March 2015
"Damn, Shannon's place is fucking nice," Aya said, looking out of the large window into the back yard.
"Well, he's been in the industry forever and he's probably worth more than I will ever be, so of course he's going to have a nice house," Meredith said as she spun around on a bar stool sitting at the kitchen counter.
"Jared's place is like, fifteen times bigger," Callie said.
"How do you know?" Meredith asked. For all her attempts to make it seem like she wasn't motivated by money, she didn't hide it as well as she probably wished she could.
"I was there yesterday," Callie explained. "He's letting me keep most of my furniture there while I'm staying here."
"I still don't understand how you managed to become friends with Jared fucking Leto," Meredith sighed dreamily.
Callie blinked. "He's Shannon's brother. We've met like, four times. I think he's said about fifty words to me in total. We're not exactly friends."
"Still. If I was in the same room as him, I'd keep him so busy he'd never want to leave," the blonde hummed huskily.
"I have no doubt you'd fuck him until your pussy fell off," Aya cut in. "Though, that probably wouldn't take as long as you think, given the amount of attention its gotten recently." He ducked out of the way as Meredith sent a magazine flying across the room toward his head. "Its not my fault you're a low-key whore." He turned his brown eyes toward Callie. "It really is nice of Shannon to let you stay here, though."
"When I told him about Pervy Randy he practically insisted," Callie said.
"Did he say anything about guests?" Meredith asked, hopping down from the black bar stool and walking around the large stone fireplace that partitioned the seating area from the kitchen. "Because I volunteer to stay with you if you want company."
"No. I'm not going to take advantage of the situation," Callie insisted. "No guests and no events. He's being very generous in letting me stay here while he's gone; I'm not going to be an asshole."
"Besides, I think this skull is worth more than you are," Aya interjected, passing a gemstone-encrusted skull between his hands.
"Don't touch it then," Callie said in annoyance, taking the object from his hands and putting it back on the coffee table where he'd found it. She sat next to Trio on the leather sofa, scratching his ears gently.
"Is he going to keep the dog?" Meredith asked.
Callie shrugged. "I don't know. He was supposed to send him down to Talia's rescue before he left, but now that I'm staying here, I don't know what he's going to do with him."
"He's ridiculously cute," Meredith said, cooing at the puppy. "If I could keep him, I would."
"It's more that he's in a band. That means touring, which means leaving him behind for long periods of time," Callie explained. "If he had someone to watch him, it would be different. But I don't think he does."
"Doesn't his mom live in the Hills somewhere?" Aya asked.
Callie shrugged. "Maybe. I haven't met her. He doesn't really talk about her much."
"Its just a shame you aren't going to be here during the summer; that pool looks divine," Meredith said wistfully, looking through the large floor-to-ceiling windows on the opposite wall.
Callie shook her head and stood, moving through the house with Trio at her heels. She had chosen to occupy the smaller of the two spare guest rooms. Shannon's bedroom door remained closed, exactly as she had found it when she had arrived. Even though he told her that the entire house was hers, it felt weird to go rifling through his things. Aya appeared a second later as she started to unpack clothing from a suitcase. He flopped across the bed with a sigh. His feet were resting on one side and if he wanted to stretch, his hands could touch the floor on the other side. Trio licked his face, making him jump a little.
"Mate, its painfully obvious Shannon's got a stiffy for you," he remarked, his Scottish accent thick.
She scoffed. "No he doesn't."
"If you believe that then I've got a bridge to sell you," he laughed. "Come on, Cal. It's so obvious. My blind nan could see it."
"Your blind nan would be wrong then," she insisted. "I have made it very clear to Shannon that we are just friends. So he can have a hard on the size of the Statue of Liberty, but nothing is going to happen between us."
Aya burst into laughter. "If you say so. I'm just saying that I wouldn't have let a friend stay at mine unless they were a very special friend."
"I stayed at your place when you were in Scotland before," Callie countered.
"Yeah, well we're pretty close though, aren't we?" he replied. "Point is, Cal, make sure he doesn't have other plans or expect anything in return."
She shook her head. "He doesn't. He's not like that. He knows he can get sex from anyone else that he wants it from. Our relationship isn't like that."
Looking around the room, Callie briefly wondered exactly why Shannon had been so generous, but she brushed the thought aside and continued unpacking. They were friends. End of story.
***ONE WEEK LATER***
Callie scrolled down through the comments on her latest picture on her Instagram account. The comments had been mostly kind. She posted a photo wearing and Black Fuel t-shirt and a hat to her account to celebrate Shannon's company launching. She tagged him in the picture and he had liked it and shared it. Until Shannon re-posted it to his account, most people commenting had been her fans. And then the deluge happened.
First, she had gotten an influx of likes on the picture itself. Then she had gotten a huge number of followers. Then the comments started. At first they had been nice and polite.
You're so pretty!
Its so nice of you to help Shannon out like this.
The clothes look so good on you. You should be a model for the brand.
She had even gotten a few genuinely nice compliments on other photos she had posted. But then the other shoe dropped.
You're such a hoe. Shannon's cheating on you. He's got a girl with him right now in Russia.
And that was one of the tame ones. They had only gotten worse from there.
Callie contemplated removing comments from the photo, but she didn't see the point. Shannon had told her about some of his fans and how they were borderline stalkers and would just keep attacking until they were satisfied that she was no longer in his life or until they wore themselves out. She noticed people were saying some pretty cruel things on his re-post of her photo, too. But he hadn't responded. She was tempted to message him about the comments, but she thought better of it; she was an adult and she could handle things on her own.
The new Hollywood Reporter cover with Aya hadn't helped much, either. She looked at it, sitting on the kitchen island in front of her. Her agent had sent over an advanced copy and the magazine had hit news stands that morning. The cover was bound to get attention, one way or another. Aya was seated on a plush throne, bare-chested with fitted black dress pants on. In his right hand he held a tumbler full of light brown liquid and in his left he held a leash attached to a leather collar around Callie's neck.
She was wearing a matching black lace bra and panty set with red frills at her hips and a pair of five inch black stilettos. Her head rested against Aya's knee as she knelt on all fours on the ground. She was looking over at the camera with a seductive, knowing glance as Aya stared straight ahead, all power and confidence. The shoot itself had been fun and easy, but now she was a little stressed out about how it would be received.
The show was getting more and more attention with each season that was released and with the attention came more fans. And with the new connection to Shannon, the negative attention was just about even with the positive these days. People were accusing her of sleeping with Shannon and Aya, or cheating on one or both men, and of sleeping her way to the top. It was a small blessing no one knew about her connection to Keanu yet; once they did, they'd probably accuse her of sleeping with him, too.
She jumped when her phone rang. It was her agent.
"Callie, I just wanted to confirm that I have you and Aya doing interviews together all day tomorrow," he said.
Callie froze for a second. "Huh?"
"The press junkett?" Liam reminded her. "I've got about eight different magazines booked to talk to you. And at least three shows. You better have it together."
You don't have to like him, he just has to get you work, she reminded herself. She had fired her old agent and gotten a new one with Creative Artists Agency. Liam was an eager up-and-coming agent who seemed to lack morals just about as much as he lacked manners.
"Right - no I remember," Callie assured him. "I'm just a little nervous about how people are going to respond to the Hollywood Reporter cover. Its a bit more racy than I was anticipating."
"The show is about sex. How are you going to sell it to people if you do shoots that are careful?" Liam asked. She sighed but didn't respond. "Anyways, its good press for the show. Its good press for you. It gets people talking about, which means attention. And attention means roles. This is a good thing."
I don't want to seem desperate for attention though, she thought.
"No, you're right," Callie said instead. "I'll definitely be ready tomorrow."
"Good. I'll have a car by to pick you up at seven in the morning. You'll have hair and makeup and wardrobe on site. Aya will meet you there," he replied before hanging up.
***GOSSIP BOARD***
LETODREAMER606 POSTED: Fans are going in on Callie! She posted a picture wearing a Black Fuel hat and shirt.
STARSKY POSTED: Why would she be so fucking stupid to do that? Now everyone knows they're connected. Trolling to the extreme. SMDH.
LETODREAMER606 POSTED: But why is that considered trolling? She clearly posted links to Shannon and Black Fuel in the description. Its not exactly trolling when you post things obviously like that. For all we know, he asked her to post about it.
DREAMINGOFLETO POSTED: She's posting from his house. That chair in the background is Shannon's. So either she's in his house right now or that's an older pic taken before he left. Either way, she was definitely at his place and definitely got approval to post this from him.
STARSKY POSTED: I just can't believe she'd post something like that. Like she's not even that famous. So how many people is her post supposed to reach? At most all she is doing is essentially confirming her relationship with Shannon, whatever it may be.
LETODREAMER606 POSTED: No, I get that, but how is her post any different from someone like you or me posting about Black Fuel? She likes the product. She wants people to know. It just seems like an added benefit that they happen to be friends. Like you said, she's not super famous, so its not like the post is getting that much attention. In all likelihood she was just trying to be nice and friendly and help him out.
STARSKY POSTED: Nope. I'm done with her. She's clearly using him.
***
Aya sat next to Callie in front of the cameras. An empty chair sat opposite them as producers and assistants rushed around, trying to get the hotel room set up for the press junkett. The hotel room was cramped even though it was a two-room suite. The bedroom was littered with off-cast outfits, hair and makeup tools, and bags of gear from the film crews. A lighting crew had set up a bank of lights that were already heating the room up. A sound technician was wiring her up, his hand up the back of her shirt, as Aya's newly-short hair was tousled into place. He was having great difficulty keeping his eyes off of her ample breasts as they swung in front of him. It was all Callie could do not to point it out just to embarrass him.
The first reporter was a journalist for a magazine. Callie was grateful that she didn't have to do more than answer questions. He was funny and kind and actually asked some decent questions about the path of the show and what her thoughts were regarding developments. It was obvious he was serious about representing the show (and her and Aya) beyond just pointing out the sex. By the time the interview was over, the room had been set up for the television crews to come in and Callie was on her second cup of heavily-caffeinated tea.
"Good morning," a young woman said with a smile as she breezed into the room with a producer in tow. "I'm with E!," she added, holding out her hand. "Taylor."
Aya smiled back at her and shook her hand. "Aya. Nice to meet you."
His accent was subtly changing as he continued to live in America. Instead of the thick, Glasgow one he had arrived with, he was now saddled with a much lighter version of it. Callie watched as he looked the woman up and down with a slight smile, making her blush a little.
"Thanks so much for making time for us. I know you guys have a pretty busy schedule today," Taylor said graciously. "We were supposed to wait until this afternoon with the other TV shows, but something came up. So thanks so much for helping us out."
"No problem," Callie replied, shifting in her seat.
Within a few minutes, Taylor's crew was plugged in and the producer was calling for quiet. "Callie, Aya, thank you so much for having us today," she began. "I want to start off by saying how excited I am for this new season of the show. I followed it religiously last year and I couldn't wait for the new one to be released. "
"Oh, that's so sweet of you. I'm glad you enjoyed it so much," Callie replied politely.
"Can you tell us what we can expect this season from your characters?" Taylor asked.
Callie felt the camera focus on her as she licked her lips. "Yeah. Uh, this year we see my character evolve a lot. She really steps into her identity and role within the club. Things focus less on the sex club and more on the society and characters within it."
"There is a bit more traveling this year, which was fun to film," Aya cut in. "We went to some gorgeous locations. There was a beautiful vineyard in wine country, a yacht off the coast of Cabo San Lucas, and we got to film in some stunning houses in and around Los Angeles."
"Yeah - that was absolutely amazing to do," Callie added, remembering the trips they had taken. There had been one night in Cabo that had passed in significant drunkeness. "I still can't remember that night in Cabo," she laughed.
"Sounds like you guys had a lot of fun!" Taylor said. "Aya, your character develops a new love interest in this season. Can you tell me what it was like to film all of those sexy scenes with someone new?"
He cleared his throat. "I mean, it's always the same, regardless of how long you've known or worked with someone. At the end of the day, right, you're still taking your clothes off and doing some pretty intimate things to another person. And for women in general, I think more is expected of them in this industry than men."
"We were just talking about this yesterday," Callie chuckled.
"Exactly," he continued. "And even though I have this super close relationship with Callie, there are still - believe it or not - moments where things are a little awkward between us."
"Even after everything you guys have done on the show?"
"Even still. I mean we train things and choreograph things and rehearse, but there is still an element of surprise and danger with some stuff," he said, nodding. "Even though I've trained in the ropes and tying and everything like that, there's still the chance that something could be too tight or too loose and she could get hurt. Or if I'm using a whip or something like that, I could let it go too close to her and actually hit her with it."
"You've gotten me a few times already," Callie interjected.
"I have," Aya confirmed. "And every time I feel terrible about it, even though we both know its just the nature of the game. Like, she's my best friend and literally means the world to me and I'm physically leaving marks on her body. It's definitely not as much fun as everyone makes it out to be. But then, sex scenes in Hollywood never really are."
"Is there one place you guys want to film in with the show? Like if the writers asked you for ideas," Taylor asked.
"I would definitely say Scotland," Aya replied instantly. "Its sexiness is underrated."
Callie laughed. "Yep. Argyle is oh, so sexy," she teased. "I think I'd have to go somewhere exotic like Bali. I feel like they could have some rockin' sex parties there."
Taylor smiled. "Now, I have to ask. You two have such incredible chemistry on camera and off. Is there any chance you two might be dating?"
Aya looked over at Callie with a sly grin. "No," he chuckled. "We aren't dating. We're more than that. She's my best friend and I'd never dream of changing that relationship with her."
"I'm not blind," Callie smiled. "But I value him as a brother more than anything else. He knows all of my dirty secrets."
***ONE WEEK LATER***
"How's the apartment search going?" Shannon asked with a sigh, sipping his coffee.
"It's done, actually," Callie said.
"Oh? Did you find somewhere that fast?"
Callie shook her head. Her curls bounces wildly. "No. Aya wanted to move from his place to be closer to the city. So he suggested we move in together."
Shannon raised an eyebrow. "Is that a good idea?" he asked with a laugh. "I mean, you're welcome to keep staying at my place when I get back if you feel rushed. You don't have to move in with Aya."
She smiled. "No. It's good, actually. I always hated the idea of a roommate because I didn't trust anyone enough to live with them. But I know Aya. I know what he's like. Its perfect."
"If he's so perfect, why didn't you guys move in together before?" he asked.
"Because we both found our places before the show," she explained.
"Well, as long as you're sure," he cautioned. "I know what its like to live with someone you work with. It can get draining really quickly."
"Aya and I aren't related," she said with a smile.
"True. But it can get old really fast."
"I'm sure I'll be fine," she assured him. Trio leaped onto the bed and started licking her face. "And the new place allows dogs, so that's nice. This guy could come and visit." She scratched him behind the ears and his hind leg started moving involuntarily.
"Well, I've been thinking, maybe he could go with you permanently," Shannon suggested.
Callie paused. "What do you mean? I thought you wanted to keep him?"
"I do. But I don't have the time. Black Fuel is taking up more of my energy than I planned and I just can't give him the attention he deserves," he explained.
Trio rolled onto his back and nudged Callie's free hand with his nose, asking her to continue petting him. "And you think I can?"
"You work less than I do," he sad. "Plus, your dad can watch him when you're away. And if you have to go somewhere, Aya will be there. I think its for the better, to be honest."
"I guess. But only if you're really sure about it," she reasoned.
"I am. I'll miss him, but he can come visit his Uncle Shannon anytime," he chuckled. "I won't miss his shit in the back yard though."
Callie laughed. "Fair enough."
"Tell me about the apartment though," he asked, leaning his chin against his knuckles and stifling a yawn.
"It's gorgeous. Its a couple blocks from the beach, right off of Rose Avenue," she gushed. "Its a little run-down, but the guy we are renting from said he'd give us a discount in rent if we did some work around the place to update it."
Shannon scoffed. "How the fuck did you two swing this one?" he asked in annoyance.
She shrugged. "The guy's old. He lives out of state; he just wanted to make sure the house is well-cared for."
"Jesus fucking Christ, I wish I had the luck you do," he chuckled. "When do you move in?"
"Next week. We'll be in the door by Friday, but it won't be habitable until we're fully unpacked," she explained. "Maybe you could talk Jared into keeping my stuff for another few weeks when you get back? I'll definitely be out of your place by then, though. Don't worry about that."
"Cal, don't worry about that. It'll be fine. There's no rush." Shannon looked away from the screen for a moment as something happened in the background. "Sorry," he apologized, returning his gaze a second later. "The people in the room next door have apparently decided to make a porno."
Callie laughed. "What time is it there? Shouldn't you be asleep?"
He ran his hand over his eyes and stifled a yawn. "I should, but it doesn't seem like I'll get any anymore," he lamented.
She gave him a sad face. "I'm sorry." Trio nudged her hand and barked. "I think he needs to go outside. You should get some sleep."
He yawned again. "Yeah. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Night, Cal."
Callie ended the phone call and got up to take Trio outside. The house was strewn with half-packed boxes and she nearly tripped over one that had migrated into the hallway. Fortunately, she hadn't really unpacked more than she had needed, so she didn't have much work to do when the time came to leave Shannon's place. She had enjoyed her time there, but it didn't feel like home. She was too afraid to touch anything or move anything, even though she was positive Shannon wouldn't have cared one bit.
It felt more like she was staying at a long-term hotel, like she had in Toronto while filming at the beginning of the year. She lived out of a suitcase for the entire time. Even Tom had commented on her lack of unpacking. There seemed something very final about putting clothes away for some reason. Touring the bungalow had been magical, though. She really felt like she had found a permanent home. And best of all: she didn't have to climb over any furniture to get from one side of the house to the other; going to the bathroom had become ten times less dangerous.
***GOSSIP BOARD***
PARTYB4BY POSTED: Y'all, I don't think we have anything to worry about with Callie and Shannon.
BOLDASLOVE303 POSTED: Why? She posted yet another picture with some of his stuff in the back yard. It's pretty obvious they are together.
PARTYB4BY POSTED: Just because she's at his house when he's not there that doesn't mean they're together. And anyways, look at the way she and Aya are acting together. If they aren't fucking, I'm the Queen of England.
STARSKY POSTED: I think we also know whose dog that pit bull puppy is. Shannon either got a dog or Callie was at Jared's place while they were rehearsing for this leg of the tour. And since we can prove Callie was in Toronto this whole time, I think the dog belongs to Shannon. Personally, I love that he's got a dog again. It doesn't look like the guys have much more set up for the rest of the year, so maybe he thinks he's going to be able to relax a little bit more now.
BOLDASLOVE303 POSTED: So maybe that's why she's been at his house? House sitting and taking care of the dog? Her IG does show lots of posts about her dogs with her family. So maybe she was just dog sitting.
PARTYB4BY POSTED: I don't doubt it. I think she's still just his friend. She and Aya really seem like they like each other. And the interview they did where he talked about how important she was to him? I just have a hard time seeing Callie choosing Shannon when she could have Aya. Shannon's hot and all, but Aya is just...he's on another level. I totally ship it.
BOLDASLOVE303 POSTED: She can have him. I don't like her being around Shannon at all. Its making me feel like she's using him for something. It wouldn't be the first time Shannon has been used.