Cradle Broken Glass

Chapter Fifty Eight

Seattle 1995

"Oh for fucks sake, how many times do I have to tell you?.... Look I don't care if you haven't got there yet, you need to sort it out.... Okay, just fix this shit before anything else happens." Layla bashed the phone down on the receiver and let out a huge sigh of frustration. She was supposed to be taking a break yet no one seemed to know what the fuck they were doing unless she told them what to do.

After she had broken up with Eddie - or ran away from him, same difference - she had found herself living back with Cindy in Seattle and trying to avoid anything to do with Pearl Jam and the grunge scene, which was pretty impossible. But luck found that she bumped into an old friend of hers who worked for Interscope Records, only to find out that one of their more popular signings Nine Inch Nails was in need of a team member for their tour manager. And after making a good impression on John Malm, he had hired her as one of them. She had been on the round for the last year as part of the Self-Destruct tour, but was now being given a long earned period of down time, since Trent was now touring with David Bowie and his team. Yet even though she 'wasn't needed' she was still being called every five seconds about something.

She sighed and made her way to the kitchen, making herself a coffee before making her way to the back of her porch and having a cigarette, a habit she only partook in every once in a while despite her self-acknowledged self-destructive streak which usually made her binge on the little cancer sticks. She had managed to start renting a small one bedroom house near Queen Anne in Seattle due to her salary being better than she had ever hoped. Although it was fairly small, she had made the place her own, and she was extremely proud of how far she had come.

After smoking her cigarette she made her way inside and picked up the phone, sipping her coffee as she waited for an answer.

"Hello?" The voice on the other end responded and Layla smiled affectionately.

"It's me." She replied and heard a small shout on the other end of the phone.

"Oh my God L, I haven't spoken to you in ages, when did you get back from Philadelphia?" Ash almost shrieked down the line and Layla bit back a laugh.

"Only yesterday, apparently if Trent can't find his favourite pair of fishnet stockings then the whole crew has to search for them." She laughed, remembering the lead singer's anxiety at nearly having lost his lucky pair of tights. It was almost hilarious to think that the parents of America thought he was a threat to their youth when he went around wearing women's clothing on the daily.

"And I'm sorry you couldn't get ahold of me. I've been so busy these last couple of days, and yesterday I just fell asleep as soon as I got home. Even now everyone's still calling me up to sort things out even though I'm off duty." Layla explained and Ash laughed at her friend's misfortune.

"Don't worry about it. I'm just glad you're back in Seattle. Speaking of which, I need to talk to you immediately about something." Ash said, suddenly turning serious and Layla's heart dropped.

"Is everything okay?" She asked worriedly.

"Oh, yeah, everything's fine don't worry. There's just something I want to tell you and I need to do it face to face." Ash replied, and if it wasn't for the undertone of excitement in her voice, Layla would have thought the news was negative.

"Well how about you come over for some coffee?" Layla offered and Ash replied with a yes, telling her that she would be over within the next hour or so. Layla hung up the phone and stared out of her window to her garden, wondering what Ash needed to tell her.

She knew it was self centered, but the first thing that had popped into her head was that it was about Eddie, but she quickly discarded that as soon as Ash had a positive tone to her. Even now she hated the fact that she thought about him, and that it was so easy for her to get lost in her memories of their relationship. She couldn't help but let a bitter taste burn her throat thinking about it. Everywhere she went it was 'Pearl Jam' this and 'Pearl Jam' that. She had tried her best to avoid MTV and any magazine that would feature them, but being part of the music industry, it was hard to avoid big names. She had still kept in touch with all of the guys, but their friendships were strained by the fact that she wanted nothing to do with Eddie, and didn't want him to know anything about her, meaning she rarely spoke to them anymore. She guessed it was just a way to defend herself from the feelings of hurt she had whenever she thought about him, wishing that it could have turned out differently.

Layla shook her head and pulled herself out of her reverie. She needed to get ahold of herself and stop being a needy victim in her head all the time. So she sat down and waited for Ash to arrive, flicking through the channels on her TV and hoping to forget about the past.