In the End

The Turn of A Leaf

Three days later, Brett Shelton is released from the hospital. Just as he had said, he was released earlier than the doctors had anticipated, and was back on his feet, out collecting more clients to grow his small clinic for physical therapy. Every once in a while, he'd stop by Andy's store, just to say hello, and Andy found those moments to go by the quickest.

Six days later, Brett has a promising business beginning, and he and Andy meet up with Kristen and J. Ivers quite often. Andy finally learns to call her Jeeves instead of Jess or Jessie, and they swap ideas for lyrics in her band's new songs. They seem to have similar tastes in music, and it brings them closer. Jeeves also has scars of her own, and although she has moved on and Andy is still drawing - she understands, and he feels safe showing them to her.

Kristen invites Andy and Brett over to the cafe she works in, and even though it's not alcoholic, Andy finds himself enjoying coffee. Or perhaps it's just the company that comes with it. Either way, when he has the time, he is often there, sometimes with Brett or sometimes on his own.

"You know, this is how Jeeves and I first reunited," Kristen tells him one day. Andy has just discovered that he likes a lot more sugar in his coffee than he'd thought he would. The subject of conversation, Jeeves, is on the small stage on their right, crooning into the microphone and strumming her guitar to a rock ballad, her drummer and pianist behind her.

"I'd only been working here for a couple of months when her band asked to book us for one night. We weren't a popular cafe then, so it was a simple yes."

She's topping off someone's drink with whipped cream, and her eyes have that same, foamy dreamlike look.

"I was just a part timer then, but I happened to be working that night, and the moment she walked in, I knew I had to get to know her. I hadn't recognized her at first- she'd cut her hair, she wasn't as skinny, she had all the piercings she has now - but I was star struck. And then she'd sang, and I was weak."

Andy laughs into his mug, but he listens. He wonders what it would be like, to feel that way. He never has quite felt the things that Kristen is describing, as she goes into detail about the way Jeeves moved off stage, and how her palms sweat when she introduced herself. The closest he'd ever felt to it was after he'd kissed Brett, but it wasn't the same. It didn't stay, the way Kristen and Jeeves stayed together, enjoying the other's company in their apartment. Kristen hadn't drunkenly kissed someone and then moved on, she'd fallen head over heels and kept tumbling. And from the way she is speaking now, it seems she hadn't stopped tumbling yet.

"But once I recognized her, the nerves kind of just, went away. We talked for a long time and I felt like I was coming home for the first time. I fell into that weird familiarity and I didn't want to let it go." Kristen is gazing over where Jeeves is at the moment, and Andy watches their eyes meet. Jeeves grins slowly and winks, and Kristen smiles back for one quick second before turning back to her job, handing off another drink to a young girl sitting next to Andy.

He thinks about how, normally, this would have been overwhelming, being out in public among so many strange faces, in a strange place he does not normally go. But the lights are dim, and the music is not overwhelming, and he's decided that coffee shops might be the one exception. Even Kristen seems to move at a more tranquil sort of pace, although that may be her quiet and steady love for her girlfriend talking. Whatever the case, he is almost more at peace here than even in the comforting solitude of his apartment.

His apartment has been empty for all six of the days that have passed.

He wishes that he felt immediate relief when he did not see Chucky return after the first day, or the second, or the third, but instead it left him more on edge than before. He has found himself expecting Chucky to round a corner, or open his door when he hears a creak at night. The worst of it all is, he feels no fear, just a simple expectance, and then a simple disappointment when there is nothing.