Carter's | 18+

Learn From Each Other

"When you started this, how old were you?" Carter had every right to ask me whatever he wanted, curiosity killed the cat yet he was right in front of my eyes.

"When I started what, drinking white chocolate?"

"I meant-"

"I know what you meant, I'm just busting your balls, I was sixteen."

"Sixteen."

"Mr.-"

"Carter," I corrected her.

"Carter," smiling, "my time is not cheap, and neither is my sleep."

"I won't hold you too long, I just needed to hear your voice so I didn't fall asleep on the road." She didn't say anything for a few seconds and the silence was deafening, "Did I say some-"

"No that was fine, it just stunned me, you sounded genuine."

"I was being sincere, so I'd hope that is how it would come across Ms. Valenti," I didn't know what to say but I felt like I needed to if she wasn't, "do you mind indulging me, I had someone look into you I hope you don't mind too terribly. With my line of work it's become a necessity, I was notified you left home at fourteen, why so young?"

"It seems you aren't too shy in regards to questions."

"Sometimes it's good to be straightforward instead of beating around the bush."

"That's true, I had an unfortunate childhood, I left home when I was fourteen, I made sure I went to school and liberated myself as soon as I could. I met these girls, they were prostitutes. One of them she took a liking to me said I reminded her of her little sister. She made sure the other girls left me and my things alone and helped me until I was nineteen. I've been around this lifestyle since I was fourteen but-"

"If it isn't too troubling-"

"It's not, I just have only told one other person this story." She took a few moments to gather her thoughts, "One day she didn't show up home, I had work, unlike the other girls my jobs were different than theirs. It was midnight by the time I got back to the house, I hit the streets looking for her, no one could give me anything except this black SUV they'd seen with tinted windows. I began searching for it because in that neighborhood only two groups of people had cars like that. Gang members or rich Johns trying to stay low-key, they didn't understand that it made them stand out. I looked in her books she had a customer at five, his name and ID was scribbled down in the books."

"Jobs?"

"Pixie, that was her name, wouldn't let me start doing what they were doing so she pulled double customers and made sure I went to school and I had gotten a job as a waitress. When I got back and I made sure the house was right. I cooked and cleaned, Nate didn't like me because I wasn't doing what the other girls were but Pixie always defended me. She paid for me, she told me that uh- I couldn't do what they did that my innocence was too good for something so harsh. One day she sat me down and told me that not everyone had the heartless jobs of easy money and that it looked glamorous when the cash came it but it had a lot of hurdles. Wednesday came around, they found her in the East River," I could tell she was getting choked up, I could feel it.

"You don't have to continue, it's okay, we can talk about something else."

"I'm alright," she gave me a look reassuring me that she was genuinely alright, "it was then that I lost faith in the justice system, they knew Pixie but they didn't care enough to figure out what happened, just to put two and two together. I anonymously gave in a tip by calling using a pay phone to the precinct. I dropped off Pixie's book with the car description scribbled in there and they found the guy. He was some big shot corporate exec with enough money to get a slap on the wrist charge and then be home in six months, he vanished after they released him. That night I- I um went back to the house to see the girls raid Pixie's stuff. That was the first time I'd ever gotten into a fist fight with the others. I packed up Pixie's stuff along with mine and disappeared again. I was nineteen when my boss at my waitressing gig caught me sleeping in the diner and let me live with him and his family. One day he had company over and while his friends got stumbling drunk one of them made a pass at me and offered me four Gs to go on a date with him. It wasn't long until word got out and I had to leave again, the bossman's friend's wife tried to attack me and run me over twice. With the money I had made I had moved and gotten a shitty apartment with a few roommates. I went clubbing with them twice and one day a girl asked me to cover for her saying I could keep the money and that some geezer wanted my company is all. With the money, I had gotten from taking over from there and getting a few regulars. I put myself through college by getting a retail day job part-time and going out on "dates" at night. The rest is history."