But Daddy I Love Him

The Prophecy

"Please, I've been on my knees/ Change the prophecy/ Don't want money/ Just someone who wants my company/ Let it once be me"

Billy and Ariel kept meeting the others eyes throughout group. They couldn't help it. The shock was evident when they first saw each other and they kept checking to make sure the other was real. He looked worse than he had on the album cover. She was sure she also looked awful.

When the meeting ended, they both lingered, seeing who would make the first move. In the end, she did.

"Hey, Billy." She said cautiously.

"Ariel. You're the last person I expected to see here."

"Yeah, ditto." It was awkward but not unfriendly. She tried not to think about all the horrible things Warren probably said about her. She tried not to think that Billy should hate her.

"When did you get here?" He asked after she had been quiet for too long.

"Uh, yesterday morning." She said and then for some reason decided to add "I spent a few days in the hospital first."

"Oh." He wanted to asked about the hospital. He wanted to ask about a lot of things, like what happened all those years ago. Billy thought about how long it took the bruises to fade from Warren's skin. Worse was how long it took for him to not be miserable.
However, she seemed scared and he understood the feeling of not wanting to be judged, so instead he asked, "do you want to go for a walk? They have pretty nice grounds here."

"Yeah, that'd be nice." She smiled, a genuine one. She realized she had not smiled a real smile in a long time.

They walked in silence for a few minutes.

"I listened to your album." Ariel broke the silence. "My friend bought it."

"Yeah." There wasn't much room for anything else. Thinking about the band hurt Billy and it showed on his face. "I've seen you in some of the magazines. Cami buys them from time to time but..." He wanted to say it's hard for Warren to see them lying around the house but decided not to.

"Oh." She sighed sadly. "You're still with Camilla?" She asked after a minute. Billy just nodded with a pained look.

They were quiet again.

"So, who put you here?" Billy asked. It was weird to have a reunion in a rehab, weirder that the elephant in the room wasn't their substance abuse.

"Aren't we supposed to say ourselves?" It was almost a joke. The group session had focused on taking ownership of one's choices that lead them to rehab. Billy laughed lightly through his nose.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"What'd you do? To get here?" It wasn't like sharing during group. They were familiar to each other, even if they hadn't been close or even seen each other for years.

"Uh..." He wanted to lie but decided to be honest. "It started with drinking and then turned into everything. I fucked over the band, cheated on my wife, missed my kid's birth. I became my dad, which is exactly what I didn't want... You?"

"I, uh, I overdosed at a party, in New York. Pretty bad, the doctors are convinced I was trying to kill myself. Funny thing is, I almost threw myself off the hotel balcony not ten minutes before and they think I was using the drugs to kill myself." She let out a bitter laugh like it was funny. Billy just looked at her with mixed concern and understanding.

"What were you on?" He asked.

"Pretty much all of it. You?"

"Yeah, pretty much all of it."