The screaming had been going on for nearly two hours. Lacey buried her head under her pillow and just prayed that it would stop. The banging and crashing had ceased maybe thirty minutes before, but the fight was still in full swing and Charlene, the girl who lived in the apartment on the floor above, didn’t seem to want to let up, even if it was four am.
Lacey could hear them above, shouting and stamping across the vinyl floor. She didn’t know who had gone to see her neighbor, but they were obviously causing trouble. Maybe Charlene owed someone money again. Or maybe whoever the guy was had been a lover and had come back for more. Lacey rolled over and stared at the ceiling. She didn’t know whether she should go up there and try to help or just hope it resolved on its own. In this town, you never knew what you could be walking in on.
Lacey sat up and leaned back against the headboard. Her temples were throbbing and she was so tired, she didn’t know if she would even make it into work the next day at the rate things were going. She had already been given a warning for slacking on the job, so she couldn’t exactly go into the bar, stand there looking half dazed and keep on her feet for nearly ten hours. It would be impossible.
She picked up her cell phone and unlocked it. Should she call Charlene and see what was happening? She tapped at the keys and opened her contact list before stopping and thinking again… What if the guy up there was a drug dealer? Lacey could end up getting hurt or dragged into Charlene’s debts again. She put the phone down and instantly felt guilty for being too scared to intervene. She knew there was no point in calling the cops. In Clay Springs, the cops didn’t help and protect the little guy… They fucked them over like all the other criminals running the town.
Lacey shouldn’t have even been there. She’d made her escape. After high school she had packed up her stuff, said goodbye to her family and got the hell out of there, running as far and as fast as she could. She’d traveled for a while and seen a lot of the country but never found anywhere she really wanted to call home. She had several relationships and made plenty of mistakes, and two years after she had set off on her journey, she found herself traveling back through her hometown with no intention of staying. It was a devastating blow when her mother got sick and she had to stay and take care of her. It had been a long illness, but she had recovered. But after being so close to her mother again, Lacey didn’t feel like she could up and leave right away. She got a job at the bar, rented an apartment and suddenly, before she’d even really realized it, she was stuck.
“God,” she said aloud, “Please be quiet.”
She lay down again and wiped her tired eyes. She could hear Charlene screaming bloody murder at someone and telling them to get the fuck out. Lacey didn’t want to feel responsible or guilty for someone else’s drama; she just wanted it to end. Charlene was an adult and knew what she was getting herself into. Plus, Lacey had already bailed her out on countless occasions, and she couldn’t keep giving her money for drugs. At this rate, she would never get back out of that town. She’d be stuck there, in her dingy little apartment for the rest of time.
She looked over to her open closet. Her eyes traveled to the top shelf where hidden right at the back was the shoe box full of cash she had managed to save over the past year. She only worked for minimum wage, and the clientele in the bar left shitty tips, so it had taken her a while to save a thousand dollars. But then Charlene had come knocking one night in tears and begged her to help her out. One of the biker guys was coming to pay her a visit, she’d said, and if she didn’t pay him the money she owed him then he’d knock out all of her teeth. Lacey had panicked and given her what she needed. And then the next week it had happened again, the tears, the pleading… Lacey had eventually helped her close to six times before she decided enough was enough and she’d told Charlene that she simply didn’t have any more savings. But now as she lay there listening, her conscience was pulling at her… Should she go to the closet, open the box and give Charlene a hundred bucks, or should she just stay quiet…?
Suddenly, the shouting stopped and she heard Charlene giggle. Lacey sunk down in bed and sighed. The walls were thin and she heard the dull beat of music drifting through the ceiling, followed by what sounded like moaning. Lacey sat back up and listened carefully…
Is that what I think it is? she thought.
Charlene’s giggles turned to moans of pleasure and directly above her Lacey could hear the sound of the headboard smacking against the wall.
“Well, I guess she found another way to pay this time,” Lacey smirked.
She climbed back into bed and began to wish for the fighting to return. Listening to Charlene have sex with someone was just more of a reminder of how lonely she was. Her love life was pretty much non-existent, and she couldn’t remember the last time she met someone who made her heart race. She felt the emotion welling up inside of her and a tear rolled down her cheek. What she wouldn’t give for the touch of a good man. But unfortunately, she didn’t think one of those existed in Clay Springs…and if they did, she certainly was yet to find them.