I don't own Matt but everyone else is mine.
Sleep
"Oh excuse me ma'am." A medium height brunette woman said to the tall woman her son had just bumped into. "This is his first time out since we moved." Her warm brown eyes looked down at her son.
"You're belly's really round!" the boy exclaimed leaning forward so he could look at the woman's stomach closer. The woman chuckled and leaned down so that she eye to eye with the blue eye boy. The mother shifted slightly and placed a protective hand on her son's shoulder.
"That's because I have little baby boy inside of me." The tall woman said before straightening up with a small wince. "You have a beautiful son." she said with a smile.
The brunette woman blushed and squeezed her son's shoulder. "Say thank you Mail."
"Thank you!" he called as he dragged his mother down the street.
The tall woman gave the mother a knowing look before continuing down the street, a hand placed to her swollen stomach.
Talk to myself again, all alone, on my own
Walk by the scene again, just to see what people see
Caught in your stubborn hold, and I'm so far from home
"Mail, where are you going?" The brunette asked as her son dragged her down the street.
"You said we could look around before daddy comes home. So we gotta look around!" his dark blue eyes sparkled as he once again looked back at his mom, not paying attention to where he was going. She had to steer him around people and threw quick apologies over her shoulder.
Marlene let her son drag her through the busy crowds of the New York sidewalk. He stared up at the skyscrapers in awe, then around at the people milling like ants, some dressed in work clothes other in their plain clothes.
Then he stopped, eyes going wide in excitement and let out a squeal of delight. "Mom look! We have to go in, mom please. Please! I'll love you forever, I'll clean my side of the apartment. Please, please, please, please, please!"
His mother laughed ignoring the disapproving look some of the passersby gave the giddy child. "Sure Mail."
The man behind the counter of the dingy gaming shop gave them a bored once-over before taking a drink from his convenient store cup. The store was dim and smelled like dust, concrete and old posters.
Mail loved it.
The short brunette looked around and roamed the aisles with his mother, peering at the games and occasionally picking one up.
Dark blue eyes flickered across plastic covered cases and sandwhich-packed game controllers. It wasn't until they returned to the front of the store that Matt saw it.
The Gameboy.
Looking from the display case to his mother he frowned to see her shake her head.
"I don't have the money sweet-heart." She said softly and Matt stared at his ratty tennis-shoes before looking back up with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"That's okay, I don't need it anyway."
His mother led him out of the store. But not before reading the price on the gaming device. One hundred twenty dollars.
So turn the lights on, turn the lights on
Turn the lights on for me
Keep the lights on, keep the lights on
Keep the lights on for me
"Hey gorgeous, where you going?" Marlene ignored the voice behind her as she walked purposely toward the club on the corner. It was cold, her breath fogging in the air as she breather and she hugged herself for warmth.
'Don't worry Mail, Momma's just going out for a bit' Whispered words as she tucked her son in the bed inside their dingy apartment.
'Please stay. What if Dad comes back?' Dark blue eyes peeking from beneath a floral blanket, The smell of his mother's hair as she leaned down to kiss his forehead.
'I'll lock the door. He won't be able to get in if the door's locked, now will he?' A playful smile as she rubbed her nose against his. 'I'll be back when you wake up.'
Don't go to sleep
Lost in your thoughts again, consciously you think of me
Focus your perfect words with a pen you write me in
I can't be reached, so far from here, I need you near
Marlene opened the door to the club and stepped into the air conditioned club. Lights flashed and music seemed to thrum through everything, even the floor.
Holding her purse to her side she made her way toward the righ side of the club, where the office was. Inside sat a handsome blonde man with calculating hazel eyes. He smiled as she took the seat across from him.
"Marlene, it's good to see you. How's little Mail?" He asked offering her a drink, which she declined with a wave of her hand.
Hands in lap and a small smile. "He's alright. He wanted a game earlier…"
Andrew leaned forward. "And you didn't have enough money." It was fact not a question. Well known between the both of them. "I can give you some, you know."
Marlene looked at the man who was like a brother to her, the club owner and businessman that watched her back. The only person that seemed to care about her and Mail's existence.
"I don't want your money. I want a job." She said firmly.
A blonde eyebrow rose up in a silent question. "I can get you work as a bartender or a serving girl."
"I want to be a dancer. We both know they get better money." Marlene's voice was decisive, giving no room for argument. Government assistance checks only went so far and with how little they helped she could only afford to pay the rent on the run-down apartment and the payment on the car. They barely had enough for food as it was.
"I'm not going to let you dance around on a pole Marley." Andrew said just as levely, using her nickname as a way of driving home the 'no if ands or buts' card.
"Fine I'll go look someplace else." I came here so you could watch my back, Andy.
"Like hell you are." The club owner said and pulled her back down by her wrist. "I'll pay your rent Marley. Don't think I can't afford it, because I can."
"I know you can."
"Then why won't you let me help you?" His voice was soft, concerned.
"Because I don't want your pity money, Andy! I want to provide for me and Mail on my own. I only came here because you owned the place."
Andrew sighed. "I'll start you off with a job as a serving girl." He raised a hand to silence her protest. "You can practice after work until your ready to get on the floor. Then we'll talk."
That was it. Discussion closed, and they both knew it. Marlene stood and listened to the bass that seemed to pulse throughout the entire building.
"I have to get back to Mail."
So turn the lights on, turn the lights on
Turn the lights on for me
So keep the lights on, keep the lights on
Keep the lights on for me
Her shoes clacked against the concrete stairwell as she made her way to their second story apartment. Even if it was close to midnight the city was still alive, lights flashing and traffic blaring. They lived in a noisy part of town.
As if to prove that point a gunshot cracked off in the distance, making the brunette woman jump.
Walking along the stairwell she counted doors until she reached her's. As she put the key in the lock her hand was grabbed and a rough grip tangled in her hair. She cried out but knew that no one would notice. Came with the neighborhood.
"Hey baby, got some suga' fo' me?" She knew that alcohol slurred voice.
"Hello Jack." She said gulping down bile as the hand grasping hers moved it way up her arm.
"Wha', no kiss for your man?" he asked and she turned on him with a glare, wince as some of her hair snagged.
"What do you want?" Her voice was cold, demanding. Jack's eyes glinted.
"Wha' do ya' have on ya'?" he asked and she pulled her purse closer to herself.
"Nothing, all the money's been used on rent."
"Really?" He reached for her purse but she pulled it away. "Then why won't ya' let me check?"
Even drunk he was smart. No, not smart. Cunning, conniving, deceitful.
"You don't need to see my purse." She couldn't open the door. Mail was in there and she couldn't risk his dad forcing himself into the apartment.
When he punched her, her head snapped to the side with a bang against the wood of the door. Her vision blurred for a moment as her ears rung. Jack took her purse as she slid down the door to the ground.
When he was done rummaging through it, after finding the hundred dollars Andrew had pressed on her before she left the club, he dropped it. She felt as it hit her lap and watched him walk away with the last of her money before grabbing the doorknob and pulling herself up.
The key turned in the lock and she stumbled in, dropping her purse to the ground and shutting the door before making her way to the bed in the dingy, no-room studio apartment.
Climbing under the covers she shifted so that she could wrap her arms around Mail before drifting off into a fitful sleep.
Beside her dark blue eyes stared at the wall and blinked away tears.
Don't go to sleep
I wait for you, I stay for you
So this is chapter one of the promised Gun's, Sex, Power prequel.
Drop a review to tell me what you think.