January 23rd 2001.
Detroit, Michigan.
Chapter Inspired by: Beyoncé- Crazy in Love (Remix) *let me know if you'd want this to become a regular thing!*
Thankfully I did manage to secure a flight from New York to Detroit, even though it was incredibly last minute and the staff were not pleased that I'd held them up. Once I'd exited the plane I saw the message that Marshall had left on my voicemail and eagerly opened it.
"Cass I just got you're message, I'm at the studio right now, but I'll be home soon. What's going on?"
Excited didn't even begin to describe how I felt. The anticipation was past the point of eating me up, it had devoured me. As I walked up the steps of Marshall's, our, house the thought of laying my eyes on his perfect self made me clamber to get inside even more. With a jiggle of the key I was in and quietly placed my bags at the door, I didn't want to wake him up, it was nearly 3.00am. I tiptoed my way through the house to our bedroom but stopped as I saw a head peeking just above the couch in the lounge. The T.V was on low and the rest of the room was pitch black, he must of fallen asleep watching it. I knelt down on the ground beside him and smiled fondly as soon as I saw him. "Marshall" I whispered. He didn't reply, only hummed at my response, still blissfully asleep. "Marshall, I'm home" I whispered again, softly stroking his cheek. He began to stir awake and grabbed my hand in shock, his eyes shooting open. I laughed lightly, "Honey, it's just me".
He sighed in relief and tiredly rubbed his eyes with his fists. "Jesus I thought you were a murder or some shit" he mumbled.
"Did you stay up for me?" I asked as he pulled me onto his lap, hooking my legs on either side of him. He shuffled up the couch until we were eye level and his hands rested on my back, the warmness of them relaxing me.
"Of course I did" he said, his forehead creasing. "I didn't know what was going on. I still don't actually?"
My fingers caressed his amazing jaw line as I pondered his question. "Honestly?" he nodded and brought my hand to his lips, kissing each knuckle individually. "I realized going to New York was a mistake" he cocked his eyebrow at me in surprise. "I thought running away from our problems and giving us distance would help us, but it just made things harder".
"Why did you come back so suddenly though?"
"Because, I missed you. I missed being in your arms and talking about weird shit for hours on end. New York isn't my home anymore, you are".
"You really mean that?"
"More than anything". He smiled and his hands held me just that little bit tighter as if he was reconfirming my words and keeping me here with him.
"What about all that stuff?" He asked, not directly addressing our recent problems.
"Let's just forget it. I'm so sick of people getting in between us. I just want to focus on each other-our relationship should be ours and ours alone, right? We don't have to explain what we have to anybody".
"Right". We stared into each other's eyes for a moment, and then I lowered myself, gently placing my lips against his. He grabbed onto the sides of my face and kissed me hard, with a desperate need. I moaned into the kiss as my senses ignited from the first proper touch I'd received in forever. Pressing my hands firmly against his chest I squeezed the skin and noticed how it made him briefly lose his rhythm. My mouth effortlessly moved against his, like they were made for each other. Do it now. I pulled away running my thumb along my swollen lip and he smiled, loving the affect he had on me. He sat up further and latched his lips onto the base of my neck, making me moan again as he found my sweet spot he knew all too well.
"Marshall" I panted.
"Mhmm" he murmured against my skin.
I pulled his head up to mine and looked into his glistening blue eyes, finally ready to fully open up for the first time in my entire life. "I love you". The world crashed to a standstill as I waited for him to laugh in my face, mock me, crush my heart. But he didn't, of course he didn't.
Instead the corners of his mouth slowly rose until a face splitting smile appeared. "I love you too. Fuck I love you". Relief flooded my body at the sound of those words that I'd heard before but could now understand the feeling behind. An unconditional, all consuming feeling that I had been craving my whole life without knowing. Once again our lips crashed against each other and I rolled my hips against his causing him to let out a deep groan. "Do you want me to take you here or upstairs? Cause this is going to be one of many". He grinned as I gasped at the thought.
"Upstairs" I whispered. Smoothly he lifted me and wrapped my legs around his torso whilst he walked us to the bedroom, up the stairs, not leaving my lips once. Just as we were going to fall on the bed I stopped him "I wanna do it against the wall". He excitedly nodded and backed me right up against the wall. My hands pulled at his t-shirt, desperate to take it off, which he complied with, tossing it aside. "Do you know how sexy you are?" I moaned as he pulled down my underwear and his own sweatpants. He smirked at my lustful compliment and gently eased into me, carefully taking his time.
"I'm the sexy one?" he chuckled.
"Fuck yes" I replied, both to his question and his sudden thrust. I gripped his shoulders tightly, digging in my manicured fingernails for support.
"It's all you baby. Goddamn...how are you always so tight?" he breathed into my ear, his temple resting against mine. We both needed this so badly, and it was apparent in the way we pushed against each other, wanting to be as close as possible. He angled my right leg higher on his hip, hitting every spot in a new, deeper, way. I bit my lip, hard enough to draw blood as I moved up the wall further with each thrust. "Let it out Cass, tell me how much you love it".
I let out a long and sensual moan with his permission, which only seemed to encourage him to hear more. "Oh shit, Marshall! Please go harder". I rolled my hips to meet his and ran my hands through his hair as my mouth fell agape.
His fist slammed against the wall above my head and he ghosted his lips against mine, as he attempted to delay his release. Always the gentleman. Involuntarily my back arched pushing my chest against his and I called out his name over and over in release. Seconds later he came himself, letting out short breaths against my neck. Slowly he slipped out, nearly causing me to pout at the fact it was over, and walked us over to the bed gently placing me down on the edge, whilst he left the room. When he returned he cleaned me up and then we fully stripped down before climbing into bed face to face.
"As much as I want to do that again I don't think I have the energy" I laughed.
"We got all day tomorrow" he cheekily grinned.
We lay comfortably looking at each other, our eyes tracing each other's features. I felt under the covers for his hand and intertwined our fingers together. Running my fingers along his knuckles I felt what seemed like cuts. I lifted it up and closely examined the recently healed scrapes and gashes sprinkled all over his hand. "What happened Marshall? You weren't in a fight were you?" I whispered worriedly.
He earnestly smiled and scrunched his face up. "No I, uh, smashed a mirror that night after you called. It was fucking stupid, hurt like hell".
"Oh" I bit my lip nervously and fell back onto the pillow as guilt consumed me. I had no idea my actions had that much of an effect on his emotions. "I'm sorry for mucking you around recently, my head's been all over the place".
He sighed and removed his watch and earrings, placing them on the nightstand. "It's okay. I mean, I was pissed as fuck at first, but I'm over it now".
"Really?"
"Yeah. We've both done shitty things so I get it".
"I didn't mean what I said by the way. About cheating on you...I had way too much to drink and-" I gushed.
"It's okay" he stopped me, kissing my forehead.
"How are you so forgiving? I hold grudges for a long time".
He shrugged and looked down into my eyes. "I don't got a lot of people I guess, so I have to decide what's important and not. And you're way important to me than some stupid drunk comment you made".
"I'm so lucky to be in love with you" I confessed, blushing hard, not yet used to the sound of it coming off my tongue.
"Damn right bitch, and don't you forget it" he arrogantly replied in his 'hard' voice.
"Marshall!" I slapped him lightly across the chest as he chuckled. "You're so annoying" I huffed.
"You know I'm just messing" he replied seriously, turning me around in his arms so he was spooning me. "It feels good for you to say that" he brushed his nose against my neck and gently kissed under my ear. "I love you too Cassie Rosario. You crazy bitch".
"Marshall, quit being a dick!"
*****
I sat crossed legged on the bed, emailing back and forth with Paul as we discussed the prospect of me coming on the tour again. Marshall and I had talked about it again last night and both agreed that there was no point in me staying home alone while he was touring now that we'd sorted our issues. After all, we did still work well together as a team regardless of what had happened. There would just be new rules this time...
"Cass, have you seen my bracelet?" Marshall asked as he came into the room.
"Bedside table. What are you all dressed up for?"
"I just got a call from Tracy telling me that I have a photo shoot and interview for SPIN Magazine this morning. I forgot about it". He sat down beside me and presented his wrist to me so I could put the chain on him.
"Oh...all good".
"I know I said I'd spend the day with you, but I couldn't get out of this one- and I did try" he got back up and sprayed himself with his signature cologne. "Just come, I think Zoey will be there and maybe Deshaun".
"You sure? What if we get spotted?"
"We won't, hardly anyone will be there. But if you're coming we gotta go in 10 minutes" he said as he left the room again. I briefly mulled it over and although I was nervous I decided to come and place my worries aside, remembering what I told Marshall last night; 'Our relationship should be ours and ours alone, right? We don't have to explain what we have to anybody'.
"Cassie, can you drive?" Marshall asked me as we walked to the car.
"Yeah, how come?" He chucked me the keys over the car roof and we both got in. He was being very slow in his actions, even taking a while to reply.
"I took some Vicodin, didn't think it would be a good idea to drive" he mumbled as he stared out the window. I sighed to myself, pulling out of the garage and onto the main road. I couldn't care less if Marshall took drugs whilst performing or at a club, because I did to, but when it was day to day use, that concerned me.
"Why'd you take it?" I asked calmly, trying to stop my true emotions from seeping into my voice.
He turned to look at me but I kept my eyes on the road, smoothly changing the gears. "You know I hate this photo shoot shit, it relaxes me" he drawled. "Why, you care?"
"As long as your safe I don't mind".
"Well I am" he replied shortly and faced the window again.
"Your annoyed at me ?" I asked as I pulled into the warehouse car park, the location of the photo shoot.
"Nah" he sighed. "I'm just stressed out of my fucking mind. Sorry" he lightly kissed my hand, instantly making me feel better. We walked into the premise together, with me careful to keep a reasonable distance between us. I wanted to look like his employee, nothing else. I'd never been on the set of a photo shoot before and it was interesting to see the other side of the industry I worked in. The bright invasive lights and cameras set up were enough to make me feel nervous- and I wasn't even going to be in front of them. I understood why Marshall took a 'relaxer', even though it worried me. The room was crowded with people, who all immediately halted once they saw Marshall. Weren't these people meant to be professional? A hoard of people swamped us and instantly began fussing over him, telling him where to go and what to do. We were both rushed to his dressing room, even though I received some odd looks. I could tell exactly what these people were thinking; "Who is this groupie?"
I sat on the couch whilst he sat in the chair by the mirror, ready to be made up. "Did you see the way those people were looking at me?" I asked, making Marshall look up from his phone.
"No, how?"
"Judgmentally. They all just think I'm just sleeping with you".
"Well technically you are" he flashed me a quick grin and reclined in his chair with his knee up.
"Oh you like that huh?" I joked raising my eyebrows at him. He laughed softly and stuck his tongue into the side of his cheek, whilst I poked mine out at him.
We both jumped in our seats and spun around as the door was dramatically flung open. "Cassie!" a cheerful voice that could only belong to one person screamed. Suddenly I was being swamped by a petite body and the air was being squeezed out of my lungs.
"Hey Zoey" I chuckled, returning her hug.
"Oh, I missed you! How was your trip?" she jumped off me and dug into her makeup bag, absentmindedly searching through it whilst grinning at me. This girl was so infectious.
"It was absolutely amazing. I got you a wee gift but I left it at home, you'll have to come around soon".
"Of course! I want to have a good old chat about everything. I have so much stuff to tell you" she gushed.
"Oh hi Zoey" Marshall sarcastically greeted as Zoey began prodding at his face with products. "Don't mind me. I'm happy to see you too" he joked, mimicking her high pitched voice.
"Shut up Marshall, I saw you like two days ago".
"Damn!" he hollered. "No special treatment around here, you'd think Cassie was the megastar" he muttered, pretending to be hurt.
"I'm sorry, Eminem who?" I asked to which he looked at me in mock horror, and then actual horror as Zoey began putting eyeliner on him.
He groaned and squirmed underneath her arm, which was placed firmly on his head to stop him from moving. "Hurry up, that shit hurts".
Marshall soon fell into his joking self on set, vibing with the people and relaxing in front of the camera. That was after he pretended to stab nearly everyone on set including me, with the knife prop he was given. The shoot went without a hitch and he changed into his regular clothes, ready for the interview portion. I sat off to the side, with a front on view of both the interviewer and Marshall. The interviewer dove straight into the questions:
SPIN: "Hey man, thanks for coming down today".
Marshall: "No problem dawg, I've been a fan of SPIN for a while so this is dope".
SPIN: "So how does it feel to be rich, famous and the idol of countless teenagers?"
Marshall: "I always wished for this, but it's almost turning into more of a nightmare than a dream. I mean, everybody wants to ride on my fuckin' coat tails. Everybody's trying to hang on to, wants a piece of my ass. You gotta be careful what you wish for; you just might get it".
SPIN: "What's so bad about being a star?"
Marshall: "I can't go out anymore and play basketball, because everybody knows my fuckin' face. All I really wanted was to have a career in hip hop and now I got to deal with so much shit! There are people coming to my house, knocking on the door. Either they want autographs or they wanna fight. It's fuckin' crazy!"
SPIN: "Not to be smart, but I think you're getting quite an ample compensation for it. Okay, the loss of privacy is hard, but certainly you knew what was coming?"
Marshall: "Nobody really understands the pressures put on me. I'm under so much fuckin' pressure, pressure to always be good, pressure to always be on point. There are so many pressures that go with my job right now. It's crazy. Sometimes I think I do a lot of fuckin' crazy shit but then I don't know what the fuck is normal. My life certainly isn't. Maybe it never was....".
SPIN: "What was your life like before you became famous?"
Marshall: "Before I was famous, when I was just working in Gilbert's Lodge, everything was moving in slow motion. Now it seems like somebody has pressed the fuckin' fast forward button and my life just seems to be rushing by. It sometimes feels like a strange movie, you know, it's all so weird that sometimes I wonder if it is really happening. But I tell you the fuckin' shit feels a lot more real than the good things. That's fuckin' strange!"
SPIN: "Back to the fame side of things, who do you think is more twisted, you or the media? Because you're lyrics are often attacked for their controversial messages".
Marshall: "I think the world is more twisted. The world is fuckin' twisted because the world made me. So when I talk about shit, it ain't as bad as priests raping kids or people having sex with underage women and shit like that. You got all kinds of fucked up shit goin' on like corrupt Politicians and shit like that. All I do a lot of times is talk about it and put it into character. And when I say it, it'll make it seem like I'm makin' it right or OK to do that, or I'm makin' it funny. But really, all I'm doin' is takin' what's wrong with the world and making it into music".
SPIN: "There has been much controversy over your liberal use of the word "faggot" and what people perceive as gay bashing. It's put you right in the line of fire from gay and lesbian groups the world over...".
Marshall: "I'm not gay bashing. People just don't understand where I come from. "Faggot" to me doesn't necessarily mean gay people. "Faggot" to me just means... taking away your manhood. You're a sissy. You're a coward. Just like you might sit around in your living room and say, "Dude, stop, you're being a fag, dude."
SPIN: "But you can see how it would insult homosexuals?"
Marshall: "Yeah, but it does not necessarily mean you're being a gay person. It just means you're being a fag. You're being an asshole or whatever. That's the way that the word was always taught to me. That's how I learned the word. Battling with somebody, you do anything you can to strip their manhood away".
SPIN: "So you're very busy. Currently touring, album out, presumably writing new material whilst still being a dad. Have you ever got time for yourself?"
Marshall: "Not really. I'm so fuckin' busy I ain't got time to stop. I've always got a new project on the way, so it doesn't really leave time for me to enjoy all the success. You know what I'm sayin'?"
SPIN: "So no dating? Were you put off because your divorce was so heavily publicized?"
I snapped my head up from my work laptop at the question. Marshall subtly looked off to the side at me, his eyes searching mine for guidance. I shook my head with the slightest movement and mouthed "No", careful to not draw anymore eyes than the ones already on me. Marshall turned his head back to the interviewer and hesitated, his jaw clenched making the veins in his neck stand out.
Marshall: "Yes and no. I ain't put off by dating, but I know how to keep shit more private now. But, currently I'm not really seeing anyone. I'm just trying to focus on my music at the moment, including the D12 album that's coming out later this year".
SPIN: "Is it that exclusive?"
Marshall: "I guess it is, because my manager is looking at me right now like he's going to kill me".
"Alright thanks for your time Em, that's all the questions". The two shook hands and Marshall walked over to Paul and I, fuming.
"I gotta get outta here before I fucking explode" he growled through clamped teeth. I knew taking Vicodin was a bad idea, it always made his mood swings worse than normal.
"What's happened?" I asked.
"I'm sick of answering the same questions all the fucking time! Eminem why do you hate gay people so much? Do you wish you were black? Who are you dating? It's fucking annoying, I wish they would just ask me about the fucking music!"
Paul coughed nervously and catching both of our attention. "Em, I hate to tell you this but the media is outside waiting for you. I guess they found out you were shooting here somehow".
"God fucking dammit! What the fuck do they even want?" he barked, smoke practically billowing out of his ears.
"Do you want me to try clear them out for you?" Paul asked.
"Nah, I gotta leave now" he shook his head. "You coming?" he directed towards me.
"Should I? I could always catch a ride with Zoey".
"Just fucking come man" he sighed whilst removing his hoodie "Wear this and keep the hood on" he shoved it into my arms and I shakily put it on, overcome with nerves. "Don't answer any of their fucking questions".
"Em, security is ready to escort you out" Paul interjected.
Just like that we were rushed outside, security on either side of us. The amount of paparazzi and journalists was overwhelming to say the least. As soon as we were in sight hundreds of blinding flashes were sent off like bombs. Marshall kept his head low and I followed suit, trying my best to shield my face from the cameras. I did not want to end up on some gossip magazine cover. Questions were hurled at us from all directions, too fast to even take in what they were saying.
"Eminem! Look over here!"
"Who's that pretty lady with you? Is she your new girlfriend?"
"What do you make of all those homophobia allegations? I heard that protesters are going to your concerts now, is that true?"
"How long have you two been dating?"
We jumped into the car and sped off in silence, nearly running over people on the way out. Shit. I should get used to the idea of this, our relationship would be out in no time.
*****
REMEMBER TO PLEASE VOTE AND COMMENT! THANKS! x
Author's note: Yay, SHE FINALLY SAID IT! Even I was freaking out when I wrote it so I hope you guys were freaking out when you were reading it! I waited a loooong time for her to say it but I felt I needed to, to A) stay in her character and B) make it as realistic as possible. And GUYS, the infinite remastered track is so good. I'm so obsessed, it's reignited my love for the entire album. *Btw I don't condone the use of the word f****t at all, I literally just copied and pasted some past interviews of his*.
Question: What do you guys think about the sex scenes? I never know if they are good or not, or if I should go into more explicit detail. I don't want to make you guys feel awkward or anything but I know I can definitely get more detailed if I wanted....lol.
Thanks as always guys! I felt so much love on my last chapter and it made me unbelievably happy. I appreciate you guys so much. All of my loyal voters and commenters I see you! (All ya'll comments have me dying...always thinking they doing the dirty with other people smh...)
(Do you guys even read these?) hahah I just ramble in them...
Much love! x