After coming home from the diner Lace placed the food on the kitchen counter on the way to the stairs. "Judy I'm home" she called out. "The food's ready". When there wasn't an answer Lace walked into her mother's bedroom to check on her.
Judy laid passed out on the chaise in her room, a bottle of vodka in one hand as it leaned on the ground and an open photo album in the other hand that rested on her chest. A closed container of painkillers sat at the footrest and various photographs were strewn everywhere.
As she went to rouse her mother so they could eat something she saw a card from Clara wishing her mom a Happy Mothers day wedged in between the open album pages. Lying right behind it were pictures of Clara and her Dad Samuel smiling at her latest gymnastics meet.
"Lace looked around at the pictures of her family thrown on the floor. She recognized her parents Honeymoon photos in St. Croix and Judy and Samuels 10th Anniversary party where a two year old smiling Lacey posed between them wearing a white sequined Sunday dress. Lace walked around the room picking each picture up adding it to the pile and examining it as a memory of her and Lacy during each event could be found in the images.
She focused in on a picture of a very happy Judy and Samuel holding Clara in the hospital and a she had a flashback of her and Lacey talking after Clara was born..
" I m scared" 4 year old Lacey told her as they hid under the blankets one night during a thunderstorm. Lacey had run to her Mommy and Daddy's room and seeing baby Clara sleeping there in her bassinet tried to climb into the bed with them. Her parents exhausted from a recent nighttime feeding and afraid of waking up the baby firmly sent Lacey back to her room with a kiss telling her that big girls didn't sleep with their parents. Lacey now back in her own bed and under her fortress of blankets looked sadly at Lace and explained "I don't want to be a big girl. I don't want to be here by myself ". "Its okay" Lace told her as they lay there cuddling each other knowing that no matter what she would always protect her."You're not by yourself, you have me"...
"Lace shrugged off the memory coming back to the present. She remarked silently at just how prophetic those words would become as she continued picking up the photos. She placed them on her mothers vanity and realizing that Judy wasn't going to wake up tonight she grabbed the halfway full bottle of vodka and headed to her
Sitting underneath the shower spray, the last of the vodka finished off Lace thought about how bored she was going to be now that she was back from New York City. All the interesting people she met while roaming the Manhattan streets after curfew ran through her mind. The gorgeous Latin subway singer who after making up a song on the spot for Lacey laughed as she danced seductively with her shoes off along to his guitar subsequently attracting crowds who left dollar bills instead of change. Lace laughed. what was his name? she thought oh yeah Emmanuel that was it. She fervently wished she was back in the city so they could hook up again tonight.
Or Hassan the hot Lebanese bartender at her favorite club who loved to kiss the beauty mark she had on her inner thigh whenever they were together. She missed his soft lips and dark eyes as he looked up at her after each kiss led her closer and closer to climax. She probably wouldn't call him though considering he had a wife waiting for him back home.
The imagery of her escapades was making her stomach flutter and her scrub kept orbiting lower and lower on her body teasing her as she rubbed it in slow, languid circles. A soft moan escaped her and she was transported to another image, this time of McNally park, where Lacey and Danny soaking wet sought refuge under a weeping willow tree by the river. As the rain cascaded down in thick sheets around them they began making out.
Danny caressed her face softly looking into her eyes as his mouth pulled her bottom lip gently and she moaned into him running her fingers through his hair.
Lace caught would she even think of Danny Desai? Her thoughts sympathetically rested on Lacey and how hard it must've been for her seeing him again.
Her arousal abandoned Lace conveyed to Lacey through jagged darkened images all that she had gone through because of Danny. The taunts as she wandered through middle school halls. The night terrors and mindless therapy sessions after Tara's Murder. Breaking Archie's heart For Him, Danny's omission about that damned necklace and their impending breakup because of it, and the humiliation and shame of the sex tape with all that as if it wasn't enough the aftermath of Lacey's attempted suicide, the expensive Mental Health country club in Manhattan and Clara, her little Clara poo moving to Seattle while Lacey got treatment successfully drove home the point to Lacey that all the flowery thoughts and gentle kisses did not erase the damage that those stolen moments had inflicted.
"Turning off the shower she stepped onto the bath mat in front of the mirror and glaring at it she said "Do you want him to break you again Lacey" She waited as Lacy hesitated before answering "No I can't go back there. I can't do it anymore". "Well then" Lace reasoned frowning at her, her voice tinged with determination " You have to let him go."
Toweling off Lace set out to ready herself for the long night. Her mood was frisky so she donned a zebra print long sleeve belted mini dress over her sheer red all in one. Lace teased her wavy hair into a halo of ringlets that she tucked behind her ears in a low ponytail before finishing her outfit with gold hoops gold accented wooden bangles and berry pink lips that gleamed as she popped them in the mirror. She stood there musing about what she would do in Green Grove while strapping on her heels as she approvingly gave her appearance a final once over. Now ready and somewhat sober she decided that she would go out for a drive and see just where the night would take her.