The Jazz Club-Chapter Three
by Sammie
 

The Jazz Club-Chapter Three
 

Eve woke up the next morning, but she didn't open her eyes just yet. She had a pounding headache, and tried to remember what had happened last night.
Suddenly, she heard a quiet snore beside her, and the events of last night rushed back to her. She had drank too much. She came back to Julian's hotel...
No, she thought. She didn't.
But she looked beside her, and laying out, sprawled on the bed was Julian.
What harm could come of one drink?
That thought began to haunt her mind. 'Oh God, what did I do? I have to get out of here. Fast.'
She quickly got up and began searching for her scattered clothes.

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Julian began to stir, and the first thought that came to his mind were the events of last night. It had been wild, more passionate than the other girls he had taken to bed. He opened his eyes to see Eve trying to zip up her dress.
"Where are you going? You look like you're in a rush."
"I have to get out of here. I shouldn't have let this happen. This can never happen again. Do you understand me?" She didn't wait for an answer. She started to run for the door.
'Not so fast Eve,' Julian thought. 'You're not getting away that easily.'
Julian jumped out of bed and got in front of the door before Eve had a chance to make her escape. He usually didn't do this, but he wanted her. Just for a couple more nights.
"I thought I made myself clear. Now let me out!"
Eve tried to push him out of the way, but to no avail.
"You," he said as he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back further into the apartment, "are not going anywhere. Not until we get a few things straight. First of all, this will not be the last time. I still want you Eve, and I always get what I want."
"Why should I sleep with you again? You can't force me."
"No, I wouldn't force you, Eve. But I can give you things."
Eve eyed him carefully. "What kind of things?"
"I can provide you with a place to live, food to eat, anything. All you have to do in return is see me when I want, where I want. Agreed?"
"How could you even afford all that?"
"Because I'm Julian Crane."
Her eyes got wide eyed, but as she was about to say something, he stopped her.
"It doesn't matter what my name is. This isn't about names, Eve. Now, agreed?"
Eve thought for a minute. Normally, she wouldn't even consider a deal like the one he was offering, but normally she wasn't in a situation like this one. Right now, it practically seemed reasonable. She wouldn't be a bother to Crystal, she would have more money, why shouldn't she?
The next words to come out of her mouth would come to haunt her in times to come, just like that one drink haunted her when she woke up.
"Deal."

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As Eve entered her apartment, she prayed that Crystal wasn't home. She just needed to think. She needed to be alone.
Her prayers weren't answered.
"Eve?! Where the hell have you been! When you didn't come back here last night I was worried sick! What happened?"
Eve was paralyzed in place. Should she tell the truth? Crystal was her friend, she shared all her secrets with her. But this was different.
"I...I-"
"Eve, don't you dare lie to me. What happened?"
Eve sighed in defeat. She would tell Crystal what happened.
And so she told Crystal the events of last night. Crystal showed a sign of recognition on her face when she mentioned Julian, but Eve was looking down at her feet, to ashamed to look her in the face. When she finished and looked back up, Crystal was looking at her wide-eyed.
"Eve, I mean...this is so-unlike you. And Julian Crane?"
"I know. But I had had so much liquor, I wasn't thinking."
"So, when is he going to buy you this new place?"
"I don't know. I don't want to talk about it, I don't want to think about it. Can I-can I just be alone for a little bit? I need to clear my head."
"Sure honey, I have to go to the grocery store anyway. I'll be back in a while."
Eve watched Crystal exit the apartment, and then returned to her own thoughts. 'Stop thinking about the deal,' she told herself. 'Think of something else, anything else.' Her mind slowly drifted back to her mother, and when her father left...
Eve watched as her drunken father opened and slammed the door. She was scared about what he was going to do this morning, just like she was every morning. She then peeked out into the living room, and listened to the conversation taking place.
"Damn you Frank! Where the hell have you been?"
"That's none of your business, woman! Don't bother me!"
"I'll bother you however much I want. YOu been at the bars, haven't you? You been drinking, haven't you? I can smell it all over you!
He slapped Eve in the face. "Don't you dare accuse me of anything, Kate! I swear I'll leave you! For good!"
"No you won't! You left a lot of times, and you coem back before the day is over every time."
"This times different. I'm leaving for good!" Frank ran into the bedroom and packed all his things. He came back out and started for the door.
"You know you'll come back, Frank! You always do!"
'Oh, thats what you think, mom,' Eve thought.
A 7 year old Eve watched as her mother and Kate, her mothers's friend, talked in the living room. Her father had left two weeks ago, and as soon as her mother realized that he wasn't coming back, she turned into a virtual zombie. She had stopped making meals, stopped going out, and shut the whole world out. Eve hadn't even talked to her mother since her father's departure. She was scared, would her mom ever return to normal?
Eve then started to listen to the conversation taking place in the next room.
"Jane, just take them. You haven't been the same since Frank left." She handed her a bottle of pills.
She was tempted by the bottle of drugs Kate held in front of her. They would help her forget the misery of her life. But she had to take care of Eve. She couldn't take them.
"No, I can't. What about my daughter? I can't take care of Eve if I took them."
"Kate, you need them. You can just take them a couple times to help you cope. It doesn't have to be permanant." She held out the bottle.
Kate thought. 'Only a couple times. Just to help me cope.' She reached out her shaking hand and took the bottle. She hurriedly opened the bottle and poured out some of the pills. She didn't care how many she took. She didn't care about anything anymore, save Eve. Six pills fell out onto her hand, and she threw them all in her mouth at once and swallowed them.
'What is mommy doing?' Eve thought. 'And what is she taking?' Eve was a smart girl, and had prided herself on reading whatever she could. As she strained her eyes, she saw the main label on the bottle:heroin.
Eve let out a cold laugh as the thought back to that time. 'Oh, it was more than a couple times mom.' Eve thought back to one of the many hard nights she had in her past...

Eve slept on the cold, hard floor of the apartment building they now lived in. They had moved out of the house. Too many memories.
Her mother had sold her bed, telling Eve that 'they needed the money.' Well, it was partly true. They needed money, desperately. But the only reason for that was because her mom had spent every cent she earned on any drug she could get her hands on. It was getting harder and harder to cope, and Eve felt more and more neglected every day. The only reason her mother even acknowledge her presence was to ask if she had any money, or to slap her for doing something wrong. Eve always told her mother that she was broke, but she had been saving scraps of money she found for an emergency. That is, she was until her mother discovered her secret stash. She had taken every penny, and given Eve an especially brutal beating.
Eve heard the door open, then slam shut. She heard her mother talking to a man. She knew what was going on. Her mom brought home a new guy every night, got high, slept with him, and moved on to the next guy that would take her. Just another thing to fill the void of her long gone father. Eve covered her ears, not wanting to hear her mother waste her life on drugs and strangers. She told herself that she wouldn't end up like her mother.
'Yeah right,' Eve thought to herself. 'You are just like your mother. Except that drugs are in the past.'
A 16 year old Eve and Crystal moved their bodys to the music playing at the party they were at. It was their first big party, and they were having the time of their lives.
Suddenly, a pair of older men came over to the two girls. They tapped them on the shoulders, and Eve and Crystal turned around.
"Hey," one of the guys said. "Having fun?"
"Oh yeah," Crystal said. "The time of our lives!"
"Want to have even more fun?" he said as he held out a bottle of pills. Eve looked at it and her stomach churned. She wouldn't take those. She wouldn't end up like her mother.
"Sure," Crystal said.
Eve nudged her in the side. "What are you doing?"
"Oh, come on Eve. I want the whole party experience. Don't you? Just to experiment!"
"But-"
"No buts, Eve," she said as she took the bottle from the guy. "How much?"
"No charge. It's on me this time."
"Thanks!" She turned to Eve. She pulled out her hand and dumped 4 pills in her hand. "Just take them! Don't you want to have fun?"
Eve looked at the pills in her hand to Crystal. She remembered her mother said. 'Just a couple times. Just to cope.' But then again, she wasn't her mother. She could control herself. 'Just this once.'
Eve smiled at Crystal, and they both swallowed at the same time.
'Well, that had been the only time I ever did that,' Eve thought. But the only reason she had never done that again was because her mother found the bottle of pills, and before she had a chance to "experiment" again, her mother found them and took them for herself. That reminded Eve that she should have never taken them in the first place, or she would end up just like her mother.
 
 
 
 

Chapter 4
Chapter 2
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