“Is that needle sanitary?”
He laughs. “Does it honestly matter?”
To a drug addict… no. But to me…
“I guess not.”
“Good, now give me your arm.”
I can’t even look. Not when he ties the rubber band around my arm. Not even when the sting of the needle sinks into my vein. I block it all out, refusing to look. Refusing to recognize what I’m doing by giving it life.
It only takes a few minutes for the numbness to soak in. Then the euphoria follows, my lust building.
“Damn, that’s nice.”
Jericho grins, shooting himself up with the same needle. “The high is what gets me every time.”
“Now, about payment?”
I hand him the hundred in my pocket, which he greedily takes, before making his move, boxing me onto the mattress, so I’m positioned underneath him.
His lips feel like sandpaper as they cover mine. The stench coming off him is revolting, his hands leaving little smudge marks on my skin as he starts touching things he shouldn’t.
But I block that out too.
I block everything out.
Even when my clothes are stripped off and I’m laid back down on his bed, I let the high take over, refusing to wake up from this nightmare and realize it’s real.
Chapter Seventeen
Poppy
(One Year later)
Taking a deep breath, I move my hand over the fogged-up glass, staring at the girl on the other side, the familiarity gone, the pain still lingering. Glimpses of the girl I used to be peek through the darkness, but the decay has fully taken over, replaced by the pinpointed pupils, pale almost translucent skin, and eyes so hollow you’d think they were void of life.
And maybe that’s what I was. A zombie walking on Earth in the shell of a girl who once had promise.
“Yo, Poppy, you ready?” a girl named Gina shouts from the stall in the bathroom we share. I somehow found myself running around with a one percent motorcycle club called the Raging Misfits. I followed Jericho here, and after he sold me off to their President Warden, he took off. Now I’m what they call a ‘club bunny’ a girl that spends her time spreading her legs for whatever member that decides to take interest in her.
It’s not the life I expected to have, but they feed my habit, gave me a roof over my head after I lost my apartment and myparents disowned me, providing me with a family and support system I didn’t have any more after Pippa died.
Hell, nobody’s heard from Amber in over a year, and from what I’ve heard, Eddie and Rich up and left Reno, just like I did, finding a home in Fernley on the other side of town. They don’t know I’m here… nobody does, and I prefer to keep it that way. I’ve cut myself off from that part of my life, embracing the harder and edgier Poppy that I always wanted to be but never had the guts to become. Until now. Now I feel invincible. I’m protected and loved, even if I have to do fucked up disgusting things to stay here.
“We really going clubbing tonight?” I question, just as she comes out of the stall, rocking a skirt that barely covers her ass, and a tank that’s all tit and barely any shirt.
“We need to get out more. Besides, it’s Warden’s birthday, and he’s throwing a big party. It’ll be fun.”
She adjusts her shirt, so it barely covers her nipples, pops her lips in the mirror, then turns to me, frowning a little when she realizes I barely tried.
“Oh no, we’re fixing this mess,” she exclaims, pulling out her makeup case.
“I thought I looked okay.”
“You’re representing the club, Poppy. You need to look hot. I’ve overheard some of the guys talking, and they aren’t exactly thrilled with how much you’ve changed this past year. You’re too thin, and you’re starting to get the pick-pox all over your face.”
Frowning, I glance back at the mirror, eyelids sliding shut in defeat. “I’m sorry.”
