Page 34 of Acid

“How on earth did you get this?” I whisper to Star.

“Don’t look at me. This is all Belle’s doing,” she says, nodding in Belle’s direction.

We are guided behind a roped off area that sits high above a dance floor and main bar. It’s lavish, with black furniture and gold trimming. The club is still quiet, being only 8pm, so the music’s volume is set more as a background noise. I imagine as the night continues that it will grow louder. We take our seats and order our drinks. Belle takes the entire tray of food from the waiter as she sits there, shovelling each one into her mouth.

“Belle, how did you get this place?” I ask.

She swallows her mouthful of food before answering. “I know the owner, or rather my father did. He did business with him. He owed my father a few favours, and I just reminded him that he never got to call in those favours. But all would be forgiven if he did this at least once every couple of months. No money to be repaid, and no more favours owed.” She smiles.

“Holy shit, you’re Mafia?” I ask.

She laughs and shakes her head. “No, my father was just a businessman.”

“He was a mob boss,” Star whispers in my ear.

“Oh,” I mouth.

A few drinks in I’m feeling tipsy, but not as much as Dixie who has suddenly broken out of her shell. She’s dancing by herself next to our table, and as she tries to grab the waiter to join her, he practically runs scared in the other direction. We all laugh as Dixie starts twerking.

“Yes, go Dixie!” Star cheers.

“Slut plop!” Dixie yells before dropping to the floor again.

“Dixie, come and eat some food,” Josie calls to her.

Dixie gets up and stumbles back to the table. “I’m not that hungry,” She pants.

“Yeah, but it’s only ten at night, and you’re already wasted,” Josie says, handing her some food. Dixie sits there slumped in her chair, falling asleep while still eating.

“We will let her rest for a moment, then wake her for round two.” Belle laughs.

“So, come on then, the kiss.” Star turns her attention to me, and suddenly all their attention comes to me. I finish the last of my cocktail and sigh. I thought I got away with it, but I guess I wasn’t that lucky.

“It was just a panicked kiss. That is all. A silly move on my part, a mistake,” I state before popping one of the prawn things off the tray in my mouth.

“He didn’t react like it was a mistake.” Maggie smiles.

“He is a guy, he just humoured me,” I say, rolling my eyes.

“I don’t think Acid is like that.” Josie shrugs. “I mean, he’s quiet in comparison to some of the others like Scar.”

I nod, thinking about Scar. “What is going through your head right now?” Belle asks, watching me.

I look at her before glancing around the table. Maybe it’s the drink or maybe I’ve come to feel like these women are my family now, I don’t know, but for the first time in a long, long time I speak freely, not feeling embarrassed.

“I’m thinking about fucking Scar,” I declare bluntly.

Star chokes on her drink, coughing and spluttering. Maggie laughs, patting her back. “Jesus, I did not expect you to come out with that,” Star wheezes.

“Sorry,” I mutter. “It’s just, it’s been a really long time, and I’ve never really enjoyed sex. It has always been just a thing to keep them happy or something that...” I pause, not sure how to say the other thing. “It was a weapon, for him to hurt me,” I add. They all nod in understanding. “I want a good fuck.” I smile, making them all laugh. “I want the world to explode; the fireworks, you know, the stuff your read about in books and see in the movies. I want to know if that shit is real.” I sigh as I hold my glass up to the waiter to signal a refill. He takes my glass and quickly comes back with another. I mouth a thank you to him.

“It’s very real, but if anything, it’s fucking better than books or the movies,” Nova sighs.

“Oh, it’s a million times better than that.” Belle nods in agreement.

“You know what you need, you need to be worshiped. You need a guy to just focus on you and your needs. Not you giving him anything back. You need to be shown what it can be like,” Star says firmly.

“I mean, that isn’t a bad idea, but they all want something in return,” Josie says, her words slurring a little.

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