Chapter 1
Lacey
As I read the email, my whole body tensed.
Dear Lacey Pierce,
It has come to our attention that your scholarship fund has a remaining balance of $0.00. We will need a payment of $1,200 by December 31st, 2019 or we will have to cancel your classes. Please go to the Finance Office to discuss the details or set up a payment arrangement.
Thank you,
Debra Gallagher
Secretary of Finance Administration
Upon reading the disaster of an email, I realized my world had flipped upside down within a matter of seconds. My stomach tightened, and a headache started to ensue. What the heck was I going to do? I couldn’t stop now. My dream hinged on me graduating, and I wasn’t going to stop now. I wasn’t a stranger to such tragedy.
My parents busted their asses when I was a kid to give me simple things like clothes on my back and a decent home. Why couldn’t I have had the blissful life like the rich kids? I wanted nothing more than to have a pair of new shoes, a purse, or a car. There was always this twinge of jealousy or even annoyance. My dad was never the healthy type, and when you grew up in a shitty neighborhood with barely enough to make the month’s rent, alcohol proved to be his medicine. He’d drink himself blind every night, and sometimes he couldn’t even remember my name. I forgave him because he was my dad, and kids like me understood just how rare it was to even know yours. These past few years turned out to be his karma. His liver turned to absolute shit, and the doctor told us he had liver cancer. It was sad to say we weren’t surprised. All the alcohol was catching up to him. Karma was really a thing.
When I was ten years old, I swore I’d be the first in my family to graduate from college. Unlike my parents, I didn’t want to be stuck in their small town. My big dreams had followed me since childhood and were still inside me. I wasn’t about to fail at my own dream. In order to fulfill my own agenda, desperation became my muse. I would do anything to get my education paid for.
School was a far-fetched idea for my parents, so with the joint risk of my father’s cancer and me not being home to help them, I knew asking for money would be a bust. So, I had to find a way to pay off my school debts on my own. If I didn’t have the funds within a month, I would be out on my ass. I couldn’t let that happen. Sure, I wallowed in self-pity and pessimism for a good week, but I quickly snapped out of that bubble. I worked too hard to let that become my reality.
I had no idea what I was going to do. Being my usual faux-optimistic self though, I tried to be proactive. With my luck, a failed attempt of work study and a sweaty job at the local pizzeria served to be slaps in the face to only reiterate my fate. The truth of the matter was my scholarship only covered the first two years. When I applied to school, I promised myself I’d be working my ass off to have enough for the remaining years.
I left to find something to eat when she approached me.
“You looking for work?” Lindsey Monaghan whispered from behind a wall after seeing me sink to the floor. I had just been denied yet again another job, and things were turning for the worse.
I rolled my eyes and sighed. Another one of Lindsey’s terrible ideas was about to be sprung on me. I looked down, swallowing hard, wondering what she was about to rope me into now.
“Yeah, but it’s nothing you could help me with,” I grumbled as I struggled to get myself off the floor. Lindsey snorted and strolled confidently over to me. Her long red hair swished by her full hips just as her brand-new Louis Vuitton bag swung on her shoulder. She stood deathly close to me, a wave of her flowery perfume hitting me in the face. I rolled my eyes. Not actually at her, but at the shiny new bag that glared at my poor, broken self on the floor.
“Well, for one, you always wear the same shit every day. Judging by your pleas for help, I’d say you need money. Quick money,” Lindsey retorted with a wink.
I sighed. Lindsey was considered the slut on campus, but it would be a mistake to pass off her intellect. She had the highest GPA of our class and several job offers at big-time companies. I envied her so much.
“Stripping is not on my list of options,” I snarled.
“Yeah, I’d hope not. You don’t have the balls or tits for it.” She chuckled.
My face reddened, and I cleared my throat. “Piss off, Lindsey, okay?”
“Wait.”
I rolled my eyes, wanting to get as far away from her as I could. What could this girl possibly want? “What, Lindsey?”
Lindsey looked left and right before moving close to my ear, her raspberry-tinted lips practically touching my earlobe.
“If you need quick money, there’s a job service that can provide that. Full discretion. And no, it’s not porn or stripping,” Lindsey whispered. “It’s something much more sophisticated than that.”
Lindsey stepped back with a grin spreading across her perfectly structured face.
I gulped. It sounded sketchy, but I needed it. Badly. “Okay. Say I’m interested in this gig. What exactly is it?”
“Ever heard of escorting?”
My heart sank. Escorting? No way in hell. “You’re crazy. I’m not about to be a prostitute!”