“People don't adopt older teenagers. We will just have to wait to age out of the orphanage and fend for ourselves.” A boy my age used to tell me every time a kid got adopted from the orphanage. It was a hard pill to swallow, but I knew he was right. We were one of the older kids in the orphanage. No one wanted a battered and moody 15 year old to take home and care for. They wanted cute little babies whom they could show off or maybe love at some point. I was neither cute nor loveable. I had been in the facility for more than 2 years. No one even looked my way when they were picking out kids to take home, let alone feeling the need to provide me with an actual home.I didn't want this life for me. I knew I deserved better. I refused to be alone my whole damn life and be left alone to rot. I was sick of my only three pairs of pants, my one pair of torn shoes. I was sick of being a kid without a name, without having someone to have his back in difficult times. I was tired of the life I
Willow *** "Fuck Mr. Cruz. Fuck him." I yell out as I slap my hand against the table, no doubt it's loud enough to gather people's attention from around. Bella, my friend from the office, smiles sheepishly at the people around to apologize on my behalf, making me roll my eyes. Who's gonna tell her that we are at a place where drunk people throwing a fit is a common occurrence? "I know you are frustrated and drunk but you gotta keep your voice in check, willow. " She chides me as if I were a kid. "I'm not drunk." I shrug my shoulders before gulping down the whole glass of whiskey in one go, trying to debunk her accusation. "See? I can still take 5 more of these." I slur, already seeing everything in front of me double. Everyone in the office knows that I'm a great drinker, perks of being raised by an alcoholic mother, I guess. Owen, our friend from the IT department, never forgets to bring up the fact that I drank down almost every bottle of wine at the 50th anniversary of
My phone starts going off for the hundredth of time. However, I still can't find the courage to take it. “Noooo!” I whine to myself, hiding my face with my blanket. “Why did I do that?” I start thrashing my limbs around on the bed as my skin crawls, remembering my action of last night. It's been minutes since I woke up. My treacherous mind was generous enough to flood bits of images of last night's incident. Please, God, why don't you just turn me into a hippopotamus right now? I need thick skin so that my embarrassment can't pierce through it, and I don't have to suffer. “Please God! Just vanish me into the dust! Please! Or just let me take my embarrassing existence back in the form of a sperm so that I can restart my life once again!” Hiding my face on the pillow, I plead. “What's gotten into you? Should I call for an exorcist?” My little sister asks. I find her looking at me with her judging eyes when I look up. How could I forget that this little spawn of the devi
I throw a fake coughing fit, showing how sick actually I'm. To top it off, I shake my body in a way to make it look like I'm shivering in the cold. Sheepishly, I turn my eyes to the nonchalant man sitting in front of me without showing any sign of care. Either he is a heartless jerk, or my acting isn't fooling him. Well, fuck him. I've won an award for my spectacular acting skill in elementary school for portraying the feelings of a dying tree to perfection. He is just a heartless jerk. I add another coughing fit to catch his attention. I've known him for 3 years. I know he is a persistent son of a bitch. But who knew he would turn out to be so shameless to abuse my calling bell to the extent that it forced me to open the door and invite him inside. “Cold and cold drinks don't go well together, now do they?” Mr.Cruz looks at the clear plastic cup that's holding my cola with a smirk. I shrug my shoulders. He is getting on my nerves. What the fuck does he want? “Didn't kn
I snort my coffee at him, getting off guard by his peculiar demand. Unimpress his grandma? Mr.Cruz couldn't get any weirder than this. Now, I'm questioning my sanity. Is it really taking place or am I just having a very vivid dream? So vivid is the dream that I find Cruz's hard eyes narrowing on me as he cleans his dress shirt. Shit! Did I snort that loud? He throws a nasty glare at me and it helps my mind to reach a conclusion. It can't be a dream. It's happening and I don't know where it's going. “Are you kidding?” I ask after a while, finding it hard to wrap my mind around his bizarre request. “Does it look like I'm kidding?” He grits out, taking aid from his handkerchief to get rid of the coffee stains that I left on him. “Well, you don't look like a mad man either but you are.” I wanted to say but I held myself back. “You don't look like the biggest jerk because of your plump and kissable lips. Your lips look like they want to kiss me but they aren't doing that.” my horny mi
“What's he doing here?” Bella asks, pointing his finger at Owen and glaring at me. Giving her a sweet smile of mine, I tag at her hand before replying, “Shopping, Bella. Now, don't waste time and choose something sexy for yourself.” She tugs back at my hand and stops me from going forward. Glancing at her with an irritated look, I ask “What?” “It's Victoria's secret. So, first of all, I don't know what Own is doing here and second of all, what is it about? Why are we really here?” I roll my eyes at her seriousness. Maybe if she were as foolish as Owen, it would be easier to tag her along with all of my mischievous deeds. However, she is too good of a girl to be doing that. To justify her reaction, I need to blame myself for not laying out the whole deal in front of her. “To answer your first question, Victoria ain't got no secret greater than Owen here.” I point my fingers at Owen who is busy choosing lingerie in the lingerie section. “Hey, girls!” Owen throws a bright smile at
“Cheers!” smiling widely, I click my glass with a shocked Owen's and an unenthusiastic Bella's. “What's wrong with you guys?” I ask, setting down the glass of champagne which probably worths more than my salary. “What's wrong with us?” Owen looks flabbergasted, covering his mouth with his hand with has a cute barbie bandaid on with the curtesy of Bella. “As far as we are concerned, What's wrong with you?” He continues. Rolling my eyes at his exaggerated concern, I take a sip of the alcohol. The thing is, I couldn't do it alone. I didn't know how to play the part of a sugar baby alone. I didn't know how to put a dent in Cruz's bank account because God help me! It takes more than a hundred chanel bags for that to happen. This man is loaded. I mean loaded with billions. So, I had to drag my friends along with me and buy them anything that their heart desire. I know I may pay for it later on. Cruz won't be too kind to me afterwards. But again, he didn't put a limit for me to use.
I stand patiently as the cashier packs my stuff lazily, her eyes tell the story of her untold suffering. I can feel her pain. Working for assholes is never easy. A phone call interferes and pulls me back from thinking about the situation that I'm in. Taking a deep breath, I answer the phone. I know what will follow right after I take the phone call. It's never fun talking to a drama queen, especially when the drama queen is your mother. “What did you say to your sister?” She demands to know as soon as I answer the call. No hi, no asking how you are. Not that I expect that from her. I've learnt long ago to keep my expectations low when it comes to my family. “Well, hello to you too, mother.” I didn't intend to sound so sarcastic but I couldn't hold myself back.“Don't take that tone with me, young lady. I didn't raise you to talk to me with that attitude.” I bite my tongue down, controlling myself from saying something that I will regret later. I wanted to say that it isn't her wh
“People don't adopt older teenagers. We will just have to wait to age out of the orphanage and fend for ourselves.” A boy my age used to tell me every time a kid got adopted from the orphanage. It was a hard pill to swallow, but I knew he was right. We were one of the older kids in the orphanage. No one wanted a battered and moody 15 year old to take home and care for. They wanted cute little babies whom they could show off or maybe love at some point. I was neither cute nor loveable. I had been in the facility for more than 2 years. No one even looked my way when they were picking out kids to take home, let alone feeling the need to provide me with an actual home.I didn't want this life for me. I knew I deserved better. I refused to be alone my whole damn life and be left alone to rot. I was sick of my only three pairs of pants, my one pair of torn shoes. I was sick of being a kid without a name, without having someone to have his back in difficult times. I was tired of the life I
Everything is quiet except for the footsteps of Spencer. It sounds heavy against the floor, matching with the hammering beat of my heart. I found myself to be totally incapable of producing even just a single word after his ambiguous confession. He didn't stick around to oggle my reaction either. His hands are trembling as he brings them to his head to run them over his messy hair. The light is on right now. The room appears older than the building altogether as if someone forgot to take care of this room. But it isn't true. It is clean, obsessively so. However, it is old with the paint falling off the wall, the furniture looking ancient, which only consists of a bunker bed and a small closet.“Come on, take a seat.” He pats the place beside him as he takes a seat on the bed. It's like Spencer is a time bomb now. I'm afraid to approach him because I'm not sure when he is gonna explode. One moment, he is looking like the most pained person in the whole world, and the next moment, he i
One look at my frustrated face and back at Spencer's horrified look, Mrs. Summers realises that something isn't right. Worry lines occupy her face as she exclaims, “Oh good heavens! Did I say something I shouldn't have said?” I ease my shoulders and school my facial expression, flashing her a practiced smile and stepping two steps closer into the room, “ I just hope I'm famous, and not infamous.” Spencer clears his throat, trying to send a message to the old lady. However, she is too excited to interpret his message. Leaving his arms, she walks towards me, an amiable smile plastered on her face. “God no! This boy can never say anything bad about you. If he could-” “How about we stop talking about this topic?” Spencer meddles, the tip of his ears turning dangerously red. What the hell did he tell her about me? The way she is looking at me is like she is looking at someone she has always known and adored, making me hopeful. Not sure if that's how she is with everyone or it's becaus
I've known Spencer for more than 3 years now, working under his tight grip and demanding nature. I thought I had it all sorted out. I thought I knew everything about him. Turns out, I couldn't be any more wrong. The man I've subjected to scrutiny and baseless judgement just because I thought he was a spoiled brat who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and was used to having his ways, was far from the Prince I've imagined. “You used to live at an orphanage?” My voice is dry as I speak, eyes focusing on him only. He gives me a curt nod before his chest heaves with a sigh. He looks uncomfortable, out of place and out of control which seems to be bothering him. He looks me in the eyes before replying, “Not something you expected, huh?” As a reply, I just blink my eyes at him. What else was I gonna say to this vital piece of information? I and the other people who worked at his company knew nothing of it. Hell, no one seems to know about it because I haven't read any gossip about
For the entire ride, I sat perfectly still like a rigid wall, not even daring to blink. If I speak, it will be my loss. He knows everything that I wanted to keep a secret, that I needed to keep a secret. So, valuing the art of silence was my only option until he killed the engine and sat still on his seat. “We are here. I'm so sorry it took more than five minutes.” If he is being sarcastic, his tone isn't showing it. Giving him a curt nod, I unbuckle my seat belt and step out of the car without even looking where we are now. “What is this place?” I speak for the first time in a while, scanning the yard where children are playing and running around. There's a 4 story building just behind us. Spencer points at that for me to look at. “It's an orphanage. Little sunshine orphanage.” He says as if I'm too blind to read the big signboard that is hanging in front of me in bold letters. “Why are we here?” My curiosity resurfaces, pushing back the growing embarrassment that I was feeling
I didn't have a favourite coffee shop until I started running errands for Cruiz. It was sent from Heaven when I found a place that served coffee which cooled down his temper and soothed my soul. However, I never mentioned this to him. I knew he would make me search for a new one just because I found this place good. He was as sadistic as this. However, when I catch him sitting at the said coffee with an untouched cup of coffee sitting in front of him, I now realise that he did notice I liked it, he did notice when I bought coffee from this place every morning. I take a minute to take a few deep breaths before I step towards him. He seems to be lost in his own thoughts as he continues to stir the spoon in the cup absentmindedly. Why did I come, you ask? Truth be told, even I can't give you the answer. All I know is that I decided not to show up initially, telling myself that I didn't care. But then I spent the entire day staring at my clean apartment and the letter. The next thing I
“Willow.” I hear someone call me while shaking my arm. Letting out a groan of annoyance, I turn on my left side, trying to get some sleep. My head feels heavy and it's aching like there is no tomorrow. However, that's not enough to drag me away from my beauty sleep.“Damn it! Wake up.” This person is as stubborn as me. “Fuck off, Cruiz.” I yell in a sleepy tone, not really realising who's name I just took. I don't remember much about last night, but I can't deny that I remember the bit where Cruiz was there, doing what I don't know. I don't even know if it's a dream. Seeing how stubborn this person is, I'm sure it's him shaking my arm which feels like a massive earthquake. I'm aware that I need to know where I'm and what's happening, but just by thinking about it, I'm feeling tired. All of a sudden, I feel myself being kicked out of the bed. Although the force wasn't much behind the kick, I fell face first on the cold floor. It didn't only knock sleep out of my system, but also my
“Willow, are you okay?” The concern in his voice adds salt to the injury. I don't reply to his question, nor do I look around to see the baffled reaction of the people. Just a second ago I was declared a drunkard who was just blurting out nonsense and in the next second Spencer comes parading around, debunking the accusation the bartender kindly set for me. “Why the fuck do you care?” My reply comes out harsher than I intended. He doesn't shake away the concerned look from his face as he approaches me. It just pisses me off more. He is the reason I'm a mess. He is the reason why a bastard named Ronny Kingston thinks he has something on me. But the next time I look at him, I'm ashamed to admit that a little tear escapes my eye. “Why do you care?” I ask again, softer this time, my voice cracking. I don't know if it's the fact that Spencer doesn't care about the fact that we are making a scene in a crowded bar or it's the fact that I'm surprised that he is standing in front of me, g
I turn back to the dimpled man and give him the biggest grin I can muster. “Do you want to screw the playboy billionaire’s secret girlfriend and get on his bad book?” I watch the man contemplate his options as he takes a gulp of his Martini. “I love leftovers.” He smirks instead of coiling or turning away from me. Even though I am drunk out of my mind, I recognise the urge to smack someone when the right time comes. A sour expression engulfs my face, my fists turned into balls. How dare he belittle me like that? The loud murmuring around me after my little announcement starts to be fading away as my attention is turned to him only. There is no doubt that I'm fuming in anger right now. I bet my nostrils are flaring.He shakes his head as he laughs, “I'm sorry if I came across wrong. But I meant this.” He takes a hold of my glass and takes a deliberate slip as his eyes drink me. Setting the glass on the counter, he steers closer to me, bending down a little so that he is whispering