pups_dt (![]() ![]() @ 2009-06-24 11:26:00 |
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Entry tags: | jazz, npc |
Phone Call, Jazz and her sister Cleo
After parting with Avery, of all people, Jazz had gone home and indulged in what she liked to refer to as her "ultimate temporary solution." Tequila. A couple of glasses and sleep came easy, deep and untroubled. When Wednesday morning rolled around, and the temporary part of her plan kicked in (complete with a vice-like headache) she lay in bed for several long minutes trying to think through the pounding haze in her head and decide how she wanted to face the day.
She could call in, stay home and recover in privacy, but that would require explanation. Or lying. Neither of which she really wanted to go through with Spencer. Or, she could pull herself together, put on her game face, and make the best of it until the weekend when she'd be free to say her goodbyes, as they were, without anyone the wiser.
In the end, she clambered out of bed and into a shower, determined to see the week through.
When she finally got home again later that day, she immediately changed into something more comfortable and picked up her phone, hitting a familiar speed dial button while she walked over the laptop sitting on her bedroom vanity and powered it up.
As it crackled to life, she heard the ringing stop and someone pick up on the other end of the line.
"Hello! Speak or hang up I don't care!" Cleo laughed, and in the background so did other people.
Jazz sighed, cursing her bad luck and timing. She would call when Cleo was occupied. "Hola, pequeña hermana," she said, a might reluctantly, rubbing her forehead. She didn't want to put a damper on Cleo's good mood.
"Sis! How you doing?" Cleo waved a hand and the background noise shut off, "You sound, what is that word? Oh yeah, down."
The noise in the background disappeared and Jazz felt a little stick of relief. "Olly sent me the newspaper clipping," she said, keyboard keys clicking softly as she typed in her log in password. "I figured you pointed it out to him...and I wanted to say thank you."
There was a muffled noise, and then movement, and then a door closed, "Yeah, I figured you might not hear otherwise? Kind of shook me up, I remember him, he used to smile a lot, and, he really liked you."
Jazz's eyes unexpectedly watered again and a half-laugh, half-sob broke from her. She braced her elbows on the desk, on either side of her laptop and rubbed her eyes with her free hand. "He used to babysit you," she said breathlessly, sniffing lightly. "You used to..." The odd laugh escaped her again. "You used to cow him into games of hide and seek. I'd come home and he'd be hunting high and low for you."
"He never did look in the top cupboard, where we kept the cereal?" Cleo grinned unrepentantly, her mind filled with vague but happy memories. "I used to hide in there quite a lot until I got a little too big to squeeze in easily. After that, well, it got harder."
Jazz could recall distantly, reaching into the cupboard and having the cereal move into her hand. "Managed to scare me once or twice though," she admitted, smiling sadly.
Cleo frowned at the phone, her sister sounded really upset, far more than Cleo might have expected, "Hey, term's practically over here, want me to come visit? I haven't seen this swanky new apartment of yours yet and I'm dying to meet all the people you never tell me about!"
"No one to know about," Jazz said with a little frown and a shrug. She gave her eyes another swipe and then straightened determinedly on the vanity bench, keyboard clicking again as she opened a web browser and started searching. "Other than Jane I suppose. But I think she'd be terrified by you." It was true enough, but on top of that there was a gut reaction to the idea of Cleo being here. She loved her sister, and while there hadn't been any trouble in quite some time, well, Jazz never really completely stopped worrying and wondering 'what if?'
"Jane? She's your cleaner right? I wouldn't terrify her, I'd be good, honest!" Cleo was hopeful, sometimes Jazz in a softer mood was more likely to say yes than no. Maybe down was a variant of soft? "Besides, I miss you and I've done really well with my grades, oh go on sis, just a few weeks?"
Jazz was quiet for several moments. "What about Olly?" she asked finally.
"He could come too? There have to be hotels nearby right? Or he can stay here and flirt with the lady he's been seeing and maybe get some action?" Cleo laughed, "I bet he never told you about Madame Heidi Schmidt? She's adorable, like a fluffy granny? But man when she tells him what to do he jumps right to it."
Jazz paused, caught of guard. "Heidi?" No, that wasn't a name she was familiar with. Maybe she had been away for too long. "How long has he been seeing her?"
"Couple of months? Maybe? I only met her a couple of weeks ago, so I would guess longer than that?" Cleo didn't care too much as it went, Heidi very kindly kept Olly off of her back, and although dating Michel had been fun, well, the sneaking around part anyway, she was still bored and now she'd split up from Michel, and Jean, oh, and Frank, life held no real interest for her here. Visiting her sister had been a spur of the moment idea, but, she was getting to like it more and more with every passing second. "Oh, he said something about you moving the car? I could come over for it's arrival? We could go for a drive to christen it's transfer?"
Silence stretched again, broken only by the tapping of Jazz's fingers on her keyboard and a soft clicking that was her chewing on her thumbnail thoughtfully. Pictures scrolled past her eyes, but she only half-saw them, thinking instead of the pros and cons of having Cleo around for a few weeks. "You'd have to be on your best behavior."
"Of course I would be! Don't you trust me?" Cleo put on her best little girl voice, artfully twirling a length of strawberry blonde hair around a finger, and then making a note to get her roots done before she went anywhere! Being blonde was so much more fun than being brunette sometimes, and playing it dumb was even more fun. "I can be good, haven't I been just lately? I mean, Michel was sweet, and Jean was cute, and Frank was, well, energetic, but I've been good! Not been in trouble for ages, and my grades are good? Don't I deserve to come see my big sis occasionally? It's been such a long time since we've seen each other." She paused, "I won't even nag you to let me drive the car?"
Jazz's eyes closed for a moment. Three? It'd only been one last time she'd been to visit. On the other hand, might be amusing to watch Jason try to reign her in. "Maybe," she replied. She stopped scrolling, and paused on a bouquet of white roses. "What do ya think about white roses?"
"They're gorgeous, but not for me, white is too insipid a colour for me." Cleo looked around her room, the violent shades of fuschia pink, silver and black, with odd little bits of plain grey which made up her colour scheme. Neither Olly nor Heidi would come in the room, but that suited Cleo just fine thanks. "I really like blue roses though. Different, and unusual, just like me."
Of course, she was well off the subject of Ghost now, that was done and dusted, but she wasn't heartless, she'd sent her own flowers, a bouquet of mixed colours, because she remembered how Ghost had always seemed to like multicoloured things, and of course, varicoloured flowers were different like her.
A little smirk touched Jazz's lips. Could always count on Cleo to be easily distracted and drag you along for the ride. It was kind of nice, even if the change in subject matter really wasn't something she wanted to talk about either. "Not for you, for Ghost," she said, rolling her eyes gently. "Or, his wife rather..." Her eyes darted to the newspaper clipping, she tucked it into the rim of the vanity's mirror.
"Oh," Cleo shut up again, "Yeah, I guess white roses would be nice, I sent brighter colours, but then, you know me! Scarlets and pinks, and purples, yellows and oranges! Proper flowers, and I was good! I wrote the card myself. I put, In memory of my friend Ghost, no more hide and seek, you win this game, Cleo." She paused, "That wasn't bad was it? I mean, we used to play that game a lot, and, well, it's what I remember him most for?"
Sometimes, even at nineteen Cleo still felt uncertain, and wanted the reassurance of her big sister that she'd done the right thing. Olly helped too, but, he was well old and kind of grumpy a lot of the time. Well, except when Heidi was around, then he smiled.
Jazz considered carefully as a pang of worry hit her. Would Ghost have told his new family about the little girl and her sister he'd once known? About the role he'd played in their escape from the carnival, the social workers, and yes, even the crazy drunk that killed their father? She wasn't sure. "You didn't put a return address on it, did you?" she asked gently, an edge of seriousness in her tone now. Her own pain was easy to forget in the face of possible danger to her sister.
"Dios no! What do you think I am? Stupido?" Cleo laughed, "I left it deliberately blank, paid cash, and left no other name than Cleo. Not to mention the international delivery firm would only have delivered it from locally anyway? So they don't even have my handwriting."
"Good girl," a smile appeared on Jazz's mouth. At least she'd managed to teach Cleo something. "Well done."
"So, can I come visit?" Cleo put everything into that short sentence, eagerness, compliance, even a hint of begging, then topped it off with her favourite whine, "Pleeeee-eeea-se!"
Jazz found the street address for a local flower shop that delivered internationally and started scribbling it down on a handy piece of paper, she'd visit them in person, and, as Cleo had done, pay in cash. "If I say yes, do you promise: no wild parties, no climbing drain pipes/trellises/balconies or anything else of the sort, no more than one boy at a time -" she paused, trying to think of anything she'd forgotten.
"No drink, no drugs, no threesomes for sex. Got it." Cleo grinned, "Oh, and no, none of that other stuff you said either."
Not that she'd ever thought about it, and sex for sex's sake had not appeared on her agenda. She still wanted to find the right guy first, get through college, maybe do something with her life before giving in to the husband and babies scenario that had always seemed so very old fashioned to her.
Jazz nodded, pleased, then said, because she had to, "And if something happens, and I tell you that you need to go home? That it isn't safe? You'll do it without arguing, right?"
"First available flight, yes." Cleo was about ready to promise anything, but, it had been a long time, and Ghost had been one thing they had in common, other than each other. She missed her sister yes, and missed the comfort of knowing she had somewhere else to run to if she had to. Switzerland might be home, but even Cleo knew it was only temporary, however long she'd been here now, however long she might stay, it was never permanent.
Nothing ever was.
Jazz put down her pen and sighed, "Then, yes, I suppose, if you promise those things...that a week, or two, could, maybe, be arranged."
So short a visit? They'd barely have time to catch up, but Cleo wasn't going to push her luck, she'd just tell Olly to get an open ended ticket so she could extend the trip maybe while she was out there. She was sure the Manor and the City had clothing shops, so anything she didn't have on arrival could always be replaced.
"Alright, two weeks, please Sis? I need to see you." She didn't really want to explain why, that sleeping was hard, that her favourite foods were again those of her childhood, and she could taste chilli'd prawns almost anywhere she ate and salsa was fast becoming a necessity with almost every meal.
"We'll see when you get here, chickadee," Jazz replied softly. It was the best she could do.
Knowing she wasn't going to get anything else, Cleo backed down, "OK, but I'm coming prepared for two weeks, maybe longer? Just in case you decide you love me that much?" Cleo chuckled a little, an open ended return wasn't that muc more expensive either, and so long as she was back before school started, she'd be fine. "I can come right after term ends? That's um, mid July? Wouldn't have to be back until the end of August, but, like you say, we'll see how it goes?"
"Give me a call first, huh?" Jazz encouraged. "In case I've forgotten. Oh, and make sure you tell Olly. Last thing we need is him out of the loop and going crazy when he can't find you."
"As we take off? But I'll get Olly to sort out the ticket and stuff, he'll know where everything is." Cleo chuckled down the phone, "That way he'll also know where I am and when etc, so he can't possibly worry, right?"
Jazz nodded, even though Cleo couldn't see her. "Sounds fine. You're paperwork's been kept in order, right? Passport and visa and all that?"
"OK, well, I'd best go, there's a pool party going on and I kind of have to be there? There's this cute guy called Andreas coming, and I hear he has a thing for me something awful, so I want to go and be all unavailable and stuff." Cleo laughed wickedly, "I'll sort everything out and we'll let you know before I arrive ok? Love you sis, be good now! I know I'm doing my best, so don't you go getting into trouble now!"
Jazz actually laughed. "Be nice, chica," she chuckled. "Love you too, and say hi to Olly for me."
"I will do," Cleo smiled, and wondered if she could wheedle Olly into making something like paella for dinner, "See you soon hun, don't forget though huh? I know you can be busy sometimes."
She smiled as someone hooted a car horn, "There's my ride! Love you, hugs and stuff, see you soon!" Cleo hung up and leaned out the window, she had to change and everything! "I'll be right down! Give me a minute?"
Still laughing softly Jazz hung up too, shaking her head gently. Maybe having Cleo around, providing fun and distraction, wouldn't be so bad after all?