The guy insisted he understood, thanked me, and wandered off like a kid who’d just gotten done raiding a candy store as I headed back to Tammi.
I’d known her for years—from the moment she’d asked me for my name and age five years ago. I knew she’d been interested ever since—she didn’t keep it a secret with her frisking eyes and bottom lip clamped salaciously between her teeth—but she had never made her move until I was legal. Now, at twenty-three, she loved teasing that she was a cradle-robber.
Me? Well … honestly, I just liked getting laid.
“You wanna give me one of those?” she asked, holding out a hand and waggling her fingers.
“No,” I said, perching myself on an old, rusty bench someone had dragged into The Pit way before my time.
“Come on, baby.” She climbed onto my lap and straddled my thighs. “I’ll suck your dick.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not letting you suck me off for pills, Tammi.”
“Why? I’m your whore, aren’t I? Treat me like one.”
Okay, can I be honest?
I didn’t like Tammi a whole lot. We had nothing in common. Kissing her was akin to licking an ashtray, she wore enough cheap perfume to make the strongest lungs asthmatic, and the way she spoke made me cringe.
Still, I was also eighteen, feeling a little too much like hot shit with the cash lining my pockets, and it was nice to have someone as sexy as her hanging from my arm and sitting on my lap.
It also felt nice when we fucked.
But I always respected her and treated her right, and I’d never give her pills in exchange for sex.
“You’re not a whore,” I told her flatly, tipping my head back to catch her eye and wrapping my arms around her waist.
Tammi pouted. “Levi liked when I was his whore.”
I hated it when she talked about Levi.
Hell, I thought I just hated Levi altogether. Him, that guy he hung out with, and every one of their friends.
“Well, he’s right over there if you wanna go suck his dick.” I nudged my chin in his direction.
The guy was twenty-four and way too old to be hanging out with high school kids. But I saw him now for what he was—a predator—and I often wondered if I’d be like him when I was his age. The thought scared me, but what I did now scared me, too, and yet I couldn’t see an end in sight. I was in too deep, and I—we, Mom and me—depended on this too much.
Tammi glanced over her shoulder and stared at her ex-boyfriend like maybe she was considering it. But she made a contemplative sound before saying, “Nah, I don’t feel like it right now. Yours is bigger anyway.”
I wanted to grumble a sardonic thanks because I didn’t doubt for a second that, if my dick had in fact been smaller, she would have sauntered her way back into Levi’s arms without a second thought. But before I could say anything, my thoughts were blown apart by a bloodcurdling scream not twenty feet away from where I sat.
Tammi turned her head abruptly in the direction of where the sound had come from. “Wha—”
She couldn’t get her sentence out before I shoved her off my lap.
I bolted from the bench and ran toward the scream that had now turned into a girl’s pleading voice, saying, “Stop it! Please, get off of me! Get off!”
Her frantic, desperate words crushed my soul, and what I found made my blood boil.
A young girl I had never seen before was pinned against a tree by the body of Levi’s buddy, Seth. One of his hands was on her chest while the other was working at getting his fly undone. She was writhing, struggling to get away from him, as she cried and gasped and begged for someone to help her in a field of dozens of people who were ignoring her.
But not me.
Without a moment of hesitation, I grabbed Seth from behind, gripping his shirt in my fists and pulling him off her with such force that we both fell backward into a couple of other kids.
“What the hell, man?!” one of them asked, as if they hadn’t been aware of the girl being violated against her will mere feet away from them.
Seth rolled away and out of my grasp. “Get the fuck—”
My fist stopped his words from coming out, and a spray of blood hit my face as I broke his nose.
“Motherfucker!” he cried in agony, cupping his hands over his face. “You piece of fucking shit!”
I began to get to my feet as I turned to the girl, still standing there with her back against the tree, watching the scene unfold in front of her.
“Are you okay?” I asked, panting and trying to catch my breath from the tussle.
She began to nod when her already-frightened eyes widened further.
“Look out!” she screamed, but I was too slow to react.
The broken bottle came down, slicing my face, just below my left eye. I cursed and hissed at the sting as a fiery heat throbbed and the blood began to pour. It hurt like a bitch, and I expected a trip to the emergency room was in my near future.
Someone—some guy I didn’t recognize—grabbed Seth, holding him back and forcing the broken bottle from his hand.
“You wanna take care of him, Soldier?” the guy asked, and it made my skin crawl that he knew my name and I barely even recognized his face.
I laid a hand over my cheek and pulled it away to stare at my blood-soaked palm. “Holy shit,” I muttered, shaking my head before looking at Seth and asking, “What the fuck is wrong with you, man?”
His eyes reflected a rage that threatened to pierce my soul as he snarled, “With me?! You fuckin’ attacked me out of nowhere, you asshole!”
I thrust my hand toward the girl, frozen and terrified of what was happening in front of her. Terrified of what had almost happened.
“You expect me to just stand back like all of these other pieces of shit while you fucking rape someone?”
“Rape?” Seth snickered, rolling his eyes. “I wasn’t fucking raping her. She wanted it.”
I looked at the girl, noting now that her hair was the softest shade of brown I’d ever seen. Like a teddy bear. Warm. Comforting. Almost familiar in the way it begged to be touched.
Like Sully.
“Did you want it?” I asked gently.
She shook her head rapidly, and I looked back at Seth, scowling.
“She’s fucking lying!” he spat, his eyes now on her.
I knew a liar when I saw one, and she wasn’t it. I walked over to the girl with the soft brown hair, noticing the way she stiffened as I approached.
“How old are you?” I asked quietly, too hushed for the others to hear, while my eyes fell upon hers.
God, they were so green and vivid, and my soul jerked restlessly, as if trying to rid itself of the confines of this body in this fucked up life. Desperate for something better. Something more vibrant and alive, like the emerald sparks glittering in this girl’s eyes.
“F-fifteen,” she answered in a small voice, yanking her gaze from mine to study her hands, clinging to her skirt.
“Fifteen,” I repeated slowly, allowing the word to sour against my tongue before I looked over my shoulder at Seth, still being held by the guy I didn’t know, who apparently knew me. “She’s a fucking kid, you asshole.”
Then, I took her carefully by the wrist and instructed her to come with me. She trembled under my touch, and goose bumps broke out along her skin, but she didn’t protest or pull away. She did as I’d asked, and it irked me to the bone that she did it all so easily.