Alexander Death(29)

“Oh, yeah.” Jenny drunkenly waved him away. She invited Kisa to finally sit down and stop hovering over her. The girl hesitated.

“Come on.” Jenny pointed at the chair beside her. “You're off duty. Have a drink.” She held up her wineglass to Kisa.

Kisa smiled, looked around, then sat beside Jenny and poured herself some wine. Jenny clinked her glass against Kisa's, and they drank.

The wine made Jenny chatty, and so she talked to Kisa and to anyone else who came and went at the table. Though nobody really understood her, they seemed friendly enough. At one point, Kisa and Jenny managed to discuss how Jenny's gloves didn't match the beaded scarlet red dress Kisa had provided Jenny for the party. Kisa offered to make new gloves for Jenny, but Jenny insisted it would be too much trouble.

Later, Jenny staggered inside and found her way to the back stairs, which led up to the bathroom near Jenny's room. She tugged at the door handle, but it was locked, so she slumped against the wall.

She felt a little dizzy and a little panicky, too. She was in a place where everything and everyone was unfamiliar, and she had no idea how to get home from here. She wondered about her dad, whether he'd recovered from Tommy's fear-inducing touch, whether he was worried about her. And what about Seth? Did he miss Jenny...or was he relieved she was gone?

Two Latina girls in skimpy dresses stumbled out of the bathroom, laughing, and wandered away down the hall. Jenny hurried inside to use it. When she was done, she washed her hands and splashed handfuls of cool water on her face. She wanted to forget about her problems back home. Things were like a dream world here, and that was just what she needed.

When she stepped back into the hall, she smelled something burning. She followed the smell to a cloud of blue smoke hanging in front of a closed door. Somebody was smoking weed in there, and Jenny felt like joining them.

The old Jenny would have stood there for a minute, then turned away, too shy to approach strangers. But now she was filled with drunken resolve. She wasn't poor little Jenny Mittens anymore, suffering abusive songs on the playground, disdained and dismissed by everyone. She was a killer. A monster. And Alexander understood that and embraced it. Here, she could be herself, whoever that turned out to be.

Jenny pushed open the door. It wasn't a bedroom, but a large office, and Alexander himself sat with his legs crossed on top of a hand-carved wooden desk. Some of the party guests were here, seated on long leather couches, including Ernesto Calderon and two of the men who'd come with him, and a few young women in tight, low-cut dresses, including the two who'd stumbled out of the bathroom earlier. One of the girls was making out with one of Ernesto's men. The Clash pulsed out of a sleek black stereo, a very different sound from the Mayan band performing outside.

“Jenny.” Alexander smiled, and smoke curled up from his mouth. He held a long wooden pipe decorated with feathers. “How do you like your party?”

“I'd like it more if you'd share.” Jenny closed the door behind her and crossed the room toward Alexander, holding out one hand. Alexander grinned and passed her the pipe, and Jenny puffed on it. She coughed out a hot cloud of smoke, her eyes watering.

“Don't be so greedy,” Alexander said, still smiling.

“Very funny. I needed this.” Jenny took a couple more puffs and held the pipe toward Alexander, but he motioned for her to pass it to one of Ernesto's men who sat nearby. “Good stuff,” Jenny commented as she handed it off. “Kind of minty.”

“Only the best for my parties,” Alexander said.

“Alexander, this is all great, and I'm glad you're hiding me here.” Jenny's words came out slurred. “I just keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

“It's not all parties down here. We have a lot of work to do.”

“What kind of work?”

“No need to talk about it tonight,” Alexander said, with a glance and a smile at Ernesto. “Tonight, we eat, drink and get fucked up.”

Ernesto slapped the ass of the girl on his lap, and she giggled and stood. Ernesto pushed to his feet and approached Alexander, speaking in Spanish and grinning.

“A little more?” Alexander asked. He looked at Jenny and shrugged. “Why not?”

“A little more what?” Jenny asked.

Alexander pushed off the table and landed on his feet. Behind where he'd been sitting, an antique mirror in an ornate ebony frame lay flat on the table, though it looked like it was intended to be hung on a wall. Rows of white powder as thick as Jenny's middle finger had been laid out across it, and a razor blade and a glass straw sat at one edge of the mirror.

Jenny watched Ernesto pick up the straw and snort some powder into each nostril, consuming about half of one of the thick lines. Ernesto pinched his nose and looked up while his female companion sniffed up the rest of the line.