The Scoop (MrMarcellus & NightBird)

[NightBird]

The evening was crawling, nothing to do but sit and wait while the boys made their precious plans. There'd be no partying until after their next move, leaving all the girls bored and ready to snipe at each other simply to have something to do. Danica had gotten tired of the verbal barbs and wandered down the stairs and out into the alley behind their cheap rooms. The smell from the seedy-looking Chinese restaurant that occupied the ground floor made her stomach both growl and twist. It was always like this. They'd live like princes until the money started to run out, then it was back into a dive like this until they made another score.

She pulled a clove cigarette out of her tiny purse and lit up, picking her way fastidiously around the overflowing dumpster and heading toward the street. Her clothes earned her a couple of whistles as she turned the corner. It wasn't the best part of town, and Dominik chose her clothes for her, all tight, short skirts and tinier tops. Even though it was warm, she shrugged into the sweater she'd brought with her. She probably had an hour before Dom would be so angry that food and sex wouldn't be enough to avoid a beating. An hour to pretend it was freedom.

[MrMarcellus]

Since Danica had come to this country it had always been like this. She'd lost count of the number of broken promises, the broken dreams, the disappointments. For the first year or two she'd still harboured a hope of going back to college, settling into a profession, finding a reliable guy, perhaps having a few kids. Instead, she'd fallen in with Dominik. Now, for all she tried to fool herself into believing otherwise, she knew she was nothing but the girlfriend of a small-time gangster; she knew she was viewed by him as a mere accessory, and that when he became bored of her she'd be cast off like last year's fashion.

Somewhere among a cluster of garbage cans down the alley ahead of her something stirred, then ran. A cat perhaps; or something else. Danica drew her sweater closer to her, and clutched her purse more tightly.

After each of the guys' jobs she'd promised herself she would leave; simply escape in the night, leaving Dominik laid snoring, in his usual drunken stupor. This time he'd promised it would be different though. The guys were planning, discussing something bigger than their usual cheap scams. She no longer believed a word Dominik said; but his claim that there was a role for a woman in his next job left her intrigued enough to stick around.

As she pondered what to do with her hour or so of freedom, she heard a window roughly flung open behind her. She spun around, to see Dom's head emerge, and heard him yell down to her: "Hey, Danni! Geddup hear right now! We wanna talk to you!"

"Such a charmer", she thought to herself.