Reintegration program - Elmax

Chapter 56 : Talk

Jane went to the Dirty Men, hoping to see Mallory, but the girl apparently resigned. She was sat at the bar, drinking a glass of Whisky, watching the scene like if her friend could reappear. She lighted a cigarette to accompany her alcohol. It was a calm night, the music wasn't too loud, the men were enjoying the show without screaming, they weren't too drunk. A big shape took support on the bar, looking at her with insistence.

- If you wanna kill me, be fast, told Jane.

- I won't, answered Mona. You look like to cope enough.

- Yeah...

The fat girl made a movement with her hand to ask the bartender another drink for the other girl.

- Where are your lapdogs? asked Jane, accepting the glass.

- Dunno, and don't care. They needed me in jail but now, I'm nothing.

- Yeah...I know that...What you do now?

- Like everyone else, I do what I can, told Mona.

- Yeah...

- I heard you were prostituting, you're still in it?

- I won't have sex with you, if that what you want!

- No, chuckled the fat girl. I won't have sex with a shrimp!

Jane looked at her and scoffed, playfully shaking her head. She noticed some bruises on her, already knowing who was at their origins.

- Things have changed, right? stated Mona.

- Right.

- Jail wasn't that bad.

- You almost killed me.

- Yeah...it was the only way to be respected.

- You weren't respected, just feared.

- Yeah, but nobody bothered me, except you.

- I never knelt in front of anyone, why would I do it to you!?

- I wouldn't try to kill you.

- Well, it's done. Sometime I wish you did it. I wouldn't be there, no more problems, said Jane.

- Yeah, but, I would lost my only challenge, answered Mona.

- Why you're not trying to attack me here?

- I don't need to. You're not my enemy anymore, I've nothing to win to attack you right now, you look shitty enough.

Jane raised her middle finger to her, making her laugh.

- Kick his ass, told Jane.

- What? frowned Mona.

- Your father. Kick his ass.

- I tried.

- Why you don't leave?

- To go where? In bars like you? Being alone and sad?

- You prefer taking the risk to die under his punches?

- You mean, than dying of a lung cancer because of cigarettes, or overdose, like you did weeks ago?

- How you know? frowned Jane.

- I know everything.

- That's creepy.

- Yeah, that's what we are.

Jane nodded. It was the first time the two girls had a real conversation. It was sadly because they were both lost in this life, suffering the consequences of jail.

- Good luck, Crazy Jane.

- Yeah, uh...good luck to you too, Fat Monass.

The fat girl left the bar with a wave for Jane, like a definitive goodbye. The young girl stayed a moment here, not really knowing why. Certainly because she had nothing better to do and nowhere to go. She was going to leave when she saw a man, looking older than he was, approaching her. She knew him and she knew why he was going to her.

- I won't do this with you, told coldly Jane.

- Yes you will, you need money, I have money, answered the man.

- I'm not desperate at this point.

The man got closer to her like to scare her, but he didn't know Jane well, she wasn't scared easily.

- You will do it, because that's what you are.

- I don't wanna do it with you, you're disgusting and dangerous, stated Jane between her teeth.

- Come on, (caresses her cheek) a pretty girl like you can't spend the night alone, in such a place. I can take care of you.

- You're gonna strangle me, like always.

- I won't, I promise, I just need some company for the night, and you, you need money, which I have.

Jane looked away. She began to think. One night, it wasn't that much, and with the money she could eat somewhere else than in the bins. And she was almost out of cigarettes, even if she picked up some on the ground, she could at least have an entire one.

- How much do you have? asked firmly Jane.

- Fifty dollars, smirked the man.

- Fifty more and I let you strangle me.

- I can find this.

- I wanna be paid first, or it's over.

- No problem, it's in my car.

Jane clenched her jaw but followed him. They arrived outside, in the dark of the night, until his grey car. He went inside and began to search in his car until he showed her bills. She took it and counted. There were more.

- If I can have some extra, I won't refuse, smirked the man.

Two hundred dollars, she wasn't going to refuse. She came in the car, and let the man bringing her at the "Blue Motel", still not blue but it didn't matter. She had other things in her mind.