FicWad

**************************************

‘Are you sure you want to do this with me. It’s going to get really awkward.’ Grace said as she pulled into her normal parking spot in the parking deck at the office.

‘Honey, we’ll be fine. Let’s go.’ Randy got out of the car before Grace could argue. He pulled the various boxes out of the trunk and started towards the elevator with Grace behind.

‘So is Brendon coming up here after he drops the boys off?’

‘No, I told him not to. He would end up saying something that would make the situation worse. I’m hoping that this does not ruin any relationship between him and Ryan.’

‘We’ll have to see. If it does then it’s not your fault.’

‘I hope not. Ryan is my best friend and if it comes down to it and I have to pick between my husband and my best friend I’m going to have to go with my husband.’

‘Good choice. He’s way hotter.’ Grace laughed as the elevator opened. She walked past Amanda, the receptionist, who gave her a soft smile and a wink.

When she walked into her office, Susan was in measuring and going through the drawers. ‘Excuse me.’ Grace said standing in the door.

‘What are you doing here?’ Susan snapped.

‘I came to clean out my office.’

‘It’s not your office anymore.’

‘Actually, it is. Until I leave this building today it is my office so if you would be so kind and get out.’ Susan glared as she walked out of the office but not before stopping in Grace’s face.

‘You’ve made a huge mistake leaving this company. You’re never going to find a job like this again.’

Grace chuckled softly, ‘You know, you shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds you. Half of this company is mine and once I get done with it you will be lucky if there is a company left.’ Susan glared as she walked out of the office. Randy laughed as Grace slammed the door.

‘This is ridiculous.’ Grace mumbled. Randy began taking various pictures off the walls while Grace began cleaning out her desk.

…Meanwhile…

Brendon dropped the boys off at school, took a crowbar to get Caleb off his leg, and then went to meet the boys at the studio.

‘Hey fellas.’ Brendon said as he walked in, dropping his phone and keys on the table where everyone was sitting around. Everyone was somber and quiet. ‘What’s up?’

Brendon was a little confused as he sat down. ‘Brendon, it’s about time you showed up.’ Ryan was slightly snippy today. Brendon gave him a baffled look before looking at Jon and Spencer. Jon looked a little confused as well.

‘What is going on?’

‘Brendon…what is going on with Grace lately? She’s nuts.’ Brendon chuckled.

‘Ryan, that is an unfair assumption to make. Grace was your best friend long before Holly was your wife. I think it’s unfair to her for you to say something like that. Besides, this is not our argument to have. This is between the girls, not us, we don’t need this to effect our relationship.’

‘I guess you’re right.’ Ryan said, taking a deep breath.

‘The fact is that this is going to be a tough bit for everyone and we just need to let them work it out.’ Who would have guessed Brendon would be the rational one of the group.

‘Grace, your wedding was so beautiful.’ Randy said while he packed a picture frame that held a picture of Grace and Brendon on the beach after their wedding.

‘It was beautiful.’ Grace smiled.

‘When are we meeting with Eric?’

‘This afternoon at 2.’

‘How do you think that is going to go?’

‘Obviously not well if you think that you’re going to bring me down like you do.’ Holly said standing in the doorway. Grace and Randy turned around. Randy glared; Grace turned around and continued putting the picture frames she had into the box. Grace just chuckled ignoring her former friend and business partner. ‘What are you laughing at?’

Grace continued to ignore her until Holly walked over and stood in front of her with her hands on her hips. ‘What the hell are you laughing at?’

Grace stopped and looked at her, ‘I’m laughing at you Holly. I’m not sure if you remember this or not but we signed a contract and this whole situation is drawn out in the contract. You signed it. I signed it. And both of our lawyers have copies of it so yes, I’m going to talk to Eric and if that means that there is no more Chase industries then that sucks for you.’ Grace smiled before she put the lid on the last box. Her office was bare, there was nothing left in it. She shut off her computer after clearing the hard drive, winked at Holly, and followed Randy out of the office and into the elevator.

‘How do you feel?’ Randy asked as they packed up Grace’s SUV.

‘I feel great. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. It’s time for a new start.’ Randy nodded as they got into the car driving out of the parking deck for the last time.

‘What don’t you like about that track?’ Brendon was frustrated with Ryan.

‘It is too pop-ish.’ Ryan said as he set his guitar down.

‘It’s the same kind of track that was on our last album. Why this sudden change?’

‘I just think we should be doing something different.’

‘Ryan, we have this conversation every time we make a record.’ Spencer said cutting in.

‘Well, we should not be making the same albums every time we put one out.’

‘Look, we’re all stressed out. Maybe we just need to take a couple of days off to de-stress.’ Brendon suggested.

‘Maybe you’re right. With everything that is going on between Holly and Grace right now…’

‘No, that has nothing to do with it. We have not gotten anything done on this album in weeks.’

‘Taking a few days off is not going to fix anything. The four of us seem to want two completely different things for this record.’ Ryan said, Jon nodded next to him.

‘So what are you suggesting?’ Brendon was thoroughly confused at this point. The band was about to start a six weeklong tour and Ryan was having a melt down.

‘This just is not working anymore.’ Spencer said.

‘What?!’ Jon said at the same time that Brendon did.

‘We can not make another album together.’

‘Are we breaking up?’

‘I guess so.’ Brendon and Jon just sat there while Ryan and Spencer had the conversation.

‘Wait, wait, wait, we can’t break up!!! We’re Panic at the disco. What about the fans? What about the label? What about the tour we start on in three weeks?’

‘We’ll just have to deal with it.’ Ryan said.

‘I can not believe I’m hearing this.’ Brendon said as he got up from the couch he was sitting on.

‘Bren…’

‘No don’t, I knew this would happen. As soon as something went down between Holly and Grace, you decide to bail. I can’t believe I’m hearing this.’ Brendon was pissed.

‘Brendon, calm down.’ Spencer said.

‘No, no, I’m not going to calm down. This is fucking ridiculous.’ Brendon picked up his keys and left the studio.

Grace backed into the garage and got out of the car, ‘Randy are you hungry?’

‘Starving.’

‘Let’s go inside, I’ll make you some lunch.’ Grace and Randy had been in the house for ten minutes before Brendon came storming in, slamming every door in his path.

‘Baby, what are you doing home?’ Grace asked before she had the bedroom door slammed in her face.

‘Hey Grace, I think I’m going to run home and shower and change before we go meet with Eric.’ Randy said taking Brendon’s cue as one to leave.

‘Alright.’ Grace said only half heartedly as she made her way into the bedroom.

Brendon was pacing in front of the window. Grace could tell he was mad. It wasn’t often that Brendon was so angry that he wouldn’t talk to her but something must have happened.

‘Baby?’

‘It’s a good thing that you quit. Ryan is a douche anyway.’

‘Baby, what happened?’

‘We broke up today.’ Grace looked puzzled.

‘You broke up?’

‘Yes, Grace, we broke up as in we are not longer a band. This is not rocket science.’ Grace wanted to let this roll off her shoulders but Brendon had never spoken to her like that.

‘You know you’re going through a tough time at the moment, I understand that but that is no reason to take it out on me. I was trying to help.’ Grace stood up from where she was and walked into the bathroom slamming the door as she began to go through her closet picking out all of the things that belonged to Holly while she tried to let the anger seep out of her body.

Brendon completely disregarded the shut bathroom door as he charged in and into her closet where she had various hanging items lying on the floor. ‘Don’t you yell at me!’ He said pointing his index finger at her. Grace stood up and turned to look at him.

‘Excuse me?’

‘Don’t yell at me. What is your problem.’

‘I’m trying really hard to be calm here. I don’t have a problem; it seems to be everyone else that has the fucking problem. Brendon you’re an ass and as long as you’re going to act like this, I don’t want to be around you.’ Grace picked up a skirt and button down shit combo and walked out of the closet to change before her meeting with the lawyer.

Grace stomped through the living room and was headed downstairs when the doorbell rang. Brendon was clearly not planning to come out anytime soon. Grace, annoyed beyond belief, was about to get a little bit more annoyed.

‘What do you want Spencer? Are you here to yell at me too?’ Grace asked. She and Spencer had never seen eye-to-eye on anything.

‘Uh…I just came to see Brendon. He left the studio pretty pissed today. I just want to make sure he’s okay.’

‘And by okay, do you mean a total asshole because if that’s what you mean, he’s great.’

‘Uh oh.’

‘He’s in the bedroom.’ Grace let Spencer in and then went downstairs to get ready for her meeting.

‘Hey dude.’ Spencer said walking into the bedroom. Brendon was lying across the bed with a pillow over his head. His raised his arm and then let it fall to the bed. ‘So…’

‘I’m an asshole.’ He mumbled from under the pillow.

‘What?’

‘Grace is in this middle of this ridiculous thing with Holly. She’s about to lose her best friend. She’s stressed. I yelled at her and I’m pretty sure I’ve made her cry.’

‘Well, why don’t you go talk to her and then come back up here and talk to me.’ Spencer suggested, although he and Grace had never gotten along, he had a lot of respect for her because of how great of a person she was.

Brendon lay there for a minute before he got up and walked out of the room. Spencer flopped down on the bed and turned on the TV dropping his shoes to the floor as the two big puppies jumped up on the bed.

Brendon walked down the stairs and into one of the guest rooms, Grace was in the bathroom, Brendon peaked around the corner and watched her for a second. She was in the middle of taking her make up off to reapply it. She was standing in her button down white short and her boy shorts…his favorite outfit.

‘Baby?’

‘Brendon, I don’t want to talk to you right now.’

‘Then just listen okay?’ Brendon said down on the toilet seat behind her. ‘I’m sorry; I did not mean to yell at you. I’m a little overwhelmed with what happened today. There is so much stuff that is changing at the moment, it’s just overwhelming, I did not mean to take it out on you. I’m sorry baby.’

‘Brendon, you’re not the only one that is going through something. I needed you and you just yelled at me. And it wasn’t that you yelled at me, it was what you said.’ Brendon reached up and took her hand bringing her back to stand in front of him. He put his hands on her hips.

‘Baby, I love you so much.’

‘I love you, too, Brendon, you should be able to vent to me but venting does not mean taking out all of your anger on me.’

‘I think I am just so stressed out about everything.’ Grace ran her fingers through her hair.

‘Honey, everything is going to turn out all right.’

‘Do you want to go out to dinner tonight? We can take the boys to my parent’s house. It can just be us tonight…romantic dinner out.’

‘I would like that.’ Grace smiled. Brendon brought her down into a kiss and smiled slightly.

Maybe the drama was letting up.