Princeton Short- Story: Never Safe

Chapter Thirteen: Burning On My Lips

At Kane’s Mansion (Thursday)

“Shake ya ass, watch yourself! Shake ya ass, show me what you’re working with!”

Echoed through the halls as you folded up your clothes and put them away in your room. The rest of the girls were outside having a pool party with a couple of the guys while you sat inside your room folding up your laundry. You could hear men and women cursing, yelling, and laughing from your upstairs bedroom but you didn’t care, you’d rather be in your room for a thousand years than be downstairs with those people. All the girls lacked class and even when they were supposed to be outside the club, they still acted like they were there, walking around the house half naked, seducing anyone in sight, and being loud…it annoyed you beyond words. And don’t even get you started on the guys!

“Shake that ass for me mami!” you heard Ray shout over the music. You rolled your eyes and finished putting away the last article of clothing before taking a seat on the bed and opening up your current book of interest. Ever since you got off the streets you took to reading and writing, at first it was difficult but before long you were reading at a college level. You remembered one of the girls, Lina, helping you to read when you first came. She was one of the only girls kind to you, a lot of the other girls ignored you or purposely caused problems with you because they thought you were stuck up… you could see where they were coming from. It’s not that you weren’t friendly, you were just afraid of getting hurt, not to mention you hated working at the club…you could never understand why girls would voluntarily work for Kane. Although you had worked for Kane for five years you could only remember seeing him a couple of times, and whenever you were forced to be around him you hated it…he was always pushing people around, trying to get aggressive, or throwing around money. All the guys working for him laughed and cheered him on...but you knew it was because they feared him. There’s a difference between respect and fear.  

The same amount of hate you carried for Kane was almost equal to the amount of hate you felt towards Ray. When Ray first saved you from getting attacked you were thankful and appreciative…but then Ray said you needed to “pay” him back, which meant working as a stripper for Kane. When you first heard about working for Kane you thought it’d before for a few years or so, but you soon found out it would be for much, much longer; you owed them your life. Which meant you could never get married, have kids, get a real house, or work in a professional job…nothing. You’d be “Moon” forever.

Knock, Knock.

You heard the hard slams of someone’s fist against your door and you jumped up a little, cutting your attention from the book. Before you could even call out to see who it was you heard their hands against the door knob, turning it back and forth in frustration.

“Unlock the damn door!” Ray screamed. The tone in his voice concerned you but you still didn’t fear Ray. Although Ray had hit you a few times, he still didn’t scare you; if anything he just annoyed you. You wished that he was different, but even as a child he was selfish and rude…the likelihood of Ray being kind to you was very slim. The only times Ray was nice to you was when he was drunk or when you guys were alone.

You sat in the bed for a second, determining whether or not you wanted to open the door but you knew if you didn’t he would probably break it down. Which meant you would be “grounded” and have your door privileges taken away for a while.