CHAPTER 2

"226 Julia Avenue"

The California sun burst through the window and slapped me square in the face. Never had I been so rudely awoken. Every morning I promised myself I would put up curtains, but deep down I loved waking up this way. It reminded me of where I was. No longer was I in dreary, cold London. I was in a beautiful town just north of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and life was good. Life was very good.

There was only one thing that could have made this morning any better; if I had been able to sedate the goddamn leprechaun that was dancing around, whilst beating a big drum inside my head. He was a persistent little bugger. Not even the strongest painkiller knocked the wind out of him. I reached out from under my sheets and felt around for my water bottle. I would drown the bloody leprechaun, if I had to! See if he can swim and play that drum at the same time, that’s what I say!

The water soothed my arid throat. I smiled staring up at the ceiling, as I lay back down with my hands behind my head. I was content. For the first time in a long while I was happy, even if incredibly hung over. The leprechaun seemed to have calmed down a bit, so I decided to get up and see what lay waiting for me outside my door.

Stepping out through the doorway I felt like a soldier stepping out of the trenches, the sole survivor of a bloody battle. Beer cans lay strewn across the living room like fallen soldiers, their remains spilling out onto the carpet. The couch crippled on it’s side, a tank blown over by an enemy landmine. Although I suppose a landmine can’t really be an enemy, I don’t think they really show any political affiliation. Waking up to this war zone was a regular occurrence on a Saturday morning, after one of our infamous Friday night parties. I navigated my way through the debris and made my way into the kitchen. Through the patio doors, I could hear the muffled tones of the guys sitting outside on the deck.

“Look who finally decides to show his ugly face!” Lyrical exclaimed with a laugh.

Loic looked up and shook his head at me in disgust.

“Jesus lads … last night got out of control. What happened? Last thing I remember we had taken out the bottle of Absinthe and were knocking shots back like water.” I said drearily.

“So, you don’t remember anything then?” Loic cut in.

“No, not really.” I sat down in the third and last empty sun lounger. We had bought the loungers on our very first day in 226 Julia Avenue for $5 each at the local Walmart. They had certainly served us well since.

“You really don’t remember anything?” Loic inquired.

“Well, I remember bits and pieces. I remember … I remember taking out my guitar…”

“Yes, and what happened then?” Lyrical had a big smug grin on his face.

Loic on the other hand, looked at me slightly concerned yet disapprovingly, like a parent who has found out their child has been raiding the liquor cabinet. I immediately wanted to wipe the smug grin off Lyrical’s face.

“Well, I began doing my acoustic comedy version of Boyz 2 Men’s ‘I’ll make love to you’…”

“And then what happened?” Lyrical’s grin grew larger, whilst Loic’s brow furrowed deeper.

“Well, I was getting pretty carried away I suppose. I remember hitting the high note in the final chorus and…”

“Yes go on...” Lyrical continued.

“Oh God!” It hit me like a bolt. The memories came flooding back.
“I … oh shit. I finished the final crescendo and, caught up in the character I, well I, em ...” I hung my head, as I plucked up the courage to say it out loud.

“You grabbed Jeff’s little sister and you laid one on her, like she had never seen before!” Lyrical jumped in too excited to hold it any longer.

He started to laugh hysterically. Even Loic now saw the funny side of it.

“Jesus Christ, I can’t believe it. What age is she?” I asked scared to death to hear the answer.

“Seventeen!!” They shouted in unison, as they leaned back in their chairs, laughing at my terrible act of indiscretion.

I was now working for Jeff in his boutique guitar store in San Francisco. Jeff was twenty years older than his sister and he had helped bring her up, like his own daughter. Their father left them just after his mom got pregnant for the second time. So as you can imagine, he is a little over protective. As he was basically my sole source of income, it would not be a good idea to get on the wrong side of him. Although I had some savings from London, if I wanted to last any amount of time in San Francisco I desperately needed a job too. It was a far more expensive city, than I had planned for.

“Please tell me Jeff didn’t see it. He would absolutely kill me, if he knew that I kissed his sister.”

“Yeah he saw the whole thing!!” Lyrical said enjoying this way too much.

“Shut up Lyrical. Don’t worry Shane. He didn’t see a thing.” Loic interjected.

“Lucky for you, good ole Jeffrey passed out on the couch after his fourth shot of Absinthe.” Lyrical said.

“Thank god. But what if his sister says something?”

“Well she was pretty toasted too. Maybe she doesn’t remember?” Loic added trying to make me feel a little better.

“Yeah dude sure, you’re pretty forgettable anyway.” Lyrical added trying to make me feel a little worse.

“Look Shane. I have her number here. The best thing to do is give her a call and try to sound out the situation.” Loic always came up with helpful suggestions.

“What? … Like ask her if she remembers me kissing her, after the high note in ‘I’ll make love to you’? Are you mad? Don’t you think she will cop onto the fact that something happened, or even worse, remember it? That is of course on the presumption, she actually doesn’t remember!”

“No, No, No. You simply ask her innocent questions about the night and it will become pretty apparent, if she remembers or not.”

“What? You mean call her right now and just ask a few questions?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“OK. You‘re right. I will just thank her for coming to the party and see if she says anything.”

“What are you waiting for?” Lyrical jumped in getting even more excited, as the plot unfolded.

“Jeff will absolutely kill me, if he ever finds out.”

I grabbed the phone from Loic and dialled her number. The phone rang eight nerve-racking times, before someone finally answered.

“Hello?” Her voice sounded coarse and groggy, as if I had just woken her.

“Hi, em, sorry to call so early. Is this Lisa?”

“Yes this is Lisa. Who is this?”

“Hi, it’s Shane here … from last night?”

“Oh, hi Shane. Thanks for having me over. Gosh, I don’t think like I ever drank that much. I have only drunk alcohol like three times before.”

Oh great, I can now add serving alcohol to a minor to my list of offences, along with kissing a friend’s younger sister.

“Oh…right…sorry for that, but I hope you had a good time?”

“To be honest, I am like totally brain dead this morning. I don’t remember much from last night. I didn’t do anything bad did I? Gosh, I hope I didn’t embarrass myself.”

I let out a sigh of relief and gave the guys the thumbs up, to which Lyrical thumped the ground and shouted; “God damn it!!”

“What was that?” Lisa said, overhearing Lyrical’s outburst.

“Oh nothing, don’t worry you didn’t do anything embarrassing. I just wanted to thank you for coming and make sure you were OK this morning.” I gushed, as the ten ton Acme cartoon weight lifted from my shoulders.

“Oh good, ’cause Jeff would kill me, if I did anything to embarrass him.”

Oh, the irony.

“Don’t worry about it. Hope you have a good day.”

“OK, c’ya.”

“Bye.”

I hung up, my hand still shaking from the subsiding fear.

“So, did she remember anything?”

“No, thank Jesus, she didn’t remember a thing.”

“You’re a lucky man. I had already called dibs on your bedroom, if Jeff was to take your life for what you did.” Lyrical again helpfully added.

I turned and looked out towards the view of the San Francisco Bay and smiled. Just another eventful night in 226 Julia Avenue.