PRIVATE Facing Tempests of Dust

Stood on the edge, wanna go deeper
Most other kids weren't feeling the crunch about now. Westbrook Prep was riding the high of another tournament win, with spring sports just kicking off. Classes were beginning to thaw out from the mid-winter freeze, when everyone had crammed and pushed out that last ounce of energy. Lace had been flush then, with her supply dwindling to the point of nearing extinction. That had been the first happy meeting on the rooftop in Santa Domingo, she was in and out of there in ten minutes with her jacket packed full of resupply and her head heaped with praise.

Lace was feeling the crunch now. All those weeks of being flush had come crashing down worse than the highs her growing base of clients experienced. Of course, it wasn't growing right now. If she really put her math knowledge to paper, her client base was in free-fall right about now, and just when she was expected to push more product. Those bulging pockets of hers felt pretty heavy these days, Lace didn't even bring it all for fear of losing it by some freak happenstance.

Most of the supply she stashed at her mom's place. It was odd to consider that being the safer place, Heywood was known for being more infested with crime and junkies, nevermind the Valentinos policing the action. The only saving grace was that Mom was usually too tired to go snooping through her room, which made it an infinitely-better hiding spot than at her dad's place with his habit.

There were always random messages cropping up on their building's comnet. Lace didn't put stock in most of them, with thousands of residents the H5 Megabuilding was like a small city unto its own. People messaged about everything from complaints to funny vid clips, and entire days could be lost just going through an hour's worth of comnet logs. Lace was surprised she was actually logged on at the right time to catch the message. Something about it made her scroll back to look more closely, and it was then that she read the coded euphemisms that had become familiar to her as of late.

Logging into the comnet with her temporary account, the one that Encarlo had helped her set up with a burner number, Lace sent out a reply to the public plea.

Got what you need, come up to your place?


 
Nessa didn't have a place. She had a couch, and that was only until the Tuesday. ... If she was lucky.

>> 3A Staircase, roof door.

She huffed, her lungs and legs burning as she climbed from level 321 to... whatever the final floor was. Her vision blurred. Each step consumed her entire focus, until her heel hit the flat landing with a hallow thud. She blinked the haze from her mind and rewarded herself with a few deep breaths. She could have taken the elevator up to the floor below. She could also go clean and not buy these drugs.

She pushed through heavy blaster doors and let the stale air wash over her sweaty face.
 
The woman who burst through the doors of the rooftop was, if Lace was honest about it, was not at all what she had expected. Her age, first of all. Out of Santo Domingo, Lace's supplier ran dealers who sold to people of all walks of life, but that wasn't her deal. Heywood had enough lowlifes even without the gangs touching the megabuildings, the deal was that she stuck to Westbrook Prep and kept her head on straight elsewhere.

She should have figured things would go sideways the minute the message said rooftop.

"Oh, hi," she said, startled enough to make her voice come out a little shaky. Lace buttoned her lip quickly, glancing the woman over. This was obviously no future schoolmate of hers, not like Ava would be in fall. Ava's dorpher friends only got a hit because of her, the last thing Lace was looking to do was expand into the Heywood adult market.

It might not be so bad this one time, though. She'd get the sales boost and keep everyone happy for a while, things would bounce back at school in a week or two anyway. Probably.

Lace stuffed her tablet in the oversized pocket of her jacket, turning to face the city as if it was her whole point of being up here in the first place. "Preem view, yeah? Wonder why no one ever gets up here."
 
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