St Jimmy

Chapter 5- Fashion Victim

The next morning I woke up confused. I hadn’t a clue where I was. But I closed my eyes and re-opened them and remembered what happened. I turned over to wake up Jimmy to find that I was alone. I sighed heavily and slid out of the bed and grabbed the $100. I left the room and wondered around the rest of the apartment looking for him. I entered a small living space, it had black walls and a torn corner sofa. A small table was covered in crap and there was a small box of a television. A large stereo sat at the back of the room and an ashtray full of cigarette butts lay on top of one of the speakers. He wasn’t in there, just like he wasn’t in the kitchen or bathroom. It was a small apartment, just with a large hall.

“That bastard,” I cursed. I decided to put my shoes and go out. I figured that I’d waste my time trying to find him later. I walked down the two flights of stairs and out the front door, which was pretty stiff. It was nice and bright outside, it was also quite quiet. There was hardly anyone around; I supposed that it was one of those places that come alive at night. A few cops patrolled the street, I tried to avoid them but one approached me.

“Excuse me young lady but were you aware of the happenings last night?” he asked. He was tall and a strong build, but looked weak on the inside compared to the people around here.

“Yes, the fire, right?” I replied.

“Yes, were you at the scene?” he questioned. I remembered the line that Jimmy said like a song last night ‘When the sirens sound, you don’t want to be there.’ This told me that I should keep my profile low with the cops. I didn’t want to be one of those people who were always the ‘usual suspect’ like Guy, Colt or Jimmy.

“No,” I replied.

“Would you know who would maybe want to commit an attack like this?”

I wanted to say Colt ad his gang, but I thought I’d leave it for someone else to cause trouble.

“No sorry, I’m new here,” which was true.

“Ok, thank you,” he said and left it at that. I walked quickly to the nearest public building. I came to a small food shop and looked on the sign. It read ‘Jingle Food.’ I walked in and smiled politely at the man behind the counter, it was just as small on the inside as it looked on the outside. There were only around 3 other people there, another worker and 2 customers. The other worker was a woman maybe in her late 30s. She had long, curled, chocolate hair. She joined the man behind the counter, she looked tough and mean but when I built up the courage to ask her a question, she was pretty nice.

“Sorry, but do you know where the nearest place to buy clothes is?” I asked shakily.

“Yeah, there’s one down the bottom of the street love,” she smiled. The guy pulled out a fag, lit and smoked it. The woman slapped him in the arm and gave him a glare, which brought out her tough side again. She was mentally telling him not to smoke in front of me.

“I don’t mind,” I laughed.

“Oh, I tell him not to all the time,” she sighed. “The shop’s called Hellfire.”

“Thank you, I have no other clothes, just now, that’s why I’m so filthy,” I told her.

“Oh shit,” she said, chewing on her gum.

“Thanks again, see you around,” I ended the conversation.

“Yeah, see you around, actually, what’s you name?” she asked.

“I’m Jett.”

“Well my name’s Alice, and this is Barker, there’s a party on tonight at…wait…who are you with?” she asked, doubting her actions.