Picture Perfect (9 page)

Having forgot
ten my lipstick in my locker, I twirled through the combination, comforted by the conversations of the girls around me, and dug through my bag. The back of my hand brushed the smooth bump of my cell phone about the time it vibrated.

“1 missed call” the display read.

With zombie-like precision, I flipped it open and checked my missed calls. The call list started to pull up when the phone vibrated again, indicating I had an urgent voicemail.

I checked my watch. I had ten minutes left in my break.

Finding my makeup bag, I sifted through the contents and dialed in to my inbox, punching in the access pin. The robotic yet somehow overly perky automated voice read through the time and date.

I tapped my foot
until a familiar voice came through, and I lost my breath, frozen.

“Ms. Davis, this is Veronika from Crimson Hills Care. I wanted to discuss your mother with you at your earliest convenience. Please give me a call back at…”

I quickly jotted down the number and extension, and hung up. With a shaking hand, I keyed it in and pressed
talk
. The phone rang a few times, my heart speeding up while I waited. A nervous knot tangled my stomach.

“This is Veronika.”

“Hi… this is Angel Davis. I believe you called me earlier?”

“Oh, yes, Ms. Davis. Thank you for calling me back so quickly.”

“Is my mom okay?”

“Yes, she’s fine. She hasn’t had any more reactions to her medication.”

I let out a small breath and said a silent prayer of thanks.

“What I was calling about was her coverage. We never received the payment for last month.”

“Medicare won’t cover it? Or my insurance?” That was another reason why I took this job.

“They only cover up to twenty-eight hours
of home care, not around the clock. And your insurance company has declined the coverage.”

I stood there, tasting panic. “What?” I asked in a smaller voice. “Why?”

Veronika hesitated. “Because they said she did this to herself.”

A stony, hollow feeling grew in my core, sucking the life right out of me.

“Ms. Davis?”

I blinked, realizing I hadn’t said anything in over thirty seconds. “I’m here,” I whispered.

I heard the squeak of a chair, followed by a door closing. Veronika’s voice was softer. “If need be, we can discuss some sort of payment arrangement.”

I didn’t want to ask, but I knew I had to. “How much is due?”

“Three thousand three hundred dollars.”

My breath hitched, then I remembered my photo
shoot. “I could do half next Friday.” Devin’s check should cover that much, until I found some way to scrounge up the rest.

Scribbling and the shuffle of papers ensued. “I’ll make a note of that. Please send a check to…”

I barely had enough wits about me to write down the address and thank her before hanging up. I was numb. After ten years, I was tired of fighting the constant, neverending struggle.

Wiping my tears away, I closed my eyes and took a few deep, calming breaths, my routine whenever things inevitably started to go awry. That’s when
I noticed it, a tiny whimper coming from the hallway. It was so muffled that I at first wasn’t sure I’d heard it until a deep voice, like liquid darkness, slithered from the same direction. The same voice that haunted me, reminding me I was a prisoner here.

Curtis.

Suppressing the sickness churning in my stomach, I grabbed my pepper spray and tiptoed as quietly as I could into the hall. The floor vibrated with the pulse of the music as the show started, meaning all the girls were in the main hall vying for tips to dump in the scales.

Up ahead, the massive costume closet door was open. A belt buckle rattled from within, followed by the rustle of pants falling to the floor. The girl started to sob
, then the sound abruptly cut off, as if someone clamped a hand down over her mouth. Though he was speaking softly, I was close enough now to clearly hear Curtis’s voice. “You want a shot at the stage? Think I’m not giving you enough?”

“No, no, I - you’re - I’m sorry I asked. I - I don’t know what I was thinking. Please let me go!”

“Keep your fucking mouth shut! You women are all the same. You all want more, more, more. Never appreciate what I’ve done for you. It’s never enough.”

The last words were slurred, more mumbled to himself than to her. My nose tickled with the smell of dust and whiskey, which seemed to hang around Curtis in a big, black cloud. For whatever reason, it had thickened over the past two weeks.

“My little boy,” Curtis said, voice thick with emotion. “She took him away from me. Fucking bitch. I’ll show her. I’ll show all of you.”

The girl began struggling and shrieking.

Panic spiking, I saw a broom propped up on the other side of the hall, and without thinking, I promptly kicked it over. It landed with a loud clatter, silencing the horror about to unfold in the closet. A zipper began frantically easing up, and a moment later, Curtis stepped out into the hallway.

I used to think he looked very sharp, but his suit was as wrinkled as I’d ever seen it, and his hair was disheveled, like he’d forgotten to comb it. His eyes were wild, glazed over and bloodshot to the point they almost blended in with his flushed face.

I held my breath, thinking maybe he wouldn’t notice me, but then again how could he not? I was wearing lime green sequin, a freaking flashing sign that said I’M RIGHT HERE.

After swaying for a few seconds, his eyes focused on me. “Why the hell aren’t you on the floor?” he demanded, charging toward me.

Eyes on him, I started backing up, the cold wall pressing against my back two steps later. Fear coated my tongue as I searched for an escape route, but by then Curtis was already upon me. Not knowing what else to do, my arm shot up, my index finger poised over the button that would release the mace.

Curtis drew up short, blinking slowly once, then his upper lip curled up in a sneer. “Well look at you, being all brave and shit.” He gripped my wrist, bringing his face closer to the mace.

I pressed my lips together to keep them from trembling. Inside, it felt like an earthquake was going off. He was too close, and this hallway was too fucking small.

“You think you’re above the law, Princess?” he hissed. “Around here, I am the law. I own you, all of you. Never forget that.”

With a jerk, he flung my wrist to the side and stepped away, pinning me against the wall with a glare that could melt flesh.

I didn’t dare move.
I thought I was about to be safe when he paused, twirling back around and rubbing his chin. “On second thought, since you seem particularly unable to comprehend the rules, I think you should pack up your shit and get the hell out of my house.” He and his family lived in a fancy, upscale apartment upstairs in the loft.

The floor almost came up to catch me. “You’re
firing
me?”

The call replayed in my head. Mom… what would my mom do now? How the hell would I pay for my last
year of school? All over again the sensation of falling, like my world was coming apart at the seams, skewed my vertigo, threatening to take my knees out.

He smiled as if I
was a child who’d said something stupid. “No, sweetheart. I’m cutting your hours, dropping you down to part-time ‘til you cool off and get your head on straight. I’ll never fire you - I own you.”

With that, he turned and walked off, leavin
g me shaking uncontrollably while I tried to get a grip on everything that had happened. A few silent seconds passed before a dark head peeked out of the closet.

I squinted. “Chasity?”

Her fearful, dark eyes flashed in my direction, growing pale. Pinching her lips, she started to hurry past me, but I grabbed her arm.

“Wait, are you okay?” I asked. “Did he hurt you?”

“No,” she clipped, tearing her arm from my grasp. She looked away, hugging herself and shaking as badly as I was.

I kept my voice soft. “Has he done this before?”

She wiped her cheeks. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Yes, it does!” I wanted to hit something. I bit my lip, on the verge of telling her she wasn’t alone, that we could fight, but she rounded on me.

“Just leave me the fuck alone, Angel!” she screamed, then brushed past, nearly knocking me over.

I watched her leave, mouth open in shock. I stood there, not knowing which way was up and which was down as I tried to make sense of everything.

“I own you.”

Still shaking, my fingers clenched into a fist, wanting to drive it into the wall.

“Hey, where were you?”

I turned to face Tammara as she tap-tapped up to me.

Her brows stopped in concern soon as she saw my face. “Are you okay? You don’t look so hot.”

I almost told her what happened. The secret festered inside me, the pressure to release it building up until I felt I was about to burst. A knot formed in my throat, corking it inside. Shifting my weight, I said, “I, um, got a little sick at my stomach during my break. I think the vending machine is carrying out-of-date snacks.”

“Oh.” She pulled of her blond wig and ruffled out her hair. “Did you grab some stomach pills from the first-aid kit? That should make you feel better.”

“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “I took some earlier.”

The lie tasted bitter in my mouth. Why couldn’t I just tell her the truth?

Tam studied me some more but didn’t say anything. Fear that
she would see right through me – that she would see the shame and embarrassment I carried – made my heart race.

“What time do you get off tonight?” she asked instead, heading for the locker room.

I silently sighed with relief, following her. “It was supposed to be two, but I guess I’m free now.”

“Why? Is Curtis letting you go home early because you’re sick?”

“No, he… kind of cut my hours.”

Her mouth opened up and rounded. “What? Why?”

I shrugged, studying a scuff mark on the floor. “Don’t know.”

“Huh.” She wrinkled up her nose, a look I often saw on her face while she was studying and trying to figure something out. “That doesn’t make any sense. Did something happen?”

“No,” I answered a little too quickly. At her surprised look, I said more casually, “I mean, no, everything’s fine, or at least, I thought it was.”

The lie burned my insides as the truth fought to get out, and my lips pressed together in a thin line. I had been saying “everything’s fine” for a long time now. It was started to get old, but it was l
ike an itch that wouldn’t stop. It was just my natural reaction when people began prying.

“It just seems so random.” Tam shut her locker. I could tell by the twisted set to her lips that she was trying to puzzle it together. I felt bad, making her worry. Tam had enough on her plate.

“It’s okay, really.” I took a deep breath and let it out. “The modeling gig should cover some of the money I’ll lose. And maybe I can work the floor harder for private dances.”
If Curtis doesn’t take all my tips from those, too.

Tam changed out, as did I, and we started toward the back exit to the employee parking lot.

Like every night, stepping out of that prison of smoke, glitter, and booze lifted a weight from my chest. I stared at the sky, the first time we could see the stars. A smoky ring hung around the full moon, glowing like ghost light.

“Come with me.”

I blinked, not having heard Tam. “Do what?”

She punched the unlock key on her car keys
, and the headlights flashed as it unlocked. “I’m meeting Erik at the hockey arena after the game for our date. You should come.”

“On your date?” I said incredulously, dumping my things in the backseat before plopping into shotgun and fastening my seat belt.

Tam gave me a wry smile as she turned the engine and backed out of her parking spot. “You can if you want, but I was actually referring to the game.”

I shook my head, warming inside because I knew Tam genuinely meant it. “There’s no way I’m going with you on your first date with Prince Charming or the One or whatever you’re calling him. It’d be too awkward.”

“So the game then?”

I picked at my nails, which were in desperate need of repainting. It was a good thing Curtis hadn’t noticed them, or he probably would’ve fired me on the spot for not keeping up my appearance to his high standards. “I don’t know. I could really use the time to study.”

Tam rolled her eyes, turning onto the main road. My back slammed against the seat as she gunned it, going her standard fifteen over the speed limit.

“Would you relax?” she said. “Midterms aren’t until next week. You study all the time. I’m surprised you’re not reciting your textbooks verbatim.”

The recollection of last night and Devin’s very naked body flashed across my mind’s eye, causing heat to pool between my legs. “I…”

I tried coming up with ammunition to deny my going, to bail on a public outing like I always did. “Does it cost money to go?”