Two years ago
‘Hey kid,’ said the voice from the other side of the hostel room, in the usual mocking tone that I had come to dread.
I sighed as I turned to look at my roommate, Marianne Weston. A blonde with a figure like a model’s, tall and slim, who hated me for no reason that I could fathom.
Except perhaps that I was so different from her—I came from a small town and was not wealthy, perhaps?
As always, she was lounging on her bed, looking like a million dollars, a cigarette dangling from her perfectly manicured hand.
*
Right, let me introduce myself: I’m Proserpina Martinez, from a small town named Annabel’s Run, and I had to literally scrape through to earn my scholarship to get into one of the best universities in the neighbouring big city of Charlesville.
My roommate’s parents were rich, and that would be an understatement. They fawned on their beautiful, spoilt daughter, lavishing her with presents that were ridiculously expensive, which she discarded as easily as used paper.
Unlike the unabashedly lucky Ms. Weston, I had never seen my father and did not know who he was; my mother had waltzed out of my life when I was three years old. She had gone on a date with a truck driver, promising to be back in a couple of hours.
She never returned.
The only wise thing she had done was to leave me with her sister, my Aunt Beth, before she disappeared. So my uncle, Stan Lawford, a pillar of society, never made me forget what a burden I was on him and his brood of six daughters and how lucky I was to have a roof over my head and food on my plate. Overwhelmed by guilt, I tried to ingratiate myself by taking on the majority of the chores in the house and was soon managing the cooking, for Aunt Beth had a large family with a new baby almost every year.
I was not overly blessed in the looks department either; short and rounded, too busty by half, as my aunt used to sigh, and with my mane of dark chestnut hair, I knew I was no beauty. My mouth was too full, my brown eyes too large...
Working odd jobs, waitressing, babysitting, anything and everything I could do, I had made the money for my Greyhound ticket when I was sure of my scholarship.
I had fled from the pocket-handkerchief town of Annabel’s Run after high school, with a scholarship, no less, which had left my sour uncle amazed. When girls my age were going out on dates or laughing with their sweethearts, I was swotting in the library or scrubbing pans in the diner I worked at in the evenings after school. I had big dreams of getting a job; my childhood fantasy had been finding my mother, and maybe my father too.
But with age comes maturity and I soon figured that neither of them was ever going to return.
*
So I set off with my meagre money and some cash which Aunt Beth had furtively pressed into my hands, my eyes full of dreams.
But the reality in the big city was a lot worse than I had expected.
My roommate, Marianne loathed me. She kept making snide remarks, although I had tried my best to be pleasant when I was allotted the room with her in the college hostel, eager to blend into this new world and make friends. She hated that I preferred to study, making it impossible for her to bring her string of boyfriends around and spend the night with them. Now I huddled on my bed, reading, trying to ignore her evil looks.
I did not fit in with the other students either; with my rather limited and old wardrobe, I was often the butt of snide jokes though I ignored them for the major part. You get to be that way after a lifetime of being jeered at.
Yet my roommate’s continued ridiculing of me stung. I was desperately lonely and with no friends to go out with, I felt miserable and unhappy.
That had been the norm all of last month but this evening, she looked at me, a glint in her lovely blue eyes.
“Wanna hang out with us this evening, Martinez?’ she drawled in her Texan twang.
I sat up, my mouth falling open in shock.
Later on, I was to kick myself for not suspecting something. I should have guessed that she meant no good but then, I was just too glad to be accepted by her, for I was lonely and simply did not fit in.
’Yes,’ I said eagerly and saw the look of devilish glee on her face which she quickly hid. That should have warned me but I was too happy.
‘Then let’s get you dressed,’ she said, a sly smirk on her face, her eyes moving dismissively over my plump frame.
“Uh…where are we going?’ I asked in a small voice for I had no clothes in any way comparable to the Texan girl’s lavish wardrobe.
She shrugged her shoulders and said mysteriously,’ Somewhere you have never been to, baby.’
*
Seven hours later, we were before a large building, dark and foreboding, almost hidden away in an alley.
As we stood before the large doors, I trembled. It was just the cold, I told myself but I was terrified. A feeling of unease pervaded my body and I could not shake off the disquiet that had been with me all evening.
My dress, or what there was of it, was a lacy red thing that barely covered my full breasts and clung to my wide hips lasciviously. It came up to my knees but that was because it belonged to Marianne who was a lot taller and slimmer than me. In fact, I had had to squeeze into it! Marianne had done up my eyes and the smoky look made me look like a different person altogether, someone who was promising a lot…As for my mouth, she had colored it red, a soft, sultry red and I shuddered. If Uncle Stan had to see me, he would drop dead with outrage, I thought, holding back a hysterical giggle.
Swallowing, I asked in a small voice, as I shifted from foot to foot, balancing precariously on my high heels,
‘Ummm…just where are we, Marianne?’
“Shut the f*ck up,’ she hissed as she stepped up to the door and pounded on the massive knocker.
The doors swung open and a man with beefed-up muscles and gelled black hair, scowled at us, his gaze softening as he looked at Marianne.
’We have a pass,’ she purred and he blinked before nodding his small eyes skimming over her proffered hand. His salacious eyes went over me and I shrank, hating the look in his eyes; it made my skin crawl but I moved forward, obediently following Marianne inside as the door slammed shut, closing out the world.
The inside was a total surprise.The walls were draped with lengths of cloth, deep red and black and I felt a twinge of unease. From the distance, for we were in a dimly lit corridor, I could hear the sound of music, muted but definitely loud, and I trotted along the dimly lit corridor, behind the girl who had brought me here, although she was barely acknowledging me now. We passed a few men well dressed and sophisticated-looking, who glanced at me disdainfully, as though I was trash. I felt their eyes linger on my breasts and jogged forward quickly. Marianne was waiting impatiently at a door and she flung me a cool look as she entered, pushing past the bouncers who stood guard. Instantly, we were assailed by music, the smell of sweat and smoke, the fragrance of assorted perfumes and alcohol, and the sounds of…fists on flesh? I almost drew back in horror. But my companion, devious as she was, must have sensed my fear. She turned and gripped my wrist, her nails digging in as she hi
We entered a small cage like an elevator hidden by heavy red drapes that whisked us upstairs. All the while the man kept me imprisoned, his large hand trapping my arm painfully behind my back and I breathed shakily. I glanced fearfully at the man and his companions, with their blank faces, who were behaving as though it was normal for their boss to whisk a girl into an elevator and drag her to some unknown destination. Suddenly, we were upstairs and I blinked, completely disoriented by the change of scene. The entire corridor we had emerged into, was carpeted richly, in dull browns and maroon, the wood-panelled walls giving it a classy finish. Doors led off from the corridor but every wooden door was shut. The silence was also a sophisticated one, I thought hysterically as he dragged me along. It was entirely different from the raw, almost violent atmosphere of the large fighting club we had just left. The sights, the smells of that virile, primitive place were preferable to this co
Aunt Beth had always said that I was bad at telling lies. The man moved closer and I saw that his nose had been broken at some point in time and had healed but not too well. It gave him a frightening look, the thin, well-defined lips that were set in a firm line, those grey eyes that looked as though he could see into my soul. The scarred and pitted face. Ugly but commanding. His presence was unsettling; I wanted to keep my distance but like a moth, I felt drawn to him. Breathing shakily, I stepped back again and came up against the wall as he prowled closer, crowding me in. he was not very tall, but definitely bigger than me. But it was the breadth of his shoulders, the way he was built like a bull, that made me hold my breath. He smiled, a sinister, humourless twist of that beautiful mouth. And then he slammed his hands, palms first, on the wall beside my face and I jumped as I gasped, turning away, squeezing my eyes shut. His breath, whiskey-laden and hot, was on my face as he
I was dimly aware of him pulling off my dress; I heard it ripping as he impatiently jerked the zipper off. With his mouth moving over me, driving me crazy, I was barely sensible to his movements as he guided me to the richly carpeted floor. I pulled his shirt off, running my hands over his surprisingly well-muscled chest. Rising up over me on his powerful arms, he breathed heavily, shuddering as he stared at my full breasts, then he shifted, his large hands kneading, teasing, pinching my nipples... I moaned, arching towards him inspite of myself. It was as though I had no control over my body, a body that was crying to be possessed by this stranger, with his experienced hands roving all over my body, finding the soft, hidden spots that even I had been unaware of. He slipped his clever fingers inside me, making me cry out in surprise, in wonder. There was a low grunt as he felt the creamy wetness in me and I blushed as his pale grey-blue eyes blazed with passion and he captured my mo
The sneering tones made me want to sink into the earth and disappear.When he turned to me, his derisive expression made me want to cover myself in shame. Instead, I pulled on the crumpled and torn dress which lay on the floor nearby and covered myself willy-nilly with it, I sat up, hugging my knees to my chest defensively. Rearing my head proudly I met his flinty gaze bravely. Aware that my long hair was hanging in a tangled mess on my back and that I probably looked like a woman of the night as my uncle would have said, I answered, lifting my chin haughtily,'One… boy.'His eyes glittered and it seemed to me that for a minute, I saw a flash of curiosity on his mask-like countenance which was gone so quickly, I thought I must have imagined it.Then he nodded curtly as though he was winding up a business deal and to my horror, he said tersely,' I'll get my men to drop you at your home.'His words left me stunned. I gaped at him in astonishment.Was that it? We had just made the most
When I got back, stumbling up the stairs and entering the room, I felt a wave of relief wash over me as I saw that my roommate, Marianne was nowhere about. I knew that I wanted out; I did not want to see her again. Like a woman in a frenzy, I packed my bags and rushed out of the room, Luckily, except for my books, I had very little by way of luggage. So by 9 am, I was in the local diner, peering at ads for rentals, or adverts seeking roommates.By the time I was on my second coffee, I was feeling exhausted and almost tearful. I had taken a hurried shower before leaving and I felt as though everyone in the room must know what I had been up to the night before. Every time I moved I felt the ache in my sex, the tenderness that filled me with a longing which I clamped down with haste. But I knew I was wildly, uncontrollably attracted by the man who had claimed my body the previous night.Although all I knew was that he worked at the Minotaur, the meanest Fight Club in town, and his name w
Two evenings later, Tanya came into my room with Rachel in tow." Listen Barbie, "she said in her usual blunt way, [she sometimes called me Barbie, though I could never figure out why], "listen up, we're going to a party and you're coming with us."I began to stammer my refusal but Rachel came forward and hugged me, whispered loudly, "Marianne the Snob will be there too and we need to show her what you are really like, right? ‘I hesitated. At some point, I had explained that I had fled from the hostel, because of Marianne. she added, squeezing my hand,’We got this, girl.’The thought of how I had ended up on a stranger's carpet, doing unspeakable acts of passion, made me blush furiously. Marianne was the last person on my mind now.The girls, however, would not take a No for an answer. I tried to put my foot down but Tanya was adamant.'Jazz's rugby team has won the championship, 'she explained. 'It is a big thing; Jazz is in line for a scholarship now. Anyways, the owner of the tea
I shrank back in distress, trying to come to terms with this bolt from the blue; also trying hard to hide behind burly Jazz as Lucien Delano began to speak.That heartbreakingly familiar voice from that single night of passion, raspy and gruff, thanked the people who had turned up to wish him well. He made a joke, and everyone roared with laughter, but I wasn't listening; something about an injury while “f*cking a woman” which had somehow led to his being hurt in the leg, which was why he was limping. At any other time, I would have winced at his derogatory words regarding the woman but I was too traumatised to think lucidly. The drumming of the blood in my ears shut out all the sounds around me.He can't see me, I told myself, and I peeked from behind Jazz. With a shock, I realised that I was hungry to catch a glimpse of him. Of those wide shoulders and the powerful, muscled chest, of that hard, square chin with a dimple…And with it came the thought swift and painful, was he married