After leaving the hospital, Jane had decided to take some days off until she felt more recovered from her recent accident. Daria didn't want her friend to miss school days but she was glad, though, that she was getting to spend more time with Jane than ever despite of not seeing her around school. And it didn't bug her that she was also spending a lot of time with Trent. Daria was still surprised that the alcohol poisoning hadn't left any damage as far as they knew. She had barely read about alcohol poisoning but she knew that in some cases it could left serious consequences. She was grateful that Jane seemed to be alright.
Her friend was doing okay. Because of his narcolepsy, Trent couldn't check on Jane all the time, but he was trying his best. Daria was a really big help, spending almost every moment she had checking that Jane was okay and helping her to get better. Trent and Jane had decided not to tell any of the other Lanes because they knew it wouldn't give any help, plus they didn't know where to find most of the family. Daria also decided not to tell anything to her parents. She first thought about asking them for help, but she didn't want her parents to have a bad perception of Jane and they probably would rush into trying to be helpful by sending her to rehab. Jane seemed to be doing just fine at home and Daria didn't want to change that.
The day felt endless. Jane had been a week out of school and also a week without alcohol. Daria was impressed but still felt the need of staying by her friend's side.
Jodie and Mack asked a few times, even Upchuck approached Daria wondering about Jane. She always said that Jane was sick, with a really bad flu and didn't gave more details, avoiding the chatting which made Jodie a little curious, but Daria didn't talk about it. Even later, at home, Quinn asked about Jane.
"Hey, Daria, where's that artsy chick you always hang out with? I haven't seen her around school lately".
"Don't worry, she's not pregnant or have any other condition that's material for fashion club gossip. She just got the flu a couple days ago and had to stay home. And talking about Jane, I think I have to be going to her house" Daria said looking at a clock on the wall and putting down the book she was reading ". Do me a favor and if mom and dad get here before I do tell them I went to Jane's".
"Daaaria , what makes you think I'll be here? Don't you know that I have plans with Jamie?". Quinn left, seeming angry because her sister assumed she was going to stay at home.
Daria ignored her sister, got up and took her green jacket from the top of the T.V., where she had left it right after getting home from school. She had decided to take few hours off from babysitting her best friend. It wasn't like their time together wasn't nice and something Daria deeply enjoyed, it was just that she now had to take the responsibility of being some kind of guardian, looking after her friend, making sure she didn't look at a can of beer with enough desire to relapse.
She was going to bitch a little bit more with Jane about Ms. Li's breakdown at school and how she ended up using an ax to break all the soda vending machines.
"She'll eventually lose her sanity" she'd told Jane only a few days before ". Nobody can sustain a healthy mind while working almost exclusively with soda".
"You know how she is, she gets over enthusiastic whenever there's any money around. But you're right, it's just a matter of time until she breaks down, that point right after her blood becomes some kind of soda pudding and the sugar gets her more hyperactive than Brittany".
While walking to Jane's house, Daria kept thinking about her. Jane's progress was impressive, but maybe too impressive.
How come she hasn't had any symptoms of abstinence syndrome?, Daria wondered while staring at her black boots hit the pavement, her problem's been around for a short time but it's... dragging her too deep.
Daria was right, even though Jane's alcohol problem had started only a few months ago, it had developed at an alarming speed. She was drinking every single day, passing out multiple times a week and getting home barely able to walk. It was obvious that despite of it's length, Jane's addiction was completely out of control. How could it be so easy to get rid of without having to fight?
By the time Daria arrived Casa Lane, her questions on Jane's recovery were immediately vanished by the police car in front of Jane's house and the front door open.
Oh, shit.
Daria ran across the yard, with a thousand of possibilities rushing across her mind, crashing with each other in a terrible mess of confusion.
She stood in front of the door and she found Jane, looking terribly, with her arms crossed and an angry yet partially confused, look on her face. Trent was against the wall on the other side of the room, looking at the floor, distressed and with his eye red. Two cops were speaking to Jane, asking questions and trying to calm her down.
"Look, there's no need to keep doing this. I'm fine. My sister just got a little angry over a fight we had and it'll be better if you leave. I can handle this" Trent said.
"Excuse me, young man" one of the police officers, a gray-haired man with an equally gray mustache, said ", but we don't accept domestic violence, no matter who's the one being violent. And this girl is obviously drunk".
"Listen, I am not fu...".
"Janey!" Trent shouted, interrupting his sister's trembling voice. He looked at Jane with anger, trying to keep his sister's mouth shut.
Neither of the people inside had acknowledged Daria's presence.
"Officer, I told you I can handle this. My little sister just took some of my beers and this is obviously not a good time for her to talk about it".
"Where are your parents?" a younger officer asked Trent.
"Uh" Trent hesitated, he didn't know where they were and was looking around the room trying to make something up ". They're out of town".
"We're gonna need to call 'em" the young one said.
"No" trent refused, suddenly scared by that possibility ". You don't need to do that. I'm old enough to take care of her for a few days until my parents are back. Please, she just made a stupid mistake, it won't happen again".
The two officers looked at each other and then at Jane, who didn't even looked at them back. They sighed and the old one said:
"Okay, son. But if we have to come here again we'll have to do something. Goodnight".
Daria quickly moved against the wall out of the house. Surprisingly, the cops didn't notice her, maybe because it was already getting a little dark. She waited there and saw them leaving, second after second being more away from the Lane house. She heard steps in the house, someone angrily stepping upstairs.
"No, wait a moment. Janey, we need to talk about this!" Trent's angry voice shouted, like Daria never heard him doing before.
She doubted about if she should go in, but when Trent approached the door and she noticed it was closing she moved in front of it and stopped it.
"Trent" was the only thing she said.
"Oh, hey, Daria" Trent greeted, but he seemed upset and also sad. She was right, his eye and also his face looked red. She hadn't seen it but he had some blood on his lip.
"Trent! What the hell happened?".
He sighed and opened the door completely, told her to come in and closed it. They sat on the couch and he cleaned the small stain of blood with his hand.
"Are you okay?" she asked concerned.
He nodded, trying to somehow cover his face by putting it down with his eyes closed. He was trying to calm down, because he hadn't been that angry before.
He didn't talk for a moment, neither did Daria because she couldn't imagine what was she supposed to say. Then she decided she had to know.
"Why were the cops in here?".
She already knew, by what she'd heard, that Jane had hit Trent while being drunk. Part of her wanted to go and confront Jane, but she knew she had to be there with Trent and also it didn't seem to be a good time to talk to her. She was so confused that she couldn't even give herself time to be mad at Jane for breaking her promise of keeping herself clean.
"Jane and I had a fight" he was talking slowly, even more slow than usual ". She got drunk again and I found out she had been drinking in secret this whole time anyway. She was keeping a lot of bottles of booze inside of her closet" Daria had checked Jane's closet a few times, but perhaps she didn't check it well enough ". So we had a bad fight and she ended up hitting me. We were shouting so I guess one of the neighbors called the police". He didn't say anything else.
Trent, this is all your freaking fault. If you had listened to me in first place instead of her this wouldn't be happening. Dammit, why can't you take a fucking responsibility for once in your freaking life?
She thought about saying that and she was tempted to do so. But this wasn't a good time for an "I told you" moment. It certainly wasn't. Trent didn't have anyone else, she reminded herself, and neither did she. The last thing she wanted was to get in a fight with Trent. It was not worth it.
"I'm sorry this happened. This is all my fault. If I had gotten here earlier this would have never happened".
"No, Daria, this isn't your fault. You've been coming here everyday, checking that Jane's okay all the time. You've done more than I have. You deserved your day off, it was me who screwed it up. I should've taken as much care of her as you. I'm her brother, after all, but I'm useless".
"What are you saying?" she said, shocked by thinking that Trent thought little of himself ". Trent, maybe you made a few mistakes, yes. But you said it, she's been drinking this whole time even though I was with her. I know you didn't like the idea, but this proved us we can't do this by ourselves. We need to make her see someone who can help her. But, first, let me help you with that, it looks like it'll be a bad bruise. Do you have any frozen meat or something?".