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Months later, the intervention would be Celeste’s idea. Well, that wasn’t entirely true—Remy had wanted to do it for ages, but the prospect of giving his brother an ultimatum was laughable. Celeste, however, found it anything but. She’d done the research, she’d found rehab centers, she’d priced it all out and verified with Remy that they could afford sending Val there for a solid two months.
They sat down with Val in the living room apartment and told him the drugs had to stop.
Val laughed.
Then he shouted.
Then he punched a hole in the wall.
Remy tried to backpedal, but Celeste put a hand on his arm and charged forward.
“You’re done, Val. It’s not an option. You’re done, or you’re dead, and frankly, I’m uninterested in being with someone who is essentially a walking corpse,” Celeste said flatly.
“You’re saying you’ll leave me if I don’t go do this thing?” Val snapped.
“I’m saying we’re not really in a relationship anyhow, if you keep using. I’m just the mistress to a substance. Why would I hang around knowing you and cocaine are going to be the things buried together?” Celeste said. She spoke the same way she wrote—direct, clear, a touch haughty. She wasn’t crying. Celeste was too in control to cry.
Remy was, though he was trying not to. Val looked at him and found some form of ammunition. “Whatever, Celeste. Remy and I don’t need you.”
Celeste gave Remy a hard look, one that told him to just say it.
“Val, she’s right. It has to stop,” Remy said, forcing the words out. “I can’t do it anymore either. When it was just, like…a hobby, okay. And then it was an expensive habit, and that was worse, and then it was an addiction, and now I think you’re going to kill yourself if you keep it up.”
“I can’t juststop, Remy. You know how sick I get,” Val said, rolling his eyes, like Remy was being entirely impractical.
“The rehab place will help with that,” Remy said. “They’ll give you medicine to make detox easier.”
Val snorted. “Sure, yeah. They’ll give me more drugs to undo this drug. Everyone in LA does some kind of drug, Remy.”
“Then maybe we should get out of LA.”
“And go where?”
“I don’t know. Nashville. Maybe back to Florida,” Remy said, grasping at straws.
He hadn’t meant to play such a powerful card—he didn’t even know he had such a powerful card. But Val suddenly went very, very still, his lips parted.
“Florida? FuckingFlorida?” Val asked. “Are you crazy? After we finally got out?”
Celeste tensed, spying the opening, willing to take it even as Remy doubted doing so. While Remy fumbled for words, she spoke. “If LA is the problem, maybe Florida is the answer. If LA isn’t the real problem, then rehab is the answer.”
Val made a strangled noise. His eyes went wide, he fought for words, he ran a hand over his chin repeatedly, stroking a nonexistent beard. He looked panicked now, rather than angry, and when Val sat, Remy saw that his knees were trembling.
“You can’t go back, brother. They’ll get you. They’ll pull you back in. We escaped together. We can’t go back,” Val said, locking on Remy’s eyes.
“Then go to rehab, Val. Go get clean, and we’ll stay here and be amazing musicians and create our own label, and it’ll be amazing,” Remy answered just as quietly. Celeste had faded into the background, probably very intentionally. She’d possessed the power to start this conversation, but it was clear Remy was the only one who could get results.
“Promise me you won’t go back,” Val said, shaking his head.
“Go to rehab.”
“Remy, I’m serious. You can’t. They’ll kill you,” Val said.
“Rehab. I’ll stay here while you’re in rehab, and then, when you’re out, we’ll be fine,” Remy repeated, and his jaw shook so hard, his teeth knocked together. Val looked crushed, offended, and sat back, put his head in his hands. While his brother’s eyes were averted, Remy glanced at Celeste. They were manipulating him, playing him like he played audience members. He wouldn’t leave Val, not now, not ever, and it crushed Remy to make Val think otherwise.
“Fine,” Val said, snorting back tears. “Whatever. I’ll go. But I want to go right now. Right fucking now.”
“Deal,” Celeste said and leapt up, grabbing for her car keys, pleased to have won despite the cost.
“And Remy—” Val said, rising, “I’m only doing this for you.”
The Vivi Swan Experience
The Grammy Museum’s most popular exhibit yet—and it hasn’t even opened!
The Vivi Swan Experience opens this weekend, and tickets are already sold out for the next three weeks! The new exhibit will be at LA’s Grammy Museum for two months, before moving across the country for two years. Features include Vivi Swan’s first tour bus, a collection of dresses and costumes she’s worn to awards shows, performances, and in music videos, as well as a smattering of childhood photos, videos, and even a few never-before-seen diary entries! Vivi Swan herself is performing at the museum to kick the whole thing off, but don’t bother trying to buy tickets—it’s by invitation only. Good news, though—the mostly acoustic performance will be filmed and played as part of the exhibit.
Supposedly, the room will only hold five hundred for the performance—a far cry from her record-setting Sweethearts tour crowds.
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Author: Bianca Treble
