Sugar Mommy

Chapter 23

Sugar Mommy

Chapter Twenty-Three

Ally Black

"What?!" I exclaimed, looking at Steven in disbelief. 

"You don't have to scream," He muttered, scratching his ear. "But, yes. You heard me right."

"I don't know what's crazier, right now." I scoffed. "The news that Haru is alive, or the fact that you want me to seduce him."

"I am not very excited about this either, Ally." He leaned back on his chair. "But, it doesn't matter."

"I need you to do this for me," He gave me a sharp look, sending a chill down my spine.

He had never looked so serious.

I clenched my fists, nibbling on my lower lip in frustration as I returned his stare with equal frustration.

"Sire," The door slowly opened, revealing the figure of one of Steven's many men. "He's awake, but there's no sign of the Young Maestra anywhere."

"That's expected." Steven nodded, catching me off guard by his sudden casual tone, before turning towards me and gesturing me towards the room Haru was in with his eyes.

Scoffing, I finally convinced myself that understanding Steven Johnson is one of the things I cannot achieve.

Storming outside the room, I made my way towards the room where Haru was kept. Opening the door, I forced out a smile and entered the room.

Haru's eyes snapped towards me and slowly grew wider. "A-Ally?"

"Yeah," I said, slightly sheepish. "It's me."

"W-What're you..." He fumbled with words. "What am I-- Where are we?"

"We're in Steven's place." I sat at the edge of his bed, smiling warmly at him.

He paused.

"What happened to me?"

"Well," I played with my hands fumbling on my lap. "You've... You've been dead for a little over a week, Haru."

I observed him, waiting for him to... I don't know, maybe jump up all surprised and everything. I mean, how would you react if you woke up for what you thought was a long nap and one of the first thing someone says to you is that you've been dead for more than a few days.

I couldn't relate, and just the thought that someone could-- the thought that Haru could, was toe curling to me.

I don't know, maybe a little pitiful too.

But no, Haru didn't have that reaction.

In fact, he seemed quite calm and understanding. Kind of like the reaction you'd expect from your friend when you just vented your drunk Friday night experience to them. Whatever so, he was very collected.

"So," He gently picked his nail in a distracting manner. "What about-- where is Dolores?"

I took in a breath.

I knew this was coming sooner of later, but I still wasn't able to web something up to comfort him when, in reality I didn't know where the fuck Dolores was, myself.

~~~

"Steven, you have to listen to me!" I roughly yanked him by his arm to stall his journey to his bedroom. "You can't just ignore me!"

"Ally, not now." He took his arm back from my grasp. "I can't do this right now."

"You have to!" I exclaimed. "You can't throw me the responsibility to seduce Haru, then ignore me like I don't even exist!"

"Look, I am not denying you anything. I will sit you down and I'll go through everything you want to talk about with you soon, but not now." He looked at me over his shoulder.

What?

I looked at the man before me in disbelief as I watched him enter his bedroom and close the door behind him with a light 'thud.'

Why is he so burnt out all of a sudden?

I stared at the large closed door in front of me, internally scoffing at how well-matched it was to how Steven was behaving at this point: all closed up.

Tired and frustrated, I made my way out the mansion, hoping to throw myself onto my bed and wash away all my feelings into sleep, but of course: Ally Black relaxing is absolutely bullshit to everyone.

As I opened the door to my apartment, my eyes immediately lock on Oliver's form, resting on my couch with a bottle of vodka in his hand; eyes trained on the TV playing in the living room.

𝙸𝚗 𝚏𝚞𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚗𝚎𝚠𝚜, 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙿𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚕𝚎𝚏𝚝 𝚗𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝚐𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚊 𝚏𝚞𝚕𝚕 𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚔 𝚘𝚏 𝚞𝚗𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚋𝚎𝚝𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍 𝙻𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚜. 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚞𝚗𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚒𝚜 𝚜𝚊𝚒𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚎 𝚒𝚗 𝙵𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍...

Sighing, I approached him and took the vodka from his grasp, chugging it down myself.

Oliver's eyes observed me as I drank down the remainder of the liquid.

"Never thought you'd be into the news." I remarked, finally dropping the now empty bottle onto the couch.

"Well, people do weird things behind closed doors." He gave me a calm response. "You know, how you've been hanging out with peculiar people."

I let out a breath.

"Please, Oliver." I whispered. "Don't do this right now, I'm exhausted."

"Exhausted?" He scoffed. "Of what? Taking care of Haru's dead body? Hanging out with Steven? I don't know, fucking that Denver dude?"

"No, it's not that. I just--" I paused. "How do you know about Steven and Denver?

The entire room was silent.

Pin-drop, silent.

Then, he laughed.

A loud, hearty laugh.

"Oh, Ally." He chuckled, standing up to tower slightly over me. "Precious, precious, Ally." His hand slowly raised to caress my cheek before I slapped it away. "After Haru was shot dead, the news was taken in as a national level threat, because university students were endangered. We're the future of tomorrow, baby. Nobody would want us to be endangered, right?"

"Cut the bullshit and fucking tell me how you know." I clenched my fists, subconsciously holding my breath in anticipation of I don't even know what.

"Baby," He began, he lips tilting into a smirk. But despite his expressive face, his eyes held no emotion whatsoever. "You've not attended school for almost two weeks. Gossip spread like wildfire and some girls stalked a guy down... I believe his name is Damien?"

I felt the color drain from my face.

"Ally, haven't you realized it yet?" Oliver scoffed at me disbelief.

"The entire school knows, darling."