by Kendra Mase
“Seriously, sometimes I’m glad I get to forget about it when I go back to my other place in the city. I swear I am going to find a garter from the renaissance when I open the closet.”
Katherine expected the closet to be big, packed with hangers. If the rest of the place told her anything, it was that Avril was no minimalist like her boyfriend.
Avril’s closet must have led to another dimension.
“Well, help me. Do you want to go out looking like that, or not?”
Katherine looked down at her loose-fitting dress and sweater combination.
“Let me rephrase. When you think of yourself, is that what you are wearing?” Avril asked with a smile. A hand went up as if offering her the world.
“Um, I guess not.”
Katherine knew that must’ve been the right answer when a half hour later, article after article of clothing was tossed in the general direction of her head.
“Those might look cool.”
Katherine attempted to get the pair of very tight pleather pants higher around her legs. How Avril managed to wear them so often must’ve been considered a miracle. Katherine stopped before she got to her hips.
“I don’t understand why I am trying these on.”
“How can I see how my clothes look on you without you trying them on?” Leaning back on the edge of her bed, Avril tapped her bare foot against the plush rug. “It’s only logical, Kit, and, come on, those look good on you.”
Maybe if she didn’t have thighs.
“Give them a chance,” Avril insisted, cheering her on as she managed to finally get the button closed. “See? Style. You have even more curves than I thought under all those baggy shirts.”
There were certainly not going to be any of Katherine’s usual baggy T-shirts or unfitted dresses in this place. Looking back into the mirror, she ran her hands over the pants that felt like a second skin. They did look better than she expected them to. “I look like—”
“A woman? A miracle, I know.”
“I look like you.”
“Well.” Avril lifted her chin. “I do have a great style.”
Katherine’s hands next found their place on her now very prevalent waistline, pleasantly constricted by the ’40s bullet bustier top that also managed to shove her boobs up unnaturally toward her neck. She let her gaze linger on them as if they could be two more opinions.
“I expected you to shop at places…” Katherine couldn’t quite find the right words.
“Different? Expensive? Oh, I do. But the sorts of clothes that come from vintage thrift shops feel sort of like home. Didn’t always get to walk into Chanel and terrorize the sales associates after all.”
Katherine blinked.
Avril continued. “Look, I was called a stripper before a burlesque star and a fetish model in Playboy once or twice when I first started out. I am from the wrong side of the tracks, Kitten. Not some fancy agency in LA.”
“I didn’t—”
“I know. I have made myself who I am since the moment I met Reed. Everything turned around then.” She waved a careless hand back to the hall.
“He is my one and only. Best friend from high school. Onetime lover. Business and historian extraordinaire, that made my red lips and curvy hips much more ’40s and less ’90s Playboy. I could pull off the latter all by myself,” Avril said haughtily. “His family took me in for a while after they got tired of me sneaking in through Reed’s bedroom window during high school. We are the kind of soul mates that were never meant to sleep together.”
“They took you in?”
Avril nodded and began to lift Katherine’s hair in her hands, twisting it toward the nape of her neck. “I was in the system for a while. Not the first thing that I tell people, of course.”
“Why not?”
“Queens are royalty. Royalty does not deserve to be counted in the statistics for daughters from a broken family turned stripper. Of course, I have no shame. Obviously,” Avril said. “And look at you. In your prime to be a new Queen. You look hot.”
“I am not hot.”
“Yes, you are. Your forced B-cups are telling me so, Kitten.”
“Why do you call me that?” Why did she remember Jack calling her that?
Katherine glanced back down at her Sandy from Grease impression so she wouldn’t glance toward the opened door.
“Besides the fact that you are being a pussy right now, standing like that?” Avril rolled her eyes, bored as she wandered around the room, not particularly focused on her as she spoke. “Because we are all waiting to hear you purr, of course. But then again, you will also need lipstick. Now go back in and try on something else.”
“I just… I really hate pants.”
“So does the rest of the world, but to be socially acceptable, we have to wear clothes unless you want to join a nudist colony.”
“No.” Katherine held back a pained laugh. “I just mean—I don’t wear pants a lot. They are like boa constrictors for your legs.”
“Boa...” Avril glanced over her shoulder and rolled her eyes, but Katherine could tell she was amused.
She expected to be more nervous around Queen, but at some point, between being invited into her boyfriend’s home, being a part of grand theft auto, and forcefully stripped down to her underwear and put into clothes that felt constricting to Katherine, the jittery feeling that had been going off in her veins like Pop Rocks dulled.
“Fine. Go and pick something out for yourself then. There have to be a few things in there.”
Wandering farther back into the closet, Katherine’s eyes settled immediately on a simple black skirt. On another shelf, she found a pair of seamed stockings and a black lace garter belt like the ones she made back at the shop.
Perceptibly, Avril did not mind her indulging.
One at a time, Katherine rolled the stockings up her legs, clipping them at her thighs easier than she did with the plain garters she wore out for deliveries last night, slipping toward her knees when she started to sweat. In one fell swoop, she dropped the wide circle skirt to the floor, like something out of a movie, and stepped inside.
She shed leather for crinoline, prickling her calves under the lining and added a short-sleeved sweater that cut in toward her center. She couldn’t imagine Avril wearing, let alone missing them.
Glancing around as she felt the fit, her attention was snagged on the mirror plate atop of the built-in drawers. The mirror reflected rows of glittering earrings and thick collars of jewels. In the one corner of the tray, Katherine’s fingers carefully brushed against gold and silver encrusted brooches inlaid with jewels, different precious stones of every color.
She expected most of Avril’s jewelry to be in her face, but these were simple. Delicate, even.
An amethyst winked at her as she picked it up.
“You found my treasure trove.”
Startled, the heavy metal of the brooch clanged back against the dusty mirror it laid on with the others. “Sorry.”
Paying her no attention, Avril reached to pick up another pin. The bezel was decorated with what looked like tiny rubies, glittering in the shape of a rose. “They were my mother’s.”
“Your mother?”
“You sound surprised.” Avril glanced up from the pin with good humor, but only for a moment.
Katherine was surprised. In a way.
“Where did you think I came from? Straight out of the woods?”
From hell? The idea of Avril crawling out of such a place with her bright red hair put a small smile on Katherine’s lips. The words ‘and eat men like air’ also came to mind.
“I was born on a bathroom floor, just like anyone else,” Avril said, not looking up.
Turning the pin over her fingers still, Avril paused as she stared at it.
The next moment it clanked back down on the tray and she traded it for the other pin that had been in Katherine’s hand only moments before. Dropping to her knees, she shoved up the edge of Katherine’s, or rather Av
ril’s, skirt until Katherine was holding it in her own hands.
“What are you doing?”
Avril hid beneath the fabric and tugged on the strap of her new garter. Just on the edge of the belt’s fabric, she shoved the pin through and into Katherine’s skin twice before snapping it closed again. “There. I saw a girl do that when I was touring in Venice. She wore a lot of shorter skirts than you, of course, but there.”
“Avril.”
“Our little secret.”
“Avril.” She couldn’t accept this. Then another one was also attached to her. And a third that sparkled brighter than any star.
These brooches were Avril’s mother’s.
Katherine watched the amethyst set stone glint one more time at her. “Avril, I can’t—”
“Shut the fuck up and take it,” Avril snapped.
Katherine froze in sudden silence. It rang between them.
“Take it, please.”
Katherine, unsure what else to say, nodded.
Continuing to move, Avril reached back from where she was kneeling and grabbed a pair of simple black heels not far off the ground.
The block heel easily slid onto Katherine’s feet, nearly as comfortable as her sneakers were.
“There. Take whatever else you want too. I barely wear what I see is your style anyway. The skirt suits you. A few inches long on me,” Avril went on. “Come and look at yourself.”
Following orders, Katherine wandered back into Avril’s room where the air was cooler, less dense than it was in the closet. Stopping her before she could turn to see herself, Avril captured Katherine’s chin in her hand and precisely applied a swipe the shade of magnolia blossoms over her lips.
In the mirror, reflecting back at her, Katherine looked—she swallowed. She looked like she always imagined she could if she managed to find just the right things at the thrift store in the morning before they were all picked out.
Avril’s green eyes caught hers. It was only then that Katherine realized that they were rimmed, bloodshot.
Queen only shrugged as she took in Katherine from heel to hair.
“What can I say, it’s a gift.” Her eyebrows narrowed when she caught her gaze. “What? Not a fan?”
“No, I love it,” Katherine said, fingering the vintage skirt’s top layer.
“Good. Looks like we are both ready now.”
“If only there was somewhere you were going,” a voice from the hall murmured. Jack rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands. Not only was his hair ruffled, so was his black T-shirt that hung loosely over his hips.
“What are you talking about?”
“I tried to tell you downstairs, the get-together was canceled, but even I knew not to involve myself in all of…” Jack’s eyes caught on Katherine for a long moment. Eyes like honey dripped down her. “This.”
“Damn,” Avril muttered, looking around the room as if she was forgetting something else. “How about Keys?”
Jack raised his eyebrows in pleasant surprise while Katherine watched the exchange. “I could use a coffee.”
“I can see that. You look like shit.”
“Thanks.”
Katherine leaned between them. “What’s Keys?”
Chapter Six
She had been in Ashton for almost four months. Four months and she had not traversed past the few blocks surrounding the shop. To think that she was fine with it all suddenly felt like a slap in the face. She barely wanted to blink as they took narrow back streets and turns, passing the art institute positioned on the edge of the river, looking more like a coliseum rather than campus.
They made their way up through the cloister of shops. Emilie’s was just around the bend before they arrived against the curb with a halt.
Jack held the wooden door where over the window was plastered with various posters and notes. Glancing at them as she wandered inside of the dim shop, she caught a few signs for part-time jobs, missed connections, and band auditions.
Inside was a cozy coffee shop. The floor extended into the back wall, similarly clustered with pieces of paper left behind, as well as signatures written in what could only be a permanent marker against paneling.
A small roar applauded the tiny makeshift stage in the one corner. A girl with her guitar flushed as she hopped off stage, taking a pen from one of many, holding them up in the air from where they sat on the floor or on worn-in couches. She walked over to the wall where her name became one new among hundreds.
“Well, look what the cat dragged in!” a loud voice clattered from behind the counter.
Avril pushed through the two of them, wrapping her arms around the salt and pepper-haired gentleman. “Long time no see.”
Jack only grinned, shoving his hands into his jeans pockets as he walked closer to the till. “Hey, Marley.”
Letting him go, Avril took a step back, her eyes catching on something in the back of the café. She already made her way toward whoever it was in the small, yet dense crowd. “I’ll be right back.”
“We’ll be here. Where have you been?” Marley turned his attention back to Jack. “You can’t keep just popping in and out. This old man I know gets worried.”
“You mean you?”
“Of course I do,” Marley said without fault. “Who’s this?”
“This is…” Jack turned halfway around before seeing her still standing there, awkwardly shuffling on either foot. “Marley, this is Kit. She’s new to the city.”
“Is that right? Are you a student at the institute?”
At the slight pause, Jack answered for her. “She’s working for Emilie around the corner.”
“At the shop.”
“The one and only Kink and Collective,” Jack answered.
Kink and Collective? Though not an awful name, Katherine narrowed her eyes. For one thing, she definitely couldn’t use it for the site she still had on the back of her mind all day after her failed corset attempt.
Marley raised his bushy eyebrows. “Is that so?”
Clearing her throat, Katherine nodded. “She’s my aunt of sorts.”
Jack’s eyes opened a little wider. She didn’t realize until then that it was probably the first time she spoke more than a few words in front of him today.
The thought alone shot a shake of nervousness toward the center of her chest. Her aunt, of sorts?
She looked back down at her shoes, expecting to find her Keds, but instead seeing the light shining black heels. Going onto her toes before falling to her heels, she listened to the solid click.
“Well then, I hope that means I definitely will be seeing you around these parts more. What can I get ya two?”
“I have no idea what Queen wants,” Jack murmured. “But I’ll just have a coffee. A big one.”
“You got it.”
Both of them glanced toward her.
Swallowing, she looked up to the board above. “Can I have a latte?”
“Make it vanilla,” Jack added, just as a loud buzzing started up from his pocket.
Marley nodded.
Katherine only narrowed her eyes at Jack as he pulled his phone out of his pocket. He hesitated before hitting a button and shoving it back where it was. Looking straight ahead, he watched the owner make his way toward the machine, past a young employee with streaks of blue under platinum that only glanced their way.
“Do you come here often?” Katherine asked. The space between her eyebrows immediately creased, realizing how that sounded.
Jack only shrugged. “Once in a while. I used to work here.”
“Really?”
“I told you I was terrible at keeping secrets. Most of the time, lying comes with the territory.”
He told her that last night. Right when she was. “About that—”
“One coffee and one latte with a shot of vanilla.” In what had to be record time, Marley pushed their two drinks over in what may have been the largest mugs Katherine had ever seen, let alone held in her two hands.
As
she lifted her cup, she brought it to her lips, sipping the hot liquid just enough so as not to spill.
Jack watched her.
“Come on,” he directed. Lifting a hand, it came to rest near Katherine’s lower back, guiding her over to the mostly open mid-century couch with blue faded velvet upholstery.
Sitting down, Katherine felt like she was molding into the cushion and not the other way around, still, she took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down as she sat so close to Jack. The place overall was packed, likely having something to do with what looked like open mic night and all the students with backpacks piled on top of another.
Clearing his throat over the continual noise, Jack caught her attention. He set his tall mug down on the mosaic coffee table in front of them. “Hey, what you were saying back there, just so you know—”
“Don’t,” Katherine tried to cut in, clutching her mug closer to her chest. It was probably better if she didn’t know whatever it was.
“I’m sorry,” they both said at the same time.
Jack huffed a laugh.
Katherine glanced down at her feet. She was still unused to seeing anything but her beaten-up tennis shoes once again. She didn’t think she’d ever had this nice of a pair of shoes, ever. She’d probably cry when she scuffed them.
“I must’ve made a fool out of myself last night, I’m sure.”
Jack shook his head. “No, you were actually surprisingly coherent.”
“Then my rambling?”
“Was charming for a drunk birthday girl, I assure you.”
If he said so. She still felt the heat of a blush rising to her cheeks. From the bits and pieces she remembered of the two of them sitting on the kitchen floor, well, it reminded her of when she was little in school and there was always someone to talk to, like a friend. Even if this was Jack.
The raven-haired man and scary professional Dom her brain couldn’t stop buzzing with disbelief about when she found him sitting next to her.
She dipped her head back down to her ravine of espresso. The taste was slightly bitter, but also sweet and creamy.
“You’ve never been here?” He cringed, looking around Keys just as someone new got up to the open mic. It spit out a screech of feedback.