Gunslinger

Dana’s grief inspired dreams could be cruel at times. Often she lay awake at night, after awakening from yet another dream of herself and Brian making slow passionate love to each other. It had been two weeks since she had been discharged from the hospital, however it felt like a lifetime ago. Matt and Emily had both warned Brian to stay away, however when they needed to talk about the band and their upcoming tour they had often had no choice but to have the meetings in Matt’s house, though the others had tried to have turns at their houses. Emily had been hoping that on the times that Brian saw Dana that something would trigger his memory, but so far nothing had happened and Brian was still as disdainful as ever.

When the tour was eventually finalized about three weeks after Dana had been discharged from the hospital, the guys had decided to hold a party. Emily had approached Dana in the kitchen and broached the subject of the party.
“Hun, I know you probably don’t want to go, but everyone wants to see you.” Dana shook her head.
“Ems, I can’t”, she replied. “I just can’t.” Emily shook her friend a little.
“You can’t keep wallowing in self pity. I know it hurts but it’s not doing you any good. All of our friends will be there, and they love you and want to see you.”
“And when Brian brings a date to the party?”, Dana had snapped. “What am I supposed to do then?”
“Find a hot guy and latch onto him in front of Brian”, Emily responded with a smirk. “Maybe that will jolt his head out of his ass and he’ll remember.”
“I don’t think getting hit in the head with a grenade launcher will make any improvement”, Dana said with a wry smile.
“Come on, Danes, you are coming with me and that’s final. I don’t want to have to make Matt carry you.” Dana rolled her eyes.
“You wouldn’t let the hulk carry me out of here”, she said then sighed when she saw the determined look in Emily’s eyes. “Or maybe you would.”

********************

On the night of the party, Emily had pranced into Dana’s room with a bag.
“Oh my lord, I know that look in your eyes”, Dana sighed as she walked out of the bathroom wearing just a fluffy cream coloured towel. She was half-way through blow drying her hair, and had heard the bedroom door open.
“We’re gonna make you HOT”, Emily exclaimed and proceeded to pull a tight pair of black PVC pants and a red and black corset top out of the bag.
“There’s no way I’m wearing that!”, Dana exclaimed. “My boobs are gonna explode out of the top!” Emily rolled her eyes.
“That’s exactly the point”, Emily said firmly. “We’re gonna fight fire with fire, and Brian is gonna explode when he sees your titties in this top.”
“I don’t want him to see my titties”, Dana replied.
“Bullshit!”, Emily smirked. “You want to jam his face into your titties.”
“No, I want to hold him down and fuck him senseless, but it’s not gonna happen.” Emily eyes widened.
“Okay, I did not need to know that. Now I need to go and bleach my brain.”

Emily left the room, and left Dana to finish getting ready. She wasn’t in the mood for a party, but she knew that Emily meant well and she couldn’t stay cooped up in the house. Sooner or later, she was going to have to stand on her own two feet and return back to her apartment and resume her normal life. She shimmied into the PVC pants and called Emily to help her lace up the back of the corset. When Emily had finished, Dana returned to the bathroom and began her make-up. She dusted her eyelids with black shadow, and lined her eyes heavily before applying her mascara. She finished her hair quickly so that it hung in heavy waves down her back. She slicked on red lipstick, and stood for a moment looking at her reflection. She looked so different to the grimy blood covered sergeant that she had been just a few short weeks ago. She shook off her thoughts, and returned to the bedroom. When she walked back out, Emily let out a low whistle.
“Hot damn woman”, she exclaimed, fanning herself. “Every man at the party is gonna be drooling all over you!” Dana fossicked around underneath her bed before pulling out her red heels that matched the corset. After she had put on her heels, she pulled out a black choker and placed it against her neck, and Emily helped her with the clasp.
“Let’s get this over with”, she sighed before following Emily down the stairs. Matt’s eyes widened upon seeing Dana.
“Damn woman”, Matt said. “I’m gonna have to fight off guys from two hot ladies tonight.”

Emily grinned at Matt, and his eyes travelled hungrily down her body. She was wearing a short black skirt, a tight Avenged Sevenfold tshirt that she had cut the sleeves off, two black belts and long black knee high boots.
“Damn woman, screw the party. I wanna take you back upstairs”, he mumbled.
“Later”, she told him, kissing his lips softly.
“You promise?”, he asked gruffly.

****************

When Dana, Emily and Matt walked into Zacky and Gena’a house for the party, surprised eyes turned toward them and Dana heard a few gasps and “damns” from the guys scattered near them. Zacky came over to them with a huge grin.
“Good lord woman”, he said with an exaggerated sigh. “If I wasn’t already taken I’d love to get lost in there”, he said, eying down her cleavage with a suggestive leer.
“Can it Baker”, Dana replied with a laugh. He waggled his eyebrows at her.
“Can’t blame a guy for trying”, he said, placing his hand over his heart. Jimmy came bounding into the foyer like a kid on a sugar high, grabbed Dana, threw her over his shoulder, and bounded back into the living room. Dana shrieked as she bounced on Jmmy’s bony shoulder and hoped like hell that her breasts weren’t exploding out of the top of her corset.
“Look who I found!”, Jimmy shrieked excitedly as the people standing around then giggled at his antics.
“Put me down, your freakishly tall ogre”, Dana yelled whilst she laughed.
“Ogre?”, Jimmy cried. “She called me an ogre”, he sobbed as he dropped Dana onto the couch. He cried onto Leana’s shoulder. Dana smelt a familiar cologne, and glanced warily over to her left, where she encountered Brian. Brian was wearing a pair of black denim pants, with a tight Syn Gates t-shirt and his fedora was pulled low over his eyes. She saw his glance run over her outfit, pausing at her breasts, before continuing up to her face. There was a red-haired girl sitting on his lap, wearing what could only be described as slut wear. Dana jumped to her feet, and walked into the kitchen where she poured herself a strong Jack Daniels & Coke. Her hands were trembling, and she stepped over to the sliding door that led to Zacky’s backyard.
“You OK, Danes?”, Matt asked as he was leaving the kitchen. She nodded.

Stepping into the cool night air, Dana lit a smoke and carried her drink over to one of Zacky’s pool chairs. She had barely sat down when she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked over and came face to face with a man that she had not seen before.
“Hey toots, you look fucking hot”, the man slurred and Dana instantly regretted stepping outside.
“Who the hell are you?”, Dana replied, stepping back away from the man. He moved closer to her, his alcohol laden breath assaulting her nose. She stepped back again, rolling her eyes.
“I work for the record company”, he man replied. “And what a sight for sore eyes you are.”
“You’re gonna have more than sore eyes if you don’t fucking step away”, came another voice. Dana glanced looked up to find both Matt and Zacky stepping outside. “Get the hell away from her, now.”

The man slunk off and Dana sighed.
“Are you alright, Danes?”, Zacky asked her and she nodded.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks guys”, she said, running a hand through her hair. “The last thing I need is some drunken creeper trying to hit on me.”
“Brian went into the kitchen to get a drink and saw him following you out here. We had to stop him from barging out here and beating him to a pulp.” Dana’s eyes widened.
“He wanted to beat him up?”, Dana asked.
“He snarled something about not letting the waste of space get his hands on you. He sounded jealous as fuck”, Zacky added. “We had to push him back inside.”

Dana followed the guys back inside, made herself another drink in the kitchen, then wandered back outside to sit by the pool. She was joined shortly thereafter by Emily, Gena and Lacey.
“I don’t think he’s actually with the red head if that’s any consolation”, Lacey said. “He couldn’t keep his eyes off you when Jimmy first walked in with you.”
“The man’s eye balls almost fell out”, Gena agreed with a smirk.
“He was definitely eye fucking you, hon. Come on, we’re going in to dance and you’re coming with us”, Emily exclaimed, grabbing Dana’s hands and dragging her inside. She grabbed the Jack Daniels bottle off the counter on the way through. If she was going to dance in the same room as Brian and his little redhead she needed a little liquid courage.