Even Now

Chapter 14: Trouble

November 3, 1993: Perth, Australia

Jerry walks out of the rehearsal room, closing the door behind him. He even asks the tech guys to leave the area so he can talk to Layne alone.

Layne doesn't care. He just wants to dissolve into the floor. Maybe, if he wished hard enough, he could turn into a problem-free spider and hide within the walls of the studio.

Jerry sits beside Layne, assuming the same position as him.

"Why'd you come out here?" Layne groans angrily, refusing to raise his head. "Can't I have just five minutes to myself?"

Jerry sighs. "We heard you yelling in there. I just wanted to make sure everything was okay."

Layne rocks back a bit, tapping his shoes down on the linoleum floor a couple of times. "It's not dead."

Jerry sounds confused at first. "What's not dead?" Then it dawns on him. "Your... so... okay. I guess that's, uh... that's good news. Right?"

Layne can't help but roll his eyes at the crack in Jerry's voice. He looks up at him. "If I were any other guy with any other girl, yeah, that'd be good news. But I'm not that lucky. And now I'm supposed to leave you guys to go to rehab with Demri for three months in support of something neither of us really want."

"You're going to rehab for three months?!" Jerry exclaims.

Layne digs his nails into his arms, feeling as though he's about to pierce his sleeves. "It's not like I want to."

"Then... don't go."

Layne looks away from him. "I can't just leave her. If there's a chance I can help her there, then I will. Even though it'll fuckin' suck."

Jerry raises one of his hands to the top of his head, clearly uncomfortable. "So... you don't want... it... or any of this. And I guess we're still calling it 'it', huh?"

Layne stands slowly, arms crossed as he takes a few laps along the small hallway. "I don't know. Okay? It's very confusing. If it were an entirely different situation, maybe I'd feel differently."

Jerry nods, standing to face Layne. "I get that."

Layne shakes his head, sitting back down on the floor beside Jerry, who sighs in annoyance at the prospect of having to sit on the floor again.

"I don't want to talk about this anymore," Layne mumbles.

"I get that, too. So, what do you want to talk about?" Jerry asks.

For some reason, this makes Layne really angry.

"Why do I have to talk about anything?" Layne snaps quickly. "Just shut up. I don't really even know why you're here."

"I-"

"You don't care about Demri. Or 'it'."

Then something comes to Layne's mind. Something that'd really test Jerry's loyalty to him. And it would work much better than what he'd done last night.

"You just want to fuck me, don't you?" Layne sneers.

Jerry's face falls, turning pale.

Layne smiles evilly, not caring if he's embarrassing himself, hurting Jerry, or both. "I'm right, aren't I? You just want to fuck me. That's why you're trying to get on my good side. You know things aren't that great with Demri right now, and you think this is some great damn chance for you."

Jerry tilts his head to the side, eyes narrowed. "You really think I'm that shallow?"

Layne shrugs. "I don't hear you denying anything."