It's been a couple nights since Jam came by to mess with me, and so far nothing has happened. I pretend to myself that this means he'll leave me alone.
Right now I'm sweet-talking my seventh-grade science teacher. I didn't realize who it was before I sat down, or I definitely would have skipped him. Luckily, he hasn't recognized me. Thank God.
"How about I buy you a drink, baby?" he says, pointing at the bar. I stop myself from sniffing irritably and give him a theatrical smile and eyelash flutter.
"I don't drink." He laughs.
"You work at a bar and you don't drink?"
"Working at a bar, someone sees all the ways in which drinking is a bad idea. I'll pass. You can do my drinking for me." He raises his glass appreciatively.
"Fair enough." He drains his glass, and I look through the amber liquid at the wavy and distorted bar beyond him. I can see Hyjo walking away after mixing an unrecognizable drink for a guy with a busty blonde babe on his lap. As my teacher lowers his glass, I recognize the babe as Sissy, my best friend. I recognize the drink as a cherry Hymaljjoo. And I can also recognize that she looks so busty because she's leaning back, away from the guy. Trying to get away. I frown.
Sissy tries to push him away and he grabs her wrists, pulling her closer to him. She turns away from the kiss and he hits her. That's enough.
"Excuse me, but I have some business to take care of." I jump off my teacher's lap despite his noises of complaint and head to the bar. Nobody fucks with Sissy. Especially not some skinhead piece of work who looks like he burned ghiflies with a magnifying glass when he was little. I'm gonna get this one good.
"Let her go," I say smoothly, throwing a sheet of my red hair behind my shoulder. "She doesn't want you." He shoves Sissy off of his lap and she almost hits the floor, catching herself on a barstool. I love that kid, but she's weak. Not a good trait for an exotic dancer.
He doesn't stand up. Just narrows his eyes at me. It's obvious that he doesn't consider me a threat, and I almost laugh.
"Here baby, I'll show you what kind of a man that bitch was turning down. I could've given her the ride of a lifetime." I flick my eyebrows at him.
"I'm a little busy right now. You see, I've got an issue. This issue is that you have fucked with the wrong girl. Sissy here isn't gonna do much to you personally, but I'm a different case. I am not gonna sit back and see anybody treat her like she isn't the best piece of ass that's ever looked twice at them. Because I know why you're here. You're here because you're too much of an asshole to get someone to sit still long enough for you. You have to pay for your pleasure because no one would touch you with a ten-foot pole unless you gave them a fuck-ton of money."
He hits me. Just what I was waiting for.
I let the momentum carry me back, give me energy for the rebound and then I snap back, nailing him in the mouth. Spit flies from his puckered lips. Heh heh. That would be really fucking funny to see slowed down. He looks back up at me, astonished. Touches the blood running down his chin. And then he gets pissed, which scares me a little.
So I pick up a barstool and slap him with it, which tells him to back the fuck off. He leaves. I laugh.
"Thanks, Bella." I look down at Sissy. She isn't looking at me.
"Come on. Time for a smoke break." I take her under the armpits and stand her up, guiding her to the dressing room. We put on jackets and go out the back door, to the alley. I take two cigarettes out of my pack and one I stick between my lips, one I extend to Sissy.
"No thanks." I look up from the lighter I'm applying to my own cigarette.
"Hmm?"
"The doctor says I should quit, cause the smoke's no good for Sedvii. I hadn't thought of that before, so I feel kind of bad. What if he gets athsma or something?" I nod and put the cigarette back in the pack, sucking on my own.
"I'm sure he'll be okay, just quit and he'll be good." Sedvii is Sissy's little boy, and is quite possibly the cutest two-year-old anybody's ever heard of. Doesn't have a dad. Sissy gasps, suddenly.
"Bella, look! Jedi!" Sissy breathes, pointing down the alley and across the street. I look up quickly, and sure enough there are two long-robed figures standing outside the mechanic's shop. The taller one has a hand on the little one's shoulder and is talking seriously to him. His apprentice?
"They're so cool. I mean, with their lightsabers and all those cool flips and stuff they do. They really do that, don't they? I've never actually seen one fight, so."
"You're talking like a little kid, Sis," I laugh. They are pretty cool, though. "I wonder what they're doing here? Did something happen we don't know about?"
"Maybe the Republic asked them to help with the War," Sissy says, tilting her head to one side. "I don't know why they would be in Alton, though. Nothing's happened here yet." Yet being the key word, there.
"I hope so. I've always wondered why the Republic hasn't taken some initiative, sent in some Jedi. Enough people have already died, and." I stop myself too late, glancing fearfully at Sissy. That was the wrong thing to say. She has taken her eyes off the Jedi and is staring at the concrete, and frown worrying her eyebrows. Poor kid.
She's one of those cases where she fell in love in high school, met the perfect guy who loved her and would do anything for her. They promised to run off and get married as soon as she graduated.
And then Prince Charming is drafted into the army and is never seen again. His Princess is left at home with the baby that he didn't even know was coming when he left. Princess drops out of school and gets a job at Showstoppers, dancing to take care of her daddyless baby.
A single mother at nineteen.
Not that I haven't lost somebody to the War. I don't like thinking about him, though.
The Vasdyvin is a fierce military force that rose up about ten years back on the other side of the planet. Said that the Galactic Republic wasn't doing anything for the people of Sorenno. Said that there needed to be a change.
So they started killing people. Entirely without conscience, they've slowly spread across the planet, conquering countries with sadistic strength and sociopathic willpower. Countries and territories that haven't yet been touched by their influence sent "aid". "Aid" that didn't actually aid anything, obviously. My country hasn't been taken over, yet. Yet being the key word.
So, finally, it looks like the Republic has asked for the Jedi to come in and straighten things out with the Vasdyvin, if it's not too late. It might be.
Sorenno always has been a little backward, if you ask me.