The Second Coming || Guns N Roses, Bon Jovi, David Bowie

The Second Coming: Fourteen

"Callie? Are you okay?"

I tore my gaze away from Erin's and peered up at Jon, clearing my throat several times.

"Um, yeah... I-I'm... t-totally f-fine... I-I'm just gonna... go over there... and g-get us something non-alcoholic to d-drink, okay? You... y-you stay here."

"Um... okay," Jon agreed, narrowing his eyes at me. He could tell something was wrong, but at least he was nice enough not to call me out on it.

I turned to the table again. "Um... thanks for coming, y-you guys."

Stevie must've known what was wrong as well- his eyes were sad and round. I got some kind of sick pleasure out of the fact that Stevie's eyes were prettier and clearer than Erin's, but that only lead me to hate myself even more.

I sped over to the refreshment section, a series of tables managed by even more waiters. I took a glass of reddish liquid and smelled it. I knew immediately that it was wine and drank it anyway. It warmed me from the inside out, the slightly bitter taste distracted me from my even more bitter reality.

I stood there in front of the table with my eyes closed, drinking and drinking from my glass until it was empty. I licked the excess liquid from my lips and opened my eyes to reach for another glass, but before I could take one I locked eyes with someone across the room.

It was Cap, with an almost identical glass of wine in his hand. He looked as elegant as ever in a suit and tie, perfectly gelled blonde hair. He stared at me so intensely, I couldn't look away.

Jess was standing beside him, talking up a group of avid admirers. Of course everyone in the room was pining to meet the president-elect of the United States, there was even a camera man standing behind him.

Cap whispered something to him, and Jess turned to look.

"Oh, Callie! Come over here, sweetie! Your documentary crew is here."

I turned quickly and cursed to myself, and set the glass on the table again. I groaned inwardly- there was no way I wanted to come face to face with Cap again, but it was inevitable. I had to get it out of the way.

I plastered on a pleasant expression and stiffly made my way over to Jess.

He enveloped me in a paternal hug, and turned back toward his crowd of admirers. "As you already know, this is my daughter Callie. She's in the ad for the new fragrance, but you already knew that."

"Yeah, hi. Jess... and Cap, could I talk to you guys alone?"

Jess cleared his throat. "Yes, of course. I'll catch up with you nice folks later tonight, okay?"

I lead Jess away from the crowd by the hand, with Cap awkwardly following behind. The camera followed us at first until I peered over Jess's shoulder with irritation. "Alone means alone. Could you... find someone else to watch for a few minutes?"

After he was gone I turned to Jess again.

"How are you doing, Callie? You've been out for a few days, I'm sure you've got plenty of stories to tell. I wanna hear all about it, what's been going on?"

I smiled politely, and nodded. "Yeah, I've been up to a lot. There's actually... someone I'd like you to meet. He's here tonight."

I looked over my shoulder toward the table. Everyone was sitting awkwardly, drinking a lot, and engaging in forced small talk.

"Someone?" Jess raised both eyebrows.

"Now I don't think that's necessary," Cap commented, to my annoyance.