Trent opened the door and saw Daria standing in front of him.
"Oh, hey Daria. I just need to have some breakfast and we can go see Janey after I'm done, okay?".
Daria nodded and went inside the house and followed Trent to the kitchen, where he was eating pizza leftovers. He offered her some, but she had already have sugar tarts for breakfast.
"Your black eye looks better" Daria mentioned ". Sorry I haven't been around the last couple of days. I , so I've been a little busy. Quinn's been a pain in the ass lately, but I can't wait to tell Jane I won our bet".
"What bet?" He asked while taking a slice of pizza from the box.
"It's about that club my sister's in, the Fashion Club. One of the members broke her leg, gained some weight and it became a crisis. So Jane said the club would just break up, I said they wouldn't and it turned out I was right. Now she has to tell me everything about the tattoo".
He laughed: "her tattoo is a dumber story than mines".
What she had said was partially right, but she had also spent a good amount of time with Tom. She was more comfortable now, because her feelings were clear: Tom and her were just good friends. With Trent, she still didn't know what was happening.
"It's okay. I missed you anyway, even though it was just a few days" he confessed while drinking some beer.
"I missed you too" her mouth curved in the shape of a small, nervous smile ". How's been she doing while I was away?".
"She's okay. I went to see her yesterday. She's with the detox and the therapy and the whole rehab. She doesn't love it but, you know, she accepted that she needed it. She was... a little anxious and she was acting kind of weird but they told me its normal. She seems a lot happier now though. Mom came yesterday but she didn't notice that Janey wasn't around".
"Are you planning to tell your mom about this one day?".
"We still don't know. What would be the point anyway? You know how the Lanes are, Daria, it'd be useless to hear mom's speech about the butterfly again".
"I guess so. At least Jane's got us".
"Yeah" he agreed ". I think I'm done eating, we should go now".
She nodded and they went inside Trent's old, black van. He slowly began to drive.
"You know, Daria, I'm lucky that you're around. I really don't know what would've happened without you. Thank you".
"No problem, it's for Jane and for you, I knew you needed help. Thanks to you too, for being around. I needed someone and you were there" Daria took a deep breath and weakly asked; ". Did you mean what you said the other night?".
"That I liked you? Of course I meant it, Daria. You make me happy" he smiled and she, predictably, blushed.
"Wow. It sucks things didn't work out for us. How's everything going with Monique?".
"Monique?" He raised an eyebrow and seemed confused ". Oh, Monique. Haven't seen her since Janey went to the art colony".
"I'm sorry things didn't work out for you two" she felt secretly satisfied, Trent noticed it and smirked.
"You know, we can make things work out for us. I'm willing to take it even more serious than my music".
She was surprised because he had just made her the biggest priority and she'd never pictured Trent putting anything over his music.
"I... I don't know what to say" she said, unable to simply say yes.
"You could say that you want us to try".
She nodded with a smile she couldn't contain. Trent stopped the car, they were at the parking lot of the clinic and he finally kissed her,
"Hey, Jane, remember when I told you that it would be impossible to picture me making out with anyone?" She laughed nervously.
"You can picture her with me, Janey" Trent completed, making Daria blush.
Jane opened her eyes and smiled.
"Daria" she yelled " and Trent, whoa, this is finally happening".
Daria blushed and Trent smiled.
"Anyway, how are you doing?" Asked Daria changing the subject.
"I can't complain. I mean I'm on a pizza-free diet, which sucks, but when without the pizza, I'm gaining all that weight I lost lately. It's been... kind of weird. I wanted to talk about this with both of you. But... okay, this is hell" she stated, no longer with a smile but with a frown.
Daria and Trent raised their eyebrows and asked why at the same time.
"This is driving me nuts, no fucking alcohol, ever".
"Uh, Janey, that's the point" Trent interrupted.
"And I get so sucking anxious. Look at my freaking nails".
"You're not becoming Quinn, are you?" Daria looked at her friend's nails and got Jane's point ". Oh, I get it now".
"Yes, Morgendorffer" she seemed now upset ". I'm really fucking anxious" Jane usually didn't swore as much while being sober ". And I feel sick, I don't even want to eat but I have . I need you both to know how much I love you to go through this crap just to get better. It's hard to sleep, I feel nauseous and I'm fucking... I'm going insane".
"Why do you say that?" Trent asked.
"They said it was normal" she seemed calmer ". But it can't be freaking normal. What is normal about feeling fucking bugs all over your body. It makes me throw up sometimes because it's very freaking scary".
"It's going to be okay, Janey, I spoke to them. They said it'll get better, that the symptoms will go away".
Daria grabbed her friend's hand and looked at Trent, knowing that he wanted to talk to Jane alone.
"I need to go to the bathroom. Mind if I leave you alone for a few minutes?".
Trent smiled at her and Jane agreed.
"So, how is it going with Daria?" Jane asked her brother.
"You know how I always felt about her. I'm glad that I'm with her now. God, I can't believe I was with Monique back then when I could've been with Daria".
Jane smirked, pleased.
"I'm glad you're back to your senses, big brother".
Trent felt some kind of inner warmth. Jane hadn't called like that since they were little kids. Back then, the idea of ever having to take his sister to a rehab clinic seemed surreal.
"Look, I wanted to apologize. If I hadn't been sleeping and all about the Spiral things would't have happened like this. I couldn't even do something back when you were fourteen. I was meant to be there for you then and I'm still supposed to be here for you. But I never get things done right" he seemed to be mad at himself ". I am sorry, I'm really sorry about this. You are one of the most important things in my life, and I love you, little sister".
Jane had tears of joy running down her cheeks. Trent noticed this and hugged his sister.
"I love you too, Trent. And pleased, don't ever blame yourself for any of those things, okay? Back when I was 14 you tried to do something but I didn't listen. Just like this time. This is not your fault. All you've done is help me. I love you" she repeated.
Jane took a sip from her bottle and put it back on the floor before going back to her drawing. She was drawing a bottle of booze, from what she could remember. She was drawing the top of the bottle and adding some shades. She was more into painting, but with the things as messed up as they had been lately she hadn't gotten a lot of art supplies in a while, since she had gotten more and more interested in drinking and waiting until she passed out, which didn't give her a lot of time for art.
She started to rethink about the things that had happened under the effect of the alcohol, at least the things she could remember.
She remembered that time at the club, when she got into a fight, which was a practice for the unexpected future fight he'd have with his brother. The girl, one of Monique's friends, was also drunk so they both started to beat the shit out of each other, but it was mostly Jane pulling Monique's friends' hair and the other girl scratching her with her long nails, since Jane's hair wasn't that long. It went on for about ten minutes, until Monique walked in the bathroom, looking for her band's drummer, and found her drunk in a fight with Trent's little sister. The band separated the two girls and Monique, whom appreciated Jane despite of the problems her relationship with Trent had been through, took the drunk highschooler home, avoiding Trent, and left. Monique called the day after, concerned about her and asking if she was okay.
"What do you mean? Sure, I feel kind of bad, but... wait, what? Oh... that seems kind of... are you sure it was me? I see... Thanks about dropping me off here, I appreciate that" Jane looked at the clock "Oh, shit, I'm late for school. Thanks about everything, Monique, I've gotta go".
That was the day when Daria first noticed something odd going on with her. After that, things had rushed into that moment, when Jane was sitting in her room with a bottle of water, drawing, bringing back no-so-old memories and trying to get better. Things were going alright when Daria wasn't around, alright as in she being able to drink as much as she wanted, pass out and throw up and nobody would give her any bullshit for it. But then Daria was there and Daria didn't sleep as much as Trent did, reason for which she noticed things had changed during the summer. Daria had saved her and she was utterly grateful for her friend's intervention even though first it had been sort of a drag.
She also remembered how drinking at the art colony had finally made her make some regretful decisions with certain tattooed brunette girl who made great pastels.
"I still can not believe it and it's been a while" she had written on her diary, still at the art colony". The only thing I remember after I decided to give the world my middle finger and just get over it with Alison already (I needed answers, desperately, and the booze made me way more bi curious than I ever thought I was), was waking up naked on Alison's bed, next to her, and she was also naked. I took my stuff, got dressed and made my first walk of shame. After that it took me a while to decide I seriously had to stop drinking at parties and keep the magic potion that booze was to me as something to drink in private, to numb and to pass out without the danger of doing things I would never do while being sober. First, it was even fun: make out at parties and be too drunk to mind taking off my clothes or not, like back in the old times when that 14 year old me could just sleep with those guys at those communes where my parents used to take me and Trent when we were younger and then later I thought it was fun. Trent didn't like it, but he's always be too... passive, to do anything more than trying to convince me to stop. Then Daria tagged along and it got better, I didn't need to pretend anymore on people's beds. I could have fun with Daria and be myself and it didn't imply having to give her something back for her kindness. But with the Tom thing and then Alison... it just triggered some anxiety, I guess. Repressed anger, or whatever Daria would call it. I just lost a little of control. I have to be honest and say I'm surprised I'm not pregnant. But I learned a lot in the last few years, I know how to take care of myself. I cut all those random guys and girls off the picture, but something made me have to keep the booze. Should I be worried about that?... I don't think so, I'm sounding like Daria. It's no big deal, is it? And, about Daria, she was around here a couple of days ago. She came with the Spiral to see Trent play but I didn't drink that night until she left, I didn't want her freaking out and giving me a speech that maybe would be too Morgendorffer for me to hear".
Daria freaking out, huh?, she thought while recalling the pages of her journal. Maybe she was right in freaking out.
That night, for his own surprise, it was hard for Trent to fall asleep. He missed Jane and he missed the times when she would've never said the words 'I' and 'drinking' in a sentence said by his sister.
"Are you okay?" Daria asked.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay. I just miss Janey".
She sat and hug him.
"I miss her too".
"We should get some sleep, I promised you I'm taking you to that camp where you used to go when you were little, right?".
"Yeah, Camp Grizzly, I can't wait to go back to those wonderful memories of my wasted childhood" she rolled her eyes.
He softly laughed and coughed.
"I missed that" she confessed and kissed him.
"Goodnight, Daria".
"Goodnight, Trent".