Never Too Late

Lucy's Point of View

“Do we have to listen to Brand New again?” my co-worker Jamie complained.

After Lacey had been hospitalized, I’d decided I needed something to do with my free time. My homework load had been pretty light for senior year thus far, my group of friends was defunct due to the drama between John and me, and I’d had no drive for art. I couldn’t stand just sitting around doing nothing, so I’d figured getting a job would help occupy my time and get me some extra money. I’d applied at Trader’s Haven, basically a glorified GameStop, except that instead of just games and consoles, we dealt with CDs, movies, vinyl, and a bunch of other entertainment related items. It just so happened that I’d found the place at exactly the right time; they were in desperate need of people. I turned in my application, had an interview the next day, and started two days after that.

I’d been at Trader’s Haven for about three weeks, and so far I liked everyone I worked with. I’d grown close with a lot of the people who worked there and had especially bonded with the girls since there were only three of us who worked there. By far though, my favorite was Nathan, one of the assistant managers. He had an easygoing way about him and made everyone in the store comfortable, and I’d liked him right away. Plus, it didn’t hurt that he was really cute, too.

“Yes,” Nathan replied, not bothering to look up from the case with all of our burned CDs. We had a five CD changer in the store to play music that we carried, and if there was a new CD that we wanted to listen to, we’d just burn a copy of it and bring it in. Ironically, all we had were brand new Brand New CDs, so Nathan had burned copies of all of them.

“But we listen to Brand New all the time,” Jamie complained, his shoulders slumping. He couldn’t have sounded more like a whiny teenager if he tried, (which only made perfect sense, since he was a sixteen year old pain in the ass).

“Yeah,” Nathan said, sliding a burned copy of The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me out of the case. “And we’re going to keep listening to Brand New until I get sick of it or you learn to appreciate it.” Jamie sighed and Nathan shrugged his shoulders at him. “Look man, it’s this or The Gaslight Anthem.”

“Brand New’s fine then,” Jamie said, immediately shutting up. Nathan and I were big fans of The Gaslight Anthem, though Jamie and most of the rest of the staff were not.

“That’s what I thought,” Nathan smirked, and then accepted the CD Jamie was holding out to him, nodding. “Led Zeppelin. Solid.” He glanced over at me. “Lucy, what’ve you got?”

“Bayside, Killing Time,” I replied, passing him the CD.

“This is probably one of the first times I like everything that’s going in the mix,” he said. After a few minutes, we all decided on two other CDs, settling for a compilation of Michael Jackson’s greatest hits and the Pokémon movie soundtrack.

The store was pretty slow that evening, though there was plenty of product to put out since we’d just gotten a delivery. Jamie got to work with filing it all away, and I was about to follow suit when Nathan stopped me. “Actually, if you wanna just stay behind the counter with me, that’d be cool. I can teach you how to scan in product and price it out with the trade screen and everything.”

Nathan grabbed one of the delivery boxes from the back and brought it up front. He showed me how to scan the product, read the trade screen to determine how to price it out, and did the first few items with me to make sure I was getting it.

“It’s really not hard,” he assured me. “It’s just monotonous. But if you have any questions or anything, I’ll be right over here working on a box, too.”

I nodded. We worked in silence for a little while, mostly because I was trying to concentrate on the trade screen, hoping that I’d really absorbed all the information he’d just relayed. After a few more items, I felt like I was getting the hang of things.

“Your sister came home yesterday, right?” Nathan asked, not taking his eyes off his computer screen. “How’d that go?”

“Pretty uneventful,” I replied. “We had a little coming home party for her and she was quiet. She hasn’t said much at all, actually.”

“Have you tried talking to her?” he asked.

“I haven’t really had the chance,” I said, immediately feeling guilty. Had I really just not had the chance, or had I been avoiding talking to her? “But, you know, it’s early and stuff.”

“Right, yeah,” Nathan nodded. He seemed to sense that I was eager for a subject change since he didn’t push the issue any further. “So what are you doing for Halloween? I can’t believe it’s next week already.”

“My friend Mason is having a party this Saturday, so I’ll probably go to that,” I answered. I was kind of dreading the whole thing since I knew John would be there. I hadn’t actually seen him since Lacey had gotten treatment, just texted a little to let him know how she was doing. It was bound to be all kinds of awkward.

“Cool,” he said. “Jack’s band is playing that night, I was gonna see if you wanted to go.” Jack was another one of our co-workers and was in a punk band. I’d been hoping to hit up one of his shows since he’d told me about his band, but just hadn’t made it. “But if you’ve got plans already, that’s cool, too. I just thought I’d ask.”

“Well, if the party blows, I’ll leave early and just meet you at the show,” I said. “I’ll let you know either way though.”

“Sounds good,” he agreed easily. “A couple of us are gonna go, I’ll text you the address later.”

Admittedly, part of me was disappointed that there was a group of people going. I’d gotten along with Nathan well since I’d started and against my best efforts, I’d developed a little bit of a crush on him. What could I say, I had a thing for dark haired guys with gorgeous eyes. Even though there was a rule against co-workers dating within the same store, I’d still kind of been hoping he was feeling the same way I was. But luck had never been in my corner when it came to anything like that.

But I didn’t have time to dwell on it. I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket and peeked to see who the text was from.

“It’s my uncle, do you mind if I step in the back to answer him?” I asked.

“Not at all, go for it,” Nathan responded, shaking his head.

I thanked him and headed to the back room so I could give Gerard a call. He picked up almost immediately.

“Hey, what’s going on?” I asked.

“Do you know where Lacey is?” he asked, sounding a little worried. I could picture him pacing back in forth in the kitchen as we talked. “I got a call from the school earlier that said she missed most of her classes today.”

“I’m…not totally sure,” I admitted. I had a feeling that maybe she was with John. I’d known that he picked her up from the hospital the day before, and I’d been hoping that it was kind of a mutual parting of ways for them, but who really knew? I just hoped that Lacey was smart enough to not run off with him and skip her classes for him. “But I can try calling her if you want.”

“Her phone’s off, it won’t do any good,” Gerard said. “Do you think she’s at least safe?”

“I do,” I assured him. As much as I didn’t trust John, I just really had to hope that he was keeping my sister out of trouble if she was with him. “I’ll be home around nine-thirty, but keep me updated.”

“Yeah, definitely,” he agreed. He asked me to let him know if I heard from her or saw her at all, and I told him that I would. We hung up and I took a moment to calm down before heading back up to the front. I was sure she was with John, but what if she wasn’t? What if something had happened to her, or she was hurt or something? I couldn’t shake the nagging pit in my stomach as I headed back to the counter.

“Everything okay?” Nathan asked, looking concerned.

“Yeah, it’s fine.” I wasn’t really sure if that was truthful or not, but I was eager for a subject change either way. “Hey, did your sister have her baby yet?”

“Yeah, this morning,” he replied, pulling his phone out of his pocket to show me a picture. “It’s a girl.”

“Hey, congratulations on being an uncle,” I told him, smiling. Even I had to admit the baby was pretty cute for a newborn. Most of them looked like aliens to me.

“Thanks, but now I’m gonna have to worry about everyone’s dick all the time,” he said, rolling his eyes and putting his phone back in his pocket.

I laughed, thinking about the possibility of Lacey and John running around together again. I knew the sentiment all too well. “Yeah, I know the feeling.”

“So what was that phone call about?” he asked. I’d really been hoping he would’ve dropped the subject. “Your sister?”

“Yeah,” I admitted. “I guess she didn’t go to most of her classes today and my uncle doesn’t know where she is.”

“Do you need to go?” Nathan asked. “Because Jamie and I can hold it down for the night if you need to take off.”

“No, really, it’s okay,” I said, shaking my head. “She’s probably fine, she’ll be home soon, I’m sure.”

“Lucy,” Nathan said seriously. “Your sister just got out of the hospital and you don’t know where she is. That’s way more important than being in this fucking shit-hole, honestly.” He nodded towards the door. “Get out of here, go on.”

I started to feel a little guilty about leaving, but Nathan was right; my sister was way more important.

“Thank you,” I sighed with relief, clocking myself out.

“No problem,” he said, and held his hand out for my lanyard. “Let me know how it goes later, okay?”

“Will do,” I said and headed out the door. Once I was out in my car, I decided that if I couldn’t get in touch with Lacey, I’d try John. I pulled my phone out to text him.

Hey, are you with my sister?

It took only a few moments for him to respond.

No, why?

Well, if she wasn’t with John, then where the fuck was she?