Everything to Nothing (15 page)

Panicking she
stood up and walked across and picked up her handbag off the floor
where she had flung it before. She removed Peter’s business card
and her phone and she called him.

‘Hello? Who’s
this?’

‘Peter, it’s
me, Sarah. I’m so glad you picked up. Listen, I am worried. What is
happening to me? Am I addicted? All I can keep on thinking about is
cocaine! And I feel awful.’

‘Oh, hi Sarah.
You know something, now is not a good time. I am at my grandma’s
having something to eat and I pressed the loudspeaker button by
accident.’

‘Oh shit! I
mean, shit, sorry.’

‘Look, I will
call you back soon. Bye.’

Sarah threw her
phone onto her bed and then she flopped down onto it cursing
herself. It was only a few minutes later that her phone rang.

‘Jesus Christ
Sarah! What are you doing?’

‘I am so sorry
Peter; I don’t know what is going on. I don’t feel at all good. I
feel sick, I can’t stay still and now to top it all I’ve got a
headache developing!’

‘I’m sorry
Sarah but there is not a lot I can do. Remember what I said,
everything comes at a price. Look, I can’t really talk now; she has
only gone to make a cup of tea. You are having a comedown. It is
like a hangover after drinking. All you can do is roll with it and
it will fade away. You are not addicted, no. What you are feeling
is like hair of the dog, you know, when you sometimes might have a
drink in the morning and it eases you hangover. It is the same
thing you are feeling now. Just because sometimes you might have a
drink to ease the hangover doesn’t mean you are an alcoholic does
it?’

‘Tell me about
it. I know all about alcohol. Thanks for telling me. I was
panicking.’

‘No reason to
panic babe. It will fade away.’

‘Okay. Thanks.
Sorry if I got you in trouble with your gran.’

‘No, it is
okay. Don’t think she understood what you were saying. She is
coming back. What are you doing Wednesday night?’

‘Nothing.
Why?’

‘Be at my house
for eight. We will go out, that is if you still want to?’

‘Yeah, of
course I do.’

‘Sorry, gotta
go. See you Wednesday.’

Sarah did try
to say goodbye but she was just talking to a silent line. Instead
she threw her phone to the other side of her double bed and closed
her eyes. ‘I just want to not feel like this anymore!’ she said out
loud.

Slowly the
night’s activities and lack of sleep caught up with her and she
fell asleep, thankfully for her, away from the effects of the
comedown. What Peter had decided not to tell her was that the
comedown was going to last for quite a few days. She would feel
lethargic, unable to concentrate and maybe even depressed.

Thinking that
she will feel ill for days, Peter thought, as he sipped his tea and
pretended he was listening to his grandma, how he can carry on
enjoying her body without having to pretend to like her, to pretend
to date her. Then he considered how much she had taken and how long
her come down was going to last. Thinking about Wednesday he
realised that she would be aching for some more, for some relief
from the comedown. So he decided to set an outrageous price when
she asked for it and when she said that could not afford it he
would say she could pay for it with sex. Peter thought he would get
her more and more addicted and the only way she would be able to
pay for it would be with sex. He called himself a genius,
congratulated himself and then stated why had he not thought of
this before?

*

‘Don’t
bother!’

Michelle was
stood in her drive-way as she listened to Sally end the
conversation. She held her phone out in front of her and for a few
moments stared at the screen.

‘Shit! Shit,
shit, shit!’ She stamped her foot as she exclaimed out loud and she
spoke another, harsher swear word. She found that a part of her was
straining to call Sally back and she had to physically resist the
motions her thumb wanted to make. Instead, she stamped her foot
again, swore again, and continued along her drive-way to her front
door, muttering to herself as she walked, ‘I can’t believe she saw
us! I was going to tell her. Oh shitty, shitty and more shitty!
She’ll never speak to me again!’ By this time she had reached her
door and upon opening it she was greeted to a glorious sound.

Her mother’s
beautiful, operatic voice was drifting through the house and
caressed Michelle’s ears with its beautiful tones. She stood on the
brink of the house waiting for her father’s baritone voice to join
in the song. When it did not, she knew that he must be out. He
always sang when she sang, it was just the way it was, and always
had been, ever since Michelle could remember.

Michelle was
well aware how her parents had met and even if someone did not know
the tale they only had to listen to them sing together to be able
to guess the tale. They had met when they were both still young,
eighteen her mother, twenty her father, both of them performing in
a West-End musical. In her mother’s own words it was literally love
at first sight. This handsome, dashing gentleman sang with her in
rehearsals and everybody who watched them that first day knew that
they were destined to be together. Their voices softly caressed
each other, discovering each other, then as they became bolder they
crashed together until they mingled and intertwined and became as
one. Michelle knew that after that dramatic meeting of two perfect
voices, her father asked her mother out to dinner which of course
she accepted. Since then, they had never been apart, both
professionally and personally.

Now, for a
moment or two longer, she listened to her mother sing in what
Michelle could only presume was Italian, and then she advanced into
the house to find her. She found her in the kitchen and Michelle
was greeted with a sight that was again so typical of life in their
house that it would have seemed unusual if her mother was not elbow
deep in flour making something delicious no doubt for the dinner
party they were hosting that night. Michelle let out a little sigh
of contentment and her mother turned as she heard her daughter
clip-clop across the tiled kitchen floor.

‘Now then young
lady, where have you been all night?’

‘Sorry I didn’t
call. Were you worried?’

‘A little. I
was going to call you if you hadn’t turned up soon.’

‘Ah, okay,
sorry.’ Michelle reached past her mother, quickly grabbed a handful
of raisins and popped them into her mouth before her mother could
stop her.

She did,
however, give her a look and say, ‘Some things never change. Where
were you last night?’

‘At
Clare’s.’

‘Deary me
Michelle, you are perhaps the worst liar in the world. I can always
tell and always have been able to tell. Now, tell me the truth,
like you always have been able to.’

Michelle knew
her mother was right. They had always had a completely open
relationship and Michelle knew how lucky she was to have a parent
to whom she could open her heart to.

‘If you stayed
at a boy’s, then tell me you stayed at a boy’s. I won’t be mad. You
are a woman now and you are just following your natural urges.’

‘Mother, try
not to sound like a presenter on a nature programme! Natural
urges?!’

‘Don’t roll
your eyes at me young lady!’

‘Sorry. Oh mum,
I met the most amazing guy! Well, I didn’t meet him, I already knew
him, but we have never really talked together properly. He is
fantastic! We just talked and talked and talked all night. Then we
went back his brother’s apartment and he opened his heart to me
about some really personal things, and, and he nearly cried which
shows a sensitive side, then we kissed and then…’

‘I think we can
safely say you can stop there! I don’t need the gory details thank
you very much. I just hope you were safe.’

‘Mother!’

‘Don’t roll
your eyes! You look about fourteen when you roll your eyes!’

‘Sorry. Anyway,
I didn’t sleep with him. Don’t look at me like that! We didn’t. He
didn’t want to.’

‘Pardon? He
didn’t want to?! That’s a first.’

‘Yeah, he
didn’t. Like I said, we just talked and had a coffee. I must have
fallen asleep because I woke up on the sofa this morning with a
blanket over me and that was it. I left and came home.’

‘Wow! He didn’t
want to? Sounds like a catch to me darling. I am happy for
you.’

‘He said it
would only spoil things.’

‘He sounds
great. Are you going to see him again?’

‘Yeah, I think
so. He said he is going to call and we are going to go out.’

‘Very good. You
go and get a shower now and freshen up. I simply must finish this
cake.’

‘Dinner party
tonight? Who is coming?’

‘Who isn’t?
Everyone from the show. Why don’t you come and not go to your
granddad’s? There will be lots of eligible young men here.’

‘I think I am
okay now mum. Anyway, you know I hate those young men. They are so
pretentious and arrogant. Oh look at me! I’m an actor. I am so
handsome and dashing. You want to sleep with me don’t you? Erm, no,
but I do really need a bucket to throw up into!’

‘Michelle!’

‘Sorry, but I
think I will give it a miss. I am quite happy with Simon, fingers
crossed anyway.’

‘I hope it
works out.’

‘Me too.’

‘Anyway, out,
out, out! Kitchen is off limits for the next hour!’

‘Okay. Can I
get a cup of tea though?’

‘Yes,
quickly.’

Michelle made
herself a cup of tea and then went upstairs to her bedroom. She
placed the cup of tea on a table and flopped onto the bed on her
back. Staring at the ceiling, Michelle thought about last night,
her conversations with Sally and how on earth she was going to mend
things between them. She knew that she should not have gone back to
the apartment, but she also knew that she wanted the night to go on
and on and that had meant going back there with him. Michelle’s
thoughts continued to race through her mind and eventually she
realized that she was going nowhere. ‘I smell!’ she said out loud.
‘Time for a shower.’

She sprang off
her bed and switched on her music system. Although not quite a Bang
and Olufsen like Sally’s, it was still a good system. It was linked
into her home cinema system that her father got her for her
eighteenth birthday so she had surround sound when watching movies.
It was also linked up to her Sky+ box that her parents had also
paid to have installed in her room. Again, although no Sally’s
father, Michelle’s parents were not exactly struggling. A large
house in a nice area of the town, two BMWs on the drive and a
holiday chalet in Switzerland all told Michelle that her parents
could afford to fill her life with these little luxuries.

The music that
blared out of the large speakers was a Red Hot Chili Peppers song
and Michelle hummed away as she listened, occasionally joining in
with the lyrics. She removed the cardigan she had forgotten to give
back to her friend, her top and then bra. Even out of the
constraints of her bra her breasts did not sag at all. They
remained were they were, full, firm and very large. Then removing
her skirt and knickers she stood in front of a full length mirror
and examined her body.

First of all
she started by looking at her breasts, admiring what she classed as
her best part of her body, making sure they were in their usual
place and not sagging. They were and they were not, so her gaze
moved down to her stomach, waist, hips and thighs which all bulged
a little. ‘Need to lose weight! Get to the gym this week – no
excuses!’

Her eyes then
focused on the dark triangle in between her legs and she shuddered
as she thought about the last man’s hand that had explored her most
sensitive and intimate parts. She knew that she should really
report him, but she also knew that there would no point. ‘Who are
they going to listen to, a drunk me or a sober doorman?’

Still standing
in front of the mirror she parted her legs a little and ran a
finger over her pubic area making sure that he had not cut her. She
also briefly slid a finger gently into herself and checked the
entrance to her vagina for any sore spots and was pleased to
discover none. While the tip of her finger was inside her, her
thoughts switched unintentionally, but instantly, to Simon, his
gorgeous face and fantastic body. Her finger slid just a little bit
deeper into her and she found herself involuntary rubbing her
clitoris with her thumb. After a couple of seconds she quickly drew
her hand away and mentally scolded herself.

Then she spoke
out loud, ‘No! NO masturbation! No matter how you feel! It is more
motivation to go out and find a boyfriend!’ She stamped her foot
again, a habit that she acquired from Sally and had never quite
been able to get rid of, and walked a few steps over to her bedroom
door.

Hanging on the
back was a towelling dressing gown that she put on and fastened.
Opening her door she walked lightly across to the bathroom, halting
briefly to listen to her parent’s voices, her father’s voice now
singing along with his wife’s, as they both worked together in
harmony to prepare for the party. Michelle sighed another sigh of
contentment and she stepped into the bathroom, closing and locking
the door behind her.

After showering
Michelle returned to her room and by now the Chili Peppers album
was about half way through. She instantly knew the song and picked
up the lyrics. Still humming and singing along, she got dressed in
to comfortable, cheap clothes from a local supermarket, no horse
riding in Armani for Michelle, and slipped on a pair of
trainers.

When she was
ready she turned off the music and practically skipped across her
room to where she had flung her handbag. She got her mobile and
purse out of it and then practically skipped back across her room
to the door. Then she made her way downstairs and followed the now
talking voices and found her parents sitting in the large
conservatory at the rear of the house, both of them drinking what
appeared to be sherry.