“So what do you do for fun, besides wearing masks on chats to cam girls?”
“There’s only one cam girl I talk to. I’ve never done this before.”
I don’t know why that makes my stomach flutter. “Why me?”
“We’ve established this already. You’re beautiful, and I enjoy talking to you, even if you’re not a therapist.” He lets out a breath, his gloved fingers tapping against his desk.
“You like big girls?” After doing this for the last six months, I’ve realised some men like a full-figured woman. Some get off on it even. I’m not opposed to guys wanting to chat with me because they have an attraction to bigger girls. In this society, it’s refreshing to find guys who like a big woman. Not everyone could handle all of me.
“You keep making girl plural.” He leans close to the camera. “I don’t like big girls. I just like you.”
My heart races in my chest, my cheeks burning beneath my foundation. "Thanks," I mumble, making myself comfortable on the bed. I have a feeling I’m going to be chatting with him for a while.
In my black pumps,I tiptoe around the litter and mess strewn all over the flat where my brother’s living. “What the heck happened here?” I wipe my palms over my blue tunic as if I can erase the germs from the door when I touched the wooden frame.
The strong, earthy aroma wafts in the air, assaulting my senses. I’ve been to Kane’s farmhouse enough times to know what home-grown weed smells like and this scruffy flat wreaks of the stuff.
The boy leading me through the squalor rubs his nose on his hoodie sleeve before looking around the room with droopy eyes as if he’s only just realised the place is a shithole. “Cops busted Jodie’s place last week, so we’re staying here, lying low for a while.”
He leads me into the kitchen. “Mate, some chick says she’s your sister.”
My brother spins around and steps away from a girl sitting on the counter, her pale spindly legs dangle in front of a cupboard with a missing door. I follow the lesions and scabs on her arms and don’t need to be a nurse to know she’s a user.
She stares at me with furrowed brows; her face covered in sweat, her hands shaking as she reaches for my brother, Ash. “That’s your sister?”
I don’t know her, but she seems to recognise me.
“Yeah, thanks for coming, Lil.”
“What the hell are you doing here? I gave you money to get your own place.” My heart sinks as I look around the place, fear that my brother’s using again settles in my stomach. “You promised me, Ash.”
“This is my place. I got a good deal on the rent from an old mate of mine.”
I take in the kitchen with chipped tiles and a rusty sink. “Some mate.” I huff. “I wouldn’t let a dog stay in this squalor.” Stepping close, I whisper to Ash, “I gave you money to get a decent place of your own. Not move the town’s addicts in.”
“Watch your mouth,” the lad who let me in says.
Ash runs a tattooed hand over his buzzed hair. “I’m just trying to help Jodie.”
Jodie leans over the sink and wretches, but nothing comes out.
“Is she withdrawing?” I look between the gaunt woman and my brother as he holds her knotted hair back from her face.
“Yeah. The cops busted her place last week. They took everything.” His voice cracks. “Including her son.”
She jumps from the worktop and brushes Ash away as she stumbles barefoot through the kitchen, bumping into Levi.
I shudder at the company my brother keeps. Levi’s been a thorn in my brother’s side and the ruin of him since we were teenagers.
Levi steps aside, letting Jodie pass, and smirks at me with a toothpick hanging from his mouth. His hands grip the door frame above his head, exposing his hairy armpits as if trying to display his masculinity, but all he exposes is the smell of stale sweat.
A bit of sick rises in my throat. “What the hell is he doing here?” I fold my arms across my chest, recoiling in Levi’s presence.
“I owe him, okay.” Ash’s eyes sadden and his shoulders deflate. “He’s lying low here for a while.”
“Good to see you, too, Lil.”
“Let me just check on Jodie.” Ash brushes past me in the small kitchen. “Back in a minute.”
