Effy, Sally and Axl are at the entry of Effy's and Sally's building in front of Axl's limousine and Effy's suitcase in already in the truck. The girls are in each other's embrace and saying goodbye.
"I'm gonna miss you so much." Effy says, hugging her friend like it was the end of the world and this was the last time she could ever see Sally's smile. It' pathetic the way she's acting. It's just a single month, not forever.
"Me too." Sally says with her arms around Effy's frame. Sally is happy for her friend. She knows, even buried in sorrow, Effy was happy deep inside. So happy that you could see her happiness through her small grins. This will be good for Effy. Axl will be good for her. She saw how that guy brought happiness to her friend and she's glad someone could do it. Effy's mysterious grin had fade forever after the fire, at least that's what Sally has though until today. It didn't fade away forever, it's back and maybe back for a good amount of time.
"Tell Nick I'm fine and that I miss him." Effy doesn't know why she said that. She just did it without thinking. Does she care about him? Effy is so confused with herself. The feelings and emotions she though she didn't have anymore, are confused and spinning around on her mind. She doesn't know if she wants to cry, or laugh. She's so full of emotions that she's frozen and emotionless.
Sally breaks their hug apart and looks straight into Effy's mysterious eyes. She can still feel the pain in them. The pain that Effy couldn't feel anymore. Pain, sorrow, happiness, emotions. That is what Effy is feeling right now. A mix of feelings filing her body. The perfect combo for a big explosion.
"I'll do that. You know how much he would like you to go with him and the rest of the band to England. But I know you're happier with Guns than with The Monkeys." Sally says, a grin places on her face. Effy doesn't react. Just looks at her, with her cold gaze and painful eyes. She steps way from Sally, getting closer to William. This farewell is taking too long, making Effy uncomfortable.
"Well, goodbye Sally." Effy says coldly as she opens the limousine's door and steps inside. She hears William saying goodbye to Sally and second later he steps inside, closing the door beside him.
All Effy can think about is landing in L.A. and see Saul. She's just sixteen hours away from him. She misses him, she misses him very much. She loves his sense of humour and she needs to laugh. His letters are the funniest. Not saying that she doesn't like William's letters, no, she loves them. But his letters are different, deeper, full of emotions. On the other hand, Saul's are funny with random words, sloppy handwriting and sentences with no sense. A fact about Saul is that he's bad with words. He can't express himself very well with words, just like Effy. That's why she understands him and knows what he tries to say so well.
Effy doesn't know if she's happy or still in a deep sorrow. But she knows L.A. will help her figure that out. She also knows that L.A. isn't her rehabilitation place. She won't cure herself if she goes to L.A., her addiction might become even more worst there due to the parties, drugs and alcohol that the Guns are surrounded with, just like Saul has told her. But she knows that it can cure her depression, take the pain and sorrow away from her.
Effy is staring at the window, watching the street. They're stuck in the traffic in Rossio. How much she loves this place. This is her home.
Axl is staring at Effy. He knows something is wrong with her, she's acting weird. This isn't the Effy he met an year ago in a record store. He wants to ask her what's wrong. He knows if he does it, she will look at him, show him the middle finger and turn her gaze back to the window. And that name... Nick. It doesn't leave his head. Was he her boyfriend? No, she didn't ever mention that she had a boyfriend in her letters. She actually didn't have. But one important thing she didn't mention in any of her letters was the Chiado's fire and her state of decadence. She always pretended she was fine and happy even though her state was the complete opposite. But William is suspicious of her conditions.
"What happened in Chiado?" He asks, watching her staring at the window. His words make her nervous. She has to talk about the whole Chiado thing and she doesn't want it. She doesn't like talking about the accident. Rumours say that it wasn't an accident, but she likes to believe that it was.
"Ahh, they are restoring the buildings inside. They are old, you know, so they needed some changes." Effy lies. Technically, she's not lying. The buildings are being restored, she just didn't mention that there was a fire.
"So, you're not working?" Axl asks. Axl is confused. When she said no to his offer, she didn't use her work as an excuse. His biggest fear was that she couldn't go out for a month because of her job, but she didn't mention it. Is she without a job? If she is, how does she eat, pay her bills, survive? The image of her jobless and dying in a dark corner doesn't leave Axl's mind.
"Not at the moment, but I hope to restart working again in the end of the summer." She says, giving him a hopeful smile. She's not sure of what she's saying. She doesn't know if she can do it. She is hopeless.
"Oh, ok..." Axl says and shuts up his mouth thoughtful. She's still staring at the Lisbon street by the limousine window. She didn't bother to look at him as she was talking. "Who's Nick?" He quickly asks without breathing. Now she turns her gaze to him. She's kinda in shock and it was noticeable by her surprised expression. She wasn't expecting that question.
"Oh." She says. "He has been a friend of mine for some large years. He has a band and they're gonna be touring in UK this month, so they invited me to go with them." She shrugs, like it wasn't a big deal. At her response Axl open his eyes, raising his eyebrows in shock. She denied an opportunity to go touring in UK to go with him to L.A. What surprises him more is the fact that she and Nick have been friends for a long time, and him and her barely know each other. I mean, they know each other, but they only saw each other two days an year ago. He's confused. His thoughts don't make any sense.
"Why didn't you go with them?" That is all he can ask at the moment.
"Because then you arrived." She simply says, making his head even more confused
****
(A/N: warning, explicit context)
Effy and Axl are already in Guns N' Roses private jet. She's sat in front of him with a table separating them.
"So..." She tries to start a conversation, the silence is killing her, although she likes it that way. Axl was too deep into his thoughts, scratching a paper with a black pen. She gets close to him, supporting the weight of her body in her elbows and tries to read what he's writing. All she can read is: If we could see tomorrow, what of your plan, No-one can live in sorrow. Wow, deep, Effy thinks. "Does anyone know that I'm gonna break into their house for a month?" She asks, leaning her back in the armchair and William automatically lifts his head, making his eyes meet hers.
"First, you're not breaking into anyone's house, and second, no, they don't." He says, laying his back against his soft camel leather seat.
"So they don't know you are here." She says with an interrogation tone and a grin forming on her lips and he nods. It impresses her how he just came from the other side of the world to pick her up to spend an entire month on his house without giving an explanation to his friends,who also live with him. He was so careless that turned Effy on.
"So you just cross half of the world without giving an explanation to your batemates?" She's surprised.
"Yep." He grins, looking at her beautiful eyes. He really loves them. He does love her eyes, yes, they are really impressive, but her body... He knows it's not the same, it looks unhealthy, pale and she's skinnier than ever, but Axl doesn't care. She turns him on.
