In Love By Sunrise

Chapter 10

"Hello?" Mike said as he shut the door to his room and locked it.

"Mike?"

"Chester?" Mike asked, "Oh god baby it feels so good to hear your voice."

"I miss you."

"I miss you too. I promise it's all going to be okay. You'll pay the fine and it'll all be okay."

"I.....I'm not paying a fine, Mike," Chester said softly, "There was too much of an age difference for me to just pay a fine."

"What do you mean?" Mike asked softly.

"I'm g-going to prison M-Mike," Chester whimpered and Mike covered his mouth with his hand. He felt tears run down his face.

"Ch....Chaz..."

"I'll be in for a year. It would've been eight months but I told them I couldn't pay the fine right now or for a while so they told me to serve the year in prison and then pay when I got out."

"Chester......"

"I'm no better than Dennis. I just can't learn. I should've just....I should've just...."

"This is all my fault Chaz," Mike managed, "I'm so sorry."

"No I should've known better."

"Listen Chaz," Mike managed as he blinked back more tears, "I love you Chester Bennington. I love you more than life itself. And when you get out of prison, I'll be eighteen and we can go wherever you want to go. I promise."

"I love you too," Chester said softly.

"Times up, Bennington!"

"Mike....Mike I have to go."

"I know. I love you. Be strong. I'll wait for you."

"Okay."

Mike hung up the phone and wiped the tears out of his eyes. He laid down on the bed and put his music in his ears. Poor Chester.

"Mike, where's Chester?"

"The bastard's at the police station," Jason said, "Do you realize what was going on?"

"Jason, I knew he was having a drug problem.....Mike and I talked about it."

"That's not all of it. The guy's a pervert. He and Mike were fucking."

"Jason!"

"Well it's true! He and Mike were having sex right under your nose and you didn't even know. I found out and that's just sick."

"Mom, please," Mike managed, "We were going to tell you but.....we just didn't want to be separated. I wanted every second of it. I swear he never hurt me."

"Mike, do you understand what this means? It doesn't matter if you were consensual with it or not. Chester's too old for you and he's in some serious trouble right now which he should be."

"Mom....."

"I can't believe you thought that was okay to do!"

Mike felt tears in his eyes, "The only reason it's wrong is because I'm one year away from being eighteen. Once I'm eighteen, I'm going back to him. As long as he wants me, I'll be with him and there's nothing you can do to stop me!"

"Michael, you won't go near that man again. He obviously doesn't think things through. If he had, you guys never would've been in something like that."

"Mom. He loved me with every part of his heart."

"Yea right," Jason snapped, "All he was looking for was some young guy to get it on with. You were just stupid to fall for his act."

"Mike, we'll talk more about this when your father is home."

His dad had been worse. He'd been yelled at for a good fifteen minutes for being brainless. He remembered cutting a lot that night. He knew Chester would have been disappointed in him but he couldn't help it. So after he cut, he sat in front of his poster and he told Chester everything.

"But I still love you," he whispered, "And I hope you love me too because I'll be waiting the day you get out of prison. You shouldn't even be there."

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The next day, he got his first copy of the Rolling Stone. The cover was a huge picture of Chester. He flipped to the arrival and saw that whoever had wrote it had the facts all wrong.

Just yesterday, December 15th, Chester Bennington, lead vocalist of Dead By Sunrise was announced guilty of Statutory Rape and has been sentenced to a $25,000 fine and a year in prison.
Sources state that the relationship was consensual but initiated by Bennington with a fan who was so star struck that he was getting this attention from his idol that he fell into the relationship. In court, Bennington said almost nothing apart from, "I didn't hurt him. I'd never hurt him," when asked about the relationship being consensual or not.

And then Mike's eyes narrowed as he hit the next paragraph.

It can't be determined from the evidence given, but it is most likely that Bennington's judgement was clouded by his activity with illegal substance. He was most likely feeling high and alone ever since his divorce with Samantha Olit and used the first somewhat attractive fan he saw to get his fix, using his fame to get what he wanted. His band mates have differing opinions on the matter.

"Chester isn't a bad guy. He's just made some mistakes that need to be fixed. But I would never see him as the type of guy who would take advantage of a fan. Being a victim of sexual abuse himself almost assures that."

But it doesn't, does it? How many people who have sexually assaulted someone have been victims of sexual assault as well? Is this Bennington just taking out his frustrations?

"Fuck you!" Mike screamed as he tore up the magazine, "You don't know anything about him! Don't write like you know him!"

He sat down at his desk and began to write. He wrote a piece that he was going to send to the Rolling Stone.

My name is Mike Shinoda and I am seventeen years old, turning eighteen in February. I was Chester Bennington's partner for a week.
The first thing you need to know about Chester is that, from the moment I saw him, I always thought he was attractive. He was always the light in my darkness. But that's not why I loved him. He's famous. But that's not why I love him either. I was able to open up to him and he listened to every word that I said. He made me feel like people cared about my life, that someone could finally understood me. That meant everything to me.
I'm the one who initiated the relationship. He just went with it. We knew it was wrong but we were going to wait until I was eighteen to make any announcement. He knew it was wrong, I knew it was wrong but we did it anyway.
He wasn't using me. I wasn't using him. Everything we said and did was true with one another. He told me that he loved me, I told him that I loved him. We made love. I wanted to make him feel alright again. He was on withdrawal, he was quitting his addiction, and I wanted to help him through it. He was under no influence when we talked, when we kissed. There was nothing making him do this except his heart and I think it's so wrong that he's being punished for loving someone a little younger than him.
His divorce was hard on him, but that was two years ago. He was over it. He was still upset about his abuser, but he talked to me about it. We talked for hours the one day, just helping one another.
This whole scenario is making Chester Bennington out to be a rapist and a druggie with a bad history and that's not what he is. Chester Bennington is a man who has had a troubled past but is now trying to make things right. I hope that people don't see this as something bad, just as something that is somewhat stupid. He's in jail because he loves me. Everything was consensual, there was no way he'd ever hurt me, and he deserves to be back with me. I hope that the people who know Chester don't forget who he really is just because of the twisted versions of this story that are coming out.

He smiled and then his eye lit up. He typed it up on his computer and then headed to his Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr. He posted the letter to each one of those sites and hoped his followers would start spreading the message. He would make it right. He had to. Because he couldn't be the reason Chester fell apart.