Losing Everything

Chapter 3.2

Lucy concentrated on not humming for a while, until she realized Erica was talking again.

“What happened to Jake?” Erica was saying.

“Oh,” Lucy said, and thought for a while. “He left me.”

“Yes,” Erica said. “You told me. But because of what’s happened with Bitmo?”

Lucy was a little surprised Erica knew, but then realized she must have mentioned it in the phone message. And that Bitmo had probably been in the news. The tech news, at least, which Erica probably read.

Erica was saying something else. Something about whether there was there a friend Erica could call. Again.

“No friends,” Lucy said. “Not any more, because they’re all his friends. There’s no-one but you.”

Erica nodded. She sat for a while, and seemed to be thinking. “Can I take you somewhere then? Take you home?”

Lucy started to laugh. She sat in the sand and laughed uncontrollably. She laughed like she hadn’t in months, and didn’t really know why. Erica just sat there, and looked at her, and smiled slightly, and Erica’s tolerant, patient expression made Lucy laugh more.

After a while Erica said, “So can I take you home?”

“No home either,” Lucy managed, gasping. “No house.”

“You don’t have a house?”

“Not any more. The bank took it off me.”

Erica thought about that for a while, then said, “Oh.”

“Want a drink?” Lucy said, still laughing, and held out the bottle of vodka. She must have been holding onto it, as she laughed, perhaps hugging it against her side without realizing.

“Nah, I’m good.”

“I didn’t have a drink,” Lucy said. “I promise.”

“I know,” Erica said. “And that’s really good.” She gently took the bottle away, and put it down in the sand on the other side of herself from Lucy.

“Your beach is nice,” Lucy said.

“Yeah it is,” Erica said. “I don’t suppose you want to get dressed, do you?”

Lucy grinned. “Nope.”

“Okay,” Erica said. “I guess we sit here for a bit then.”

“All right,” Lucy said, feeling floaty and agreeable. “It’s good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you too.”

“I’ve got weed,” Lucy said. “If you want weed?”

“Maybe later.”

“I’ve got pills.”

“What kind of pills.”

Lucy grinned for a while. “I don’t know. A man in a bar gave them to me.”

Erica looked at her. “Then you probably shouldn’t be taking them, should you?”

“Probably not.”

“Can I see?”

Lucy reached sideways, without looking, and fished around in the pile of her clothes. She found her shirt, and patted it until she felt the plastic bottle of pills in its pocket. She took the pills out, and handed them to Erica, who opened the cap and looked inside the bottle.

Erica didn’t say anything. She put the pills down beside the vodka bottle, away from Lucy.

Discreetly, Lucy thought. As if she thought Lucy hadn’t noticed.

Lucy didn’t really mind.

They sat there for a while, and listened to the waves. Erica didn’t talk, and after a while Lucy decided she needed to check whether Erica was still there.

She looked sideways without moving her head very much. Carefully without moving. Erica was looking back at her the same way, out the corner of her eye. It was an odd thing to see, and Lucy started giggling. She still felt floaty, and giggly, and must still be high, because she only giggled when she was high.

After a while she fell backwards, laughing. Which left her a lot more bare than she had been.

“Hey,” Erica said. “Hold on. Sit up.”

“I’m fine,” Lucy said.

She lay there in the sand, feeling it cool against her back, laughing and shaking and looking up at Erica’s worried face. The sky above Erica was a pale blue. It was paler near the sea, and darker higher up. There were a few wispy clouds up there too. Clouds like eyelashes, on invisible eyes.

The sky was blue, and the sea was blue, and the air was starting to warm up a little, even though it was still quite cool.

The sky was blue, and Erica’s face was hovering above Lucy.

Lucy liked Erica’s face. She liked Erica’s legs, and voice, and mouth, and eyes. And she really liked Erica’s face.

“Hi,” she said, smiling. She reached up and touched Erica’s cheek.

Erica just sighed.