Page 61 of Replay
“Jasmine.”At least she’d heard of that one.“Can I have it to go?”
“Nej.”
Okay, well, she’d just have to drink it quickly.It would be nice to sit for a minute and sip out of a decent cup.
“Försiktigt!”
“Huh, what?”Alle dropped onto a pile of cushions, only to have it shift abruptly sideways, leaving her flopped, ragdoll-like, on the musty carpet.
“Jag varnade dig.”
The man handed over her drink, as if it was usual to present a customer in an unconventional yoga pose a steaming hot beverage.Alle lay the saucer down on the ground, and instead turned to see what had happened to the cushions she’d been poised to land on.
The mound wasn’t entirely composed of cushion—there was a lithe, skinny man buried beneath them.“Ronnie?”It was him.“I know that’s you under there.I’ve been looking everywhere.Is this where you’ve been all along?”
Having got no response, Alle rolled onto her knees and pulled away some of the cushions from around his head.It was Ronnie, all right.Curled into a foetal position, so stiff and still he might have been frozen.If she hadn’t only just witnessed him move, she’d have feared him catatonic.
“Ronnie… Hey…” Her attempt to pull him to her failed.Considering he was such a lanky person, he inexplicably weighed as much as a concrete elephant.Well, she might not be able to move him, but she could move herself – and her tea.Alle curled her body around his stiff form.
Pressed up close, she could hear the rasping of his breath and feel the racing of his heart.He might be presenting as a statue, but internally he was still in flight mode.
“Ronnie.Sweetie.It’s okay.It’s me, Alle.I’m so sorry about my brother.I always knew he was a git, but I’d no idea he was that big a git.”She matched the pace of Ronnie’s breathing, and then gradually slowed hers down.What do you know, that little trick she’d once read about worked!Ronnie’s heart stopped its dramatic pitter-patter and slowed to a steady rhythmic thump.
“I fucked it,” he mumbled, right when she thought he wouldn’t say anything at all.“I fucked it so bad, Alle.It was all just noise.”
“I know,” she reassured, squeezing him a fraction tighter, so that he’d know she was on his side.
“I won’t be able to breathe if you keep squeezing so much.”
“Oh, sorry.”She loosened her grip.“I thought you might appreciate a hug.”
“It is nice.”He cautiously rolled onto his back, and cast a wary glance at her out of the side of his eyes.His lower lip had been bitten into so hard there was dried blood scabbed upon it.
“It’s not as bad as you think, Ronnie.People understand.”
“I bet the Black Halo guys all hate me now.They won’t want me to play with them.They won’t do my song.”
“You don’t know that.I think they’re worried about you.”
“Alle, don’t pretend.I said things.I know I did.Things they wouldn’t want me to say.Mrs Kettering even said so beforehand.She said to avoid answering those sorts of questions, and to steer things back to the music if the interviewer kept leading things away.I wasn’t to do anything to damage the Black Halo brand, and I oughtn’t to allow myself to be drawn in by Ava Leigh’s flirting.
“I said that wouldn’t be a problem.But then it wasn’t her.It wasn’t Ava Leigh.It was your brother.Why was it your brother?
“Alle, he talked so fast.I couldn’t keep up with the questions.”
“I know, Ronnie.I saw.I heard him.He was awful, and believe me, the first opportunity I get, I’m going to give him hell.There’s no excuse for what he did.He was deliberately not giving you time to think, or answer.As for the questions about Spook—I don’t care what Marshall’s job is.That was indefensible.I’m his sister, for fuck’s sake.You might think he’d show me the courtesy of not splashing my sex life across the internet.”
“I’m so sorry, Alle.So very sorry.”His limbs were riddled with tension again, his heart rate speeding up.
“It’s fine,” she said.“I absolutely don’t blame you.”
“But, Spook—”
“I’m sure he understands.”Having not spoken to him since the interview, she couldn’t say for sure.
“Hey, I stopped by your van and grabbed a few things.Want one of these?”She pulled a packet of strawberry laces from her pocket.
Ronnie gratefully took them.He even sat up to rip into the packet.Soon he was winding spirals around his fingers and then slurping them like they were spaghetti.
