Chapter 1
Brandon Phillips sat off in a comer high atop the skyscraper. Music blared and the drone of voices mixed with the rhythm of the pulsing bass. His head throbbed along with the beat.
“My man,” Dante Walker, his best friend, said from behind him.
“What are you doing? This is a party, yet you’re sitting here all alone in a comer.”
Brandon just shrugged.
His friend grinned at him before saying, “I hear Katarina and her friends will be making an appearance here tonight.”
Brandon’s eyes shot up to his tall friend’s face. “Dude, that’s not funny.”
Dante held his hands up. “I wouldn’t lie to you about that. I overheard some of the party organizers talking.
I’m guessing one of them know as agent or make-up artist or something, who put in a good word about this
Brandon rolled his eyes. “There will be hundreds of parties tonight. Thousands probably. Why this one?”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing. You’ve been dying to meet her and now you’re acting like she has leprosy or something. As to why she’s coming to this specific party, it’s probably because it’s going to be one of the best. Live music, catered food, booze, supermodels and one of the best views in New York. Both up and down. Look down and you can see the ocean and boats for miles out. Look up and... well shortly we’ll be seeing what is expected to be the best meteor shower in hundreds of years.”
Brandon looked up at the sky expectantly as Dante continued. “They are saying that the comet’s orbit is so long that it hasn’t passed us in over two hundred years. I mean look how close it is!”
Dante turned his head up, looking at the bright white streak in the sky. The comet was a large ball of what scientists guessed was a smaller rock or metallic core and a large amount of ice surrounding it. It was estimated at being close to a mile wide and would pass very close to the Earth — only a few hundred thousand miles. A near miss in astronomical terms.
The scientists made this distance sound like if someone tried, they could reach it. The nut-jobs said that the comet was too close to Earth and its gravitational pull would pull the comet into us, causing something called an Extinction Event. They claimed that’s how the dinosaurs died and now it was our turn.
Still looking up, Brandon saw how close it looked, but it didn’t look like it was headed towards them. The Earth would possibly live another two hundred years until it came around again.
Dante looked back down at Brandon and said, “So why come to the party of the year if you’re just going to be a wallflower, avoid everyone and miss out on meeting the future Mrs. Phillips?”
Brandon felt the heat rise up his neck into his cheeks and ears.
Ignoring his friend’s embarrassment, he pulled Brandon up. “Come on,” Dante said tipping his head toward the stage set up on the other side of the rooftop.
“It’s time to mingle while we’re single,” Dante quipped.
Brandon groaned but let his friend pull him through the crowd towards the state. They passed the buffet table and them the bar, and Dante grabbed a beer, looking at Brandon questioningly.
Shaking his head, Brandon picked up a soda instead.
“Relax B, its one beer,” Dante said. “It’s not like I’m getting drunk.”
“You’re seventeen and if you get caught your basketball career is over before it really begins.” “It’s only one man, relax. Live a little.”
“These days ingesting sugar is living a little,” Brandon replied.
They made their way over towards the stage, staying away from the speakers blasting out the techno music so loud that Brandon felt the bass thump inside his chest.
There was a commotion that both teens heard even over the music and they turned to look. Through a throng of people, to which more flocked every second, they could just make out a group of supermodels arriving.
The group was quickly surrounded and disappeared in a sea of fans and sycophants. “Let’s go introduce ourselves,” Dante said.
“That would be a negative my friend. We would be one of many and would simply be forgotten as quickly as we were seen. No, give them some time and the flood will recede... And then, maybe.”
Brandon looked around, then added, “Let’s move away from this stage. Much more of this bass and I think I’m gonna have heart palpitations. I don’t think my body will survive with a heartbeat that matches this tempo.”
Dante didn’t look too convinced that moving was the best plan. “Do you really think that group will end up where we are now?” Brandon asked seriously.
The smile fell from Dante’s face, and after a few seconds he shook his head.
They headed out of the group in front of the stage and made their way to a much less crowded area near one of the edges of the tall building. There was a small Plexiglas wall bolted onto the building’s lip so people wouldn’t accidently fall over the edge.
The two barriers together stood about seven feet tall - enough so no one would fall over but a motivated person could climb over it easily.
Then again, a motivated person would be able to overcome just about any obstacle.
The Plexiglas panels allowed a person to be able to look out or down without any problem. It also cut some of the wind that was at that altitude.
The wind that evening was almost unnaturally calm Brandon noticed. Living on the tenth floor of sixty floor building, he visited the rooftop a lot, but it was normally deserted.
Usually, it was off-limits to everyone but building maintenance or repairmen, but Brandon befriended the building manager by helping him with some computer issues discretely and was allowed access whenever he wanted.
Trying to act nonchalant, Brandon paid no attention to the crowd, but instead looked out over the New York skyline. He could just make out the newly rebuilt Freedom Towers from his position.
