It had been four days since Stone had left Billie's and four days since he'd had a clear thought. He wasn't particularly busy at the moment, no touring. Not much to distract him. He'd just been enjoying a bit of everyday life when a grenade, a beautiful, complicated grenade had landed in his lap.
He'd tried calling her. Either she wasn't home, or she wasn't picking up. He didn't want to be a pest but he just couldn't seem to focus on anything else. He couldn't stop replaying that night.
He'd cleaned his house for the first time in months, caught up on paperwork, god, he'd even gone running. He headed to the basement and started on some new riffs he was working on but after an hour or so he put his guitar down in disgust and walked to the tiny ground level window and looked up and out at the rare blue sky.
Fuck it.
He went up the stairs two at a time. Snatched his wallet and keys from the table and went out, trying not to second guess himself. The traffic was light in the middle of the day and it wasn't long before he was pulling up outside Billie's apartment.
He sat in the shade across the street watching for a fair while. There was no movement in the windows and not many people about in the street. What the fuck was he even doing here he wondered. He decided to go home. He felt like a creep sitting out the front of her house.
He had his hand on the ignition, ready to leave, when he noticed an older lady come around the corner with a bunch of Tupperware in her arms and stop at the door to Billie's apartment. She buzzed and Stone saw her talking to the intercom. He didn't stop to think. He jumped out, locked his car and hastened across the street.
He stopped in front of the door and the woman turned to him, giving him a sweeping look up and down. He smiled nervously.
'Can I help you, young man?' she asked, tilting her head back and looking up at him.
'Oh no, I'm alright, I'm just stopping by to see my friend.' he tried to look chill but struggled under her scrutiny.
'And just who would that be?' she scowled at him fiercely, her frizzy hair on end.
'Oh um, Billie.' he pushed his glasses up and unconsciously raked his hair down.
'My friend Billie lives here. I brought her home a bit worse for wear on Friday and I just wanted to check in with her. Make sure she's ok.' his words tumbled over themselves.
The lady looked him over closely again, and then clucked like a hen once and blew out a big breath.
'Well, well, seems like you do know our Billie.' she crinkled up her face, looked closer at him, then it evened out as if she'd made up her mind about something.
'You'll know she's been struggling a bit lately?'
Stone nodded but didn't try his luck by speaking.
'She's a right mess at the minute. She's climbed on the wagon, but she's having a wee bit of trouble staying there. No doubt she'll come good, but for now she's damn shaky.' she shook her head sympathetically.
'That said, I can't stay and babysit her, so it's probably good she'll have a friend to be with her. Here you go.' she said dumping a bunch of things into Stones arms. 'You can carry these for me.' and she barged through the door and proceeded to stomp up the stairs.
After a moment, Stone followed tentatively behind, wondering what the hell he was gonna find and how he'd be received. He would have adjusted his glasses and smoothed his hair again but his arms were full of containers of food and a stack of books. He pulled up behind her at the top of the stairs.
The woman didn't pause, just knocked loudly and then let herself in without waiting. As the door opened, he heard Billie's voice call out wearily.
'Come in Jamie, it's open' a little too late to matter.
