Six: They wouldn't Dare

If Barry hadn't appreciated before having company in his house he did now. Vanessa had completely froze him out for a whole day. He'd been calling her non stop but it all went straight to voicemail. He wondered if that was some kind of a power play he'd been roped into. Some kind of elaborate plan to make him miss her. If it was, it was working. He hadn't exactly thought it through with his words in his last argument. Its not like he had friends lined up.

Meeting up with his fellow writers would not work. His circle, as expected, was saturated with film makers, all of which would start to suddenly advice him and see an opportunity in his moment of weakness and pick at it subtly. He hated the competition that was always happening, there was never a moment where he could just be. He had to be something, and the thing had to be recognized and approved it was all too much. He'd loved being famous, he really did, but without whatever brought him to the spotlight being right up there with him, it was begin to peel the layers of his being, snapping him into existential crises every five minutes.

If Vanessa did not reach out to him by the end of that day, his only option, embarrassing as it was may have been to go out to the store and get one of his parents many books and hopefully have no one notice him. Not as a celebrity, he was used to that. He just didn't want to be seen anywhere near those books. If that happened, his rock bottom would suddenly be a roof.

He decided, as everyone does when they have a lot of responsibility but no plan to get to them, to distract himself. It wouldn't hurt. He' d label it as taking time for inspiration and it would all be okay. He would make sure to not watch anything written by anyone he knew, that would invevitably be triggering for him. Not that he was jealous of his friend's work...okay he sort of was. But that wasn't usually him. If he just stuck to the reality shows and watch people spew the shit they'd been fed,he could channel all his anger in the form of judgement. Seemed like a perfect solution. Until he switched on the tv and the first thing he saw were his parents.

His heart jumped to the back of his throat and his body froze. That could not be good. They hadn't written another book. If they had, he hoped the title wasn't along the lines of ' How to get your loser son to get hitched so that he doesn't embarass the power couple'. Yes, they would have those books with paragraphs for titles. Aside from the deeply revealing contents, there were so many things wrong with those books but for the right kind of money and popularity anything goes.

It was The Kennedy Walsh show. It mainly centred around lifestyle and ofcourse celebrities coming to 'clear their names' or telling the viewers what they meant when they were going viral for being complete jerks. And he wasn't so far from hitting the nail, the topic was about 'why it's important for celebrities to marry other celebrities'. They'd know all about this .His logic told him to keep looking fo channels, there would be alot of stuff to get mad at on tv so he wouldn't have to be mad at himself. That had been the point, to destruct himself. But it hardly counts as destruction if you're watching your parents talk about you.

But his finger sank on the rubber buttons of his remote, so that the living room was engulfed in the crisp quality audio. He already knew that from watching just this one episode the critic in his head would pick up fresher ways and wider vocabulary to make him feel absolutely worthless but he couldn't help himself.

" You're right. " Kennedy agreed turning towards the couple. Barry found his top half leaning in, waiting for it. That was it, that was the place where it was all about to get shady. " How is it though, that your son Barry Button hasn't introduced us to a special someone yet?"

" You Kennedy to tell you the truth, we have no idea. We certainly hope he's still not in love with his highschool crush. " Mrs Button replied shaking her head and then turned to the camera so that it felt like she was looking right at Barry. His huge tv didn't make it any easier for him. He could just stop now and go do some plotting or fix himself a decent meal. " What are you waiting for. "

"Could it be the fear of abandonment that you mentioned he was displaying characteristics of in your book ' How to parent an unplanned kid'?"

ofcourse Kennedy was a fan. And not just that book all of them had boring titles like that, it was from lack of writing experience at first but it had grown to be their charm in a way. The point apparently, was that everyone had something to say and should come out to say it even though they weren't professional writers. Their fans seemed to accept that. He thought that was the problem with literature, that everything just passed. It would surprise him if it was any different though. It was their thing after all to do so little and make such a fuss out of it till they'd finally make you want it, and you'd think you're getting the real deal when really it's just crumbs of what it should be.

" We worked through those before he even grew to be an adult. He's just too consumed by other things."Mr. Button answered.

His mouth twisted skeptically. Was it possible to work through issues with a person without them knowing?Did they have another child called Barry that he didn't know about ?Because if such a thing had happened surely Barry would remember it. The ridiculousness of this interview was beginning to be entertaining. Only the Buttons could spin trauma into entertainment.

"Do you think that he might be gay by any chance?"

"Absolutely freaking not!" Barry yelled at the TV.

" Absolutely not. " his father responded at the same time too. That might have been the first time they'd ever been on the same page and he pushed the sadness of it all before his emotions got the best of him. He hadn't made it that far into the episode to tap out.The worry in His mom's face and the slight nudge she gave him had him adding more to what he'd said. To piss off the LGBTQ community would be the beginning of the end for them. "We've had discussions with him about these kinds of things. As you know we're very open with each other. "

Yeah, so freaking open every embarrassing thing Barry would do and had done either already was or ran a risk of being imprinted in history through the means of shitty books.

" And we support all kinds of love, we love love!" His father added. Barry felt sick. A fever was creeping on his forehead. This was the worst use of his time.

All kinds of love. Sure thing. Especially unrequited. Or performed. We're the Buttons that annoying or was he just extra irritated? He couldn't tell.

" We were actually just at the place we bought him recently and he was really working hard you guys, you're not going to be ready for his next film. He actually had company..." Then Mrs Button dramatically leaned towards Kennedy's direction and whispered so loud she may have as well just spoken normally. " It was a woman"

" No way! "Kennedy whispered back,his eyes glinting with curiosity. Barry's head dropped to his hands. They had done it. If Kennedy was looking that animated over the possibility of him dating imagine the way the media was going to be after the interview. It seemed like every word they spoke since his name popped up in the mix could be spinned into a catchy title of the blogs. They had taken it upon themselves to out him put there. How was it that they gave him everything except the things he needed?

" It gets better."

His view of the tv was shaky from just how vigorously he was shaking his head. Vanessa had explained this to them. And she was really good at getting to them. The way he'd said it and the timing were both clear proof that he was lying, even a fool could see that. They wouldn't dare. They wouldn't_

"He said he's thinking of getting engaged to her!"Mrs Button bubbled, gripping her husband's arm, unable to contain the excitement from the fictional works they'd managed to rope everyone in. How was it so easy for her to believe something she wasn't even sure was true?

That was it, he'd had enough of the tv. If he watched one more second of it he'd practically enter the tv and strangle them to their deaths. His remote flew from his hand and landed right beside the Tv, getting the flower vase beside it instead. Thomas would be blowing up his phone in a few about this, about ways to spin that situation around. It had already happened. He was already seeing the headlines and the interview offers. It would only be a matter or Time.