Million Dollar Baby (complete)

Plunging in the deep end

"You're sure you want to do this?" My best friend's truly feminine voice asks me for what seemed like the millionth time since I walked through the doors of the nightclub in which he worked.

"No, I'm not sure, Gabe, but I have to. So, stop asking me before you make me change my mind and I go running out of here like the chicken shit we both know I really am," I snapped at him.

He never took my dramatics too personally because he gave just as good as he got.

"And you're really willing to just give up your V-card to a total stranger?" His incessant questioning was really beginning to grate on my last nerve. But, I knew it was just because he loves me and wants to be sure that I've considered everything. We had gone over all the pros and cons with a fine tooth comb and I really don't think we missed anything, but the unknown is what worries me the most.

"In exchange for my mother's life? Seems like a small price to pay," I said as I followed him down the dark corridor that led to the underbelly of the club where he worked. That's where my life changed. It was the point of no return.

My mother, Renee, was terminally ill. From birth she had always had a weak heart and it had progressively gotten worse over the years. She nearly died while giving birth to me, still she bounced back from that and numerous other operations and countless procedures. There was no bouncing back now. Her light was fading entirely too fast.

She was so weak and frail at this stage in her nearly non-existent life that my father, Charlie, had to quit his job to stay home and take care of her. I know what you're thinking, and yes, Hospice would have been a pretty good idea...But, my father couldn't stand the thought of a stranger taking care of his beloved in his place. There just was no convincing him otherwise. So, he took the task upon himself. Of course quitting his job meant that he could no longer carry health insurance. With my mother's illness and my father being out of work, we were forced to live off the meagre savings account he had managed to tuck away. So, purchasing health insurance was a luxury my parents could not afford.

Renee's illness had progressed to the point that a heart transplant was essential in order for her to continue living.

I've watched my father day in and day out. Physically, he was losing weight; his primary concern for his wife overshadowing his own care. And the shadows and bags under his red eyes made it obvious that he wasn't getting as much sleep as he should either. But, he always put on a brave face for my mother. She had accepted her imminent demise, but my father...he still held out hope. The problem was that his hope was diminishing bit by bit every day. It was killing his very soul to watch her die a little more each day. I think a piece of him went with every little piece of her.

I had walked in on him one night after my mother was fast asleep. He was slumped over in his recliner, head in hands and shoulders heaving from his disheartened sobs.

No one was meant to see him that way. But I did.

I had never seen him so despondent. There was just this nagging feeling that tugged at my heart constantly that told me that when my mother dies, my father wouldn't be far behind. He would literally mourn himself to death. There was no doubt in my mind. I had to do something. I was desperate to make this better. To make them better.

Gabe was my best friend. My very flamboyantly gay best friend. I had always shared everything with him, so he was wholly aware of the situation. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and after seeing just how desperate I had become, he finally told me about the more scandalous business that was being conducted beneath the nightclub.

James, the owner of said nightclub, was what one might call an aggressive entrepreneur. I called him a blood sucking douchebag pimp, or Satan for short. Basically, he's running a slave trade. Now I know what you're thinking, but I'm talking about a different form of slave; a sex slave. Regardless, one is just as bad as the other in my book.