by Lesley Jones
I gave my shoulders a little roll. “Well, we’re not a couple or anything yet. It’s still early days, but I like her a lot.”
He simply nodded his head.
“Big brother Marley.” I heard from behind and turned to see Georgia approaching. She was wearing a Nirvana T-shirt and a pair of black skin tight trouser things. Her hair was up in one of those messy birds nest things like Ashley’s was over the weekend, but G’s didn’t look sexy coz that would just be weird, right?
She wrapped her arms around my neck from behind me and kissed my cheek.
“Little sister Georgia, you smell lovely,” I told her. She laughed and walked around and into the kitchen to kiss Maca on the cheek, then leant her elbows on the work top next to him. They grinned and stared at each other, giggling like a couple of kids.
“What are you two so smiley about?” I asked.
“Nothing,” Georgia said, but still smiled big, looking guilty as sin.
“See, I’m on the outside here. You used to let me in on your jokes. How times have changed. I’m gonna end up with abandonment issues.” I shook my head and feigned sadness.
“Dude, seriously. You would not want to know. Trust me on this one,” Maca said, but I was curious then and wanted to know what they were finding so amusing.
“Please ya selves.” I told them with a shrug, obviously sulking.
“If you really wanna know, I told her to go shower because she smelt like fresh fuck. You saying she smelt good was funny because you wouldn’t have said that if she still smelt—”
“Yeah, yeah. I get it, Mac, thanks. Sorry I fucking asked,” I interrupted him.
“I did warn you, dude.”
“Whatever.” I sounded even sulkier.
“So, what are you doing here, Marls? How’s things with Ash? Hope you’re looking after her.”
I studied my sister for a few seconds before I answered. Her eyes were clear, bright, and blue, and I couldn’t help but notice how good they looked together. Her and Maca I meant, not her eyes. No wonder the magazines were all after the first photos of the two of them as a couple.
“You’ll have to ask her about that, George, but I’m doing my best. Its Ash I came ‘round to see you about, actually. I’m after a favour.”
“What’s that?” George asked.
“Apparently, she’s sick. She wasn’t feeling well last night and she’s called in sick at work today. I was just wondering if you had her address so I could send her some flowers.”
George bit down on her bottom lip before asking, “Has she never given you her address? Have you never dropped her home there?”
“Na, she usually gets a taxi home. I always pay, but she always insists she doesn’t wanna put me to any trouble.”
“I’d actually be breaking the law if I gave her address out to you, Marls. Confidentiality and all that.”
“But I don’t want you doing it as her boss. I want you to be doing it as her mate. What about her phone number? Surely you can give me that?”
“All right, I’ll get you her address, but I’ll have to call down to the shop and get it. I actually have no idea where she lives.”
“What? How long have you been mates?” I asked. How could she not know where she lived?
“Since school,” she said. “I knew where she lived then, but I never went around there. Then she was in a flat over on the council estate with her brother. I lost track after that. I know she’s in her own place now, but I’ve no idea where. We usually go out straight from work so she gets ready here. I’m a bad friend, ain’t I?” George asked.
“I just can’t believe you don’t know where she lives,” I replied.
Georgia made the call and ten minutes later, I’d said my goodbyes. I was in my car, trying to work out where the fuck I was going. In the end, I pulled over at a florist, bought some flowers, nipped next door to the supermarket and bought Lucozade, cold and flu medicine, sore throat drops, sweets, chocolate, and crisps. I left my car parked up in the car park and after signing a couple of autographs, I got the nice lady from the florist to call me a cab.
The house the cabbie dropped me at was a big ol’ place that looked like it should be pulled down. I felt a little confused as I walked up the driveway, then I realised that the place had obviously been turned into flats at some stage, and Ash must’ve been renting one.
I pressed the buzzer for her number, but got no response. I pressed again, and just as I did, two boys of about fourteen come barrelling out the door. I caught it just before it closed and made my way up the stairs.
Brentwood was, still to this day, a really nice area, but that place? That was bloody horrible, and not somewhere anyone would choose to live. There was no lift, and as I walked up the stairs, the smell of rubbish, weed, cigarette smoke, and piss, got right up my nose.
I eventually found Ashley’s door tucked into the corner of the second floor. The front doors on either side of hers were both boarded up, as were eighty-five percent of the rest of them in the building.
I knocked hard on the door, but got no answer. I went to knock again when I heard someone sneeze. I’d been worried at first that she was sleeping off her sickness, and that I would wake her, but then I was worried that she deliberately wasn’t answering. I banged again, harder and called out, “Delivery for Ashley Morrison. I need a signature.”
I heard shuffling and more sneezing, then the door opened as wide as the security chain would allow.
Ash blinked at me through watery eyes a couple of times before sneezing, then started to cough.
“Ash, open the door, babe. I’ve brought you some shit to make you feel better,” I called out as she shut the door in my face. “Ash?”
“What the fuck are you doing here, Marley? How did you get this address?” she called through the door, her voice sounding croaky.
“Ash, babe. Don’t be mad. Just open the door and let me in. I’ve got medicine and flowers.”
“Fuck off, Marley. You shouldn’t have come here. I’m gonna kill Lorna when I see her.” She started to cough again.
“It wasn’t Lorna, now open the fucking door. You sound like shit and I’ve got stuff to make you feel better.”
“No, just go away. Go away and forget about me.”
What the fuck?
“Not gonna happen, Ash. You either open this door, or I start knocking it down,” I said while looking at the door and thinking that there was no way I’d even be able to rattle that thing, it was so solid.
“Yeah, good luck with that. I’ve got a security chain and three bolts on the inside. You could be a while.” She was probably right.
“Fair enough. I’ll just make some calls and get someone ‘round here to take it off.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Babe, you should know me well enough by now to know that I most certainly would.” Her reply was another coughing fit, followed by three sneezes.
“Come on, baby. Open the door, else I’m gonna have to go make some calls,” I pleaded.
“Fuck off and make your calls. I ain’t letting you in here.”
“Please yourself, but don’t say I didn’t warn ya.” I contemplate leaving the flowers and the things I’ve brought with me outside the door, but when I spotted a mouse running along the edge of the skirting, I decided against putting anything down on the floor.
It took me ten minutes to find a phone box, and another five to convince Lennon that he needed to call me a locksmith, or someone that could help me get Ashley’s door open.
Thirty minutes later, it was Milo that turned up with his tool kit. I swear that bloke was a safe cracker, or something equally dodgy in the past.
“Nice place.” Milo stated sarcastically as he walked to the bottom of the stairs. “Jesus, Marls. Did someone take a shit on the landing or what?” He screwed up his face as he talked.
“Probably mate, probably.” It certainly smelt like it.
I knocked once more on Ashley’s door and told her tha
t I had someone with me that was about to take her door off its hinges. I was once again met with a ‘fuck off,’ and threats of legal action if I dared touch her door.
While waiting for Milo, I kept the entry door wedged open with my bag of goodies and had a look around the place. Most of the windows were boarded up; the guttering was hanging off, and there were roof tiles missing. I was pretty sure the place should’ve been condemned at least thirty years ago, leaving me convinced that no one would be suing me for taking a door off.
Milo started to pick at the lock and it sprung open in an instant. Next we used brute force, but it turned out that Ashley, was in fact, a little liar. The only other security she had in place was the chain, which Milo broke with one shove of his shoulder.
Milo stood back and I stepped inside the door before coming to a complete standstill.
What. The. Fuck?
There was a mattress on the floor, which Ash was sitting on, her back to the wall. Her eyes were red and watery as she watched me take in the room. Next to the bed was a small wooden table with a saucer on it. Resting on the saucer and flickering wildly was a large candle. There were three others burning around the room, and those were the only source of light. There was a clothes rail, and the clothes hanging from it, along with the shoes lined up underneath, looked totally out of place in those surroundings. There was a doorway off to the left, and I could see through it to a room that contained a small sink and toilet, but the saddest part of all, the bit that really hurt my heart, was the childlike suns that had been painted or chalked in bright yellow on the boarded up windows.
I looked from them, back down to where she was sitting on top of her purple and silver bedding. Her knees were pulled up to her chest and her arms were wrapped around them with a tissue in her hand.
“Ash,” I said quietly. “I bought some cold and flu tablets, stuff for your sore throat, and pain killers. I know you said last night it was hurting.”
“Why are you here?” she croaked.
“I was worried about you, baby. You said you didn’t feel well last night, and then today when I went to the shop…”
She shook her head and I trailed off.
“Well, now you can leave.”
“What? Why would I leave? I thought I could come play at being doctor Marley, or nurse Marley if you’d prefer. Whatever floats your boat, baby.” I wiggled my eyebrows and gave her my best rock star on the front of a magazine smile.
“Don’t make out, Marley. Don’t pretend that you want to spend another second in this place.” She held her hands out as if she was presenting her home to me, her pride and joy, instead of a room that was really not even fit for the rats she probably shared it with.
“I wanna be wherever you are, Ash.”
“Yeah?” She tilted her chin in the way she did when she was feeling challenged.
“Yeah.” I nodded my head and hoped that she could see that I meant it.
“Well, the last place I wanna be is here.” She started to cry. “How could you, Marley? How could you come here? I’m so ashamed, I’m so embarrassed.”
I fight to stop my bottom lip from trembling. “The last place you wanna be is here? You don’t wanna be here?” I asked.
She wiped her tears on the sleeve of her hoodie and shook her head no.
“Milo,” I called out.
“Boss?” He popped his head in around the door.
“Pull the car up to the front doors and I’ll take Ash down to it. Can you come back up and gather all of her clothes, shoes, anything personal, and bring it down for me please?”
“No problemo, Marls.” He disappeared out of view and I walked towards Ashley.
“What are you doing?’
“You’re coming home with me. I’m calling you a doctor and while you get yourself better at my place, we’ll find you somewhere else to live.”
“Somewhere with lights and glass in the windows and everything?”
“And everything.” I promised her.
She looked up at me through watery blue eyes. My heart pounded in my chest, echoing in my throat and ears. I’d hoped she wouldn’t fight me on this because there was no fucking way I was leaving her there.
She let out a long sigh.
“I’m not sure Marls, I’m just not sure.”
“Ash, look, whatever you might think of me and my reputation, all I wanna do is help you out right now.”
“Why?” Her chin wobbled as she asked and I hated that she just didn’t get that I was genuinely interested.
“Like I keep trying to tell you, I like you, a lot. I like being with you. I don’t know Ash, I don’t have the words. I just know that I’ve never felt like this before. I need to know you’re safe and that ain’t gonna happen if I leave you here, so either you come to mine, or I’m staying here with you.”
“I might not want you here with me.”
“Tough fucking shit. Them’s your options, baby.”
She looked around the room before she looked back at me, saying so quietly, I could only just make it out, “I’ll come with you.”
She wrapped her arms around my neck as I lifted her up. “I still ain’t shagging ya,” she said in my ear.
“We’ll see about that, sweetheart … we’ll see.”
Chapter Twenty
1989
It took a week for Ash to fully recover. I had a doctor out to see her as soon as I got her to my place and tucked up in my bed. He declared she had laryngitis, as well as a chest and sinus infection. He prescribed a five day course of antibiotics and paracetamol for the pain. After taking her tablets and eating a bowl of tomato soup, she slept for almost fourteen hours.
In that time, I got myself setup in Maca’s room and moved all her clothes and girlie shit from her place, into my room.
I left her to rest the first couple of days, just bringing her food and making her drink plenty. She was up and about by the following Thursday, and watching telly on the sofa, curled up next to me under a blanket.
It’d been a week, and I already didn’t want to imagine her not being there every day. It was killing me to lay in bed at night, knowing that she was in the other room.
We’d done nothing more than curl up next to each other, or kiss each other’s cheeks goodnight. I desperately wanted more, but I knew that I had to prove to her that I didn’t just want her there for sex. I had to make her understand that I wanted her there because I couldn’t stand the thought of her not being there.
I got out for a run on Friday morning, then headed into our home gym and lifted some weights, anything to take my mind off sex, specifically sex with Ashley.
I’d just showered and was making Ash and myself a sandwich when my phone rang.
“Madam Vaginas Brothel, how can we help you today?” I answered.
“Please tell me George is with you?” It was Maca.
“Na, mate. Not seen her.”
“Fuck.” I got instant goose bumps.
“Mac, what’s wrong?”
“Dave fucking sat back and did nothing when she left with Cameron King’s minder.”
What?
“What the fuck, Mac? When?”
“Six fucking hours ago.”
“Where are you?”
“At the flat.”
“I’m coming over.”
“Okay. Your dad’s on it and on his way over too.” He was quiet for a few seconds. “You don’t reckon she’s gone back to him, do ya Marls?”
“No, mate, I don’t.” I had no fucking clue.
He hung up.
“What’s wrong?” Ashley asked from behind me.
She looked a lot better. She’d actually dressed in clothes rather than her PJ’s. Her hair was all clean and shiny, and she had some colour in her cheeks. She looked beautiful—perfect.
“George left the flat with Cameron King’s minder six hours ago and no one’s seen her since.”
“Oh shit.”
“Yeah. I’m gonna head over there.”
We literally walked through the front door of my sister’s to an entire Layton family reunion.
My dad was on the phone, shouting out orders to someone and my mum was on the sofa, looking worried.
Bailey was trying to shout over my dad to whoever it is was he was talking to on the phone.
“If he touches a hair on her fucking head, I’ll have him and his bald fucking sidekick. They’ll both end up at the bottom of the Thames wearing concrete boots.”
Jimmie was making tea and Len was talking quietly in the kitchen to Maca.
All eyes turned to us.
“You know anything?” Maca directed his question to Ash. He was obviously unaware that she was with me when he’d called.
She shook her head no, but then called out to Bailey, “He won’t hurt her.”
Everyone once again turned in her direction.
“Hang on a minute … Fin, hang on,” my dad said as he sat down the phone.
“What?” Bailey and Maca both said at once.
She looked up at me, terrified, and I watched her throat move as she swallowed. Then she pulled her classic Ash pose; shoulders back and chin out, that was my girl. She walked farther into the room.
“He won’t hurt her. I spoke to him at the wine bar last week.” She turned and looked in my direction as she said it, probably because she knew that it was news to me. “I popped over there after work with Lorna before going out one night and he was there.”
“And?” Bailey snapped, and that was exactly what his neck would be doing if he talked to her like that again.
“He was half cut and told me that he was in love with George, that he’d planned a future for them together, but if Sean was what she wanted then he would stand aside and let her be happy.” She looked around at everyone, looking them in the eyes, but I could see her fingers and thumbs rubbing together. I knew she was nervous. “He loves her. He’d never hurt her.”