Chapter 1 – I know what it’s like to be alone

The worst kind of tequila had something definitely charming. Shane glanced at the almost empty bottle in her hand and made the liquid swirl against the dark layers of glass. She drank it up and squirmed as the alcohol started flowing through her veins.

She was sitting on the couch, her calves crossed on the coffee table before her. The shades were down and the small, undecorated apartment was just dimly illuminated by the lamps on the street.

The doorbell rang and Shane stood up slowly, lighting a cigarette with her old Zippo. She motioned to the door, her lanky body walking fluidly, felinely.

“Hey you…”, the young girl in the corridor said when the door opened.

Shane smiled slyly, wickedly, the cigarette dangling from her lips.

“Hey yourself. How’re you doing, Carrie?”, she asked, her voice sounding unintentionally bored.

Carrie was around 25 and very attractive, vulgarly beautiful, and Shane had met her a couple of days earlier, during one of her wild nights at Hit. Jenny, Shane had been told by Alice, had decided to move in New York after selling a new screenplay for half a million dollars.

She had moved in the Big Apple permanently – Alice had carefully repeated that word several times to make the point clear – and she was obviously pissed as hell at Shane. For the records, Alice had added, Jenny had also confirmed and reasserted that Shane was the ultimate betrayer.

Alice wouldn’t seem upset about Jenny’s sudden departure. Shane, on the contrary, definitely was. There were so many different feelings floating freely inside of her, now, knowing that Jenny was no longer around.

There was guilt – a choking, suffocating sensation that made her mouth go dry -, there were sadness and longing because Jenny was – or at least had been – one of her greatest friends, and there was… a bittersweet relief.

A sort of “phew” thing.

Shane had been doing her best to stay away from all the drama and now, suddenly, the drama had disappeared permanently.

In any event, Shane didn’t like at all the way she was feeling. And thank God she had her own personal medicine for that. Booze, coke and girls.