Page 16 of Meet Me in Ivy Falls

When I walked in the store my mood may have been a four, but between Beck’s reappearance and my dad’s continued disappointment in my choices it’d now definitely dropped to a two.

Chapter Seven

BECK

Turning A Corner Onto A Much Darker Street.

Ever since the accident, sleep had become my enemy. When I closed my eyes and drifted into that blurry state between wake and rest, the sounds of the explosion, the phantom heat of the fire, jarred me out of bed. This morning, for once, it wasn’t the fiery hiss of the explosion that rocked me from an uneasy sleep but the vision of Torran’s pained gaze as she looked at me for the first time in ten years.

Knowing sleep would not come again, I took a shower, dressed and made my way down the elevator to the underground garage. Once I was in my car, I slowly pulled out of my condo complex. This morning I had to go back to Ivy Falls. Take another look at the house and convince myself that I hadn’t just made one of the biggest mistakes of my life. That this plan would make things better for Piper.

Deciding to take the scenic route, I drove the two-lane highway that led out of town and wound past miles of open grassy fields covered in white dandelions. The road was like an old rollercoaster. Ebbing and falling every few feet until it smoothed out into a flat straightaway. In the distance sat sprawling red farmhouses. Horses in colors of chestnut and raven-black dotted the landscape.

The more I drove, the quicker my blood pressure dropped. I rolled down the windows and let the cool morning breeze blow across my cheeks.

This will all be okay, I kept repeating like I could somehow hypnotize myself into believing it was true, but the hurt in Torran’s eyes kept flashing in my head.

I reached for the radio dial and scrolled to my favorite music station, needing something to calm my nerves. Only two bars into one of Paramore’s greatest hits, the music faded and was replaced by a familiar ringtone. As soon as I answered, the hair on my arms stood on end. The rapid-fire voice blazing through the receiver could only belong to one person.

‘Morning, Piper, what’s going on?’

She sighed and all the muscles in my neck and jaw tensed. My little sister didn’t have to utter a word for me to know something was wrong.

‘Can you send me more money?’ Her gravelly voice said sleep was eluding her too.

‘What happened to the grand I sent you last week?’

‘I used it for… stuff.’

I bit back the other questions in my head like how much ‘stuff’ included weed and her favorite companion, Jose Cuervo.

‘How’s the job hunt going? Didn’t you say you had an interview last week?’

Another sigh. ‘It didn’t work out. The guy was a total perv. I didn’t like the way he ogled me when he asked about my past experience.’

I loved my sister but she had an excuse for everything. She couldn’t make it to her therapist appointments because she’d lost her MetroCard. Her prescriptions couldn’t be filled because it was too long of a walk to the pharmacy. The auditions she was being offered were for parts that were beneath her. She couldn’t find a job because nobody in her Greenwich Village neighborhood was hiring.

I pressed a finger to my temple where a headache was beginning to throb. ‘It’s serving coffee and pastries. How much experience do you need?’

‘Beck,’ she moaned. ‘The place is three subway stops away, and then another fifteen-minute walk.’

I swallowed down all my frustration. For years I’d been trying to get Piper to move closer to me, but every time I mentioned it, she chose to live somewhere farther away. When I was in California for college, she stayed with our grandparents in Oregon. After she graduated from high school, and I moved to Atlanta, I begged her to come live with me. Take classes at a local community college and give us a chance to get close again.

She refused, choosing to go to school in Las Vegas. She lasted a year until she dropped out. Only months later, both our grandparents passed quickly, leaving me to control our family trust. She traveled across the country over the next two years, couch-surfing at various friends’ apartments and taking waitress jobs where she could find them. She’d go months without calling until she needed money. I went out of my mind with worry, imagining all sorts of bad shit happening to her. Last year she finally landed in New York, claiming she’d gotten her life together and wanted to be an actress.

‘Okay, let’s make a deal. I’ll send you another five hundred, but you need to line up two more interviews.’

‘Why are you being such an asshole? This is New York City. It’s not that easy to find a good job without a college degree,’ she huffed. ‘That money is mine. Mom and Dad left it to me.’

‘They did but Grandpa and Grandma changed your access due to your…’ I broke off, not wanting to bring up her rocky past. ‘Just prove to me you can get and keep a job and I’ll continue sending money for rent, food and acting classes. If you can’t handle that, I’ve got a second bedroom at my condo waiting for you.’

‘I’m not coming to Nashville. It’s too much for me, you know it, and I hate that you keep pushing.’

The wobble in her voice opened a crevice in my heart. Ever since we’d buried our parents, Piper had gone off the deep end. She’d stopped playing piano. Skipped so many days of school our grandparents lost count. Already in and out of rehab once, I had to plead with her to finish high school. When she’d received her diploma, she’d beamed at me. I’d thought we’d turned a corner at that moment, but I didn’t know it was on to a much darker street.

‘Make the interview appointments,’ I said, giving in. ‘The money will be in your account by the end of the day.’

‘Thanks, big brother. You’re the best.’