~The Present in L.A.~

Andie was sitting on the floor of Kit’s kitchen. She leaned her head back against the doors of the sink cabinets. Her coal black eyeliner was streaked a bit below her smoky gray eyes from the hours of sobbing. Kit walked in and peered down at the pale beauty that had curled up on the floor, hugging her knees.

Kit had decided to leave Andie be for a while because it seemed to be what she needed.

“I’d offer you a drink baby girl, but I don’t have anything in the house stronger than tea.” Kit said gently.

“That’s ok, Kit.” Andie whispered. Her raspy voice seemed even more so because of the outburst she had earlier.

Kit turned around and began to pull down two black mugs from the cupboard. She grabbed her teakettle and filled it with water. Andie only stared forward in thought. She heard her new cell phone ring for the twelfth time. Kit looked over at where Andie had thrown it across the floor. Andie’s face seemed to go completely stone at the sound of the ringing. Kit walked over and turned off the phone before sitting down next to it in front of Andie.

Kit let out a soft sigh. “Do you want to talk about anything?”

Andie seemed to come out of her daze when Kit spoke and rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands.

“We had gone to Seattle after we had finished the shows in Idaho. I had been emailing and talking on the phone back and forth for weeks with Sh” Andie felt tears springing to her eyes when she tried to spit out the name.

“Shane.” Kit finished for her. Andie nodded and spoke through the tears.

“She was so busy with her work

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Several Weeks earlier in L.A.~

Shane walked through the lot of the movie set she was working on. She smiled as she answered her ringing cell phone.

“Hey baby, how’s the great potato state?” Shane asked as soon as she clicked the phone on.

“God, we’re finally on our way out and heading to Spokane Washington.” Andie laughed as she looked out the window of the bus. She twirled a piece of her onyx colored hair around her pinky.

Zo was sprawled out in the seat across from Andie. She pulled down her sunglasses to look over them at Andie. She rolled her eyes and yawned, pushing the glasses back up on her nose.

“Do you think you’ll be able to make it to Seattle?” Andie asked the question she had been waiting to ask for quite some time.

Shane stopped and took a deep breath. “And, you know that I’m working on this new movie. I can’t get away from it. Believe me, I want to see you really fucking bad. I would do anything if I could. Oh hey, I might buy a new truck.”

Andie closed her eyes, knowing that Shane was trying to change the subject. “That’s cool. What color?”

Shane’s phone caught some static. “What?”

Andie said louder. “What color?”

Her phone beeped and cut out, hanging up on Shane.

Shane heard a click. “Hello?” she looked at her phone and shut it. “Fuck.”

Andie set the phone down next to her and leaned her head back against the seat. She kicked the seat in front of her out of agitation and begun to tug on her lip. Zo stared at her through the dark glasses.

“What’s the matter? Phone sex not doing it for you anymore?” Zo smirked.

“Shut up.” Andie glared at her.

Zo turned her face away from Andie and stayed quiet for several minutes. Suddenly Andie heard weird sounds coming from the small blonde. She looked over at Zo when the sounds got louder.

“OhhhhOhhh fuck! Oh fuck yesss Shane!!!” Zo screamed out.

Andie’s mouth dropped open as Brody walked out from the back. “Are we making fun of Andie having phone sex again?”

Zo let out a howling laugh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~Present in L.A.~

Shane began to pound on Alice’s door, who woke up to the sound of the loud banging. She looked over to see if Dana was awake, but she only groaned and rolled over. Alice lay in bed hoping whoever it was would go away. When the knocking became louder and more persistent she got up, kicking the covers off angrily. She stomped her way through her apartment to the door. She opened it half way and saw Shane standing before her. Her short hair was sticking up all over. She only wore a white t-shirt and jeans and she seemed to be soaked with what Alice thought was sweat.

“Jesus, Shane what the hell is going on?” Alice said her eyes still half open as she opened the door wider.

“Is Andie here?” Shane asked breathlessly.

“What? No, isn’t she still on the tour?” Alice looked at her confused.

“Please don’t lie to me.” Shane started to get angry.

“Shane she is not here. What’s wrong?” Alice said waking up more. “Why are you sweating?”

Shane ran her hand through her wet hair. “I’m not sweating, Alice. It’s raining for the second day in a row.”

Dana had come out to the door. She peeked around Alice yawning. “Shane what’s wrong? Are you ok?”

Alice looked behind her at her girlfriend and kissed her lightly. “Come in, Shane.”

Shane came in her eyes were red and sad as she sat down in the chair. Alice turned on the light and sat down next to Dana on the couch. She brought her feet up into the cushions and looked her friend up and down. She began to get very worried because Shane looked so bad.

“Al, do you swear you don’t know an Aleta? You’ve never heard Andie talk about her?” Shane asked. Alice thought it seemed like Shane was almost begging her for something.

Alice sat forward and looked at Shane, who couldn’t keep eye contact with the strawberry blonde. “I told you before, I have never heard of someone named Aleta, ever.”

Shane nodded and rubbed her face hard. “Do you thinkdo you think that it’s possible thatis Tarin capable of trying to fuck things upfor”

Shane could barely finish a sentence. Dana looked at Alice, who had raised her eyebrow at the mentioning of Tarin’s name. She moved to Shane, kneeling in front of her.

“Shane? What did you do?” Alice asked quietly looking into her clear green eyes.