Jamie stared at himself in the full-length mirror. He adjusted the tie, smoothing it out with the pads of his fingers, and grazed his collar. The fit was okay. He didn’t feel like it was suffocating him, but it was uncomfortable. He paused, fingers drifting down his chest. They fell to the sink, grasping the edge so he wouldn’t fall over. He licked his lips. His tongue and throat were dry. His body was screaming for a drink.

Marshall was standing outside the door. He’d gotten Jamie his booze as promised. He would have been more ecstatic at getting Marshall to do what he wanted if it didn’t mean he had to do something in return.

The weight of the jacket on his skin made him want to twist and rip it off him. The metal cuff pins shined as the bathroom light hit the silver. He pinched the metal, fingernail bending as he put more pressure down on it. Pain bloomed in his finger. It rippled down the back of his hand and to his wrist. When a drop of blood spilled under the nail, he let up. He licked the tiny wound before the suit could be stained. He would never hear the end of it from Marshall.

His hair was a curly mess. The loose curls framed his face, curling around the lobes of his ears. He ruffed them up a bit. With a sigh, he gave up trying to fix it and walked out.

Marshall was quick to find faults.

“We need to do something with your hair,” he said as he attacked Jamie’s tie. He fixed it with a keen eye.

Jamie glowered, but let Marshall fix the crooked tie for him. He’d been trying to get it straight the whole time he was in the bathroom.

“My hair’s fine.” It wasn’t in the least.

Marshall gave him a look which meant he could see right through Jamie’s bullshit. They’ve gone through this routine of fighting so many times that Jamie didn’t even try to argue any further.

He didn’t need to. Marshall kept looking at him, burning a hole into the side of his head, but he didn’t say a word. They stood in the silence for just a second before Jamie walked to the front door. There was nothing else that needed to be said between the two of them. They’d said what they meant a long time ago. Jamie was past it and Marshall was done with him.

Marshall jingled the car keys in his hand. He followed Jamie out the door and down to the elevator.

The mirrors in the elevator didn’t help Jamie to forget where he was going. He stared at himself once more, taking in the slight of his jaw, the light feathering of hair that had grown since he’d last shaved. When the media saw him, they saw a bad-boy who had no sense of right. They saw a drugged up superstar who’d once been a nobody. They were right, of course.

He wasn’t going to argue with the perception of others.

His head fell back against the wall. A shadow flickered in the mirror. The eyes staring back at him were no longer his. They belonged to someone who came and went as they pleased, dragging the past at their heels, and finding joy in his misery. Once, years ago, they had been night and day. Two halves of the same coin. Inseparable. He couldn’t remember when everything had changed. There had been a gradual decline in his life. One bad choice after another and before he knew it, he was falling down the edge of a cliff after enduring so much pain. He hadn’t noticed until it was too late.

Those eyes met his. There was so much pain in them that he could feel it too. From his toes and up to his head, flowing through his body like they were joined as one. One body, two souls.

He tilted his head, eyes drooping down as he let the hum of the elevator take him away from this moment. There was no Marshall, no him, and no meeting. All there was, was those eyes. They held all the answers he needed and more. He didn’t need to know what it all meant because, in the end, he would be gone from this world.

His eyes slid shut.

The eyes were watching him. He could feel the heated gaze seeing right through him.

The elevator came to a halt.

When he opened his eyes, Marshall was looking at him. Jamie curled his lip and faked a noise of disgust as he strutted out of the elevator.

Marshall followed, but not before pausing. Jamie waited for the familiar sound of footsteps before he let out his held breath.

***

Adam was a stuffy middle-man that didn’t know shit about the music industry. He was a glorified secretary that filled in for Eddie when he was busy doing other things in the world. Jamie had had a few quarrels with the slightly older man that usually ended with Jamie kicked out of the office. Eddie would call him up the next day to tell him to not do it again, but it was all just for show. Adam kissed Eddie’s ass all the time and he usually demanded that he be paid with respect by the artists he represented.

Any other celebrity would have gotten the royal treatment from Adam. Jamie was the exception.

When he and Marshall walked into the large meeting room, he expected to find Adam at the head of the table and maybe his barely-there ex-bandmates. What he got was Eddie, Adam, some woman he didn’t recognize, and his ex-bandmates.

Grant waved at them as they walked through the door, a huge grin eating up his face. Marshall smiled and waved back at him while Jamie tried to look as displeased as he could. He was doing quite a good job so far.