Untouchable ~ A Jared Leto/MARS Fanfiction

Chapter Twenty-Four

"She's cutting your balls off," Shannon observed after a couple of months.

"She's a user," Tomo and Stevie agreed.

"She's beautiful," his mother allowed. "But beauty is certainly only skin-deep with her."

The divorce failed to materialize. And then in August, Katia appeared with a man in tow at an afterparty following the MTV Video Music Awards where 30 Seconds to Mars performed their new single, Walk on Water.  At the sight of the devastatingly handsome model whose arm Katia was clinging to, Jared froze and felt the blood drain from his face. "Kristov," he murmured in shock. "It's... been a long time."

Kristov Belneczek smiled, displaying a perfect set of teeth to rival Jared's own. "Yes, Jared, it has been a long time," he replied in his thick Russian accent. "Too long."

***

"You knew him," I say as Jared's voice trails off. "You knew her husband?"

Jared nods, but he doesn't meet my eyes. "Yeah. I knew him."

"How?"

Jared sighs, and still he doesn't look at me. His focus is across the room, and I know he's not looking at anything, as all that's there is a blank white wall. "That's another long story, and I really don't want to talk about it. I knew him. You could say we were friends at one time. Leave it at that." He glances down at his phone. "I've got some more stuff to do before Suzanne gets here. Then Shannon's coming over for some studio time, and I really need a shower."

"You just took a shower this morning," I point out.

"Yeah, well, I need another one." Jared gets up and leaves the room, leaving me to stare after him.

There's more to this convoluted mess with Katia Valkov. A lot more. But it's clear that now is not the time to press him about it.

***

"I knew from the second I woke up that this was going to be a fucked-up day."

I turn around and face Shannon, staring moodily at the half-smoked cigarette between his fingers, his hazel eyes narrowed in a frown. "Jared, that was stupid. Really stupid." He lifts his eyes and locks on mine. I brace myself for the ass-chewing I'm certain he's dying to give me, like this is all my fault because I blew off his warning about getting too involved with his little brother.

But blessedly, Shannon stays silent about all that. Instead, he spins the cigarette back and forth between his fingers and stands up, walking across the patio deck that adjoins the studio and soundstage. "So what's your move?" he ventures as he lights up.

"With the pap or with Katia and Ivan?" Jared asks, his eyes on his brother. The exhaustion in them, the tension, the seeming weight of the world breaks my heart and floods me with guilt. Sure, Jared talked me into that swim, but what followed, what the pap captured for the entire world to see, that was instigated by me. I can't help but feel responsible.

It's been a long day of returned phone calls, returned texts, a visit from the police—during which I made myself as scarce as possible in a remote section of the compound—and then later, there was the very acrimonious in-person meeting with Suzanne Hoffman. Jared finished that conversation with her dismissal from his team. The woman peeled out of the motor court in a fury just as Shannon arrived, nearly colliding with his motorcycle at the gate. To put it mildly, Jared's mood since then has been black. Even throwing himself into his music has done little to elevate it.