Sad_Girl
Blue Crack Supplier
*Disclaimer: Although obviously inspired in part by people who exist in real life, this story is in no way meant to represent reality, past, present or future. The author has no personal experience or contact with the band or their friends and family. There are facts within this story which may be contrary to real life either because they were changed for artistic purposes or simply because the author had no knowledge of the truth on a particular subject; i.e.: dates and times. No offense is intended to anyone who inspired this work of fiction. It’s just a wandering thought which I found trapped in the maze of my imagination.
Babyface pt 5
Larry dreamt of the sea that night. He dreamt he was standing atop a massive cliff over looking a turbulent ocean. The wind was trying to push him back, away from the edge but he stood his ground, leaning into the wind defiantly. It was a vivid dream; he could hear the crashing waves, smell and taste the salt in the air, feel the spray against his face. Suddenly, the wind stopped. The resistance was gone without warning, but he was still pressing forward and suddenly he was falling, head over feet along the cliff. It felt as if the earth had simply opened up beneath him and was about to swallow him whole. He flailed his arms and legs, scrambling for purchase on the rocky cliff face, but the rock gave him nothing to hold.
Larry lurched upright in the unfamiliar bed with a gasp, his heart racing, a cold sweat forming on his skin. He ran an agitated hand through his hair and sighed as the events prior to the dream returned to his sleep numbed mind. The tiny apartment was dimly lit, the sky outside gray, clouds blocking the sun. It was post dawn, but how long he could not tell in the gloom.
“You ok?” He heard her sleepy voice ask and turned to look down at her. He smiled slightly as soon as he saw her face, the memories of the night before flashing vividly in his mind. She stretched beneath the blankets and smiled up at him.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” He replied, lying back down beside her. “I’m great.” He told her as he cuddled up against her, his hand sliding beneath the blankets to caress the smooth skin of her stomach. She chuckled at him and kissed him lightly.
“Then why are you blushing?” she teased.
“I’m not blushing!” he objected, trying hard not to grin at her.
“Yes, you are.” She told him, her green eyes shimmering with delight.
“I’m not!” he objected again, leaning down to brush a whispery kiss across her mouth. “You can try and make me, if you want to see the difference.” He told her playfully.
“Hmm.” She moaned against his lips, sitting up and letting the blanket pool around her waist. She reached out and ran her fingers through his hair. “You know, I think I’ll just wait until one of your friends sees that.” She told him, running a finger over the red mark she’d left on his lower neck.
“What?” he asked, his smile fading as she gestured at the mirror hanging on the wall.
“Bollix! Shite, my dad sees this he’s going to know I didn’t stay at Bono’s.” He told her, trying to keep any sign of humor out of his voice. Janet, however, burst out into laughter at the statement.
“I would hope so!” she laughed.
“You think it’s funny?” he said, turning back to pounce on top of her on the bed. “You must want one, too. See how funny you think it is!” He threatened her, grinning now and catching her wrists as she squealed and tried to wrestle herself free of his grasp. She turned her head from side to side, blocking his advances. Finally, his mouth found the side of her throat and he began to suck on the skin there. It was like an electrical shock; an explosion of sensation at the place where his lips met her skin which then spread outwards until her whole body felt it.
It didn’t take long for her to stop struggling, and soon enough she was clinging to him again as if she never wanted to let go. The apartment was silent of anything but the hum of the refrigerator motor, the rustle of the blankets, and the gentle murmurs of pleasure which escaped her throat. Suddenly, the gentle quiet of the early morning was broken by the harsh buzz of the telephone.
“Damn it!” Janet moaned, and Larry simply chose to ignore it. “Baby, I have to get that.” She told him, wiggling out from under him as he groaned in complaint. She quickly padded across the linoleum floor on bare feet, Larry’s eyes washing over her hungrily.
“Hello?” She answered, not bothering to hide the irritation in her voice. She stood with her back to Larry, her hair spilling down to her waist in gentle waves. She rested one hand against the wall and held the phone with the other. She stood on one foot, using the other to scratch an itch on her leg as she listened to whoever was on the other end of the line.
“I will.” She said, her voice softening and her body language changing. She was no longer feeling so casual and calm; she used her free arm to cover her chest as she sank down into the kitchen chair nearest the wall where the phone hung. Larry frowned at her, not trying to hide the fact that he was listening.
“What do you want?” She asked, her head bent forward, her hair hiding her face from Larry’s view. “No. No, I can’t. I told you not to come back here!” she hissed finally, standing and slamming the phone back into its cradle.
“Who was that?” Larry asked, frowning at her as she turned to face him. Were there tears in her eyes? He stood to approach her but she waved him off.
“Nobody important.” She told him with a smile that did not reach her eyes. “I’m going to take a shower. When I’m done, I’ll cook you breakfast, if you’re hungry.” She told him as she opened her wardrobe and found some clothes to wear for the day.
“Janet?” Larry asked, his young face drawn tight into a serious scowl. “Is there somebody bothering you? You can tell me.” He asked her, and she shook her head.
“It’s nothing. Ancient history. Not even worth the time it would take to tell the story.” She said meekly as she stepped into the bathroom and closed the door between them.
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“Do you believe in God?” Larry asked as he and Janet strolled casually across the street from her place. Janet glanced up in surprise, feeling a bit blindsided by the spontaneous change of topic.
“Yeah. Yeah, I guess.” She replied with an apprehensive nod.
“You guess?” He asked, their hands clasped together and swinging in between them as they walked. Janet smiled at him, wondering if she would ever truly get to know him. There was much more to this young man than a handsome face, she had no doubt of that. He was one surprise after another.
“I was raised Catholic.” She told him with a sigh. She knew that much of ‘the troubles’ in Northern Ireland was blamed on religion. Catholic and Protestant. Both churches worshipping the same God, but unable to accept each others methods of belief and worship. She knew that religion was by no means the sole reason for the fighting, but it certainly contributed its share of fuel to the proverbial fire.
“But I have a lot of issues with the Catholic Church. I’ve attended a few protestant churches, and they’re ok. But I guess, I have trouble with the fact that each and every one of them claims to be the sole path to God and redemption. I’ve never believed that God wanted us to compete and fight the way we do, let alone to do so in his name.” She told him. “So, I guess I would have to say that I believe in God but not necessarily in the church.”
“You’re not the only person who feels that way.” He replied with a thoughtful nod. “Edge, actually, has a lot of thoughts on the subject which are a lot like yours.”
“What about you?” She asked, squeezing his hand gently.
“I’m still working it all out, too.” He admitted, smiling self consciously. As they walked he shared with her his thoughts on the church and God, life and death. Even after they had reached their destination, they stood outside and talked for several minutes.
“You should be a writer.” She told him as he summed up the conversation finally.
“Me?” He asked, waving a dismissive hand at her and snorting in mock disgust. “I don’t have a creative bone in my body.”
“How can you say that? You’re a musician, aren’t you?” She teased, stepping in closer, so they stood chest to chest now, their faces inches apart.
“No.” he joked, his head falling back slightly as he chuckled. “I’m a drummer. I just like to hit things.” Janet smiled reflexively to his smile, thinking it was the most enchanting thing she’d ever seen. Each one more precious than the last. She wanted to make him smile more often.
“Well, you’d better go in. I don’t want to make you late for rehearsal.” She told him, leaning up and brushing a butterfly kiss over his lips and backing away.
“Hey!” He complained, catching her wrist and pulling her back to him, his arms quickly enveloping her, his generous mouth meeting hers. Warmth spread out through her body under his touch, her heart fluttering like the wings of a butterfly in her chest. She had never in her life felt this way, and although it made her nervous, she vowed to savor every second of it.
“I’ll call you, tonight. All right?” He told her as they parted. Janet smiled and nodded at him as he backed away from her until he came to the stairs leading up to the door on the little house. He bounded quickly up the stairs and disappeared as the door slammed shut behind him. Out of the corner of her eye, Janet thought she saw a curtain move in a window at the corner of the house. By the time she looked directly at it, though, she could not find any sign of someone standing near it, looking out.
She wondered, as she turned and walked back toward her flat, what Larry’s father would think of him seeing her. Her spirits deflated at the answers which came to mind, and she tried to push the question out of her mind. She would deal with that when she had to.
At the corner, she decided to turn left instead of right. She didn’t feel much like going home at the moment. There wasn’t much of anything for her to do but sit and think. The thoughts which were on her mind today made her restless, and she knew from experience she would get stir crazy in her tiny little flat. She found herself walking along the quay, huddled into her old jacket, watching the sea birds dive and then rise again to circle above the water. She walked aimlessly for as long as she could stand the cold and damp, but the moment she rounded the corner to see her apartment building, she thought perhaps she should’ve suffered the cold awhile longer.
She drew up short as soon as she saw him, but it was too late. He’d already taken notice of her approach. Janet drew in a deep breath and steeled herself, squaring her shoulders as she started walking again. She would not let him see her as weak in any way.
“Sean.” She greeted him, her tone even colder than the November wind which whipped around them, making cheeks and noses pink and raw.
“I was starting to think you were avoiding me.” He greeted her with a smile that made her want to shudder. It was hard to imagine that there was a time when she had found that smile handsome.
“I was.” She told him honestly, standing her ground. He tried to direct her toward the door, but she refused to budge. “What do you want?” She demanded, not raising her voice but making it clear she had no patience for him.
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Adam had, for as long as he could remember, done his best to be different. Different from the other people he knew, the type of person who turned heads. He was always the person people wondered about, someone they would remember long after other acquaintances had been long forgotten. In doing so, he had become an excellent judge of character. At least, he considered himself to have a good grasp on certain points of someone’s personality within a few minutes of conversation.
He didn’t need to exchange even one word with the man he saw standing with Janet to have determined that he didn’t like him. Smarmy. That was one word which came to mind. Dodgy, another good descriptive of his manners. Adam broke into a jog as he crossed the street at an angle, taking a long last drag off his cigarette. He saw the relief in Janet’s eyes the moment they moved away from the man she was speaking to and landed on him. Adam smiled as he slowed to stop a few feet from the pair.
“H’lo.” He greeted them, exhaling a long stream of smoke as he tossed the cigarette butt to the street and ground it out with the toe of his Doc Martins.
“Adam.” Janet said, saying his name as if she were saying a prayer of thanks.
“Am I early?” Adam asked, his eyes darting over to the other man suspiciously.
“Early?” She asked.
“To help you clean up your flat, like I told you I would.” He explained and Janet smiled with relief.
“Right!” She said. “Right, no, you are right on time.” She said, turning toward the front door. “Sean was just leaving.” She continued, her green eyes darkening as she looked the other man in the eye as if daring him to stay.
“Right.” The man said, moving to straddle his motorbike. “I’ll call you later.” He finished, his words innocent enough, but sounding every bit like a threat when he spoke them. Before anyone else spoke he turned the key and twisted the throttle, making the engine roar to life. They watched silently as he tore away from them, accelerating to a break-neck speed and running two stops before he was completely out of sight.
“I already cleaned up, so you don’t need to come up. I mean, if you want to, you can.” She told Adam, who opened the front door and held it for her to pass. She led the way up the stairs and into her flat wordlessly. Adam glanced around at the tidy little room and could not help but smile to himself as a realization sunk in.
“Larry stayed last night, did he?” He asked, hiding his smile the best he could when she turned to look at him, her eyes round in surprise. “Just guessing from the way everything’s been cleaned and folded and put away.” He explained and Janet couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Yeah, that’s a dead give away isn’t it?” She laughed, shrugging out of her jacket and draping it over the back of a chair. She moved to the refrigerator and peered inside. “I think we finished off the orange juice. All I have to drink is Guinness.” She told him.
“That’s fine. Thanks.” He told her, settling onto the couch and making himself comfortable.
“You want a Guinness at one o’clock in the afternoon?” She asked, disbelief saturating her voice.
“Sure. I have to get rid of this hangover somehow.” He told her with a cheeky grin. She smiled and shook her head at him, bringing two cans with her. She sat on the arm of the couch opposite Adam and cracked the seal on hers, taking a long drink to make the silence feel less awkward.
“So, do you want to tell me what was going on downstairs, or are you going to let me make up a story?” Adam asked, making her choke as she tried to swallow.
“I’m not sure which would be worse.” She replied with a wary laugh. She sat her drink aside and chewed on her lower lip nervously. “That was my ex-boyfriend.” She told him.
“You used to go out with that wanker?” Adam asked, his face tightening into a deep frown, his lower lip even more pronounced than usual.
“Unfortunately, yes.” Janet told him, scratching an itch on her eyebrow before running her hand through her long blonde locks.
“Was he giving you a hard time?”
“Nothing new.” She told him grimly. “He travels a lot, and he always does this when he first gets back into Ireland.”
“Is he the reason you moved here?”
“Not really. I mean, I guess I probably wouldn’t have come here right when I did if it weren’t for Sean, but I always wanted to be here. I love it here, too. I stay in spite of the fact that he’s around, not because of it.” She informed him, and Adam nodded in understanding.
“Wait! Aren’t you supposed to be at rehearsal?” She asked suddenly, the realization dawning on her. Adam laughed and shook his head, his blonde curls bouncing slightly as he did.
“No, they’re involved with a Christian group. That’s what the three of them get up to on Sundays and Thursdays.” Adam told her.
“But not you.” She said, arching a slender blonde brow at him.
“Not me.” He agreed. “I don’t buy into all of the shite they do. God and all of that.”
“Why not?”
“That’s a rather personal question.” Adam replied with a coy smile. “I don’t think I’ve had enough to drink to start answering questions like that.”
“Ok, how about this… for every question I ask that you don’t want to answer, you take a drink. Eventually you’ll be drunk enough to tell me everything.” She laughed.
“Only if you’ll be doing the same.”
“That sounds like a challenge.” She chuckled, sliding down onto the couch cushions and pulling her knees up to her chest.
*********************************************************************
The phone ringing suddenly made Janet jump as if a gun had been fired. Both she and Adam laughed at her overly dramatic reaction and she stood and made her way across the floor in a less than straight line. She heard Adam laughing at her and made a rude gesture toward him over her shoulder.
“Hello?” She answered the phone, sinking down into the chair nearby.
“Janet?” She heard a sweet, familiar voice on the other end of the line.
“Hey, babyface.” She greeted him, laughing and covering her mouth when she realized she wasn’t supposed to call him that in front of his friends.
“Are you ok?” He asked, and she could practically *hear* him scowling.
“I’m fine.” She told him. “I wasn’t expecting your call yet. Did you get out of rehearsal early?”
“No, it was the same as always.”
“What time is…?” Janet asked turning to check the clock hanging in her kitchen and swearing. “It’s eight o’clock already?” She directed this comment to Adam who looked just as surprised as she felt. He pushed himself up off the couch and stumbled to the bathroom, not bothering to shut the door completely behind himself.
“Are you drunk?” Larry asked and Janet sighed into the receiver, making a deafening noise in Larry’s ear.
“I’ve had a couple beers this afternoon.” She told him.
“Does this have anything to do with that phone call this morning?” He asked, and Janet wondered just how much to tell him.
“I’m taking the last piece of cake.” Adam told her as he made his way from the bathroom to the kitchen.
“No, not really. Listen, Larry… I’m exhausted. You mind if we just talk tomorrow?” She said, and the silence which followed told her quite clearly that he wasn’t particularly happy with that arrangement.
“Sure. I’ll see you at the store, then.” He said finally, slamming down the phone before she could say goodbye. Janet sighed and hung the phone up before stumbling back over to the couch, where she lay, sprawled out, staring at the stained ceiling.
“Adam?” She sighed. “You won’t tell anyone any of this stuff we talked about today, will you?”
“No, of course not.” He replied. “Did you think you couldn’t trust me?
“No, I thought I could. But I’m not always the best judge of character.” She informed him honestly.
“Can I ask you one last thing, before I go?” Adam asked, moving to kneel on the floor beside her, licking frosting from his fingertips.
“Sure.” She replied, her word stretched out on a yawn.
“If it weren’t for Larry… what would you have done, that night I thought we had a date?” He asked, and Janet blinked at him in silent shock for a moment.
“I… well, yeah, I probably would’ve gone out with you. But Larry and I were already seeing each other. There’s no point in imagining what if.” She told him, and he nodded in agreement, his blue eyes growing distant.
“Right. No point whatsoever.” He agreed, standing and retrieving a blanket from atop the wardrobe and gently covering her with it. “Thanks for the drinks and everything today.” He told her, kissing her softly on the cheek.
“Adam?” She said as she heard the hinges on the door squeak.
“Hmm?”
“Thanks for… being here today. For, you know, being a friend.” She told him.
“My pleasure.” He told her. “Now get some sleep.” She had barely heard the door close behind him before she did just that, drifting into a deep, dreamless slumber.
Babyface pt 5
Larry dreamt of the sea that night. He dreamt he was standing atop a massive cliff over looking a turbulent ocean. The wind was trying to push him back, away from the edge but he stood his ground, leaning into the wind defiantly. It was a vivid dream; he could hear the crashing waves, smell and taste the salt in the air, feel the spray against his face. Suddenly, the wind stopped. The resistance was gone without warning, but he was still pressing forward and suddenly he was falling, head over feet along the cliff. It felt as if the earth had simply opened up beneath him and was about to swallow him whole. He flailed his arms and legs, scrambling for purchase on the rocky cliff face, but the rock gave him nothing to hold.
Larry lurched upright in the unfamiliar bed with a gasp, his heart racing, a cold sweat forming on his skin. He ran an agitated hand through his hair and sighed as the events prior to the dream returned to his sleep numbed mind. The tiny apartment was dimly lit, the sky outside gray, clouds blocking the sun. It was post dawn, but how long he could not tell in the gloom.
“You ok?” He heard her sleepy voice ask and turned to look down at her. He smiled slightly as soon as he saw her face, the memories of the night before flashing vividly in his mind. She stretched beneath the blankets and smiled up at him.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” He replied, lying back down beside her. “I’m great.” He told her as he cuddled up against her, his hand sliding beneath the blankets to caress the smooth skin of her stomach. She chuckled at him and kissed him lightly.
“Then why are you blushing?” she teased.
“I’m not blushing!” he objected, trying hard not to grin at her.
“Yes, you are.” She told him, her green eyes shimmering with delight.
“I’m not!” he objected again, leaning down to brush a whispery kiss across her mouth. “You can try and make me, if you want to see the difference.” He told her playfully.
“Hmm.” She moaned against his lips, sitting up and letting the blanket pool around her waist. She reached out and ran her fingers through his hair. “You know, I think I’ll just wait until one of your friends sees that.” She told him, running a finger over the red mark she’d left on his lower neck.
“What?” he asked, his smile fading as she gestured at the mirror hanging on the wall.
“Bollix! Shite, my dad sees this he’s going to know I didn’t stay at Bono’s.” He told her, trying to keep any sign of humor out of his voice. Janet, however, burst out into laughter at the statement.
“I would hope so!” she laughed.
“You think it’s funny?” he said, turning back to pounce on top of her on the bed. “You must want one, too. See how funny you think it is!” He threatened her, grinning now and catching her wrists as she squealed and tried to wrestle herself free of his grasp. She turned her head from side to side, blocking his advances. Finally, his mouth found the side of her throat and he began to suck on the skin there. It was like an electrical shock; an explosion of sensation at the place where his lips met her skin which then spread outwards until her whole body felt it.
It didn’t take long for her to stop struggling, and soon enough she was clinging to him again as if she never wanted to let go. The apartment was silent of anything but the hum of the refrigerator motor, the rustle of the blankets, and the gentle murmurs of pleasure which escaped her throat. Suddenly, the gentle quiet of the early morning was broken by the harsh buzz of the telephone.
“Damn it!” Janet moaned, and Larry simply chose to ignore it. “Baby, I have to get that.” She told him, wiggling out from under him as he groaned in complaint. She quickly padded across the linoleum floor on bare feet, Larry’s eyes washing over her hungrily.
“Hello?” She answered, not bothering to hide the irritation in her voice. She stood with her back to Larry, her hair spilling down to her waist in gentle waves. She rested one hand against the wall and held the phone with the other. She stood on one foot, using the other to scratch an itch on her leg as she listened to whoever was on the other end of the line.
“I will.” She said, her voice softening and her body language changing. She was no longer feeling so casual and calm; she used her free arm to cover her chest as she sank down into the kitchen chair nearest the wall where the phone hung. Larry frowned at her, not trying to hide the fact that he was listening.
“What do you want?” She asked, her head bent forward, her hair hiding her face from Larry’s view. “No. No, I can’t. I told you not to come back here!” she hissed finally, standing and slamming the phone back into its cradle.
“Who was that?” Larry asked, frowning at her as she turned to face him. Were there tears in her eyes? He stood to approach her but she waved him off.
“Nobody important.” She told him with a smile that did not reach her eyes. “I’m going to take a shower. When I’m done, I’ll cook you breakfast, if you’re hungry.” She told him as she opened her wardrobe and found some clothes to wear for the day.
“Janet?” Larry asked, his young face drawn tight into a serious scowl. “Is there somebody bothering you? You can tell me.” He asked her, and she shook her head.
“It’s nothing. Ancient history. Not even worth the time it would take to tell the story.” She said meekly as she stepped into the bathroom and closed the door between them.
***************************************************************
“Do you believe in God?” Larry asked as he and Janet strolled casually across the street from her place. Janet glanced up in surprise, feeling a bit blindsided by the spontaneous change of topic.
“Yeah. Yeah, I guess.” She replied with an apprehensive nod.
“You guess?” He asked, their hands clasped together and swinging in between them as they walked. Janet smiled at him, wondering if she would ever truly get to know him. There was much more to this young man than a handsome face, she had no doubt of that. He was one surprise after another.
“I was raised Catholic.” She told him with a sigh. She knew that much of ‘the troubles’ in Northern Ireland was blamed on religion. Catholic and Protestant. Both churches worshipping the same God, but unable to accept each others methods of belief and worship. She knew that religion was by no means the sole reason for the fighting, but it certainly contributed its share of fuel to the proverbial fire.
“But I have a lot of issues with the Catholic Church. I’ve attended a few protestant churches, and they’re ok. But I guess, I have trouble with the fact that each and every one of them claims to be the sole path to God and redemption. I’ve never believed that God wanted us to compete and fight the way we do, let alone to do so in his name.” She told him. “So, I guess I would have to say that I believe in God but not necessarily in the church.”
“You’re not the only person who feels that way.” He replied with a thoughtful nod. “Edge, actually, has a lot of thoughts on the subject which are a lot like yours.”
“What about you?” She asked, squeezing his hand gently.
“I’m still working it all out, too.” He admitted, smiling self consciously. As they walked he shared with her his thoughts on the church and God, life and death. Even after they had reached their destination, they stood outside and talked for several minutes.
“You should be a writer.” She told him as he summed up the conversation finally.
“Me?” He asked, waving a dismissive hand at her and snorting in mock disgust. “I don’t have a creative bone in my body.”
“How can you say that? You’re a musician, aren’t you?” She teased, stepping in closer, so they stood chest to chest now, their faces inches apart.
“No.” he joked, his head falling back slightly as he chuckled. “I’m a drummer. I just like to hit things.” Janet smiled reflexively to his smile, thinking it was the most enchanting thing she’d ever seen. Each one more precious than the last. She wanted to make him smile more often.
“Well, you’d better go in. I don’t want to make you late for rehearsal.” She told him, leaning up and brushing a butterfly kiss over his lips and backing away.
“Hey!” He complained, catching her wrist and pulling her back to him, his arms quickly enveloping her, his generous mouth meeting hers. Warmth spread out through her body under his touch, her heart fluttering like the wings of a butterfly in her chest. She had never in her life felt this way, and although it made her nervous, she vowed to savor every second of it.
“I’ll call you, tonight. All right?” He told her as they parted. Janet smiled and nodded at him as he backed away from her until he came to the stairs leading up to the door on the little house. He bounded quickly up the stairs and disappeared as the door slammed shut behind him. Out of the corner of her eye, Janet thought she saw a curtain move in a window at the corner of the house. By the time she looked directly at it, though, she could not find any sign of someone standing near it, looking out.
She wondered, as she turned and walked back toward her flat, what Larry’s father would think of him seeing her. Her spirits deflated at the answers which came to mind, and she tried to push the question out of her mind. She would deal with that when she had to.
At the corner, she decided to turn left instead of right. She didn’t feel much like going home at the moment. There wasn’t much of anything for her to do but sit and think. The thoughts which were on her mind today made her restless, and she knew from experience she would get stir crazy in her tiny little flat. She found herself walking along the quay, huddled into her old jacket, watching the sea birds dive and then rise again to circle above the water. She walked aimlessly for as long as she could stand the cold and damp, but the moment she rounded the corner to see her apartment building, she thought perhaps she should’ve suffered the cold awhile longer.
She drew up short as soon as she saw him, but it was too late. He’d already taken notice of her approach. Janet drew in a deep breath and steeled herself, squaring her shoulders as she started walking again. She would not let him see her as weak in any way.
“Sean.” She greeted him, her tone even colder than the November wind which whipped around them, making cheeks and noses pink and raw.
“I was starting to think you were avoiding me.” He greeted her with a smile that made her want to shudder. It was hard to imagine that there was a time when she had found that smile handsome.
“I was.” She told him honestly, standing her ground. He tried to direct her toward the door, but she refused to budge. “What do you want?” She demanded, not raising her voice but making it clear she had no patience for him.
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Adam had, for as long as he could remember, done his best to be different. Different from the other people he knew, the type of person who turned heads. He was always the person people wondered about, someone they would remember long after other acquaintances had been long forgotten. In doing so, he had become an excellent judge of character. At least, he considered himself to have a good grasp on certain points of someone’s personality within a few minutes of conversation.
He didn’t need to exchange even one word with the man he saw standing with Janet to have determined that he didn’t like him. Smarmy. That was one word which came to mind. Dodgy, another good descriptive of his manners. Adam broke into a jog as he crossed the street at an angle, taking a long last drag off his cigarette. He saw the relief in Janet’s eyes the moment they moved away from the man she was speaking to and landed on him. Adam smiled as he slowed to stop a few feet from the pair.
“H’lo.” He greeted them, exhaling a long stream of smoke as he tossed the cigarette butt to the street and ground it out with the toe of his Doc Martins.
“Adam.” Janet said, saying his name as if she were saying a prayer of thanks.
“Am I early?” Adam asked, his eyes darting over to the other man suspiciously.
“Early?” She asked.
“To help you clean up your flat, like I told you I would.” He explained and Janet smiled with relief.
“Right!” She said. “Right, no, you are right on time.” She said, turning toward the front door. “Sean was just leaving.” She continued, her green eyes darkening as she looked the other man in the eye as if daring him to stay.
“Right.” The man said, moving to straddle his motorbike. “I’ll call you later.” He finished, his words innocent enough, but sounding every bit like a threat when he spoke them. Before anyone else spoke he turned the key and twisted the throttle, making the engine roar to life. They watched silently as he tore away from them, accelerating to a break-neck speed and running two stops before he was completely out of sight.
“I already cleaned up, so you don’t need to come up. I mean, if you want to, you can.” She told Adam, who opened the front door and held it for her to pass. She led the way up the stairs and into her flat wordlessly. Adam glanced around at the tidy little room and could not help but smile to himself as a realization sunk in.
“Larry stayed last night, did he?” He asked, hiding his smile the best he could when she turned to look at him, her eyes round in surprise. “Just guessing from the way everything’s been cleaned and folded and put away.” He explained and Janet couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Yeah, that’s a dead give away isn’t it?” She laughed, shrugging out of her jacket and draping it over the back of a chair. She moved to the refrigerator and peered inside. “I think we finished off the orange juice. All I have to drink is Guinness.” She told him.
“That’s fine. Thanks.” He told her, settling onto the couch and making himself comfortable.
“You want a Guinness at one o’clock in the afternoon?” She asked, disbelief saturating her voice.
“Sure. I have to get rid of this hangover somehow.” He told her with a cheeky grin. She smiled and shook her head at him, bringing two cans with her. She sat on the arm of the couch opposite Adam and cracked the seal on hers, taking a long drink to make the silence feel less awkward.
“So, do you want to tell me what was going on downstairs, or are you going to let me make up a story?” Adam asked, making her choke as she tried to swallow.
“I’m not sure which would be worse.” She replied with a wary laugh. She sat her drink aside and chewed on her lower lip nervously. “That was my ex-boyfriend.” She told him.
“You used to go out with that wanker?” Adam asked, his face tightening into a deep frown, his lower lip even more pronounced than usual.
“Unfortunately, yes.” Janet told him, scratching an itch on her eyebrow before running her hand through her long blonde locks.
“Was he giving you a hard time?”
“Nothing new.” She told him grimly. “He travels a lot, and he always does this when he first gets back into Ireland.”
“Is he the reason you moved here?”
“Not really. I mean, I guess I probably wouldn’t have come here right when I did if it weren’t for Sean, but I always wanted to be here. I love it here, too. I stay in spite of the fact that he’s around, not because of it.” She informed him, and Adam nodded in understanding.
“Wait! Aren’t you supposed to be at rehearsal?” She asked suddenly, the realization dawning on her. Adam laughed and shook his head, his blonde curls bouncing slightly as he did.
“No, they’re involved with a Christian group. That’s what the three of them get up to on Sundays and Thursdays.” Adam told her.
“But not you.” She said, arching a slender blonde brow at him.
“Not me.” He agreed. “I don’t buy into all of the shite they do. God and all of that.”
“Why not?”
“That’s a rather personal question.” Adam replied with a coy smile. “I don’t think I’ve had enough to drink to start answering questions like that.”
“Ok, how about this… for every question I ask that you don’t want to answer, you take a drink. Eventually you’ll be drunk enough to tell me everything.” She laughed.
“Only if you’ll be doing the same.”
“That sounds like a challenge.” She chuckled, sliding down onto the couch cushions and pulling her knees up to her chest.
*********************************************************************
The phone ringing suddenly made Janet jump as if a gun had been fired. Both she and Adam laughed at her overly dramatic reaction and she stood and made her way across the floor in a less than straight line. She heard Adam laughing at her and made a rude gesture toward him over her shoulder.
“Hello?” She answered the phone, sinking down into the chair nearby.
“Janet?” She heard a sweet, familiar voice on the other end of the line.
“Hey, babyface.” She greeted him, laughing and covering her mouth when she realized she wasn’t supposed to call him that in front of his friends.
“Are you ok?” He asked, and she could practically *hear* him scowling.
“I’m fine.” She told him. “I wasn’t expecting your call yet. Did you get out of rehearsal early?”
“No, it was the same as always.”
“What time is…?” Janet asked turning to check the clock hanging in her kitchen and swearing. “It’s eight o’clock already?” She directed this comment to Adam who looked just as surprised as she felt. He pushed himself up off the couch and stumbled to the bathroom, not bothering to shut the door completely behind himself.
“Are you drunk?” Larry asked and Janet sighed into the receiver, making a deafening noise in Larry’s ear.
“I’ve had a couple beers this afternoon.” She told him.
“Does this have anything to do with that phone call this morning?” He asked, and Janet wondered just how much to tell him.
“I’m taking the last piece of cake.” Adam told her as he made his way from the bathroom to the kitchen.
“No, not really. Listen, Larry… I’m exhausted. You mind if we just talk tomorrow?” She said, and the silence which followed told her quite clearly that he wasn’t particularly happy with that arrangement.
“Sure. I’ll see you at the store, then.” He said finally, slamming down the phone before she could say goodbye. Janet sighed and hung the phone up before stumbling back over to the couch, where she lay, sprawled out, staring at the stained ceiling.
“Adam?” She sighed. “You won’t tell anyone any of this stuff we talked about today, will you?”
“No, of course not.” He replied. “Did you think you couldn’t trust me?
“No, I thought I could. But I’m not always the best judge of character.” She informed him honestly.
“Can I ask you one last thing, before I go?” Adam asked, moving to kneel on the floor beside her, licking frosting from his fingertips.
“Sure.” She replied, her word stretched out on a yawn.
“If it weren’t for Larry… what would you have done, that night I thought we had a date?” He asked, and Janet blinked at him in silent shock for a moment.
“I… well, yeah, I probably would’ve gone out with you. But Larry and I were already seeing each other. There’s no point in imagining what if.” She told him, and he nodded in agreement, his blue eyes growing distant.
“Right. No point whatsoever.” He agreed, standing and retrieving a blanket from atop the wardrobe and gently covering her with it. “Thanks for the drinks and everything today.” He told her, kissing her softly on the cheek.
“Adam?” She said as she heard the hinges on the door squeak.
“Hmm?”
“Thanks for… being here today. For, you know, being a friend.” She told him.
“My pleasure.” He told her. “Now get some sleep.” She had barely heard the door close behind him before she did just that, drifting into a deep, dreamless slumber.
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It's REALLY good!!!
Is that a hint? 
<picks SG up and swings her around> OH you've made me very very happy! And I thank you! 
