Claire and Tess come with me, and when I flip on the lights in the apartment I can’t help but admit that this place is kind of crappy compared to Ace’s place.
“So he really asked you to move in with him?” Tess asks, as she slips off her shoes and throws her purse on the floor.
“Yeah ... and I’m going to. I mean, I told him I love him.”
“Fuck, you guys got real, real fast,” Claire says, grabbing a blanket from the couch, wrapping it around her as she tries to suppress a yawn. “I’m so tired.”
“Thanks for staying with me tonight,” I tell them as we walk to Janie’s bedroom and I flip on the lights. We’re going to spoon the shit out of one another in her queen-sized bed, but I need that from my girls right now.
“Fuck, what is that?” Claire asks, pointing to a pile of crap on the bed.
“That’s heroin,” Tess says, looking at me nervously. “Emmy?”
“That’s not my stuff,” I say, looking at Janie’s stash. “Ace was here before ... looking for clues about Janie. I saw that pipe in her underwear drawer, but people use pipes for pot, right? I don’t know, I just assumed it wasn’t serious.”
“Well, no doubt, your sister was using,” Tess says, picking up the balloon and untying it with her fingers, then using her mouth to loosen it more. Looking inside, she says, “You never wondered what was in this balloon?”
“I didn’t.” Sitting on my bed, I take the glass pipe in my hand. “I’m surprised the doctors didn’t know.”
“Well, she was there because of a coma,” Claire says, shrugging, wrapping her blanket around me. “They wouldn’t have run drug tests on her.”
“Yeah, and if she smoked and didn’t shoot up, then there wouldn’t be track marks on her either,” Tess says.
“You seem to know a lot about heroin,” Claire says softly.
“We all have a story,” Tess says sadly. “Sorry, Emmy. But maybe it helps you understand Janie a little bit?”
I nod my head and move the items in my hand back to the dresser. “Life is so hard,” I say, getting into the middle of the bed, pulling the duvet over myself. Claire switches off the lights, and she and Tess slip in the bed with me.
“It’s hard,” Claire says, “but it’s also really beautiful. In the midst of this mess, you found Ace. You found love.”
“And you found us. We’re your friends, and we aren’t going anywhere,” Tess says.
Tears fall down my cheeks as I squeeze my eyes shut tight. I squeeze the hands of my friends—the people who, in the end, are more of a family than I ever found through bloodlines and matching last names. In this heartbreak, I won’t forget the people I have with me now, the people who chose to stay.
27
ACE
The vibrating phone wakes me. I slept for shit anyways; all I wanted was Emmy’s arms around me, pulling me deeper into her. Soon enough I’ll have that every night of my life.
It’s Mark calling, so I answer. “Hello?”
“Ace, man, big morning over here. You see the news?”
“No.” I get out of bed and reach for a remote. Switching on the flat screen, I change from ESPN to a local channel. “What’s going on?”
A handcuffed Grotto is on the television, a streaming banner with updates below him. A reporter’s voice-over fills me in: “Local high-rise developer arrested early this morning, when evidence of his leading a local drug ring were brought to light. The testimony of Las Vegas resident Janice Hopper, a woman who recently woke from a coma in which Frank Grotto fled the scene of the crime, gave the local police the tip-off they needed to charge him.”
“Holy fuck,” I say into the phone. “Who got her to talk?”
“She called 9-1-1 late last night after everyone left the station. Apparently she and Grotto have been talking since she woke. The nurses have since reported that she was extremely anxious after her phone calls, but I guess the fact that Grotto kidnapped Emmy was the last straw.”
“So she admitted the truth because she wanted to fix things with Emmy?” I ask. Relief fills my chest—not just because my name is clear, but also because Emmy might be able to fix things with her sister after all.
“She was working with Grotto to frame you to clear her drug debts, but then I guess when she found out about the kidnapping she had a last-minute change of heart. He wanted to screwed you out of the property deal, and she wanted to pay off what she owed. He set up the car crash, but never expected Janie to go into a coma. When she did, I guess things got out of control. He skipped town for a few weeks, but when he came back things were still heated on his side. He was waiting for the moment when the girl woke, not knowing whose side she’d take.”