‘I know, I know.’ She sighed, and then plastered a giantcomical grin on her face for Lorelai’s benefit, before leaving the room.
Lorelai took a deep breath and leaned her head against the wall. Had the last twenty-four hours really happened? She thought of Grayson and the time they’d spent together, and immediately felt a warmth rush through her. But it wasn’t just Grayson – she’d also kissed someone for the first time in seven years and discovered that her kisses might not be what she’d always thought them to be. She closed her eyes and tried to put her thoughts in order. With her mind still, and the room quiet, she had a moment of peace to make sense of all of this. Maybe she could—
‘LORELAI!’ Joanie yelled, crashing down the hallway. ‘Lorelai!’ She burst through the door, her cheeks red and her coat half on. ‘Riggs is gone!’
Lorelai’s heart felt heavy as she and Joanie raced out of the flat and onto the street. As soon as they were outside, they both started screaming Riggs’s name.
‘Have you tried calling him?’ Lorelai asked, pulling her coat tightly around her. She rubbed her hands together and blew into them, trying to generate a little warmth. The memory of the first vision of Riggs’s death flashed through her mind, and a wave of nausea hit her. They needed to find Riggs. Now.
‘It’s ringing but it’s just going to voicemail.’ Joanie hung up and immediately hit redial. A few seconds later, she sighed in frustration, and repeated the process. ‘When we find him, I’m going to kill him.’
‘If we don’t find him quickly you may not have to,’ Lorelai said.
Joanie’s anger dissipated and then her face cleared. Riggs had answered her call. ‘Riggs? RIGGS! Where are you? Where did you go?’
‘Leave me alone,’ Lorelai heard him say, his voice muffled against Joanie’s ear.
‘Give it to me,’ Lorelai said and Joanie handed over her phone without hesitation, knowing that Lorelai was the one who had the best chance of talking him down.
‘Riggs, it’s Lorelai. Please come back. We’re worried about you.’
‘I don’t want anyone to worry about me anymore. I’m done.’ His voice sounded small and sad.
‘You’re done?’ Lorelai tried to keep her voice steady, but she could feel the panic begin to rise.
‘Yes. I’m done.’ Riggs was slurring more than before. How much more had he had to drink?
‘With what?’ Lorelai knew she had to keep him talking.
‘Everyone. Everything. It’s all bullshit.’
Lorelai heard the slosh of liquid in the background. ‘Call Wesley!’ she whispered to Joanie, shoving her phone into Joanie’s hand.
As Joanie made the call to Wesley, her voice urgent, Lorelai took a deep breath and tried to remain calm.
‘Riggs, tell me where you are and I’ll come and get you.’
‘No.’
‘Riggs, please. We care about you.Icare about you. Your dad would be devastated if anything happened to you. So would I, we all would. Please just tell me where you are, so we can talk about everything properly.’
She did care about Riggs – just not romantically. She wondered if he would misunderstand her words again but the only thing that mattered was finding out where he was before he hurt himself. She’d deal with any fallout later. She just needed to make sure Riggs would still be around for that fallout. Lorelai felt Riggs hesitate and began to feel hopeful that he would agree to let her help him.
‘No,’ he said finally with conviction. ‘And no one is going to find me because I’m where no one would ever expect me to be.’
Riggs hung up without another word. Lorelai stared at the phone for a second, and then grabbed Joanie’s arm, who was still on the phone to Wesley.
‘Tell Wesley he’s back at the cinema.’
Twelve
Wesley found his son in the darkness of the storage room, curled up in a foetal position, clutching an empty bottle of whisky. Riggs had passed out before he could hurt himself, and for that everyone was grateful. He’d have a raging hangover for a while but he was alive.
Wesley was devastated. He’d had no idea his child had been feeling this way, that things had become so dark for Riggs, that he’d considered taking his own life. Lorelai could feel the guilt coming off Wesley. Both Lorelai and Joanie felt guilty that they hadn’t spotted the warning signs either, but to be Riggs’s father and not have known how much your own child had been struggling; Lorelai knew it was something that would haunt Wesley for the rest of his life.
‘I… I had no idea.’ Wesley’s shoulders fell under the weight of it all, but there was a determined look in his red-rimmed eyes. ‘But now that I do, we can get him home and get him the proper help he needs. My boy is never going to feel alone again. Take the Sunday evening shift off, girls. I’ll do some switching around. Consider it a thank you.’
Later that night, too tired to cook, Lorelai and Joanie picked up fish and chips from the chippy across the road for their dinner.
