Lipstick Money

Chapter Eleven

It was still early. So early, in fact, that by the club's hours, it was positively the middle of the day.

But it was late enough to look out of the tiny apartment windows and see that night had well and truly fallen. I hadn't noticed the day slip into the evening. Maybe it had skipped the evening altogether and went straight to darkness. I couldn't remember.

It was too early to go to bed, even if I could have slept, which I doubted. But it was late enough to turn on the lights at least. With just a flick of a switch I could flood warmth into the tiny space I was standing in. Another tiny space. Only slightly bigger than a concrete box underneath a stairway in Shibuya.

I didn't turn the lights on though. I'd come home, without any shopping bags, and stood in the tiny kitchen, and wrapped the dark around me like a blanket.

I'm not quite sure how long I stood there.

Suddenly, without warning, a key scraped in the lock and I nearly jumped out of my skin. It was nothing to what Brandi did when she walked through the door though, flicked on the lights, and saw me standing in the middle of the kitchen.

"Jesus Christ," she shrieked, clutching her chest. "What the fuck, Jade!"

"Hey," I said.

"What the fuck are you doing standing in the fucking dark!?"

It took me a second to reply, but finally managed to realise that sounding normal was probably the safest thing to do.

"Um, I just woke up," I said. "I was about to turn the light on and you came in."

Brandi didn't say anything but just travelled her eyes down my outfit. Jacket, jeans. Boots. I belatedly realised they weren't exactly clothes one would wear for an afternoon nap.

"Really," she said, sceptically.

"Yeah," I said. "Um, I got home and just passed out."

Brandi shook her head and walked past me to the bathroom, and I heard the tell-tale signs of her emptying her makeup into her bag, signalling she was on her way out again to work. Or wherever she went when she wasn't at the club.

After a minute she came out again and I realised too late that I still hadn't moved.

"What is with you?" said Brandi again.

"Nothing," I said, and waited for her to leave.

But she didn't, just looked at me a little more closely.

"Jade," she said, and her tone had changed. Not to anything that could even closely resemble friendliness, but the contempt was gone. She sounded brisk, official. Like a teacher interrogating a student caught in a lie, but a lie that the teacher understood was necessary to tell.

"What?" I said, letting a touch of impatience creep into my voice now.

"Are you okay?" said Brandi, still in that brisk way. Like she didn't want to know but felt it was her duty to ask. Which, considering it was Brandi, was actually astonishing.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean... oh my god. Are you okay? You look... has something happened?"

"What? No."

"Okay, Jesus, you don't have to bite my head off, I was just asking."

"I'm fine."

"Okay," and clearly thinking she'd done everything that was expected of her, she opened the front door. She cast a quick, frowning glance back at me, and then, thank god, she left.