Chaos Lives in Everything - 15. Chapter 15

Though it had been two days since the incident at Roc City's closed down asylum, Rebecca's body was still covered in bruises; when added with the fact that she was still in a severe amount of danger she knew that she had no business hanging out at the bar, drinking. At the moment she didn't give a shit. Twice she had tried to contact Skold and both times he had not answered. She took that as a sign that he did not want to speak or have anything to do with her. That was fine. After what he had been through, she understand. At the same time she couldn't stay in that apartment for another second.

And tonight Rebecca had been rewarded for her bravery. She'd fallen head over heels in love.

The Rainbow Baret was a tiny bar on Eskimo Avenue. Most of the regulars were like her, people in their early twenties, the wild, the unwanted, the more artistically inclined. Every night The Rainbow Baret had something going on: drag shows, burlesque, rock bands, and poetry readings. Rebecca loved coming here. The drinks were great and reasonably priced and the atmosphere was inviting. It was the perfect place to go when you needed to be around people. Real people, human people. Within the last week Rebecca had dealt with the fae enough to last a lifetime.

The girl t hat she had fallen in love with was the lead singer of an all-girl band called Dynamite Dyke. Her name was Melanie Chung. She had dark hair shaped into a mohawk, dark almond-shaped eyes, full lips, and softest looking skin that Rebecca had ever seen. Her tits were nice sized, definitely bigger than Rebecca’s less-than-slightly moderate sized breasts. She wore a black holter top with matching black leather pants. Her arms were covered in tattoos of stars, moons, and wolves. She sang with a voice that was raspy yet beautiful and very feminine. Rebecca wondered what it was like to kiss those lips, to hold her breasts in her hands, to suck on her nipples, to feel those nipples pucker at the touch of her lips. Beautiful Sexy Dynamite Dyke. That was what Melanie Chung was. She was the most beautiful girl that Rebecca had ever seen.

“Ohhhhhhhhh…yeah...”

That was the end of the final song. The show was over. Melanie and her band of Dynamite Dykes made their bows and their thank yous. Rebecca watched as they took down their equipment and approached the bar. Melanie Chung slid onto a stool just feet away from Rebecca and ordered a stein of Blue Moon beer.

Do something, Rebecca thought. Don’t just stare at her, that’s creepy. Buy her the next beer. Say hi.

But the idea petrified Rebecca. After dealing with Sinclaire and Skold’s killer feat such a feat should seem harmless. Rebecca downed the rest of her beer (also Blue Moon) and decided that she was done being afraid. So what if she got rejected?

Rebecca waved the bartender over and nodded at Melanie. “Her next beer is on me.” She gave the bartender a ten dollar bill. “I want to be the one that gives it to her.”

“Sure thing. I’ll make it right now.”

Once the beer was in her hand Rebecca walked on legs that felt like rubber. With each step she became less and less sure of herself. Melanie was surrounded by the rest of her band. They were laughing and whooping, cheering the success of tonight’s show. Rebecca could not bare the thought of Melanie rejecting her in front of her bandmates. Wait, I’m getting ahead of myself, Rebecca told herself. Catastrophizing.

“Excuse me,” Rebecca said.

Melanie glanced away from her girlfriends and looked at Rebecca-and her smiling, beautiful face turned into a mask of scrutiny. Scrutiny. “Yes?”

“I just wanted to say that I thought you were great up there,” Rebecca said. “You have a really great voice.”

“Thank you.” Melanie smiled but the smile was stiff, disenchanted. Or maybe it only looked that way to Rebecca, but with each second that passed by Rebecca wished that she had stayed where she was. Where had her optimism gone, her confidence? Since when had she become such a wimp?

“Hey look,” said the drummer of Dynamite Dykes. She pointed at Rebecca. “Look at those pigtails. It’s Harley Quinn.”

Rebecca ignored her, biting back a retort that would only start a fight. In the back of her mind she could hear her mother saying, Take your hand down and your makeup off; you look like a street whore. She kept her focus on Melanie and tried not to look as humiliated as she felt on the inside.

“Anyway I saw that you were drinking Blue Moon so I bought you another.”

“Thank you. That was very sweet of you, love.” This time when Melanie smiled Rebecca realized that the look of scrutiny really had been in her head. She took the beer from Rebecca’s hand and took a long swig from it. She swallowed, her cheeks turning bright red. She turned to her drummer and said teasingly, “God, Dimitri you are such a bitch. Did anyone ever tell you that?”

“Quite a few times,” Dimitri murmered.

“Ignore her,” said Melanie to Rebecca. “Dana’s just a bitch. Personally I think Harley Quinn is hot. I’d bang her anyday. Join us, won’t you? In fact, I insist.” She patted the empty stool right next to her.

Feeling both foolish and relieved, Rebecca slid onto the stool next to Melanie.

Three hours later Melanie and Rebecca and the rest of the Dynamite Dykes left The Rainbow Baret. Rebecca walked with her hands in her pockets . Her face felt very warm and red but the rest of her body was freezing. Tonight the wind was just as vicious as ever, cutting through her with invisble shards of glass.

She stood from a distance and watched as Melanie said her good nights to the rest of the band. She caught Dimitri glowering out of her. Rebecca glared back, suddenly feeling very testy. What was the bitch's problem? Fuck her, it didn't matter.

"It's cold," Melanie said, hugging herself as she came back to Rebecca.

Rebecca said nothing. She wondered what was going to happen now. Was this where they were going to split paths? No. She knew what was going to happen and that didn't bother her, not one bit. In the beginning she thought she was the one that was trying to initiate things but Melanie had quickly turned the tables. She had made that very clear, with her eyes and the way she smiled. Inviting, seductive, dominate, wild. You're mine, those eyes had said, not the other way around. I'm the one that's in charge, I'm the one that holds the dice. Rebecca felt the phantom of Melanie's touch from where her fingers had looped through hers. The whole time that Rebecca had listened in on their band, not wanting to interject too much, not wanting to outstay her welcome, Melanie's fingers had looped through hers. And Rebecca had waited patiently, waited patiently so that she could have Melanie all to herself.

"Wanna get out of here and go somewhere warmer?" Melanie said.

"Sure." Rebecca decided to act coy, like she didn't know what was going on-after all this was a game they were playing. The foreshadowing of what was to come later.

"How about my place?"

Rebecca pretended to be uncertain. "I don't know...are you sure?"

"Well of course I'm sure. I wouldn't ask if I wasn't sure now would I? I want to get to know you Harley Quinn."

Rebecca smiled. "Yeah, okay. Let's do it."

To Rebecca's delight Melanie's apartment was just a few blocks away. They walked hand in hand, huddling close to stay warm. Rebecca did not care that she had only met this woman who was nothing more than a stranger to her.

Melanie’s apartment was almost exactly like Rebecca’s: small, with an alcove that seperated the kitchen from the living room. The difference between their places was that Rebecca had noth bothered to decorate hers, to display her passion and personality. Melanie on the other hand had taken great efforts in doing so.

The place smelled pleasantly of incense and scented candles. Most of what Melanie had was stuff you’d find in a thrift store or the dumpster. Take for instance the two wooden crates filled with old records, the rickety coffee table and the threadbare sofa. And yet these objects did not look junky because Melanie had found a way to make these thing look like something more than junk. Like the red silk fabric laid over the top of the wooden crates with the milk, embroidered with golden stars and moons (like her tattoos this hinted at Melanie’s fascination with stars and moons, something that interested Rebecca greatly), and the shapes cut into both sides of the table.

Taped to the walls were posters of girl rock bands (or bands where the lead singer was female) such as L7, Otep, and In this Moment. While Melanie was reaching into the fridge to grab them beers, Rebecca walked around the apartment, examining these exhibits of Melanie’s personality and life with an innocent yet hungry interest. She noticed that Melanie had no pictures of her family anywhere, of her parents, or of her siblings if there was any. Is she a loner like me? Rebecca thought Did she leave her family to save her sanity, to save her soul?

Melanie came back into the living room and handed Rebecca her beer. It was nice and cold. Melanie had already popped the top for her. It was Blue Moon. Now that they were out of the cold and away from the rest of the Dynamite Dykes, Rebecca felt less pressured, more relaxed. She felt safe with this girl, this girl that she did not know. But I’m hoping that I will get the chance to know her, Rebecca thought hopefully.

“I love your apartment,” she said after taking a swig.

“Thank you,” said Melanie. “I wish you would stop complimenting me.”

“Why? Most people like getting compliments.”

“Not me. Not when I think that the person is trying to kiss my ass. You’re here with me tonight, and unless you want to leave of course, you’re staying with me tonight. You don’t need to try and impress me anymore. I’m already impressed.”

“You’re beautiful,” Rebecca murmered. It was all she could think of to say at the moment. God, she was drunk.

Melanie sipped from her beer and smiled, showing her pearly white teeth. “You are too. I think I already told you that.”

“You basically said that you wanted to bang me. Or you said that you wanted to bang Harley Quinn and then you called me Harley Quinn.”

Melanie reached over and walked her index and middle finger up Rebecca’s arm, from her wrist all the way up her forearm. If Melanie had been a guy Rebecca would have freaked out and been out the door like Flash Gordan. Despite the fact that Rebecca loved dick almost equally as much as she loved vagina she was scared of men. They made her feel unsafe. Women didn’t. Melanie didn’t. Melanie was not a man.

“I want to kiss you. I want to fuck you. I want to get to know you.”

Rebecca gaped, mystified. No one had ever said anything like that to her before, man or woman, human or fae. It was vulgar and enchantingly romantic at the same time. “I want to do those things too,” she said.

“So are you a lesbian or are you bi?”

“I’m bisexual.”

“So you like guys too?”

“Yeah, but I like women more.”

“I have a rule about dating bisexual women,” said Melanie.

“What rule is that?”

“Not to date one.”

“Why?”

“Because they fuck everyone.”

“I don’t,” Rebecca said. “And I could say the same thing about dykes. Quite a few dykes anyway.”

“You’re a smart ass,” said Melanie. “I like that. It means that you’re not a pushover.”

“You’re music is so great,” Rebecca said; she wanted to take the topic off of her. “Like good enough that you guys should make an album.”

“We’ve made an album. The problem is promoting it. You know getting it out there so that everyone will listen to it, not just a bunch of twenty-and-thirty-somethings at a bar. We’ve been putting out our stuff to record companies for the last two years, trying to get a contract. It’s not easy. Most people don’t want to listen to the stuff that we sing about. Politics, gay stuff, in-your-face shit. So we are in the works of publishing the album independently. Which is fine with me. For me, making music isn’t about money. I enjoy making music, I enjoy singing. I enjoy being in a band. It’s my life. And if I never make money off of it, if I never get famous I won’t care.”

“That is so radical,” said Rebecca.

Melanie shrugged. “I’m speaking for myself not the rest of the band. We came together five years ago. We spent the first two years just fooling around. It wasn’t until our third year that we cracked down and started getting serious. But because I came up with the idea, because I write the songs and am the lead singer the other girls look up to me. And that’s a lot of pressure.”

“I bet.”

“Sometimes I get the feeling that they are all getting impatient with me. Impatient that we don’t have the CD out by now, impatient that we are still sing in bars and not moving onto to concerts or something.” Rebecca hated how weary Melanie sounded, how exhausted. This wasn’t just some girl that she’d seen on stage, someone that she had met at a bar. This was a real human being made of flesh and bone.

“Dimitri’s a bitch,” Rebecca blurted randomly. She regretted the words the moment she said them.

But Melanie nodded. “She is a bitch. But I love her. The next time she makes fun of you I’m going to slap the shit out of her.”

Rebecca felt her heart rise a little. She’d said, Next time, which hinted that there would be other conversations after this one, other meeting at tonight. But she reminded herself not to get her hopes up. She needed to be cautious. The last thing she needed was to dive headfirst into a situation only to walk out with a broken heart in the end.

“So what is that you do, Harley Quinn?”

“My name is Rebecca.”

Melanie laughed her scratchy, velvety laugh. “I think you told me that once but I forgot. If I wasn’t head over heels drunk I’d remember that.”

“That’s okay. I’m pretty bad with names myself.” Usually, Rebecca added silently. “I’m a private investigator slash hacker.”

Melanie looked impressed. “You’re kidding?”

Rebecca could not keep the prideful smile off of her face.

“Like insurance fraud and secret affairs and shit like that?”

“Sometimes. Sometimes I deal with more higher up cases. In those cases my hacking skills come in handy. If need be I can dig up information that no one wants to have found. But don’t worry, I’m a good hacker. I don’t steal people’s money or anything like that.” Rebecca did not add that she was in serious trouble with the Orc Mafia. She tucked that thought back into the dark corner of her mind. She would dwell on that later. Right now she was enjoying herself.

“Damn,” Melanie said. “You must be a bad ass.”

Rebecca blushed. She said nothing.

Melanie leaned over and kissed her. It was just a peck on the lips but it sent chills of pleasure and need up Rebecca’s spine all the same. Rebecca felt a euphoric rush. She wanted this girl, wanted her more than she had ever wanted anyone in her life. She took Melanie’s beer and her beer and set it on the floor, well away from the sofa where they would not have to worry about knocking the bottles over. She leaned forward and kissed Melanie hard, pushing her down on the sofa.

They kissed one another hungerily, their hands roaming over each other’s body, feeling the warmth of each other’s flesh beneath their clothing. In this moment, with Melanie in Melanie’s apartment, she Rebecca felt completely unhibited by her past, by the traumatizing events that had occurred in her life. Her tongue danced with Melanie’s, their lips fit together like the perfect puzzle.

Melanie’s hands slid underneath Rebecca’s shirt. Rebecca helped her, pulling it off the rest of the way. She threw it on the floor. Air hit her flesh. She drew in a quick, quiet breath and hissed it out through her teeth. Her eyebrows knitted together in pain. Melanie studied Rebecca’s bodies, taking in the bruises.

“What happened?” she asked.

“I can’t talk about it,” Rebecca said.

“Okay.”

“I’m sorry.”

“That’s okay.” Melanie smiled. “We all have things that we can’t talk about.”