Sugar, Spice and Anything But Nice

Date

Hope

For some reason I felt more free during my week at snob school. It wasn't hard to guess why that was the case. I hadn't had any clients in a few days and I quickly adapted to the steady routine of going to work. The horrendous dull hours I'd experienced at first were now replaced by a sense of peace.

The only thing that bugged me was my relationship with my brother. I didn't really get why he couldn't accept why I was doing this and the lingering feeling in the back of my mind telling me he was doing something secretive made me second guess everything he said to me.

It's not like I was upset with him, I just couldn't fathom why he kept things a secret from me when we never did before. We'd always been a good team and we'd always trusted each other. I still remembered a few years ago when people would call me names at school because my dresses were short. They didn't know it was because I couldn't affort newer ones, they just figured I liked dressing like a slut.

I'd told my brother about this and jokingly told him if people would call me a slut, maybe I'd better just be one. He replied that sluts were cheap and I'd better earn some money from it. Before we both knew what was happening, we were actually having a serious conversation about my contributions to the family. Financially, things were getting pretty tough and I'd told Dean I wouldn't mind doing it and even though he didn't like the idea at the time, he respected my decision to do so.

The fact that we could talk about prostitution like that just made it even more confusing as to what he wasn't telling me. It was either something about the cartel or this was about our mother. I'd told myself I'd give Dean the benefit of the doubt. He'd tell me when he was ready.

"Ella." Someone tore me away from my thoughts. I'd grown accustomed to the fact that people started calling me Ella and I found myself responding to the word as if it was really my name. "Your mind was far away from this school." I looked up to the boy who'd said that.

It was the same guy who had approached me during my first day of work. My eyes went from his smoothly shaved jaw all the way to the styled mahogany hair on the top of his head. "Oh, it's mystery guy." I replied.

"Mystery guy?" He repeated, the corner of his mouth raised slightly, telling me he liked the way I'd addressed him.

"You wouldn't tell me your name the first time we talked." I explained. I hoped he'd go to his class soon because I was heading to the ladies room.

"Neither did you." The guy shot back.

"You know my name." I narrowed my eyebrows, not knowing where he was going with this.

"I know more than just your name, Hope." He told me slowly but firmly. My eyes shot up to his immediately. How did he know? I quickly grabbed him by the hand and pushed him in the first empty class room I spotted.

"How much do you have? Do you wanna do it now or after school?" I recited the familiar questions like a robot.

"Let's have a little chat first." He calmly replied and took a seat on a desk. I mimicked his behavior.