Lasting Damage (6 page)

Of
course Alice had gone go to Riley’s, he was the safe, secure one who always
knew what to do when things got really bad. What worried Jane was the thought
of how bad things could get with Alice before she realized she needed help. She
was kind of like one of those kids who don’t have nerve endings in their skin
and have to be watched every second of the day so they don’t bleed to death
from an accident with a butter knife. 

 “No,
it’s nothing,” he answered.  “I had a gig in Boston and I'm stuck here for a
while.”

“Why
didn't you come back last night?”

“Can
you please stop being difficult?” He pleaded. “All I need you to do is get
Alice up and moving. She's probably still passed out from whatever party she
was at last night.”

“You
and I both know it’s going to be more complicated than that.” She informed him.

“There's
five hundred bucks in it.” He grumbled. “Can you please just do this for me and
not ask a bunch of questions?”

“Fine,
but you have to promise to pay me.”

“Have
I ever let you down before?”

“Surprisingly,
no.”  She laughed.

“Surprisingly?
What the hell are you talking about? I am an awesome brother.” He announced
with puffed up pride. “You really should be nicer to me.”

“Yes,
Riley. I'll be nicer to you but I’m not making any promises for Alice.”

“You
better be good to her.” He warned with his big brother voice.

“Again,
I’m not making any promises.”

“I
already talked to Lily and she told me that she was going to beat the hell out
of you is you messed with Alice.” He announced.

“Since
when did Lily become Alice’s caretaker?” Jane threw her friend a glare before
flipping her off.

Lily
just grinned.

“I’m
not asking any questions about what goes on between those two.” Riley answered.

“Well,
maybe since Lily likes her so much Lily can be the one to go and get her?” Jane
narrowed her gaze at Lily but didn’t get any more of a response.

“Did
she tell you about her lollipop?” He laughed.

“Oh
come on,” Jane huffed. “You know better than to fall for that one.”

“I
know better than to take any chances when it comes to having stoned people
driving around doing me favors.” His voice lacked the vehemence that the
average person would have when talking about the dangers of driving while under
the influence. Jane didn’t bother pushing the subject any further since she
wouldn’t trust Lily to drive anywhere most of the time.

“Whatever,”
she grumbled.

“You'll
be there?”

“Yes,
I'll be there and I'll roll her off the couch before she can bother anyone.”
Jane told him.  “You happy now?”

“I’d
be happier if I didn’t have to pay you to spend time with your sister.” His
voice was thick with fake guilt but Jane wasn’t going to let that bother her.
She’d done more than her fair share of babysitting various members of their
family and she wasn’t above wanting to get paid for her time and trouble. She also
knew that few people would understand her demand for compensation but most
people didn’t have a family quite like hers.

“You'll
get over it.” She shot back before pressing the power button on her phone.
Shutting the thing off was the only way she was going to get a little peace now
that Alice was back in town.

Fucking
Alice.

And
fucking Riley.

Jane
wasn’t sure which one of them she disliked more at the moment. She was still
trying to revel in the awesomeness of her date with Harper and didn’t welcome
the kinds of distractions that Alice brought into her life. She tossed her
phone into her bag and started fishing around for her car keys.

She
was going to have to wait on that lollypop if she wanted to make it across town
because the medical grade stuff always knocked her on her ass and she was a bad
enough driver without anything in her system.

“How
come you don’t have to go and get Alice?” She asked with a sour sneer. “You’re
the one who likes playing with her.”

“I
tell you what,” Lily pauses to gather her ponytail into a loose Korean bun at
the back of her head. “You help me get rid of the
gruesome-twosome
in my
bed and I’ll go over there with you and pick Alice up off the floor.”

“Sure,”
Jane said as she stood up and slipped her feet back into her shoes. “I’ll help
you with your train wreck if you help me with mine.”

5.

Alice was passed
out on
the couch when Jane and Lily finally made it over to Riley’s. It’d taken longer
than she’d anticipated, Lily’s houseguests were having a difficult time
understanding the idea that some people could have sex without being in love.

“I
think I got the raw end of this deal,” Jane eyed her sister. It was after four
in the afternoon; she was half dressed and clutching an empty bottle of Grey
Goose in her hand.

They
kept quiet, neither one of them saying anything while listening to the rhythmic
patter of her breathing. Alice was alive and she was healthy, this meant they
were free to wake her up in whichever manner they saw fit.

“What
if we just camped out here and let her sleep it off?” Lily suggested. “Seems
like the easier option.”

“I’ve
got five hundred bucks riding on moving her ass.” Jane walked on over to the
back of the couch and put her hands on the edge. “Roll and Dump?”

Lily
nodded, moved to the front of the couch and pushed the coffee table out of the
way.

“Wakey,
wakey, eggs and bakey,” Lily sang with a laugh as Jane tipped the couch over
and rolled her sister off.

Alice
hit with floor with a loud
plop
and her customary grunt of disapproval
before sitting up with her customary dazed expression. 

“Janie!”
She pressed her hand to her wild mass of blond curls and laughed. “I missed
you!”

“No
time for sweet talk, kid.” Lily peered at her as Jane lowered the couch back
down. “Riley's busting a nut over you being here.”

Alice
looked down at the rug and sighed. “I think he's got some girl in the recording
studio and won’t let me near her.”

“He
told me he was running sound in Boston and things got complicated, or something
like that.” Jane reported. “I really have no idea, and I don’t give a fuck.”

“It's
a girl. I heard him talking to her on the phone. She sounded like a real special
snowflake.”

“Riley
likes those uptight chicks. It's his thing.” Jane leaned across the edge of the
couch and stared her sister. She looked like crap and smelled even worse. “How
about you go make nice with the shower before you come back to my place?”

“Nope,”
Alice shook her head and a new cloud of vodka fumes saturated the air around
them. “I don’t want to wash off any of the evidence.”

“Did
you start another bitch fight?” Lily asked.

“Maybe.”
She looked up at them with those big blue eyes and innocent little smile that
always meant trouble. “Girls can be mean.”

Lily
laughed. “What did you do this time?”

“Why
do you assume I did anything?” She struggled to her feet, weaving around for a
second before finding her sea legs. “I’m always the one who gets the blame for
every little thing.”

“Because
it’s you,” Jane said with the conviction of a sister experienced in breaking up
fights between Alice and ever person she ever met. “It’s an easy assumption to
make.”

“Go
pack up all your crap and let’s get out of here,” said Lily.

“I
can’t leave yet.” Alice set the empty bottle down on the side table and grabbed
the couch to keep from falling over but missed and ended up back on her ass
again.

“You
have to leave,” Lily informed her. “Riley’s orders.”

“Not
until I find my phone.”

“Christ,”
Jane swore under her breath.

“I
was looking for it when I passed out on the couch,” Alice stood up straight and
let out a pathetic groan. “Give me a minute and I’ll go find it.”

“How
much did you have to drink before you passed out?” Fighting against the stink, Jane
closed in on her sister to get a better look. “And how many pills did you take?”

“Not
enough to kill me,” Alice ran a shaking hand through her hair in an attempt to
straighten herself up. “I’m just a little hung over.”

“Just
a
little
?” Lily cocked an eyebrow. “You’re starting to look a
little
down-market.”

“I
know,” Alice agreed. “It’s the jetlag. It’s killing me.”

“Can
we please bring it back to the issue of the missing phone?” Jane asked.

Alice
blinked a few times before her face fell. “I don’t want you to yell at me.”

“Why
would I yell at you?” Jane took another step closer to the ragged mess that was
her sister and felt her heart pick up. Alice wasn’t afraid of many things but
Jane had trained her to have a decent sense of dread when it came to pissing
her off too much.

“I
left my phone in the recording studio this morning.” Alice’s voice was so soft
that Jane had to lean in to hear the little bomb she’d dropped.

“Excuse
me?” Jane blinked and shook her head. “You were
where
?”

“I’m
pretty sure she said she left it in the recording studio,” Lily answered.

“I
know,” Jane told her. “I just wanted to hear it one more time.”

“Sorry,”
Lily shrugged.

Jane
had to bite her lip to keep from saying something she was going to regret once
the situation was resolved. “Alice.” She inhaled her sister’s name, tasting the
anxiety, like bitter bile, on the back of her tongue. “Why were you in the
recording studio?”

“I
got bored and Riley didn’t lock the door,” she said.

 “Why
did he leave the door unlocked if he knew you were here?” Jane asked the most
obvious question even though she suspected Alice was lying to her. “That
doesn’t even make sense.”

“I
told you, he’s got a special snowflake working in the studio and she needs full
access to the house.” She responded before looking away.

Lily
gave Jane a knowing glance before crossing her arms over her chest and staring
Alice down for a long moment? “Why isn’t she staying in the apartment?” 

“How
should I know?” Alice shrugged. “Maybe he’s fucking her or something.”

“I’ve
never known Riley to eat where he shits,” Lily replied knowingly. “Why don’t
you tell us what you’ve been up to?”

If
Alice had any color left in her face it probably would’ve drained away at that
moment since it seemed she was coming to the realization that neither one of
the scary girls in front of here were buying a single word coming out of her
mouth.

“You’ve
been bothering people again,” Jane muttered.

“I
didn’t do anything bad,” she whispered. “I just wanted to get a peek at her.”

“Why?”
Jane asked.

“Because
Riley told me to leave her alone.” She admitted.

“How
did you get into the studio?”

“I
was messing around in Riley’s bathroom and I found the extra set of keys in the
medicine chest.”

“You’re
a real brainiac, you know that.” Jane placed both hands on the table and took a
few calming breath to keep from smacking Alice right upside her greasy little
head. “Now you’re sure you left the phone in there?”

“Yes,”
Alice answered with a firm nod. “But I had a lot to drink so I don’t want you
to beat me up if I’m wrong.”

There
were several times in her life Jane wondered if my sister might be a little
slow on the uptake. It wouldn't be difficult to imagine that at the tender age
of twenty-two Alice had already burned through her allotted amount of brain
cells, the girl had done an ‘Ozzy Osborn’ amount of drugs in her short life.  

As
much as Jane wanted to be pissed at her sister she knew it was wrong to hold a
grudge against someone this out of control. “Alice?”  She let out a deep breath
and tried to find the last of her patience. “Will you please tell me where, in
the recording studio, you left your phone so we can get out of here?”

“I
have no idea.” Alice answered with a shrug. “I get so turned around when I get
in there. The control room is big and the-”

“Why
are you doing this?” Jane interrupted, and pressed the heel of her palms to her
eyes, pushing until she thought she was going to burst a blood vessel. “I don’t
understand why you do this.”

“Christ
Janie,” Alice laughed lightly. “It’s just a phone. I’ll call mom and get a
replacement.”

“And
what happens when Riley finds your old one?” She pulled her hands away and was
treated to a spectacular show of lights flashing in front of her eyes as the
migraine seeped through her blood-brain barrier. “You know he’s going to shit a
fucking brick. You’re not supposed to be back here bothering people. Fucking
hell, Alice, do you ever think about anything before-”

“Take
a breath, Jane, you look like you're about to pass out.” Lily interrupted. “Just
take the keys and go in there.”

“Fine,”
she grumbled as she grabbed her bag and started fishing through it.

“The
keys are on the-”

“I’ve
got my own set,” Jane interrupted and pulled the spare keys from her bag. “You
get her packed up and in the car. We need to get her contained and cleaned up
before she can do any more damage.”

*****

Harper
was sitting in the empty studio trying working on the third track when she
heard a key scraping in the lock of the door that led to Riley’s place.

Riley
had called to tell her that he’d be in Boston a little longer so she had the
studio to herself. He also warned her to stay clear of the house since Alice
had shown up and he didn’t want to give her a reason to stick around.

“You’re back early.” She pressed the space bar on the keyboard to
stop the track and took the headphones out of her lap. She’d brought them in
with the intention of blocking out any other sound so she could listen without
distraction but had forgotten to plug them in once she started working. “I
thought you were going to be in Boston with Kara’s manager for one more day?”

Harper placed the headphones on the table next to the computer and
pushed her chair away from the table before catching sight of Jane standing in
the doorway. For a second she felt like her heart had actually stopped. Harper
put her hand on the table in an attempt to center herself but couldn’t force
her body to stand up.

“Harper?” Jane took a small step away from the door and stopped to
gaze around the room with a confused look crossing her face. “What are you
doing here?”

Harper opened her mouth and waited for all the words she needed to
come flying out of her mouth but nothing happened.

“Harper?” Jane asked again.

“I can explain,” she said as she struggled to her feet.

“Explain?” Jane‘s gaze shifted to something on the far side of the
mixing board, her demeanor seemed to tense up as the seconds slipped between
them. “What is it you need to explain to me?”

 “Me, being here.” She wrapped her fingers around the edge of the
chair and hesitated, there was no way to smooth this over with Jane and she
knew it. “I’m supposed to be here.”

“You are?” Jane’s voice moved from confusion to suspicion with
such seamlessness it made Harper’s blood run cold in her veins. 

“Jane,” she whispered.

“I think now is when you start telling me things aren’t what they
seem and you have an easy explanation to fix everything and that I don’t have
to feel like you were leading me on or laughing behind my back because I’m such
an idiot.” She brought her hand to her forehead and took a deep breath before
letting out a defeated laugh. “Or, maybe you have an excellent reason for not
telling me you were working with my brother? It’d have to be really good since you
had so many opportunities to get this little truth out in the open.”

Harper ran a hand through her hair and tried to come up with some
sort of lie that would turn the situation around but she didn’t have it in her
to lie to Jane one more time. “I’m sorry.”

 “When Riley calls will you let him know I was here?” she said
softly. “Tell him that I picked up Alice.”

“Jane-”

“You could’ve told me but you didn’t bother.” Jane held her hand
out to stop Harper from talking. “What am I supposed to think?”

“That I’m an asshole?” Harper offered.

“The one thing we’re going to agree on.” She looked resolved to
that one piece of the truth Harper had given her. 

“I’m so sorry.”

“Good, I’m glad you’re sorry.” She looked down at the plain brown
carpet that separated them and nodded slowly. “I want you to be really, really
sorry because you are a sorry fucking bitch.”

“I can fix this,” Harper wanted to grope around the darker places
in her brain to come up with some kind of explanation but she needed a more
time. “If you just let me try and explain I knew I can fix this.”

“I’ve got to leave,” Jane said as she opened the door. “Alice and
Lily in the car and I’m about to say something you and I will both regret.”

“Please don’t go,” Harper took another step closer but stopped
when Jane narrowed her eyes.