FicWad

Flowers?

Crystal was ordering flowers?

I looked down at the book still not believing it. I picked the phone book up and ran my fingers along the ripped page. There were some markings along some of the listings. And across the top of the page she had my address written. It was definitely Crystal's handwriting... I mean know Lia's handwriting and definitely wasn't Lia's...

Fuck... I started to shake a little. It was Crystal... It had to be. I remembered that look she gave me when Lia was hugging me that day... oh fuck. I've gotta get out of here...

I look up and Crystals standing in the doorway. Her and Lia must've just came home from shopping. She was still holding a bag. "Elle?" She says a little confused as to why I'm in her room.

"Oh fuck. I...I..." I took a step back and dropped the phone book.

She made a face and went to pick it up. Lia appeared behind us.

"Elle what the hell are you doing in here?" Lia laughed a little.

"I ..." I just looked at both of them.

"I think she may have caught us Lia." Crystal says holding the phone book up for Lia to see. Lia sighed a little and looked over at me and then she reaches over and shuts the door. I started to freak out a little in my head.

"Elle." Lia says stepping towards me. "You weren't supposed to find out about that." Lia says taking the phone book from Crystal and tossing it back on to the messy floor.

"What?." I gasp a little stepping back towards the bathroom. " Look, I know what you guys are doing... " I say trying not to cry... "Just tell me why Lia." I say as the tears start falling from my eyes. Why would Lia do this to me?  Send me flowers to freak me out. Put glass in the milk she knew I wouldn't drink to scare me.. but why? It just doesn't make any sense...

"Why?" Lia laughs in disbelief and looks over at Crystal.

"Uh, Cause you cant count on guys to do anything right, Isn't that right sweetie." Crystal says to Lia and Lia smiles at her.

"What?" I say trying to catch my breath. What the hell are they talking about?

"Don't cry Elle." Lia tells me reaching for me. I jumped back. She sighs. "We're just trying to help you know." She says looking at me like I'm nuts. Crystal nods a little.

I was speechless...trying to help? What?

"Crystal fucking called every florist in town. No one has any records of a delivery to your house." Lia says throwing herself on to the bed.

"She what?" I ask a little confused.

"She called every florist shop in the phone book." Lia repeats louder. "No one delivered flowers to your address Elle." Lia sighs.

"You what?" I say again looking over at Crystal this time.

"Are you all right?" Crystal says squinting a little at me.

"Aw fucking focus here Elle." Lia says a little frustrated sitting up on the bed."I guess we might as well tell her." Lia says and Crystal nods.

"I did find one shop who sold a bunch of flowers in a glass vase to some guy yesterday who walked in." Crystal tells me as I sit on the bed next to Lia.

"They what? To who?" I ask her shaking a little in anticipation.

"I don't know the lady said he paid in cash." Lia sighs. I wiped the tears in my eyes. "Don't cry Elle." Lia tells me softly.

"So she doesn't know who he was?" I say sniffling a little.

"We just came from down there uhh the lady says he was maybe 20- tops." Crystal tells me.

"Well that eliminates Mr. Samuel from the list." I sigh throwing myself back onto the bed.

"Um she said that he had sandy brown hair, uh he was pretty tall, athletic." Crystal says and I sit up quickly. "Sound like anyone you know?" Crystal says and I frown.

"Paul." I sigh.

"No the lady said he had a weird cross tattooed on his hand." Lia says reaching over and rubbing my back. "Right between his thumb and his forefinger." Lia tells me.

"What?" I scoff. "Paul doesn't have a tattoo...." I start to say and Lia groans a little.

"Try to keep up Elle." She tells me patting my back a little. "It wasn't Paul okay?" She says and I nod a little.

"Do you know anyone with a tattoo like that?" Crystal asks and I shake my head no. Well that eliminates Brutus too. I mean he's got a lot of tattoos. None like that though and he's nowhere near 20...I sigh a little thinking...

"It might just be unrelated." I say and Lia shakes her head.

"Tell her Crystal." Lia says nodding at her.

"What?" I say as they exchange looks.

"Um last night a guy came in to the bar Elle." Crystal says lowering her voice a little. "Brian didn't see him but umm, he..." She glanced over at the door that was still shut. "He had a cross tattooed on his hand. I saw it when he was tipping me." She says and I stare at her a little expressionlessly.

"And-" Lia encouraged her.

"And I bought a pair of panties kinda like you were you were wearing on Sunday Elle." She says rolling her eyes a little.

"Kinda like?" Lia laughs. "They were the same ones!" She tells her.

"Wait the same ones?" I say getting a little disgusted. I mean I lost mine..She didn't fucking come over and take them did she?

"Well not the same same ones!" Lia laughs. "We bought them at the children's place too, like you did Elle" She tells me.

"How did you know where I bought them?"I ask her a little confused still.

"I was there... remember?" Lia says and I shake my head a little. I guess so... I mean probably...Lia and I shop together all the time.

"Wait so you guys went out and bought underwear like I was wearing because--?" I ask her a little puzzled.

"Cause that was fucking hot Elle." Lia laughs a little, like I should've known that. Fuck.. I bought them cause they were comfortable... "You made a lot of money too in them right?" She asks Crystal.

"Oh yeah guys love that stuff." Crystal says scoffing a little. "Fucking perverts you know."  Lia nodded in agreement.

"Closet pedophiles and crap..." She mumbles.

"Okay ummm the point to this is what?" I cry out a little disturbed by this whole conversation.

"Oh well um yeah as he was tipping me he said something like 'nice panties but they looked better on that other girl'."

She says and I frown. "And then he asked if you were coming back to work." She says and I shake my head a little.

"And you think he meant me?" I say in total denial again.

"Uh yeah. Fucking wake up here Elle." Lia says scoffing at me. She knew me. She knew I wasn't gonna just accept this. "How many other strippers you think shop at the children's place?" She laughs at me.

"Lia I..." I was interrupted by a knock on the door. Crystal got up and opened it. It was Brian.

"They're getting ready to leave." He says and I look down at the towel in my hands.

"Oh shit Frankie!" I cry out remembering why I came in in the first place.

"He's all right." Brian tells me. He looks at Crystal then at Lia.

"What are you guys doing?" He says a little suspiciously

"Nothing." Crystal tells him crossing her fingers behind her back. Lia smiled.

"Did you go to the bank?" He tells her and she shakes her head no.

"Uh we didn't have time." She tells him.

"Well where the fuck did you go then?" He yells at her and Lia gets up and wraps her arms around Crystal's waist.

"We stopped and had sex in a phone booth." She tells him and he rolls his eyes a little at them.

"Gerard's waiting for you Elle." Brian says and I nod a little.

"Wait!" Lia calls out. "Don't fucking tell him what we talked about." Lia whispers at me as we walk outside.

"I'll see you later Lia."  I say and I hug her goodbye. I went to wave to Crystal and she pulled me close and hugged me to. Startling me a little.

"Don't worry Elle. If he comes in again, I'll let you know." She whispers as she hugs me.

"Take care of Lia okay?" I say and she nods as I go down the steps.

"Fuck Elle. Remind me never to send you for help in an emergency!" Frankie laughs a little.

"I'm sorry I got distracted." I apologize to him.

"Distracted with what?" Gerard says touching my cheek a little. He ran his fingers up along the bottom of my eyes. He was giving me a funny look.

"We were talking." I tell him.

"About what Elle?" He says.

"Things." I say giving him the same answer he gave me before.

 "Were you crying?" He asks me. Fuck. I bet my eye makeup was smeared. That's how he could tell damn it... I just looked at him.

"I umm.." I didn't want to lie. "I'm getting a headache." I whine a little.

"Come on." He says holding open Rays cars door. I climbed in to the back seat and laid down resting my head in his lap. I think he thought I fell asleep. I mean I've done it before. But this time I wasn't sleeping. I just had my eyes shut. I was thinking about what Crystal said...

I didn't know anyone with a cross tattoo... And no one saw me at the club in those underwear. Well, Bob did carry me out. Some one could've seen me outside... Fuck how many cars were in the lot? I remember seeing Lias and Bobs and there were 3 cars along the wall... No that can't be right... One would be Jimmy the bartender, one would've been that fucking old dude.. what was his name Al? And the other car would've been... fuck...

Okay lets say some weird guy stayed after closing. I didn't go home. I went to Bobs. Even if he followed me he would've followed me to Bobs. There's no way he'd know where I lived...Fuck... I squeezed my eyes a shut a little tighter. I felt Gerard stroking my hair. Ray was driving. Frankie was sitting upfront. They had the radio on. Pretty loud too...

All of a sudden someone lowered it. "Is she sleeping?" I hear Ray say.

"Yeah." Gerard sighs a little continuing to stroke my hair.

"When she wakes up you gonna tell her?" Ray says.

Gerard stopped stroking my hair. He paused and took a breath "Uh...No...no I'm not."