Bobby
For Bobby, the sudden freedoms and temptations of Vanderbilt were deadly, despite Valerie also attending with him. He started drinking at the campus dives and hitting all the frat parties, and after a while he began over-sleeping his morning classes.
Sally
It's Val who finally tips me off one night in a frantic 3 a.m. phone call.
"Sally, you gotta do something," she sobs. "He won't listen to me."
I fly to Nashville on the next flight I can catch, and let myself into his dorm at 8 a.m. that same Saturday morning.
Sally and Bobby
She opens the door and steps in, then grabs her nose.
Oh, Jesus, does it reek in here.
Stale beer, male sweat, and smelly feet are toxic enough on their own, but try as she might Sally can't recall ever being assaulted by all three at once.
And there's a haze of cigarette smoke, which confirms what she'd already suspected, that her brother is smoking again.
He's there, too, passed out and naked on the bare, filthy mattress that makes up his bed.
"Rise an' shine," she mutters, kicking aside dirty dishes and pizza boxes to get to his only window, where she raises the shade and opens it.
Only then does she let go of her nose.
Her voice and the sudden brightness wake him.
"Val'rie, that you?"
Sally turns to look at him, unable to keep the disgust from her voice.
"Not her. The other stupid female who loves you."
"Sally?" Bobby fixes his bleary eyes on her. "Oh, crap!" Then he hurriedly tugs on a pair of boxers.
"Crap is right," she says, looking around the filthy room, then glaring at him. "How can you live like this?"
"Sally, just stop, okay? I already heard it all from Valerie."
"When, yesterday?"
"Yeah." He sighs. "I got mad and told her she wasn't my mom and to quit acting like a meddling bitch."
Sally's eyes widen in shock. "Bobby, how could you? That girl has done nothing but worship you since she was fourteen!" She pushes back her hair. "I hope she slapped you."
Bobby looks miserable. "She did. Then she threw my key at me and ran off crying."
Sally nods. "That must be when she called me." She gives him a look. "I want to help you, as your meddling-bitch sister, but it has to be on my terms and you have to let Val be a part of it."
"Okay." He gestures at the mattress, wanting her to sit next to him, but she eyes it warily.
"Something might bite me."
Sally
It takes all weekend, but with Val's help we get that dorm room spotless, get Bobby's laundry done, and even buy him a decent used bed from some kid who was graduating.
And we don't let Bobby have a single drop of alcohol.
"Who's for a drink?" he says hopefully on Sunday afternoon as the three of us stand back and admire his clean digs.
Val and I glare at him, and she puts her hands on her hips.
He looks stricken. "Wait, you mean I can't drink at all? Ever?"
Val pretends to think on it, then relents. "Well, only on weekends, and only when you're with me."
Bobby grins at her. "Trying to keep me out of trouble?"
"Like hell," she says, eyeing the fresh sheets on his bed. "Keeping you sober so we can get in trouble together."
That's my cue to leave, so after giving each of them a fierce hug, I beat it out of there.
Bobby
When the bedside phone rings at six the next morning, Bobby reaches over Valerie and answers it, keeping one hand firmly on her naked left breast.
"Sally, quit yanking my chain, will you? It's barely six a.m."
"I'm sure Val knows what to do with your chain," she says, her voice teasing. "Me, I'm just making sure you're up for class."
"I'm up now," he grumbles. "I am fuckin' up like you wouldn't believe."
There is silence then, then the briefest hesitation, then Sally says sweetly, "I know about your life, Bobby. I was asking if you were awake."
"I love you too, smartass," he mutters, hanging up to the sweet sound of her laughter in his ear.