What She's Doing Now (Sequel to The Great Pretenders)

For The First Time

By The Script

But we're gonna start by
Drinking old cheap bottles of wine,
Sit talking up all night,
Saying things we haven't for a while
A while, yeah,
We're smiling but we're close to tears,
Even after all these years,
We just now got the feeling that we're meeting for the first time

As the crew began to disassemble the set after the show, Matt sat at the organ that they bring out for Critical Acclaim that also doubled as a piano in case the spirit moved them to play Fiction which hadn't made it to the Hail To the King setlist yet. Lucy managed to find him and dragged a stage chair next to the piano where he was playing some sad tune that seemed to be of his own making. He stopped when she sat down.

"That was nice," she said quietly looking him up and down and noticing his misery "Very nice. What was that?"

"Years of piano lessons finally paying off, I guess," he replied. "That was just something I threw together a while back. Back when Jimmy was around. He was a better player than I am but it was always nice to be able to play together."

"You play pretty good," she offered.

"Where's Berry? Shouldn't you two be flirting it up somewhere?" he asked a hint of sarcasm in this tone.

She shook her head at his jealousy with a slight smile. "You drunk?"

"I don't know," he said flashing his dimples, his eyes bloodshot "but you both look very beautiful."

"Thanks, I think. The show was great tonight," she chuckled softly "So why the long face?"

"Job requirement," he nodded as his long fingers danced across the ivories"Happy piano players work the circus."

"I think you're taking the situation with Charlie entirely too hard."

"You think?" he asked seriously "I mean that guy...he was too old for her."

"She knows that," Lucy replied "She was just seeing how far she could push you. She's going to do that occasionally. She's a teenager...not a little kid so she already has a personality. She's set in her ways. Its going to take some time for you both to get used to each other. That's part of being a parent."

He took a large sip of his beer "Oh yeah? Well I didn't get the handbook."

She laughed again "Me either. It's a learn as you go process. And frankly if you're going to get drunk every time she pisses you off then you're going to have a drinking problem in no time. You've got to learn to shake it off."

"Thank you, Taylor Swift," he muttered. "Where are the girls anyway?"
"Kate and Brian challenged Johnny and Zacky to a guitar hero battle that Arin is officiating...and Charlie is on the second bus talking poor Chris' ear off about how terrible it is to have two parents gang up on her."

"Fuck," he muttered.

"Seriously, Matt," she said "She just needs to cool off. So do you. You can't get crazy every time a guy talks to her. You've got to learn to trust her. And you can't take her anger personally. You've just got to distract yourself until she comes around."

"The new Halo isn't out yet," he mumbled, trying to be funny.

She pretended to calculate "Four months and Halo 5 Guardians will be released. You'll be home free."

He looked at her amazed for knowing. Val not only wouldn't know, she wouldn't care. "So you want to go back to my bunk with me?"

She shook her head "You're married, so no."

"I'm actually separated," he reminded her "And I just had to ask. Seemed to go with the moment.To be perfectly honest, I'm not the least bit attracted to you."