Rough Beginnings
...I think this is officially the latest I've ever opened this journal during NaNo.
However, here it is! Officially opened and ready to go. Four days in and, somehow, I'm keeping up with the word count. The quality, of course, is an entirely different matter.
Keeping up a yearly tradition, I will post my writing...and I will forever apologize for exposing this mess to anyone who dares read it.
And so, here's the first installment of The Wrong Sister.
My apologies.
~~~~~
“Oh god, Jared! I’m so sorry. I try to get out on time, but work just-” Taryn trailed off as she stepped inside to see Jared sliding the strap of his bag over his shoulder, “-wouldn’t…let me go. Where are you going?”
The look he gave her was cold, blue eyes like chips of ice set in a stony face. “I’m pretty sure I heard about a fifteen minute rule. You know, you get to leave if the teacher isn’t there on time?”
“What are you talking about?” As he moved towards the door, she stepped in front of it, hands up as if she could form a barrier with him and keep him inside the apartment. “Wait…hold on.”
“Well, it’s been a lot more than fifteen minutes. I’m outta here.”
“Jared, wait-”
“For what? You?” He snorted. “Yeah, been there. Done that. I’m through.” He pushed past her… not roughly, but firmly enough that she was shrugged loose when she attempted to grab his arm.
“You can’t do this.” Her brow knit, frustration eeking into her voice as she stumbled after him into the hallway. “It’s just work. I’m home. I’m here now. Do we really have to-” but whatever else she was going to say was agonizingly cut off as the Jaws theme erupted from her pocket, spilling into the hallway. She could feel the vibration through the thin fabric of her jacket, but she didn’t reach for it. At another place and time, she might have laughed. Right now, she was torn between crying, cursing, and possibly killing Dani for convincing her to personalize her ring tones.
Jared, on the other hand, did laugh. It was a dry, humorless sound. He stopped walking, but he didn’t bother turning around. “You’d better get that.”
“It can wait.”
“No, it can’t. You’ve made that pretty clear.” He started walking again, but this time she didn’t stop him. She just watched as he opened the door to the stair well and disappeared behind it, the latch catching with ominous finality. In her pocket, the “Daa-dum… Daa-Dum…” started yet another round.
Snatching it out, she stared at the suddenly blurry display. The keypad gave a few agonizing beeps as she fumbled, fingers stabbing at buttons until the ringing cut off and left the hall in abrupt silence. Lips pressed in a thin line, she stared at the device…and then whipped it against the wall as hard as she could. The phone, a credit to its company, just bounced off the wall and lay unharmed in the center of the hallway, taunting her.
“Damn you.”
The phone said nothing. It didn’t blink or move or ring.
Staring at it a moment longer, she muttered another, “Damn you,” under her breath and went back into her apartment, slamming the door shut behind her. As she kicked off her shoes, depositing them alongside the welcome mat, she heard a muffled beep from the other side of the wooden barrier. She had a message.
~~~
“Taryn?” Dani’s voice sounded uncertain as she peered into the dark apartment. It was only eight o’clock, but the room was as black and silent as if it had been well past midnight. Her shoes shuffled against the entry mat, took a few steps in, and then clicked against tile as she reached for the switch. Light flooded the living room and, catching sight of her sister, Dani sighed. “…I really don’t know whether to be worried or relieved.”
Looking up from where she was huddled on the couch, eyes and nose red from crying, Taryn gave a sniff. “Relieved?”
“Your phone was in the hallway.” As if to illustrate the point, Dani held up the offending object and waggled it in Taryn’s direction. “I was picturing dramatic kidnapping scenes. Possibly involving midgets.”
“Ha ha.”
Dani’s high heels clicked again as she moved further inside. She moved to perch on the arm of the couch, eyes concerned as she looked the other girl over. “What happened? Wasn’t this supposed to be your night with Jared?”
“Yeah, funny thing about that.”
“…How dead is he going to be when I’m through with him?”
Taryn gave a short laugh, but then shook her head, letting it sink into her hands. When she spoke, her voice was muffled through her fingers. “He didn’t do anything.”
“Somehow, I’m having a really hard time believing that.”
“It’s me.” Taryn’s voice was miserable. Resigned. “It’s always me.”
“Way to look on the bright side. You should be a motivational speaker.”
Taryn look up sharply. “Dani.”
“Taryn.”
The two girls stared at each other, identical green eyes (other than the puffiness in Taryn’s, left over from her cry) fixed on each other in a mute battle of wills. Dani’s face, softer and almost child-like in its round openness, was placid. Her usual smile was gone, replaced with quiet determination. Taryn’s thinner features were even more set than usual, her jaw tensed as she stared down her sister. Eventually, though, the line of her jaw softened and her gaze dropped, resigned.
Dani sighed, and slid the rest of the way onto the couch cushions. “What happened?” she repeated.
“He left.”
“I take it you don’t mean for coffee.”
“Please, Dani.”
“Right. Sorry.” And she was, her tone slipping to something more apologetic. “Just…explain to me why I’m not getting angry at him right now?”
“I was late.” Taryn shook her head, cutting her sister off before she could interrupt. “That’s just it. I’m always late. There’s always something keeping me out and away.”
Dani was silent, finally just listening.
Taryn’s shoulders slumped and she drew her knees up to her chest, arms wrapping around them. “He’s always waited before. I mean, I knew he’d get upset with it and I didn’t blame him. I was upset about it too. I always felt bad. But never bad enough to…” one hand freed itself from its tight grip on her legs to wave half-heartedly in the air between them.”
“…change things?”
“…yeah.”
Dani turned the phone over in her hands, considering it, before she reached over to set it on the nearby coffee table. It settled against the wood with a heavy thunk. “So…what now?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean what now? Are you upset enough to change things now?”
“I don’t think he’d believe me if I did.”
Dani arched an eyebrow disbelievingly. “You guys have been together for how long, and you don’t think he’d believe you? We might have bigger issues than tardiness.”
“Thirteen months,” Taryn said quietly, refusing to be goaded. “And…I don’t think I’d believe me.” As Dani continued to watch her silently, the older girl turned her head so that her cheek pressed against the top of her knee. “I mean…I don’t think I can. Not permanently.”
“No one’s saying you have to be at his beck and call every time he wants.”
“I don’t think setting aside one or two days is going to fix it.”
“No, but-“
“I don’t think work will let me get away with the amount of time I’d need to fix it. Not if I want to keep working there.”
“You don’t think that maybe…just maybe…you’re exaggerating? A little?” At Taryn’s blank look, Dani’s hands flew up in the air. “Okay, okay. Fine. I get it. Retail is a controlling pain in the ass. So…what about a different job?”
“Because those are so easy to come by.”
“It could be worth trying.”
“What am I going to find that will be less demanding and still pay rent?”
“There’s always stripping?”
“Classy.”
“I try.”
Taryn sighed. “I just can’t think about this right now.”
Dani gave her a sympathetic look. “…Are you really going to be thinking about anything else?”
“…I’d like to be.”
“Yeah.” Eyes skimming over the living room, Dani focused on the DVD rack. “Okay…new plan. It’s a scary movie and ice cream night.”
“…Didn’t you have band practice, tonight?”
“It just got rescheduled.”
“Dani-“
“Nope. No arguments,” Dani said, cutting her sister off with a smile. “It’s totally worth it.” Reaching over, she pushed against Taryn’s leg, upsetting the knee her chin had been resting on. “Besides, now you owe me. Think of all the ways I can use that sort of leverage.”
“It’s still your turn to do dishes.”
“It’s nice to know how little my sacrifice means to you.”
Dani hesitated, looking towards the DVDs as well. “Make it a comedy and we might have a deal.”
“I knew you’d learn to see things my way.”
~~~
Whether or not Taryn wanted to change things, actually doing it didn’t seem like much of a reality. However hard it would be, though, she decided to try. She called in sick. She took the phone off the hook. She ate an entire pint of ice cream and three quarters of a pizza and tried to feel justified when it made her feel sick to her stomach. Despite the queasiness, she was feeling pretty good… until she made the mistake of checking her voice mail in the afternoon.
She couldn’t help cringing when the gentle, recorded voice politely announced “You have five unheard messages. First message…”
“Taryn? Look….um… I’m sorry. I know you’re sick and all,” Katie’s voice was tinny over the recording, her already awkward pauses made worse by talking to a machine, “but that whole display we were supposed to set up? Um… are we supposed to have the stuff for that, already? Because Issac said he looked for it, but it doesn’t seem to be there. And so I thought maybe we weren’t getting all that until this week’s shipment came in, except he said that you definitely said we were supposed to have that up today, and anyway, if you could call when you get this, I bet he’d-”
“End of first message,” the recording announced. “To repeat this message, press-”
Dani quickly pushed the button to delete it before the familiar menu could play out. She was already prepared when the “second message” picked off right where the last had left off.
“Oops. Wow, these things are totally way too short. Anyway, there was this other thing, too? This customer came in and was demanding this deal, because he said he’d seen an ad in the paper. And, anyway-“
She deleted that one, too, not even bothering to listen to it all the way through. And then she ended the call, silencing the voice mail before it could move on to the third message. She had a sinking feeling that one would be from Katie too, if not the fourth and fifth as well. For a long moment, all she could do was stare at the phone with something akin to exhaustion. It was too much.
Then, shoulders slumping, she brought up her address book and found the entry for work. She’d call. Just call. And then there was another movie she’d been meaning to watch for ages…
Of course, the call wasn’t enough. She supposed she hadn’t really expected it to be. It had only taken her fifteen minutes to shower and another five to throw on work attire. Thirty minutes to drive to the store. And then hours to escape.
It was well past eleven by the time she got home, the minutes creeping frustratingly close to midnight as she turned her key in the lock and let herself inside. Dani, head bobbing along to some song playing over her headphones, looked up as the door opened. At her look, Taryn just shook her head. Her black flats were kicked off, one after the other, and she sank into a nearby chair, exhausted.
Dani watched her quietly, then pulled her head phones from her ears, letting the cords dangle from one hand. After a long, blanketing silence, she pressed her lips together in a thin line. “Sis?”
“Yeah?”
“You suck at days off.”
Taryn couldn’t help it. She started to laugh. And then, without really knowing where one ended and the other began, she began to cry. Laughter, that had already begun shaking her shoulders, turned into quiet sobs that racked her whole frame. She didn’t even realize that Dani had moved until her sister’s arms were around her, holding her tight. The younger girl murmured soothing words into her hair as Taryn turned to bury her face against her shoulder.
She wasn’t sure how long they sat like that, huddled on the couch, but when she was done, Taryn felt as if everything had drained out of her, instead of just her tears. She felt exhausted and numb. At her side, Dani rested her head against her shoulder, and Taryn tilted her neck so that they were leaning against one another, spent.
“I can stay, if you want,” Dani said, finally.
“Stay?”
“I was feeling kind of tired anyway, tonight.”
Taryn shifted to peer towards the kitchen and the clock there, the red, digital display announcing that it was 11:30 with a dull glow. “But it’s…” She paused, the rest registering with a sigh. “Thursday. Practice. No, I’m fine. Really. Go.”
“You sure?”
“Positive. “
“Only fools are positive.”
Taryn laughed and sat up straight, nudging her sister away. “Yeah, yeah. I guess I can’t argue.”
“But you’re supposed to argue.”
“And then you’ll be late. Go. I’ll be alright.”
“We’re musicians. Being on time would ruin our image.”
“And then make you crash on the road from sleep deprivation when you have to stay even later. I wish you guys would stop practicing so late at night.”
Dani shrugged. “We go where it’s cheap. Find me a practice space that doesn’t charge an arm and a leg during prime hours and we’ll switch.”
“And when you have that accident from pinching pennies? Who’s going to pay for all your medical bills?”
“The fairies will take care of it,” Dani said with a wink.
“Yeah, well, the fairies need to see about speeding things along.”
“Everything in its own time.”
“Like your practice.”
“Like my practice.”
Smiling, Dani stood and stretched her arms lazily over her head. Taryn straightened on the couch, pulling her legs under her in a more comfortable position, and ducked her head when Dani bent to press a kiss to her forehead. “Try not to fret so much.”
“One of us has to.”
“Funny. I never understood why.” Moving to fetch her coat, Dani slung it over her shoulders, nodded a farewell, and let herself out into the hallway. As the door closed with a quiet click behind her, Taryn slumped against the couch cushions once more. For a long, few minutes she considered falling asleep. After such a long day, it seemed like that would be the best option. She could just rest and let the day fade away and…get up in the morning to do it all again.
Frustrated, she shoved off the couch and went to the kitchen. She hadn’t eaten much. Not since her splurge on pizza and ice cream earlier in the day, and her stomach rewarded the movement with a rumble of protest. But when she opened the fridge, nothing looked appealing. Same with the freezer. And, this late and after a good cry, she certainly didn’t feel up to cooking. After a bit of meaningless pacing, she finally decided on a piece of cold pizza and a bottle of water. She didn’t return to the couch, though. She headed for her room. If she got crumbs on the bed, well, she would deal with them later. She wouldn’t even try to clean it up, tonight.
Her room was spotless. The bed was made. Her books were all up on the shelves. Her clothes were all put away, except for a shirt that must have fallen from its hanger when she’d had to get ready in such a hurry. Putting the slice of pizza between her teeth, she set the bottle on a stand and put the shirt back where it belonged. Perfect. Neat. Here, things felt controlled and organized… a far cry from how the rest of her life seemed to be feeling.
Dropping onto the comfort of her bed, she ate her pizza with all the defiance she could manage… crumbs be damned… and thought. The fact was, as much as Jared’s leaving had hurt, she had meant it when she told Dani she didn’t feel like she had any other option. Dani’s band (and her fairies) might manage enough to cover her share of the rent, but it wasn’t always reliable. Sometimes, gigs just didn’t happen. Sometimes equipment broke. And, sometimes, Dani just didn’t feel like going in.
Taryn might work too much, but her long hours helped make up the difference. It gave them a cushion. It let them stay together. And, really, that was more important than the time and the money. At least, that’s what she told herself.
On her nightstand, her journal sat gathering dust, a pencil tucked between the pages. How long had it been since she’d even looked at it, let alone written in it? On impulse, she devoured the last of the slice and reached for the hardcover book, flipping over the decorated cover to flip through. The first few pages were all that were filled, sprinkled with random notes, to-do lists, sketches of dreams and the occasional, interesting line as it might occur to her. It was nothing like her earlier journals had been. Those, currently relegated to the bottom shelf of her bookshelf, had been filled with stories and poems and long, laborious accounts of her days. They had been over dramatic and angst-filled and creative and wordy. And then, somewhere down the line, they’d simplified. They’d shortened. They’d become practical little lists in order to maximize the increasingly shrinking time she had to devote to them. And then, when even that time seemed to disappear, they’d become nothing.
She could quit her job. Reclaim her writing time and her boyfriend and her life. Be an actual person again…
She could be her sister.
With a frustrated sigh, she set the journal back down on the nightstand without adding another word to it. She wriggled out of her jeans and kicked her socks off onto the floor and, without getting up to put them in their proper spot in the hamper, she ducked under the covers and turned off the light. She’d already been up much too late. She’d have a lot of catching up to do at work, tomorrow. And the next day. And the next…
~~~
As a flock of giggling girls abandoned their table, Taryn quickly slid into one of the relinquished chairs with a grateful sigh. There was a dull ache in her calves from standing too long on heels, and it throbbed once or twice, as if to make sure she knew she’d pay for this tomorrow, before subsiding in relief as the pressure disappeared. She set her beer on the table and looked over the bar as she caught her breath. The lights weren’t particularly bright, but it wasn’t the dimmest or dingiest bar she’d ever been in. Not that she’d been so favorable in her judgment when she’d first arrived.
She’d been in a bad mood from the start. Late (of course), she’d come alone, which only seemed to accentuate the fact that, before, she would have dragged Jared along with her. Or, more accurately, he would have dragged her, pulling her away from her work long enough to realize that she really needed the chance to unwind. But Jared wasn’t here, this time, and by the time she’d shown up, Dani’s band had already started their set.
Autumn’s Taboo had its own, particular sound. The band, made up of only four members including Dani, had been playing together for years. Listening to them now, Taryn had to admit that they’d come a long way since she’d last listened to them. Or, at least, since she’d last listened to them in any venue besides a practice session. Shaggy haired, with ratted holes and ragged edges to their clothes, they imitated their music’s raw, powerful beat. The bassist, Stephen, was a wiry, pinch-faced man who seemed unable to smile. His fingers thumped the strings, keeping up a steady thrum thrum thrum, as he linefaced out at the crowd, seemingly oblivious to their cheers and wolf whistles.
At the drums, Taryn saw Dani’s roommate Liah, her hair dyed blue and her drumsticks flying over the tightened skins. Limbs flashed and flailed in a kind of controlled chaos that sent the music spiraling into compelling, driving rhythms under the longer strains of fiddle and guitar.
Up on stage, Dani and Chris faced off, fingers flying over the strings of their respective instruments as Taryn moved away from the door and wove her way through the crowd toward the stage. Despite her somewhat testy mood, Taryn found it hard to really hold on to it as she watched the lively pair battling back and forth with their rhythms. She stopped by the bar, fishing out a few bills in order to pay for her beer, and then shifted closer to the band until she was in the small, semi-circle of light that spilled away from the performers and down to the dancers below.
Dani’s hands were a blur as she pulled off a particularly complicated guitar solo. There was a pause as she came to the end, the steady base and drum beat the only continuing sound, and then the crowd cheered. Laughing, Chris’s bow gave a sloppy slide along the strings before he bowed, stepping back as he conceded the floor to her once more. There was laughter, more cheering, and Dani stepped up to the mic with a bow that lifted the hem of her shirt enough to expose the blue fairy tattoo on her hip. Letting the guitar fall loose on its strap, her hands closed around the mic. Her eyes flashed, blue and amused and sparked with energy as she looked over the crowd, and they paused a moment as they landed on her sister. Taryn raised one hand in greeting and was rewarded as Dani’s smile widened enthusiastically before she pulled the mic stand close, like a lover, and began to sing.
Her voice, low and full, floated through the energetic tones, lending a depth that the instruments alone had been able to achieve. Taryn felt herself moving with the music almost before she’d even realized what had happened and, as the band shifted seamlessly into the next song, she was recognized by some of Dani’s friends. Within minutes, she was pulled into the press of bodies on the floor immediately surrounding the stage, laughing and trying not to spill her drink, and she had no time to think about Jared or traffic or any of the rest of her day.
She wasn’t sure how many songs they’d played through when they broke for the end of their first set. The lights were turned up in a larger circle and Taryn was able to find relief for her aching feet and a chance to catch her breath. She’d only been sitting for thirty seconds when Dani bounced off the stage to come and join her, collapsing into an adjacent chair in a tangle of glistening limbs, practically glowing from her exertion on stage.
“You made it!”
“Sorry I was late.”
Dani waved a hand. “Doesn’t matter. The best part is after we’ve warmed up, anyway.”
“If you warm up any more, I think you might burst into flames.”
“Tell me about it,” she said, reaching over to steal Taryn’s beer from her hands. “God, I could drink a pack of these.”
“Or I could get you a water.”
“Spoilsport.”
“Hey, I hauled myself out here to see you. I’d rather see you without the slurring of words.”
“I’ll have you know that I’m a very, very clear speaking drunk.”
“I’m so proud.”
“Damn straight.” Taking a final drink, she passed the bottle back to its original owner. “So what do you think?”
“It’s wonderful,” Taryn said, genuinely. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you play like this.”
“I know, right? It’s just flowing, tonight.”
“You mean you aren’t always this good?”
“Hey, I’m always fantastic. But this… this is some kind of special.”
“Well, I love it.”
“I thought so. I saw you dancing it up, out there.”
Taryn laughed. “Well, don’t expect me to keep it up. I’m pretty sure my feet are already about to mutiny.”
“I’m expecting you to find untapped depths.”
“Believe me. My depths are totally tapped.”
“We’ll see. Let me get back up there and play and we’ll see how long you feel like sitting.”
“Because you look so ready for another round. How long is your second set, anyway?”
“Just long enough. “ Dani nodded to the now empty bottle of beer. “You want another?”
“Depends. Are you buying?”
“Cheapskate,” Dani said as she pushed back from the table, the stool scraping along the wooden floor.
“You know it.”
“I’ll be right back.”
“Sure you will,” Taryn said, fighting a laugh. Dani rolled her eyes, but Taryn wasn’t at all surprised when her sister was immediately enveloped by the crowd, pulled from group to group as they encouraged her or stopped to catch up or make requests.
Stretching on her stool, Taryn let her shoulders slump as she placed her elbows on the table and settled in to just take in the low din of the crowd. The foul mood had slipped away, but in the comparative quiet in the wake of the bad, she found herself feeling the strain of the day and the dancing. Tired, she fell into something almost like a daze as she watched the crowd milling about, little pockets of friends and patrons.
It was as her gaze wandered that she started to notice a kind of nagging pressure, as if she was missing something. It was enough to pull her from her placid daze and she straightened a little, turning her head to look around even behind her. Nothing. Brow furrowed, she shifted in her seat and tried to shrug off the uneasy feeling, but it was difficult to recapture the ease she’d settled into only minutes before. It was just tiredness. Nothing more.
Reaching for her purse, she began to pull out her phone to check the time, when something else caught her gaze and dragged it back up, even as she’d written off her worry as thoughtless nagging. At first, it was just a passing gleam, almost entirely missed. It was only when the crowd shifted once more that she actually caught sight of the slouch-shouldered man sitting at the corner stool of the bar.
At first glance, she thought he had a tattered, neglected air about him. His hair seemed unkempt and his clothes worn. But as the crowd shifted, shifted, and then shifted again, disorienting as a kaleidoscope sliding in and out of focus, they parted enough for her to get a better glimpse at him. While his clothes were a dingier, dark gray compared to the more radical styles of the other patrons gathered for the band, a closer look revealed that they were actually fairly nice. Bordering on formal, even. And his hair wasn’t unkept at all. A bit longer than was conventional for business attire, maybe, but not out of line.
What didn’t change about her first impression was his expression. It was sour and twisted with an air of distaste, as if he’d taken a bite of something particularly sour and hadn’t been able to un-stick his face since. Or maybe he’d caught a whiff of a particularly unpleasant scent. His eyes were so dark that they seemed to swallow the light rather than reflect it, and they glowered at everyone around his table.
Or… no. That wasn’t exactly true. He wasn’t glaring everywhere. He was glaring at her.
Suddenly nervous that he’d caught her staring, Taryn’s eyes dropped to her hands, still half in her purse. It took her a moment to realize that she’d been in the middle of pulling out her phone, and she fumbled with the device as she worked it free of the other objects she’d crammed in there, nearly sending a package of mints and a tube of chapstick clattering to the floor. She managed to catch them just before they broke free of the fabric containing them, pushing them back into place as she deposited her phone on the somewhat sticky surface of the bar table. She made a great show of checking her phone, pretending to read some message there… or maybe the time. But she wasn’t really registering anything that was there. After enough time had gone by, or so she hoped, she tucked the phone back into her purse and dared to look up.
He was still watching her.
She turned in her seat, certain that she must be imagining things, but there wasn’t really anything of interest behind her, either. The crowd around her was no different from anywhere else in the bar. If it was her, and not the product of some attention-gathering thing, she couldn’t understand why. She wasn’t exactly a stranger to being hit on in places like these, especially when alcohol was involved, but he wasn’t looking in her direction (she refused to think “at her”) with the sort of look that said “I want to buy you a drink.” At least, not unless that drink was a glass of arsenic with a rim of crystallized cyanide. And she was sure she’d never seen him before. His wasn’t exactly the kind of face that she would easily forget. She might have tried to write it off as merely staring into space, with no kind of ulterior motive at all, but another stolen glance quickly confirmed that it was much too intent to feel accidental. Still, nothing else actually made any sense.
Shifting uncomfortably, she’d just about made up her mind to get up and go ask him what his problem was when her view was suddenly disrupted. Dani held out the cold, fresh bottle, already glistening with condensation from being removed from the fridge, and waved it in front of her face. “Earth to Taryn. What’re you staring at?”
“Huh?” Taryn sat back abruptly, blinking for a moment before actually accepting the beer.
“Staring. Why were you? You looked ready to crawl out of your skin.”
Taryn shook her head, pressing her lips together. “It’s that guy. On the other side of the bar. He’s giving me the creeps.”
“What guy?” Dani asked, starting to turn around, but Taryn quickly grabbed her arm.
“Don’t look at him.”
Dani sighed. “Well, how am I supposed to know who the creeper is if I can’t look?”
“Just don’t be obvious about it. He’s been staring for…I don’t know how long.”
“Maybe he’s trying to work up the nerve to ask you out,” Dani said with a laugh, casually readjusting her position in her seat. Turning sideways, she kept her gaze from sliding back towards the staring man, instead focusing on her own beer. She took a drink.
Taryn made a face and took a drink from her own, trying to follow her own instructions and avoid staring in the angry man’s direction. “Maybe he’s wanting to ax murder me. Really, he’s not giving off the date-me vibes.”
“Fun.” Dani took another drink, stretch, and then casually scanned the bar. Her gaze might have lingered for a moment longer on that side of the crowd, but not for too long. It wouldn’t be noticeable unless you were looking for it. And, Taryn hoped, maybe not even then. What was noticeable, however, was the way she frowned a moment later.
“There’s no one there.”
“What?”
“No one. Or, well, there’s a whole bunch of someones, but no one staring. Is he still there?”
Daring to look up, Dani let her gaze slide to the corner stool at the bar where he’d been sitting. Sure enough, he was gone. No more staring. Not even sitting. “He was there just a second ago.”
“Maybe he finished his drink and decided to go?”
“Or maybe he didn’t want to be pointed out.”
“You sound paranoid.” Still, Dani looked troubled. Her brow stayed furrowed as she continued to look at where the man had been. “What’d he look like? I can ask the bouncer to keep an eye out for him.”
“Thin. Lanky. Kind of sullen and pinched looking. He was dressed kind of nice for the crowd…some kind of gray suit?” She left off the fact that he’d looked rattier at first appearance. “A really unfriendly type. It was like he’d never smiled in his- hey, Dani?” She trailed off suddenly, catching the expression on her sister’s face. “You okay?”
“Hmmm? Yeah. Of course. Just…wanting to make sure he doesn’t bug you again.”
Taryn frowned. “Was it something I said?”
“Why would it be?”
Because now you look like you’ve seen a ghost, Taryn thought, but she didn’t say anything, watching as Dani put on a smile that immediately wiped the apprehensive expression out of existence. Maybe she’d been wrong. Maybe she was just projecting her own nerves onto her sister.
“I’ll talk to the bouncer,” Dani continued, standing back up. “No one’s going to mess with my sister.”
“Isn’t that my line?”
“Not this time,” Dani said with a wink. Holding up a finger to signal that she’d be back in just a minute, she disappeared back into the crowd. It was only a second later that Taryn realized that she’d forgotten her beer.
The break didn’t last much longer and Dani didn’t come back. Not until it was time for the band to get back up on stage. She flashed Taryn a thumbs up and she seemed perfectly content, so Taryn assumed she’d spoken to the bouncer without a hitch, but she still felt a little uneasy. She kept searching the bar for that sour face, but the man really did seem to be gone. Still, it was hard to get back to the mood she’d had earlier.
The music helped. She even got up to dance later on in the set, proving Dani right, though some of that might have been the fact that -once she’d finished her beer- she’d finished off Dani’s as well. She was feeling a bit more mellow and content when they finally wrapped things up for the night, ending their final song with a grand finish that had the crowding listeners cheering and whistling. As the band stepped down and the bartender announced last call, Taryn turned to find a garbage can for her beer. Within seconds, Dani had hopped down off the stage and grabbed her elbow.
“Hey, you should come out with me.”
“Now? After this?”
“Right. After this. I’ve got too much energy to call it a night, anyway, after a gig.”
Taryn looked over at the band packing up, a little uncertain. “I don’t know, Dani. It’s late. And as much as I love you guys, I don’t know that I’ve got a lot to say on the whole music front.”
“Not all of us. I’m pretty sure they’re packing it in. I just mean…you and me. Sister time.”
Taryn hesitated. She was tired. Her feet ached in her high heeled shoes and the third beer had left her with that warm buzz that was just starting to border on sleepy. But it was true…other than passing by each other in the apartment, they hadn’t really had any quality sister time in awhile. “Alright…fine. Just not for too long. I need some sleep tonight.”
“Okay Ms. Responsible.” Dani’s head tilted, considering. “How about this. There’s a Denny’s just down 5th street. Take a cab and order the food and then I’ll come after, once we’re all packed up.”
Taryn’s brow furrowed. “I could just wait for you. That way we don’t have to take two cabs.”
“But this’ll be faster. We won’t have to wait as long for food. “ Turning her sister, Dani pushed her lightly towards the door. “Trust me. This is a good idea.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s not,” Taryn retorted, but it was with amusement. She didn’t really have it in her to argue if this is what Dani wanted to do. “What do you want.”
“Surprise me,” Dani said, raising her hand to hail a cab as they stepped out into the chilly, autumn air and stood on the curb. “Just not chicken tenders. You always get chicken tenders.”
“It’s Denny’s. They’re kind of lacking in quality fare.”
“It’s Denny’s. They’re supposed to be.”
As the taxi pulled up to the curb, Dani nudged her. “I won’t be long. Promise.”
“Yeah, yeah. Better not be,” Taryn said as she opened the door and slid inside.
It wasn’t a far drive. Paying the taxi driver the fare (only seven dollars after tip) she reached the Denny’s without incident. She debated over the menu, but it was hard to concentrate. Harder than she’d expected, really.
Funny. With three beers, she really shouldn’t have been feeling it this much…even if she hadn’t really eaten ahead of time. She wasn’t exactly a drinking champion, but she could hold her liquor.
Usually.
Now, though, everything seemed to swim in a kind of fuzzy haze that had only increased since she’d gotten in the taxi. She didn’t feel sick, but she felt positively drunk. When the waitress came by, she took care not to slur her words and ordered chicken fingers (out of spite) and a sampler platter, assuring the waitress that it was fine… her sister would be joining her soon.
Floating, she drank through half of a coke by the time the food came. Surprisingly fast, really, since Dani wasn’t there yet, but there had been a lot of equipment on the stage. And Dani had never been able to get out of anywhere without getting trapped in a conversation. It was just her gift -or curse, if you were the one stuck waiting on her. Expecting her to be on time really would have been too much.
She started lazily picking at her chicken tenders, pulling them into strands of white meat as she waited. And then she snacked. And then she ate.
By the time she’d finished, the sampler platter had long gone cold, her chicken tenders were gone, and she’d made it through the other half of her coke, plus half again of a new one. Finally, the waitress came by, giving her a look that was caught somewhere between sympathetic and frustrated. She was obviously not expecting the best of tips. “I hate to say this, honey,” she said, lips pressing together, “but I think she stood you up.”
“She wouldn’t,” Taryn said, and some of the haze seemed to lift. This wasn’t right. How long had it been?
“Well, it’s late. Maybe she changed her mind. You got any messages on your phone from her?”
Her phone. She reached for her purse, fumbling again as she pulled it out. Why did she always put so much stuff in her purse? “I…don’t know. I’ll check.”
“Well, I’ll just bring you the check, alright. And you can stay and wait for her as long as you want.”
“Right. Okay. Thanks.”
No new messages. But it was the time that really caught her attention. It was almost four in the morning. She’d been there for two hours.
Where the hell was Dani?
She paid for the bill in a kind of daze, just leaving a smattering of bills on the table for the waitress to sort through. The pressing numbness had seemed to lift and she was steady on her feet when she rose from the table, but now she seemed to be pulled along by a sudden stream of worry. Something was wrong. Something had to be wrong. How had she just sat there for two hours and not even realized-
Dani wasn’t answering her phone. Text messages and voice mails got no response as Taryn flagged down another cab and gave the driver their address.
Words: 6706
Bouts of Meaningless Dialogue: 7
Chapters: O-one? Maybe?
Cups of Coffee: 6
However, here it is! Officially opened and ready to go. Four days in and, somehow, I'm keeping up with the word count. The quality, of course, is an entirely different matter.
Keeping up a yearly tradition, I will post my writing...and I will forever apologize for exposing this mess to anyone who dares read it.
And so, here's the first installment of The Wrong Sister.
My apologies.
~~~~~
“Oh god, Jared! I’m so sorry. I try to get out on time, but work just-” Taryn trailed off as she stepped inside to see Jared sliding the strap of his bag over his shoulder, “-wouldn’t…let me go. Where are you going?”
The look he gave her was cold, blue eyes like chips of ice set in a stony face. “I’m pretty sure I heard about a fifteen minute rule. You know, you get to leave if the teacher isn’t there on time?”
“What are you talking about?” As he moved towards the door, she stepped in front of it, hands up as if she could form a barrier with him and keep him inside the apartment. “Wait…hold on.”
“Well, it’s been a lot more than fifteen minutes. I’m outta here.”
“Jared, wait-”
“For what? You?” He snorted. “Yeah, been there. Done that. I’m through.” He pushed past her… not roughly, but firmly enough that she was shrugged loose when she attempted to grab his arm.
“You can’t do this.” Her brow knit, frustration eeking into her voice as she stumbled after him into the hallway. “It’s just work. I’m home. I’m here now. Do we really have to-” but whatever else she was going to say was agonizingly cut off as the Jaws theme erupted from her pocket, spilling into the hallway. She could feel the vibration through the thin fabric of her jacket, but she didn’t reach for it. At another place and time, she might have laughed. Right now, she was torn between crying, cursing, and possibly killing Dani for convincing her to personalize her ring tones.
Jared, on the other hand, did laugh. It was a dry, humorless sound. He stopped walking, but he didn’t bother turning around. “You’d better get that.”
“It can wait.”
“No, it can’t. You’ve made that pretty clear.” He started walking again, but this time she didn’t stop him. She just watched as he opened the door to the stair well and disappeared behind it, the latch catching with ominous finality. In her pocket, the “Daa-dum… Daa-Dum…” started yet another round.
Snatching it out, she stared at the suddenly blurry display. The keypad gave a few agonizing beeps as she fumbled, fingers stabbing at buttons until the ringing cut off and left the hall in abrupt silence. Lips pressed in a thin line, she stared at the device…and then whipped it against the wall as hard as she could. The phone, a credit to its company, just bounced off the wall and lay unharmed in the center of the hallway, taunting her.
“Damn you.”
The phone said nothing. It didn’t blink or move or ring.
Staring at it a moment longer, she muttered another, “Damn you,” under her breath and went back into her apartment, slamming the door shut behind her. As she kicked off her shoes, depositing them alongside the welcome mat, she heard a muffled beep from the other side of the wooden barrier. She had a message.
~~~
“Taryn?” Dani’s voice sounded uncertain as she peered into the dark apartment. It was only eight o’clock, but the room was as black and silent as if it had been well past midnight. Her shoes shuffled against the entry mat, took a few steps in, and then clicked against tile as she reached for the switch. Light flooded the living room and, catching sight of her sister, Dani sighed. “…I really don’t know whether to be worried or relieved.”
Looking up from where she was huddled on the couch, eyes and nose red from crying, Taryn gave a sniff. “Relieved?”
“Your phone was in the hallway.” As if to illustrate the point, Dani held up the offending object and waggled it in Taryn’s direction. “I was picturing dramatic kidnapping scenes. Possibly involving midgets.”
“Ha ha.”
Dani’s high heels clicked again as she moved further inside. She moved to perch on the arm of the couch, eyes concerned as she looked the other girl over. “What happened? Wasn’t this supposed to be your night with Jared?”
“Yeah, funny thing about that.”
“…How dead is he going to be when I’m through with him?”
Taryn gave a short laugh, but then shook her head, letting it sink into her hands. When she spoke, her voice was muffled through her fingers. “He didn’t do anything.”
“Somehow, I’m having a really hard time believing that.”
“It’s me.” Taryn’s voice was miserable. Resigned. “It’s always me.”
“Way to look on the bright side. You should be a motivational speaker.”
Taryn look up sharply. “Dani.”
“Taryn.”
The two girls stared at each other, identical green eyes (other than the puffiness in Taryn’s, left over from her cry) fixed on each other in a mute battle of wills. Dani’s face, softer and almost child-like in its round openness, was placid. Her usual smile was gone, replaced with quiet determination. Taryn’s thinner features were even more set than usual, her jaw tensed as she stared down her sister. Eventually, though, the line of her jaw softened and her gaze dropped, resigned.
Dani sighed, and slid the rest of the way onto the couch cushions. “What happened?” she repeated.
“He left.”
“I take it you don’t mean for coffee.”
“Please, Dani.”
“Right. Sorry.” And she was, her tone slipping to something more apologetic. “Just…explain to me why I’m not getting angry at him right now?”
“I was late.” Taryn shook her head, cutting her sister off before she could interrupt. “That’s just it. I’m always late. There’s always something keeping me out and away.”
Dani was silent, finally just listening.
Taryn’s shoulders slumped and she drew her knees up to her chest, arms wrapping around them. “He’s always waited before. I mean, I knew he’d get upset with it and I didn’t blame him. I was upset about it too. I always felt bad. But never bad enough to…” one hand freed itself from its tight grip on her legs to wave half-heartedly in the air between them.”
“…change things?”
“…yeah.”
Dani turned the phone over in her hands, considering it, before she reached over to set it on the nearby coffee table. It settled against the wood with a heavy thunk. “So…what now?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean what now? Are you upset enough to change things now?”
“I don’t think he’d believe me if I did.”
Dani arched an eyebrow disbelievingly. “You guys have been together for how long, and you don’t think he’d believe you? We might have bigger issues than tardiness.”
“Thirteen months,” Taryn said quietly, refusing to be goaded. “And…I don’t think I’d believe me.” As Dani continued to watch her silently, the older girl turned her head so that her cheek pressed against the top of her knee. “I mean…I don’t think I can. Not permanently.”
“No one’s saying you have to be at his beck and call every time he wants.”
“I don’t think setting aside one or two days is going to fix it.”
“No, but-“
“I don’t think work will let me get away with the amount of time I’d need to fix it. Not if I want to keep working there.”
“You don’t think that maybe…just maybe…you’re exaggerating? A little?” At Taryn’s blank look, Dani’s hands flew up in the air. “Okay, okay. Fine. I get it. Retail is a controlling pain in the ass. So…what about a different job?”
“Because those are so easy to come by.”
“It could be worth trying.”
“What am I going to find that will be less demanding and still pay rent?”
“There’s always stripping?”
“Classy.”
“I try.”
Taryn sighed. “I just can’t think about this right now.”
Dani gave her a sympathetic look. “…Are you really going to be thinking about anything else?”
“…I’d like to be.”
“Yeah.” Eyes skimming over the living room, Dani focused on the DVD rack. “Okay…new plan. It’s a scary movie and ice cream night.”
“…Didn’t you have band practice, tonight?”
“It just got rescheduled.”
“Dani-“
“Nope. No arguments,” Dani said, cutting her sister off with a smile. “It’s totally worth it.” Reaching over, she pushed against Taryn’s leg, upsetting the knee her chin had been resting on. “Besides, now you owe me. Think of all the ways I can use that sort of leverage.”
“It’s still your turn to do dishes.”
“It’s nice to know how little my sacrifice means to you.”
Dani hesitated, looking towards the DVDs as well. “Make it a comedy and we might have a deal.”
“I knew you’d learn to see things my way.”
~~~
Whether or not Taryn wanted to change things, actually doing it didn’t seem like much of a reality. However hard it would be, though, she decided to try. She called in sick. She took the phone off the hook. She ate an entire pint of ice cream and three quarters of a pizza and tried to feel justified when it made her feel sick to her stomach. Despite the queasiness, she was feeling pretty good… until she made the mistake of checking her voice mail in the afternoon.
She couldn’t help cringing when the gentle, recorded voice politely announced “You have five unheard messages. First message…”
“Taryn? Look….um… I’m sorry. I know you’re sick and all,” Katie’s voice was tinny over the recording, her already awkward pauses made worse by talking to a machine, “but that whole display we were supposed to set up? Um… are we supposed to have the stuff for that, already? Because Issac said he looked for it, but it doesn’t seem to be there. And so I thought maybe we weren’t getting all that until this week’s shipment came in, except he said that you definitely said we were supposed to have that up today, and anyway, if you could call when you get this, I bet he’d-”
“End of first message,” the recording announced. “To repeat this message, press-”
Dani quickly pushed the button to delete it before the familiar menu could play out. She was already prepared when the “second message” picked off right where the last had left off.
“Oops. Wow, these things are totally way too short. Anyway, there was this other thing, too? This customer came in and was demanding this deal, because he said he’d seen an ad in the paper. And, anyway-“
She deleted that one, too, not even bothering to listen to it all the way through. And then she ended the call, silencing the voice mail before it could move on to the third message. She had a sinking feeling that one would be from Katie too, if not the fourth and fifth as well. For a long moment, all she could do was stare at the phone with something akin to exhaustion. It was too much.
Then, shoulders slumping, she brought up her address book and found the entry for work. She’d call. Just call. And then there was another movie she’d been meaning to watch for ages…
Of course, the call wasn’t enough. She supposed she hadn’t really expected it to be. It had only taken her fifteen minutes to shower and another five to throw on work attire. Thirty minutes to drive to the store. And then hours to escape.
It was well past eleven by the time she got home, the minutes creeping frustratingly close to midnight as she turned her key in the lock and let herself inside. Dani, head bobbing along to some song playing over her headphones, looked up as the door opened. At her look, Taryn just shook her head. Her black flats were kicked off, one after the other, and she sank into a nearby chair, exhausted.
Dani watched her quietly, then pulled her head phones from her ears, letting the cords dangle from one hand. After a long, blanketing silence, she pressed her lips together in a thin line. “Sis?”
“Yeah?”
“You suck at days off.”
Taryn couldn’t help it. She started to laugh. And then, without really knowing where one ended and the other began, she began to cry. Laughter, that had already begun shaking her shoulders, turned into quiet sobs that racked her whole frame. She didn’t even realize that Dani had moved until her sister’s arms were around her, holding her tight. The younger girl murmured soothing words into her hair as Taryn turned to bury her face against her shoulder.
She wasn’t sure how long they sat like that, huddled on the couch, but when she was done, Taryn felt as if everything had drained out of her, instead of just her tears. She felt exhausted and numb. At her side, Dani rested her head against her shoulder, and Taryn tilted her neck so that they were leaning against one another, spent.
“I can stay, if you want,” Dani said, finally.
“Stay?”
“I was feeling kind of tired anyway, tonight.”
Taryn shifted to peer towards the kitchen and the clock there, the red, digital display announcing that it was 11:30 with a dull glow. “But it’s…” She paused, the rest registering with a sigh. “Thursday. Practice. No, I’m fine. Really. Go.”
“You sure?”
“Positive. “
“Only fools are positive.”
Taryn laughed and sat up straight, nudging her sister away. “Yeah, yeah. I guess I can’t argue.”
“But you’re supposed to argue.”
“And then you’ll be late. Go. I’ll be alright.”
“We’re musicians. Being on time would ruin our image.”
“And then make you crash on the road from sleep deprivation when you have to stay even later. I wish you guys would stop practicing so late at night.”
Dani shrugged. “We go where it’s cheap. Find me a practice space that doesn’t charge an arm and a leg during prime hours and we’ll switch.”
“And when you have that accident from pinching pennies? Who’s going to pay for all your medical bills?”
“The fairies will take care of it,” Dani said with a wink.
“Yeah, well, the fairies need to see about speeding things along.”
“Everything in its own time.”
“Like your practice.”
“Like my practice.”
Smiling, Dani stood and stretched her arms lazily over her head. Taryn straightened on the couch, pulling her legs under her in a more comfortable position, and ducked her head when Dani bent to press a kiss to her forehead. “Try not to fret so much.”
“One of us has to.”
“Funny. I never understood why.” Moving to fetch her coat, Dani slung it over her shoulders, nodded a farewell, and let herself out into the hallway. As the door closed with a quiet click behind her, Taryn slumped against the couch cushions once more. For a long, few minutes she considered falling asleep. After such a long day, it seemed like that would be the best option. She could just rest and let the day fade away and…get up in the morning to do it all again.
Frustrated, she shoved off the couch and went to the kitchen. She hadn’t eaten much. Not since her splurge on pizza and ice cream earlier in the day, and her stomach rewarded the movement with a rumble of protest. But when she opened the fridge, nothing looked appealing. Same with the freezer. And, this late and after a good cry, she certainly didn’t feel up to cooking. After a bit of meaningless pacing, she finally decided on a piece of cold pizza and a bottle of water. She didn’t return to the couch, though. She headed for her room. If she got crumbs on the bed, well, she would deal with them later. She wouldn’t even try to clean it up, tonight.
Her room was spotless. The bed was made. Her books were all up on the shelves. Her clothes were all put away, except for a shirt that must have fallen from its hanger when she’d had to get ready in such a hurry. Putting the slice of pizza between her teeth, she set the bottle on a stand and put the shirt back where it belonged. Perfect. Neat. Here, things felt controlled and organized… a far cry from how the rest of her life seemed to be feeling.
Dropping onto the comfort of her bed, she ate her pizza with all the defiance she could manage… crumbs be damned… and thought. The fact was, as much as Jared’s leaving had hurt, she had meant it when she told Dani she didn’t feel like she had any other option. Dani’s band (and her fairies) might manage enough to cover her share of the rent, but it wasn’t always reliable. Sometimes, gigs just didn’t happen. Sometimes equipment broke. And, sometimes, Dani just didn’t feel like going in.
Taryn might work too much, but her long hours helped make up the difference. It gave them a cushion. It let them stay together. And, really, that was more important than the time and the money. At least, that’s what she told herself.
On her nightstand, her journal sat gathering dust, a pencil tucked between the pages. How long had it been since she’d even looked at it, let alone written in it? On impulse, she devoured the last of the slice and reached for the hardcover book, flipping over the decorated cover to flip through. The first few pages were all that were filled, sprinkled with random notes, to-do lists, sketches of dreams and the occasional, interesting line as it might occur to her. It was nothing like her earlier journals had been. Those, currently relegated to the bottom shelf of her bookshelf, had been filled with stories and poems and long, laborious accounts of her days. They had been over dramatic and angst-filled and creative and wordy. And then, somewhere down the line, they’d simplified. They’d shortened. They’d become practical little lists in order to maximize the increasingly shrinking time she had to devote to them. And then, when even that time seemed to disappear, they’d become nothing.
She could quit her job. Reclaim her writing time and her boyfriend and her life. Be an actual person again…
She could be her sister.
With a frustrated sigh, she set the journal back down on the nightstand without adding another word to it. She wriggled out of her jeans and kicked her socks off onto the floor and, without getting up to put them in their proper spot in the hamper, she ducked under the covers and turned off the light. She’d already been up much too late. She’d have a lot of catching up to do at work, tomorrow. And the next day. And the next…
~~~
As a flock of giggling girls abandoned their table, Taryn quickly slid into one of the relinquished chairs with a grateful sigh. There was a dull ache in her calves from standing too long on heels, and it throbbed once or twice, as if to make sure she knew she’d pay for this tomorrow, before subsiding in relief as the pressure disappeared. She set her beer on the table and looked over the bar as she caught her breath. The lights weren’t particularly bright, but it wasn’t the dimmest or dingiest bar she’d ever been in. Not that she’d been so favorable in her judgment when she’d first arrived.
She’d been in a bad mood from the start. Late (of course), she’d come alone, which only seemed to accentuate the fact that, before, she would have dragged Jared along with her. Or, more accurately, he would have dragged her, pulling her away from her work long enough to realize that she really needed the chance to unwind. But Jared wasn’t here, this time, and by the time she’d shown up, Dani’s band had already started their set.
Autumn’s Taboo had its own, particular sound. The band, made up of only four members including Dani, had been playing together for years. Listening to them now, Taryn had to admit that they’d come a long way since she’d last listened to them. Or, at least, since she’d last listened to them in any venue besides a practice session. Shaggy haired, with ratted holes and ragged edges to their clothes, they imitated their music’s raw, powerful beat. The bassist, Stephen, was a wiry, pinch-faced man who seemed unable to smile. His fingers thumped the strings, keeping up a steady thrum thrum thrum, as he linefaced out at the crowd, seemingly oblivious to their cheers and wolf whistles.
At the drums, Taryn saw Dani’s roommate Liah, her hair dyed blue and her drumsticks flying over the tightened skins. Limbs flashed and flailed in a kind of controlled chaos that sent the music spiraling into compelling, driving rhythms under the longer strains of fiddle and guitar.
Up on stage, Dani and Chris faced off, fingers flying over the strings of their respective instruments as Taryn moved away from the door and wove her way through the crowd toward the stage. Despite her somewhat testy mood, Taryn found it hard to really hold on to it as she watched the lively pair battling back and forth with their rhythms. She stopped by the bar, fishing out a few bills in order to pay for her beer, and then shifted closer to the band until she was in the small, semi-circle of light that spilled away from the performers and down to the dancers below.
Dani’s hands were a blur as she pulled off a particularly complicated guitar solo. There was a pause as she came to the end, the steady base and drum beat the only continuing sound, and then the crowd cheered. Laughing, Chris’s bow gave a sloppy slide along the strings before he bowed, stepping back as he conceded the floor to her once more. There was laughter, more cheering, and Dani stepped up to the mic with a bow that lifted the hem of her shirt enough to expose the blue fairy tattoo on her hip. Letting the guitar fall loose on its strap, her hands closed around the mic. Her eyes flashed, blue and amused and sparked with energy as she looked over the crowd, and they paused a moment as they landed on her sister. Taryn raised one hand in greeting and was rewarded as Dani’s smile widened enthusiastically before she pulled the mic stand close, like a lover, and began to sing.
Her voice, low and full, floated through the energetic tones, lending a depth that the instruments alone had been able to achieve. Taryn felt herself moving with the music almost before she’d even realized what had happened and, as the band shifted seamlessly into the next song, she was recognized by some of Dani’s friends. Within minutes, she was pulled into the press of bodies on the floor immediately surrounding the stage, laughing and trying not to spill her drink, and she had no time to think about Jared or traffic or any of the rest of her day.
She wasn’t sure how many songs they’d played through when they broke for the end of their first set. The lights were turned up in a larger circle and Taryn was able to find relief for her aching feet and a chance to catch her breath. She’d only been sitting for thirty seconds when Dani bounced off the stage to come and join her, collapsing into an adjacent chair in a tangle of glistening limbs, practically glowing from her exertion on stage.
“You made it!”
“Sorry I was late.”
Dani waved a hand. “Doesn’t matter. The best part is after we’ve warmed up, anyway.”
“If you warm up any more, I think you might burst into flames.”
“Tell me about it,” she said, reaching over to steal Taryn’s beer from her hands. “God, I could drink a pack of these.”
“Or I could get you a water.”
“Spoilsport.”
“Hey, I hauled myself out here to see you. I’d rather see you without the slurring of words.”
“I’ll have you know that I’m a very, very clear speaking drunk.”
“I’m so proud.”
“Damn straight.” Taking a final drink, she passed the bottle back to its original owner. “So what do you think?”
“It’s wonderful,” Taryn said, genuinely. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you play like this.”
“I know, right? It’s just flowing, tonight.”
“You mean you aren’t always this good?”
“Hey, I’m always fantastic. But this… this is some kind of special.”
“Well, I love it.”
“I thought so. I saw you dancing it up, out there.”
Taryn laughed. “Well, don’t expect me to keep it up. I’m pretty sure my feet are already about to mutiny.”
“I’m expecting you to find untapped depths.”
“Believe me. My depths are totally tapped.”
“We’ll see. Let me get back up there and play and we’ll see how long you feel like sitting.”
“Because you look so ready for another round. How long is your second set, anyway?”
“Just long enough. “ Dani nodded to the now empty bottle of beer. “You want another?”
“Depends. Are you buying?”
“Cheapskate,” Dani said as she pushed back from the table, the stool scraping along the wooden floor.
“You know it.”
“I’ll be right back.”
“Sure you will,” Taryn said, fighting a laugh. Dani rolled her eyes, but Taryn wasn’t at all surprised when her sister was immediately enveloped by the crowd, pulled from group to group as they encouraged her or stopped to catch up or make requests.
Stretching on her stool, Taryn let her shoulders slump as she placed her elbows on the table and settled in to just take in the low din of the crowd. The foul mood had slipped away, but in the comparative quiet in the wake of the bad, she found herself feeling the strain of the day and the dancing. Tired, she fell into something almost like a daze as she watched the crowd milling about, little pockets of friends and patrons.
It was as her gaze wandered that she started to notice a kind of nagging pressure, as if she was missing something. It was enough to pull her from her placid daze and she straightened a little, turning her head to look around even behind her. Nothing. Brow furrowed, she shifted in her seat and tried to shrug off the uneasy feeling, but it was difficult to recapture the ease she’d settled into only minutes before. It was just tiredness. Nothing more.
Reaching for her purse, she began to pull out her phone to check the time, when something else caught her gaze and dragged it back up, even as she’d written off her worry as thoughtless nagging. At first, it was just a passing gleam, almost entirely missed. It was only when the crowd shifted once more that she actually caught sight of the slouch-shouldered man sitting at the corner stool of the bar.
At first glance, she thought he had a tattered, neglected air about him. His hair seemed unkempt and his clothes worn. But as the crowd shifted, shifted, and then shifted again, disorienting as a kaleidoscope sliding in and out of focus, they parted enough for her to get a better glimpse at him. While his clothes were a dingier, dark gray compared to the more radical styles of the other patrons gathered for the band, a closer look revealed that they were actually fairly nice. Bordering on formal, even. And his hair wasn’t unkept at all. A bit longer than was conventional for business attire, maybe, but not out of line.
What didn’t change about her first impression was his expression. It was sour and twisted with an air of distaste, as if he’d taken a bite of something particularly sour and hadn’t been able to un-stick his face since. Or maybe he’d caught a whiff of a particularly unpleasant scent. His eyes were so dark that they seemed to swallow the light rather than reflect it, and they glowered at everyone around his table.
Or… no. That wasn’t exactly true. He wasn’t glaring everywhere. He was glaring at her.
Suddenly nervous that he’d caught her staring, Taryn’s eyes dropped to her hands, still half in her purse. It took her a moment to realize that she’d been in the middle of pulling out her phone, and she fumbled with the device as she worked it free of the other objects she’d crammed in there, nearly sending a package of mints and a tube of chapstick clattering to the floor. She managed to catch them just before they broke free of the fabric containing them, pushing them back into place as she deposited her phone on the somewhat sticky surface of the bar table. She made a great show of checking her phone, pretending to read some message there… or maybe the time. But she wasn’t really registering anything that was there. After enough time had gone by, or so she hoped, she tucked the phone back into her purse and dared to look up.
He was still watching her.
She turned in her seat, certain that she must be imagining things, but there wasn’t really anything of interest behind her, either. The crowd around her was no different from anywhere else in the bar. If it was her, and not the product of some attention-gathering thing, she couldn’t understand why. She wasn’t exactly a stranger to being hit on in places like these, especially when alcohol was involved, but he wasn’t looking in her direction (she refused to think “at her”) with the sort of look that said “I want to buy you a drink.” At least, not unless that drink was a glass of arsenic with a rim of crystallized cyanide. And she was sure she’d never seen him before. His wasn’t exactly the kind of face that she would easily forget. She might have tried to write it off as merely staring into space, with no kind of ulterior motive at all, but another stolen glance quickly confirmed that it was much too intent to feel accidental. Still, nothing else actually made any sense.
Shifting uncomfortably, she’d just about made up her mind to get up and go ask him what his problem was when her view was suddenly disrupted. Dani held out the cold, fresh bottle, already glistening with condensation from being removed from the fridge, and waved it in front of her face. “Earth to Taryn. What’re you staring at?”
“Huh?” Taryn sat back abruptly, blinking for a moment before actually accepting the beer.
“Staring. Why were you? You looked ready to crawl out of your skin.”
Taryn shook her head, pressing her lips together. “It’s that guy. On the other side of the bar. He’s giving me the creeps.”
“What guy?” Dani asked, starting to turn around, but Taryn quickly grabbed her arm.
“Don’t look at him.”
Dani sighed. “Well, how am I supposed to know who the creeper is if I can’t look?”
“Just don’t be obvious about it. He’s been staring for…I don’t know how long.”
“Maybe he’s trying to work up the nerve to ask you out,” Dani said with a laugh, casually readjusting her position in her seat. Turning sideways, she kept her gaze from sliding back towards the staring man, instead focusing on her own beer. She took a drink.
Taryn made a face and took a drink from her own, trying to follow her own instructions and avoid staring in the angry man’s direction. “Maybe he’s wanting to ax murder me. Really, he’s not giving off the date-me vibes.”
“Fun.” Dani took another drink, stretch, and then casually scanned the bar. Her gaze might have lingered for a moment longer on that side of the crowd, but not for too long. It wouldn’t be noticeable unless you were looking for it. And, Taryn hoped, maybe not even then. What was noticeable, however, was the way she frowned a moment later.
“There’s no one there.”
“What?”
“No one. Or, well, there’s a whole bunch of someones, but no one staring. Is he still there?”
Daring to look up, Dani let her gaze slide to the corner stool at the bar where he’d been sitting. Sure enough, he was gone. No more staring. Not even sitting. “He was there just a second ago.”
“Maybe he finished his drink and decided to go?”
“Or maybe he didn’t want to be pointed out.”
“You sound paranoid.” Still, Dani looked troubled. Her brow stayed furrowed as she continued to look at where the man had been. “What’d he look like? I can ask the bouncer to keep an eye out for him.”
“Thin. Lanky. Kind of sullen and pinched looking. He was dressed kind of nice for the crowd…some kind of gray suit?” She left off the fact that he’d looked rattier at first appearance. “A really unfriendly type. It was like he’d never smiled in his- hey, Dani?” She trailed off suddenly, catching the expression on her sister’s face. “You okay?”
“Hmmm? Yeah. Of course. Just…wanting to make sure he doesn’t bug you again.”
Taryn frowned. “Was it something I said?”
“Why would it be?”
Because now you look like you’ve seen a ghost, Taryn thought, but she didn’t say anything, watching as Dani put on a smile that immediately wiped the apprehensive expression out of existence. Maybe she’d been wrong. Maybe she was just projecting her own nerves onto her sister.
“I’ll talk to the bouncer,” Dani continued, standing back up. “No one’s going to mess with my sister.”
“Isn’t that my line?”
“Not this time,” Dani said with a wink. Holding up a finger to signal that she’d be back in just a minute, she disappeared back into the crowd. It was only a second later that Taryn realized that she’d forgotten her beer.
The break didn’t last much longer and Dani didn’t come back. Not until it was time for the band to get back up on stage. She flashed Taryn a thumbs up and she seemed perfectly content, so Taryn assumed she’d spoken to the bouncer without a hitch, but she still felt a little uneasy. She kept searching the bar for that sour face, but the man really did seem to be gone. Still, it was hard to get back to the mood she’d had earlier.
The music helped. She even got up to dance later on in the set, proving Dani right, though some of that might have been the fact that -once she’d finished her beer- she’d finished off Dani’s as well. She was feeling a bit more mellow and content when they finally wrapped things up for the night, ending their final song with a grand finish that had the crowding listeners cheering and whistling. As the band stepped down and the bartender announced last call, Taryn turned to find a garbage can for her beer. Within seconds, Dani had hopped down off the stage and grabbed her elbow.
“Hey, you should come out with me.”
“Now? After this?”
“Right. After this. I’ve got too much energy to call it a night, anyway, after a gig.”
Taryn looked over at the band packing up, a little uncertain. “I don’t know, Dani. It’s late. And as much as I love you guys, I don’t know that I’ve got a lot to say on the whole music front.”
“Not all of us. I’m pretty sure they’re packing it in. I just mean…you and me. Sister time.”
Taryn hesitated. She was tired. Her feet ached in her high heeled shoes and the third beer had left her with that warm buzz that was just starting to border on sleepy. But it was true…other than passing by each other in the apartment, they hadn’t really had any quality sister time in awhile. “Alright…fine. Just not for too long. I need some sleep tonight.”
“Okay Ms. Responsible.” Dani’s head tilted, considering. “How about this. There’s a Denny’s just down 5th street. Take a cab and order the food and then I’ll come after, once we’re all packed up.”
Taryn’s brow furrowed. “I could just wait for you. That way we don’t have to take two cabs.”
“But this’ll be faster. We won’t have to wait as long for food. “ Turning her sister, Dani pushed her lightly towards the door. “Trust me. This is a good idea.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s not,” Taryn retorted, but it was with amusement. She didn’t really have it in her to argue if this is what Dani wanted to do. “What do you want.”
“Surprise me,” Dani said, raising her hand to hail a cab as they stepped out into the chilly, autumn air and stood on the curb. “Just not chicken tenders. You always get chicken tenders.”
“It’s Denny’s. They’re kind of lacking in quality fare.”
“It’s Denny’s. They’re supposed to be.”
As the taxi pulled up to the curb, Dani nudged her. “I won’t be long. Promise.”
“Yeah, yeah. Better not be,” Taryn said as she opened the door and slid inside.
It wasn’t a far drive. Paying the taxi driver the fare (only seven dollars after tip) she reached the Denny’s without incident. She debated over the menu, but it was hard to concentrate. Harder than she’d expected, really.
Funny. With three beers, she really shouldn’t have been feeling it this much…even if she hadn’t really eaten ahead of time. She wasn’t exactly a drinking champion, but she could hold her liquor.
Usually.
Now, though, everything seemed to swim in a kind of fuzzy haze that had only increased since she’d gotten in the taxi. She didn’t feel sick, but she felt positively drunk. When the waitress came by, she took care not to slur her words and ordered chicken fingers (out of spite) and a sampler platter, assuring the waitress that it was fine… her sister would be joining her soon.
Floating, she drank through half of a coke by the time the food came. Surprisingly fast, really, since Dani wasn’t there yet, but there had been a lot of equipment on the stage. And Dani had never been able to get out of anywhere without getting trapped in a conversation. It was just her gift -or curse, if you were the one stuck waiting on her. Expecting her to be on time really would have been too much.
She started lazily picking at her chicken tenders, pulling them into strands of white meat as she waited. And then she snacked. And then she ate.
By the time she’d finished, the sampler platter had long gone cold, her chicken tenders were gone, and she’d made it through the other half of her coke, plus half again of a new one. Finally, the waitress came by, giving her a look that was caught somewhere between sympathetic and frustrated. She was obviously not expecting the best of tips. “I hate to say this, honey,” she said, lips pressing together, “but I think she stood you up.”
“She wouldn’t,” Taryn said, and some of the haze seemed to lift. This wasn’t right. How long had it been?
“Well, it’s late. Maybe she changed her mind. You got any messages on your phone from her?”
Her phone. She reached for her purse, fumbling again as she pulled it out. Why did she always put so much stuff in her purse? “I…don’t know. I’ll check.”
“Well, I’ll just bring you the check, alright. And you can stay and wait for her as long as you want.”
“Right. Okay. Thanks.”
No new messages. But it was the time that really caught her attention. It was almost four in the morning. She’d been there for two hours.
Where the hell was Dani?
She paid for the bill in a kind of daze, just leaving a smattering of bills on the table for the waitress to sort through. The pressing numbness had seemed to lift and she was steady on her feet when she rose from the table, but now she seemed to be pulled along by a sudden stream of worry. Something was wrong. Something had to be wrong. How had she just sat there for two hours and not even realized-
Dani wasn’t answering her phone. Text messages and voice mails got no response as Taryn flagged down another cab and gave the driver their address.
Words: 6706
Bouts of Meaningless Dialogue: 7
Chapters: O-one? Maybe?
Cups of Coffee: 6