Hunter? I’ll give you five minutes and then we drink.”
“When’s Claudia’s funeral?”
“Day after tomorrow.”
“Make sure you text us the details. We’ll all be there.”
“Fine. Is that all you need to know or do you also want to know how fucking pissed off I am that she’s gone? That I will never understand the world ever again, because why the hell did they take her when there are murderers and rapists and paedophiles out there that should have been taken instead.” I run out of breath so I stop talking, but my heart rate is running a million miles an hour and every vein in my body is buzzing with adrenalin.
Hunter nods and sits back in his chair. “Yeah, that’s what I want to know.”
I raise the glass of bourbon Dan just put in front of me, and demand, “Now, let’s drink the fuck up and talk about bullshit that doesn’t matter.” I scull half the glass and suck in a breath as it slides down my throat. Feels fucking good.
* * *
Five hours later, we’re all drunk, and we stumble outside. We spent all night reliving memories of when we met, the shit we’ve been through together, and talked about our future plans. And then the conversation turned to Claudia and the last hour has been spent reliving our memories of hanging out with her.
“She really was like a sister to you guys, too, wasn’t she?” I say as we hit the car park.
Van nods. “Yeah, she was.”
West slings his arm around my shoulders. “I’m gonna miss her, Jett. She used to send me texts checking up on you when we were on the road, and then we’d chat for a bit. It was how I used to stay connected to home in a way. She’d keep me updated on everyone back here. It’s gonna suck not having that.” His voice catches and his face twists with grief.
Fuck.
These are the kinds of things my mind hasn’t even realised yet. They’re the little things we all took for granted, and suddenly I know they’re going to be the things that will hurt the most as we discover them missing.
Two taxis pull up and we make our way to them. I’m heading home to my apartment in the city and the three of them are going in a different direction so I jump in mine and say goodnight. I’ll come back tomorrow and collect my Jeep. Driving it home tonight was never going to happen, I shouldn’t have driven it here in the first place.
Closing my eyes, I squeeze back the thoughts rushing forward. Every time I’m alone, they come for me, and I can’t stop them. Of Claudia and I when we were kids, of her when she was dating assholes in high school, of us in Paris when I took her there for her twenty-first. Too many fucking memories.
I need to find a way to switch them off.
“Mate,” I say to the driver, “Can we head to Kangaroo Point instead of the city?”
“Sure,” he agrees and diverts our journey.
Presley will make it good.
She’ll switch the shit in my mind off.
25
Presley
I sit up in bed and quiet my breathing so I can listen for the noise I just heard. It sounds like someone trying to break in through my front door, and my heart beats a little faster in my chest. Pushing the bed covers back, I slide out of the bed and tip toe through my apartment towards the front door. The noise is getting louder and just as I almost reach the door, Jett yells out my name as he bashes on it.
I scream and jump. “Shit, you scared the fuck out of me!” I yell at him through the door, both relieved it’s him and angry it’s him. He rang me this afternoon and said he was going out with the boys so I wasn’t expecting him. And although I’m glad to see him, I’m half asleep and my pulse is racing from the fear I had felt.
I let him in and he shuts the door behind him and apologises. “Sorry, baby, didn’t mean to scare you.” His words are slurring together and he smells like a brewery.
Motioning for him to come in, I say, “It’s alright, but I didn’t think you were coming over tonight. Are you okay? And how the hell did you get through the front door?” So much for security.
His hands grip my hips and pull me to him as he bends his face