X – Flipside
'X –' in Nail Scratch (20, Bold)
'Flipside' in TopSecret (20)
Chapter One: Easy Money
It had been almost a week now since Luxie had escaped Manticore and ended up in Los Angeles. Her hopes had been quite simple of what would happen and she been thinking about something along the lines of get rich and famous fast.
The second had happened although not particularly in the way she had wished. Her two new companions, Jondy Morgan and Heresy Scott, had turned out to be the same species she was.
Species: a group of animals or plants within a genus
So they were not as much animals or plants as humans with animal genes but Luxie considered them a species and since they were neither human nor animal, she often thought of herself as a freak.
Jondy had quickly become Luxie's favourite person in the world, which was not much of a challenge considering the competition. The two of them got along well enough and had a little secret from Heresy.
Heresy was the middle child in their relationship and she let them know about it too. She was moody and often felt she was ignored, so she donned clothes that accentuated her body and spoke loudly. She let others know how she felt and how much she hated them at the current time of day.
At first, Luxie had hated Heresy, then she thought she might be able to like the young woman, but eventually she had changed her mind again. Heresy's favourite past time was making sure Luxie looked bad and her preferred was of doing so was by snatching a guy away from right under her nose.
Luxie had quickly found routine in the chaotic and unorganised life of the X5s she now lived with and most often found herself sitting in front of the television, flipping through channels with shows she had seen ages ago and shows she wished had never been created.
"Get up!" she heard Heresy's familiar cry and looked up to see her least favourite person. The supermodel was wearing an almost see-through white top held up with three black straps over either shoulder and pants that were sewn together at the sides for a more fashionable look. However, it was, as always her hair that attracted the most attention. It was deep dark brown and the two long streaks framing her face were coloured a bright green. Her orangey-brown eyes shone with anger. Obviously, Luxie was going to have to spend the day with her.
Luxie got up slowly stretching and adjusting her shirt so to annoy Heresy even more. She brushed back a strand of her unruly, black hair, straightened her pants and then walked into the bathroom.
"I don't have time for this, you stupid little girl!"
"What's the rush?"
"We've got to check out a job, I got for us." Within seconds Luxie was out of the bathroom with a quickly cover of red lipstick. Her pale skin was contrasted against not only her hair now but also her pouting lips.
"A job?" Heresy grinned smugly. She enjoyed having Luxie in the dark and today would actually be a good time to keep her there as long as possible.
"I've just got to get some things," she said and walked into a room. A few minutes of jittering Luxie later, Heresy exited her room with a dark blue sports bag and almost dumped it into Luxie's arms.
The girl had not registered the action and Heresy had to use her cat-like reflexes to catch the bag before it hit the ground.
"One, it's your bag," Luxie said with a wide grin. "And two, don't do that." Heresy rolled her eyes, raised her head into the air and took off in an arrogant stalk. Luxie was about to stick her tongue and possibly yell a few curses after the heathen but then realized there was a job waiting for her somewhere.
Jondy had started her part-time waitress job at Savage and was already bored. It was still early only about six o'clock and if it were possible, she would be tired. Sadly, Jondy's genetic coding had been messed up in the lab she had been created in and she was awake, all the time and never a moment of sleep.
Her job at the Savage was only one of the two jobs she had. Her first one had been at a café called LAC and it had been fine. With the money she earned, the occasional cash Heresy got from her little thieving outings and Heresy's poster-girl campaign, the two of them had lived a well-enough life.
Now, however, there was a third girl in their life and she spent most of… almost all of the money they had on food, ate it and then spent half the day asleep. Jondy, although she enjoyed Luxie's company, was quite disturbed by this fact and demanded Heresy help her find a job.
When she felt her phone buzzing in her pocket, she grabbed for it quickly because the only person who ever called her was her baby sister.
"Hey, Jonday," she heard the joyful voice of Luxie on the other end and then a snigger at the pronunciation of the name.
"Yeah?" she asked and held up a finger at a customer. "Hurry, kinda busy."
"Hare got me a job," said Luxie's voice and Jondy sensed a wide grin across the girl's face. "We'll come by after to check how you're doing, she says."
"M'kay, but I gotta go now. I'll see you then," Jondy said and quickly snapped her phone shut. "Sorry, boys. What was it you wanted?"
"One bartender, please," one of them said smugly and his two friends sniggered. Jondy rolled her eyes at the apparent immaturity. "Aww, don't take it that way," he said trying to get on her good side.
"You have five seconds to order a drink, else I'm going to have to ki… call security," she plainly.
"Fine, three beers," he said gruffly, threw the cash on the counter and turned to his friends. "What a bitch," he muttered to them and thought his voice had been drowned by the music. Jondy shook her head at the insult and when she brought over the beer she let herself trip and a swig flew down the guy's neck.
"Gawd, I'm so sorry," Jondy said and slammed the three bottles onto the table. She felt the counter rattle, grabbed the cash and then walked off angrily. She would have never allowed herself such behaviour at the café but here, she felt it was an exception.
She would much rather be in front of the counter than behind it, guzzling beer and dancing the night away. She hoped that the job that Luxie now had would be enough for her to waste on food.
The only thing that unnerved was that Heresy had gotten her the job. Heresy's former jobs were somewhat… unethical and until she had turned to becoming a model and part-time thief, Jondy was actually quite embarrassed about her sister's line of work. She hoped that Luxie's first job would be less sensual.
Luxie had fallen back onto a long red couch and was laughing so hard Heresy wondered why the girl's head had not exploded as of yet. She had been waiting two minutes already, but Luxie did not seem to be backing out.
Eventually Heresy had gotten enough, grabbed the vase off the table and threw the water with flowers still in it at Luxie's face. Luxie spluttered and luckily her laughing had subsided.
"You're joking, right?" Luxie said with a wide grin on her face. "That's not what my job is going to be." She waved her finger at Heresy. Heresy was wearing a tight red boob tube with cowboy-like tassels hanging from it and she had opened the bottom of her pants so far that all they covered was her groin and most of her ass. She was also wearing a red cowboy hat and matching gloves that went up to her elbow.
"Nope," Heresy said with a smile and opened her bag. "I even got you a special treat."
"Nu-uh," Luxie said her grin gone from her face. If Heresy was already looking like she was going to be dancing around a pole and shaking her boobs at guys for them to stuff money in between them, there was no way she would like what she would be getting. If it was half as disgustingly sexy as what the brunette was wearing, Luxie would run screaming from the room – preferably flailing her arms about in the air.
She pulled out something purple and threw it at Luxie. She almost had the girl but Luxie tried hard to hold back. Luxie loved purple and if that demon woman had found out this might be the end of her free will. Without free will Luxie was just… a soldier.
When she held the outfit up she had in her hands a fluffy purple corset that ended like a bathing suit and dark purple fishnets.
"This is all?" she asked. Heresy was not quite sure if she was demanding more because of the amount of skin she was showing or because she just wanted too look sexier.
"You wear the boots with it," Heresy and turned back to her bag. "Lucky we haven't put the spikes on yet."
"I was thinking more along the lines of 'why haven't we' because they'd come in handy with all the freaks I'd have ogling me," Luxie said and got up. When Heresy turned around again, she was slightly amused to have found Luxie stripped to her underwear and trying to work out how to get the outfit on without having panty line. Heresy gave a sigh and threw a g-string at her feline friend.
"Wear that, take off the bra, then the fishnets and the corset over that. And then, you even get these," she said and held up a pair of fluffy purple cat ears and a matching tail that would be stuck to the back of the corset.
"You have a sick, sick sense of humour," Luxie said and started on getting her outfit ready. Heresy sniggered and turned to look at herself in the mirror. She plucked at her bangs to make sure they fell in the right way and wiggled her breasts in their top until they looked a bit bigger. She leaned forward and puckered a kiss to herself.
"Gawd, I'm so hot," she said and turned around. Luxie had turned her back to the brunette and was pointing at the zipper. "Breath in," Heresy said sharply and with a sharp yank pulled the zipper up and turned Luxie around by the shoulders. Luxie was still trying to catch her breath. She had been taught to breath under water for what seemed like forever, but she had never been under the torture of a corset.
Heresy fluffed some of the fur on Luxie's corset, and then examined her face.
"You better not give me another one of your looks, else I'm gonna punch you," Luxie said with such seriousness that Heresy refrained from any facial expressions. Instead she grabbed some mascara off the table and went to work on Luxie's eyes while the girl put on her boots, tail and finally ears. "What about my hair?" she said adjusting the ears. She was quite angry at herself, but her love for fashion had gotten the better of herself and she was quite sure these clothes would be hers for the rest of her life.
"Just mess it up a bit, makes you look older," Heresy said in a tone that seemed much like one an older sister would use. Luxie ignored the way she spoke and listened to the words instead giving her hair a bit of a ruffle. She brushed a streak behind her head. "Nah!" Heresy protested and pulled the streak back forward, letting it hang in front of Luxie's eye.
"Cool," Luxie said plainly and grabbed her tail swinging it seductively.
"Alright," Heresy said and turned Luxie to face her again. "Remember, this is for the cause. Cause being Jondy because we don't want the poor girl to overwork herself. This is just temp until I find something better and possibly only tonight."
"I'm not sure I like they way you add that 'possibly' really quietly," Luxie said raising an eyebrow. She did not because it seemed very suspicious that Heresy was lowering her voice for this bit of information.
"Just checking your hearing, kid," Heresy said upset about having been caught out. She had in fact forgotten that Luxie was one of them and could hear just as well. "Anyway, we're going to be dancing for two guys and please, make it worth the cash we're getting."
"Sure, whatever," Luxie said laxly. Heresy rolled her eyes and led the girl out and back into the club.
"What do you recommend?" Jondy heard a voice and looked up at a particularly handsome young man. He was smiling and if it was not for his slightly lopsided grin, she might have started hitting on him. However, no one had ever asked her opinion on a drink, well, not in the bar that is.
"Uh, beer?" she said with a shrug. "Keeps the muscles relaxed when you start shaking your booty out there," she said and gave a nod towards the dance floor which was down the stairs. He nodded thoughtfully and held up two fingers mouthing the same word.
Jondy ducked down under the bar and soon after put two beers on the table.
"Who's the other one for?" she asked and looked around. The two people around him did not seem as if they belonged to him. The brunette was rubbing herself against someone else and the young man on his right did not seem to be his type.
"You," she said and gave her another smile – this one more sincere. She, however, showed him she did not believe but when he broke the cap of the first bottle, he held it up to her. Slowly she raised the bottle to her mouth and then too a big sip. He smiled, broke of the cap of his bottle and took an equally big swig.
When Jondy lowered the bottle again she gave him a skew smile waiting for him to explain himself. He looked at her like a love-sick puppy which might have made Jondy's insides churn on several occasions but now she felt really good about it.
During this time she took a good look at him. He had brown hair that was stylishly ruffled and kept in place with a fair amount of gel. It had a blue shimmer to it but Jondy expected it to be the lighting at the bar. His eyes were a bright blue, the kind she expected hers to be and the kind that made women's hearts melt. She could feel hers getting there, but she restrained. Apart from those fairly normal features and a fairly nice face, he had two blue stripes under his left eye going down his cheek. It made his pretty boy appearance a bit more mysterious and if there was one thing Jondy craved, it was mystery.
"So?" she asked after a while. "Aren't you going to explain yourself?"
"Do I have to?" he asked with a smirk. Jondy felt her heart slip into her pants. "So, if I come here more often do I have a chance of seeing you again?"
"If you behave."
"What's your name?" he asked looking over her body. She was of average height, blonde, blue-eyed and something any man would catcall, wolf-whistle and bark at any day.
"Jondy, yours?"
"Tom," he said shortly. He glanced over his shoulder. "Are you busy?"
"Nah, I quit," she said with a perky smile and ran off. Tom looked after her, confused by what she had said. This was not what he had expected but then again he was not dealing with your everyday gorgeous girl – Jondy was something special and he knew it.
A moment later she popped up next to him, finished her beer in one big gulp and gave him a wide smile. He laughed and emptied his bottle.
"Would you like to dance?" Jondy nodded and although her face was smiling with the joy of a teenager, her mind was confused. Never had a guy made her feel so good and here she was acting like a girl on her first date. She decided to cast her worries aside for the night so that she could brag to her fellow roommates when they returned home.
When the two of them walked over to the dance floor, Tom slipped his arm over her shoulder and Jondy let hers wander around his waist. She gave a faint prod and felt her insides jiggle at the feel of his well-muscled body.
What Jondy did not notice was that when she poked him, he turned his head and gave a grim nod towards another young man at the counter. He nodded in return and then walked off leaving Jondy and Tom to shake their booties to the music.