"What crawled up your ass?" Eda rebuked sharply, cigarette between her fingers, ash blowing away in the soft wind.
The crusade of the everlasting heatwave continued, the humidity making Revy's head foggy. The wind was nonexistent; the back of her neck was wet with sweat after a short time outside. It was unbearable, and everyone was more tense everyday as the temperature kept spiking up. With a lack of a work assignment, Revy was resigned to swimming, and Eda dragged her sorry ass to the beach as well. She could hear the nun's car clunking up to park next to the apartment; when she turned off the ignition the vehicle let out a startled gasp.
Revy had found faded towels rolled up in the bathroom, after searching through the closet, dropping broken hairdryers and shampoo bottles onto the floor until her fingers touched cloth. They threw them on the sand, slathered themselves in sunscreen, and laid down like corpses washed ashore.
Benny was locked inside his dark room; blinds shut and Janet sleeping on his bed. Dutch wanted to "take advantage of the day", so he was out touching up the boat. Muffled sounds of a radio came from the dock, as Dutch popped in and out of the large vessel, wiping his hands on rags. Rock was out. Her heart lurched a bit in her throat when he'd be just gone like that.
"Suck my dick," Revy replied, her eyes shut with her face slack. Lying limply on an old weathered towel, she wrapped her lips around her own cigarette, and smoked flowed out of her mouth. She didn't mind Eda showing up out of the blue. The nun had brought a six pack and her own swimsuit; but importantly she offered a distraction from Balalaika. Getting piss-drunk was easy with her, because at some points Eda did actually drive Revy to drink.
"Bitch," Eda was tired from the heat, her voice slurred from taking a sip from the beer in her hand. "You've just got a goddamn attitude today, you know that?"
Revy ran her fingers down her sunscreen-greased jaw and groaned. "Ugh, it's the fucking heat, Eda. What the fuck did you think was up?"
"I'd say Rock, but we both know that's not going anywhere. I don't fucking know." The nun muttered, thumping her head back on her own towel.
"Last time I saw his ass was when we did that drug bust for Fry Face."
She'd seen him last night, actually. Revy had dragged herself to Bao's from Hotel Moscow main office, ignoring stop signs and cutting people off on sharp corners. She was slumped over the bar, waving a finger at Bao, when Rock had walked in. It was like his presence casted a shadow before he did- a few people quieted down, and darted their eyes away. Lifting her head to see what the lull was, her eyes caught Rock's, and he smiled as he crossed over.
"Stop trying to heckle for a lower price. You know he lowered them already, to cease your complaining," He said. With a flick of her wrist, Revy flipped him off.
That was all she could recall from yesterday, a hazy filter of more drinks and bitching at Rock, as well as Bao respectively. The countless drinks blended together, but she remembered Rock joining her in them, his voice growing warmer after the liquor burned his throat. The Plymouth hummed underneath her feet when he drove her home. In the morning she had woken up on her dirty mattress, hair mangled and the plastic bag still tied up, her sweaty arm keeping it pinned to her stomach.
"Chang, right? Isn't he always working with that dickhead?" Eda asked, sunlight reflecting off of her pink sunglasses. Sometimes Revy drunkenly pondered if Eda actually had eyes.
"Yeah. This beer tastes like shit, by the way." Revy said around a sloppy sip of the beer, feeling the trails of alcohol running down her cheeks, then continuing down her chest. She put her cigarette back in her mouth and sucked on it for a minute.
"Don't say I never treat you."
A moment passed between them, interrupted only by the crinkle of a glossy magazine Eda brought, one of the few English varieties that was sold in Roanapur. Revy pushed herself onto her elbows to see the pages of perfume ads and swimsuit models; with brief articles that Eda spent a minute skimming. Her eyes grazed across the excessive amount of cleavage the nun showed in her ten-dollar bikini, then snapped up to the colorful pages. When her neck began to hurt Revy laid her head back down on the towel, yawning.
The nun's hair was stunningly blonde today, the bleaching brought on by the sun helped, turning Eda's hair to the color of near corn silk.
"I had to organize porn for Balalaika yesterday." Revy blurted. She had to tell someone. The story hung over her head, clouding her already weakened judgement, a need to dissect it unfurling in her chest the smoke from her shitty cigarettes.
"Oh real- fuck, what? For real? She invited you over to what, do it by ABC?" Eda raised an eyebrow, dropping the magazine off to the side. She tapped more ash off her cigarette as she sipped delicately from her own beer.
"No, I had to fucking do this stupid shit- to like, pack it into boxes? You should have seen some of the shit those people sell." Revy chuckled, grinning. "Like, fag prison shit type. You should've been there."
Really, she should have been. Then there would be no ugly bruise just above her navel, purple fading into pink as it spread out. Eda would have inadvertently protected Revy from Balalaika, which was a string of words Revy never thought of in her life.
Eda guffawed and stabbed the butt of her cigarette into the sand. "Oh, tell me you are goddamned joking! I don't know how much help I'd be... I'm not good with doing, you know, work."
"Why would I lie about shit like this, come on Eda. It was insane. And Balalaika was working right near where I fucking was and- "
"Shut the fuck up. Shut up! Balalaika was monitoring you so you wouldn't like, steal her porn?"
"It's not her porn, okay? No, she was… she was like, doing phone calls in the other room. We hardly said anything to each other." Revy sighed, watching Dutch grab a toolbox and climb back into the PT boat. She scratched the back of her head, the grains of sand coarse in her hair. "It was weird, that's all."
Eda grinned, wiping excess suntan oil off her stomach. "I can't believe she didn't bust your skull in. God, you take fucking forever to clean anything up."
"Don't fuckin' bring him into this. It was just... different." Revy mumbled, casting her eyes down on a particularly interesting shell to the left of her, her face flushed. She traced her fingers down her cheek, absentmindedly. Where Balalaika had touched her face felt exposed, like a stranger walking down the street saw the contact, physically tattooed on her skin.
"Hey, at least it's over. You won't have to do that shit again. Besides, she can't be that shitty. Otherwise ya'll wouldn't keep working for her." Eda fished another cigarette out of their shared pack.
Revy opened her mouth to speak, but the words died in her throat. A warning sign rang in her head, because if she kept running her damn mouth, she'd end up reporting the whole damn thing to the nun. Literally asking for relationship advice. What she wanted to say to the blonde, what she kept repeating to herself, was why do you think that? What makes you think I'm not interested? You never paid attention to me before. It was a mystery to think how the Russian could possibly react to that, at least Revy found peace in that her death dropped in percentage.
"Isn't she really fucking tall, too? I only saw her like, once." Eda tilted her head, snickering as she burned the tip of the cigarette. Her hand shook faintly, the tiny flame shivering, and Revy groaned.
"Don't tell me you were fucking drinking before your ass got here, Eda." Pushing her own cigarette butt into the sand, Revy propped herself up on her elbows and glowered at the rising waves ten feet away from them. The nun had a drinking problem. Revy hypothesized that it was worse than her own; worse than Eda led on. "And you're tall too."
"At least when I'm in heels I don't push six feet." Eda rolled her eyes, chugging the rest of her drink before crushing the can in her fist. She stretched out her toned arm behind her to rip another from the plastic holding the beverages together, and silently proved Revy's point.
A shape caught itself in the corner of Revy's eye, and she looked across the hot sand to the dock, where Dutch was waving his arms, standing on the boat, tinny rock music playing in the background. He cupped his hands around his mouth.
"Revy, hey, can you grab my phone?" He yelled, repeating it again louder. The dock was so new it stuck out awkwardly in the water, the wood bright and not weathered enough. If Dutch wasn't around, she'd call it a near eyesore.
"Wha- Can I?" Revy squinted her eyes in his general direction. Lifting her head from the rumpled towel, she brushed away a few strands of hair and fell across her face. Her legs bent and she hoisted herself onto her backside. She already knew the answer, but she wanted to complain anyway. "Why do I have to get it?!"
"You're ten feet from the house, I think I left it in the kitchen." Sweat shined off the top of his head, and he pushed his sunglasses up. Revy pictured his annoyed face; brow furrowed and mouth pulled into a straight line. Then, he'd really get dramatic with a beleaguered sigh.
"Shit, I'll come with. I need to grab some sunscreen anyway." Eda stood up; balance shaky on the sand. Her hands rubbed her shoulders, and she scrunched up her face.
"Okay, okay yeah, fine, I'll get it." Revy complained, shoving herself onto her feet with a push of her arms. The bruise throbbed once in discomfort. Wiping sweat off her face, only to smear sand on her forehead, Revy grinded her teeth and set out towards the apartment, unsteady from the liquor and the blood rushing to her head. Eda was not much better, following her even more slowly, sunglasses drooping down her nose. Revy caught the sheer blueness of the nun's eyes, a blueness that was darker than Balalaika's, but livelier.
Revy winced under the heat, ponytail brushing her neck, dancing along another sunburn that near completion. Carefully avoiding jagged seashells and broken glass, she headed up the beach. As soon as they touched asphalt they broke into a nervous run, Eda laughing as Revy swore and stumbled, and she cast a dirty look in return. There was no small amount of relief when she reached the unlocked door.
Shoving the door open, Revy entered first, moving Eda out of the way with a shove of her shoulder. The apartment was cool, even with the fan off; the blinds were down and the lights off. Revy relaxed her squinted eyes. The nun scoffed. "Pressing issue, huh?"
"He sometimes forgets his damn phone when he goes out to work on the boat- it's his downtime." Revy air quoted, rolling her eyes. She padded into the kitchen, scanning the counters. Grabbing a dish towel, she rubbed the sand off her hands. She gracelessly pushed a few groceries to the side, investigated near the sink, and the stove, and found absolutely no cell phone.
"Have fun trying to find that, where's the sunscreen again?"
"My room. On the floor, near the bed. Shit's new, so it might still be in a bag," She replied, back to Eda. Tossing the loaf of bread left out into an open cabinet, anger crept up the back of her spine, and irritation leaked into her tone.
Eda wandered into the dark hallway, and she opened Revy's bedroom door with a depressing creak. Revy heard a surprised gasp as the nun entered, the door swinging into the wall with a clack. "Fuck, I forgot how your room looks like a pigsty."
Revy's bedrooms had always been neglected. It was how she was raised, with overflowing trashcans and rotten food shoved in the fridge. The sofa had holes in it and beer bottles stacked up on the coffee table, a gun on top of the television. When she was just a kid, she'd try to clean up, a desperate attempt to see if that would make things better, if ol' Becky made herself useful, but the trash piled up anyway. She didn't even notice the mess in her bedroom half the time. "Shut up. Quicker I find this phone, quicker we can go back to the beach."
Suddenly, a stray beam of sunlight flashed off a screen, and Revy's head shot up in the direction. His phone was on the coffee table, on top of two car magazines, next to a cold cup of coffee. The cellphone was in much, much better shape then Revy's own clump of metal.
"What the hell?" Eda's muffled question floated into the hallway.
A few quick steps lead her to the table, and as soon as Revy's fingers touched the cellphone, it began to shrilly ring. Crinkling her nose, she snatched it off the surface, starting at the black screen of the television, debating on whether to just let it ring, to let Dutch handle it later. "Eda, shut up, somebody's calling!"
Holding it up to her ear, Revy prepared the usual script when the company was called. Rock answered the phone, most of the time. A part of him still loved to do the office shtick, whenever he could. "Lagoon company."
"Two Hands?" Balalaika's cool tone had a hint of confusion. "Isn't this Dutch's phone?"
Oh, oh wow. Oh wow, wow. Revy sucked her top lip in and her eyes bugged out of her head. Her legs jellied, and she backed up, the backs of her knees touching the couch. "Hi, sis…" She momentarily forgot her words. No doubt the Russian had heard her gasp. "Yeah, fuck, it is, I was just grabbing it for him, he's out on that new dock, he was probably gonna call you, right?"
"No. I was calling him about that debacle before. I'll need your services again."
"My services?" There was hope in Revy's reply, she truly did want to pass out, maybe Eda would be kind enough to bash her skull in.
"The Lagoon company's services." Balalaika corrected, with a hard edge. In the background, there was a soft clicking of keys, of long pink nails scattering over a keyboard. Darkly, Revy thought maybe she was editing porn again.
"Okay, um, can you wait a minute, I'll run out and grab him."
"If I'm interrupting his work, I could always call later." Balalaika said, adjusting the phone near her ear.
"Nah, he's just like, playing around." A nervous laugh escaped her throat. There was worse things than having awkward silence, but yesterday was so in line with the Twilight Zone that Revy kept a conversation going. "He's obsessed with his new dock. Shit, I'll, uh, I'll go grab him. Stay on the line if you want."
"Alright, don't be too long, Two Hands." Balalaika stated, painfully reasonable. Was she in that computer room? Cigar in her mouth, eyes glassed over, staring at the bright screen? Was her suit jacket off?
Revy swallowed. Beginning to head to the door, Revy traced her fingers along the white counter, resisting the urge to pace back and forth, to ignore Dutch and just enjoy the blonde's voice. "Would you ever need my help again, with anything?"
"I… can't say, for certain."
"Well, if you need anything, I could come over and help. Even if it's porn again, I could be like, your porno girl-" Revy smacked her forehead with her clammy fingers, her face falling slack and her jaw damn near falling off.
Balalaika had the decency to chuckle. It transformed into a polite laugh, rising in pitch, and Revy's face colored red. The laugh was nice, it made her chest tighten, and she wanted to hear it again. "Funny way of phrasing that, but I'd have to think about that. However, thank you for your help. I didn't mean for things to end like that."
"I'm not complaining, sis. The air conditioning was nice." She stammered, slowly going to grasp the door knob, and she turned it. Her stomach did backflips.
"Revy, why the fuck is there military dyke porn in your room?" Eda yelled, horrifically so, stepping out from Revy's room, a confused expression on her face. In her right hand was the fucking DVD. The image was of a naked younger girl, hands bound, about to kneel before a woman in a Nazi-esque uniform, hat included. The woman's face was cold, a gun in her hand, and the submissive's was a look of fear as she stared up at the soldier. The title was in German.
Balalaika coughed, gasping, her voice hitching before she even replied. "I-"
Revy almost screamed. She almost kicked in the door, or kick in Eda's stupid blonde skull. She couldn't stop herself, even with a silent Balalaika on the line. Revy's hand froze on the doorknob, and her back stiffened. Gnashing her teeth, she snapped her head in Eda's direction so fast her hair whipped her face. "Holy fucking shit, Eda, I'm on the FUCKING phone."
"Wha- with who?!" Eda exclaimed. Her eyes were visible over her sunglasses, wide and pupils dilated. She staggered backwards. "I didn't know you were on the damn phone!"
Revy hissed quietly, a vein popping out of her neck, throbbing in repressed fury. Red spread in the corners of her vision. She paced away from the door, blindly in the direction of the nun. "Bala-fucking-laika, dumbass."
"Oh, shit." Eda quieted down, the hand holding the item dropping to her side. "Maybe she didn't hear."
Revy twisted her head into the phone, breathing heavily, lungs gasping for air, air that she couldn't suck in fast enough. "S-Sorry, sis. Um, Eda is over and she's playing a nasty ass prank. I do not have military dyke porn, it's Benny's I told you, he's a freak."
"Are you saying people who enlist in the military are freaks? That's rather offensive, don't you think?" Balalaika mocked, before breaking character and laughing. She muffled it, but Revy still heard it, and her face burned bright, and her grip on the phone tightened until it creaked. She had never heard the blonde laugh like that, besides when she had Rock on that car.
At the worst possible moment, Janet left Benny's room, sounds of a television show coming from the open door. She carried two plates in her hand, clad in Benny's pajama shirt, and she stopped dead in her tracks at the Eda and Revy's near standoff. Her eyebrows raised and she looked utterly confused. "What about lesbian porn? Huh?"
"JANETGOTHEFUCKBACKTOBENNY'SROOM." Revy jabbed a finger in her direction, breathing heavily, chest expanding and contracting fast. Janet, without a second word, plates in hand, raced back to Benny's room, the door slamming shut behind her, the sound of a B-movie muted. Revy pressed the phone so hard to her ear the quality lessened. "No, shut up, please, please, I do not mean it like that, fuck. You know what I fucking meant, don't do this to me. It's not mine."
"You're right," Balalaika had a smile in her voice, and there was a soft inhale of her taking a pull from her cigar. "Like you said in Japan, and I quote, 'trust is important too.'"
Eda slowly meandered into Revy's room again. A few seconds past, and the sound of something being dropped onto Revy's honest-to-god bare mattress. Eda walked out, silently, chewing on her lip. "You know what, Revy? I'mma head out."
She skirted around Revy, who was blushing so hard she knew the nun would make fun of her the next time she saw her, and she watched Eda go past, and rush out the door. The car keys were in the nun's shitty car. A very perfect escape plan when things went awry. Eda hurried down the stairs and Revy watched, through the open door, as she slammed her car door shut and after a few complaints from the engine, started.
Revy waited until Eda had peeled out of their driveway. Her voice wavered. Tears of humiliation threatened the inner corners of her eyes, and her entire face burned. "Please sis, I don't know what the fuck to say… it's Benny's, I swear. I-I didn't even know they made porn of that kind. I took a different video, I really did." Yes, she did know they made porn of that kind.
Balalaika didn't reply for a few seconds, but she let out a deep breath, like she was mulling over what to say. Away from the phone she heard Balalaika mutter something in Russian. "I believe you. Now, take the cell phone to Dutch."
"I- fuck, fine, I will." Revy sniffed, wiping her nose with the back of her hand. The initial embarrassment had become shame. She even looked down at the ground, like a child in trouble, mouth itching for a cigarette or a beer. A part of her yearned to be in front of Balalaika again, to hide her face in the blonde's hair, her eyes shut and pressed tight against the Russian's body, she was tall, so it made the fact of an embrace even better, and now her face was red again. She didn't need to check.
"It's okay, Two Hands." Balalaika soothed, her voice shifting into that velvety way after she smoked her cigar, smooth and rugged at the same time. Her sentence stopped abruptly. More words that desired to be said added to the amount that neither of them was willing to say.
"I feel… that was fucking humiliating." Revy responded softly, blinking, her eyelashes wettened. If she was feeling braver, at all, she could have owned up to it, and Balalaika would be so distraught that they'd never see each other again, and this fucked up situation would resolve itself. Revy reasoned to herself that she'd never really lied to her, this was going to be the only time.
"I know. But it's not your DVD, simple as that." There was entity of her own lie in the blonde's statement. Revy wished to believe it, but Balalaika saw through her bullshit, one hundred percent, and now here she was, the shell of a woman who everyone now thought fetishized the fucking military.
The screen door opened behind her, and Dutch headed inside, sweat shining off his whole body, the sunglasses staying firmly attached despite it. He grabbed the dishtowel and wiped his scalp with it, and stared at Revy with an eyebrow raised. "You finished?"
"Balalaika's on the phone. She wants to talk to you." Revy darted her eyes between Dutch and the far wall. If he fucking knew, it was all over. Frustration built in her chest; she never had enough time to talk to the blonde.
"Oh really? Here I was thinking you were chatting it up with whoever, wasting my battery life." Dutch joked, an ease spreading across his tired features. He threw the cloth back on the counter.
Revy chewed on her cheek. "Talk to- Nice speaking to you, Sis."
"Farewell, Two Hands. I'll keep you in the loop." She was neutral again, composure gathered around her like a blanket.
As soon as she handed the cell over to Dutch, who answered with a far more relaxed aura then Revy ever had, she jumped down the stairs, and winced as she crossed the asphalt to the beach. The sea was very inviting. And if Revy drank another beer, she'd be out of it enough to not think about rescuing the blonde from it.