Sleep Peacefully by NC Marshall

biggest fan,
especially not at the moment. The two of them used to get on pretty well. I’m
sure Jess even had a little secret crush on him when she was a teenager, back
when Dan and I had first started seeing each other.
    Things
had changed between them lately. Jess barely spoke to Dan on the rare occasion
that she saw him. I could see that he was finding Jess difficult to tolerate,
too. He barely even listened when I spoke about her anymore. I didn’t
understand why, and still don’t. Maybe it was because she was such a strong
person. She could be outspoken and opinionated at times, much like Dan could,
so maybe they had been too alike. He had tried to put me off going to her
apartment, but I had disagreed with him and gone anyway, knowing that he would
be unhappy I had gone against his wishes. What was I supposed to do? She was my
sister. Dan didn’t have any siblings and admittedly had been raised as a
slightly spoiled only child. He could never understand.
    When
I arrived at the apartment, Jess met me at her front door and I cuddled her
tightly. I can remember feeling her small frame in my arms. She had always been
thin, but recently she had lost more weight and seemed so fragile and
vulnerable. Her eyes were swollen from crying, and her long hair was tied
messily into a loose ponytail gathered at the nape of her neck. She was wearing
a pair of ankle length black leggings and an oversized pink sweat top which
hung loosely off one shoulder, baring the pronounced edges of her collarbone.
    I
followed her into the living room and sat down as she went over to the kitchen
and opened the fridge door. I watched as she poured herself a reasonable sized
measure of neat vodka into a coffee mug and proceeded to switch on the kettle
to make me a cup of tea. I didn’t make any attempt to tell her not to drink the
alcohol. I had learnt from past situations that this would only lead to her
ignoring my plea and doing the complete opposite by drinking even more. She had
never liked being told what to do. I wasn’t optimistic enough to believe she
was about to start now.
    She
came over with my tea and handed it to me, smiling warmly as she sat down next
to me on the sofa. Although she was still drinking, she seemed to have sobered
up somewhat to how she had been when I spoke to her on the phone earlier. She
was now able to string together a sentence to a moderately good standard.
    “So
what’s up, why has your day been so bad?” I asked her coolly, trying not to
sound as though I was speaking to a six-year-old after a bad day at school. I
didn’t want to patronise her, I knew that if I did it would only add fuel to
the fire.
    “I
just keep screwing things up Nat,” she replied, rubbing at her reddened eyes as
they filled up once again with tears. Suddenly, without any warning, she
slammed her mug down hard on the table in front of us, making the legs wobble
slightly and making me jump. I was surprised that the force she had used hadn’t
caused any damage.
    “I
thought things were already bad enough,” Jess said loudly. “Matt and I are
arguing all the time, we just can’t seem to get on at the moment. Things are
getting worse between us, Nat.” She paused and took another drink. “And just to
top things off, I was fired today. So I am now unemployed too!”
    I
tried to act shocked, but in truth, I wasn’t surprised in the slightest by the
fact that Jess had lost her job. It had been a long time coming, to be honest.
Greg, her boss, had been more than fair with her, especially over the past
couple of months, and I assumed his tolerance levels towards her had eventually
vanished.
    Jess
had worked as a writer for a magazine since her return from Australia. She had
been lucky and managed to secure an excellent position six months after she
returned home from travelling. The magazine was the rival brand to the one
published by the company I had worked for, before I left to have Josh. Jess and
I used to joke regularly about