Serenity (3 page)

“What
can
I do for you,” Ren said, lowering her voice to a confident whisper. “More importantly, what’s in it for me?” She leaned into him, raising her hand to rest against his chest.

Brock diverted his eyes from hers. She suppressed a smile when she felt his heartbeat quicken. She craved the control she had over men, and if she could use it to get a few more days to pay the rent she’d play his game.

“What do you want?” She leaned in to brush her lips against the side of his neck.

Brock grabbed Ren’s shoulders and pushed her away. “I want a deal.”

Ren leaned back against the wall of the living room and crossed her arms over her chest. “What terms?”

The corner of Brock’s mouth turned up. He dipped his head and looked up through his long lashes. “You have…”

She raised an eyebrow. “A rep?”

He looked at his feet and nodded.

“Spill it, Roberts. What do you want?”

“Okay here’s the deal. I’ll give you a break on the rent. I’ll even give you some extra for the stuff you need. I want you to provide services for me.”

Ren pushed off the wall and walked away from him. “I’m not for sale.”

“I’m open to negotiation.” He followed after her.

“I’m not having sex with you for money.”

“Again, I said I’m open for negotiations.”

“I already kissed you. Let you put your hands all over me. Do I get paid for that?” Ren continued to walk across the house, hoping to get some distance between them. She hadn’t planned on even kissing him, but she was drunk at the Warehouse Club and he was a willing distraction from her mom.

“Well since we already did that for free I was thinking of upping the ante a bit.” His eyes lowered toward his crotch and then back to meet hers.

Ren turned on him. “What? You want me to suck you off for rent money? We aren’t living on the set of Gossip Girl.”

“Is that what you’re offering?”

“I don’t know that I’m offering anything.”

“I need to know if what you can do for me is worth what
I’m
offering.” He placed his hands on her shoulders moving his thumbs in small circles on the side of her neck. “If you’re as good as I think you’ll be it could be a couple hundred off. I expect you to be available when I call.
Whenever, wherever
I call.” He moved into her. “Are you worth it?”

She felt sick to her stomach. “I’m worth it,” Ren said without batting an eye. Her stomach dropped at the thought of his dick in her mouth. She slid her hands around his waist, taking his belt in her hands. Slowly, she licked her lips, sucking the lip ring in again.

Brock tipped his head back and groaned. “Fuck, Ren.”

Ren suppressed the shudder threatening to run through her body. She didn’t want to do this. She was headed right back to the life she’d thought she left behind. Enough of feeling sorry for herself. She needed money, and she knew she was worth the money he was offering. She just wished her talents lied somewhere other than blow jobs.

Jolin

Tuesday, October 15
th

6:30 a.m.

“Hi, Mrs. Daniel. I was wondering if Jolin was around.” Elizabeth stood in the doorway waiting to be let in.

“He’s still upstairs. He should be getting ready for school. Let me check.” Jolin’s mom came up the stairs and lightly knocked on his door. He’d heard the entire conversation with Elizabeth, such as it was. He just didn’t feel like getting up and seeing what she wanted.

“Jo? Are you up?” The door opened a crack.

“Yeah.” He didn’t move.

His mom came in, sat on the edge of the bed, and rubbed his leg. “It’ll get better.”

Jolin draped his arm over his eyes. “W-w-when. Fuck.”

“Jo!”

“S-s-,” he stopped. He wasn’t even going to fight to get the word out. It wasn’t worth the effort. He wasn’t sorry.

“It takes time. It’s only been a few weeks, and you’ve come so far. The words will come back and if the stutter doesn’t start to fade we can start speech.”

He rolled his eyes. That would be the cherry on top of shitty.

His mom patted his leg and got up. “Well Elizabeth’s downstairs. Get up. You don’t want to be late for school.”

“Yeah. I do.”

“Ha ha. Get up.”

Jolin waited until she left then pulled himself out of bed. He’d ditched the sling for his shoulder, but still didn’t have full strength. He wriggled into a pair of sweats, deciding to forgo the shirt. He hoped to get some sympathy from Lizzie for the raw scar across his clavicle. He ran a hand through his hair and headed down stairs.

Elizabeth stood in the entry way.

“Hey babe.” His voice was raspy from sleep. He knew she was helpless when it came to his abs, but her expression told him they weren’t working their magic today. Jolin stepped up and touched her cheek. “W-w-..” He paused and tried to relax his mouth, giving his brain time to remember the words he needed. “What’s up? My m-m-mom never left the other night,” he lied. “I couldn’t c-c-come over.” He figured she was pissed he hadn’t been able to get away for a late night booty call.

Her eyes looked glassy, like she might cry, which surprised Jolin since he’d never seen her show any real emotion. She was dressed in her cheer warm-ups. Her signature bow sat on top of her head with her hair painfully pulled back in a ponytail. He cupped her jaw and leaned down to give her a kiss. “Hey b-b-babe it’s okay. I’ll make it over s-s-soon. Mom just needs to mellow about the concussion.” Maybe the scar was too much.

Elizabeth shifted so the kiss landed on her cheek. She placed a hand on his chest and pushed against him. “Can we talk?”

Whatever she wanted to tell him was not going to be good. “Sure.” Jolin leaned against the adjacent wall.

“Jolin, we need to break up.”

A loud laugh escaped. “What the fuck?” Why was it
that
word never caused a stutter?

She held her ground. Jolin looked at her perfect makeup and hair. She looked like she was made from plastic.

“This.” She pointed from him to her. “This won’t work anymore.”

He didn’t know what to say. A million thoughts raced through his head. Finally one made its way out. “So that’s it huh? N-n-no s-s-standing by through the tough times? S-s-support the one you love in their darkest hour?” Jolin snapped.

She placed her hands on her hips and stuck out her pouty lip. “I care about you, Jolin. Don’t act like I don’t. But I’m head cheerleader. I need to stay focused. And you aren’t on the team anymore.”

He’d seen the shift starting after news got out he would never be cleared to play. The colleges stopped calling and the atmosphere at the lunch table had gone cold and awkward. Elizabeth breaking up with him was the final nail in the coffin of his life. Not dating her would complete his exile from the popular crowd. Now all he could do was wait to see how deep into his life that exile would go.

“I can’t date you if you don’t play. The head cheerleader dates the quarterback. At the very least the captain and you aren’t either. I have my future to look out for. I don’t have the time to support you through everything that’s going on, and I don’t want you making me feel bad for not being there for you.”

Jolin’s heart stopped. Did she just say she was breaking up with him because she didn’t want him making her feel bad? His mouth opened then closed before he was able to get the words out. “Get out.”

His words didn’t seem to faze her. Jolin tried to move away from her, but she grabbed the waistband of his sweatpants. “I still care about you.” She lowered her gaze to his abs and ran her fingernails lightly across them, moving her fingers just under the front of his pants. She lowered her voice into something she probably thought was sexy but it was grating. “We can’t be together at
school
. I need to be homecoming queen…prom queen… and in order to do that I need to be dating the quarterback. That was you and now it isn’t.”

Jolin shook his head and looked at the ceiling. A shiver went through him the more she caressed his bare skin. Not wearing a shirt was beginning to backfire on him. He didn’t want to react to her touch, he was pissed, but his body didn’t seem to be sharing the sentiment. “You want to date…” He closed his eyes and tried to relax his mouth. “B-B-Brock?”

“We can still get together. But at school…” She moved in so her breath caressed his cheek. “I need to be with the new captain.”

“N-n-not at school? Then when the fuck
are
w-w-we together?”

She placed a kiss on his collar bone. “My house. Yours? We can hook up.”

“Either we’re together or we’re not. I’m not going t-t-to be your hook up.”

Elizabeth huffed. She was used to getting her way. “We’ll see about that.” She brushed past him. “You’ll call me.”

“I won’t.”

Serenity

Tuesday, October 15

2:30 p.m.

The echo of the tardy bell still rang in her ears when Brock slid into his seat next to her. She kept her eyes on the paragraph she was attempting to read in the biology book set in front of her. She’d taken a few Tylenol, but nothing was cutting the hangover she was sporting and Brock’s presence was making it worse.

Brock’s cologne and ever present peppermint smell of his Mento addiction announced his presence a few feet before he arrived. Brock and Ren had come to terms on their agreement and the smell brought back memories of his hands firmly pressed against her head as she worked him over.

“Hey, babe, I have a proposition for you.” He leaned in but kept his gaze scanning the class like he was about to divulge some great secret. Ren kept her eyes on the book pretending to read.

“You aren’t in this class,” Ren stated the obvious. Brock had first period biology, it was currently seventh. Mr. Carson barely noticed his interruption to their class. The football team moved through the school with a completely different set of rules from the rest of the student body.

“You know about everything going on with Jolin?” he started, ignoring her comment.

“Actually I don’t,” Ren lied. Everyone knew everything at this school. They weren’t small town, but news traveled fast and the news of Jolin, star quarterback and Mr. Popular, having his shoulder ripped apart in a preseason scrimmage and suffered a major concussion was big news.

“Well. Whatever. Elizabeth broke up with him.”

However, the news of his break up with his long-time girlfriend hadn’t reached her yet.

“What does any of this have to do with me?” She tried to keep her voice void of emotion. The news of the royal couple breaking up was big, but she didn’t want Brock to know she cared. Ren had harbored a one-sided connection with Jolin since grade school.

He rolled his eyes. “I need her to go out with me.”

“Then ask her out. It’s not like you need my permission.”

“A…yeah I don’t fucking need your permission.” He laughed then ran his fingers through his hair. “She’s still hung up on him. She’ll agree to go out with me, but it will be just for show. She wants homecoming queen. She isn’t completely cutting him off. She knows the school feels sorry for him. She isn’t sure if he’ll still have a chance. I want all of her. Not just the show.”

She gave him a
why the hell do I care
look.

Brock’s head dipped next to hers when the teacher looked his way. He pointed at the passage in the book like he was explaining something to her.

Ren knew deep in some corner of her mind what he was going to ask her to do.

“Ren. If she finds out you were with him she’ll drop him completely. She won’t be seen with him after she finds out you had his dick in your mouth. She’s got a rep as a saint.” His voice slid over her making her shiver. “Being with you is social suicide.”

Ren turned and looked at him. “Really? Social suicide?”

Brock shrugged. “You don’t even have friends. You’re like the plague.”

“You didn’t think so the other day.”

“And no one will know about our arrangement for that exact reason. And if they find out, you’ll be out of that house before you can blink.”

“You’re an asshole.”

Brock gave her one of his empty smiles.

“Whatever. If she finds out I even talked to him she’ll have her cheer-bots kick my ass. She already hates me.”

“I’ll take care of her. She won’t touch you.”

“How can you possibly think you can stop it? She’ll jump me in a dark alley.”

“Now you’re just being ridiculous.”

“You called me the plague.”

“It was a metaphor.”

“For what? You don’t even know what a metaphor is do you?”

“That isn’t the point.” Brock’s patience seemed to be waning, but so was Ren’s.

“Loaning me out wasn’t part of our agreement,” Ren snapped.

Brock dropped his hand to her thigh and squeezed. “I’m making an amendment to the agreement. I need her status, and Jolin needs to understand he isn’t one of us anymore.” He raised an eyebrow. “I’ll make it worth your time.”

“Are you trying to be my pimp? Because I’m not a prostitute.” Ren hissed, pointing at the same paragraph Brock had. Everyone already thought she was a slut. The last thing she needed was anyone overhearing this conversation.

“But you are the best at what you do. And I think… no, I know… when Elizabeth finds out she will kick his ass to the curb and come running to me.” Brock scanned the room casually. “You owe me.”

“I what!” Ren’s voice rose. Mr. Carson shot them a dirty look. Lowering her voice, she almost growled, “How in the hell do I owe
you
?”

Brock grabbed Ren’s hand. “Look. Every month when rent is due I said I’d give you a break, but who do you think comes up with the difference? My dad doesn’t know we have an agreement. You’re good at what you do, but Ren—I got to get a little more.”

Ren’s jaw clenched as she tried to contain her anger. “If he’s hurt won’t she stick around to nurse him back to health?” She was grabbing at straws.

Brock sat back, his eyes got big. “You’ve met her before, right? She’s a self-centered, cold hearted bitch. She broke up with him because she doesn’t like feeling bad about not giving a shit he’s hurt.”

“If she’s so bad why do you want to let her sink her claws into your back?”

“Because without her I don’t have the power to rule the school. With her on my arm, my life will be cake. Homecoming, prom, valedictorian, everything I need to get into a college fraternity.”