Barry Pluto
“ You know I don’t think I truly understood religion - you know, understand how someone can devote their entire lives to worshipping and following the orders of a deity or deities - until a few minutes ago. You’re like a God to me now. ”
James looked up, eyes wide and shaking his head in disbelief. Marlene returned this with a curtsy. It was early morning - around 7am - but James and her hadn’t slept at all that night. They had gone out, like they have been doing every day since they met, to a few rounds at Bar Deluxe on the corner of Las Palmas and Hollywood, which was followed by a gig at some club, which was then followed by an afterparty at one of the band members’ houses, which was then followed by an after-afterparty. James and her had ended up at Prewett’s, where they seemed to end up every night.
Prewett’s was a small bar on the intersection of Santa Monica and Maripose which was open from 9pm to 9am. It was painted a faded dark green, with the paint peeling in corners. The red tiled-roof was dusty. Inside, the room was littered with small booths and tables. Wooden, leather-plushed barstools lined the dark, wooden counter. In one corner, there was a small raised platform and a microphone for karaoke. From the outside, it didn’t look like much, but it had gained ‘urban legend’ status throughout the years, as the bar was passed down by the owners through generations. You could see as much when you so much as glanced at the walls. They were full of pictures of the many people who had sat and laughed in the bar. If you looked closely, you could spot stars through the years, pre-fame. James spotted a candid of Deep Purple sitting in a booth in the corner that still remained, untouched, as well as a picture of River Phoenix that they both spent an embarrassing amount of time crying over one night - neither of them over his death two years ago - when they were particularly inebriated. An A3 signed poster of Neil Young resided over one of the booths that they both insisted they must sit at every time they went in, both of them having a strange and unexplainable affinity for his song Needle and the Damage done that made them worship him like a god.
What Marlene was discovering was that her and James were freakishly in sync. They thought in the exact same way. They both had strange, all-consuming obsessions and a propensity to be bored that often led them into situations which, in all fairness, were probably not the safest. However she was starting to realise that they were also different in a few ways too. For example, James was all too ready to believe that he was the one at fault in a situation. In the crowd they ran in, it was quite a dangerous trait to have; he wouldn’t really protest in a situation where he was clearly being mistreated, or taken advantage of, because he believed that he probably just didn’t understand what was going on, or was at fault in some way. He was too trusting of other people. Marlene, on the other hand, was too trusting in herself. She’d never really realised it until James had pointed it out to her, but she never believed she could get into bad situations because she had too much (often misplaced) faith in her ability to handle herself.
She also had a lot of faith in her performance of ‘You Oughta Know’ by Alanis Morrissette, but this faith wasn’t misplaced.
“I told you I’m fucking ace at karaoke.” she grinned as she ran into James’ arms for a drunken embrace.
A cheer came from a voice behind the bar - Fabian Prewett, who almost always took the night shift when James and her were there. She turned to see him with a small half-smile on his face.
Him and his brother Gideon were what really made Prewett’s a place they kept coming back to. They weren’t like most other bar owners, ready to watch naive teenagers be taken advantage of. Fabian clocked as soon as they walked through the door, passing them a glass of water. They hated the fact that minors were so common in their scene, but they had decided that they would let them in, to be a safe place. They never served them anything stronger than beer, and they gave them free food when they were too drunk or high on an empty stomach. Marlene knew that their kindness was hard to come by and appreciated it.
They sat down in their booth and lay there, motionless, for a few minutes.
“We need to get up in five minutes and start heading to school.” she mumbled. James mumbled something back in response, but the other girl couldn’t understand it. When she turned to face him, she saw that he already had his eyes closed, drool starting to fall from his open mouth.
She never understood his ability to sleep anywhere. He was really into ‘power naps’ as a concept - just short, fifteen minute naps that seemed to miraculously turn him from a zombie state to fully refreshed, ready to act in a Pantene commercial. And he could sleep anywhere. Once he napped in the sink of a bathroom while Marlene took a particularly long piss. It was actually very impressive. She let him have his nap while she looked around, trying to mentally prepare herself for the day. The rising sun leaked in through the tops of the buildings opposite the bar, and made their way through the stained windows, shyly reflecting onto empty glasses and tabletops.
And so months passed and this was their routine. When school finished in early July, they had the entire day to stay out and then recover. Marlene didn’t realise the breath she had been holding in for years until she finally breathed out. She was no longer alone, no longer constantly reminding herself of the various ways to get home should she need to make a quick exit, and the various things around her that could be used as a weapon should she need to. It’s not like they suddenly were out of danger - if anything their combined stupidity put them in worse situations than she had been in before. But they were good at talking themselves out of anything (it really was a gift, the way they were able to spout absolute bullshit for hours). LA was a lonely city. It chipped away at the mush and the soft tissue until you were just a skeleton, hoping you were simply built strong enough to stay standing. But James cherished the mushy parts. He thought that what made you weak made you better, more interesting, more complex. Like you were a storybook character, and he was excited that he had discovered another layer to you. Marlene had never met anyone like that. It made her want to hide him away so nothing could touch him.
With the hot buzz of Summer came even bigger parties. It seemed that the heat made everyone more frantic. Johnny Martin’s was a particularly hot and sweaty night. He owned a bunch of recording studios in the Hills, so anyone who wanted to be anyone was desperate to go to his party - his 40th.
Three men had already made a pass at Marlene, backing her into corners and telling her that they could make her a star. When she was younger she would try to sweet-talk her way out of these things, but she had never been a particularly patient person. Some people defended themselves through wittily crafted insults, or convoluted plans to get themselves out of situations, or get revenge on those who had wronged them. But Marlene simply wasn’t formed that way. She came out of the womb a raging bitch. And, believe her, she tried to seem calm and cool and above everything. But it was so hard to when an elbow in the face got the job done more easily. However she had been approached by a woman with deep hazel eyes and wispy platinum hair. She’d come up to her with a playful wink and a light touch to the arm. They’d gotten separated in the large sea of people, but Marlene wanted to find her again. She scanned the room in search of her.
She had lost James a little into the night and was trying to find him, too, but the waves of bodies and the pill she had taken made it difficult to cover much ground. She was still looking around when someone almost body-slammed her from behind.
“Mckinnon! Fuck, I’m so glad I found you.” came a familiar voice. Marlene had already decided that she was going to kill James for giving her such a fright, but hesitated at the small amount of desperation she detected in his voice.
“You okay? Wanna find a room or something to just cool down in?” she asked. He nodded wordlessly, and the other girl turned around, offering her hand for him to take. She led them off towards the nearest corridor she could find, tapping on the doors until she found one that didn’t reply. Marlene had been to parties in squats and parties in mansions - the full range, really. Luckily the house they were in was big, so it took them little time to find an empty room.
The closing of the door drowned out a lot of the music, which had started to make Marlene on edge. She hated this part of the high; her thoughts felt like they were stuck in a pinball machine, frantically bouncing from thought to thought. She needed something to focus on. She settled on finding out what was wrong with James.
“You alright? Did something happen?”
“Not really, just sometimes gets a bit much, you know. Everyone’s just so pushy. With me, or with other people. No one’s really having a conversation just to have it, or to learn about the other person. Sometimes the whole thing just makes me antsy.”
“I get that.” Marlene smiled sympathetically. Sometimes it felt like conversations at these parties came with their own set of unspoken rules. It annoyed her too, but she imagined not to the extent that it did James. He always fed off of other people’s energy. Sometimes you just ended up speaking to the wrong group of people, with no energy to bounce off of, and it made you feel weirdly hollow and braindead.
James quickly turned around, clearly trying to find something to distract himself and kickstart his brain cells again. Marlene did the same, looking around and trying to take in her surroundings instead. Her eyes settled on a set of mahogany drawers on either side of the large double bed. Its surface was scratched. I wonder what they have in there, she mused. The thought dislodged a deep memory from her brain. When she first started going out, most of the people she met sucked, but some didn’t. Some were cool. At one party Marlene met a girl with dark black hair and dark grey eyes. She had shown her a game she liked to play whenever she found herself in someone’s bedroom at a party: she would look around, really trying to get to know the person whose room she was in, and then guessed three objects she thought they would have in their bedside drawer. She would then look through them and see if she was right.
“Fuck the eyes being the window to a person’s soul, their bedside drawer is.” she said to her.
She was pulled out of her thoughts by a sharp gasp from James. Someone had opened the door from the on-suite bathroom. She didn’t even know that was there.
“Jesus fuck, man, you scared me.” James panted, a hand on his chest trying to steady his breathing.
“God, is he really that ugly?” Marlene smirked, waiting for the man to come out. As he walked through the door, he waved a hand in dismissal.
“I tend to do that when walking into a room, don’t worry I’m used to it by now.” he smiled, humbly, “My stunningly good looks, see” he said that last bit whilst shooting a glare at Marlene.
The man was wearing a black tank top and flared jeans, with a black belt with a large silver buckle, like a cowboy. He was quite good-looking, Marlene gave him that, his black curls and dark grey eyes, coupled with his angular cheekbones, made him look a bit like a doll. The first thing that Marlene thought upon seeing him was the fact that he looked a bit like an impressionist painting, where everything was beautiful but slightly blurry, a bit messy.
“I’m Sirius by the way,” he smiled, “I’m only saying because I refuse to leave this room and, unless you guys want to go back out there, I feel like it’s only proper we get to know each other better.” He half-smiled as he jumped onto the bed, leaning against the headboard with both hands behind his head.
“Well, I’m James and this is Marlene.” James replied, completely stone-faced. “I cry - well, maybe cry isn’t the right word - sob, more like, for hours, every time I watch Steel Magnolias. Unfortunately I’m slightly masochistic and watch it at least once a month anyways, so my mother always makes sure we watch it when it’s her time of the month and we can properly be emotional to it together. She calls it my Magstrual cycle.”
Sirius looked at him kind of in shock, while Marlene struggled to hide her laughter with her hand. It didn’t really work, so it sounded a little bit like she was choking. James remained completely stoic.
“Just, you know, adding to the intimacy of our moment here. Hoping you get to know me better.” he added cooly, as he sat down on the foot of the bed and shot Sirius a smile. The other boy snorted in return. They both turned to look at Marlene expectantly.
“I know all the words to Ice Ice, baby.” she said, gravely. She gave a dramatic pause, to let this new information really sink in, “But unlike James my secret is not embarrassing, it just adds to my mystery and coolness.” she continued, matter of factly as she plopped down on the bed next to Sirius.
“Please,” James scoffs, “You’re as mysterious as a fucking fish tank.”
At this, Marlene hurled a pillow at his head, but he ducked out of the way at the last minute, avoiding a blow to the head that Marlene was sure would have been lethal.
“And you?” she turned on the other boy, “You’ve only given us your name. Don’t think we’re gonna let you off the hook.”
“Ummm…” the other boy thought, “When I was younger I found a crinkled up poster of the band Queen and I thought Freddie Mercury was so cool. I liked his name the most, and I hated my name anyways, so I decided to come up with a cool rockstar name. I made my younger brother call me it for almost a year.” he sighed painfully.
“What was it?” Marlene encouraged, gleefully. He closed his eyes momentarily like he was gearing himself up to say it.
With another sigh - this one much more dramatic and much more prolonged - he said, “…Barry Pluto.”
The room was silent for a few beats, before the other two burst out laughing. It was the type of laughter where Marlene sounded like she was silently suffocating, slapping the bed while she gasped for air. James started kicking his feet, unable to contain his sheer joy.
“Barry Plu- Barry?”
“You thought you were going to be a cool rockstar with the name Barry?” Marlene managed to get out between fits of laughter.
“Well, I didn’t know much about music!” Sirius tried to defend himself, “And - and the rest of the band had old British man names, you know? Brian, Roger, John. So Barry was the first one I came up with…”
“And Pluto?”
“... I wasn’t a particularly imaginative seven-year-old, okay?”
Marlene and James hadn’t settled down yet. The mental image of this cool and laid-back boy in front of them waltzing around his house and demanding that his little brother call him Barry kept making her laugh.
Sirius suddenly stopped short and put his head in his hands.
“You okay?” Marlene asked, mildly concerned. The huff she received as a reply was indecipherable.
“You know the name’s not that bad.” she continued, “It's… well it does sound like a very lame stripper name. But I really think you should take it in your stride-”
“God, I think I’m gonna be sick again.” he groaned, interrupting Marlene’s painful attempts to try to make him feel better.
“Again?” James immediately sprang into action, “Should I get you some water or…”
“No, it’s fine. I can handle myself.” he dismissed, still not looking up from where his head was in his hands and his eyes were closed. It was then that Marlene first noticed that his speech was slurring.
“Had too much to drink?” Marlene huffed out a small laugh, keeping her voice light so as to not make the other boy feel like they were judging him.
“Something like that…”
“Something like that?” Marlene repeated, a bit confused, “Care to explain?”
“I drank a bit and then this guy offered me some lines of something - I don’t know what - but I thought it would be fine. Clearly I thought wrong.” He doubled over and promptly threw up all over the floor.
Poor thing, Marlene thought. In the back of her mind, she registered that she should probably be more concerned by this statement, but years of practice had taught her how to recognise an overdose from like six miles away. He was throwing up, but besides that he was lucid, not in any visible pain, and his skin looked a normal, healthy colour. James was rubbing soothing circles into Sirius’ back and murmuring something Marlene couldn’t really be bothered to focus on, but was probably silly, given the way he was rolling his eyes and smiling self-mockingly, and by Sirius’ own small smile.
She looked around to try and find a way to be useful. She spotted a glass of water that had been left on the bedside table. She gave it to James who started feeding Sirius small sips of water, like a baby bird. She also found a packet of vitamin C tablets , which she pressed into Sirius’ right hand. Marlene didn’t really remember what vitamin C was for, but it was better than nothing. Maybe Sirius had a secret deficiency that she was just about to cure.
The boy in question was still hunched over the side of the bed, but he hadn’t thrown up since the first time, so that was a good sign. She just needed to think of something to get him to stop focusing on his own nausea. Once again she looked around the room. The walls were painted a light orange, with various bright green and pink plants in a kind of faux-Spanish style. But It seemed like the owner had gotten bored half-way through decorating the room, because the rest of the furniture was completely eclectic; a white plastic armchair in the corner, a french lace boudoir on one wall, the bed had various bright red furry pillows. Her eyes fell on the bedside table next to them.
“Hey, name three things you think this guy keeps in his bedside drawer”
James looked at her, a bit confused, but Sirius seemed intrigued.
“Honestly, looking at the state of this room I feel like it’s russian roulette. I have zero clue.” James sighed.
“Furry handcuffs, a video-camera and a pack of tic tacs.” Sirius declared decisively after a pause.
Marlene narrowed her eyes at the boy and then turned around to rummage through the guy’s drawers. She filtered through a pack of cigs (which, if she took out and put in her pocket, no one mentioned. He surely wouldn’t miss it anyways, if the size of the house was anything to go by) and various other objects like socks and a glass ashtray. Sirius’ predictions seemed to have been wrong, until she opened the bottom drawer. Sure enough, there lay bright pink furry handcuffs, a panasonic video camera, and three packs of tic tacs.
“How did you know?” Marlene turned to him with wonder.
“I don’t know, I just get people.” Sirius said, smugly, “The guy seemed like an eccentric weirdo who thinks too highly of himself.”
“What, so it’s like looking in a mirror, then? Just had to delve into your own subconscious?” James snarked. Sirius snorted, before his face twisted and he threw up again.
“Hey, do you want us to walk you home? Is it nearby?” James offered. At this, the other boy’s eyes flitted around the room. He answered after a suspiciously long silence.
“Well, I’m not from around here - I came to LA like a week ago - so I’ve just been crashing wherever I can. I have enough money for a few motel rooms if things get tough… so I can find one now. But you guys don’t have to help me with that, you’ve already done enough.”
He smiled up at them, so genuinely, that Marlene’s heart broke a bit. What was he doing all alone? This boy… she couldn’t even begin to think about the things he’d probably have gone through, even in just a week. She knew first-hand how cruel the people around here could be, how they could sniff out desperation and vulnerability like sharks finding blood. Sirius was obviously young and in a financially vulnerable position. He clearly had no family to look after him, or, if they did, he didn’t want to be around them. One call to the authorities would be all it would take for him to be sent away, or sent back where he didn’t want to be. With no place to stay he was easy prey.
“Absolutely not.” James said, firmly, but with enough force that Sirius flinched back a bit, echoing Marlene’s thoughts. “My house is within walking distance, let’s bail.”
And then “Come on! Up, you get.” when Sirius hadn’t moved.
“You really don’t have to. I could just-“
“Oh shut it.” Marlene interrupted, grabbing his arm and forcibly taking him with her as they made their way around the bed, towards the door.
“It’s only one-thirty,” she mused, looking back at the alarm clock on the bedside table, “maybe we could watch a movie when we get back.”