Wings and Wolves
the classrooms, the noise of their conversations echoing off the high ceilings and glossy floors. Cecelia dodged dancers stretching against the wa
ld not be the first money-making scheme that she had talked Lia into joining, and the last time the audition for "entert
than a normal pub and posher. Leather couches and chandeliers sort of deal. They only open Friday
Lia was
er head towards the man lean
raight teeth. He reminded her of a movie star, with his clean-cut good looks and golden
ite wall. Her eyes were drawn back to him however, and she slid
t her looking at him. Vain, she thought, and with good reason. He would be popular around the dance academy, with both
ris sent him a flirtatious smile.
raised his eyebrows in i
e," Lia commented trying to focus on the cork board, but the blonde man was
t for a boyfriend. What she needed was a regular source of income. There were adverts of every description
"Oh my god, Lia. He is such a man. Like, a proper grown up.
ar
ther notices with complete disregard for whatever they were advertising. She tore off the first phone number tear-awa
rm through Lia's. "We have
ely sure it is n
ain, the golden pull of him irresistable. There was something, she thought, so familiar about his face. Perhaps her initial impression had been correct
e academy, dodging through pedestrian traffic, onto the sidewalk, the swell of traffi
rner onto the street. They ran, giggling and breathless to the bus stop, aremy who caught his bus by first name. He bought tickets for his granddaughters whenever he could get them, and his familiarity with the dancers
lew him
ps, until there was a space near the back doors. She an
gang or something?" Lia s
house and had watched from her window as Paris exchanged lingering kisses with her boyfr
d. His leather jacket had hugged broad shoulders and lean waist, and bunched on the muscles of his arms. She had returned to bed once Paris had not-so-qui
ris was laughing. "Or something for cars. I do not know. The
between the guard for the seats behind and the door's opening passage, the track worn s
d by the aging occupants, and the young families saw more appeal in new build estates than the ramshackle houses in need of renovation and new life. As a result, the
ad been in the family for generations, passed down fro
er Lia had been the only survivor of the c
ng up to this point, but the fees of her dance academy were starting to chip away at its capital, and the
part time job with a regular paycheck, and she needed to let out the third bedroom to supplement it, thoug
treet, and Lia swore: "Ear
ard towards her, almost unbalancing her onto the street. If she had wondered if the fairy was
blood
k it off, the pain putting her beyond car
ed. "It would have bee
s she faked putting her earring back in
Paris c
ere did yo
ng mall. Exclusive men's club means men with money," she made the money symbol with her fingers and thumbs. "What every wannabe dan
reepy china-dolls in the hallway, the same faded curtains, and threadbare carpets. The same pictures o
r was gone, after all. Her ghost still wandered the halls, phasing between moments of coherency where she would int
most people's grandparents did, Lia would not b
d was always baffled by Lia's wish to c
t in the kitchen, before drawing straws for the shower. Paris had an unerring ability to
to the kitchen table amongst the rubble of her life - chap sticks, tissues, small change, mints that had escaped their container, r
ghost paused by the table to observe. "All hiss and attitud
ng with it?"
her grandmother was in one of her coherent moods. "Pop him in
thrived here, despite Lia's best efforts to care for them, the leaves shining in the bright light that spilled through the
f dried apple it at it. She hoped for the best as she returned to the kitchen in o
ore brief. Under Paris' direction, she pulled her dark ha
ed her to put on black underwear, and a suspender belt to hold up the thigh h
," Paris
pper-gram, her dress hidden by her coat, and the fishnet stockings and black high heels on full display. She was begi
the money.
out, the male laughter and cat calls filling the chamber of the bus with sound and causing other passengers to look up from
ng Lia glad to be inside the bus despi
id, "that after a few weeks
very week?" Lia
it, Lia," Paris said. "The men at this
.." Lia caught
opped and they stepped off
of wet tarmac. The darkness was cut with the bright artificial ligh
s, and the wound down windows of cars doing rings of the city streets so
e air as they huddled together for warmth, their voices bright and excited, and their high heels clip-c
his way closer to the unwary girls at the tail of one of the queues that had curled around into the alleyway be
tretched out hi
a snapped, star
recoiled, babbling as he scurried down the alleyway, d
ia explained
in a rising cho
prob
is said in admiration. "Y
p. "Are we far? I am freezing." She huddled her jac
t f
but lost in her scarf, was trying to get passers by to accept a
he girls as they passed her
the black and white photo of a laug
her?" The woman
t it into her pocket. "But I will keep
hetically grateful for so litt
ris murmured as they walked away.
shru
ats scattering into the shelter of the shadows as they made their way to a solid door, it's chipped surface showi
g the walls with the music from the club pulsing around them like a
standing racks queued to the right, holding a variety of costumes. A door to the left opened into a small
Paris reached out her
warmer than outside, but only just, and her skin crawled
coats onto a rack and flicked through th
French maid's dre
in quality, the material holding an acrylic sheen and the tulle netting coarse, the
stband to hold the dress to the garter belt, before tying the white apron around her waist. "If you pin it to the garter, it'll stop it riding up so much," she advised. "Don't look at
ist to her garter belt, and arranging the bodice so that her breasts and the top edge
g, and it is yours. If Elior likes you, that is. And he had better like y
e bodice was scooped indecently low, but it was hardly worse than any other costume she wore as a dance
urse and touched
," she said with a giggle and pulled o
ostume that I have worn," Lia
. "Let's go. Remember, tables are numbered left to right, starting in the back booth
and put the drinks onto the table. We don't take
t louder. She pushed open the door and they stepped out into a large room filled with tables and chesterfield couches arranged around a central stage, curr
ome straight from work, their ties and attitudes loosened, and those whose business did not require su
ust sliding a tray onto the glossy surface. "You are late,"
t and handing the tray to Lia. "Table four.
, their arms over the back of the armchairs they sat on and their long legs sprawled out in the type of confident,
t the Other in their eyes reflected back golden in the darkness. She checked the
to offload
the man to her right did not have