Black Lace: CH 2

This is Ch. 2 of Black Lace-- it is HIGHLY recommended that you go back and read the first chapter here: http://allpoetry.com/poem/2506698 before reading this installment.
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        “Hello, big brother! How’s that foot? Still nursing the wound, aye?” Rei smirked as she tapped the tip of one of her black ballet flats none too gently on the hulking man’s right leg. She caressed the burgundy red rope delicately between her carefully manicured blue-black nails, leaning slightly over the thick divider to bat her eyes nastily at him.
        She gleaned satisfaction from the less than subtle angry twitch of his eye as Rei \ recalled with glee the incident three months ago.
        Standing as macho as he could in his currently impaired state, Bran sneered, “Stay the fuck away from here, you cunt., I was outta work for a month and a half because of your slutty little escapade!”
Rei  reared back and slapped him with her open palm before returning to her previous calm demeanor. “The only ones who can call me a slut,” she retorted, her voice dripping with false-sweetness, “are the ones whom I give the privilege of fucking me—and I’m afraid you’ve only ever done that in your pathetic little wet dreams.”
        She neatly sashayed sideways, easily avoiding the fist that came flying over the velvet rope. She refused to so much as give him the satisfaction of a subconscious blink of the eyes.
        “Do take care to remember, brother, there are those who are watching you. So quit undressing me with your perverted eyes and let me in—or next time it won’t be your foot Sidhe decides to shoot,” she told him with a condescending smirk.  As he unchained the barrier and let her pass, Rei howled over her shoulder, “That’s what I thought!” She quickly ascended the stairs into the dark abyss of Club Eriu. She didn’t pause to see her stepbrother stop checking IDs to turn around and give her silhouette the finger.
        Caressing the railing as she slowly immersed herself into the club one step up at a time,; Rei glanced nonchalantly towards Sidhe’s bar and immediately let out a small, inaudible gasp. With a martini held halfway to her lips in one hand and the other resting gently against the thin material of the black skate dress that covered the smooth white flesh of her stomach, Rei recognized her old friend immediately. Over twelve years of ballet class together did nothing to quench the familiar sting of slight jealousy she felt, but she loved her friend despite that. Long before discovering the underground, the girls had been close; having Club Eriu in common only brought them closer.
        She hadn’t seen Ashton--or rather, Rhiannon--in months, not since the night she caught her eye after the shooting incident with Bran and Sidhe.
        Practically running up the last few steps she engulfed her friend in a hug. “Rhia!” Rei grinned and took in her friend from her shoes up. Moving closer towards the bar Rei pushed up her sleeves, hot from being jostled and groped in the stairway. Blanching, Rei realized a minute too late she’d revealed her latest romance with the razorblade.
        Furious with her self she carried on, noting that Rhia hadn’t noticed. Yet. Rei snorted and casually folded her arms as her friend loudly inquired over the raging music, “I thought Bran wasn’t letting you come back after last time?”
        The raven-haired young woman grimaced inwardly as she recalled the night she had last visited the club. A shiver snaked up her spine as she recalled the bruises that had graced her body weeks afterward. Then she laughed as she remembered hearing through the grapevine what Sidhe had done to punish her ruthless step brother.
        Still, wary that Midirr himself might be angry with Sidhe or her, she’d stayed away for a while. “Since when have I listened to Bran?” Glancing around, she tried to catch Sidhe’s eye, but he was busy serving a customer, so she leveled her eyes on Rhia’s once again. “Besides,” she excused herself,; “Midirr never made it law—and until he does I’m going to keep coming,” she finished determinedly.
Her mind flitted briefly to the dominating owner and she unconsciously raked a glittering nail over the myriad of scars and open wounds on her right arm. Distractedly, she deviated the conversation to life outside the club and asked, “Are you still going to Penn?” Too late, she followed Rhiannon’s eyes as they belatedly took in the history etched into her arms. Stiffening with defiance, she raised her chin. She hated the look of pity in her friend’s eyes. It angered her, and she knew it would only be moments before she threw out something mean to hurt Rhia.
She felt her bitterness grow as Rhiannon released her cool façade and cried, “Jesus, Rei…”
        Hugging her elbows defensively, she choked out, “Don’t—we both know you’re no better!” Sshe bit back her heated fury and coldly added, “Yours are just hidden.”
        Dismissing the look of blatant hurt her friend gave her, she pivoted on her black clad heel and briefly made watery-eyed contact with Sidhe before shrugging her cheek to her shoulder to wipe away the single escaped tear. Frowning at the subtle concern he radiated, she gave him a look that begged him not to question it.
        As Ashton—in that brief moment of seeing her friend’s pain, she’d dropped the rougher Rhiannon for the time being—followed her to the bar,, Rei sat down on a stool and mutely inspected the counter. She was immune to the looks Sidhe was shooting her.
        Sighing with relief as Rhiannon got his attention, she barely heard her command, “Hand me your pen,” and didn’t even turn to face Rhia as she yanked her wrist palm up, jotting, “Ashton 555-6359 CALL ME!”
        Rhia, irritated at her lack of response, threw down the pen and walked off;. Rei assumed she’d go out on the dance floor, but didn’t turn around to confirm the theory.
        Sidhe tossed down a rag he’d been using to wipe down the bar and leaned towards her, batting his thick, sultry eyelashes dramatically in an effort to make her laugh. The young girl smiled softly and lifted a strand of her hair to tickle his face. “Hi,” she shouted over the roaring of the dance floor, suddenly a little more chipper.
        Rolling his eyes, he mouthed, “Hey,,” and quickly glanced around to see if anyone was looking before giving her a quick, hard kiss on her lips,. They were already red from being sucked on subconsciously.
        Leaning back, he noticed Bran at the top of the stairs and indicated that  Rei should meet him in one of the downstairs lairs.
        She grinned and nodded, swigging an abandoned half-empty glass of champagne before ducking into the crowd. “Let’s hope I didn’t just contract herpes from drinking that!” She laughingly called to him as she worked her way between a dominatrix and her lesbian submissive. The Domme, not taking kindly to someone breaking up her fun, rudely shoved her sub counterpart into Rei and cackled as they both tumbled.
        Rei snarled, trying not to choke on the heavy cherry perfume that rolled off of the larger woman.  As soon as she was back on her feet, she landed a solid punch to the Domme’s face. “Lucienne!” At the sight of her dominant partner, the sub cried a shriek of outrage and launched herself at Rei.
        With a roll of her eyes, she merely laughed and ducked aside. “You’re kidding, right?” She turned to continue her way through the crowd, stomping roughly on the girl named Lucienne’s fingers. “Bitch!” She smirked as she heard the sluts begin to squall behind her.
        After her encounter with the whores from hell, she decided to stick to the wall and just edged her way to the closest lair. Sidhe—damn him for making her do this—would just have to search until he found the proper one. Rei pushed aside a curtain, getting an eyeful of some blond businessman and his current fuck getting it on. She barely repressed her gag reflex as she moved on to the next closed booth. It took her three more tries before she finally found one empty of occupants that were either too drunk to move or too horny to care.
        She leaned back against the hollow back of the lair and waited for Sidhe. The noises of the dance floor were louder in here, perhaps because of the heavy silence inside. She stared at the faint outline of her legs in the semi-dark alcove, her mind traveling.
        Sidhe had been ignoring her more and more lately, and it wasn’t normal for him. Rei was worried that she had done something wrong.  Sighing, she picked at a stray run in her well-worn fishnets. What could she have done, though? She did everything he asked of her…and more.
        Her hair fell into her eyes for the hundredth time, and she cursed herself for getting bangs. She smacked her head against the false wall as Sidhe finally made his appearance. He jerked the curtain aside with gusto.
        “Fuck, Rei, were you trying to hide or what?” He huffed.
        “Oh yeah, that’s exactly what I was trying to do, you idiot!” She replied, her voice alive with annoyance. He glared so harshly that she could feel it, even in the darkness. Lifting her fingers to her shoulder, she murmured something like an apology, but was really nothing near one.
        Sidhe was clueless and proceeded without delay, kissing her hard on the mouth. She silently rolled her eyes, thankful for the cover of shadows. This would be one long fuck. And that definitely wasn’t a good thing in her present state of mind.
        Dammit, what was wrong with her? She let out a small frustrated growl that Sidhe took as animal lust; he got even more excited in his thrusts. Rei just laid back on the plush pillowed seat and calmly waited until her lover finished his business. She had just begun to allow her mind to drift completely when she was suddenly snapped back to the present.
        Sidhe stopped fucking her and withdrew from her body as though it were on fire. It was then she realized what it was that had her on edge. He smelled like sex…sex and the overwhelming stench of cherry perfume. She’d noticed it on him earlier in the evening, when Rhia was jotting her number on her palm. She’d smelled it again during her run in with the bitches, on the one named Lucienne.
        “You son of a bitch!” She shot straight up and shoved his stark naked ass right through the drapes.
She dressed herself to the sound of everyone on the dance floor roaring with laughter—People having sex, they were used to. Naked bartenders getting pussywhipped right in the middle of a fuck session was a new ballgame altogether.

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        Her alarm woke her up. Or maybe it was her cell phone. Either way, Rei didn’t know and didn’t care; she wasn’t getting up. Staring up at a crack in the ceiling, her mind drifted back to last night’s events. She twirled a lock of black hair in her fingers and cringed. Why had she trusted Sidhe? She was Reivyn. She didn’t trust anyone but herself—until Sidhe.
        She wiped a betraying tear off of her cheek and latched on to the ball of fury stationed inside her chest. Ignoring the repetitive beep of her phone designed to alert her of voicemails she reached into the messenger bag on her nightstand. Intending to grab the razor out of its side pocket, her hand grazed the ad from the day before. She shot up in bed and knocked her black and red comforter onto the floor. Rei smiled, holding the paper in her hands. She was glad to have something intervene with her moment of weakness. How pathetic it would have been, getting emotional over that bastard. No. She would not give him that satisfaction.
        After making her decision, Rei got up to face the world, her mother, and herself. Taking a careful look in the mirror above the once-ivory colored bureau that had long since been painted black, she made a disgusted noise and threw a purple shawl over it. She snatched her cell off the dresser on her way out into the hall. She risked a quick peek in to her sister’s room and was relieved to find that Kylie was already gone. She dialed her voicemail to find two messages—one from Justina and another from her brother. She deleted them without listening and immediately tapped in the number on the ad with a flourish, shutting herself into the bathroom as it connected her to the line.
        “Hi, I’m calling about a flat in the Uni Park area? Uh huh. Well I’d like to see one this morning if that’s at all possible.” She propped the cellular up, scrunching her shoulders to sandwich it to her ear. The secretary on the other end put her on hold, and Rei glanced at the clock on the counter.  She bit her lip and picked up her mascara, multitasking. If she was going to meet someone about the flat, she didn’t have time to shower before the luncheon with Justina.

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        Dressed in an oversized long-sleeved black tee and a shredded knee-length sparkly navy colored tutu, Rei sat at a table in an upscale café, sneering at the blonde woman in front of her. Beside her, her brother, Kade, slouched in his seat and made polite conversation. He leaned heavily on the table, tugging at one of the many silver hoops in his left ear. His grey eyes wondered briefly and settled on the child who had plopped herself in front of them. He ran a hand through his wavy, honey brown hair and tiredly glanced to Justina for an explanation.
Rei was the first to break from the conversation at hand to openly inspect the newest arrival. “Um. Who the hell are you?” she interrupted her mother mid-gossip, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.
        “Oh, Rach, didn’t I tell you? This is Chard’s niece!” Justina snaked a too-thin arm around the small girl, who shuddered and jerked her way out of the woman’s grip.
“Actually, Justina, you failed to mention that—“ Rei broke off and turned to her step-cousin, tapping a nail against her lipstick stained glass of champagne. “I’m Rei. What’s your name?” She put heavy emphasis on her name, hoping the girl would get the hint.
        “I have a lot of names,” the other girl replied primly, “one of them being None Of Your Fucking Business.”
Rei let out a sharp bark of laughter, drawing angry looks from the occupants of neighboring tables. She shrugged and murmured curiously above her mother’s sharp intake of disapproving breath. “Really, now? And how old are you, exactly, little miss?” Her voice was laced with upbeat sarcasm.
“I’m Castity. I’m nine.” She smiled innocently, batting her lashes.
Turning away, the older girl raised a carefully groomed eyebrow at her brother and winked. He flipped her off under the counter, still pissed about being tricked into attending lunch with his mother.
Rei rolled her eyes noncommittally. It was obvious that Kade hadn’t been pleased to be greeted by their mother when he walked through the doors. The young man had been under the impression that it was solely a brother-sister lunch. He should have known better.
        Kade frowned as he noticed a wet spot on his sister’s sleeve. Letting out a furious sigh, he dropped out of the conversation entirely and stared blatantly at Rei. When it became obvious she wasn’t going to look over at him, he inched himself slightly closer to her side. An deliberate movement of his hand sent his bottle of water flying off the table next to his mother and the little girl. He took a second to watch as both of them became distracted. He tapped a couple of his nail-bitten fingers on Rei’s knee, whispering urgently into her ear. “You’re leaking.”
        His sister’s only visible reaction was to sit up a little straighter and scoot a little further into the booth the two shared. Under the table, however, her black satin shoes scuffed the faux marble floor nervously.
        She mimicked Kade’s technique and knocked her glass of wine over, saturating the front of her skirt. “Fuck!” she howled and was greeted with several disapproving glares from the fellow customers.
Justina made a show of handing her napkins, but her brother scooted out of the booth so she could clean up in the bathroom. On the walk there she contemplated how she could convince Kade that being roommates with her was a great idea. The flat was in University Park, and he’d been moaning for weeks now about his commute to work. He  lived on the border but he was on staff at The Daily Grind, the most prominent newspaper in the state. The main offices were located right across from Penn.
        She blinked, and then she was at the swinging door to the restroom--co-ed, of course. Like most posh restaurants, it had adopted the multi-sex bathrooms in effort to give off a post-modern feel. The sinks were painted with a neutral, copper trim and the faucets were slim and unobtrusive. The wallpaper was quiet, but tasteful. Plastic-looking stalls lined the far wall, and a sly corner housed the three copper urinals. Glancing at her reflection in the single, ultra wide framed mirror hanging above the row of sinks, Rei took a moment to fix her ponytail. As she snapped the holder firmly back in place, the door swung open.
        “That was a fabulous show of idiocy out there. Dousing yourself in an alcoholic beverage was very…original…of you.” Kade cocked an eyebrow at her through the mirror and locked the door.
She chuckled, her eyes glittering in challenge as she turned around and leaned against a sink to face him. “Hardly,” she murmured; “that was very circa twenty-oh-three of me, if you recall.”
He propped a shoulder on one of the stalls and retorted, “You know, most people would just say 2003.” He bit his bottom lip before continuing. “And yes;” his eyes darkened as he bit out the last two words, “I recall.”
        “Do you?”  She shot back sarcastically.
        “I do. I remember ever last night you came in at four a.m. stoned out of your mind, every time you called me from a party because you were too fucking drunk to walk home, let alone drive. I remember every last tear and every last fight. I know everything that went down in that house when we were kids. I remember…every…last…thing.” He looked her straight in the eyes and didn’t blink.
She stared back with a pointed frown. “You didn’t exactly try to stop me, Kade. Ignore it and it’ll go away, right? The Zimmerman family motto.” Rei scowled defensively, disliking the direction the conversation was heading. She crossed her arms protectively and tried not to remember what she’d been like not so long ago.
        The three of them--her brother, her sister, and her--had grown up in a privileged environment. Kade played sports from the time he was five, Kylie did gymnastics, and Rei was in dance until she was a freshman in high school. They spoke to their parents every day, but neither was ever really present. Her mother-- then a budding actress--was constantly in and out, and her father was a promising businessman who always had a suitcase ready for the next plane out to California. But they were content, for none of them knew any different ways of being.
        Her mother had always been a moody, passive-aggressive, greedy person, but for some reason or another her father chose to ignore his wife’s lack of substance in exchange for her good looks and pretty face aside his at all the famous Westworth dinner parties. Oh yes, he was content with their arrangement and his trophy wife. But then Justina met Chard--the oily haired, gold-digging slime bag of an acting agent that was exactly her speed. She was old money. Her ancestors invested in everything from cotton gins to vineyards to exports. Needless to say, her tacky Gucci bag would never be without unlimited plastic. Chard scored, and scored big when he convinced Justina to leave her husband and three children for “the acting opportunity she’d always dreamed of”. Of course, the opportunity never knocked but the second she walked out of her husband’s door she was served with divorce papers that entitled her to nothing, not even her own blood. Not that she cared.
        Maybe that was the beginning of the end for Rei, but to be truthful about it nothing much changed for them, at least not for her. Kade, however, hit a rough patch. He was fourteen at the time and discovering sex. And, more importantly, discovering he didn’t want to have it with chicks. Knowing that his father would disown him and his mother didn’t give a shit, he fell into a deep depression. Two years his junior, Rei just watched. She was always very, very good at seeing without being seen. And her brother was very good at not seeing her. He didn’t really see her again until she died. But then, he’d really stopped seeing much of anything.
        By the time she was fifteen Rei was thoroughly on her own. Kylie was thirteen and still in a bubble of innocence, and Kade was as gone mentally as their parents were physically. So she did what any normal, blue-blooded spoiled rich kid did--she partied. She drank long and hard and shot up every other night. She stopped caring and started sleeping with a different guy every week. By sophomore year she was so high she forgot to make sure the guys were wearing a condoms, and was too drunk the next morning to remember anyway. She cut twice a day and raised hell in class. Remarkably, she got excellent grades.
Six months into the school year she hadn’t gotten a period in eight weeks and felt the first hint of panic building inside of her. Four home pregnancy tests later she packed a bag and ran her way across the state. After breaking into an empty cabin somewhere in the woods of rural New York, she found a bottle of prescription sleeping pills in the otherwise useless medicine cabinet and swallowed almost the whole bottle before passing out on the bathroom floor.
        The next thing she knew she was in the hospital. Apparently, the silent alarm sounded when she broke into the cabin and the police arrived shortly after she slipped into unconsciousness. Her first thought upon waking up was of her baby, but her mother stomped out those questions immediately.
        “While you were recovering from your selfish act of defiance, I took the liberty of handling your little problem.” Justina told her, sending a dagger right through her daughter’s heart and out her throat.
Her chest spasmed when she realized what her mother meant. Rei knew, then, that she wasn’t going to be having a kid. Her mother had made sure of it. She said nothing, because it was too late, and what could she have said, anyway? Dying would’ve caused her fetus to die too, so was she any better?
        After three months in juvenile hall, she came to the conclusion that she wasn’t. It was a common misconception that in juvie the delinquents wouldn’t have access to sharp objects, but that wasn’t the case. They practically handed razors out like candy and Rei was grateful for it. During her stint in the system she got off the drugs and curbed her alcohol use, but she never forgot about what she did to her baby.
        When she got out, she went through a home study program to earn the rest of the credits she needed to graduate. She had her diploma at seventeen and pretty much hung out on her father’s tab ever since. Kade became more or less the only one that bothered with her, but that was pretty much the way she liked it;  it meant she got to party at Eriu every other night and nobody was there to bitch about it except Kylie, and Kylie wouldn’t tattle to their father because it would curb her own lackadaisical comings and goings.
        Kade snapped his fingers in front of her face and Rei blinked back into the present and their pending conversation.
        “Look, I’m sorry I was snotty. Really. I’m sorry. But I wanted to propose something,” she wheedled, her hands reaching out to catch his.
        “What?” he was suspicious, and understandably so. Rei wasn’t really known for great ideas.
        She smirked. “Don’t sound so paranoid. I was going to say that I think you and I should be roommates.”
        “With you and Kylie? I don’t think so,” Kade choked out in mock horror.
        She laughed and shook her head. “No! Just with me. Kylie can stay with mom and Chard or something. She likes them!” Her voice rose an octave when her brother began to shake his head no.
        “You haven’t even gotten into Penn yet. What happens if you don’t get accepted?” he argued.
        Rei triumphantly answered, “Oh, please. I got into Penn last year but I deferred. I have like three days to confirm, though, so I need to know, like, now.”
        “What? You got into Penn? That’s awesome, Rei!” Kade made an overzealous victory sign and then continued, “I know I’m probably going to regret this but…where exactly is this apartment? Have you even found one?”
        “Yup, I went and saw it this morning. It’s fantastic, you have no idea. It’s like down the street from Penn, which means it’s close to the newspaper. It’s perfect,” Rei persuaded him, letting out a squeal when he conceded.
        He slumped his shoulders and said, “Fine. You win. On one condition, Rei.”
        She scowled, waving her hand negligently. “Fine, what?”
        “We’ll need set rules about guys, and no bullshit at five a.m. No drugs. And do me the courtesy of letting me know when you’re not coming home so I don’t worry all night? Basic things,” he lectured.
        She cocked an eyebrow. “Your wish is my command, your majesty. Now hurry the fuck up. I want to ditch Mom and show you the flat.” She slipped by him and out the swinging door.