After I had fallen to Earth, I discovered that I was in a large hotel room with five other people. A lump formed in my throat as I saw that they were Kevin, Nick, Howie, and A.J., Brian’s best friends. Also in the room was a girl who I was assuming was Eve.
“Eve can we please go now?” A.J. complained. “I wanna go clubbing sometime this century.”
“Try focusing on the matter at hand instead of getting some later tonight,” Eve answered curtly, pushing her wire framed glasses up her nose and jotting something down in a small notebook she had in her lap. “I’m your tour manager, and what I say goes. Now, do you want to do something different for your New Years Eve concert at Madison Square Garden?”
“I think we should,” Kevin said. “Like you said, it is New Years Eve.”
“Okay then, what do you wanna do?” Eve questioned them. “And where the hell is Brian, he was supposed to be here twenty minutes ago! Ugh, wait 'till I get my hands on him-”
“It’s not his fault,” Nick answered softly. “His girlfriend died six months ago today. He’s still really broken up about it, cut him some slack.”
“I most certainly will not. Brian has a career to think about, not an incident that occurred a half a year ago.”
My mouth flew open. 'If only I were alive, I’d wring her neck!' I thought, enraged by her ridiculous comment.
A.J. shook his head in disgust. “You really don’t get it, do you? I’m outta here, see you later Eve.”
The others followed A.J.’s lead and walked out of the room in single-file, leaving Eve relatively speechless.
“Worthless jackasses,” she muttered in anger, tossing her notebook and pen aside.
I decided to see where the guys were headed, and hopefully catch a glimpse of Brian. I knew it was my duty to watch Eve, but I was really upset with her over her blatant lack of compassion and didn’t feel like talking to her just yet.
I walked through the door and found the guys walking into another hotel room a few doors down. I hurried over there as fast I could to catch their whole conversation.
“Brian?” Kevin called out to the large and seemingly empty room. “You in here man?”
“Yes,” came the muffled reply from the bathroom. “What do you guys want?”
“To talk. Come out Brian, you’ve been in there all day,” Nick pleaded. “We’re all worried about you.”
“Why? There’s nothing to worry about.” Brian opened the door and slowly walked out towards them. He looked horrible; his bright blue eyes were dull and glazed over, his cheeks were pale and tear stained, his curly brown hair was a mess, and he was still wearing his pajamas from the night before. It reminded me of the last day I saw him. A cold shiver ran through my body as I recalled the events of that day, the day that will be forever tattooed in my memory.
Still, my initial reaction was to run towards him. I did, and I tried to wrap my arms around him. The only problem was, I went right through him. Disappointed that he would never know that I was in the room, I sat on his bed and continued to listen to their conversation.
“Nothing to worry about? Brian, you locked yourself in the bathroom all day,” Howie gently reminded him. “I’d say that’s something you should worry about. I mean after all, today is the day-”
Brian held his hand up to silence Howie. “I know, the day Miranda died, the day my heart died.” A lone tear rolled down his cheek. I longed to go to him and wipe it away, but I knew it wasn’t possible. “You know, sometimes I feel that Miranda’s with me, like she’s watching over me. Like right now. I can feel it, Miranda’s here. Can you hear me baby?”
“Yes!” I yelled, even though I knew it was in vain.
“Brian, I think you need to lie down,” Kevin said worriedly, taking his cousin’s arm and leading him over to the bed. I moved out of the way so he wasn’t on top of me.
“I’m serious!” Brian insisted, looking at the concerned faces of his friends. “Miranda is here, why don’t you believe me?!”
“Listen, you just get some rest, okay? I’ll talk with you in the morning.” Kevin switched off the light, then he and the others walked out of the room.
“Miranda?” Brian called out in a whisper. “I know you’re here, why won’t you show yourself? Don’t you love me?” Brian’s voice started to quaver. “Please, all I want is to talk to you.” I reached out to touch Brian’s cheek, and found that this time my hand didn’t go through him. He jumped back at my cold touch, but smiled when he realized it was really me. I continued to stroke his cheek until eventually he fell asleep.
“Miranda!” I turned around and saw Maria’s angry face staring back at me. “What are you doing?” she demanded. “You know this is not allowed. Do you want to fail the task?”
“No,” I answered softly. “But Maria... he needs me. Don’t you hear him calling me? I can’t ignore him, I love him too much for that. And if it means failing the task just to talk to him, then I will.”
Maria shook her head sadly. “Miranda honey, I wish you could. But it is just not allowed. Now come along, you have to talk to Eve.”
“No, I don’t want to. I want to stay with Brian. Please, just for tonight?” I begged.
“I’m sorry, but you cannot. You have to talk with Eve tonight,” Maria replied firmly. She grabbed my arm and started dragging me out of the room. I decided not to make it easy for her, so I dug my heels into the plush carpet and refused to budge.
Brian jerked awake, sensing that I was leaving. “Miranda, where are you going?” he cried. ”Please don’t leave me, not again!”
By that time Maria had resorted to picking me up to get me out of the room. “I love you Brian!” I screamed. “Always remember that!” It was then that I broke down and started to cry hysterically. Maria put me down and tried to give me a hug, but I pushed her away from me. I laid down on the floor and cried, knowing that this wasn’t just some horrible dream like I had prayed it would be. Helping Brian and Eve fall in love was the grim reality I had to learn to face.
