This didn't feel real.
I was actually away from that hellhole.
Staring back, I was waiting for it; anything. Someone to come running after me or a hand to grab me from the darkness to drag me back to loneliness.
Lumi kept her fingers twined in mine as she guided me. She led the way with her phone light, grinning at how cunning she was being.
It almost hadn't happened. Avery had been watching me like....well, like the bird of prey he was.
But, there was an opportunity. He was distracted. The others were still drinking. People were agitated on being refunded.
We slipped away. We didn't look back. I didn't care that I was still smeared in glowing paint and had chains clanking against my body. As long as the thorns wound around me from the show didn't hurt Lumi, I was fine with her holding my hand and dragging me along like an excited child.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuuF7FD6e66
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Her car wasn't far. It was a little yellow beetle, gifted to her from her mother and father years ago when she turned sixteen. Now aged twenty-five, it was well-loved but not overly so that it bordered neglect.
There were a few patches of sun bleached paint across the bonnet and roof, along with a dent on the back wheel arch from someone else, but I didn't care. It was my way out of here for the night and I was going to take anything that could do that as quickly as possible.
Lumi giggled when she unlocked the car and had the light above bask over us. I climbed into the passenger side and she rushed for the driver's to dump herself in excitedly.
"I feel like I'm kidnapping you" she buzzed.
"Technically, you are" I smirked and pulled across the seatbelt "but I won't say anything."
"You better not" she grinned, snapping her own belt in place and turning the key "lucky you aren't a howler monkey."
I rolled my eyes at her jab and scoffed as she watched the traffic so she could merge with it seamlessly.
"I'm pretty sure we do have them" I commented "as security."
Lumi scoffed and merged.
"Where were they tonight then? I think it's just made up to make you think there's more of you than you think."
"More apes?" I frowned back.
"Makes sense" she shrugged and merged again "you ever seen any others besides Orin and the one who plays your shadow?"
I frowned as I thought.
If they were anywhere, they'd be up high. Even I had no idea what type of ape my shadow was. Once the job was done, they disappeared like they weren't there at all.
But, I hadn't seen any others. Not up high or even mixed with the dancers down below.
Maybe they were just really good at hiding? Or no others outside my team existed?
"You know, you could call a few of the customers monkeys" Lumi joked "they act wild enough. You see them demanding refunds?"
She made low noises, getting more aggressive with it to make me burst out laughing at her attempt.
"Next they'll be storming the place with white horses and spears."
Snorting, I shook my head through my laughter. She snickered at me, turning us off the main road to curve around a side one.
"That's not racist, is it?"
Snorting, I squeezed my fingers together.
"Just a smidge" I teased "but it's nowhere as bad as the time you said I should be gifted bananas."
She groaned, gripping the wheel while pulling us back onto another road.
"See, I thought that" she started, merging in "but it was already out of my mouth before I realized. I didn't mean anything by it, honest. I thought it was a joke."
"I'm not offended" I held up a hand as she grimaced "I thought it was funny. Let's just say that me dropping the tomato on your head is payback."
She pouted. I giggled.
"You don't have any nice shampoo or conditioner on your shower, by the way" Lumi stated as she jabbed a finger at me from around the wheel "not even scented soap. I was very disappointed."
"That you couldn't rob me of the expensive stuff you thought I had?"
She pouted again and nodded, mumbling something.
"We are getting you some good stuff. We need to go shopping."
With what money? I literally left straight from the drinks. Everything was still back in my room, including my phone.
I'd love a photo for my background of the both of us. I'd have to get Lumi to find an opportunity to take and send one that I could cherish.
"It's all back by my door" I shrugged to her dropped face "got no pockets."
"I'll get you some" she decided "would it be rac....?"
"If you got me banana ones?" I finished her sentence and saw her squirming "I think it's funny, and....kind of cute."
Putting what I thought first over what she wanted to do. I could see her face slowly growing more red as she kept driving.
She merged over, keeping her eyes off me.
"You want drive-through?" she spoke up to try and change the subject and mood "there's this really good shake i want to try. It's chocolate strawberry. It's supposed to have little biscuits inside it shaped like cute rubber duckies."
She gushed and I agreed. I saw how excited she was over the smaller details. I never knew she was into things like that.
"Sure."
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So, Lumi was a sucker for cute things. I should have known this by the way she loved to send me funny videos and novelty things she has seen while online shopping. Whether she had bought them was another thing.
She poked around her drink to find an intact duck to gleefully show me. She marvelled over how many I had compared to her crushed ones.
We slurped our cold drinks and I stirred the flavours together as she drove. At red lights or stop signs, she'd take a quick sip from the cup holders between us and talk some more.
She really did make me smile. I wasn't worried about Paragon anymore. Already, it seemed so distant. If I had packed my things, I'd gladly never return.
Maybe there was a reason why I had left it all behind? Maybe it wasn't time to disappear just yet? It must have been fate I had to go back.
Did Lumi believe in stuff like that? Or was that too silly?
"Now, it's not the biggest place, but it's comfortable" Lumi gushed when we turned down another road and immediately lurched into a roundabout to follow it almost all the way "the view of the skyscrapers is really pretty when they are lit up at night."
So she didn't have property. She was stuck, like I was.
But, she did have opportunities being here. The city could give her a job and hand her money to hopefully escape the smog and noise one day.
"I'm fine with comfortable" I smiled "anything is bigger than a room."
She agreed, slowing and indicating towards a skyscraper.
The toad beside it curved and dipped to an underground lot she parked at. A stained yellow gate blocked our way. Lumi pulled up the breaks so she could have herself over the window and stab in the numbers.
"Two two five three hash" she recited as the gate squealed and crawled across "if you ever need to visit."
I smiled back, trying to remain hopeful.
There was a tram line behind us that ran through the middle of the road to cut it in two. Perhaps it ran close enough to Paragon's to change that?
It was a city. Surely I wouldn't have to walk far to find a platform?
Maybe I could use that number after all?
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Hope bubbled inside me when Lumi parked up in her designated spot. I made sure to memorize the number and how to get to it.
Number fifteen. Just down and around the corner, six off the first yellow pole.
She led the way to the locked door at the other side of the garage.
Four seven one hash.
She made sure I saw it. The handle pushed up instead of down. The door was held open for me.
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We walked down a narrow hall to an elevator. Standing off to the side, Lumi hit the button and we waited for it to arrive.
She pulled out her phone to text hurriedly. Smiling, she giggled and put it away.
"They can't wait to see you" she let out a little squeal "oh, you are going to love the elevator too!"
I looked up to see the number still steadily descending.
"Has it got a mirror on the back wall?" I joked.
"Better" Lumi rested a hand on my arm to squeeze it "it's a poster of Paragon. The reception has one too, with a tonne of brochures."
My face fell before my heart stopped. I heard the elevator hum to a stop then ding as it opened and announced the basement level.
Stepping inside, I was instantly drawn to the left where the poster was locked behind scratched and scribbled plastic. Lumi dug into her pockets for a card she tapped to a black box next to the floor numbers.
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The poster was so huge. There was all of us stars on it, staggered upwards to the glowing letters of our building. Beneath it was a bunch of text on how to order tickets online or over the phone. There was a code to score cheaper tickets too.
I hated the way I looked in the thorns around my head. I lifted my chin up to appear stern through the makeup, eyes locked on as my arms were folded.
I didn't look human. None of us did. No wonder people questioned it all so much. It was obvious these couldn't just be professional prosthetics.
"Jesus" I cringed at it "this is so old."
When did we pose for that one again? There had been too many to count.
The shows changed every six months. Each rotation had a new wave of promotional material. Endless photoshoots and staging was part of it to draw people to a routine that didn't even exist yet. That always dragged through the first week.
Ads, photos, sound-bites; the lot. It was daunting to think it would be back around before I knew it.
All of us were different in this poster. Tawn was ash and blood above me. Avery was fierce and glittered at the top. I just glowed down the bottom, where I usually got pushed to.
How embarrassing. I didn't even rank higher than the others in a stupid photo.
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"They couldn't pick a better one?" I mumbled when Lumi lit up the number for the eleventh floor.
She turned to it, grinning. The doors puffed as they closed.
"I like it."
I could breathe again. The gnawing embarrassment wasn't going away though.
"You do?"
"I think it makes you look very tough" she spoke with a hint of laughter that had me groaning as I burned "I'm serious! You never look like that. You're too happy all the time."
I glanced to the stern and serious Nisha and closed my eyes in shame.
All of us had the same expression, but I hated mine the most. It wasn't me.
"I look stupid."
"You look adorable" Lumi quipped, catching my glance and small smile "I don't mind seeing it every day."
She did, didn't she? There was no escaping my stupid face when it was right there.
And she liked looking at it.
Lowering my head now so he couldn't see how badly I was burning up, I just flashed a meek smile.
"Thanks."
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Once we reached the eleventh floor, it was painfully obvious how quiet the halls between the closed doors were.
My chains felt like they were being slammed into every wall when I moved along. They echoed and clanged as Lumi took us to the left and turned the corner to continue down a branching hall.
Stopped outside a door, I was thankful for the silence that fell over me.
A golden twenty-four gleamed back at me. Lumi pulled out her card again to swipe against the door and push it open.
"We're home!" she called cheerfully as the door closed behind me with a loud thunk that echoed out.
Taking off her shoes by the ones lined up at the door, I started to do the same before seeing I was already being swarmed.
"You must be Nisha!" a woman beamed and dove forward to hug me tightly, giving a little laugh when she realized I was leaning against the wall for balance to take off my shoes.
Her curly ball of ginger hair brushed my cheek from where it swept around her ears. Her freckled face burned with excitement, her little body barely containing her jitters.
She had to be only up to Lumi's shoulder. She was a small, adorable woman.
"This is my mum, Wilhelmina" Lumi muttered introduction to me "but she goes by Meena."
"It's nice to meet you" I smiled back at her.
A man hung back, waiting for me to straighten up again so he could come forth and take his turn to hug me and shake my hand.
Unlike his wife, the man was tall. His black hair was curled at the ends from the way it grew down at the back of his neck. He was easily twice the height of Lumi and then some. He wasn't ripped in muscle, but wasn't slapped with fat either. The man was somewhere in between. He looked comfortable. If I could, I'd like to be like that too.
"This is my dad, Faris" Lumi prompted.
"It's good to finally meet the star Lumi works with" he grinned.
I returned it, blushing at the enthusiasm.
"Dad" Lumi groaned back "I just do the singing. Nisha does all the hard stuff."
Gawking back at her brushing off her talent, I shook my head.
"I think it's the other way around."
"Modest" her father nodded once "he's got a good head on his shoulders."
He scrubbed my head, poking his fingers on the crown of thorns I quickly pulled off to hang on the hooks above the shoes.
"I want to see too!" a little voice called excitedly as bare feet slapped along tile "I want to see!"
"Prepare yourself" Lumi smirked to me "Lydia is a bit much. They let her stay up to see you."
A little girl of about six or seven peeked her head from the hall she came rushing up. With long brown hair tied up in a plait that swung over a shoulder, she lit up when she saw me.
"You're the monkey man with the funny ears!" she gasped, getting instantly corrected by her father who scooped her up.
Peering around his large arms that held her, she was adamant on looking at me.
"Where is your tail?" she asked, leaning.
She was young. I couldn't be mad at a little kid wanting to know things it didn't know were rude to ask yet. Lumi definitely had the same type of forwardness as her sister.
"Lydia" Faris warned her "it's rude to ask people about the way they look."
I smiled politely and looked behind me dramatically, to the interest of the girl.
"I think it might have fallen off in the elevator."
She grinned, laughing.
"You lair! No it didn't!"
"I'm sure it did" I turned, looking "I swear I attached it this morning."
She laughed and leaned back, still accusing me of lying while I insisted it was the truth.
Lumi smirked at me, giggling. Her mum and dad were loving my antics that kept their kid entertained as she was taken back to her room on the right, giggling.
"Barley is down here too" she jerked a thumb to the first door down the hall on the left.
Barley? Like the wheat?
"I think he's in a match" Meena smiled and shook her head "honestly, it sounds like a warzone in there."
I understood what she meant as we all moved down the hall and towards the open space on the other side.
Popping gunfire and the thundering of bomb shook out of the tv. Distorted voices shouted commands that someone behind the closed door groaned out at.
Lumi stopped at the door while Meena moved onwards. Lumi banged a fist on it before immediately opening it enough to stick her head in.
"What are you doing?!" a harsh voice snapped "get out!"
"Nisha is here."
"Your little boyfriend?" the voice teased, snorting and pausing "nah, it's just my stupid sister being annoying, as usual. Yeah, Halloumi."
"Well, when you want to quit being such a douchebag, he's out here when you want to meet him" Lumi raised her voice, closing the door again.
Turning to me, she rolled her eyes at the antics of her older brother.
"Off in his own world talking to whatever friends he thinks he has.
I heard a sharp laugh behind the door, followed by more gunfire and muttered comments.
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Making my way into the room, I saw that Lumi's family lived with an open-style type setup.
The kitchen was directly to my left and divided only with the counter that boxed it in. Seats were pushed up against it, one with a plate of half-eaten toast still set in front of it.
I looked opposite me to see the night's sky sparkling with the stars that weren't blocked by trees or buildings. Approaching it, the back door led onto a balcony that had a little rattan table and chairs nestled into the corner of.
"Bit different up here than you're used to?" Faris grinned when he saw me mesmerized on it all.
"I don't really get to see it" I replied, glancing to him standing nearby.
"Well, it's not much" he slid open the door for me so I could be washed in cold air "mainly adverts and concrete."
"And people honking" Meena added with a little smile.
That was true. But the signs glowed all sorts of colours of the rainbow with their logos. The skyscrapers glistened like deep water, showing glimpses of other lives lit up in the heavens.
There was melodies of TV adverts and music tangled into noise. Cars honked and screeched below. People shouted and laughed loudly. Somewhere, someone sang for a few dollars so they could eat.
But there was that sky. Lit from below by the buildings; gradiated from grey to black as it escaped the pollution.
It was so cold though. Still in my outfit, I was freezing in places that usually didn't feel this kind of harsh bite.
"Did you bring other clothes with you?" Faris asked when I wrapped my arms around myself and quickly stepped back inside.
"I just kind of got right in the car. Didn't have the time."
Lumi blushed when her father turned to her. She shrugged, flicking a finger to me.
"By the time he'd get out of the shower, the place would have been closed."
I scoffed at her lie, laughing.
"You make it sound like I live in there."
She feigned ignorance, smirking and eventually laughing at me.
"I'm sure Barley will let you borrow some of his" Meena smiled warmly as she headed to the kitchen "did you want to have a shower while I grab you some leftovers? Fish and chips sound good?"
I grinned at the thought of a hot meal, and a good one at that.
"Yes please. Thank you."
"He's a gentleman too" Faris came over to nudge his daughter "someone you could bring home to the folks more often."
"Daaad, don't!" Lumi blushed and pushed him away, shuffling over to me with a glowing face she bit her lip through "I'll show you where the bathroom is."
I saw her parents smirking and giggling as we passed. They started whispering, snorting some more.
"They're so embarrassing" Lumi grumbled when we went past her brother's door again that she thumped on to stir him up "they think any guy with manners is marriage material."
I grinned, leaning against the wall of the second door Lumi came to, next to the brother's tumbling room.
"You think I'm marriage material?" I teased.
She burned brighter. Grumbling through a smile she opened the door, and flicked on the light.
"Sink, and soap" she pointed to the left wall where a dished sink sat above the wooden block that protruded out to serve as a small counter. It had a mirror with three capped toothbrushes stuck to it; a bee, a crocodile, and a monkey.
"Saying something?" I pointed to it cheekily.
She shushed me, gesturing to the towel rack opposite.
"Towels, cupboard, shower."
There was a little portion of wall before the shower I saw was lined. It must have been a concealed linen cupboard.
The shower was just a sunken in floor with a glass partition. Nothing but steam would conceal anyone inside if someone else walked in.
"Toilet is behind the sink if you need to go" she rounded her hand in the direction "you good?"
I nodded, seeing her eyes dart to the toothbrush again quickly.
"I'm going to get Barley to hand over some of his smaller clothes for the night. You won't fit his usual ones."
"He a big guy?"
"Big and tall" Lumi blew out a breath "honestly, he's taller than dad."
I didn't believe that. She had to be exaggerating.
"Fresh soap's in the cupboard. Push to open it then pull it across towards the towels. I'll leave the clothes on the sink."
Turning, I snorted.
"So you can perve on me?"
Lumi was bright red now. It didn't look like she was going to be able to speak by how embarrassed she was.
She made a little whining noise, shoved me in, then quickly closed the door behind me.
I laughed at her antics, turning when she opened the door again to try and glare at me.
"It's not to perve, it's to be nice!" she jabbed a finger at me, quickly closing the door again.
Waiting, I listened to her feet slap down the hall. I heard knocking and moved towards the sink to start unclipping my chains so I could pile them in.
Instantly, there was muffled protest and movement. I heard her brother groan as he fired back, complaining.
Turning on the shower, I dulled out most of his noises. Waiting for the heat with one hand under the water, I heard more heated discussion and Lumi marching her way back to me.
"Not looking!" she cracked open the door as quick as she could to throw the clothes in "he was super happy about it!"
Laughing at her lie, I started to strip and gratefully scrub away the caked paint and sweat from tonight.
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"Perfect fit!"
I stood there in the hallway, just next to the kitchen, with my arms spread to accentuate how much the huge shirt hung from me.
It was like a robe. The black fabric drapes so low that my chest was on show. The arms cut down almost the entire sides to leave me with two little slivers of fabric hung near my collarbones.
The pants were worse. I had to pull those as tight as I could and then roll them down at the top to bring them up several inches and stop them falling down.
I looked like a joke.
These couldn't be his smallest clothes. He was doing this deliberately.
"Nisha, here's your food" Meena slid across the steaming plate of salty, battered fish and yellowed chips nestled next to some vegetables.
Rather than sitting up at the benches, I was guided to the couch to sit so I didn't flash anyone. The little coffee table decorated with river rocks underneath the thick glass was my personal bench for the plate. Opposite was a large TV turned down so it didn't wake their youngest.
As soon as my fork and knife cut off a chunk of the fish, I heard a door slowly open.
Keeping my eyes up as I savoured the almost bitter tang of chicken salt on the fish, I felt my breath leave my body when I saw what was emerging from the hall.
Lumi hadn't been exaggerating. This guy was bloody huge and tall. He dominated the area he crept through, phone clutched in one massive bear-like meaty hand to be ready for me.
His whole figure looked borderline prehistoric. The head was far too thick to be from a snake, but also too rectangular for a gator or croc.
He certainly was no platypus. This guy was smothered in small scales that were darker around his head and limbs, but lighter grey in the tiny portion of his middle body I saw flash from under his half-tucked shirt.
A long, thick tail slid across the ground behind him as he walked. It reminded me of an anaconda buffing it's scales on such a smooth surface.
Around the black eyes were tiny white ridges. The edge of the mouth had it too as it cracked a smile, revealing a deep red lining inside.
Barley stopped where I had earlier. His eyes focused on me, frowning as they did.
"This is our eldest, Barley."
Faris walked over to place a hand on his arm. Barley didn't move, still locked.
I did the same. Throughout me, something was screaming familiarity. I wasn't sure if it was the fact I was surrounded by so many snakes at work and the scales were throwing me off, but something in my gut wasn't sitting right.
I placed down my utensils and swallowed. Scanning over Barley's half-tucked shirt and blueish-grey sleeping pants, I was drawing a blank.
He moved his head, revealing that one eye was milky white. The skin around it had been gouged at, raking down his jawbone and into the folded skin of his veined throat.
That was it! I knew that scar!
"Chalk?" Barley tucked away his phone as he forgot introductions and rushed over, forcing me back into the couch in fear "that you?"
I knew this lizard. When I had been taken in by petty criminals slinging drugs and drinking their coke money away, I wasn't alone. They had a komodo there too. We were tasked with guarding the drugs and money from whoever showed up to make a deal. We were their trophies they bragged about. I couldn't remember how many people tried to bargain for us, only to be screamed at down the barrel of a gun.
They used to smear Barley's nose with the tiniest amount of coke to make him thrash around. It amused the men to see the small Komodo; barely past his wild state, to be so hopped up on their drugs.
They saved the best for him. I wasn't allowed the bumps he was given. He was special to them. We both were in our own ways.
They gave him the scar after upping the drugs. To get him to stop trying to attack them, one of the men held his knife out at him while on the ground as he ripped into their legs. Stabbing it in before he swung his head for another victim, the blade sliced him down the same path.
They screamed his name. They loved him, even when he tore through their ankles and was seized alongside me a few months later.
"Speedball?"
"Chalk!" he gasped, lighting up and looking to his parents and unamused sister in pure happiness "we used to be trauma buddies! I didn't know Nisha was Chalk!"
"You guys....know....each other?" Lumi questioned, skeptical.
"We were like brothers!" Barley excitedly breathed back "oh, the things we did together!"
Played with the cash like we were gambling with the men. Dared each other to do the coke lying around on plates. Even learned how to cut it into lines with our nails....
"Things change" I shrugged it off and coughed out as he grabbed me to squeeze me in a brief but crushing hug, dropping me back down.
"It's so good Barley has friends we know" Meena beamed at his interaction "the others were a bad influence."
Barley grumbled back to her, tilting his head to me to try and get her to drop the subject.
Lumi noticed and came to sit next to me, huffing at her brother.
"So now you want to know him?"
He waved her aside, stealing a chip from my plate to point at me.
"We were the cocaine brothers!" he declared proudly, before seeing the discomfort on everyone else's faces and grinning down at me "been clean for two years now!"
I lit up now, ecstatic of the achievement. He didn't have any choice when we were still exotic pets made to live in darkness and filth.
"Hey, congratulations!"
"Thanks man!"
We clapped hands. Barley leant down to pat my back, grinning.
He decided to drop down next to me and move Lumi out of the way in turn. She shuffled to avoid being crushed and leant around him to try and still remain engaged with me.
"Who knew you'd be doing flips and tricks for a living" Barley commented as he ate the chip he flopped around "I should have seen it. I had my guesses, but under all the makeup and editing on the adverts, it was really hard to tell."
I frowned back.
"You never came to the show to see for yourself?"
He scoffed and shook his head.
"Not my thing."
"But we did come for Lumi's first show" Faris added proudly "that was a lifetime ago now."
"Tickets are too expensive for good seats" Meena sighed.
"Maybe it's for the best then" I added, trying to make eye contact before they decided to move to each corner of the couch so I didn't have to strain "it's not...well..."
"The best place to work?" Lumi finished with a little bite in her voice.
I nodded, gesturing to her.
They all understood. Barley's eyes darkened.
"Have you been shown around the hot tubs?" he spoke up, changing his demenour before his parents could look at him in confusion "it's got a sauna too."
"It's late" Faris started.
"Let him finish his dinner" Meena worried as her eyes slid to the picked at plate.
Barley scooped it up, stealing more chips.
"We'll take it with us! What do you say, Chalky?"
Barley grinned, knowing I wouldn't be able to use his old name in front of his family.
I looked to them for permission.
"If it's ok?"
Lumi huffed. She wanted more time with me. My connection to her brother was ruining that.
"I'll go too" she lit up.
"No offense, but this is boy stuff" Barley promptly answered, snapping on a chip "sorry, sis."
I snorted at his teasing before hiding it behind a raised fist to my mouth, pretending to cough.
"I'll be back soon" I smiled apologetically to her, rising and turning to her parents "thank you for having me. I won't be long."
"I'll make sure the plate comes back" Barley told his parents "eventually."
"Be careful with it!" Meena fretted when he started down the hall again, dragging his massive tail through "it's ceramic."
He paused, puzzled.
"This one?"
His body lurched as it slipped from his claws. Laughing as he grabbed it, he covered his mouth so he wouldn't wake his younger sister.
"Barley!" Meena hissed "don't do that!"
He grinned and handed it to me so he could head into his darkened room.
The area had a soft blue glow from the tall light wedged behind the flat screen TV opposite his messed bed.
It was on its own unit that was overflowing with framed photographs, collectables, and a large console.
In the far right, next to the bed head, was a small table cluttered with things. Beside packaged pills and copious amounts of bottled water, there was a lanyard he snatched up and hung around his neck.
"Ready?"
He closed the door so I couldn't keep glimpsing into his life. Picking at my plate, I followed along awkwardly to make sure I didn't step on his tail.
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The cold air was quick to test my strength on the ceramic plate when we took the elevator down to the reception and crossed it to the door leading outside.
Instantly we were met with greenery and two diverging paths. One led upwards to a wooden shack. The other weaved to the right until it was concealed by more leaves.
Barley went up the wooden stairs first. The shack bobbed further into view when I came up behind him.
There was a lot pool here too. Speckled beside it were two smaller ones, one occupied by a couple Barley gave a little wave to.
He pointed to the shack we approached, sitting down on the lounge chairs outside.
"I'm not allowed in, but if you want to give it a go, it's there" he explained, pointing to a sign stating the cleanliness of the facilities and what was expected of the guests.
"They don't let you in?" I turned to him instead.
"Bacteria" he shrugged "apparently komodo's are full of it. Can't stew and can't swim."
I grabbed onto another lounge chair to drag it noisily and press against his. Lowering into it, we just looked out over the rippling pool water coloured a light shade of blue.
"Why did you want to come here then?"
He grinned, crossing his legs and ripping off a chunk of fish I offered.
Food and drink was also prohibited. He didn't care about breaking that small rule, as long as he abided by the major one.
"I like the humidity" he simply said "and to get away from everyone else."
I nodded, tearing off my own chunk to eat.
"Besides, they have a thing for scalies around here, I swear" he scoffed "they comb the place for snake skin and find out whose it is so they can charge them. I swear they have a skin book behind the reception. I got in trouble once for some other bastards shed!"
"No!"
"Yeah! Had to have the bitch lay it across my body and compare them before she would drop it. Mum had a good go at her. Dad rang the higher ups about it. She lost her job."
I laughed at how wild that sounded. Even Barley joined in on his misfortune.
"They lost their shit on a hyena tourist who jumped in that pool. Said it was 'too much fur that would clog the filters'."
"Really?" I gasped, giggling with him.
"You'd get away with it, I bet" Barley tilted his head "you're a celebrity around here. They'd just look the other way."
I turned to the empty pool then back to him.
"What if I did it with you beside me? Would you still get in trouble?"
His eyes lingered on the water before he dismissed it with a scoff.
"I'm not allowed. You'd be fine."
"But I don't know the rules around here" I stared at him, slowly grinning.
His face lifted and his head turned back to the water with a little more hope this time.
"I'd get in so much trouble. They'd have to scrub for days."
"Because of the fur or the diseases?" I snorted, gesturing to it "it's not like anyone else is in it."
Barley shivered with anticipation beside me. From his usually reserved demeanour, he must have had to sit on the sidelines countless times before as everyone else got to enjoy the things he couldn't because of what he was.
He was looked down on, like me. In our own ways, we were both the bottom stars.
"It'll be all over social media" Barley leant close to whisper "mum and dad will be so mad. You'll get in trouble with your boss."
"Fuck him" I soured at the mention "honestly, if I bought my shit with me, I wouldn't go back."
Barley blinked in surprise.
"That bad?"
"Let's just say that Chalk had an easier life than Nisha does."
I heard the little noise from Barley. He flopped back into his chair, grabbing another chip.
"I think the same sometimes. I didn't have all these rules when I was Speedball. No-one cared what I was. They didn't lump me with this...." he swirled a curved hand as he thought "stereotype."
I chuckled. His eye slid over and he began to laugh.
"How about we come to it all when it happens?" I shrugged "I am the one making you do it. I have that celebrity influence, after all."
"Fuck off" Barley shook his head with a smile, pondering the pool again "fuck it."
"Yeah?" I gasped.
"Yeah."
"Race you to it?" I placed the plate down and leant forward "you can swim, right?"
His jaw popped open in disbelief. He let out a sharp laugh that caught the attention of the others.
I'd take that as yes.
"Ready?" he grinned, emptying his pockets onto the chair. He even peeled up his shirt to drop it.
The guy was huge. His sides puffed out. His front was flat. He'd be intimidating if I didn't already know him.
I pulled off my borrowed shirt too, seeing him look over my body, impressed that my regime had shaped me into something worth looking at.
"Set?"
We both took our places at the sides of the chairs to use them as marker lines.
This was going to ruin everything, but I didn't care.
I was the bottom star. Bruce didn't care about me or what I did. When this got out, he'd only care about the repercussions and how it made him look.
Maybe I didn't even need to go back to face it? Was any of my stuff of value besides my phone and performance money? I could always sneak back in, stuff everything I wanted into a plastic bag, and leg it for the nearest tram.
"Go!"
We bolted for the pool, laughing like fools the whole way.
For now, it was just two old friends reconnecting over trauma and breaking our first insignificant rule.
Who knew where I'd end up?
Who knew if anyone would care?
I'd come to it when it happened.
ns 15.158.61.54da2
