“Hey!” Olivia called out as she heard the front door closing.

“Hey!” The answer came back. She could hear the clinking and thumps of keys being tossed in the bowl and shoes being kicked off.

“You were a while, did you get everything?”

“Yep.” The rustle of plastic bags was discernible. “Though they didn’t have your prescription yet, are you going to be alright until Friday?”

“Yeah, I still got another week’s worth. Did you get the flour?”

“I said I got everything didn’t I? Jesus, woman.”

Rob had to pass through the living room to get to the kitchen, and he leaned over the couch to leave a kiss on her forehead as he did. They were still living in a relatively small condo even though Olivia had finally started making some decent money from her movie roles. They’d been so poor for so long after they’d left home (much too young and as high school drop outs) that they were still half in the ‘can’t afford to spend’ mindset.

“That’s what you said last time and where were my Oreos?”

“I swear to God, sometimes it’s more like having a nagging wife than a sibling.”

Olivia wasn’t touching that comment with a bargepole, given current events in her life. Folding her legs under her, she slouched back into the cushions and picked up the TV remote. Maybe a better sister would have got up and helped him unpack the groceries, but she never claimed to be a better sister. If he was going to be grumpy she’d ignore him. She turned on the news and then promptly neglected to pay any attention to that either.

“Seriously though, was it busy or something?”

“Yeah, guess I hit rush hour in the aisles or some shit. Listen, I need to go out again so don’t wait on me for dinner.”

“Sure, I might be going out with Casey anyway,” she said distractedly. Her phone was beeping with more tweets from the aforementioned friend suggesting a girls’ night out (thankfully these didn’t include Justin - those had made her overly nervous earlier). “Anything fun?”

“Work thing.”

“Lame.”

“Well not all of us get to swan around playing dress up for a living.”

“Screw you.”

“Love you too.”

Olivia shook her head, continuing to focus on the phone in front of her. There didn’t appear to be much going on in the world, her Twitter feed was abnormally quiet. Both Rob and Justin made fun of her for her obsession with it but she enjoyed it. In a silly and slightly sad way, it was a much easier method for her to connect to people. Being sociable and doing the whole face to face thing was somewhat of a challenge even after all this time. Though she was much improved at it she felt much safer being cute and funny and reaching out from behind a social media account. It was much harder to block the bad ones in real life than it was online.

Her ears apparently had some kind of radar for Justin’s name, however, as the second she heard it her attention was immediately caught. She looked up at the TV screen only to recoil in horror.

“Oh my God!”

“What?”

“The news!”

She couldn’t even articulate it. She could only stare at the screen dumbly and in disbelief. Rob re-entered the room and stood behind her, reaching over the back of the couch to pick up the remote and raise the volume.

“No witnesses to the crash have come forward but it appears that the vehicle came off the road and into the barrier at high speed. The family has now been informed and police are appealing for anyone who may have witnessed the event to contact them as soon as possible. No word yet as to the cause of the crash, but police are investigating and it’s likely we’ll get a statement later today.”

“Well. Guess that solves that problem for you,” he said caustically.

Olivia turned round to him in shock. “Rob!”

“Hey, you’re the one who said she was an evil bitch. Maybe karma works after all.”

She couldn’t believe he could be so callous about it. Sure she’d wanted the woman and her acidic influence well out of Justin’s life but she hadn’t wanted her dead.

“Look, I do need to head straight back out so I’ll see you later.”

“Thanks for the love and support,” she muttered to herself as he promptly left.

She muted the sound on the television and frantically grabbed her phone again. Well, she supposed she no longer had to be cautious about when or how many times she called. It was almost a surprise when he picked up, she’d thought he might be too busy with the police or family or something.

“Hello?”

“Justin?”

“Liv?” He croaked.

“I just heard about Vanessa, I… I don’t even know what the hell I called to say. Are you alright?”

“Sure. I’m not the one who died.”

For the love of Christ why had she asked such a stupid, stupid thing? “I’m sorry I said that, it’s a dumb question…”

“No, I’m sorry.” Justin wearily rubbed his hand over his eyes, breathing deeply. “I didn’t mean to be sarcastic, you didn’t say anything wrong. I’m kind of… I don’t even know. Trace and I were just hanging out, everything was normal. Then suddenly they showed up at the door an hour ago and the place has been swarming with cops since, phone’s been going off the hook…”

“Oh God, you must have so many people you need to talk to, I shouldn’t be tying up the line.”

“Please don’t go, the longer I talk to you the less other people can be calling. I know it’ll be her parents soon and I don’t think I can deal.”

Olivia didn’t need to ask why. She knew all about it.

“Can I do something?” She asked knowing full well she couldn’t. Nothing she could do or say would make it any easier.

“I don’t think so. I just… what do you say?” Justin scratched fretfully at the nape of his neck. “How do I sit there and say the right things to her mom and play the grieving husband when I know that I was about to walk out?”

“There is no right thing to say in these situations,” she replied helplessly. “You have to feel it as it comes.”

“I just… fuck, Liv.” She could hear sniffles coming down the line. It sounded very much like he was crying. “I feel like I kind of wished this on her or some shit and I feel like the most awful person. I didn’t want her to die.”

“I know, of course you didn’t. You couldn’t have known; it’s just a horrid accident.”

“They think there might have been a hit and run.”

That one felt like she’d been sucker punched. All the breath seemed to have flown from her lungs. “What?”

“They’re not saying it publicly yet, but there was some suspicious damage that looks like it had to have been another car. Something about impact angles and the turn and… I don’t even understand it right now. I didn’t really take it all in; I kind of went numb when they said she was gone.”

“Fucking hell. I don’t even know what to say, baby. That’s awful.”

“Would you…” Justin’s face screwed up for a moment, questioning the wisdom of the request he was about to make. “Would you mind coming over later? I don’t want to be by myself but I don’t think I could stand having somebody who doesn’t know talking about how much she loved me or some shit. It’s been bad enough with Trace, I was supposed to be telling him and the rest of the guys tonight but that’s out the window and in the meantime they all have no clue.”

Olivia breathed in deeply. She wasn’t much surer about answering than Justin had been about asking. It felt inappropriate for her to already be going over there before Vanessa was even cold. Now it was her turn to feel contradictory. She’d slept with the woman’s husband, conspired with him to file a divorce behind her back, and yet now she was dead she was concerned about boundaries?

“Sure, if that’s what you want.” No, if he needed someone she’d be there. She’d have to squash down her discomfort.

“Please. My mom is flying out but she won’t arrive until tomorrow and I just really do not want to be alone right now. I can’t bring myself to stay here tonight so it’ll probably be the Fairmont, but I can let you know once the cops finally leave.”

Not having to go to his house was a huge relief. Now she thought about it, it would probably be easier for her to get in and out without being seen too. If the paparazzi hadn’t already descended on Justin’s neighbourhood it was only a matter of time.

“Yeah, okay. Just call or text or something when the hordes have departed.”

He winced when the thought occurred to him that he could finally save her number in his contacts instead of having to keep it memorised.

“Okay. I got to go talk to the detective again but I’ll let you know. Thanks for calling, Liv, I really needed to hear your voice.”

“Don’t mention it. I’ll talk to you later.”

He put down the phone without their customary sweet goodbye, but under the circumstances that would have felt wrong anyway. She just couldn’t believe that Vanessa was dead and that somebody had apparently caused it and run off. How could they? Could she maybe have survived if they’d stayed to help? How on Earth was she supposed to comfort Justin in this situation?

One, one two, one, one two.