No Reward Without Risk | Chicago P.D

Nothing Particularly Illegal

I wake up later in the afternoon by a clunking noise which I recognize to be Nadia with her boots, walking all over the place. Why she wears shoes inside, will always be a mystery to me, but I know that it has something to do with the fact that she did a deal in an abandoned warehouse once, and there was acid leaking all over the floor without anyone noticing, and the buyers all got their feet burned off.

Nadia was lucky and only has minor scarring on her soles now.

I look at the clock on the whitewashed walls, and I see that it is 4 o'clock. I've been asleep for quite a while, and I have quite the hangover, as to be expected, of course.

I step out of bed, wobbling on my feet and I look at myself in the mirror. Dark eyeshadow smudged around my eyes and the same with my red lipstick. My hair is scraggly and I look like a nightmare. I go to the bathroom—only tripping two times—and wash my face and run a brush through my hair. I redo my makeup, only less dramatic this time, because I'm not planning on going out again. Bunny can't even know that we went out yesterday night, otherwise we will probably be fired. 

It's something called safety, she always says.

It's something called BS, I think.

I finish up and head to my chair, and put on the same flannel shirt from yesterday over my tanktop. I slip on my jeans and head out to the other room, where Nadia is making eggs at the stove. 

"You look good," Nadia remarks sarcastically. 

"I'll say."

She laughs good-naturedly. "Come on Er, the bacon's at the table."

I sniff the air, and indeed, I smell the aroma of pork and delight in it. I pour myself a glass of water and sit down at the table, picking at the bacon with my hands, not really in the mood to eat. My mind keeps trailing back to last night and the mystery Jay. How I would love for another night, or even longer. Something about him just makes me want to leave all my problems behind and go running into his arms, and I'm sure that he wants more too—I mean, he didn't just leave his number behind for me for no reason, right?

"Erin?" I get shaken from my thoughts. 

"Yeah?" I reply half-heartedly.

"Where were you last night?" Nadia asks innocently. "You never came home." 

"I- I-" I blush, "Went out, stayed out."

I try to smile convincingly, but I know that Nadia doesn't buy the act. She's known me for far too long. "Oh yeah? Girl, I forced you to come to the bar—you came extremely reluctantly. Somehow, I doubt that someone as boring as you (I laugh) stayed at some club the whole night."

She is half-wrong there—I did have a one-night stand after all, that's not exactly that someone 'as boring as me' would do, albeit the fact that I was that person. Turns out Nadia maybe doesn't know me as well after all, but maybe I don't know myself either. Last night was a very un-Erinlike move. 

"Well, you're wrong," I tell her fiercely. "I was there all night." I can't tell everybody about my hookup, yet. Not even Nadia.

"Uh-huh," Nadia grins sarcastically. "Sure."

I roll my eyes at the younger—yet probably tougher—girl's antics, scarfing down the eggs she brings to the table.

"So how was your night?" I direct the subject towards her. She shrugs. "Normal. Met some people, made some friends."

I laugh at her neutral expression. For me to be social would be a whole feat—and Nadia just goes around making friends nonchalantly.

My phone lights up, and starts vibrating a moment later. "Bunny" it reads. Of course Mom decides to call now, I think. I'm finally having a good time—forgetting about all of my problems—and Bunny Fletcher calls me, probably to discuss business. The business that I hate, but was forced into, and can't get out of. I swore a long time ago that if I ever got out that I would bring Nadia with me—she's like my sister—but if anything, she's deeper in it than me.
I've only being doing this crap since I was fifteen—she's been in it since her thirteenth birthday. Her foster parents' gift to her—kicking her out of their home.
And Bunny helped her, like she does with a bunch of other girls, but like all of the other girls, she has one condition. Work for her, and get paid 5% of the wage we make. 

And so a bunch of girls are now drug dealers because of Bunny, while not even all of them use drugs themselves, like Nadia and I.

Obviously, we've hade the occasional snort, consumption, or smoke, but it's not a regular thing. We aren't addicts.

"I'm heading out," I stand up abruptly. "Check out of the place and go back home. Tell Bunny that I'll be back later." 

"Alright," Nadia says hesitantly. "I don't suppose you'll tell me where you're going?"

"Nope," I shake my head. "See you." 

I pull on my ankle boots and head outside to Westort Park. I sit on a bench right in front of a marble fountain and I pull out my phone and take out the slip of paper with Jay's-
Jay's. It still seems so weird to refer to the mystery man as Jay. 

I punch in the numbers written on the card, and sure enough, a Jay  pops up. My hand hovers above the green call button, but after a few moments of thinking about it, I click on the button that saves his number to my contacts and I shut off my phone.

I stand up and feel water dripping down my face which I know for sure that isn't the fountain's spray. I stand there while, staring at the rainbow that the droplets of water and sunlight form, glimmering against the gold accents of the fountain, when someone catches my eye. 

A blonde woman—very pretty—striding confidently in my direction. Immediately my guard is lifted, and I eye her closely being naturally suspicious, before I see the silver star on her hip. I freeze in fright, thinking that she is probably here for me—because why else would a cop be walking towards the bench I'm sitting on?

I stand up slowly, as to not draw any attention, and I lift my phone to my ear all smiles, pretending that I'm in a very entertaining converstation with someone on the other end. I start moving towards the road, trying to get away. I try to make myself look as legit as possible, because even though I'm not doing anything particularly illegal right now, if she makes me do a drug screening for whatever reason, I know that I will fail.