Sky follows him on twitter - because he’s honestly a little scared of what would happen if he didn’t - and, honestly, the kid seems a little delusional. He DMs Skylar all the time, just wanting to talk about his day, or to hit on him, or to tell him that he’s watched a new TGE video or heard a new song. Sky wants to block him, but he made the mistake of unfollowing him once, and the threats he received in his @replies (and the follow-up letter) were almost unbearable; it was just easier to follow him again to keep the peace.
But, as freaky as it is, it’s manageable-
-until it isn’t.
When they start touring again, he shows up at the first concert. Skylar doesn’t actually see him, but he sees the tweets, the accusations that he’d ignored him intentionally, and he tweets the boy back to apologize, to say he must have just missed him, but thanks for coming to the show. He thinks that will be enough, that it won’t become an issue, but he’s wrong. He’s at the next show, too, and the one after that, and Sky ends up talking to him both times when he and the boys stop to talk to fans on their way back to the bus. They take a photo together - a real one, finally - and, again, Skylar hopes it will be enough.
It’s not, it never is, and it only gets worse from there. The boy shows up at every show for the next two weeks, and he’s only getting more and more agitated. He’s rude and belligerent to the rest of the band, as well as to the other fans, and, even worse, he threatens Caelan when he comes over to keep an eye on Skylar. That’s the last straw for Sky, and, that night, he talks to their security team, who promises that they’ll handle it, and, for a while, they do. Skylar doesn’t see the boy again for a while, and he’s more careful about the fan letters he reads, and he blocks the boy on twitter. After a few weeks, he starts to think it’s over.
He’s wrong.
The band is just shy of two months into the tour when everything goes to Hell. Somehow, the boy gets backstage at one of their shows, manages to corner Sky alone in one of the bathrooms, and Skylar is scared. He doesn’t like to use it as an insult, but the guy is crazy. He keeps going on and on about how they’re supposed to be together, and how Cae is only going to hurt him like he did before, and how he doesn’t understand why Skylar doesn’t see that, and Skylar doesn’t know what to do. He tries to be placating, doesn’t want to be that guy who beat up a fan, but everything he says only seems to make the boy angrier and more aggressive. He catches Sky reaching into his back pocket for his phone and he takes it from him, smashing it against the counter, and Skylar flinches away from him.
He’s too scared to scream, at first, uncertain if the boy has any sort of weapons on him, but when he tries to kiss him, Skylar decides to risk it. Everything happens really fast after that; the boy hits him, knocks his head back against the wall, and everything blurs out for a while. He remembers hands on his hips and breath on his face, and he hears shouting when he comes back to, and there’s someone at his side, and two more bodies in front of them; it takes him a few seconds to recognize his bandmates. Topher is practically growling, even as their security team manages to subdue the assailant, but he stops when Skylar whimpers. Three pairs of eyes turn to him, then, and he tries to sit up, clinging to his fiance for support. He doesn’t realize he’s crying until Cae brushes away the tears on his face, and the four of them sit in fearful silence for a while as Skylar tries to calm himself down.
They always dreamed of making it big, but they never imagined it would be like this.