*I apologize for my hiatus from writing, taking 20 credits left me with no time to write and quarantine actually made writing harder.
“How much?” The man strode up, a lopsided smirk on his face.
Your pimp looked from you to the man and back again. You held back a whimper. You were fresh blood on the streets, untested. And you knew what Jake was thinking. This guy was going to be your first test.
“For one hour? That’s ridiculous.” The man retorted.
“Look man, this one’s virgin. You don’t find many of those. $120.”
“Fine. Done.” He passed some bills to Jake. Jake recounted them quickly before roughly shoving you toward the man. “Go where you want but you,” he jabbed finger at you, “better be back in no more than an hour and a half or there will be consequences. Have fun.” He added with a wave and a lecherous, knowing grin. You knew what he expected to happen to you.
You were shaking as you slid into the passenger seat of the man’s car.
“Elliot. Good to meet you.” He replied. You held back a snort. Good for him maybe. Not so good for you.
He drove only two blocks away to a motel that charged by the hour. He gestured for you to lead the way in and you jumped away from the movement of his hand. Still you did as directed and soon enough you two were alone in a room.
He sat down on the bed while you stood, unsure of exactly what to do with yourself.
“So, how do you want it?” You asked, trying to keep the quiver out of your voice. Elliot was bigger than you in every sense. Taller, heavier, more muscular. You knew that fighting anything he wanted to do would be useless. You tried to concentrate on the correct form that Jake had beat into you and the escapism that the others had taught you.
“Sorry?” Elliot said, clearly snapping out of his own reverie.
“You know,” you said, coming over to straddle his lap and put you arms on his shoulders, “what do you want from me?”
He leaned back from your touch.
“What’s kid like you doing working for a guy like that?” He asked.
“I-what?” You replied, taken aback by his question.
“Why are you doing this?”
“What, you gonna make me a better offer?” You retorted, trying not to sound derisive. It wasn’t like you wanted to be doing this at all, but you didn’t really have a choice.
“Seriously, why?” He asked.
“My parents kicked me out. Jake gave me somewhere to stay. And then said I owed him for that. So I guess this is me earning my keep.” You weren’t sure why you were telling this random john the truth. It wasn’t like he was gonna care. He paid to have sex with you. Sure, you had heard some guys hired just to have someone to talk to, but those were usually much older guys.
“What if I said I could help you?” He said.
You sat back and dropped your hands. What was that supposed to mean? Was he going to buy your debt, keep you for himself?
“I can get you somewhere to stay and get, what’s his name - Jake you said, off your back.” He offered.
“How?” You asked again, still not clear on what his plan was.
He sighed and studied you for a moment.
“I’m a detective and I think Jake should be off the streets. He’s hurt a lot of people, huh?” He said, nodding to the visible bruise on your wrist. Jake had grabbed you hard the other day when you dared to talk back to him.
Your mind raced. You thought of the others, some of them even younger than you stuck with him. The bruises they sported, the men that they were pimped out to, the looks in their eyes when they came back. You thought of your parents, who had made it very clear they no longer wanted you. How Jake had said he did. But then he went and did this.
Something about those words broke you. Your parents hated you, Jake wanted to use you. You just wanted someone to give a damn about you. And in five minutes, Elliot had made it clear that he did.
You fell forward, wrapping your arms around him and burying your face into his shoulder, trying to hide the tears that were starting to fall. You were strong, you didn’t cry anymore.
But you wanted someone to tell you it was going to be okay. That you were okay.
Elliot was surprised but slowly put his arms around you as well. You were too young to be going through this. He thought of his own kids. You were probably close to Maureen’s age if he had to guess.
“I’ve got you.” He told you, holding your head with one hand and rubbing your back as you shook. Everything you had been bottling up for a while was coming to the surface. All the sadness and fear and loneliness.
He waited for you to recover before releasing you. You leaned back and wiped your eyes.
“I’m sorry, that was a lot and now your shirt is wet I don’t know why I did that I’m sorry-” your words all rushed out at once and you were embarrassed at the outburst.
“It’s okay, don’t worry.” He waved off your apologies. You had nothing to be sorry for in his book.
“I want to help.” You said, finally answering what he had proposed before your breakdown.
“I’m glad to hear that. Why don’t we head to the station and we can work out a plan?” He suggested.
“Sure. I’m sorry, again.” You mumbled, still blushing and feeling somewhat overwhelmed.
“Seriously, it’s not a problem at all. I have kids, so I’ve gotten much worse on my shirts.”
You laughed at this. Realizing that you were still on his lap, you stood up and backed away, giving him some space. He followed your lead and stood up.
“You ready to go?” He asked.
“Yeah,” you nodded, “I’m ready.”
He smiled and put an arm around your shoulders, guiding you back out to the car. You couldn’t help already feeling safer. The weight of his arm brought with it the promise of safety and protection. It was something you hadn’t felt in a while.
You felt acknowledged, cared about. You didn’t know where the investigation would lead or what you would do after Jake was put away but for the first time, you could believe that everything would work out. Because you had Elliot on your side, holding you up.
