Flaws

[D/N]

(Andrea Raymer continued from The Alibi)

[open topic to anyone that feels like coming by]

She treaded lightly across the pavement, imagining she was walking on air. The Promenade's parking garage had been built to hold enough cars during the peak shopping seasons, so during the rest of the year the lower levels were deserted save a few cars here and there. They were also, happily, mostly deserted of stuff like cameras and rent-a-cops, which did lead to occasional illegitimate occurrences. Of course, this was still fucking St. Paul, Minnesota, so the place was safe 99% of the time and the rumors of sinister rapists and roving gangs and dealers lurking behind every pillar were generally nonsense. Still, the place still had a reputation, which was one reason she didn't mind it. Because it was for unsavory reasons that she was here, of course.

She reached her car, glancing around but not seeing any sign of the kid. Bah. He'd probably taken off already. Andrea wasn't very fond of her car. It was a used Saturn that was unimpressive in every way, but it had been a gift, so it had been free, and once she turned 18 she'd be able to waste her incoming money on something better like-

"You're late."

"GAH!"

The junior high kid stood before her. His name was Steve Somethingorother, and he'd heard about her the same way most of her other connections had: simple word of mouth. He was a scrawny little bastard in baggy clothes, and he kept glancing around like he expected some mall cop to chase after him with his deadly flashlight. Whatever, it had been his idea to sell here, and one spot was as good as any as long as it wasn't in broad daylight. And it wasn't like she could sell from her front door.

"Wow, this is kind of lame. I thought you were some kind of big time dealer or something."

She glared back, then rolled her eyes and smirked. "Yeah well, things don't really work that way, Steve. I'm Andrea."


-----------------------


"Seriously, I can't believe people actually pay for this stuff, my parents put me on it a year ago."

"Yuh huh."

The white tablets were on her palm and she was sifting through them, estimating rather than counting. She'd tuned Steve out once he'd shown her the pills, and it was typical low dosage stuff that wasn't going to put her on the moon or anything, but was perfectly serviceable for what it was.

"I stopped taking it and they can't even tell the difference, so then my friend Umar told me that his buddy Dylan in the ninth grade sold it to you before. So I went to ask Dylan...."

"Yuh huh."

Andrea's "business" was not exactly a thriving operation. She had a few buyers, a few sellers, and relied on the small network that grew out of them. But she was happy she had it, regardless. Hers was an expensive habit, and it was either do things on this level or pay way, way too much to the people who'd be conducting her deals otherwise. And even better, by going outside the stimulants and dealing in other meds, she could resell those for a decent profit. Not that she was hurting for money of course, given that she could bum cash off her mother whenever she wanted. But having this both helped her avoid suspicion by asking for money that seemingly went nowhere, AND kept her shielded from the horrors of legitimate work. Gah, the mere thought of having to work for someone else in exchange for a paycheque caused Andrea to shiver.

She funneled the Ritalin back into the canister and faced the kid again.

"Alright. I will reach into my pocket and give you forty bucks for what you've got here."

"Forty bucks?!" he said. "That's like, how much they cost regularly!!"

Ugh, kids these days. And obviously that was what they cost regularly. How much did he expect to get for them? They weren't exactly selling heroin on the streets of Manhattan here.

"I was at this message board and they said that I could get like five bucks a pill for them!" He was continuing on, and it was starting to annoy her. She interrupted.

"OK, first of all I really doubt you buy these yourself, so just keep in mind that I'm giving you free money for them. Second, these are 10 mil tablets, which is like nothing, so you're not gonna get five bucks a pill for them, AND I'm buying them all at once, so I obviously get a bulk purchase special discount on these things. I mean, that's sorta how this works. Unless you wanna start dealing yourself, and hey, if you want to go sell them one at a time to your buddies on the playground at recess, that's fine by me."

"OK...."

"Because I'm sure you could totally set up a home turf and get dozens of connections at Ralph Murray Junior High to deal with. And no way you'd ever get caught, you'd make like, super deals in the boys room and the teachers would be none the wiser..."

"OK!" Ah, good. Maybe he'd end up a repeat seller after all. Steve (she had to get his last name at some point, she'd probably written it down somewhere and forgot) then pulled out a second pillbox.

"How much will you give me for these?"

He tossed the unlabeled bottle in her direction, but she fumbled the catch and it fell to the floor, spilling out a series of oversized, yellowish pills. Even worse, he was snickering as Andrea dropped to her knees and gathered them up. Well, nothing like a little embarrassment in front of some pimply kid to keep your humility up. There were about twenty of them, and she swept them in without counting yet. She wanted to get them back in the canister and get back on her feet before she looked any dumber.

"So what the hell are these?" she asked.

He stopped his stupid chuckle and shook his head. "I dunno, OK! I got it from my dad's medicine cabinet."

Finally getting the last pills into the box, Andrea kept one between her fingers and studied it intently. Oooh, Vicodin. That was something she could pull a profit on.

"Dude, these are expired. I'll give you twenty bucks for 'em."

He opened his mouth, presumably to agree, and then paused, looking confused. "Uh, how do you know they're expired? There's no label on them or anything."

Whoops.

Ugh, there was really nothing worse than looking like a klutz and then getting outsmarted by this goddamn tween. Andrea needed another coffee.

She went with the first thing that came to mind. "Look, they look old, OK? Alright, twenty five bucks. Like I said, you're getting money for uh, absolutely nothing here, so I'd say that's a pretty good deal."

And thankfully he nodded, so Andrea could finally get this freaking deal over with. She pulled a bunch of bills out of her jeans pocket, counting the right amount. Bah, that had been a hit to her finances, but she could sell the Vikes for enough to make up for it, and she knew a bunch of juniors who'd need new stuff soon, so it was all good.

"Tell your friends!" she sarcastically called as he walked away. Then, breathing out, she dropped the pills back into her bag and turned back to her car. She did have to admit that she got a bit nervous any time she did a deal. Just a bit.

[Outfoxd]

((Raymond Dawson continued from Cooling Down))

Ray had just been walking back to his car from the food court when he caught the tail-end of what was probably a drug deal, between some kid whose voice probably hadn't cracked yet and a pierced-up girl he might've seen once or twice around his school.

He had his Regal parked on the lower levels because he liked having the walk into the mall the extra distance afforded him (he wasn't too scared of the garage's rep, considering he used to live in neighborhoods where gunshots were background noises), and this habit was probably the reason he'd seen this today. The pair had been standing by a Saturn, several spaces down from his own car.

They weren't looking in his direction when he was walking up, and all he managed to clearly see was an exchange of money before the kid started walking off. Ray didn't see anything concrete, but it was easy to take a guess as to what had actually gone on. It was probably just prescription pills, but Ray was wondering if he should find a security guard or something.

He found himself leaning on the roof of his car for a minute and watched the girl. On impulse, he called out to her. "Good haul?"

[D/N]

"Good haul?"

GAH! Again!

Andrea snapped her head up at the guy standing by his car, at least thankful that she didn't slip and fall flat on her decently-toned-if-she-might-say-so-herself ass. At this rate she was going to have a heart attack by the time she was thirty. Yup, she'd be walking down the streets of L.A. or San Fran or whatever coastal city she'd have moved to by then, and she'd hear a big fucking noise behind her and just pitch forward, and when they sliced her up for the autopsy they'd be like "Good gravy, it's a miracle this woman even survived this long given the crap she's been pumping into her bloodstream!" Wait, did West Coast doctors say stuff like "Good Gravy!"? Wasn't that a British expression?

It had been Steve Littlepissant's idea to meet in the goddamn mall parking lot, which of course meant that she was stuck standing by her car like a moron while he took off unseen to buy Pokemon cards or whatever the hell kids did with the money she gave them. Still, could be worse; at least it wasn't the treacherous rent-a-cop, armed with a surly disposition and the judicial ability to sternly ask her to leave.

Instead, it was..... that guy, from school. She recognized the face but not the name. And said face was giving her a look that indicated he wasn't calling out to congratulate her on her lifestyle choices and inquire as to her wares.

Oooh, maybe he's an undercover cop posing as a high school kid, like Nick Cannon in whatever the fuck that movie was

Words like "consequences" and "repercussions" had always been little more than vague concepts to Andrea Raymer, and so she considered only briefly before she smiled and responded. Actually, she kinda liked him already making a snarky remark rather than either ignoring her like most people or waltzing off to find security.

"Haul? I don't do uh..... 'hauls', guy-from-school-I-sorta recognize. Nah, I'm just struggling through life like all of us, looking for ways to keep myself going."

Andrea sauntered over to the clunky car he was leaning against, noticing the bemused expression on his face. Of course, she figured as she reached into her bag, the odds that she could actually sell something to him were probably a million to one, but she wasn't really looking to sell. She had buyers. She was just looking to see how he'd respond. Call it a psychological experiment.

"This"... she brought out the small bottle, "is Vicodin. It's the stuff that Hugh Laurie is addicted to on House, so I mean, if you want to be really cool and cynical like House is, this is the way to go. I can give you one for free and then laugh evilly as you get horribly addicted and wind up selling your body to get money to pay me for your fix, y'know, if that's the way you wanna go, of course."

[Outfoxd]

Ray almost had to bite his own tongue to keep himself form laughing a little, as how fast the girl's head snapped up was amusing, to say the least. What she said afterwards about making it through life, however, wasn't the panic he expected someone who might've been found out to have. The chick had her shit somewhat together, at least, and that was admirable. Didn't look too bad for a scene/skater girl either.

As she walked over to his car, he adjusted his glasses back onto his face and looked at the pills she pulled out. The House crack did get him chuckling a little bit. "I don't think I could handle selling my body for that stuff. I still need it." He held up a hand. "I'm good. I wouldn't be able to buy that shit even if I wanted to."

That was the stone-truth. Since moving to Minnesota, Ray hadn't found a job, and while his step-dad gave him money here and there, it wasn't particularly substantial. Hell, what he'd been given today wasn't really enough to buy anything good for his sister's birthday. He would've killed for some decent cash flow.

Ray looked up at the girl again, suddenly struck with an idea. "You looking for any more of a supply of that stuff?"

[D/N]

He'd turned down her "offer" with a style that suggested he knew full well she wasn't being entirely serious, and that expelled any remaining hesitation from Andrea's mind. Dude was definitely a cool enough guy.

She nodded instead, and leaned back on the car beside the guy, keeping a foot or so of distance just so she wasn't invading his personal space. His car wasn't any great shakes, so that was another thing they had in common.

"Wise move." she muttered to his response, trying to put just the right amount of snark and humor into her words.

And THEN, he moved on and actually shocked the hell out of her by mentioning that he might have an outlet. Well, how about that? See, this was why it was imperative that she be willing to just strike up a conversation. You get to meet all sorts of delightful and fascinating people, and a ton of boring idiots too, but hey, that was the tradeoff. And some of them might even be able to do things for you. Seriously, she did have friends among the loner and outcast crowds, who liked her just because she was available to them, and they could say hi and shoot the shit about random stuff. And she liked most of them well enough too, even if a couple were kinda creepy and like, possibly stalky and stuff. Ewwww. But she just wanted to shake some of them and tell them to just go out and fuckin' TALK to people! You don't have to be trolling for drugs to strike up a convo! Gah.

This guy didn't really give her that impression, though. At least not the creepy part of it. 'Sides, he'd been the one to call out to her. And she thought it unlikely that he was talking about any actual serious business. He was probably just looking for some minor cash flow like her other suppliers. But still, she'd be prudent and let him know the stakes. No reason to get into something that might involve hard work or actual danger.

"Yeah, sure, always." she said. "I mean, as long as you're not looking for someone to help you uh, rip off the mob or smuggle crates of stuff down from Canada or anything like that. Heh. I've only got so much demand, y'know."

And she wanted make sure she didn't spend days trying to remember his name, while she was at it. She casually offered her hand.

"I've seen you around school. Name's Andrea."

[Outfoxd]

Ray smirked at the mob comment.

"Nah. Did that last week." He said.

The humor was doing well to put him at ease; not that this little payoff he wanted to do was anything particularly taxing. He was fairly sure no one at his house would know what he was doing; no one checked the medicine cabinet often, and the Vicodin he had to unload was left over from an old injury that his ma had likely forgotten about by now.

He took her proffered hand and shook it. "Ray. Pretty sure I've seen you around too."

He leaned back against the door of his beater, feeling it shift slightly under his weight.

"Anyway, I got some Vikes from awhile back. Had surgery on my knee, and they gave me the pills for complications. Only used like two or three of 'em, still have the rest at home. What can I get on 'em?"

[D/N]

"Ouch. Surgery; nasty stuff."

Andrea figured there wasn't much reason to bullshit Ray with regards to price. She could already sense he was more 'fist-bumping in the hallway buddy' and less 'stupid twerp who she only interacted with because he supplied her with stuff'. So as long as he wasn't expecting to get rich off of a few pills or anything, they'd be fine.

"Anyway, the pills," she continued. "Uh, for Vicoden, it depends on what dosage they are. If they're 500 gram, I can give you like two bucks a pill; 750 gram, about three bucks; 1000, four or five. Depends on how many of them you have too. I don't really have any use for like a hundred at once, not that I'd have that much money to give you anyway."

That was truthful enough. Vikes were something she could always use more of and could get rid of fairly easily at a modest profit, but she couldn't afford to keep a crazy stash on hand, nor did she have enough of a base to get rid of that many.

"So if you want to get rid of 'em, I'll definitely take them off you. Just uh, don't think you need to do some super-secret parking lot deal for them like this kid did. Those are pretty lame."

[Outfoxd]

"Tell me about it. I was benched for a few months. Sucked much ass."

Ray nodded slightly when Andrea started talking prices, his tongue pushing out the corner of his mouth as he thought about it. He couldn't for the life of him remember just how many pills that little bottle had in it, or even what dosage the little fuckers were, but two bucks a pill, the minimum, would be nice for a little spare cash. That payout, along with what his dad gave him'd probably be enough for something halfway decent. If he could figure out just what Alicia would want, anyway.

"Works for me. Money's money, and I don't have a job. I'll take whatever I can get."

He laughed at what she said about the secret deal. That little kid seemed nervous and annoying, all at once, and Ray imagined he was a bit less abrasive than was the girl was normally used to dealing with.

"Name me a time and place, I'll deliver." He said, then his brow furrowed as he thought about what he was going to do with the money again. Present company seemed as good as anyone to ask, considering he hadn't really broken the ice with anyone at school yet.

"If someone was buying something for you as a birthday present, what kinda shit would you like?" Andrea didn't seem very similar to Ray's sister, but he was low on options at this point.

[landlocked†]

((Natalie Williams continued from The Alibi))

Had she said the base level? That did make the most sense, but the cell phone reception in the mall had been terrible, Natalie had only gotten like two bars at best, and she couldn't hear exactly what part of the garage her older sister had told her to wait in. It'd help if she would just choose a single spot to always park in every day... but Natalie figured it was Jen's revenge on her for not learning to drive herself. No matter which of her parents or her sisters was giving her a ride somewhere, they always seemed to be nagging her the whole way. Talk about a lame ending to a laaaaame day spent hard (relatively hard, anyway) at work. But at least she had Charlie to keep her company for most of the day today. The kid was pretty cool, she had to admit.

"I might have to uh, wander a little," she told him, her voice echoing off the cement walls, "Hope you don't mind. My sister's a little spastic about parking, likes to keep me guessing or something."

Probably sounded a little odd, but... eh. That was her family. Odd pretty much summed it up, and in spite of the nagging, it was what she liked about them. Not that she'd ever tell.

The conversation was punctuated by a long stretch of awkward silence as the two of them trekked through the garage, during which all Natalie could think about was the lecture Richard had given her... truth be told, it had been bothering her for a while. It was so not like him to do that! Could she really have been that bad today?

...Welllll... Charlie had definitely seemed pretty stressed out...

"So, uh... I should probably... say I'm, um, sorry about the whole constant-breaks thing and all that..." she muttered, "Iiiii probably left you with a lot of work, huh. Yeah... my bad about all that. I'll try not to let it happen again next time we're working together."

Hopefully he wasn't pissed about it or anything. In an attempt to defuse things if he was, she theatrically flipped her long dirty blond hair and threw back her head, stating "But, you know, being this awesome just takes a lot out of me..."

As her voice bounced around the cement that surrounded them, she noticed another set of voices whose echos mixed with her own - Oh, hey, there's Andrea again, and... some other dude. Boyfriend, maybe? Eh, probably shouldn't bother them, whatever their relationship is, she figured - need to find her sister, already. Was the service in here any better...?

...One bar. Crap.

[Hiro†]

((Charlie Beckwith continued from The Alibi))

Charlie walked alongside Natalie as they made their way through the parking lot, their footsteps echoing through the large complex. He didn't really need to be there; he walked to and from work. But he figured if Natalie was going to be hanging around for awhile, he might as well keep her company in the meantime. She was pretty chill.

Now if only he could think of something to talk about...

"I might have to uh, wander a little," she told him. "Hope you don't mind. My sister's a little spastic about parking, likes to keep me guessing or something."

"No worries," he replied, as his mind continued to run through lists of possible topics. Come on, man. Say something. ANYTHING. Talk about work, or school, or video games...okay, maybe not video games, but say SOMETHING for God's sake.

Glancing over at Natalie from the corner of his eye, Charlie derailed his train of thought as something caught his eye. She seemed a bit...uneasy, over something or other. Maybe that's why she had been taking so many breaks today.

However, just as Charlie was drawing in breath to say something, Natalie spoke. "So, uh... I should probably... say I'm, um, sorry about the whole constant-breaks thing and all that...Iiiii probably left you with a lot of work, huh. Yeah... my bad about all that. I'll try not to let it happen again next time we're working together." In what Charlie could only assume to be an attempt to lighten the mood, she then tossed her hair and added, "But, you know, being this awesome just takes a lot out of me..."

Caught slightly off-guard by the apology, Charlie had to take a moment to collect himself before replying. "Eh, don't sweat it. It was nothing I couldn't handle."

There was a brief pause.

"...Are you alright?" Charlie finally got the courage to ask. "You seem troubled about something."

It was then that the sound of a second set of voices caught his attention. Craning his head in the direction of the voices, a smile came to his lips as his eyes fell upon the ever-lovely Andrea. But who was that guy she was talking to? He seemed vaguely familiar. Maybe he was a classmate. Her boyfriend, perhaps? Charlie sure hoped not.

Shaking off the thought, he turned his attention back to Natalie as she checked her cell phone. "No service?"

[D/N]

(ugh, horrible writer's block lately )

"Eh, I can just buy them from you outside of school or whatever." Andrea shrugged, picking out the first spot that came to mind.

"Just meet me at the main entrance after we get out if that works for you. We can walk down a block or go past the football field to the sidewalk path there and I'll buy them off you as we go. As long we're not selling anything on school property, we're fine."

That was pretty much the easiest way to go about things, especially with fellow Bayview clients. Of course, they were always on the lookout for that sort of stuff on campus, but that was a minor inconvenience. Apparently, as recently as a decade ago they didn't even have security cameras in most high schools. She could probably have dealt straight out of her locker, but fucking Columbine had to happen and screw things up for everyone. Meh, like she said, minor inconvenience. Bayview wasn't exactly an inner-city hellhole, and even there were those annoying random locker checks from time to time, she kept her stash in her car, safe from snooping teachers. Wait could they search a car? Nah, that was her totally private property, they'd need like, a warrant or something for that.

Then Ray spoke up again, interrupting her thought process.

"If someone was buying something for you as a birthday present, what kinda shit would you like?"

"Uh..."

That caught her a bit off guard.

"Sorry," she said. "Uh, got to think about that for a second."

She did, then continued. "I dunno, I mean me personally, I'd be happy with obscure DVDs of horror movies out of Europe or something with Johnny Depp's face on it or some geeky retro T-shirt you can buy online, but uh, I mean, it depends on who you're buying it for, if it's something, y'know, romantic or not. Don't buy a girl makeup though, you probably have no idea whether it's something she'll like or not."

She considered another second. "Oooh, I know, I'd want concert tickets! You can get them cheap for shows at Station 4 or Myth or First Avenue and places like that, I mean if she likes 'em. I saw Bullet for My Valentine a couple weeks ago, freaking AWESOME show. But uh, like I said, reeealy depends on who you're buying for.

So, I'm gonna take off now. Meet me on Monday?"

[landlocked†]

((Sorry, know it's kinda short, but got a bit of writer's block, too.))

"No, no service," Natalie sighed. But at least Charlie seemed pretty forgiving. The two of them continued walking on for a few more minutes until finally, Natalie spotted an ancient white volvo station wagon. It just wouldn't be a Williams car if it wasn't half-busted. That'd be Jennifer.

"Hey, that's my sister's car right over there," Natalie pointed out to Charlie, "So I'm gonna go peace out. Thanks for keeping me company dude." She offered Charlie a wave and a flip of her hair, and then bounded over to the crumbling car.

"Took you long enough," her sister called from the rolled-down window, "What did you, get lost? This garage isn't THAT big."

"Whatever," Natalie responded, situating herself in the passenger's seat and slamming the door shut, "Just drive, please."

And the working day was officially over. Sweet.

((Natalie Williams continued elsewhere))

[Hiro†]

Charlie waved to Natalie as she climbed into her sister's car. "No problem. See you later, Nat." Standing there with his hands stuck in the pockets of his green jacket, he watched as Natalie's car sped away and disappeared from the parking lot.

"...Well...guess I'd better start making the trek home," he thought to himself. Turning around, he began to make his way towards the parking lot exit.

"Team Fortress 2, here I come."

((Charlie Beckwith continued elsewhere))

[Outfoxd]

(ugh, horrible writer's block lately )

"Eh, I can just buy them from ya outside of school or whatever. Meet me at the main entrance after classes are done. We can just walk down a block or go past the football field to the sidewalk path there and I'll buy them off you as we go. As long we're not selling anything on school property, we're fine."

That was pretty much the easiest way to go about things, especially with other people at Bayview. Of course, they were always on the lookout for that sort of stuff on campus, but that was a pretty minor inconvenience. Apparently, even as recent as a decade or so ago they didn't even have security cameras in high schools. She could probably have dealt straight out of her locker, but fucking Columbine had to happen and screw things up for everyone. Meh, it worked out fine for her. Bayview wasn't exactly some inner-city hellhole, and even if they did do those fucking random locker checks from time to time, she kept her minor stash in her car, where they couldn't search her. Wait could they search a car? Nah, that was her totally private property, they'd need like, a warrant or something for that.

Then Ray spoke up again, interrupting her thought process. "If someone was buying something for you as a birthday present, what kinda shit would you like?"

"Uh..." That had caught her off guard a bit.

"Sorry, got to think about that for a second. I dunno, I mean me personally, I'd be happy with obscure DVDs of horror movies out of Europe or something with Johnny Depp's face on it or some geeky retro T-shirt you can buy online, but uh, I mean, it depends on who you're buying it for, if it's something, y'know, romantic or not. Don't buy a girl makeup though, you probably have no idea whether it's something she'll like or not."

She considered a bit more. "Oooh, I know, I'd want concert tickets! You can get them cheap for shows at Station 4 or Myth or First Avenue and places like that, I mean if she likes 'em. I saw Bullet for My Valentine a couple weeks ago, freaking AWESOME show. But uh, like I said, reeealy depends on who you're buying for.

So, I'm gonna take off now. Meet me on Monday?"

Ray wasn't sure his sister was too keen on the ideas Andrea was shelling out, but he appreciated the sentiment anyway. Truthfully, he hadn't an idea what exactly she listened to, never even thought she DID listen to music. Looked like if he was going to find anything worth a damn, he'd have to do some digging. Damn shame. He should know more about his sister anyway.

"Yeah, Monday. Any way to contact you if I run into a problem? Got a cell phone?" Ray asked. He didn't see anything happening, but he wanted to be prepared anyway.

((Raymond Dawson continued in Wrestling with the clock))

[D/N]

Andrea could sort of tell that her present ideas probably weren't ideal ones, but hey, as long as he appreciated the effort, it was fine. Cool guy. Not afraid of some convo, certainly not uptight. Not as.... rank-and-file as most people out there.

Cell phone? Duh, it wasn't like she was gonna risk one of her contacts phoning her up at home. "Andrea, the phone's for you! That kid who sold you the Xanax says he's got something else!" "Oh, sure thing mom, be right there!" Heh heh heh. Ahem.

"Yeah, always." she said in response. She swung her bag in front of her and rummaged through it, ripping a piece of paper out of a notebook. There were some math formulas on one side. They'd already been tested on those ones, right? Yeah, sure they had.

She jotted her number down and passed the paper to Ray. "There you go. So I'll, uh, see you at school."

Swinging her bag back around to her side, she eased herself off Ray's car and began the stroll back to her own. "Aaaand, I'm out. Good talking to you Ray, uh, good luck on the birthday present."

Se got back in her wheezy old crapmobile and started the not-so-long journey home. Home. Well, not much to do there. Maybe she'd troll the SOTF message boards and/or do some reading, she'd picked up this cool book on chaos theory a while back and it was brilliant stuff and totally made sense. Well, most of it did at least. Your head could explode if you thought about that kind of stuff too much. Andrea guessed that was one reason she liked doing just that. She'd also have to check through her buyers to see who was up for the stuff she'd just acquired, 'cause she'd spent enough over the last couple days and it was time to see some returns. But she had the whole weekend for that. For now, it was just time to relax and let the rest of the night blow by.

(Andrea Raymer continued in Reflection into the EDEN)