Page 123 of The Sun Sister

‘You talking about the coffee, ma’am?’ he said, smirking at me.

‘Ha! You’ll get what you’re given.’

‘Hey, you two got a thing going on or what?’ Vanessa chirped from the bed as I left the room. Heat rose up my neck as I went to the washroom and looked at myself in the mirror. My hair had untied itself from its plait and hung greasily in curtains on either side of my face, and my eyes had great pouches beneath them. I did my best to tidy myself up, but with no equipment to hand, it was impossible, so I walked down the corridor in search of coffee.

‘Room service will be here shortly,’ I said as I re-entered the room.

Vanessa eyed me. ‘You sure have some strange accent going on there, don’t she, Miles?’

‘I was brought up in Switzerland, that’s why. My mother tongue is French,’ I added as I went to sit down and Miles stood up.

‘Excuse me while I leave you girls together and go and wash up too.’

‘I ain’t never been outside Manhattan, apart from coming here, and this ain’t like no emergency room I ever visited.’ Vanessa rolled her eyes as Miles left. ‘Do I have to screw someone to pay for it?’

‘No, it’s all paid for, Vanessa,’ I reassured her as I watched her nod and her eyes began to droop like a puppy who had woken up to play and had suddenly run out of energy. It was difficult to believe that the sullen young woman I’d slept next to in rehab had tried to take her own life last night, and woken up this morning seemingly so happy...

Maybe it was the fact that both Miles and I were there for her. Or – my heart sank at the thought – was it more to do with the fact that she was probably on some kind of opiate for the pain and her brain was simply reacting to the stimulant?

‘She’s sleeping again,’ I said as Miles reappeared at the same time as a nurse came with the coffee. I gulped back the hot liquid after lacing it with sugar to replace my morning carbs. ‘What happens next, do you think?’

‘When I talked to the doctor last night, he said that the psych team will come to assess her. We both know that what happened last night was no practice run.’

‘And after that?’

‘I’m not sure, but as I said the other night, she needs more than a serenity prayer and petting some horses to steer her back. Maybe once she’s recovered and out of here the doc said that a spell in long-term rehab is the way forward. She did have a social worker back in Manhattan, though once she turned eighteen a couple months back, technically she’s no longer a juvenile, but I’m going to contact her anyway. In special circumstances, the care team can apply for an extension to maintain the supervision until she’s twenty-one. In basic terms, it means the state would pay for any help she needs.’

‘Hey, I don’t know anything about all that but I just think she needs to feel loved.’

‘You’re right, Electra, she certainly does, and that’s not something you can buy.’

‘I...what if I took her back to New York to live with me? I could take care of her.’

There was a pause as Miles turned to look at me, his expression one of shock and disbelief.

‘Are you crazy?! You’re a top model who spends her life flying around the world in private jets! You don’t have the time to give her what she needs. Besides’ – he lowered his voice as Vanessa shifted position – ‘you can’t put someone into that life when they have no hope of keeping it.’

‘You have no idea what I may or may not want to do with my future once I get out of here,’ I hissed back.

‘I...Look, let’s talk about this later, okay? This is no fairy tale, Electra, and Vanessa isn’t Cinderella. You can’t mess with her as though she’s a project you can forget about when you’ve lost interest.’

My cup clattered into the saucer as anger rose up in inside me.

‘Jesus, Miles! I’m only trying to help! Anyway,’ I added, trying to control myself, ‘you should know that I’m checking out of The Ranch today.’

‘Oh yeah?’

‘Oh yeah. I’m about as fixed as I can be for now and I’ve got stuff to get on with. A life to lead,’ I said as my hands clutched the coffee cup for some kind of moral support. I stood up and manoeuvred past him. ‘I’m gonna go find the doctor.’

‘Okay,’ Miles sighed. ‘You do what you’ve gotta do.’

‘I will,’ I said, marching to the door.

‘Just one thing before you leave, Electra.’

‘What?’

‘I wouldn’t step outside the front of the hospital right now. There’s a load of paps waiting to catch a glimpse of you.’