I was going to puke.
"You should take his advice. You have so much potential and you squander it by being a waitress," Mom pleaded. The longing in her eyes spoke volumes as to her opinion on the whole situation. She wanted me to sell myself for money. For her.
"Are you hearing yourself right now? You want your boyfriend to pimp me out so I can make more money for you?" My eyes were wide and my heart thumped loudly in my chest. The stale air in the room pushed down on me, trying to make me break.
"Don't be so damn dramatic. It's not like you'd be having sex with anyone. What's a blowjob or a lap dance here and there? You could be makingthousandsa week! Trust me, I'd be doing it if I was your age and had your tits and ass. Pete would make sure you were well taken care of. He just takes a small cut and we would get the rest." Mom plastered on a fake smile at the end of her pitch.
Everything stood still for a moment. My breath caught in my throat and with Pete leering and Mom smiling wide, it was all too much.
"I have to go," I announced before turning and running through the door, slamming it hard behind me, all thoughts of getting my purse long gone.
With blurry vision and the feeling of an impending collapse, I slammed into a muscular body. Thick, protective arms surrounded me and kept me from falling to the ground.
"Shit, hey. What happened? Princess, talk to me. Look at me. I'm here, it's okay. You're okay. Ashtyn?" I looked up just as soft lips captured mine.
I didn't move, but I allowed his tongue to break through and take me. The electric feeling buzzed from my lips down to my toes. I felt the return to reality, to Earth, and stared into dark brown eyes filled with concern.
"Are you okay? I feel like I ask you that a lot.”
"No, I'm definitelynotokay. I need to get the fuck out of here," I said as I looked over my shoulder.
Once we were in his car heading north, West said, "What the fuck was that about? Was it what my dad said?"
"No," I let out a sigh before deciding if I wanted to open yet another can of worms with West. He knew too much information about me already and we were bordering on a friendship. Or at least bordering on thepossibilityof a friendship.
"I heard screaming and...noises coming from my mom’s room and..." I swallowed bile, trying to keep what little breakfast I ate in my stomach. "My boss is fucking my mom. And she likes him. Like, she had stars in her eyes. It's so sickening though...the things this guy has said to me. What he's done to other girls at Aces.”
“Does she know all this?”
"No. She wouldn’t care either way. The worst part," I swallowed thickly. "My mom wants me to start working in the back rooms."
West's head snapped toward me, anger burning off his body. "You're not fucking serious! Does she know what they are?"
I nodded my head and fixed my gaze on the road before us. It was embarrassing to admit that my mom wanted me to sell my body, sell a piece of my soul, all for a few bucks in her pocket.
"Ashtyn, you can't. You can't work there anymore. This guy's your boss? He's going to be feeding your mom all kinds of bullshit. You need to quit." West kept his eyes mostly on me instead of the road.
"I can’t quit. The money's too good to give up. I can afford groceries now. And I need to save for college. We don't all have rich parents, West. Some of us have to rely on ourselves and do what we can for survival."
"You have other options! You can get another job, one where the owner isn't trying to sell you off to the highest bidder.”
"You don’t understand any of this, do you?" I glared at him. "I worked honest jobs from the day I turned fourteen, and you know what? We went without eating. We had our electricity shut off. We had our water shut off. I wore clothes with holes in them that were too damn small!"
"There's got to be a job that pays okay and doesn't make you get on your back or your knees."
"Have you ever had to worry about any of those things, West? Ever have to wonder where your next meal is coming from or if you're going to be able to take a hot shower?" He didn't answer but he gripped the steering wheel like he wanted to break it in half.
"You're not quitting. You're going to keep working at that place," he stated.
"I have to. I'm not going to do anything I don't want to do. That was part of the deal when I got hired."
"I'm sure this guy's a man of his word, right?" West scoffed. "You'll be back there on your knees before you know it."
"Fuck you, West. I don't even know why I'm telling you all of this. Let's just get to Axel's so I can get the fuck out of this car."
"Fine," West muttered as we continued the silent drive to see Remington.
I would prove West wrong. I would keep my job and my dignity. He could keep his judgment.