Title: Angels in a Cage: Chapter Fifteen, Pre-party
Rating: NC-17 [language, alcohol use, fellatio]

Summary: Chris's drunkeness increases; Alyssa has a great 15th birthday.

Author's Note: This will be the last year long chapter. Starting next chapter, I will slow time down. Why? Because Chris and Alyssa are about to cross paths.





If it hadn’t been for Susan, he most certainly would not be dressed up and attending lame parties. However his wife thought it important to rub elbows with plastic person after plastic person. He was really just in it for the booze.

Perhaps if he thought the Grammys actually meant something Chris would care more. But he didn’t so to him it was all a farce. Susan knew that too and that’s precisely why she kept him on such a very short leash. It was starting to grate on him just as it would any other wild dog. But this dog had been on the leash before and knew better than to test the strength of the restraint. So he remained close, heeling like a show dog – because that was exactly how he felt.

“I need a smoke,” he muttered softly to Susan.

She waved him off, fully engrossed in her conversation with someone important.

Taking that as permission Chris backed away carefully, not turning his back to her until he was at the edge of the room. Turning quickly, Chris ducked out of the room of pretentious people in their tuxes and evening gowns. He continued to skirt conversations as he headed outside. God he really need more than just tobacco in his cigarette.

Finding a quiet and dark location out in the garden, Chris leaned against a brick wall and shook a cigarette out of his pack. Perching it between his lips, he flicked his special Soundgarden Zippo, something Susan gave him after the Grammy nominations were announced. He supposed it was cool or something, but he he only held onto it because it was functional. He was certain he wold lose it on the next tour.

Fuck he hated touring. But at least it got him out of Susan’s reach. Though she was their manager, she wasn’t one of those who actively traveled with the band and that was a godsend. Though it did mean his best friend was his hand. Why the fuck couldn’t he sleep with the girls who threw themselves at him? Because it wasn’t real and he desired something real and full of emotion – clearly everything he and his wife were not.

“Fuck,” he muttered and dropped the nub of a cigarette, grinding it out with his ridiculous shiny dress shoes.

As Susan hadn’t come out yet or screeched for him, he dug out another cancer stick and lit it. Two puffs into it, a plastic blond in a slinky red dress approached him. She asked for a light, igniting her ridiculously narrow cigarette off of his. In his current mood Chris found himself absolutely intrigued by her, so much he was close to propositioning her for a quick garden fuck.

Her eyes silently appraised him before she spoke, “Ah. Frowngarden.”

He scowled, not being overly fond of that nickname, “You know, we aren’t all—”

“Of course not, honey,” she responded. “You look like you could use some sexual healing. I could turn that frown upside down.”

His heart jumped directly into his pants, but he played it cool, “I’m so sure.”

“I am the best,” she suggestively sucked her cigarette, “in town.”

“Oh really?”

“I’ll give you a little taste for free,” she dropped her cigarette and stepped forward.

All of his internal bells screamed and he smirked, dropping his own cigarette, “No thanks. I have no desire to pay for sex.”

“Winners don’t pay,” she responded, not back off – in fact she squatted before him. “Think of this as a preview of what that golden statue will get you later tonight.”

Chris should have batted her hands away but instead he watched her manicured fingers deftly unfasten his belt and pants. Disassociating himself from the act for the moment, he watched but hardly felt her soft hands pull his cock out. Her dark tongue darted out of her ruby red lips and began to lick him alive. Slowly Chris gave in and closed his eyes, his head resting back on the brick wall. Her expert mouth engulfed him, her head bobbing up and down, inciting soft moans from his lips. Sexless for so long, Chris felt the tension quickly mount at the base of his spine.

“Oh fuck,” he groaned as his body tensed.

The blond remained fastened on him until he was drained of every last drop. She quickly returned his lipstick-stained, flaccid cock to his pants and righted his clothing. Only then did she stand up and open her mouth slightly to reveal a small milky glob on her tongue. Chris could do nothing but groan.

Closing her lips and swallowing the blond fished a business card out of her ... cleavage, “I expect to see you again tonight, Chris. And your cock better still have my mark on it.”

Two hours later when Soundgarden was called to the stage for “Black Hole Sun” he felt immense guilt when Susan kissed him happily. He would be certain to shower and scrub before they celebrated at the hotel afterwards. He most certainly was not going to call the whore from the pre-party. His wife would do.



Standing in front of her house in her party dress, Alyssa fidgeted. Her fingers wanted nothing more than to reach up and pluck off the blindfold. She really did not like surprises, not even on her birthday. Besides what kind of surprise included standing outside? That was just unfair.

“Lyss-Lyss!” Judith exclaimed. “Look!”

Quickly the newly turned fifteen year old pulled the silk scarf from her eyes. Her parents stood by a brand new shiny black Neon. An overly large purple bow and ribbon wrapped it like a giant package. A tag the size of poster board hung down on the windshield, her name scribed in large purple letters.

“Daddy?” her eyes went to her father.

“Happy birthday, Aly,” he smiled.

She rushed down the front steps, her younger sister a couple of steps behind. Alyssa quickly embraced her parents, still completely at loss as to what to say. Never in a hundred years had she expected to get a car for her birthday.

“You’ve done an excellent job at keeping your grades up since getting the coffeehouse job this summer,” Marilyn spoke. “Your father and I thought that deserved reward.”

“I...”

“Look inside, Lyss-Lyss!” Judith exclaimed.

Howard held out a set of keys on a purple butterfly keychain. Her fingers trembled slightly as she accepted them. Approaching the vehicle, Alyssa inserted the key into the lock and opened the driver’s side door. The seats were all covered with purple covers. The new car scent battled with soft lilac. A wrapped package waited on the driver’s seat.

“Open it!” the younger girl squealed.

Picking up the small gift, Alyssa quickly tore the ribbon and paper off, handing it to Judith. Inside a small box she found a holder for CDs to place on her visor, already stocked with her favorite CDs – some of them new copies of CDs she had worn out.

“I picked them!” Judith exclaimed. “And I picked the seats!”

Grinning the teenager quickly embraced her little sister, “Thank you so much. I don’t... I don’t really know what to say.”

Pulling the bow and ribbon off the car, Howard suggested, “Why don’t you drive us to dinner, Aly?”

“I wanna sit in front!” Judith hurried around the car.

With her parents in the back seat, Alyssa slid behind the wheel and began to adjust everything to her preferences. Only once the seat and mirrors were in the right places did she start the car. Judith instantly reached to turn the stereo on. It was only then, as she attached the visor case to the visor, did Alyssa notice an empty slot. The CD in the player clearly belonged in the empty slot – though she instantly doubt she would eject it ever. After all Superunknown was her favorite CD.



He was drunk. Again. Drunkenness was a constant companion, ever since his indiscretion at the Grammys. Susan didn’t know, he was certain of it. No one did. But it still haunted him like nothing else. So he started his day with boozed coffee, chased it with beer and maybe some pills at lunch, and filled up on heavier beers at dinner. Sometimes Susan harassed him about it and he would temporarily cut back. Every day he moved through in a haze regardless.

If it weren’t for the band, he would have drunk himself witless in his cabin in the mountains. If it weren’t for the band, he likely would still be working sullenly in a kitchen and not carrying baggage about a blow job. But that wasn’t the case and so Chris sat on the floor of some anonymous hotel room, staring at an empty bottle of vodka. Had he drunk that? He couldn’t remember at all. In fact he didn’t even know where the fuck he was. The tour was over at least in Europe – or so he thought. So why the fuck wasn’t he home? Where was he? Struggling to get to his feet and eventually giving up and just crawling, Chris made his way over to the curtained windows. Using the heavy material to pull himself up, which luckily did not break under his weight, Chris slipped between the two curtains. Pressing his face to the cool window, he struggled to figure out what he saw.

“Fuck,” he muttered. “New York.”

He hadn’t a clue why he was in New York. Maybe it had something to do with MTV. Or maybe it had something to do with Pete who still refused to talk to him ever since Susan gave up his siblings’ band to focus on Soundgarden. Or maybe he had just missed a flight and decided New York was a good place as any to drink and scribble out horrible songs. Any of those were possible; he just didn’t know which one it was. But he was going to find out.

Pushing away from the window, Chris stumbled backwards until his knees collided with the bed. He instantly fell backwards. His bloodshot eyes focused on the spinning ceiling, hoping it would halt. It didn’t seem like it was every going to stop. So he decided to bear with it and sat up. His shaky hand reached for the bedside phone. He hadn’t a clue what to dial much less how so he merely pushed the largest button.

“Front desk. May I help you?”

“This is... Man... Man... New York, righ?”

“Yes sir.”

“Do you know why I’m here?”

“No sir.”

“Can you.. can you call my wife?”

There was a brief pause, “One moment, Mr. Cornell. I’ll connect you.”

The one moment felt like a year, but only because the world was still spinning. Maybe if it stopped, he would—

“Chris? Are you okay?”

“Suze! Susan! I love you. I want to come home. I love you.”

“Have you been drinking, Chris?”

“There’s a... there’s a empty bottle. I think I might have emptied it,” he responded.

“Fuck, Chris. You have to be on MTV in five hours. You can’t go on like—”

“Doncha worry, babe. I’ll fix it,” he slurred. “No one sucks dick like you, Susan. No one.”

A long paused filled the earpiece, long enough Chris thought Susan hung up on him.

“I’m going to fly to New York on the first flight to get you. It’s time to go home, Chris.”



Feeling eyes on her once more, Alyssa turned around. The same boy who seemed to sit at the same table every day that she worked quickly averted his eyes once he noticed her gaze. As this had been happening consistently for three weeks, Alyssa had enough. Delivering some special mochas to a pair of artsy-looking men, she veered off her normal path to the boy. Without saying a word she sat down next to him.

Brown eyes quickly looked up to her, a partial smile lifting his countenance.

“So Mr. Half-Caf-Double-Mocha, you got a name?” she boldly asked.

“Zack.”

She stuck out her hand, “I’m Alyssa.”

“I know.”

“Right,” she replied. “Were you ever going to talk to me?”

“And what, ask you out to coffee?” he retorted.

Alyssa smiled, “Or maybe a movie?”

“Would you like to go to a movie with me, Alyssa?”

“Sure. I’m off at—”

“Six. I know. I’ll just wait here for you.”

His eyes did watch her the rest of her shift, but now that she knew his name it didn’t feel as weird. A few times she breezed by his table to chat for a few minutes. By the time her relief arrived, Alyssa knew that Zack attended a different high school – the nearby Catholic one as his adoptive father was the chaplain there – and that he used to be an altar boy. He didn’t like the same kind of music that she did, but Alyssa figured that was something she could change. Other than that minor glitch, they seemed perfectly compatible, though she was wary of dating someone from a different school. She would give him the chance though.

They ended up a dollar theater in Tacoma – Alyssa the one driving. But she didn’t care because his choice of movies was perfect. They watched Singles. Though the movie was a few years old, the particular theater showed all Seattle-themed movies on Wednesday nights, something Alyssa had known about but had never ventured down to see. Seeing all of her favorite musicians on the large screen was worth the drive alone, even if Tacoma smelled.

Returning to Seattle after the movie, she followed Zack’s directions to drop him off. Pulling into the driveway of a modest-looking house, Alyssa looked over the house for a long moment, hoping to find something about the strange boy beside her. Again she felt him staring at her.

Turning to meet his eyes, she smiled slightly, “Thanks for the movie, Zack. I’m sure I’ll see you around.”

“Can I call you?”

Not entirely sure how much her father would approve of a senior calling his sophomore daughter, Alyssa hesitated, “I... I don’t know.”

“Oh come one. It won’t hurt anything at all,” he replied.

“I... okay,” she reached for her mini-backpack purse. “Just don’t call after ten.”

“Of course.”

Quickly scribbling her phone number on the back of an old notecard with class notes on it, Alyssa held it out to Zack. He smiled and quickly leaned across the console. She gasped when he kissed her, completely not expecting that at all.

“I’ll call you soon and we can go on a proper date.”

Before she could say anything back, Zack got out of her car and trotted up to the house. Not about to give him any more ideas, Alyssa quickly reversed out of the driveway.

Arriving at home twenty minutes later, she quickly greeted her stepmother and hurried upstairs. Though she wanted to shower and change, something about Zack still bothered her. And the only solutions she could think of was to call her friends for advice. Plopping down on her bed, she quickly dialed Anne but was informed by Anne’s mother that she was still grounded from the phone for sneaking out with Alyssa the weekend before. Figuring her next best option was David as his parents never seemed to get mad at him, she quickly dialed his number.

“David’s Happy Hut, where we put the fun back into relationships. How can I help you?”

Alyssa chuckled, “I swear you have a list of those to use ever since you got Caller ID.”

“You know it. How was work?”

“All right. That guy was there again.”

“Do you want me to come and kick his ass on Friday?”

“No. I went out with him.”

David paused, “Did you just say you went out with Mr. McCreepy?”

“He was actually nice and chatty once I called him out.”

“Uh huh. I don’t like this gu—”

“Wait a minute. I’m getting another call,” she claimed and pressed the button on the phone. “Hello?”

“I know it’s only been an hour since you left, but I just wanted to hear your voice once more before bed.”

Alyssa couldn’t help but smile, “I’m on the other line. I’ll call you right back.”

“I’ll be waiting for you.”