First Night

Ten

Trey always woke her up in the sweetest way. Sometimes it was with breakfast in bed. Sometimes he would nuzzle his nose against hers and sprinkle her skin with soft kisses until she woke up because his facial hair was tickling her. Sometimes it was a little sexier, with his fingers bringing her to completion or him making love to her with his tongue. It was always different. It was always sweet. It was always a way for him to express how much he loved her, especially when he couldn't say it with words.

Today was different. Demi didn't even know what time it was, if she had slept through the night or what, but Trey woke her up yelling. When she opened her eyes and saw him standing over her, he was seething. The anger was practically radiating off of him in fiery waves.

"What?"

"What the fuck are these? Why are you getting tested for STDs?" Trey demanded to know, crinkling the papers in his hands.

"Because-"

"Because you're working for Sharon again aren't you? Aren't you? Look me in my eyes and tell me that I'm wrong," Trey demanded as Demi stood up, moving away from him as she wrapped her arms around herself.

"I'm not..." Demi admitted, because she wasn't. At least not anymore.

"You're lying! My friend saw you at that dinner the other night! The one at the Plaza Hotel. You're working for her again, you fucking slut!" Trey seethed, throwing the papers across the room as tears sprang to Demi's eyes.

She hated that word so much. She hated all of those words. Slut. Whore. Thot. Skank. Prostitute. Words that men moaned as they used her body for their own pleasure. Words that they spat her way when it was time for her to leave.

"I was working for her. I'm not anymore."

"For how long, Demi?"

"A month..." there was no point in lying now.

"That's why you got tested? Demi, I swear to God if you gave me ANYTHING-"

"I got tested because I was raped last night."

Saying it out loud made it too real. And she wasn't looking for sympathy or anything else. She was just telling the truth.

"What?"

"I was raped last night. He didn't use a condom. I went to Sharon. I quit. I got tested. That's it," Demi bluntly stated.

Trey looked so confused, like he didn't know what to believe. Like he was torn between loving her, like he loved her from the very beginning, or hating her because she had been carrying on a lie when she didn't have to. She was putting herself through something that she didn't have to do.

"Demi...what...what am I supposed to do with this? What are we supposed to do? You've been lying to me. We're in a relationship. I know you said you didn't want to work, but to go back to this? And to lie to me..."

"I don't know what you want me to say, Trey."

"I WANT YOU TO FUCKING EXPLAIN IT TO ME."

"I will never be okay with sitting on my ass and not working! I will never be okay with you providing for us. I will never be okay with making myself vulnerable, having to rely on someone else for shit that I should be doing myself! You just don't understand. I just wanted my own...my own income, my own life, my own thing. And I was going to quit as soon as I got enough to invest in your clubs and build this thing up together. I just wanted to do it on my own."

"Demi...that's complete bullshit and you know it. You don't trust me. You don't think we're going to last. Why else would you go back to fucking prostitution just to make a little bit of money? It's like you were trying to sabotage us!"

"But I wasn't," Demi sighed out, completely defeated because she didn't know how to explain it to Trey in a way that would make sense to him. "I was just trying to take care of myself."

"Exactly. You were trying to make sure that YOU were okay but what about US?" Trey questioned, making Demi take a step back from him as she considered what he said.

It was quiet in the room, the atmosphere filling up with everything that they had said to each other, and everything that they hadn't. Trey didn't know how to move forward because he loved Demi. He loved her in a way he knew he would never be able to love any other woman. All he wanted was to spend the rest of his life with her, but his heart was broken. It felt like she put herself through so many unnecessary situations and for what? To want to have your own income is one thing but to resort back to prostitution?

And she was raped. She was fucking raped. Trey was switching between lethal anger and devastation, and the combination was making him want to hit the streets and hunt down whoever the piece of scum was who did it to her. Standing across from him, she looked so broken, but not as broken as him, like she knew that this day would come and she was just waiting for it to happen. Like she was waiting for this, waiting for him to cut the cord, waiting for their relationship to end because then she could justify going back to that horrible job. Then she could say "I told you so" and feel better about what she had been doing because she would be able to take care of herself, and not have to rely on him for anything. He was so torn. So fucking torn. But all he could think about was how much he loved her, and how much he really didn't want to let her go. Not like this.

"I'm sorry," she suddenly muttered, hugging herself as she observed the ground like it was the most interesting thing in the world. "I'm so sorry. I don't know what else to say, Trey. I'm sorry for putting you in this position and I'm sorry for lying. I don't know what else you want me to do. I'm really sorry."

That's when her tears started flowing. She kept trying to wipe them with the sleeve of her shirt but they kept falling, and then she was in hysterics like everything was hitting her at once. And Trey couldn't just sit there and watch her cry. He couldn't.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm really sorry," she kept apologizing, like the more she said it the more he would believe her.

The more she said it, the faster he would forgive her. Trey made his way over to her, hesitating before gathering her in his arms and letting her cry against his chest. She was actually shaking.

Trey didn't know what to say. He just held her, until his legs got tired and he had to slide to the floor with her in his arms. But he held her tighter as he sat with his back pressed against the wall. Even when her tears stopped rolling she was still shaking, and he still didn't know what to say. So he just kept holding her, even when she fell asleep against him and the moonlight cast their shadows on the wall. He just kept holding her...because he didn't know what else to do.