“So chicka, you here for your normal?” Ace asked. “Come with me into the back.”
Amber followed Ace into the kitchen as they stepped over various band members and girls, all in different states of “awareness”.
“I want the good stuff this time,” she said as she took out a roll of bills.
“Whoa,” Ace said. “You rob a bank or something?”
“You only wish I would,” Amber countered back. The two of them laughed. “And give me enough for everyone out there. Seems like we need something to numb the pain.”
“Yeah. Man, everyone misses Milo. That dude seriously knew how to party. Stupid fucking druggie killing him for his stash. Wish I knew what happened to his stash, man. That was some killer stuff. Can’t tell the cops that it’s missing either.”
“Yeah,” Amber agreed. “He had some fucked up shit.”
“Told him he should have never started dealing that date rape shit. That’s when the real creeps come out, with their blades.” Ace said, measuring out the weed and putting it in a bag for Amber. He also gave her the guitar bong that they used for get-togethers like this. He grinned at her, “Let’s go get this party started.”
“Finally,” she sighed, relieved to draw the subject away from the late punk singer. She could kill like a professional. No remorse; no hesitation. Effective and thorough. But mourning a friend? Talk about a bitch and a half.
They walked back out to the other room. “Party time you fuckers!” Ace shouted. “Amber got the good shit and she wants to share.”
The other members stirred a little, sitting up to give her a high five of sorts. Most of them could barely manage a head nod. Amber stuffed the bong with weed, and Ace lit it for her. She sucked in and could feel the magic filling her lungs. She let her breath out slowly and felt the warm buzz fill her body. She smiled, yeah, this was the way it should feel. She passed the bowl to the person on her left. The room became mellower, the music became louder, and everyone seemed to feel good about themselves.
Amber sat back in satisfaction. This was one of those times when she wished she had someone to cuddle with. She was too mellow to have sex, but it would be nice to have someone to share the experience with. But Amber also knew that she would never give control of her life to another, man or woman. She wanted to stay in control and never have to answer to anyone else. Never again.
The night wore on and they continued to fill the room with smoke. Pretty soon they were all laughing and having a good time. Amber felt relaxed, the most relaxed she had felt in a while. It had been a while since she had come to hang out with the rock band and she was glad that she had come tonight.
After they had passed around the guitar shaped bong several times, eaten four bags of barbecue chips, devoured an entire box of Twinkies and a case of beer, most of the band members were either passed out on the floor or on the verge of it. Amber decided that she better go home before she ended up on the floor herself. She grabbed her purse and stumbled out the door. She drove home slowly and used back streets so she wouldn’t attract the attention of any cops.
Amber stumbled through the front door, giggled, shushed herself, giggled again, and walked down the hall to her room. She managed to get her clothes off before she fell on the bed in a deep slumber.
SEVEN
“Stupid dumb motherfuckers!” David slammed the door to his locker shut with a loud bang.
His partner Joe sat in the bench across the way. “Something wrong, Tinkerbell?”
“Yeah,” David said as he got ready to change into his gym clothes. “IA has me under investigation. Apparently, I roughed up someone’s cousin too much. Now they’re going to be reviewing my work for the past 6 months and my future work under a microscope.”
“Ew, that’s rough,” Joe responded as he put on his t-shirt. Being under Internal Affair’s scrutiny was every cop’s nightmare. Especially for a detective like David. Sometimes, you had to use a little more force with the street gangs to get the answers that were needed.
“Remember that kid that we took the Starbucks cup from?” David asked.
Joe remembered; the kid had been reluctant to give up any information. So David had taken away the Starbucks mochaciatto he had been nursing, in order to sit across from the kid to get his full attention. In the process, David accidentally knocked over the sweetened coffee drink. Joe and David did get the information they needed and they caught the murdering drug dealer that the kid had been getting his supply from.
Apparently, the drug abusing coffee drinker was the cousin of one of the city council members. He had complained to the city council who complained about the force the detectives had been using in interrogation. Never mind that the kid was a drug user and his information had gotten a murdering dealer off the street. Seriously, that was a five-dollar cup of coffee.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Joe responded.
“Nope,” David said. “They’ve even told me that I better show something soon in the Harvester case or they’ll take it and assign it to Rosetti.” David hated Mark Rosetti with a passion. Everyone in the station knew the only reason Rosetti had the job he did was because his father had been an all-star police officer.
“Something will come to you, David,” Joe said seriously. “You are the best detective on the force—besides me, of course. You’ll get a break soon.”
“I hope so man,” David said as the two men headed off to the handball court.
They spent the next 30 minutes trying to smash a small ball into the wall and into each other. The aggression in the day’s session was a lot higher than it normally was, and David knew that he was taking his anger out on the rubber ball. After they were finished, the two men were bent over sweating and out of breath. But David felt much better now that he had worked up a sweat.
The two guys showered and redressed in their street clothes. They went out and to the local bar across the street. It was full of other police officers all there to grab a drink after work. David and Joe worked their way to their normal table. Greetings from other members reached their ears.
The bar waitress, Kelly, came up to their table. She had been working there for a long time, and she winked at David as she said, “Your usual, guys?”
“Are we that predictable?” David teased her.
“Yes,” she said dead serious and then laughed all the way to the bar to get them their beers.
David watched Kelly saunter up to the bar. She was working here to make ends meet as she was going to law school. She was smart, funny, and had a great body. But David never could seem to work up the nerve to ask her out.
“Earth to David,” Joe said. “When you gonna break down and ask her out? You better do it in the next month or I’ve lost 5 bucks.”
David snapped out of his reverie. “I dunno, what if she doesn’t like me? What if she has someone already? What if … wait a minute, you guys have a bet on me?”
Joe laughed. “Not yet, but we will if you don’t ask her soon, man. Everyone can see that you have a crush on her and she’s sweet on you.”
Kelly came back to their table. “Here you go boys. Two beers for the hard working cops that keep our streets safe.”
“Hey, Kelly,” David took a deep breath and began: “Can I talk to you in private for a second?”
“Sure,” she said looking a bit puzzled. “Let’s go into the back hallway.”
The two of them went into the back hallway despite the catcalls and whistles they received. By the time they finally reached some privacy, David’s face was beet red.
“You know that I find you smart, pretty and attractive.” He began rushing his words in a jumble. “And I don’t want to be forward, or whatever, but I was hoping that maybe you would consider going to dinner with me sometime.”
Kelly placed her hand on David’s chest, “I’d really appreciate that David, but I have to be totally honest with you. I’m not single. My husband is in the army and is overseas in Iraq. I would like nothing m
ore than to have dinner with you, but I don’t want you to get the wrong impression about me.”
“Oh.” David was a little crestfallen. “He must be very special.”
“He is,” she said. “He was my high school sweetheart. He went into the army so he could get us health benefits and he could get a college education. I don’t announce my marriage or wear my ring here because I get bigger tips from those that think I am single cause, in case you didn’t know, law school isn’t exactly cheap. But I would love to go to dinner with you as friends if you would like.”
“That would be nice,” he said perking up a little. “I would like that. How about next Thursday?”
“Sounds like a plan,” she said. She grabbed her pad out of her pocket and wrote something on it. “Here’s my cell number. Call me at some point next week and we’ll work out the details. But don’t tell anyone out there about my husband; I need the big tips.”
“Deal,” he told her. David walked out of the hallway as Kelly went further in so she could go to the bathroom. All heads turned to him inquisitively and a hush seemed to settle over the crowd.
“I got her phone number!” he shouted.
David heard several damns and a “when do I get my money?” from the crowd. He sat back down and looked at Joe. “No pot on my asking her out?” he asked.
Joe shrugged, “You did cost me five bucks.”
The two guys laughed and drank their beers. David let his worries of the day slip from his mind. After a few rounds, he and Joe parted ways and he went home to pass out in his lonely apartment.
EIGHT
Lila woke up with a splitting headache. She hated waking up with a headache; it was the worst thing imaginable. She dragged herself out of bed and into the bathroom. She looked at herself in the mirror. Her eyes were all swollen and red. She felt dizzy and disoriented. And she detected nausea, which always happened when suffering one of these Godforsaken migraines.
Once Lila had been determined to find out what caused her headaches. She had undergone a whole series of blood tests, MRI’s, CT Scans, and everything else. But there was no cause; at least nothing they could see. They told her that they might be remnants of the accident, since she had sustained a serious head injury. So they gave her medication for when they hit. Lila was grateful to at least have the medications, but they were expensive so she tried not to take them unless it was absolutely necessary.
The nausea got the best of Lila and she tried throwing up in the toilet. Only nothing came out and she spent the next 10 minutes dry heaving. That was worse than actually throwing up. Flushing the toilet and shaking, she stood up to splash some water on her face. She looked like hell. She was so pale and withdrawn looking. Her face was swollen and her eyes shrunken in.
Felling a bit better after getting rid of any stomach acids, Lila decided to take a shower to see if it would help her to feel better. Sometimes the warmth of the water helped the pounding in her head subside. Lila stood in the warm water and let it run over her head. She stood there in a comatose state until the water started to turn cold and she decided to get out and dry off.
She moved in slow motion, debating whether or not to go to work. She threw her robe on so she could go sit on the couch and think about how she truly felt. She was so tired and all of her muscles ached. She felt like she was moving sluggishly as through water. Her hands were freezing, but parts of her body were burning up. She figured that she should probably take her temperature to see if she had a fever.
She slowly went into the kitchen and was overtaken by an overwhelming hunger. The need for sugar made her rush into the pantry and search for anything sweet: cookies, pop-tarts, anything of that nature. Lila shoved a whole package of Oreo cookies in her mouth before she even realized what she was doing. Disgusted at herself, Lila looked down at her hands that were now covered in chocolate cookie crumbs. She hoped Amber wouldn’t be pissed at her for eating all of her cookies. But she did have to admit it made her feel a little bit better.
She went and grabbed a cup to get a glass of water since the dry heaves and the cookie inhaling had made her extraordinarily thirsty. She drank slowly so she wouldn’t throw up again and then sat down at the kitchen table. She was so exhausted. Normally, she would have forced herself to go to work, but for some reason today she couldn’t make her muscles move.
Lila sat there in a daze for about 30 more minutes before she decided to call in to work. No one answered and she left a message for her supervisor that she was ill and wouldn’t be into work today. She doubted whether anyone would notice she was missing anyway, except for the person who got stuck making the coffee. Lila dragged herself back to the couch. She sat down and pulled the blanket up over her. She was so tired and she just didn’t know why. It was overwhelming. Soon after making herself comfortable, Lila closed her eyes and promptly fell asleep.
*
Amber looked at Lila sleeping on the couch. In her sleep, Lila had kicked the blanket off and her robe had come untied. Amber could see Lila had nothing on underneath. She looked at Lila laying there, almost completely naked. She decided that Lila had a decent looking body with dark hair and milky white skin.
Amber wondered what Lila would do if she went over and slid a finger into her pussy. She smiled a naughty smile at the thought of making the prudish girl feel like a woman. Or, she wondered, would Lila fight her off? Lila moaned in her sleep, and Amber knew that she would be most responsive.
Thinking naughty thoughts, Amber went back into her own room to sleep some more so she could go out later refreshed and ready to go. There was work to be done tonight.
*
She was kissing him, the guy with the most gorgeous blue eyes. They were icy and piercing, but they didn’t make her feel afraid. He was using his hands over her body and making her feel warm and alive.
She heard him say, “Bend over baby so I can fuck you,” and she did so willingly, letting him enter her. He then turned her over so he could kiss her and enter her again. She moaned against him and grabbed onto him, as she let the pleasure wash over her. He was murmuring in her hair.
Then he said, “Look at me Lila, look at what you’ve done to me.”
Lila picked her head up to stare at the handsome man making love to her. She gaped in horror at the spot where his eyes once dwelled, and at the waterfall of maggots spraying from the sockets.
“You helped me to see,” the man said as insects came pouring out of his mouth. “You made me see that I was wrong. Love me, Lila. Please, love me … ”
Lila screamed and woke herself up, sitting up straight. It was only a dream. She looked around wildly and remembered that she was sitting on her own couch. Looking down, she saw she was sitting practically nude. Quickly she closed her robe and tied the sash tighter.
She wondered what made her dream about sex. She couldn’t think back to the last time that she had even engaged in the activity. It had been a long time ago, and she knew that it was nowhere near as pleasurable as the dream she had just experienced. Thinking about it, Lila couldn’t even remember the last time she had gone out. There was someone once, but he had hurt her deeply and since then men didn’t seem to be interested in her. Maybe she wasn’t interested in them. Lila wasn’t sure; she just knew she had never really explored that aspect of life.
She blushed and wondered if it really was as good as it had been in her dream. She sighed and speculated if she would ever experience anything as blissful. In her mind’s eye, all she could see was her mother saying, “You don’t want to be one of those naughty girls.” She didn’t remember much about her childhood, other than the fact that she always did what she was supposed to.
Lila thought again about her dream. It had been wonderful until the end. She shuddered as she thought about the horrific closure. She wondered why she would have even thought of anything as gruesome as that and if it had some underlying meaning. She shook her head; it was feeling better. The worst of the migraine had passed.
Lila rose and
went into the kitchen to make herself a cup of hot tea. She felt better than she had in a long time. She must have been over-exhausted. The long nap and warm tea made her feel refreshed and she went to get dressed so she could exercise. After all, what else did she have to do?
Lila ran for about a mile or so. It wasn’t a lot, but it did get her blood flowing and the rest of the headache disappeared. She got home and made herself some dinner. She couldn’t believe she had wasted the whole day sleeping, but her body was feeling a lot better. She sat on the couch to read her latest library book, and watched a little TV. Life for boring Lila was back to normal.
NINE
As Amber was getting ready, she was thinking about her roommate; such beautiful white skin. She wondered if she could ever get Lila to think like she did. Maybe she would be a fun romp in the sack. Maybe she would be a good partner to have. But Amber shook her head at such silly nonsense. Lila was a necessary evil to keep the rent low. Besides, Amber liked to work alone. She had a partner once, but he had double-crossed her.
Tonight, she was wearing a corset top and a short flippy skirt. The top accentuated her cleavage and it looked as if she made one wrong move, her boobs would come spilling completely out of the top. But Amber knew that she was safe. She put on her heels, tossed her hair out one more time and made sure that her lipstick was on evenly. She spritzed on her perfume and sauntered out the door.
Tonight she chose to go to a different bar, one that wasn’t quite as noisy as the others she normally went to. She got in without any trouble (it pays to be friends with all the bouncers) and started her search of the room. It was dead as a doornail in here with not a lot of choices. Then she saw him. It wasn’t who she would normally pick, but he was the only one in a room of nothing. He would have to do. He was alone in the corner of the room, nursing a drink. She slowly made her way up to his table, knowing that no one else in here would pay any attention to her.
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