Ellie Quin Book 2: The World According to Ellie Quin Read Online Free PDF

wriggling unconvincingly, self-consciously and most definitely out of time with the music. Plus of course, who’d want to see her skinny frame almost naked, spasmodically twitching to music?
    ‘Why did you quit?’ asked Ellie.
    ‘Because some frecking, slimy-fisted offworlder broke the Look-Don’t-Touch rule, once too often.’
    Ellie was surprised that she should quit over something as trivial as that. Jez confessed that most nights there were always one or two inebriated punters who pushed their luck a little too far only to have their unwelcome paws slapped casually away. Jez was used to dealing with that.
    ‘You quit because one of them
touched
you?’
    ‘Well,’ Jez mumbled guiltily, ‘I quit because I broke his arm…by accident, I might add.’
    ‘
What
?’
    ‘The idiot wanted a stroke. Knees down, I’m okay with that. But he was heading up. So I kicked at his stupid arm, and the stupid thing snapped.’
    Ellie’s bit her lip. ‘Crud!’
    ‘So…this guy was going to call in a law marshal, but my oh-so-
loyal
boss, oh yes…my very
loyal
boss, decided to calm him down by sacking me on the spot,’ Jez hissed angrily. ‘So, I decided the fregging drook wouldn’t sack me; I quit instead.’ Jez added, nodding her head resolutely. ‘That showed him, right?’
    Ellie offered a supportive smile. ‘I suppose it did. So, what are you going to do now?’ she asked.
    ‘Get totally juiced on my last paycheque. I’ll worry about it tomorrow.’
    Ellie looked out through the grimy, condensation-fogged window of the bar at the passing river of pavement-traffic. So many of them looked drawn and beaten into submission, shambling on their way through the neon-lit murkiness of evening to or from jobs that paid barely enough to keep them in cubes. It dawned on her that her cruddy little job down at the slap ‘n’ grill wasn’t going to keep both of them going for long. Jez’s wage had dwarfed hers, and whilst these last few weeks she had just about been able to pay her side of the rent, Jez was the one who paid the O2 bill and for most of the shopping. Unless Jez could find another job as well paid as the one at
Dantes
, pretty soon, the pair of them would be turfed out onto the street. Ellie shuddered at the thought of losing the modest comforts she had only so recently grown accustomed to.
    ‘We’ll need to bring in some more money,’ she said finally, knowing Jez would curse her at being reminded of the bleeding obvious. ‘We can’t carry on for long. Not on what I’m earning.’
    Jez stared glumly out of the window.
    ‘I can see if I can work some extra shifts there. I’m sure there are some spare hours going,’ Ellie added.
    ‘You already work stupidly-long hours there Ellie,’ Jez replied, taking a long slurp of her Spartan. ‘Is that what we’re here for girl? Wake up, go to work, come home, eat, sleep so we’re refreshed and ready to do it all again? Is that it?’
    ‘We’ve got to get some more money, Jez. Otherwise-’
    ‘Yeah, we need money to keep on keeping on. But…but that just sucks. Doesn’t it?’
    Ellie shrugged. ‘What else can we do?’ Jez turned and looked at her with disgust. ‘Are you serious? Have you been dragged down so fregging quickly? A few weeks ago you were talking to me about leaving Harpers Reach; making it out there into the stars and seeing it all. A real wilderness-chik, a wild-child, girl-with-a-pulse…not like those damned zombies out there. Now, you’re looking at me and telling me I should be worrying about paying bills? Ellie girl, you need a wake-up slap.’
    Ellie recoiled at Jez’s tirade. ‘I was just saying we’ll need to get some more money or we’ll be kicked out of our cube.’
    Jez laughed, spurting a cloud of her drink out through her nose. ‘Is that ALL there is to worry about!?’ She continued in a mewling voice that aped Ellie’s out-of-city accent.
‘We must have enough to pay the bills
.’
    Ellie scowled. Jez was