No Sleep

2

Cooper Moriah ate like a fat, ten-year-old boy at an end of the season sports party. No grace. No manners. Just bullets of food flying across the table towards Xander and Lupita. And as the grease collected around Moriah's mouth, the sparkle in Xander's eyes slackened. He wasn't quite the golden boy on the TV screens.

    Moriah spotted the two on the sidewalk about 30 minutes earlier. He rambled their names with arms spread like they were old friends. In fact, to Xander's annoyance, he referred to Xander as "Longshot." And he said his name first at that. He wondered how his name (especially that one) got around to someone like Moriah. Sure, Moriah wasn't much of a stranger to anyone in the city, but he wasn't a stranger to the country either. He talked to citizens in Kanal like they were best friends. It's not like he really remembered anyone's name.

    They were invited to Pat! Pat! which was a club for the rich or the filthy rich. It's laser effects and pyrotechnics were unlike anything Xander had seen. There was pulsing music that made his head throb. He believed their true purpose was blinding commoners so they'd never come back. The arena-sized stage was the simplest statement in the club. The servers, men and women alike, had on latex leggings and skirts that stepped very close to the line between extravagant and trashy.

    Xander was so nervous he almost knocked a cup over while sitting down. He chuckled nervously. The overstimulation of trying to impress Moriah and the new environment made him feel like a seventeen-teen-year old again. Food was served almost immediately. He questioned how they knew what he wanted without giving him a menu.

    "Amazing isn't it? Take your search history and your credit card history and bam! They know that you want yourself a nice sirloin steak. Now, I gotta know," Moriah said between bites. "How the hell did you two manage to get here? Don't get it twisted! Girl power or whatever, but look at you. With that ass? Not serving in here in a cute little skirt? And you," He pointed his fork to Xander. "Gennara, he comes up, he comes up to me and he says I got a boy smarter than a book, dumber than a brick, and he asks too many goddamn questions. and here you are! Here you are."

    "I guess that's just hard work and dedication, sir," Xander answered.

    Moriah laughed. "Sir? What're you, a boy scout? It's Moriah. Call me Moriah. Anyways, what kind of hard work and dedication are we talking? I can think of all the hard work you had to do, sweetheart." He looked at Lupita. "I mean you got the big pouty lips and the whole angry thing. The unapproachable look."

"Then I shouldn't be approached," Lupita said. Her facial expression never changed since Moriah saw them. Lupita was never impressed by the posters and billboards of Moriah. She wasn't very impressed by any sort of glitz and glam. Xander never really understood why until now.

"Well, niggas like that. You know how it feels to turn a bitch into a housewife?" Xander almost spat out his water.

"No. Who would accomplish that with me? Someone big and strong?" Her pitch heightened when she said "big and strong." Xander prayed that they wouldn't be on national news the next morning.

"I assure you. There is a man who can take care of you."

"Hm. I sure hope so." She held a little amusement in her face. It was like anticipating a mother's lecture to an employee after experiencing bad customer service. He assumed Moriah would be able to take her down. Assumed. Except Moriah had flawless skin and a winning smile. Lupita had two stitch scars under her left eye and a slightly chipped bottom tooth.

The lights and sound suddenly dulled. A circle on the ceiling lowered over the stage. Zoomspot lights flicked on one by one. A stick thin, dark-skinned women stood on the platform with her back facing the audience. Her dazzling white dress and white cotton candy hair that contrasted her skin beautifully.

She turned her head with the first bass note. She whispered, "Keiko. Kandi. Kalypso." Her voice was a sickly sweet pitch that made his shoulders relax. Xander couldn't believe it. He looked to Moriah for an answer.

"Every single Saturday," Moriah said, licking his lips. Her soft hands rubbed over her body before she finally stepped down from the ceiling platform. She acknowledged her background dancers and sighed.

"Welcome stars and moons to my galaxy. You know the deal. If you tell me a secret after the show, you get a private dance from me." She giggled. Xander was well aware of Keiko before this performance. If you weren't bombarded with Moriah's recruiting propaganda, it was Keiko's music. The videos didn't do her justice. Seeing her on-stage was an entrancing experience. The lights disoriented him and the lyrics confused him, but he couldn't stop watching.

He looked in his glass and wondered if anyone dropped some type of drug in it. And when the show was over, he felt a very odd feeling in his stomach. Men applauded with explicit requests on how exactly they wanted their private dance to go, including Moriah. Moriah rambled on and on about their past . . . dances.

"Hey um, Mr. Moriah sir we really should get going." Xander said once he had enough of the sexual details.

"Just Moriah, kid."

"Yeah. We should get home." His chair butted into Keiko while getting up. He apologized and wiped off her dress. And then he felt bad for even thinking of touching her.

She smiled. "Oh sweetheart, it's all good. You're good. Moriah, who are your new found friends?"

"Longshot. And this beauty is Lupita," Moriah said.

"A beauty she is," Keiko and Lupita held eye contact for a few long seconds. "Longshot? That's a name with a story."

"Sergeant Gennara wouldn't stop calling me that in boot camp. I guess it sticked." Xander rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well, I'm sure Gennara meant all the good he could. Moriah! How is your hand? Do you like?"

"Oh, this little thing?" Moriah pulled his sleeve back. "Wooh! Look at that! You two gotta volunteer for one of these. Have you signed up yet?"

"Yeah," Lupita nodded. Everyone looked at Xander.

He answered, "I'm not really interested in that kind of stuff."

"Well, you should be. This thing can pack quite a punch. I've tried. I don't know all the details, but I know my IaWatch is now implanted in my system so I never forget it," Moriah put the hand up to the light.

A man in the shadows whistled for Keiko. "That's my queue! It was awfully nice meeting you two stars. I hope we meet again." Keiko gave one last pageant smile and paused on Lupita again.

"Tell Marko I said have a good night!" Moriah was still watching his hand flex around. "You kids can leave. Talk to me when you see me around." They said their goodbyes and exited the club. On the way home, Lupita could not stop talking about how much she loved Keiko's music and loved Keiko's performance and loved Keiko's hair and loved Keiko's smile. Xander smirked at her as she talked. He wasn't going to hear the end of it any time soon.

His apartment was still as messy as the day before. He opened his refrigerator to find a snack before bed. It was only after he closed the door and took a bite out of an apple that he saw the Maka Officer sitting at his dining room table. He rubbed his eyes and did a double take. There was no way someone could've snuck behind him when he came in.

"Hello, Mr. Long. I have some questions for you," the officer said.