Her Gun to His Head

Chapter 2: Face to Face...

Jinx leant over the bar-top in boredom, rolling her blue gemstone back and forth between her fingers, as the night wound down.

The bartender approached her empty cup with hesitation, unsure of whether or not she wished it to be taken. She glanced up at him, flashing a false-pleasant smile.

"You don't ever kick people out of here, do ya, Chuck?" she pondered in a sing-songy voice. "You must get somebody else to do that for ya, huh?"

He stood awkwardly and scratched his head. "Oh— I didn't accidentally give you alcohol again, did I...?"

In response, she animatedly snatched her cup off of the countertop and began loudly sipping air through the straw.

He sighed. "You always start calling me different names whenever that happens..."

"What different names?" she demanded.

"My—" he paused, "never mind..."

"Chuck, you're a good egg, people ever tell you that?" she continued.

"Egg—?" he puzzled.

"You know, like, something your mother might say, I dunno," she drawled.

"I... haven't actually spoken to my mother in—" he began.

"Where is everybody, anyway?" she cut in, "it's never usually this dead in here this quick..."

"Uh, well, I think Silco took a crew with him when he—" he started to answer.

"He came down?!" she exclaimed, "I didn't even see him..."

"Oh, uh, yeah, it was about an hour or so ago..." he added.

She shot him a look that appeared to make him nervous.

"Alright, Chuck," she said, standing up, "what do I owe ya?"

"You—?" he looked confused, and seemingly decided to ignore the question instead. "Just... don't tell him that I got you buzzed by accident, please..."

"What? I'm not—" she protested, "if I were drunk, I'd probably have shot ya by now, or something."

"...You've tried to, before..." he meekly remarked.

"Oh, yeah..." she giggled, picking up her gemstone and setting her cup down.

She turned to take her leave.

"Well, if I don't see ya...!" she sang behind her, waltzing outside onto the streets of The Lanes.

Her face contorted into a pout, as she reminded herself that her father had apparently gone somewhere exciting and left her behind. Not that it was unlike him, though.

She sighed, and went for a stroll down the gravel path, flanked on either side by colorful neon lights and street stalls that had closed up shop for the night. The only places that seemed to stay open were the 'entertainment' venues — Jinx scoffed as she passed by the door to the pleasure house that she knew some of her father's crew to frequent.

'Folks really got nothin' to do, these days, huh?' she mused.

Not that she didn't ever get bored — she did find herself aimlessly wandering the Lanes more often than not, as she was now. The only thing she spent more time doing was holing up in the underground crevice where she slept, tinkering and building new contraptions with which to blow people up.

Still, it was better than spending one's time in a damned brothel, she figured. She couldn't really imagine needing to resort to something like that just to pass the time.