Impress Me Not: Neon Underground

Chapter 69

The memories of being a teenager weren't the best. Melvin hated talking about it to anyone. All it did was reopen scars that had taken so long to seal up. The last thing he wanted was to let someone else know about his past. But, he supposed he was going to have to tell Mateo eventually. The man had been curious about him from the moment they met. This might not have been a good time to go into those emotions that still came from those memories, but Melvin wasn't too sure how much time he had. It was better to get it over with while he could.

His father didn't tell him that his adopted daughter didn't know about him. Melvin just knew that he wasn't going to tell her. He had disowned Melvin, pretending that he didn't exist from the moment he turned eighteen and graduated high school. Not even his mother had tried to reach out to him since. He was sure she felt the same way. All of the things his father had called him, his mother had too. They were the perfect couple because they both seemed to have the same viewpoints on everything.

And now they had their own happy family. Melvin wished the best of luck to their new adopted daughter. She was going to need all the luck she could in order to survive under their roof. He didn't care about meeting her. He had been estranged from that family a long time ago.

"What did he say?" Mateo asked. He had been so clingy from the moment Melvin had gotten back home. It was adorable, even if he was annoyed that he had gotten caught with his last pack of cigarettes. The way he curled into him was its own medicine, calming him down enough to go through these nightmares without too much pain.

"He was trying to get me to make amends with him so that my cousins would want to visit their daughter," he said. "He still thought I was a monster for doing what I do. He just thought he could pretend and make me think that everything was all okay again."

He didn't quite understand why Vlad had refused to meet with his father and his new family. Melvin had thought to ask, but he was afraid to bring up gossip about it. Vlad had been nice enough to help him even when he had gotten home from the hospital. He just didn't think the man liked him enough to start drama with the member of the family on the other side of the country.

"I'm sorry, Mel," Mateo hugged him. His arms had been around him from the moment he had been in bed, and Melvin would never complain about his company. It was lovely just how gentle his touch could be.

"Don't be," Melvin said. "He hasn't spoken to me since he kicked me out. And I doubt he's ever going to change his ways. Besides," he shrugged. "I wound up with a good life."

"What happened while you were on the streets?" Mateo asked. He had been so curious about Melvin's story. It wasn't the first time that someone was, but it was the first time that person was so adamant about it.

"I didn't stay on the streets for longer than a day," Melvin told him. "I still had friends I could go to. After a few months of couch surfing, I wound up signing a contract with an older woman that wound up helping me get to where I am today."

"What contract?" Mateo asked. "Like, for a business?"

"You would think that," Melvin chuckled as best he could. His throat was still sore from all the coughing he had been doing. The hospital had prescribed him cough medicine while they waited for the results to come in. So far, it was helping him. "It was a slave contract."

"A what now?"

"A slave contract," he repeated himself, remembering that well. "For one year, I was to be her slave. There was a monetary reward when the year was up."

"That's weird," Mateo furrowed his brows. "What did you do?"

"I was her submissive," Melvin answered. "I stayed in the background when there were visitors, and listened to her every command."