who: stari & a stranger & greg
(mentions of @sry-chrlie and @alec-flynn and @oliverhayde)
when: january 6, 2022
what: the acquisition and loss of the most money stari’s ever seen at once
part one: the acquisition
Star felt a bit guilty for selling a gift. Especially because these boots were the cutest things she’d ever seen, and they fit her vibe better than anything she could’ve even picked for herself. It was like Charlie had found her in boot form, and gifted her little mini versions of herself. However, because it was Charlie, he’d also (somehow accidentally or unknowingly) gifted her something worth almost fifteen hundred dollars. One thousand, five hundred actual American dollars.
She’d just been looking them up to see what they were called, she hadn’t meant to find the price, and she’d given herself a heart attack when she’d found it.
Imagine having fifteen hundred whole dollars and spending it on boots? Charlie was a level of wealthy that Stari would never, ever understand. She would probably hate him for it if it were possible at all to hate Charlie North. Fortunately, it was impossible, and he was one of the best friends she had, and so she figured he’d probably understand that fifteen hundred dollars was more useful to her than the boots would be, even if they did make her feel like a badass.
She met the buyer outside the bodega after her shift, and the tug at her heart when the stranger took the boots away was quickly relieved by the giant wad of cash in an envelope she’d gotten in return. It wasn’t fifteen hundred whole dollars, on account of Stari having worn the boots almost every day since she got them, but it was still more money than she’d ever seen outside of a cash register. She felt a bit nervous with it, like she’d stolen it, or like someone else was standing behind her, about to steal it. It was the way she’d felt with all of her belongings since the break in at her shelter locker, but amped up to a hundred. She put the money safely in her purse, which helped, but only slightly.
Becoming a dealer-by-proxy was not on Stari’s initial To Do list for the day, but almost nothing was, besides work and selling the boots. Right now all Stari was doing was wandering around town, the envelope of twenties burning a hole in her bag, and making her slightly paranoid at any sudden movement.
She’d found herself at the library, using her bag as a cushion to hide it from the world. She was texting Alec, who was complaining about the horrific lack of marijuana in his life, and she wanted to tell him to find his balls and ask Oliver himself, but she didn’t. And she wouldn’t. Because she knew better than anyone that sometimes, when things are just the right amount of complicated, you just can’t ask people for things, even if you know they’d say yes.
She threatened to charge him extra for making her a go-between, but he called her bluff pretty immediately. She joked about making him dance for it, instead, and something in the way he answered told her she might actually get her wish with that one.
But then she had to try to figure out how exactly she was getting this weed for him. Any other time, she’d just buy from Oli herself and then sell it to Alec and Oli would never have to know. But starting tomorrow, she’d be living with Oliver. He might notice if the entire thing was gone by then and she needed more, less than 24 hours later. Asking him outright was obviously an option, but Stari just needed a single day where she wasn’t making things awkward for everyone.
And so, within about an hour, despite her own better judgement, she was heading to see Greg Craig - was that his real name? - to skip the middleman. She’d dealt with him before, and people much worse than him, but she’d had powder courage powering her then, and now she just had... well, not much. She was going to have to rely on the fact that Greg was a stupid man, and if there was anything Star could do blindfolded, it was get what she wanted from stupid men.
He smiled when he saw her, but Greg smiled when he saw anyone. It was a charming smile, meant to disarm his prey before he ate them or whatever the fuck he did with people. He was a creep, that much was obvious, but he wasn’t nearly as scary as she’d worked him up to be in her head. Even if he was about 7′4″.
She smiled back, matching the level of charm, and was about to explain what it was that she wanted, when he spoke first.
“If you’re here to pick up Hayde’s supply, go back and tell him I’m not that easy. I need the rest of my money. I won’t forget about that just because he sends a chick in his place... even if she is hot.” His eyes looked her up and down in a way she didn’t love, but she was much more thrown by what he’d said.
Oliver owed him money? The charm had disappeared from Greg’s smile, and his whole face had shifted into predator mode. Suddenly, a million things that Oli had said - about why he was fighting for the Revenants, and why he couldn’t give her drugs when she’d been desperate - ran through her mind at lightning speed.
“How much... was left, again? Of the debt? Just checking,” she asked.
“Twelve hundred,” he said.
Stari nodded, and got the envelope out of her bag, and started counting twenties. She added some extra to the pile, put her charming smile back on and asked for an eighth on top. Normally, it would have been much more difficult to get this guy to stoop to the level of a dealer... but the stack of cash seemed to loosen him up nicely, and he got it for her with a smile and a kind-of-creepy ‘pleasure doing business with you’.
Her purse felt lighter and her shoulders felt lighter and she wanted to run straight to Oli and tell him what had happened - but she was a businesswoman now and her work wasn’t done. She had a deal to make. And, with any luck, a dance to see.
pixelskylines
2087
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