Title: Cuts Like A Knife
Author: Stress
First written: May 12, 2002
Edited and replaced: January 21, 2005
Summary: Part I of the Soul Mates Series; She thought that life couldn't get any better. She had friends and a family that loved her – she was taken care of and had no complaints. But that was before he came into her life. And, no matter how hard she tries to escape his grasp, he'll never let her go.
The Queens Newsgirls' Lodging House
It was getting late and Dice was getting worried as she paced back and forth in the lobby, waiting for Iris to come in. As every minute passed, she could only wonder what Iris and Spindle were doing out; they had been out selling together far longer than Spindle had been with any of the other girls. Though Dice didn't know what it was that Iris had seen that night a few weeks ago, she knew it was bad because she had returned to the lodging house shaking. Ever since then Iris had changed the subject whenever anyone mentioned Spindle, Rip or Jess. "I wonder if she knows why Spindle's acting so overprotective of her relationship with Rip? Hmmm..." Dice let her thoughts wander as she walked up the stairs and entered the bunkroom to see if Iris had sneaked by when she wasn't watching. She stopped short when she noticed that the other girls that were in for the night had grouped together at the far end of the bunkroom, whispering amongst themselves.
Corner, noticing that Dice had entered the bunkroom, motioned for her to join them.
Dice hurried over just in time to hear Quipster say, "Ya know what, Grace, you're right. I noticed it too."
"What did you notice, Quip? What are you guys talking about?" Dice asked, trying to find out what they were talking about while she was waiting downstairs.
"Shhh! Not so loud, Dice. Do ya want to have Spindle hear you?" Yanchi said, a little fearful, quickly looking around to see if Spindle was around.
"Where's your brain at, Yanchi? You know that Spindle won't be here for awhile yet," Mimic said, trying to calm her down.
Corner, ignoring the exchange between Yanchi and Mimic, turned to face Dice. "We was just talking about a change that has come over one of our girls."
When the puzzled look on Dice's face stayed there, Quipster sighed. "Don't tell me that you haven't noticed it."
Trying to help Dice out, Tunes piped up. "Maybe not, considering that she don't live here with us and Dice is always too busy playing with her dice to notice what's going on down at the distribution center in the morning."
Dice finally understood who they were discussing. "Are you girls talking about Jess?"
"Ding, ding. We've got ourselves a winner!" Quipster quipped sarcastically while rolling her eyes.
"That was a good one, Quip!" Moneybags said as she burst into a fit of giggles. She stopped when Grace shot her a warning look.
"Not now, MB. Like we were saying, there is something really wrong with Jess. She's changed so much in these past few weeks and I'm getting worried," Grace said as she nervously played with her blonde hair.
Snow Drop spoke up. "I don't know why you're so worried, Grace. She seems fine to me."
Spadey gave her an unbelievable look before opening her mouth to add her two cents. "What, are you kidding me Snow Drop? I ain't heard Jess talk to anyone since the day that she sold with Spindle, an we all know that she ain't naturally quiet like that."
"Spadey's right. Grace too. I think that something's wrong, I just ain't sure what," Psyche added.
Quipster opened her mouth but thought better of it when she heard someone thundering up the lodging house stairs. "Hey, Mimic, what time did you say that Spindle'll get back, tonight?" she fiercely whispered. The last thing they needed was to arouse Spindle's suspicion that something was up by having her walk in the middle of their secret pow wow.
Before Mimic had a chance to reply, someone came bursting through the bunkroom door. But it wasn't Spindle, it was--
"Iris, what happened to you?" Dice cried out as she ran over to hug her friend, closely followed by the rest of the girls.
Iris, her eyes still red from crying and her neck covered with a fine trail of blood from where Spindle had rested her knife and nicked the skin, gladly accepted Dice's hug. "Oh, girls. You don't know how glad I am to see you."
Quipster, the unofficial leader when Spindle wasn't around, got prepared to go after Iris's attacker. "Who did this to you, Iris? We'll go soak them for you."
Iris let out a snort as she looked over at Quipster's defensive stance. "I don't think that'll be a good idea, Quipster. It was Spindle."
"It don't matter, we'll-- What?! It was Spindle? Our Spindle?" Quipster said in shock.
As all the girls began to mumble amongst themselves, Iris slowly nodded her head. "It was real weird. One second we were selling our papes and then she starts asking me all these questions about Rip. I told her I don't know anything but she kept pestering me, waving her knife in me face. So I told her that I saw Rip with another girl a few weeks back. I was afraid to tell her but I finally did. But she wasn't mad then. She got mad when I told her that I didn't know who the girl was. She got real mad and put her knife to me throat, but it did no good, because I still didn't know. Finally she just said thanks and left. I sat on the street in shock until one of the Bulls asked me if I needed help, then I got up and ran back here."
The other girls stood there in shock. They all knew how Spindle was when it came to Rip, so they had no problem at all believing that what Iris said had happened had, in actuality, happened.
Corner was the first one who was able to say something. "Rip is cheating on Spindle? But...but...but I don't understand. There ain't a girl in Queens who would be dumb enough to go after Spindle's guy. And everyone knows that Rip is Spindle's guy."
Yanchi nodded. "I know what ya mean, Corner. Are you sure that you ain't seen the girl?" she asked. Maybe Iris was too afraid to tell Spindle, but that didn't mean she couldn't tell her friends.
But Iris was no fool. She knew that some of the girls present in the bunkroom would race to be the one to tell Spindle the news if she let it spill. Shaking her head sadly, she replied, "Sorry, Yanchi. But I honestly didn't see the face of the girl that he was with. Besides, I only saw them together once and I still ain't sure that that was Rip." She kept her gaze in front of her, neatly avoiding Dice's eyes. Dice could always tell when she was lying.
Even though Iris said that looking at Psyche and Snow Drop, Dice could hear the lie spilling out of Iris's lips. "What's up with her? What is it that she knows?" she thought to herself as she saw a similar confused expression on Grace's face.
Anxious to get out of the line of questions from the other girls, Iris pretended like she needed to go back downstairs to pay her lodging fee. "I'll be right back, girls."
As she quickly left the bunkroom, both Dice and Grace slipped out after her. When they reached the lobby, Dice called out, "Iris, wait. We need to talk to you."
Iris jumped when she heard Dice call her name; she had thought that she was the only who had left the bunkroom. "Geez, Dice, don't do that!" she cried as she playfully slapped Dice on her cheek.
Dice smiled sheepishly. "Sorry Iris, I didn't mean to scare you."
Grace cut in. "But I do think that we got to talk to you."
Iris flushed. She had expected someone to question her. "What's up, Grace?"
"Now, for some reason, I don't believe that you don't got no idea who it is that Rip is fooling around with. So why don't you just come clean with us. I won't rat you out, promise," Grace said as she made a cross motion over her heart.
Iris shot a look over at Dice who nodded. Realizing that they weren't going to let her off the hook until she told them the truth, Iris slumped her shoulders. "Man, you girls are good. You're right, I did see the girl that Rip was with but I didn't want to get her in trouble until I got the chance to talk to her about it." She paused, not really wanting to tell Grace and Dice.
Grace gasped out loud as she realized something that she had not noticed before. "I think I know who the girl is. 'Tis Jess, ain't it?" she said as she covered her mouth in surprise. When Iris didn't answer her, she knew she was right. "It is, isn't i?. I knew it. No wonder she changed so much."
Dice looked over at Iris. "Are ya kidding me, Iris? Jess is fooling around with Rip and you didn't tell me?" she cried, feeling hurt that her friend had kept it from her for so long.
Iris, a panicked look crossing her face, quickly hushed Dice. "Dice, shhh! I don't want Spindle to find out. Ya know what'll happen to Jess if she finds out right?"
Grace and Dice exchanged horrified looks. They knew exactly what Spindle would do. "Don't worry, we ain't going to tell Spindle at all," Dice squeaked out.
"Ya know what though, I thought it was weird that all of a sudden Jess wasn't talking to no one. Now that I know why, it makes a lot of sense. I feel so bad for her but I don't know what she must be thinking. That's it. Tomorrow I'm going to tell her that I'm coming to live with her at the O'Connor's. That way, maybe, I can find out what she thinks she's doing," Grace announced to the two girls, firmly making up her mind about what she was going to do.
Iris nodded. "That sounds like a good idea to me. Maybe we can get her to stop before Spindle finds out."
They didn't want to see what would happen if Spindle found out.