by Simone Lari
The woman drew an open yellow envelope from her handbag and handed it to the girl.
Nina took it with a smile, even though in reality at that moment all she wanted to do was try on that fabulous dress.
She was about to open it, with her mind already surmising an array of possibilities: a ticket for a short trip, a coupon valid for a day at a health spa or perhaps a voucher for a fashion store.
"Not knowing what to give you, we decided to give you some money. It’s always handy, so you can buy whatever you want."
The revelation did not amaze her all that much, knowing their egocentric laziness.
As if my aunt would have made any effort to go and buy something, actually, she wouldn’t even think about what to buy for as a gift! Well, it’s not so bad: I’ll get something that I like.
Nina thanked them but without getting too close for fear that they might soil the dress, then she bolted upstairs at full speed.
When she reached her room, she barricaded herself inside and stood in front of the large mirror studded with stickers of musical groups at the top and bottom.
Realizing she still had the envelope in one hand, she decided to have a quick glance at the contents before putting it away: fifty dollars in small bills.
Ok, it’s the thought that counts, but considering all the money you have, this is really a stingy present! More money comes out of your pockets than belly from your trousers! Oh well, never mind.
Nina again held the dress to her body, having a first reflected look of how it would look on her.
"Thank you, grandma, it will look wonderful on me. You really do have a modern mind!" she exclaimed satisfied.
She placed the dress on the back of the chair, undid the first button of her shirt then slipped it off in a few hurried movements.
She was about to unbutton her jeans, when a strong sense of unease hit her. She stopped, immediately overcome by the feeling she should get dressed again.
The door of her room opened and Dorian burst in without knocking.
She grabbed the shirt that she had thrown on the bed and used it to cover herself. With an annoyed look, she ordered him coldly: "Get out of here, you’re in my room and nobody invited you in, it seems to me!"
"Nina, what’s your problem?" he said, pretending to be surprised. "I've come to see what Grandma's dress looks like on you. We’re cousins, what does it matter if I see you half naked."
"You'd like to, but now get out!" she insisted serious.
On the contrary, the boy went closer, staring hard at her exposed navel and the edge of her panties which peeped out from the tight jeans.
He put a hand on her shoulder; she stepped back suddenly, hitting the mirror that prevented her retreating any further.
Dorian brushed his hand on her gently, moving down to her elbow. When he got to the forearm, he clasped it in a firm grip.
Nina gave a start, but didn't say anything.
"And yet you liked it when we kissed, the evening of your sixteenth birthday" he said sure of himself, staring at her ravenously.
"I was drunk; you knew very well that I can’t take much alcohol. You forced me to do it” she shot back at him.
"Maybe" he admitted, "but you liked it, admit it you little shit!” He grabbed her other arm. Nina jumped, startled.
"Let me go, I won’t tell you again" she rebuked him.
"You won’t tell me again, because in reality you don't want me to go, little cousin the tramp." He pulled her to his mouth, licking his lips greedily.
"You keep trying every time, huh? Would you really like to bang me a couple of times?" she asked, with a devilish air.
"Oh, you can't guess how much!"
"Then you won't mind if I give you one!" she burst out kneeing him in the groin.
Dorian bent in half, using his hands to comfort the offended genitals.
"You na-nasty piece of shit…" he groaned.
"You’re the piece of shit! I never said anything to my parents to avoid friction in the family, but now I’m big enough to defend myself. So, if you care about those two rotten plums you have down there, keep away from me, little cousin."
She picked up the dress, went out of room and closed the door, leaving Dorian to get over his pain. She put on the dress in the corridor and went down the stairs, smiling and confident.
"Oh, you're really a splendor!" said the grandmother as soon as she saw her.
"Splen-dor, splendor!" George echoed her.
"You're beautiful, darling. Even if that dress seems a little too…" The mother’s objections came to a sudden halt as soon as she met the annoyed gaze of her daughter.
The front door opened suddenly, at the very moment Nina arrived at the bottom of the stairs.
Her father, out of breath, with his overcoat folded over his forearm and a folder in his hand, hurried into the room.
"Sweetheart, you’re gorgeous!" he said with a broad smile.
Nina stood there transfixed; she stared at him with her mouth open, undecided for a moment how to welcome him. She shut her mouth in an annoyed scowl and, disappointed, turned and returned to her room, rudely pushing Dorian aside when she was half-way up the stairs.
"Congratulations, Steven, you've managed to be late today as well" Clarissa remarked acidly, hitting at her husband with a plate with a piece of half-eaten cake.
He took a breath to reply, but his wife’s angry expression made him desist.
The woman went into the study, where she took a small packet, and then went to join her daughter upstairs.
She knocked three times at the bedroom door. "Nina, can I come in?”
After a few moments consent arrived, preceded and followed by prolonged muttering.
The girl was sitting on the bed, with her elbow resting on her thigh and her hand supporting her chin.
"Look if you want to justify him this time too, you’re out of luck! He shouldn’t have been late, not today!"
"Don’t worry, I don't plan on justifying that block head, although I imagine he must have had a serious setback that made him late…"
"No way, stop immediately: you are trying to justify him, it doesn’t work with me!"
Clarissa smiled. "You're right, sorry darling." She hugged her tightly.
She allowed herself to be comforted by her mother, then moved away and finding a smile commented: "The dress from grandmother is fabulous! I want to wear it tonight to the party. You don’t have anything against that do you?”
“You’re eighteen years of age, you can wear it if you want to, I can’t see anything wrong with that" she said caressing her face, "however, at least try not to wriggle your hips too much, and if it rides up too high on your thigh, put it back in place!" she warned good-humoredly.
"Ha ha ha, okay mom."
"You know, I believe this will go well with the dress." She handed her the small packet.
The girl looked at it with hopeful eyes full of joy.
She opened it, with far greater care than she had given to the gift from her grandparents
The packet revealed a small black box inside, embellished with Celtic knots in a gold color.
Nina smiled immediately, appreciating the packaging even before the contents.
Hesitantly she opened the little box where she found a Trequetra in a circle of shiny silver, hanging on a slim chain.
"It... it’s really beautiful! Thank you mom."
She threw herself into her mother’s arms, and remained there a moment before getting ready for the fateful and long awaited party.
Chapter 5 - Black Sun
"Really wonderful, everryyythiing... Hic! A wonderful birthday party…"
"Hmm, thanks, Heric" answered Nina trying to shake her heavy drunken friend off her.
"Always letting everyone see what you're like, right?" commented Tony intervening in the difficult task of holding up that weight. "One of these days I’ll destroy that damned false document of yours" he added annoyed.
"Bye, Nina, we’re
going, Tess’s father has arrived!" warbled some girls at the door of a noisy restaurant.
"Yes, bye bye little girls. You go home, we’re going to have some fun!" teased a rather tall and athletic girl with short black hair with red tips.
"Jude, what are you planning?'" asked Nina, perplexed.
"Don’t worry about a thing; let me organize the rest of the evening. I’ll find a nice little place for you to visit. You'll see, with that outfit and your sexy little body, you’ll break some hearts this evening" she said taking her by the arm. A hand sneaked under the folds of her overcoat, in search of the smooth surface of the dress.
"Tony, will you take Heric home? He's certainly in no condition to drive" remarked a brown-haired girl with large glasses and a long braid down her back. She was not as tall and athletic as her friend, but had a shapely figure and a reassuring face.
"Angelique, I was actually thinking of coming with Nina and you, for ... yes, I mean ...”
"You do not want to drag that dead weight along with you, surely? If someone can’t hold alcohol, they shouldn’t start drinking early in the evening!" Jude objected, sourly.
"He lives a long way away, but perhaps I could take him home and then meet up with you, or you could come along and keep me company. But anyway, where are you thinking of going?" he asked Nina directly.
Nina took a breath to respond, but Jude jumped in ahead of her again.
"Are you mad? Five of us in your car, with him maybe vomiting all over us? No way in the world!"
"Be nice, Tony, take Heric home and then phone us, and that way you can come and join us" Angelique reasoned.
"Hmm, ok. It's just that the idea of you three, alone…"
"Don’t worry, little daddy, we won’t be out too late, and we'll be careful" Nina reassured him, caressing his face.
Tony smiled.
"Okay, I’ll take him home and come back to join you... ehm, you all" he corrected himself, embarrassed.
He hoisted his friend into a better position over his shoulders and headed to the car, the latter babbling incomprehensible words and waving wildly in the direction of the three girls.
"That guy hasn't realized he hasn't got a chance with you" said Jude uncharitably, shaking her head.
"What do you mean? Tony is a good friend and we’ve known each other since we were kids. He was only worried about my safety" Nina pointed out.
"Hmm, whatever. And you, repressed genius, what do you think?”
Angelique looked sideways at her friend, and then answered in a clear and pompous voice: "I think Tony is a very nice boy. Both as a friend and as something more. Nina is lucky to have him in her life."
"Blah, blah, blah, we know he’s your type, but tonight it’s just the three of us and the night!" giggled Jude, hugging herself to Nina and Angelique.
The girls trudged along, held tightly by their friend, with the heels of their boots clicking noisily and clouds of vapor coming from their bright red lips.
"Let’s find somewhere quickly, my feet are freezing and not only them" protested Nina.
"Be careful what you wish for" Jude reproached her, pointing to the club in front of them.
"Black Sun? What a strange name" commented Angelique.
The long line at the entrance, made up of the most disparate types of both sexes, made Jude’s eyes light up.
"With all those people waiting, it has to be a popular place!"
"I've never heard of it and never set foot in it" admitted Nina, perplexed and uncertain whether or not to get in line.
"That’s because you couldn’t! See the sign?" She pointed to the sign at the door Minors under 18 not allowed.
"That's not a good omen" Angelique said, scared.
"Yes it is! Come on, I’m thinking of a shortcut."
Taking the girls by the hand, Jude slipped into the queue.
"Excuse us, excuse us! Ok, you can touch my ass, but let us through. Excuuuuse uuus!"
Nina and Angelique blushed visibly, but Jude pushed her way through the crowd at the entrance, elbowing them without any shame to let her by.
"Ow!" exclaimed Nina, looking behind her.
"What’s wrong with you?" asked Angelique, bending like a contortionist to get through a bottleneck.
"Someone gave me a slap on the bottom."
"I got two elbows on my nose, instead" her friend complained.
"Well, we did it!" said Jude triumphantly as she arrived in front of the bouncer. She took a deep breath and got ready to put all her proverbial cheek on show.
"Hello. Have you ever been told that you really resemble Stone Cold the wrestler? What a fabulous physique you have! And bald men are so sexy" she rattled off glibly.
"Get back in the queue, little girl" suggested the massive bald man, not being conned, but Jude didn't lose heart.
"Listen, my friend turned eighteen today, and we want to celebrate" she said unbuttoning her overcoat. Some impatient boys in the long line of people began to complain. "What say you let us in? As a special birthday present. I’ll be grateful to you, I promise." After a sexy flutter of eyelashes, the sides of her coat opened, one to the right and the other to the left, showing her fishnet thigh-highs. "Come on, sweetheart, only you can make me happy." A simpering little kiss parted from the red-painted lips.
Unbelievably impassive, the man repeated: "Get back into the queue now", his gaze became narrower, "it would be better."
Jude opened her eyes wide. "Oh" broke from lips her sourly then she slipped her long lacquered nails into her clutch bag. "Ok, I get it, you're tough. What if I introduced you to a friend?" She held a one hundred banknote under his muzzle.
He stuck his big nose against her, saying with a nasty snarl: "And with this, you've got yourself thrown out. Get lost!"
"Oook, I don’t want to appear insistent, ha-ha!" Jude said ironically, putting the banknote away, and then beating a retreat.
"Well?" Angelique asked her when she went back to them.
"Well nothing doing. Let’s get out of here. I'm sorry, Nina, we’ll have to endure a little more cold. At the bottom of the road there’s a cafeteria, we can stop there for a bit ...”
"No!" she yelled, throwing her foot forward.
"Hold on a moment." Her friend took the scarf from her neck. "Maybe you have another chance."
Nina covered the few steps that separated her from the bouncer, already armed with an intolerant scowl when she said to him, "Listen, I’m sorry for the way my friend behaved, and I know you couldn’t care less, but this is the evening of my eighteenth birthday. I'd just like to celebrate it in a truly special way." The man remained silent, eyes fixed on the space between her breasts. "We didn't want to jump the queue, believe me, it’s just that we were cold, and we have a curfew and really couldn’t wait. Couldn’t you break the rules and let us in?"
No reaction. Like a robot, the man stared at her miserly cleavage with blank vacuous eyes. Nina leaned over a little to intercept his eyes and draw his attention. "Well?"
He started, as if he had just woken up from a dream with his eyes open. "Well what?”
"Let us through!" she burst out impatiently.
The man broke into an unexpected almost wacky little smile. "Of course, young lady, come in and have fun!" Releasing the tape, he invited her to pass. With a huge smile, Nina urged her friends to hurry.
"Great, thanks!" warbled Jude, about to follow her, but the guard blocked her.
"You, what are you doing still here? I told you to disappear!"
"But I’m with her!"
"She’s with me” confirmed Nina.
The bouncer looked at the space between her breasts again, then into her eyes, and there he stopped, completely bewildered.
"Go in, Jude!" ordered Nina.
"Go in, Jude" repeated the man.
When Jude was finally on the other side, she slapped her forehead muttering: "The power of boobs!"
"But I wear a size small, if that" objected Nina putting her scarf back on.
As she did so, she caressed the beautiful Trequetra shaped medallion, the gift from her mother, lying gracefully in the place between her small breasts.
Leaving their overcoats at the cloakroom, they went inside the nightclub.
The interior was large and softly lit, concentrated in a single large room in the shape of a rhomboid.
A light artificial mist rose from the center of the dance floor, teeming with people making clumsy movements. The music was commercial with a monotonous rhythm, deafening, making it extremely difficult to communicate even from very close.
Some small tables, with hard leather sofas, separated the dance floor from a narrow passageway crowded with people scurrying hastily, cocktail in hand, in both directions.
"What chaos!" said Angelique, not at all impressed.
"It’s really cool!" Jude decided, eyes wide and smile showing thirty two teeth.
"Strange, this rhomboid shape" Nina commented.
"Eh?" asked Jude.
"I said that the rhomboid shape of the room is strange!" she repeated, raising her voice.
"What?" asked her friend again.
"I said… ah, you're the usual idiot. You're teasing me!"
Jude widened the smile even more and pushed the girls toward the counter, pinching them hard and repeatedly on their bottoms.
"Black Sun. Mmm, this place isn’t bad at all, and look how many tasty little morsels there are all lined up!" Sting exulted with a huge voracious smile.
"Try not to give vent to your low instincts. As it is, you've already eaten" Christopher rebuked him.
"Come on, relax, my friend! Don't tell me you wouldn’t take a drink of one or two of these beautiful little girls." He winked.
He looked around and couldn’t hide a tremor of desire. The smell of their hot sweat, the rhythmic incessant beat of the veins of their neck and smooth soft wrists, together with the sight of their bodies nicely on display despite the cold night, stirred him more than he would like to admit to himself.
He clenched his fists, swallowed and shook his head, then answered casually: "Unlike you, I know how to control myself. I suggest you try and do the same and not cause any trouble, if you don't want to incur Abraham's wrath."
