Chapter Eleven: La Cienega
Sami sits at an empty table, watching Lucas drink. And drink. And drink. She realizes she's going to have to stop him before he passes out completely. She walks over to where Lucas sits and stands behind him, placing her hand tentatively on his shoulder. "Lucas…?" she whispers. "What do you want?" he sniffles, "shouldn't you be celebrating with EJ right about now?" "I'm where I want to be, Lucas, trust me." "Trust you? That's a joke," he says sarcastically. "Ok, Lucas, look, I'd like to talk about this like civilized adults. I know you're hurt but acting juvenile isn't going to help anything, so if you don't want to talk then I'm leaving." With that she turns and begins to walk off, but Lucas calls back to her. "Sami, wait. Take me home. Please, take me home." She turns back around and helps him out of his chair. He leans on her while she half-drags him to the car. "Hey, Shami, remember the other times you've had to help me, when I was drunk?" He seems to almost be smiling nostalgically. "Yes, Lucas, and it's as much fun now as it was then," she replies, struggling to get him seated and get his legs in the car. "Now don't move, I've got to pee real quick, I'll be right back." She closes the car door and runs back in the restaurant, leaving him alone for a few moments.
Sami does go into the bathroom, but she doesn't urinate. Instead, she stands in front of one of the mirrors, staring into her own eyes and studies her reflection. She tries to mentally prepare herself. "I can't lose my nerve," she tells herself, "now that the time has come." She takes a few deep breaths, stands up straight, and again studies her reflection. "It's time," she whispers.
Sami and Lucas are both relatively quiet while she drives them home. Finally, Sami opens her mouth to speak, but Lucas cuts her off. "No, Sami, don't say a word. Let's just forget about it." Sami looks at him, bewildered. "What do you mean, forget about it?" "Let's just pretend it never happened." Sami can't believe what she's hearing. "You heard me tell another man that I was in love with him and you want to pretend it never happened? We can't pretend, Lucas, I'm in love with EJ." Sami pulls off to the side of the road by the pier, shuts off the car and turns to look at Lucas. "So, that's it, then, is it Sami? You wanna be with EJ and I don't get what I want? You selfish bitch." Sami's eyes cloud over with an icy fire as she whispers in a tone of voice Lucas has never heard before, "Get. Out. Of. My. Car." Lucas looks at her for a minute, then struggles to open the car door, finally succeeding. He saunters off toward the pier.
Sami sits in her car, gripping the steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles turn white. She stays that way for a few minutes, staring out the windshield at nothing. "Shit," she mutters, grabbing her purse and keys and exiting her car. She starts to walk around the pier, looking for Lucas, softly calling out his name. All of a sudden a loud sharp sound rings through the air. "Could that be…?" she thinks to herself. "Lucas!" she shouts at the top of her lungs. "Samantha," a voice weakly calls out her name, "over here." "EJ?" she calls out, walking in the direction from which she heard his voice. She sees Lucas laying face down on the ground, but quickly glances over him and looks in front of her, seeing EJ slumped over, clutching his chest, blood gushing through his fingers.
*Author's Note: La Cienega is the name of a song by Ryan Adams that I really love and fit the mood of this chapter.