Blank Stars

chapter 24

We wound our way through the streets and eventually returned to the party that was going on at the front of the district, although we were at the back of it. Cera scanned the crowd before settling his eyes on someone, he led me through the crowd weaving our way through drunken bodies. We stopped in front of a table with a large amount of people crowded around it. There were two girls who were too busy making out to notice Cera arriving. He walked up to them and pat one of them on the back causing the girl to jump.

“Yo, Alex, there’s someone I want you to meet.”

She scowled at Cera but got up off of the lap of the other girl, before going with Cera she turned back to the girl whispering something into her ear to which the girl let out a sly grin, I didn’t need to know what was said. The girl followed Cera through the crowd and stopped in front of me, she eyed me up, making me feel uncomfortable beneath her gaze.

“Who’s this?”

“My sister, she’ll be staying with us from now on.”

The girl looked at Cera wide eyed, “This is her?!”

Cera nodded and I once again fell under the scrutinizing gaze of Alex.

“She’s cute.”

I blushed at it and fumbled for a retort but Cera stepped in for me.

“Don’t even think about it Alex, you’d be dead that morning.”

“Aw you’re no fun!”

“Shut up, anyway I just thought you could help her settle in, let her get to know some of your girls.”

I stood awkwardly, during their conversation it was as if they had forgotten that I was there.

“Yeah sure, I’ll always help out a cute girl.” She turned to me, finally addressing me, “If you ever need any help just come find me, or if you want a little something else.”

I was thankful for the cover of night and glow of the fire to hide my blushing. Cera slapped her on the back of the head but she just laughed and began to walk away, but Cera shouted after her.

“And Alex, I don’t need any more surprise pregnancies around here, be more careful.”

She glanced over to the girl who was sitting at the table from earlier and shot Cera a sly grin before returning to the girl. Cera let out a deep sigh, and brushed his hair out of his face, he looked at me apologetically.

“Sorry about Alex.”

I looked at him bewildered.

“What did you mean about the pregnancies, how does that work?”

He looked at me confused, then back at Alex and the other girl then something clicked into place.

“Oh yeah, you don’t know, Alex is a guy.”

“Really?”

“Well yeah, but he doesn’t like being called one so just refer to him as a girl if you’re talking to him.”

I nodded my head baffled by the idea, I had automatically assumed it was a girl and as I looked back to him and the girl I still couldn’t imagine him as a boy. 

“Anyway, if you ever need help, he’s in charge of all the brothels and stuff so he knows most of the girls here, they’re all nice so they’ll help you out with stuff.”

“Ok, is there anyone else you want me to meet?”

“Yeah, just one, follow me.” 

I followed him and he lead me out of the party and towards a large store at the side of the street, as we entered I looked around and saw clean tables and the comforting smell of disinfectant reached me, something I didn’t expect to find here. I realised we were in a tattoo parlour, that explained the smell. Cera led me through the store front which was pretty empty and led me up the stairs into another room which partly resembled a store but at the same time looked like an ordinary living room.