| Subject: Entropy Chapter 3 |
Author:
Becca
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Date Posted: 16:38:13 03/02/02 Sat
In reply to:
HeyBecca
's message, "Entropy" on 19:23:01 02/10/02 Sun
Entropy 3—The Night Life
And it hurts to want everything and nothing at the same time. I want what's yours and I want what's mine
I want you, but I'm not giving in this time.
--“Goodbye to You” by Michelle Branch
Lucky stared up into the darkness. The cold dampness hovering over his head as he tried desperately to finish his task. Suddenly the dampness was everywhere; the water was rushing over his face and into his mouth. For a moment he couldn’t breath, couldn’t see.
“Sly!” Lucky yelled as he slid out from under the sink.
“Yeah?” Sly asked as he leaned against the counter, drumming his fingers on the faucet. “You’re all wet, Lucas. Should I tell Carly to get you a towel.”
Lucky glared at his cousin. He shook his head, sending water flying all over his cousin.
“Why did you do that?”
“I didn’t do anything.”
Lucky held his hands out in disbelief before pushing his soaking wet hair back.
“Oh, that? Didn’t you say to turn on the water?” Sly asked completely innocently.
“Yeah,” Lucky said through gritted teeth. “However, I never said ‘turn on the water’ or are you hearing things again? Time to go back to the clinic?”
Sly pointed his finger at Lucky and smirked. “I wasn’t actually a patient in the clinic. That girl I dated, what the hell was her name? The singer?”
“Britney?” Lucky asked, yawning slightly.
“Yes,” he snapped his fingers knowingly. “She was the patient—messed up chicky, I guess that comes with being a child star or something. But it wasn’t me.”
“It should be,” Lucky shot back with a grin. He got back onto the ground, wrench in hand, and looked up at Sly. “Now, don’t touch the water until you hear me say…”
“Tun on the water?”
Lucky nodded and ducked under the sink. “Turn on the water!”
Sly did as Lucky said, turning on the cold water, just as Carly walked into her kitchen.
“Are you boys done playing plumber yet? We want to watch the movie,” she complained just as Lucky jumped out from under the sink. He was still wet from the previous incident, causing Carly to laugh. “Oh, Lucky, I can call a real plumber. Don’t sweat it.”
“What?” he asked, turning off the water. “I fixed it. I did, look.”
“Then why are you all wet?” Carly challenged.
“Because my idiot cousin turned the water on before I had a chance to tighten things.”
“A likely story,” Sly sneered and exited the living room.
“Don’t even . . .” Lucky called after Sly, following him into the living room with Carly right behind him.
“And I was just thinking to myself—‘self, ask god to give me Lucky in a wet tee shirt!’” Natalie declared with a laugh. “Really, though, couldn’t you fix the sink?”
Lucky threw his hands in the air. “It was Sly! His fault, I fixed the sink. What the hell, people? I’m like the freakin’ manager of the actual building of these clubs and what? I haven’t learned how to fix a leaky sink? I swear, I get no respect.”
Carly, Sly, and Natalie all looked at each other. Natalie took the moment to ask the question they were all wondering.
“Uh, Spencer, what is bringing on this Rodney Dangerfield attitude?”
Lucky, who had flopped down on the couch with his arms folded against his chest like a pouting five-year-old, looked at Natalie and frowned. “Huh?”
“Sweetie, you’ve been a little on edge all night,” she said, sitting down next to him. “I know you don’t get nervous over these openings, so what is it?”
Lucky’s mind flashed back to earlier and seeing Elizabeth on her cell phone at the dress shop. He was still mad at himself for not doing something, anything. He didn’t realize he was taking it out on everyone. Maybe he was.
“It’s nothing—just a long day,” he muttered. Trying to prove he was out of his mood, Lucky looked up at Carly and grinned. “How did things go with Kristina? Preliminary interview go well?”
“The bird is crazy,” Sly yelled from the kitchen, his head in the refrigerator.
“Did you go home at all today?” Lucky asked with a laugh.
“Nah,” he shook his head, handing Lucky a bottle of Yuengling Lager.
“Shouldn’t you go on auditions or something?” Natalie questioned.
Sly smirked and flopped down on the leather recliner. “Well, there was that offer to be in some gay porn. However, I thought it could potentially hurt my reputation so I settled for unemployment. Think I made the right decision Nat?”
“I’m probably the wrong person to ask. I’ve been known to have quirky tastes,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. “I’m the weird one.”
Carly smiled and tapped her friend’s hand. “Why else do you think she’s my best friend? Nat’s the only person on earth that makes me look sane!”
“Not that I don’t enjoy all this witty repartee, but can we just watch the movie?” Sly asked with a smirk.
“Fine,” Carly said, sitting down next to Lucky. “If I have to deal with Krissy following me around all day tomorrow, I just may go insane. The girl is like Dear Abby on crack,” she whispered to her cousin.
Lucky chuckled. “What did you expect, Caroline? She’s a Cassadine…a diluted, and deluded, Cassadine. I’d watch my back if I were you—don’t tell her too much.”
Carly rolled her eyes at Lucky’s still present Cassadine animosity. “What, Lucky, is she going to poison me?”
“Maybe.”
**
Elizabeth walked to the bank of elevators in the Waldorf, dangling her room key in her hand. She hit the up button, her mind wandering as she waited for the doors to slide over. She thought back to earlier in the day when she spotted Lucky across the street from her, remembering how he distinctly walked away without even a second of recognition. It made her so mad. He couldn’t even look at her, let alone speak to her. How could they have been so close once, and now not even be able to say hello?
“ARGH!!!” she growled, not realizing the elevator door had opened or that someone was staring out at her, trying to stifle a laugh.
“Rough day?”
“How about a rough life,” she said with a sigh, smiling. “What are you doing here Zander?”
Zander stepped off the elevator, his hands casually in the pockets of his gray slacks. Carly once told him if he was just going to be the bartender, jeans were alright. But if he was going to run the club for her, he had to start dressing better. Needless to say, he was dressing better.
“I’m staying here. The perks of working for Carly, I guess,” Zander said with a shrug. “You?”
“Nikolas got Sarah and I a suite. The perks of having along, weird, complicated history with a Prince, I suppose,” she smiled.
“You in a hurry? Want to get a drink?” Zander suggested.
Elizabeth glanced at the elevator. She wasn’t tired yet, and she and Zander had become friendly over the years. Plus . . . he could be the answer to one of her problems.
“I’d love to,” she said, grabbing his arm with a laugh. “Are you really working the big party tomorrow?”
“I can’t help it, I’d prefer to work the party part, than be one of the guests. I think it’s because I’ve come a long way from my rave days,” he paused to tip the maitre de as they entered Sir Harry’s Bar. “I just feel more secure being behind the bar. Not to mention—crowds aren’t my thing.”
“I can respect that,” Elizabeth noted. “I’ve always wondered, how exactly does Carly’s business run? You’re someone on the inside, right?”
“Oh, I don’t know if I’m on the inside, Liz. I run the Port Charles club, but that’s it. We’re like an autonomous, separate little project of Carly’s. Besides, she and Jax own that one. The rest are partnerships with Carly and Natalie. Though, to be honest, it should be Carly, Natalie, and Lucky as partners.”
“What do you mean? Don’t they want him . . .”
Zander shook his head. “No, quite the opposite really. From what I’ve been told, Nat and Carly have been trying to get him to let them add his name to the letterhead for quite some time now. He’s as big a part of their success as anything is.”
Elizabeth knew talking about Lucky was probably just going to frustrate her more. But she was dying to know what his life had been like since he walked away from Port Charles, and the tidbits Luke gave her weren’t enough. “How so?”
“Carly’s is the idea person, the concepts and the picture are her doing. Plus, she is the one that gets the investors in. Natalie is the business mind, she handles the tiny details, making sure the investors are sound, all sorts of boring things, which is really ironic. Natalie is the least boring, least dry person in the world. She makes Carly look downright sane.”
“And Lucky?”
“He’s the . . . physical part of the clubs. Ever since Miami, I think it was, he’s the guy who hires the contractors, the painters, the guys who lay down the marble or the tile or whatever. Plus, he plays a big part in hiring staff. He’s responsible for the things Carly and Natalie find too boring. But he doesn’t want to take any credit for any of the clubs’ success. I asked him once, but he didn’t really have a reason except he didn’t want attention.” Zander paused as the waiter came to their table. “Gin and tonic.”
“Just a diet coke,” Elizabeth ordered with a sigh. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?” Zander asked.
“Having you outline Carly’s business endeavor.”
“Well, no, I should be thanking you. I’ve had this knowledge in my head for so long, now that I’ve told you I can push it aside and reserve the space in my brain for something knew,” he quipped, getting Elizabeth to laugh. The waiter brought the duo their drinks and quickly departed. “So, who is escorting a beautiful woman like you to the party tomorrow?”
“As it stands?” Elizabeth ran her finger over the top of her glass. “My sister.”
Zander leaned forward, an eye raised. “Sarah? Got to tell you, Liz, I think you can do better than her. She’s not your type.”
“Ha ha,” she said dryly. “You can fix that.”
“I can?”
“Yes,” she nodded.
His interest piqued. “How so?”
“Be my date tomorrow.”
Zander choked on his drink, not expecting her question to be so direct, or serious. “What?”
“Not like that Zander,” Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “Listen, unless you are going with someone—and I know it can’t be Carly, because Emily told me that Jax was taking her—why can’t we go together? As friends?”
“Because…you…me…you saw Emily?” he stuttered.
Elizabeth stared at him blankly. “I’m in the city where my best friend lives. Let’s see? What I see her? Of course, we had lunch then went shopping.”
“How is she?”
“Exquisitely happy and content with her life,” she said with a frown, her heart breaking at the defeated look in Zander’s face. “This was her suggestion.”
“Emily suggested I be your date to the opening?”
Elizabeth nodded.
“Yeah, I will believe that why?”
“Because she is going with Sly, and the last thing she wants is for me to be stag and her not. Plus, I have to free Nikolas up to be with Sarah—only,” Elizabeth explained.
“Why?”
Elizabeth bit her bottom lip nervously. She couldn’t very well tell Zander that she had to go to the party with him because Nikolas wanted to walk in with Sarah to make Emily, Zander’s ex-girlfriend, jealous. “You know them: on again, off again, on again, off again, on again…”
Zander held up his hand, prompting her to stop. “I get it.”
“So will you just be my date, huh?”
“This has Emily’s blessing?”
“Yeah.”
Zander took a gulp of his drink, placed it on the table deliberately before shrugging his shoulders. “Hell, it could still make her jealous, right?”
Elizabeth smiled. “That’s the spirit. Meet you in the lobby at six?”
“Sure,” Zander said with a sigh.
“You’re a peach, Zan,” Elizabeth said, placing a five on the table, and kissing Zander on the cheek.
“I’m a peach, but I’m also an unbelievable shmuck,” Zander muttered to himself after Elizabeth left.
**
“No, no, maybe, certainly not,” Jax said into his cell phone as he walked into a tiny pizza pallor. “Listen, I’ve got to go, but I’ll call you first thing Monday morning. Bye.”
“Jasper Jacks, slumming it?” Emily teased as she spotted Jax at the counter, ordering his dinner.
“I could say the same for you, Miss Quartermaine,” he noted, sitting down across from her in the booth. “What can I say, I love their calzones.”
“Me too!” Emily declared with a laugh. “Do you realize our collective bank accounts could probably buy this place about fifteen times over?
“It never occurred to me before . . .” he grinned as the waitress brought him his pepperoni calzone and a can of coke. “Congratulate me.”
“Congratulations,” Emily said instinctively. Living the same city with Jax they had become friends of sorts. “Why am I congratulating you? Big merger?”
“Possibly,” Jax said with a smirk. “Finally, after all these years, I’ve gotten Carly to go on a date with me.”
“You player, you. How’d you do it?”
“Apparently, she has decided that she is now ready to be in a relationship.”
Emily looked at Jax questioningly. “Like, all of a sudden she realized this? And she’s going to settle down with you?”
“Not exactly.”
“How exactly.”
Jax’s bright smile faded. “I’m escorting her to the opening tomorrow and we’re going . . .”
“Just as friends? My god, Jax, we are the sorriest group of single people in the world. Sly and I are just going as friends, Lucky and Natalie are just going as friends, Carly and you are just going as friends, and I think Liz is going to ask Zander to go with her just as friends. And depending on the time of day, Nikolas and Sarah may be going just as friends. Do you realize that the odds of someone from Port Charles having sex tomorrow night is incredibly slim?” Emily asked, her face almost red from her rant.
“Hey,” he pointed his finger at her playfully. “Carly and I could end up being more than just friends. My timing couldn’t be any better—she’s considering ‘retiring’ from the club business. You’re still in your twenties kid, Carly and I are getting to the ready to settle down age.”
“Yeah, but still, it is not going to happen tomorrow night, of all nights,” Emily informed him. “Be honest, of all the former and current residents of Port Charles who will be at the party tomorrow night—who gets ‘lucky’?”
“Are we talking literally—as in, who is going to get Lucky Spencer? Or figuratively, who has sex?” Jax asked, trying to be a smart-ass.
“It really depends on who you think it is going to be. For example, if it is Natalie and she hooks up with her date, Lucky, she will both be getting lucky and getting Lucky!”
Jax shook his head. “It won’t be Natalie. I can’t see Lucky, after all these years, sleeping with Nat, especially since Liz is in town.”
“Yeah, but!” Emily raised a finger in the air triumphantly. “Maybe he’ll try and make her jealous.”
Jax and Emily looked at each other and shook their heads at the same time.
“Nah, this IS Lucky we are talking about,” Emily noted with a laugh. “I love the guy, but he has more virtue than a nun on Good Friday.”
“I think it could be Sly,” Jax said casually.
“Hello? That means you think it is me,” Emily grumbled. “He’s like my—my—he’s like Lucky. Never would I have sex with Lucky, it’s almost incestuous.”
“His brother on the other hand . . .” Jax taunted with a laugh. “As for Sly, I didn’t mean he would sleep with you. Just someone—come on, he’s Sly.”
“Watch it now, you’re talking about my Sly,” Emily warned. “He is a very solid choice, however, I think it is going to be Nikolas.”
“You sound rather confident, Madame Emily, care to expound?”
Emily smiled secretively. “Let’s just say, I have a hunch.”
“Emily Quartermaine, are you planning on seducing the Prince?” Jax asked in a whisper.
“Would I do such a thing?”
“I am not one to speak of a woman’s virtue,” Jax gasped, holding his hands against his chest. “So?”
“All I have to say is that if Nikolas is in that ‘just friends’ phase with Sarah, he won’t be with me,” Emily declared knowingly.
**
“I had an interesting conversation with my sister today,” Steven said as he walked into the bedroom of his penthouse. Gia sat on his bed, flicking through the 400 plus channels he got on his TV.
“What the hell channel is E!? I can’t find it. There is supposed to be a blurb about me on E! News, and I can’t find the damn channel,” a frustrated Gia said, throwing the remote at her boyfriend.
He flicked it to the right channel then turned to Gia. “Did you hear me?”
Gia flopped backwards onto the white comforter of his king-size bed. The entire room was very white, except for the deep navy blue carpet and the chair that sat in the corner of the room.
“Yes. And let me guess, Sarah came up to your office, whining about how she ran into me. She thinks I’m secretly having an affair with you, right?”
“You are, aren’t you?”
“No!” Gia announced. “My friends and your friends here in the city know about us, it is not a secret.”
“True, but my sisters don’t know.”
Gia clapped her hands together and pulled Steven towards the bed. Her hand gripped his waistband as she looked up into his eyes. “That is why tomorrow will be such an important day. Sarah and Liz will finally know about us…when they see us walk into the club together.”
Steven looked at her, trying to resist the urge he had to rip her nightgown off and devour her. “Wouldn’t it be better to tell them first?”
“No, that would be duller, Steven, not better. Admit it, part of you gets off on the idea that your little sister have no idea who you are sleeping with.”
“Actually, Gia,” he bent down and kissed deeply, lingering for a moment. “When it comes to who I sleep with, I try not to involve my sisters in those thoughts. Our government separates church and state, I separate sex and family.”
“You are so totally the opposite of the Cassadines!” Gia said happily, pulling Steven down onto the bed. “I love that about you!”
**
Lucky stared at the blank television set and sighed. “I think I am too tired to change the channel.”
“How did it get so late?” Carly asked. She pushed herself off the couch and tossed Lucky the television remote as she put the DVD in its case. “We watched one movie.”
“Yes, but we spent an hour and a half fighting over who got the good seat,” Natalie pointed out, nodding her head in the direction of Sly, who was lounging on the leather recliner. “And the actor won.”
“I won this seat fair and square,” Sly protested. “It is not my fault I have a larger intellect than you three collectively.”
“Do you really believe that?” Lucky questioned with a laugh. “Man, you beat us at rock, paper, scissors. Where does intellect come into play there?”
Sly stood up dramatically. “I don’t have to take this abuse, I’m going home.”
“I should get home too,” Natalie noted.
“Why don’t you guys just crash here—it’s late?” Carly suggested with a smile.
Natalie walked over to Carly and draped an arm around her shoulder. “Caroline, we are all far too old to be having slumber parties. Not to mention, the paparazzi will be out tomorrow—I need my beauty sleep.”
Lucky rolled his eyes jokingly; “I’ll walk you home and dump the Sly-man into a cab.”
He grabbed his coat and led the duo out of the apartment. Once on the street Lucky made sure Sly got into a cab and went in the direction of his apartment, knowing Sly had the habit of not going right home at night.
“You don’t have to walk me home, Lucky. It’s only three blocks away,” Natalie pointed out.
“Call me old fashioned,” Lucky began, his hands stuffed into the pockets of his leather coat. “But it is late and this is New York.”
“Ugh, Lucky, come on. I taught a self defense class when I was in college, I have a black belt . . .in fact, I could probably kick your ass.”
“Really?” Lucky asked with a laugh. They stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, Natalie in a fighter’s stance.
“Attack me.”
Lucky looked at her in disbelief. “I’m not going to attack you.”
“Chicken?” Natalie asked, throwing mock punches his way. “Bring it on, Spencer. I can take you!”
“I don’t doubt that, Nat,” he said, a playful smirk dancing across his lips. “I just can’t imagine Caroline will be happy if I have a black eye for the opening tomorrow.”
“If you know I can handle myself, why’d you volunteer to walk me home?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I just wanted to—ok?”
They reached Natalie’s building and she was unable to take her eyes off of him. “I’ll never understand you, Spencer.”
He leaned his head to the side and smiled. “Would you want to?”
“Would you?”
“Want to understand you?” he questioned, confused.
“No, understand yourself.”
Lucky shook his head. “I’m not following.”
“I know I’ll regret saying this later, but . . . I don’t think you understand your place in the world anymore, that’s why I think you are so reluctant to let yourself be happy.”
“Nat . . .” he said, fearing where this was going.
“No, this isn’t about us. This is about you and what you want to do with your life. You, Lucky Spencer, are an amazing man, but I don’t think you realize that yet. Maybe I’m the woman to bring it out in you, maybe I’m not but,” she held out her hand and placed it on his chest, “it is in there. I only hope I’m around when you let it all out.”
**
Jason sat the desk in his tiny, poorly lit hotel room. There was a bed in the center of the room, said desk, and a dresser. A laptop computer sat on the desk, the glow from the screen the only light in the place.
He hated the contraption, it was so impersonal, and not to mention he never fully understood how to use it. But it was a tool, one he took full advantage of.
“There you are,” he muttered, looking at the screen with a satisfied smile. //So this is how you want to play it, Cassadine? Then this is how it is going to be, Jason thought.
A rapid knocking on the door drove Jason from his plans. He jumped up and answered it; his gun tucked nicely in his belt around his back.
“Yeah?”
“A package, sir,” the nervous bellman said.
Jason took the box from the young man, handed him a twenty, and shut the door. He brought the box to the bed and sliced it open with an imposing looking knife. He pulled the contents of the box out and held it in front of him.
“Well,” he said to himself, holding the black tux in the air. “Looks like I’m going to a party.”
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