Cherry Coloured - Alex Turner

16. Tragedy's Reincarnate Lover

Chuck heard the pattering sounds of contained rain hitting the tiles of the bathroom floor and only decided to contest them when his phone began to ring under the name Kurtis.

"Maeve!" he shouted out, holding the ringing phone in his hand and refraining from pressing any on screen buttons.

"Maeve!" he called again following no answer. "MAEVE!" Chuck's voice grew louder at the frantic realisation that every ring brought closer the end of the call.

"What!" she shouted back from the shower, his voice having reached her through her thunderstorm.

"Kurtis is calling!" Those three words were enough for her to leap out of the running water and dash out to the living room, hurriedly wrapping a robe around her body.

"Pick up!" Maeve exclaimed, her hair and skin dripping wet as she joined Chuck on the settee. She kidnapped her own breath in her chest, waiting and bracing herself as Chuck accepted the incoming call from her brother and put it on speaker.

"Kurt, how you doing man?" Chuck piped casually. Maeve bit down on her lip hard, impatient to hear her brother's voice.

"Not bad." Like a wave of relief, Maeve exhaled in pure euphoria. It had been months since she'd heard from him, his voice alone comforted her and assured her he was alright.

"How's things?" Chuck asked, glancing over at Maeve and hugging her to his side once seeing how nervous she was.

"Better than usual, been off smack for like...two weeks? Something like that," Kurtis said, his voice tired and energised all at once. "I was supposed to move back in with Dad but I can't fucking stand it there so I'm squatting at a mates. He's clean."

"I'm glad to hear it," Chuck said proudly, "truly, Kurt, yer doing great man."

An unconvinced laugh made its way through the phone, "yeah don't give me too much credit. Did a couple bumps last night to take the edge off."

"Ha, you sound like your sister," Chuck said, reclining against the settee as Maeve sat fidgeting and dripping wet by his side.

"I uh...I was actually hoping I could speak with her," Kurtis spoke, his voice slow and hoarse just like his sister's. Maeve perked up, her heart beating so fast Chuck could see her blood pumping through the veins in her neck.

"Really? Yeah, I'll grab her," Chuck said, equally surprised and gave the call a moment of silence so that it didn't appear as though she'd been listening in the whole time. Taking the phone off speaker, Chuck tentatively handed Maeve his phone. His eyes asked her a million questions, the most prevalent of which was "are you sure?"

Taking a deep breath, Maeve nodded and pressed the phone to her ear. "Kurtis? Hey." Chuck watched as a relieved smile made its way to her cheeks, her eyes glassing over like she'd just yawned. "Yeah of course I have a moment, is everything okay?"

"In comparison to the last time I called, yeah," Kurtis confirmed. "I uh, I'm two weeks clean of smack. Fucking sucks but I'm trying to do it right this time."

"Did they give you methadone again?" Maeve asked. Chuck got up from beside her and left to his room, giving her space and privacy.

"Yeah, shits wank," Kurtis said. "I'm sorry for how things ended last time we talked. I was fucked off my face."

  "Yeah I was really fucking worried Kurtis. Especially because you never pick up," Maeve said, hugging her arm around herself. She sighed,"it's fine...I'm just glad you're getting help."

  "I'm sorry I never answered when you called. I did listen to the messages," Kurtis said quietly, the guilt in his tone thick even through the phone line connecting them. "But I knew things would just go to shit if I picked up."