Fairy Dust

“Blechh,” the sound resounded off the bathroom wall as a colourful mess of liquid came out of the girl’s mouth and into the toilet. A door slammed in the background of the house as she wiped her mouth. While Lin was hugging the toilet bowl, her latest customer was walking out the door and into the mess of ever-busy New York City. She stood up and looked into the smudgy mirror that hung over the sink. Her eyes were heavy looking with dark circles underneath and her teeth were corroding from the outside in. A frown was pasted on her face almost as thick as the red lipstick that was now smeared across her lips. Lin took a piece of tissue and wiped at her mouth until the colour red was a faint pink.

Her shaky hands reached for the yellow-bristled tooth brush that lay on the side of the sink. She ran water over the bristles and plunged the brush into her mouth and across her teeth; little good brushing would do, but it made her feel a lot cleaner. As she finished, she spit the last of the water into the sink and replaced the brush. A final look in the mirror proved that Lin was nothing but a gutter tramp. She was twenty years old, but in the mirror she looked forty. Her dark brown hair that fell to her shoulders was coarse and looked like it had been falling out. She grimaced at the image in the mirror, hoping that she wouldn’t vomit at the site of herself.

The young girl dragged her lank body out of the bathroom and back onto the bed that still smelled of last night’s deed. Her stomach gurgled and growled as she pulled the blankets up over her head. She didn’t have the energy to get up and eat.

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Lin paraded out of her shabby shack onto the street that she knew too well. She had been prostituting since she was fourteen; that’s when she got kicked out of high school. Her parents weren’t going to allow her to stay in the house if she couldn’t pass her classes. Hell, her parents couldn’t even pass high school. They were having a hard time making it on their own – or so she heard. She hadn’t even spoken to her parents since. She frowned, something she did often, as she thought of her parents. The thought often occurred to her “what would my parents think of me now”. With that she gave a grim smile and laughed… Only to choke and cough on the intake of air.

The coughing fit woke one of the local homeless men sitting on the street side who then started bitching at her. Lin growled and flipped him off, walking past him with a pissed off gaze. Today she wasn’t necessarily on “duty”, but she still decided she’d go downtown to see her girls. At first, Lin had worked on her own. How did one get into prostitution anyway? A guy picked her up one day and she was surprised when he asked if she wanted a job instead of requesting a blowjob. His name was Jimmy; at least that’s what he told his girls. She agreed in a flash and now here she was. She was one of the most-requested whores in the town. A lot of the girls in Jimmy’s ring would only do guys, but she would do both. She loved it and craved it. The only bad thing about working for Jimmy was that he didn’t always pay you.

Lin carried on, jumping into flocks of pigeons and laughing at the pedestrians that went by. Unless you were a customer, nobody paid any attention to the local whores. That’s exactly how she liked it and one of the reasons she loved her job. She turned right down 48th Street and kept going until she saw a red blinking light in one of the clubs. She opened the door and walked in like she owned the place.

At ten o’ clock at night, the place was just starting to fill up. Lin walked over to the bar, avoiding a couple of the strippers on the poles. Jimmy owned this place and every girl that worked in it. Its name was simple – Lou’s Bar. Nobody knew why it was called Lou’s, but that’s the name everybody referred to it by. Lin leaned against the counter, waiting for Stacy or Portia to walk over and greet her. Stacy was a well-built brick shithouse kind of girl. Her hair was curlier than a poodle’s ass and blacker than the night itself. She had a huge fake smile and a pair of fake boobs to match. Stacy was also Lin’s best friend – even if she were 15 years older than her. Whereas Stacy was a white woman, Portia was black. She had short-cropped hair and piercing brown eyes. Whenever anybody got in trouble around here, it was normally because of Portia’s hot temper.

Lin pecked on the counter as a young man passed by her and grabbed her ass. It was a daily occurrence, but it annoyed her none-the-less. She sighed and decided she was through with waiting.

“Bitch, you gon’ come wait on me?” Lin called out to the woman who was bent over under the bar.

A curly-headed woman popped up to stare at Lin. She gave her a genuine smile and called out to her in a voice that suggested she was a heavy smoker, “You can wait on your damn self, whore.”

Lin gave her a smile that crinkled her eyes, showing just how tired she was. Stacy always knew how to make her day, even by doing nothing. Stacy got up off the floor where she had been stocking the bar and sauntered over to the young girl. She bent over the bar to get real close to Lin’s ear so she could speak to her a little more privately.

“We got some more of the good stuff. Y’know the “fairy” stuff?” Stacy made quotes in the air with her hand as she said it. “Thinking about getting most of the girls who are off tonight together later – when the club closes. Getting high real good.” She grinned a yellow smile at Lin.

Lin nodded, “Okay, I could do that.” After all, the fairy stuff really was the good shit. It had gotten Lin real high to the point she saw all kinds of crazy things. She liked seeing those crazy things. “What time?”

“We were thinking two. We’ve got all the supplies, just bring yourself. No guests.” She said the last part strictly and narrowed her eyes at Lin. Lin nodded her head brusquely and gave a sort of sheepish look.

“Okay, I’ll see you at two.” That was the last they spoke that night. They broke away from their little huddle and went about their ways for the rest of the night. Until two.