Falling Capricorn (9 page)

“So many people are always knocking on your door when I’m here," Kat pointed out, watching as Christen checked who it was before opening it. Eric practically fell through the door onto Christen. He hugged her closely, and then stood back to stare at her. Kat noticed right away and cracked a joke. “Are you drunk? You seem to be all over the place.”

“Drunk? Nah, nope. Not at all, Kat." Eric turned to Christen's friend . “You’re looking good, though. I hope school is going great for you.” Kat eyed Eric closely. He didn’t have the same educated air to his voice like she was used to. Instead, he had a rather cheery, bright look and sound to him. Kat was a bit weirded out by this. She was especially put off by the fact that he was being nice to her.

“Okay then, well, how about drugs? What kind of drugs are you on?” Kat narrowed her eyes glaring at him. He responded with a laugh and a roll of his eyes.

“I share with you that I am sober. I am just in a really good and excited mood,” Eric smiled brightly. Kat looked at Christen who shrugged. It was strange to see Eric like this, but Christen wasn’t going to complain. She liked him that way, honestly. Deep down there was a small tug in her heart at the way he was acting. Joey… that was who he reminded her of.  It caused her to get a small smile.

“Riiiiiight.” Kat's eye twitched. Something seemed wrong to her. “Well, why are you here anyways, Eric?” she asked, trying to get over his bizarre change in personality.

“Yeah, welllll, had to give Christen something back.” Eric took Christen’s hand with a warm and soft look in his eyes. She nearly lost all of her breath as he gazed at her. The look was so familiar that it nearly brought tears to her eyes. A tear did manage to slip out once she looked down at her hand. He had placed the ring into her palm.

“The ring!” she exclaimed. “Why did you take that out of his coffin?!” She didn’t know if she was upset or relieved that he had gotten it. By the facial expression Kat was giving her, however, she was supposed to be upset.

“Because Joey wouldn’t have wanted you to just throw it into his grave. He would have wanted you to keep it as a precious keep-sake of you and him. Why are you so hasty to let him go?” Eric curled her fingers around the ring. “He loved you, you do know this, right?”

“Of course!” she yelped. “How could you even ask such a question, Eric? I loved him with all my heart and soul, as he did me. No one will say anything otherwise!” She shook her head at what he said. The pain in her heart felt brand new again.

“Then keep the ring,” he told her with a slightly childish grin, kissing her cheek. Kat stared in shock at Eric, now. This was getting way too strange for her. She was witnessing what seemed like Joey’s twin.  Chills ran down her neck. She was feeling extremely uncomfortable and wanted him to leave, so she thought of an excuse.

“Hey, we were about to go to bed Eric,” she hinted to him. Eric glanced at the clock on the wall and sighed. He thought of how annoying it was that Eric had to live so far away from Christen.  It made time go by so fast. It was getting pretty late. He wasn’t about to make them stay up any longer than they had too.

“Oh, I see. Well, I wanted to just drop that off for Christen. I will let you girls get some sleep now. Good night, ladies. Sweet dreams.” He gave Christen a nice, long hug before waving back to Kat. He left with that. After Christen closed the door, she leaned against it staring at the ring.

“Well, that was extremely bizarre; I still bet he was drunk.” Kat was unamused as she crossed her arms over her chest. Something wasn’t right. She had a gut feeling. She looked over at Christen and thought to herself, "I’m going to need to keep a better watch on that Eric boy, and Christen."

Chapter 5

"Today is the day," Christen thought as she painted her lips with her red lip stick. Today was the day Eric would be showing off her art work. He had made such a big deal about her being a fantastic up and coming artist to his business partners and to the visitors. She didn’t know why he made it into such a big scene, but she knew one thing; lots of people were going to be there. She was finally sharing her art with the world. Although this was so very exciting for her, she couldn't help but think of Joey. She wished he could be standing right next to her for the whole thing.

Eric had schooled Christen on the phone. He wanted her to look her best. His reasoning was that to gain entry into this society, she had to look as beautiful as her own work. She spun around in her black slick dress which was long, but slit up the leg It demurely shared what her pale skin looked like. It took her five times, but eventually she got her hair up in a perfect bun. She did her black eye liner and mascara in the mirror, fixing any tiny mistake that happened to show. She was instructed to look absolutely stunning. She placed a light coat of black eye shadow on her eye, giving her a mysterious look.

She followed the instructions Eric had given her. In the end, she was quite pleased with her work. She looked at the heels that she was to wear. They were elegant and fit perfectly.  She went outside and hailed a taxi. She was a bit anxious, but in the back of her thoughts, she could see Joey smiling at her which warmed her heart.

While she sat in the car, her thoughts started swimming around in her head as she played with the necklace where the ring hung. Soon she would be arriving and Eric would be right by her side to help her at any whim, but memories of painting and drawing for Joey still flashed in her mind. A rogue tear suddenly slipped from her eye.

“I miss you love. I wish you were here to see this.”

Eric sighed, fixing his tie right outside the art gallery. "She better not be late," he thought, shuddering at the thought of her making all these people wait. He was not worried about Christen, but rather, Roxie. The main show girl still hadn’t shown up. He hoped that their fight didn’t just make her jump on a plane out of town. He was sure she’d do it if she was mad enough.

“You look so worried.” Eric spun around and looked at Kat with narrowed eyes. He finished fixing his red tie, before smoothing out his black tux as he looked at her. He made sure the mysterious bottle that had appeared in his room was tucked deeply in an inside pocket.

“What are you doing here?” he asked, with an aloof tone.

“It’s my best friend's work being shown here. Why wouldn’t I be coming to see her art being hung in a fancy gallery?” she asked him. She shrugged with a derisive smirk.

“True enough,” he muttered.

“Stop smoothing out your tux,” she told him as he was still fidgeting about. Was he nervous? She ran a hand through her curled blonde hair. Her blue dress was nice and tight, matching her blue shoes. “I actually do have two questions for you. Number one, why are you all of a sudden being Prince Charming to Christen?" She watched him for a reaction as he continued primping. "Number two, I heard that you gave her this job right after she quit school. That seems a bit strange to me. Why?” she asked him, glancing at him through the corner of her eye. She fixed her white sweater over her shoulders as she waited for an answer.

This girl was starting to become a lot more troubling then he wanted her to be. She was starting to ask questions he wasn't prepared to answer, even to himself. He decided to respond truthfully, or at least as true as he could.

“For Joey of course. I made a promise to Joey that I would take care of his girl, and that I would treat her as he would have liked. Why are you asking me these things? Is what I’m doing a crime?” he asked her smoothly. Kat narrowed her eyes looking at him. He was hiding something, she knew he was.

“I was just curious is all, you know how best friends can be. We can get rather protective. You won’t need to keep Christen company this evening, by the way. I have that handled. You just… you hang around that show girl who tickles your fancy,” she tells him, before walking back inside. “What is it you are hiding?” Kat mumbled as she walked back inside.

 Christen arrived. Eric took her arm and led her inside. He started explaining to her the details of the evening. “Once the showgirls finish their performance in the theater, people will start heading into the main hall. At the end, when most people have gathered there, the unveiling will take place." They entered the main hall. “For now though, enjoy yourself.” He spotted Kat and walked Christen to her. “Here you go Kat.”

Kat smiled and gave Christen a big hug. “I’m so proud of you! Joey would be proud of you too,” Kat told her sweetly. Christen smiled brightly and hugged Kat back.

“You have no idea how much that means to me, Kat. Thank you for being here.” Christen felt tears sting at her eyes, but she wouldn’t cry. Not there in front of everyone.

“Well you have fun for the moment girls. I have something I need to take care of,” he said like a gentleman before walking away.

Eric moved around socializing with his big-time players. He had to make sure he talked to all the important people to get on their good side. He got to talking to most of them, but he noticed a few showgirls acting panicky. He dismissed himself politely, and went to see what the problem was. “What’s wrong ladies?” he asked smoothly.

“Oh Eric.” One of the girls nearly threw herself at him, but he didn’t complain as she felt up his arm.

“Roxie isn’t here yet,” the other girl cooed sadly. “Without Roxie, we can’t perform.”

“And out of all the days to be late, she picks one of the biggest moments for a young artist’s career. How selfish,” the girl pawing his arm said dramatically.

“Don’t worry.” Eric told them. “I will call her and she will be here in no time. Believe me.” He gave them both a professional smile, taking his arm back. He walked away waving a hand behind his head. “Start getting ready! The show will go on.”

Eric walked close to the entrance before pulled out his phone and calling Roxie. There no way she was going to ruin this. If she did, he would make sure he made her life a living nightmare.

“Where the fuck are you?” Eric hissed into the phone, once Roxie answered.

“Oh what? Can’t you get one of those USB girls to be your show girl?” she asked with sarcasm dripping off her words.

“Roxie, get over here right now, or you’re fired,” he fumed. He heard the clap of a phone flipping closed behind him. He looked over his shoulder.

“...or I’m 'fired'. But I’m already here,” Roxie said behind him, amused. Eric turned on his heels and glared at her, ignoring that her outfit that was so revealing.

Her black top hat was on to the side, her auburn hair in small waves and curls. Her makeup was dark and smoky like always. Her red lips beckoned any man to come and taste them. She stopped in front of him with her black cane firmly planted, resting her white-gloved hands on it.

“I am not happy with you right now,” Eric glowered. Roxie looked down at her black fish nets attached to her very short shorts with a white bowtie.

“So now, the feelings are mutual," she stated, fixing her black tux. It curved to the back in a tail which was open to show off her revealing white and black corset.

“Will you just let it go already?” he grumbled. “At least for this moment?” he asked her, with a small sigh. Roxie was about to reply, but was interrupted by Christen who was unaware of the conversation going on.

“Eric this is magnificent! I just wanted to thank you for everything you have done for me. Oh! Am I interrupting?” Christen blinked a few times as Roxie stared at her with a deadpan expression.

“Eric, who is this?” she asked, with her eyes looking Christen up and down.

“That’s Christen, our new artist. Christen, this is Roxie,” Eric said casually, like it wasn’t at all a big shock.

“Hello Roxie, it’s nice to meet you.” Christen said, putting a hand out to shake hers. Roxie just stared at her for a few moments processing.

“Yeah, um, Eric… we need to talk,” She left Christen standing there, grabbing his arm and dragging him to the restroom hallway. “Eric,” she said once they were out of people’s hearing distance. “Chris? That woman is Chris?” she demanded harshly.

“Yes. That’s Chris. Why is it a big deal?” he asked her.

“Chris, as in the MALE painter that you hired?” she asked him loudly hands on her hips.

“Well I never said directly what gender she was. There you go with your assumptions,” Eric said with a shrug.

“Assumption!? As far as your "buddy" Chris goes, I said "he" multiple times. Him, his, he...and not once did you correct me! Not even once did you think to say, 'um by the way', I don’t know, CHRIS IS A GIRL!” She stomped her foot onto the ground. Her heel made her metal lace loops vibrate like bells.

“Why do you always yell at me when you’re in the wrong?” he asked. Roxie nearly slapped him. How dare he act like he did nothing; that she was in the wrong when he was playing her.

“So tell me,” she ignored his question. “Why have you been spending all this time with this girl behind my back? Giving her a job!?” she exclaimed. “You just handed it to her, yet you made me work until I bleed just to become one of your showgirls. A torrent of questions flooded her mind. One of his showgirls… was that all she was? One of his showgirls? One of the girls in his collection? How many other women were there that he was hiding from her? How many other women did he hide her from?

“Because of Joey,” he stated. Roxie fumed.

“Joey, Joey, Joey! Chris, Chris, Chris! That’s all I ever hear you talk about! What about me!? What am I to you!? Stop playing this game Eric!” Roxie exclaimed.

“I am not playing any games. Stop being so jealous and so paranoid Roxie. You’re making yourself look like a buffoon,” Eric shrugged. Roxie slapped his face forcing it to the side by the blow. Roxie glared at him.

“I’ll go talk to her myself and see exactly what you've been doing with her!” She hissed with poison dripping from her words. She stormed down the hallway and out into the crowd of people. He knew he needed to stop her, but as he felt his cheek where she slapped him, he was disappointed to see blood.

“I can’t go out there looking like this,” he muttered, hurrying into the bathroom. He sighed as he turned on the water in the sink. He had to get out there before Roxie made a scene in front of everyone. That would mess up this whole day. He splashed some water in his face, ready to go after her. He looked up at the mirror and sighed heavily. He groaned as he saw Joey replace his own reflection. “I have business right now. What are you doing here?” he asked him, turning the water off.