2 Million Lies

Chapter 4

It was almost a week before Cyrah got another text from Matthias. She obsessively checked, worried that she was dropped from the deal without being told, but finally, on Thursday, she got a message.

Matthias Anderson: You'll be the photographer for a spread in a magazine. Tomorrow @ 3.

Cyrah almost squealed, not because she was excited to see Shane again, she honestly thought he seemed like a hot mess, but because that was literally amazing. She was going to get another chance to hopefully progress her career.

Cyrah: Great. Will do.

She hurriedly set about trying to get time off from her job the next day. She was glad Matthias had given her some advance warning, since she would have had a hard time getting the time to do it if he hadn't.

Friday rolled around, and Cyrah found herself waiting with a makeup artist for the band members to get there.

Elijah was the first one to show up. He glanced at Cyrah, recognition obviously dawning on his face. "Hey, it's you. From the party. I owe you big time, thanks. What's your name?" He was shorter than her, she hadn't noticed that on Saturday.

Cyrah smiled slightly. She was already getting in good with his friends. Excellent. "Cyrah."

'Great." He reached out to shake her hand. "I'm Eli. But you already know that. Fuck, this whole fame thing is so fucking weird. I can't listen to the radio anymore, I keep hearing myself."

Cyrah laughed politely, and shook his hand. She pretended to mess with something in her camera bag, keeping one eye on the door, watching for Shane to come in. Zach, a tall, heavily tattooed man, with multiple facial piercings, that Cyrah knew from her research was the drummer, was the next to arrive, then after him came Zane, who looked thoroughly stressed out, with black hair messed up like he had been running his hands through it.

Elijah shot him a questioning look when he walked in, and he shook his head and said quietly, "Tell you later," before sitting down in the makeup artist's chair and letting her hide the dark circles beneath his eyes.

Shane walked in ten minutes late, and Cyrah's first thought was, he seems like the type. But then she caught a look at his face. He looked terrible, as if he hadn't slept in days, his brown hair looked unwashed, and he was wearing a wrinkled hoodie that had clearly been slept in. Probably more than one night. Most surprising of all, he was wearing glasses.

He sat down in the makeup artist's chair without a word to anyone in the room, and took his glasses off so she could start her work. He was immediately surrounded by his bandmates. Cyrah turned away, pretending to fiddle with something in her camera bag, and trying to tune out their conversation, although she couldn't help hearing most of it. She didn't particularly care to, right now Shane's personal problems were absolutely none of her business.

"Dude, you okay? You look like shit." That was Eli. She couldn't make out what Shane said in reply, but Cyrah guessed it was probably a negative answer.

"What have you been up to?" Eli said. Shane mumbled something Cyrah couldn't hear, then Eli said, "No, you don't have to do that, I believe you."

Zach was the next to speak. "Just mental now?"

She couldn't hear any response from Shane. Maybe he had nodded or shook his head.

"That's good. That'll be over soon too, and it'll get better."

Shane mumbled something in reply, and Zach said, "Yeah, I know. I've been there too. Just hang in there, take it one day at a time. I know you don't feel like doing it, but try to get out more, it's no good to hole up in your apartment all day. Fresh air is good. We'll all be here if you need anything. If you want to go to meetings with me just let me know. And stay away from Joey, hanging out with him is about the worst thing you could do for yourself right now." Shane mumbled something else, then she could hear the sound of Zach stepping away, and sitting down in a different chair.