CHAPTER 1

I am silently walking on the road side while getting lost in thoughts. I just finished my class and it was almost ten at night.

When will I ever have a good night's sleep in my life?

Since I entered the hellish college life, I never got to experience eight hours of sleep again. The longest sleep I could get was only four hours.

I wanted to sleep so bad already, but I just can't. I still need to go directly to work right now. I still had a seven hour shift to fill in for tonight until tomorrow. And I needed to add two hours of overtime for extra money.

I need to buy a lot of things for our school projects so I need to work my ass off.

My workplace was only ten minutes away from my school. When I entered the back door, I saw my other co-workers getting themselves ready to work tonight.

"Good evening, Rica. Hurry your ass, our shift will start in ten minutes." One of my co-workers slash schoolmate said.

I just forcedly smiled at her and went to my own locker. I grabbed from my backpack my work uniform and put my backpack inside the locker and went to the bathroom to change my clothes.

It didn't take long to finish. I went outside and started working. Tonight, I am assigned as a customer's assistant. I take orders and give bills.

I hated it when I would be assigned in this position because there are Karens in every table that would go sarcastic at you and would sometimes yell at you as if you ruined their lives just because you couldn't give them another free sauce.

The heck is happening to this society.

The first two hours passed by with minor problems and I couldn't be more grateful for that.

Until I decided to excuse myself for five minutes to do my business in the comfort room. Someone barged into the exit door before I could even reach the comfort room.

It was my friend slash blockmate. She's wearing her usual sexy outfit covering only her sensitive parts. She's sweating and the makeup on her face becomes messy.

"The heck happened to you?" I asked in a worried tone.

She locked the door before running towards me.

"You need to help me!" She said.

"What? What happened?" I asked.

"Just hide me, okay?! A pervert guy from the bar is after me. We need to hurry!" She was already shaking my hands.

We heard a sudden loud banging on the exit door and we both went panicking.

I grabbed her hands and dragged her inside the storage room for kitchen materials

"Stay here." I whispered and blocked the door from the outside using a large cabinet for kitchen knives.

I then composed myself and unlocked and opened the door. I was greeted by a drunk man looking messy with his business suit.

He was slightly stunned to see me.

"Excuse me, sir, but if you want to have your order, kindly proceed to the entrance door. We don't serve food at backdoors."

"Shut up, b*tch!" He suddenly pushed me aside and started roaming around.

I tried stopping him. "Excuse me, sir, you are not allowed in here!"

But, he didn't listen to me and that gives me the hint to ask for help. I called for my manager and the big-body build guard. They immediately came to rescue.

"Excuse me, you are not allowed in here!" Our manager called him out, but the man didn't listen and just continued destroying everything he saw.

And that gives the guard the signal to grab him by hands and lifted him. All the man could do was to struggle because his strength is nothing compared to him.

I watched the guard throw him on the pile of garbage and yelled at him not to come back or else he is going to break every bone on his body.

The manager came to me. "Who was that?" He asked, I could hear anger in his tone.

"I didn't know, sir. He just came banging the door and started looking for something. I told him to go to the front door if he wanted to eat something." O replied.

The manager let out a deep breath. "Clean this place. I'll temporarily handle the customers."

"Yes, sir." I slightly nodded my head.

He then left the room and the guard followed him after he double locked the exit door to make sure that drunk man wasn't going to come back inside.

When I made sure that they were all already gone, I went into the storage room and pushed aside the cabinet.

"Is he still here?" She immediately asked after I opened the door.

I grabbed his shoulder. "You b*tch! You better leave right now before my boss sees you. You just made me clean the mess that man made. Hurry! There's another door outside."

I dragged her into the other exit door where the man who was after her couldn't see her.

"Go b*tch! You better run for your life before he decides to get up!" I exclaimed to her and she started running.

If I wasn't just afraid to lose my job, I would let her stay until it's time for me to go home so I could make sure she will be safe.

But, all I could do right now is to pray for her not to see the man on her way.

That b*tch just didn't know how to learn her lesson. She's been in a situation like these a hundred times and it would always be me whom she kept getting involved with her misery.

She knew pretty well that I would help her anyway.

I locked the door and started cleaning the mess the man made.

After that, I cleaned my hands and went out to continue my work.

Five hours passed.

And just as I thought the last minutes of my shift would be normal, I heard the entrance door open and saw the last person I wanted to see before I die.

He didn't notice me and just casually sat on one of the vacant tables with his three other friends. I was the only available one to cater them and so I didn't have the choice.

What are they doing here at this hour anyway? It's already dawn. Oh wait, I know, they probably just finished playing with prostis inside the bar.

After cleaning the table I was with, I went back to get a mini tray and a note to get their orders. I actually don't need the tray, it's just in case they tried harassing me, I have something to hit their faces with.

I gathered all the strength I still has in my body after a draining day and went to their table.

"Can I take your orders, gentlemen?" I almost puked at myself after I said 'gentlemen'. These men ain't no gentlemen. They are most likely a bunch of stupid monsters.

They all looked at me including the bastard slash my perverted cousin.

"What a pretty lady like you have?" One of the men asked and I could hear that there is a double meaning with his question.

"It's all on the menu in front of you, sir." I responded with a sarcastic tone which made his other friends say 'boo' to him.

I saw how his face went pissed, but I ignored him.

One of them started saying the orders which were good for the four of them.

"How about we asked you out, pretty lady? Just for a night." I stopped from writing when I heard the devilish voice from my cousin.

I got goosebumps. I wanted to hit his face with the tray I was holding, but I stopped myself. One more word from him and I'm going to destroy his face.

"If you no longer want to order anything, I'm gonna go get your orders. And by the way, I don't date academically stupid bastards." I said before leaving their table and I heard them loudly exclaim 'boo' which caught the attention of the other customers.

I felt the deathly stares my cousin was giving me. I've been afraid of him all my life. But, now, I am not going to give him a single chance to do what he did to me five years ago. And I am not going to let him disrespect me in front of people, especially his friends.

A tear started forming in my eyes when a memory I was trying to forget came crashing inside my head. But, I stopped myself.

I was m*lested when I was fifteen years old by that man who's also my cousin. I wanted to have my revenge so much, but in the right time, I am going to make him pay for what he did.

I'm going to make him and his father suffer from what they did to me. They are going to suffer just like I did.

The day workers started coming inside. I decided to give one of them the orders coming from those bastards since my shift is finally done.

After that, I changed my clothes and didn't wait for my other night shifter to finish changing clothes and went out before them.

The taxi fare just raised again due to the rise of gasoline prices so I decided to just walk until I get home.

After twenty minutes of walking, I finally arrived at the cheap apartment I am currently staying in.

When I got inside, I turned on the lights and saw my friend who ran to me tonight laying on our double-deck bed. She didn't even change her clothes.

She must be too tired to do so. I picked up her blanket that fell on the floor and covered her exposed skin.

I noticed a bruise under her lips. I let out a deep sigh and decided to put my bag on top of my bed and grabbed alcohol and cotton buds to treat her bruise.

I bent down and started treating it. And she didn't even notice that I was doing it to her lip.

We are both born in an underprivileged family. We met when we were both freshmen with the same college program. We became friends and later on, we rented the same apartment room.

We have a lot in common. We both are under scholarship and are doing great in school. We are dean's lister. And we both work during the night for our allowance and other school expenses.

The only difference is, she is willing to use her body just to finish school, while I cannot take that kind of job.

I have trauma in men so, as much as possible, I don't want to get too close to any of them. I'd rather work my ass off with a small income.

I couldn't blame her though. That kind of job offers a huge amount of money and we both need to be practical to survive.

Just for the past two years of being together, we've been with each other surviving everyday of our life.

It was only me who knows that she works in a stripping club. If the school finds out, they are going to kick her ass out. And I won't let that happen.

I put a bandage on her bruise and she is still deep asleep. She must have been too tired.

We always have sanitizing alcohol, cotton buds, and every medicine we need because Alliyah, my dorm mate, mostly has bruises on any part of her body whenever she gets back from work which all came from the men she was with during the night.

Some of the men are just violent.

I stood up and changed my clothes and went up to bed. I set my alarm at nine a.m. since we still have class at ten.

I immediately fell asleep when I felt my body hurt and tired.