Alcohol Wasn't the Problem

They sat shoulder to shoulder on the step of the back door. Dusk swallowed the autumnal skyline. She puffed on a burning white tobacco stick while he simply enjoyed the solitude of the cool breeze.

"I'm sorry,"

"Um, what for?"

"I dunno," Trinity flicked her cigarette. "sneaking into your room, walking around with no clothes on, dressing you like a Chav, take your pick."

"Uh… it's OK," Tucker's face went bright red. "but I wanna know if it hurt."

"You do know how bad that sounds right?"

"That's not what I meant," He reasoned, still blushing madly. "I was talking about your nipple piercing, or that crazy tattoo on your…"

"Oh, so you did see those… yes, the piercing hurt so it's not something I recommend unless you really want it," She answered, taking another drag. "regarding the ink on my 'special place', it's not crazy it's graffiti writing, and yes it was painful but not as bad as the piercing."

"It's cool that your parents are so liberal about that stuff, my mom said she'd shoot me if I ever got a piercing without her permission."

"Uh, Tucker, apart from the fact I have legal freedom, I don't suppose Sam told you that my parents died in a car crash when I was fifteen…"

"Oh God! I'm so sorry, I didn't know, aw hell!" He cursed at himself and put his hand on her shoulder. "I put my foot right in it huh?"

"Ah nuts to it, I've made a bigger prat out of myself in the few days I've been here," She replied, patting his head like a faithful pet dog. "you know, I'm surprised you ain't got yourself a bird yet."

"Eh?"

"Soz, Brit slang, meaning a girlfriend,"

"You've gotta be kidding me, right? Half the girls in this town won't even talk to me and the other half doesn't even know I exist…"

"Believe me when I say, that at the tender age of 15, there are worse things that can happen than not getting a date, and besides…" She snickered, placing her hand on his chin and pushing his cheeks slightly. Moving his head from left to right, she briefly examined his profile. "…Just give it a couple of years and you'll be fighting 'em off."

"I turn sixteen next month," He wiggled his eyebrows and grinned. She couldn't help but giggle at his strange behaviour. He was kinda cute, even though he wasn't really her type.

"Can I be straight with you for a minute?"

"Yeah, sure."

"I'm sure you've heard from Sam that I used to be a heavy drinker and that's why her mom sent her to stay with me," Her eyes glittered with sadness. "but I want you to know that it's all a load of bollocks."

"What?"

"Between you and me, alcohol was never really the problem – I barely touched the stuff." She confessed as she stubbed out her cigarette.

"If there was nothing wrong with you, why did Sam's parents send her to live with you?"

"I never said that there was 'nothing wrong' with me, it's just that alcohol wasn't the real issue, my brother told everyone I was a recovering alcoholic to cover up my… other problems," Trinity's delicate fingers curled into shaking, white-knuckled fists. "excuse m-me for a minute…"

"Trinity, wait-" Tucker just sort of watched her, trying to silently figure out what exactly had just happened; did he say something wrong?

This was because he started talking about parents, wasn't it? He felt really bad about bringing it up – but he didn't know, no one thought to tell him. Maybe he should've stayed away from the whole subject, or at least tried to steer clear of it.

Two seconds later, he heard the vicious sound of human bones against a hard surface. A cry of pain followed. Trinity had fallen to the floor, her right fist bleeding wildly and a small dent was left in the wall where she'd obviously punched it.

"Jeez, Trinity have you got steel knuckles or something?" He knelt beside her and looked at her half-unfurled fist.

"Obviously not or they wouldn't be bleeding." She tried to laugh the pain away.

An all too familiar ring tone appeared to be coming from her skirt pocket.

"Oh, for the love of…" She muttered, reaching for her phone with her non damaged hand. "hello? Oh my God… Ryan? You're in Wisconsin? I thought you'd be in Japan for another… Of course, I wouldn't mind if you… No, I'm at Danny's house right now… about three roads down from Sam's house, I'll text you the address… OK, see you tomorrow night!"

She leapt up and jumped on the spot as she clutched her phone to her chest. Her unscathed hand grabbed Tucker's shirt and pulled it until they were face to face.

"Oh my god! Tucker do you know who that was?"

"Uh…"

"Ryan! My brother, Ryan Christopher Titus Manson, is in Wisconsin and he's gonna stop by Amity Park on his way to JFK airport in New York! Ahhh! I haven't seen him in so long!" She let go of Tucker's shirt and barrelled into the house, through the kitchen and merrily enveloped the nearest person in a strong hug, where she remained for a few precious moments of solitude.

That person just happened to be Jazz.

"It's, uh, nice to see you too Trinity." She nervously returned the hug, not entirely sure why she was being hugged in the first place.

"Jazz…" Trinity mumbled. Two pretty aqua eyes sparkled at her above a perfectly sweet smile. A deep pink flush crept up the British female's neck as she quickly released the girl in question and whirled around, fists clenched nervously at her sides.

"What happened to your hand?" Jazz gasped, just now noticing the bleeding knuckles and grazed skin.

"Oh, uh, nothing, its fine, no need to fuss over a tiny lil scratch…" She swiftly moved her hand away from the line of sight and peered cautiously at Danny's sister.

"Little scratch, huh?" Clearly, she was not convinced, and gently gripped the wrist attached to the wounded appendage, lifting it to eye level. "'Little scratches' don't bleed this much."

Her hand shook wildly, and her heartbeat raced. It thumped so loudly she feared that Jazz would hear it. For the first time in her entire life, she was feeling genuinely shy.

Why the hell is this girl freaking me out so much? I've never been this nervous around anyone before…

"Seriously, I'm fine, it's –"

"No arguments young lady!" Jazz sternly said as she grabbed Trinity's unscathed arm and dragged her into the bathroom.

She just called you 'young lady' when you are three years older than her! Are you gonna let her get away with that?

How can I not? She has the cutest little eyes… and the sweetest-looking lips…

So, kiss her already damn it! If she were anyone else, you'd be all over her by now, why are you being so reserved?

I don't know…

That girl, whether she knew it or not, was triggering things inside Trinity that she'd locked away for a long time – she hadn't fought with 'the voice' since before her parents' death.

Quietly closing the door, Jazz held the shaking hand and, as gently as she could, wiped the mass of blood from around the broken skin. The scrape must've been pretty deep to have caused such an eruption of fluid.

Jazz soon finished wrapping a bandage about her hand and Trinity reluctantly pulled it away from her. The silence around them was so thick that all she could hear was the sound of her own heart, pounding viciously against the inside of her chest.

"You certainly are red in the face; do you have a fever or something?"

Trinity nearly jumped out of her skin when Jazz went to feel her forehead. Her breathing grew heavy and forced, cool fingertips grazed her skin. A silky soft palm latched onto her to detect whether or not she had fluish symptoms.

Her windpipe almost closed completely as she moved back until she felt the basin prod her sternly, proving she was trapped between Jazz and a hard place. The red-haired girl refused to concede and seeing her salmon pink lips vaguely parted did nothing to calm Trinity's nerves.

Her heart threatened to stop right then and there. Resistance was pointless. She couldn't help what came over her.

"Trinity… Are you OK?"

It was a gentle, very subtle show of affection. A brief but firm kiss planted square on her sweet, supple mouth. Trinity saw the blatant turmoil in those opalescent eyes the instant she pulled away, and suddenly it dawned on her that Jazz had obviously never been kissed by another girl before.

"Uh…" The eighteen-year-old blinked; her cheeks went thirty shades of scarlet and her expression filled to the brim with pure, unadulterated confusion.

To Trinity, it was uncertain if this emotion had a negative or positive omen, it seemed very neutral, and it conjured up fears that her actions were going to push the girl away, when for once in her life all she wanted was closeness.

She took this chance to slip away and escape the discomforting silence of the bathroom. As she clutched the door handle and swung it open, she stopped, mumbled a hushed apology, and sprinted down the stairs leaving a frozen and rather flustered Jazz alone with her thoughts.

Her insides fluttered at the lingering taste of that one stolen smooch.

I should've controlled myself.

Why do you feel the need to control yourself? She was the one who closed the door, she was the one holding your hand, and she was the one who forced you against the sink.

She didn't do it on purpose though; I took a major liberty back there…

Oh, get over it! The only downside is that it only lasted a few seconds and any more encounters she and you may have – between now and when you go home – will just be really, really awkward.

You're not helping!

I'm not here to help, and besides, at least now she knows…

I didn't want her to know, you invisible bloody nuisance!

She was clearly flogging a dead horse by arguing with that disembodied voice. Her system was on the verge of a complete meltdown. Normally, telling someone that she liked them was no big deal, but Jazz really was messing with her brain. She crossed her arms over her midriff and shakily waltzed into the living room, and to her amusement found Tucker helping Danny and Sam out of the closet.

"Hello, what's all this then?" She smirked.

"Trinity, next time you decide to run around like a mad woman, try to watch where you're going," Tucker grinned. "you accidentally slammed the door on Danny and Sam who were in the closet looking for the game we wanna play."

"Oh Sam, your first closet fumble, I'm so proud of you!" Trinity uttered a whimper of motherly praise.

"Ugh…" Sam blushed furiously and hid her embarrassment behind her hands.

"I'll be back in a minute, I'm just gonna call my bro." Her tone dithered, and she toyed the phone in her pocket while walking away.

"Sam, could you go check on Jazz for me?" Danny queried.

"Sure." She answered, happily trotting up the staircase.

"C'mon," He whispered to Tucker. "I have a plan…"

Danny was going to get his own back on her by making sure she got her just desserts. He may be oblivious to a lot of things, but one thing he definitely noticed was that his sister made that British pain-in-the-butt inexplicably tense. She was her Achilles heel; the ultimate weapon he had against her.

Trinity leaned on the refrigerator, slowly typing in her brother's number.

"Hey Ryan." She began. Talking to her brother always calmed her down, and now that he was in the same country as her, she could call him without blowing all of her minutes on one conversation.

"Hey Trinity, what's wrong?" His deep, English voice was so loud. Did he always used to yell down the phone?

"It's started again, Ryan, and I can't control it this time – it's only going to get harder the longer I stay here."

"Let me guess, you met a girl, right?"

"How did you guess it was a girl?"

"You underestimate my intelligence way too much lil sis," He raucously laughed. "just take a double dose of your medication and if you don't feel better by the time I reach you tomorrow, we'll both go home, alright?"

"OK," In reality, it was likely that not taking her medication was what brought this whole thing on her. She went silent for a minute, as did he. The two siblings shared a strong psychological bond that always appeared to be at its strongest during moments like this. "I miss you Ryan…"

"I miss you too Trin… it's not the same without you calling me all the time and following me around like a lost 5-year old. Remember when we went to France that one time?"

She giggled.

"Yeah, I still can't believe how many times I nearly got run over that day. Why was the will-reading held in Paris again?"

"Mum's solicitor had moved over there two weeks before… before…" He hesitated. "Well, you know…"

"Ryan, I'll never understand why you think it was your fault, I mean –"

"Please don't say it, Trin, just don't," He clearly blamed himself for a lot of the bad things that happened to her, no matter how hard she tried to convince him otherwise.

More sad silence followed.

"I really gotta go now sis, but listen, try and get some sleep, and I'll see ya tomorrow night."

"Bye." She said. She hung up the phone and put it on the tabletop.

Tomorrow was just far too long to wait in her opinion. Her brother was her everything, her absolute everything, and she couldn't stand being away from him any longer. To anyone else, it looked as if she had a sick incestuous obsession with him, but the fact remained he was the only person in the world that she truly trusted never to abandon her.

With a deep breath and a strong resolve that fought her insane urge to cry, she got up and returned to the living room.

"OK people, I said it before and I'll say it again, who's sleeping where?" She attempted a cheerful carefree tone.

"Well," Danny answered, a crude yet smarmy glint in his eyes. "Tucker and I are sleeping downstairs, Sam is staying in my room, and you…"

"…You're gonna be in my room," Jazz placed her hand on Trinity's shoulder. "with me…"

Oh knickers…