Dirty Little Secrets (RATED R)

7. Birthday Degree

I kept my mind blank as I made it into work, Parish and Jay was on clock once again, but I wasn't in the talking mood. I was too tired and void for much of anything. It was going to be extra hard to put on a smile and work for my tips today.

"Hey Dawny!" Jay greeted me while I quietly wrapped an apron around my waist, not looking up from my small task. It was just then did I noticed the light finger shaped bruises around the insides of my wrists, causing me to have a flash back of earlier today and last night.

"Hey," I mumbled back, shaking the dirty and exhaustingly dramatic images from my mind's eye.

"'Sup girl!" Parish said, her cherry oak eyes smiling when I looked up, but then her features lost their cheerfulness when she seen my swollen face.

"What happened?" She asked, her voice too low for anyone else to hear over the loud sizzling of Jay's inferno stove line.

"Nothing," I mumbled, not wanting to talk about it.

"Is it him?" Parish asked, causing me to frown my brow. I hadn't spoken to anyone about Dante, so how could she have possibly of known.

"What?" I feigned ignorance, feeling heat creep up the back of my neck.

"The man that came in here last night? Did he do this to you?" She asked me sincerely, gently taking my hands and turning them over, her thumbs smoothly stroking the bruises. For being only twenty three, she was very mature for her age and held a motherly tone of concern.

I shook my head, pulling my hands back away from her and wishing I would have worn multiple bracelets. Of only I could have seen it before work.

Her eyes widened as she took in my neck. She had a troublesome look about her that made me shuffle on my feet nervously.

"Oh my God, Dawn..." She whispered, leaning in. "Were you raped?"

Before I could help it, a loud snort came from me, and I actually chuckled.

"No! No, no, no, no. Just boy problems is all." That's exactly what he was: a boy. "I'm fine, really, you don't have to worry about it. You know how it is."

She nodded understandingly and silently agreed to no longer prod.

"Sooo," she drawled, a devious look flashing across her features. "I seen we're both off tomorrow and you're turning the big two-one!"

That drew Jay's attention as he suddenly appeared beside me, listening in.

"We should so go do something fun tonight since we both get off at nine!"

I shook my head, really not feeling up to it, but before I could decline her offer, Jay spoke up.

"I get off at nine as well." He grinned down at me from his towering height. "We can have a threesome."

Parish rolled her eyes. "In your dreams, Jameson."

I couldn't help but chuckle at the two as she slapped him on the chest, causing him to wince and wink at her. They were officially cheering me up without meaning to.

"But seriously," he continued, "we can take my truck."

"Please!" Laughed Parish, "we'd probably get pulled over. You do know it's illegal to steal Winn-Dixie buggies, and keep them in the bed of your truck for a week, right?"

"Wait, what?!" I couldn't help but laugh. "You have a shopping cart in the back of your truck?" I had to see it to believe it. "Just...why?"

"You know what it's like when you don't feel like taking all those damn bags out, so what the hell? Get it up and go." He grinned, and for the first time I noticed that light southern accent he held.