was using, and the kitchen downstairs. Even hiring someone at the moment seemed like more effort than it was worth, so Mike kept to his studio and the bedroom he shared with Chester, and pretended the rest of the house wasn't there.

Except for at night, when he stared out the kitchen windows and hated the world for keeping him away from Chester. He was desperately unhappy with how things were going and determined not to whine about it too much, but he'd just been with Chester in the afternoon and all he'd wanted was to curl up and pass out with his boyfriend after their romp in Chester's bed. Instead he'd gone back to his house and straight to the studio to pout and check his email. The day in court for his divorce from Anna was soon, but not soon enough. It frustrated Mike every time he thought about it. If they were already out on tour, he'd be with Chester. But no. Warner was still finalizing their schedule, and though promotion was starting up, it was all local. No overnight trips yet, and nothing out of the ordinary. No extra time with Chester, just the stolen moments in the day when they could get away with looking like they were just friends. Even date night was on hold, and Mike hated it all.

He'd just finished cleaning the small mess of takeout bags he'd left in the kitchen when there was a light knock at the front door. It made Mike frown instantly. He wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone, and there were only so many people it could be. There weren't many on the list of approved visitors to his gated community, but Mike was genuinely surprised to open the door to Anna. "Hi," he said, stepping back from the door a little as he held it open. Her light pink sweatshirt looked huge over the cut off shorts she was wearing, and Mike couldn't help but think how much younger it made her look. He cocked his head to the side. "What are you doing here, Anna?"