The B Side - Update + Part One (Patreon)

Exciting news - I am able to publish The B Side come September! It will be out September 8 :)

In celebration, I'm posting the first part here!

(also, as a side note, I did push out the zoom as long as I felt I could before getting this clarification today. But the zoom is going to stay set for August 29, as I'm working with Carrie's availability)

One

Juliet’s very chemical make-up felt like it was imploding, but her hands were steady.

Somehow, that combination both made no sense and was the only thing that did make sense right now, as she and Darcy left through the hallway that was set up backstage, just for the fair. The temporary crossover was long and boxy, almost dizzying, and the exit in the distance would spit them out right near the back of Harrison’s mansion. Which, in turn, would leave them with a very short walk to their car.

That was where she needed to go. She wanted to take Darcy out of here, away from this place. She wanted to get away from this place, for good. Forever.

She’d done it.

This moment that she’d thought about, fantasized about, been terrified of for so long. It had happened.

She’d kissed Darcy on stage. She’d officially come out.

She could still hear the fallout from the crowd, even though they were decently far away now, and enclosed in here. She knew she couldn’t because it was impossible, but she swore she could hear the explosion happening on the internet. The pictures and videos and announcements of what she and Darcy had just done. The buzz that it was going to stir up already seemed so loud; it was echoing through Juliet’s very being.

“Juliet,” Darcy’s voice was low, echoing around them slightly, mingling with the echo of their footsteps. “Do you want to take a beat?”

“No.” She only allowed herself to pause for a second as she turned to look at Darcy. Mostly for herself, just to take her in. Take in those green eyes and those pouty lips and the steady love she could feel pouring out from her. And with that love, she could also feel Darcy’s amazement and her concern over what had just happened.

Which – was fair.

“Let’s take a beat when we get out of here,” she added. “I’ve never been able to breathe here. And I want to fucking breathe.”

Funny, because Harrison’s property was so damn big, and so much of it was beautiful, natural, open nature. But because it belonged to him, it was oppressive to her. Every breath she’d ever taken on this estate felt weighed down by him.

“Deal,” Darcy agreed, squeezing her hand.

And, in true Darcy fashion, she walked a little faster, tugging Juliet along, until they burst through the door, out into the night air.

Only for Juliet’s inhale to be abruptly, sharply cut off when she felt a clawing grip on her arm, yanking her back so sharply, she had to release Darcy’s hand to move with the motion, or it was likely her arm would be dislocated.

She knew it was Harrison even before she saw him, his grip remaining tight and bruising on her upper arm as she came face-to-face with him.

His cheeks were a deeper red than she’d ever seen, the vein in his forehead visible, and even with the pain shooting down her arm, she’d never felt so fucking satisfied at having been the cause.

For all of the pain he’d caused her, she relished seeing him suffer in any way, especially at having caused it.

“What the fuck was that about?!” His voice was so loud, it echoed above the din of the general fair sounds in the night air. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

“Don’t touch her,” Darcy bit out, a fire in her eyes as she stepped forward and placed herself angled in front of Juliet, reaching for Harrison, her hands in tight fists.

Some of Juliet’s satisfaction dropped, her eyes snapping to track Darcy’s movements as if in slow-motion.

Juliet’s heart leapt to her throat – uh, no. No, the fuck not.

She grabbed Darcy’s wrist with her free hand and tugged her back. From the physical signs of his anger and with how rough he’d been with her, it would probably take nothing for him to get physical with Darcy.

And she didn’t have a clue what would come over her if that happened. But she knew she’d see red, and she knew the best thing for her was to be as controlled as possible right now. If she went totally unhinged and berserk on Harrison, she knew without a doubt the future free of him wouldn’t be possible. Not with Mr. Litigious.

She tried to pull her arm from his grasp, but it felt like she was locked in by some sort of machine. “Let go of me.” Even if Harrison didn’t answer, it felt so good to be able to bark an order out at him without being afraid of whatever would come next.

He did not. Instead, he shook her, making her teeth clack together.

Still, she kept her hand firmly on Darcy, and she could feel Darcy literally vibrating, ready to pounce. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Darcy whip out her phone. “I’m calling the police. That’s assault.”

“Go ahead and call Jed; I’d love to see him,” Harrison spat back, referencing one of his best buds, Jed Atkinson, the sheriff.

Still, though, he loosened his grip enough that Juliet was able to wrench her arm away from him. He’d turned to focus on Darcy more than her, though, jabbing his finger at her, pointing at her face.

“Listen, little girl, I can do whatever the hell I want here. You’re on my property. You’re at an event I paid for. That little stunt you two pulled was on my stage, with my name attached. You keep your mouth shut right now. I knew you were trash from the moment I saw you. This–” He broke off with a snort, his eyes dark and glittering as he inched closer to Darcy. “This was all your fucking influence, huh? I should have known you had something up your sleeve. Hanging around for the last year, not making your own music. This–”

The rage – this fury that felt like a living, breathing creature inside of her – directed at Harrison wasn’t new. It was so familiar to her that it had a home in her soul. But she’d always had to push it back, chain it down into the cage it belonged in when it tried to fly out of her in the past.

This time, she didn’t swallow it down, didn’t try to silence it. Because she didn’t have to.

Instead, she reached out and shoved at the wrist he had outstretched in Darcy’s direction. Mostly because she could see so clearly in her mind how he might reach out and take it farther.

Juliet, unlike Darcy, was not well-versed in physical altercation. She much preferred emotional and mental tactics if the need arose, but she couldn’t deny it felt good.

When Harrison rounded on her again, she angled her chin up at him as she stated, “Darcy had nothing to do with this.”

Darcy would stick up for her in an instant. Juliet knew that she didn’t have to say a word here, and Darcy would support her, would defend her, would lead her out of here.

She’d never had that kind of steady, stable, trustworthy love before.

But she didn’t want Harrison’s ire focused on Darcy. For the first time, she wanted it on her.

“Oh, really,” Harrison drawled, crowding her in that way he’d always loved. Making a point of caging her in, making her really feel how much slighter and shorter than him she was. “You were in a relationship with Robbie for how long, and then this worthless–”

Juliet had no control of the way the words flew from her mouth, the fire raging through her veins. “I’ve been fucking women since long before I knew Darcy.” She scoffed, an angry sound that scraped roughly at her throat on the way out. “You really thought you’ve known about everything I’ve ever done. And that made you feel really powerful, huh? Made you feel like you knew everything about me, that you had me under your thumb in every way. You think just because you’ve controlled my career, you’ve had any idea what goes on in my private life? You don’t have a damn clue. You never have.”

She’d always held onto that. Held onto the fact that even though Harrison pulled so many strings at Copper Canyon, he couldn’t pull any when it came to her. This one thing, her sexuality, was all hers, and she’d wanted to throw it in his face for so long.

And it was everything she’d ever hoped for.

The way his eyes widened, then narrowed.

The way he opened his mouth, then closed it.

Like he couldn’t wrap his head around what she was saying. If she knew Harrison – and she did – it wasn’t even her sexuality that necessarily fazed him. It was that she’d always been this way and that she’d acted on it, without him ever suspecting.

Oh, that was going to eat at him for a very long time.

Satisfaction worked through her in a way she’d known would feel good, but couldn’t have feasibly known how good it would feel. Not until she saw it. Like she was filled with a kind of empowerment she’d never known.

“That’s – I know every inch of your contract with Copper Canyon; you can’t–”

“I can. And I did. Because I’m a lesbian, and no contract – not with you, not with a record label – can change that.”

It took him a few seconds to attempt to regain control over the situation. “I’ve already contacted my legal team the second you pulled that shit on stage, Juliet. Trying to pull my name through the mud, trying to sling the shitstorm that’s headed your way onto me? Not happening.”

“I’ve also been working with my legal team for months. Which is how I know for a fact that there’s finally no recourse you can take. That ‘shit’ I pulled? My contract with you and my contract with Copper Canyon is officially over. I can kiss whoever I want, wherever I want. Darcy is my…”

Girlfriend didn’t even feel like enough. Definitely not right now, not with the enormity of what they’d just done together.

“My partner,” she settled on, because that was precisely what Darcy felt like to her. At this moment especially. “You can get really used to seeing our names and faces splashed everywhere, together.” Juliet wasn’t even sure she was prepared for the sheer amount of publicity coming their way, but right now certainly wasn’t the time for her to go down that road in her mind. Not when she needed to drive her point home, to twist the knife into Harrison even deeper. “And you know what? All of the people who are inevitably going to have a problem with my sexuality? They’re going to think about all of those ads I’ve done for you, all of the manipulation you put in using my name, my face, my fame… I guess that’s going to come back for you now.”

She could see the moment the truth of what she said clicked for him, the way his entire body tensed even more, the way his jaw clenched. And his fists.

Because the thing that mattered the most to Harrison was money. Second to that was his image. And Juliet had just threatened them both in a way she couldn’t, and wouldn’t, take back.

“Harrison!” Her mom’s voice echoed through the night air as she burst through the door between them, out of breath.

She’d likely run through the backstage area trying to find them, before realizing that Juliet had no intention of sticking around.

Juliet couldn’t see her, because she refused to turn her head. She refused to look away from Harrison.

She’d spent so long doing that, both literally and metaphorically. He’d held the power for so long, for her entire fucking life from the moment he’d entered it, and she’d had to bow to him.

And she definitely wasn’t going to do it now, when he was the closest he’d ever come to really getting violent with her.

Maybe she’d be the one walking out of here with a big lawsuit.

“Did you know about this?” He hissed at her mom, not taking his eyes off of her.

“Don’t bring her into this,” Juliet immediately pushed back. “You know you control every part of her life. Just the way you like it.”

Not only did her mom know, but she’d been more present for Juliet in the last year and a half than she’d been since before Harrison. She’d come to visit multiple times, and she invited actual conversations to be held.

But Juliet was going to walk away from here tonight and leave Harrison behind. It was different for her mom.

“I made you. Gave you everything. Only for you to turn around and be an ungrateful, spiteful little bitch.” In the past, his words – and the way he pulled his fist back, almost like he was getting ready to strike – would have made her flinch.

“I swear to god, if you touch her, I will kill you, and I don’t care about what happens after,” Darcy promised, her voice low and genuinely menacing.

Juliet loved that about her.

“Harrison!” Her mom snapped, alarm in her voice.

The only moment of the night that actually surprised Juliet, however, was when she heard Harry’s voice, “Dad?! You – you can’t hit a girl! You can’t hit Juliet!”

At fourteen, his puberty-stricken voice broke halfway through his exclamation. And this time, Juliet did turn to look, and so did Harrison. Both of her brothers had seemingly followed their mom out and were standing several feet away, their eyes wide.

She could tell Harrison hadn’t expected them, either. Nor had he expected Wade, one of the event managers, who’d seemed to follow the commotion, standing in the doorway from the crossover, watching everything play out.

Harrison leaned back, pulling sharply away from her.

For the first fucking time, it wasn’t Juliet who had to give way, who had to give in. And it felt so. Damn. Good.

“Get your ass in the house,” he snarled at her. “We’re starting damage control starting now.”

“No,” she stated, no room for an argument in her tone. “There’s no we, Harrison. Contact your legal team all you want; it’s all done.”

With that, she reached out, offering her hand once again to Darcy.

Right in front of Harrison, in front of everyone.

Darcy didn’t hesitate to slot her fingers through Juliet’s, holding tightly. Giving Juliet something to grasp, something to help her feel grounded and remind her that this was real life.

“If you leave like this, everything is about to get very unpleasant for you,” Harrison threatened.

“Your presence in my life has been the most unpleasant experience I could ever imagine. Whatever happens next can’t be worse,” she shot back, as she and Darcy started walking.

The only look she spared back was for her mom, who was staring right back at her. And somewhere inside, it made Juliet ache the tiniest bit. Because she didn’t know when she’d be talking to her mom again, and it was right on the other side of them having mended something broken.

But she couldn’t – wouldn’t – stop for that.

Her mom gave her a nearly imperceptible nod, and Juliet thought that the look on her face was something akin to pride. She couldn’t be sure, but… she thought so.

It wasn’t until they were in the car, the partition put up, heading back to their hotel, that any of her adrenaline started to fade.

She melted against the seat; her face felt so hot, and her stomach was keyed up into knots.

“We came out,” she whispered. Both for herself and for Darcy.

“Yeah,” Darcy quietly affirmed. She reached out and very gently swiped a lock of Juliet’s hair behind her ear. “That was… unexpected.”

Juliet snapped her eyes to Darcy’s. “Was it not okay? We’ve been talking about it a lot.”

They’d talked so much about the end of her contractual obligations and what it would be like. But they’d never settled on the best way. Should it be formal, in an interview? Should it be something like what they just did? Should they just stop making a point of hiding their physical affection in public and let people speculate?

Darcy’s stare was dialed in, locked onto her, and the most calming thing was how her lips curled into a soft smile. “It was definitely okay. I was just taken by surprise.”

The thing was, Juliet hadn’t been one hundred percent sure she was going to be able to go through with it. Not until she’d been up on that stage. She’d had the idea, had the plan, but… but it was the biggest thing she’d ever done in her life.

“I didn’t want to tell you and let you down if I backed out,” she admitted. “I thought, since you’ve said you’re ready for this, that you wouldn’t be upset.”

“And I’m not upset,” Darcy affirmed again. “I’m… impressed. And proud. And honored. And – is it weird that I’m a little turned on? Even after all of that?”

“No,” she answered immediately, sliding her gaze down to Darcy’s lips. Those perfect fucking lips, a mouth that Juliet was now convinced was meant for her and only her.

The adrenaline combined with the comedown combined with the future of it all was truly a heady mixture, swiftly flowing through Juliet’s veins.

And with it, she pushed herself up, slinging a leg over Darcy’s thighs. She felt Darcy’s hands curl around the backs of her own thighs, gripping tightly, as Juliet firmly pushed herself down against her lap.

It really was her and Darcy against the world right now.

Perhaps that shouldn’t be as arousing as it felt, but it was.

She reached up, gripping a handful of Darcy’s hair, using her grasp to tug Darcy’s head back. Eyes locked on each other, as she leaned in. Not yet kissing Darcy, but their lips so close.

“You and me, Thief.”

Darcy started to return the sentiment, but Juliet’s mouth descended, swallowing the words. She didn’t need to hear them aloud. And, in a way, that only made her burn hotter.

She didn’t know what the future held, what was going to come next, but she knew Darcy was hers. The world knew Darcy was hers.

Scratching her fingers against Darcy’s scalp, she took in the needy gasp Darcy released, letting it filter through her body.

If the world was going to be on fire right now, she was exactly where she wanted to be.

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