Paper Trails 2 | Draft

7.

"I see humans, but no humanity."

*****

Somehow I managed to end up back where I started. Back where Cherry started. Some grand event—an auction for the rich and wealthy and that of the like. Though I couldn't really be surprised. These are the kind of people I always ended up around.

I just didn't know what Raven would be like surrounded by people like this. She was too...Raven. That wasn't a bad thing.

This is the kind of placed Milan took me to.

Granted, Milan and Raven are worlds apart. Two completely different people.

Milan was good at blending in, good at pretending she was one of these people. And she was a bitch.

Raven on the other hand wasn't a bitch. And she looked uncomfortable. She looked around awkwardly. She didn't belong here. One glance at her and you'd know that. She didn't have their exuberance.

She had to be drunk go reach their level of self-assurance.

She was fine in a club where all she had to do was smile, hand out drinks, and listen to people's problems.

But this wasn't a club. This was a benefit and we were surrounded by people who burned money like cigarettes.

It was different for me, though. There was a time when I thrived in these crowds. Of course, that was Cherry. But Neila could handle this too. I could slip on a smile, walk up to any guy in this room, and get him into bed by the end of night. And come morning I could be gone with his money in my bra.

Still, it was weird being here. Seeing people like this again. I'd gotten used to being with people like Raven, normal people with normal amounts of money. People who didn't live in five million dollar mansions.

Raven looked around, her eyes scanning the room. "I don't see him."

I tucked my hair behind my ear, my eyes shifting from person to person.

"Who?"

"Tony. The guy who—who invited me?"

I glanced at her. "Relax."

For a moment, I was taken back to when it was me in her shoes. Me, uncomfortable and unknown. Milan excreting confidence. Milan handing me a little baggie so I could do coke lines in the back. Telling me to relax.

"I look like a whore."

"You are a whore. That's the only reason we're here tonight."

"These people are all rich?" Raven's voice broke me from my thoughts.

My eyes drifted to a few of the women by the bar, looking around the room with hungry eyes and itching hands.

"No," I answered. "Not all of them."

She nodded, but didn't say anything else. Sighing, I wrapped my hand around her wrist and pulled her to a corner where we could talk. I'd seen Raven nervous, but not like this. She was so intimidated by all these people.