I Fake That Smile

Chapter Nine

Chapter 9

Melissa disappears almost every single night, it used to just be on Wednesday but now it's become this continuous thing where she's gone right after supper and then comes back at around ten in the evening. The odd time she'll leave before supper which means I have to make the food for me and Logan which is a pain in the ass.

I couldn't for the life of me think what she could be doing at that time of the night, it's not like I haven't seen this behavior before from her though. When she lived at home she was constantly sneaking out of the house and visiting her boyfriend or her friends, however this seemed different. She would probably tell us she was going to visit her friends because it's really not a big deal. A boyfriend though, I could maybe see that being a thing but I really doubt it.

Logan and I had been discussing it every time she's been gone and we finally devised a plan to ask her about it when she got home. We sat on our asses for the majority of the evening watching our new Netflix obsession because Logan claimed that watching it was a good way of making sure we didn't miss her coming home. I happened to agree with him.

When the door opened and Melissa walked in Logan paused our show and we both turned to look at her. "What?" she asked slightly irritated.

"Where do you keep going?" Logan interrogated her.

"It's none of your business," she explained glaring at him.

"But what if something were to happen and we didn't know where you were so we couldn't get a hold of you? Then what would we do?" he continued. He stood up and I followed him so we were standing in front of her, both of us with our arms crossed.

"I have a cell phone," she explained. I noticed the roots of her hair were starting to become noticeable, showing off her pale light brown hair that she had complained about for as long as I can remember.

"What if it's dead?" I chimed in.

"It's hardly ever dead," she gave me a bitchy look and I frowned at her. "Now get out of my way, I'm tired and I want to go to bed."

Logan sighed stepping out of the way to let her past, I frowned at him for letting her go so easily.

The next morning I went to school, Joey was flirting it up with Tessa, lately this had started to become a thing and being that these two were about the only friends I had and they happened to be flirting really fucking sucked. That's literally all they ever did when we all hung out. I ended up getting up and going and sitting with Nikki which was really unusual because we weren't that great of friends, more or less acquaintances. I think Tessa and Joey were a little offended by that by I didn't really care they were barely even talking to me anyway.

We ended up not talking the rest of the day which I couldn't care less about, I didn't really need friends all the time I could survive on my own. I had always been the weird kid no one talked to at school growing up, I think it's because people were always a little weird when it came to my family. At the time I hadn't really known why but looking back at all the times people wouldn't let their children come to my house, or the times I wasn't allowed to go over there; it all makes sense now.

When I got home later that night after I had gone out job searching for a while, and dropped off a few resumes at places (via walking, I might add), I found Logan sat on the couch waiting for me. He jumped up when he saw me and yelled, "I have the greatest plan!"

I dropped my bag on the floor by the door, something that I constantly annoyed Melissa with before I stared at him dumbfound. What dumb idea had he come up with now, if he made more brownies I swear to god I was going to kill him. "Did you make brownies again?" I asked.

He chuckled showing his charming smile. "No, I didn't but if you want me to –"

"No!" I cut him off.

He laughed again. "No, I actually got this great idea while I was at work today," he stated.

"Woah, you actually thought about stuff while you were at work?" I pretended to act really surprised.

He gave me his middle finger, followed by a dirty look. "Melissa comes home for a bit and then she leaves so we'll just follow her and see where she goes."

I thought about this. "If she found out she'd be fucking pissed," I said. He shrugged. "But you know this is the only way we're going to find out."

"So you're in then?" he grinned.

I nodded. "Yes, I am."

It was time to see what Melissa was hiding.

Later in the evening we waiting and waited until Melissa finally left the apartment. She had waited a little longer than she usually did before she left which I thought was kind of odd, maybe she thought me and Logan would leave somewhere and she could sneak out or something.

Anyway we waited until she had pulled out onto the road before we both booked it outside as fast as we could go to Logan's car. Both of us jumped in, it kind of felt like we were in a racecar movie, except our car was super crappy.

We followed her down the road for a little while just going straight, trying to remember which ways we turned and what streets numbers we were on. We drove for at least twenty minutes before Melissa pulled up at this huge house. It was oddly shaped, and white, with a nice wrap around porch, and a metallic blue Charger parked in the driveway. There was a man just heading out of the house at that moment, he waved at Melissa and then got into his car. The garage door opened and he drove it inside. It stayed open and Melissa followed him inside. Then the door shut.

Logan and I exchanged a look that I couldn't even describe, it was pretty much like 'what the fuck?' We sat in silence both of us contemplating what she could be doing at this house. The man was old, at least thirty years older than Melissa, he had greying hair, and he was tall with a small belly that stuck out, he was wearing jeans and a dressy shirt –

"Oh my god," I said putting my hand to my mouth.

"What?" Logan said, eyes wide in panic.

"What if she's selling her body to him?" I asked.

Both of us just stared at each other in complete shock, that's honestly what it had looked like. An older man living alone in a nice big house, he had a nice car and was dressed fancy. He fit the profile of looking for hookers.

"Bella, I think there's something you should know," Logan said.

"What?" I asked looking at him. "I'm right aren't I? She's a hooker? Or a girl looking for a sugar daddy, right?"

"I don't know but I do know that when I first met her it was when I got a job at a bar with strippers and prostitutes, and she was one of them."

^(.Rk