"I don't see what the big deal is Isis." I explain to her as I watch her pace and forth around the room.

"Of course you don't Darrien. It's more to this lifestyle than you know." She says finally stopping to explain to me.

"I'm nineteen. I'm a big boy." I stress to her.

She turns to look at me, and stands there in thought. "Okay, You're right." She comes over to the bed and sit down next to me. "I'm going to let you make your own decisions. I just want you to know this lifestyle that you're joining isn't gonna be easy. It'll have moments that'll make you feel dirty or disgusted with yourself."

I stop her. "No offense but you don't have to explain that to me. I have been through things that make me understand my worth."

"Well then..." She stands up. "I guess that's the end of this topic. Moving on, Daddy Mac has set up a room for you here. It's on this floor, so you know it's one of the best."

I smile and nod.

"One more thing. You only saw me as much because I had devoted my time to get you settled, since you're grown, and understand the life, I can get back to my duties. So you will be seeing me less." She says smiling and I frown in disappointment.

I stand up from the bed, and get my bag to move into my new room. It was seven or so doors door away from Isis's room. I look around the room, and it was nice. The room was Oreo themed. The bed was black and white, the carpet and drapes were black, I had a big TV, and a walk in closet.

"You know where the bathroom is right?" Isis asks snapping me out of my daze.

"I know..." I respond turning around to look at her, but she has already left the room.

It's official. I'm alone again. I throw my bag on the bed, and I sit down. I feel the lump on my butt from my earnings at the club, and I stand up to pull it out. I throw the money on the bed, and just glare at all the money. It didn't make me feel good about how I had to earn this money, but it was a way of living. I sigh and begin to take off my clothes. I look over at the clock, and it's 12:01am "Merry Christmas to me." I mumble to myself as I lay back into my new bed.

-----------------

The next morning I wake up and stretch. The the sun wasn't out so the day looked gloomy. I had a window in here so I got up to go look at my view. I look out the window, and I see almost everything. I see the cars, the people, and the whole city life. The reason why it looked so gloomy outside was because of the heavy rain pouring down. I walk away from the window to sit back on the bed.

Someone soon knocks on my door, and I jump at the suddenness. I get up from the bed, and walk over to open the door. I am faced with the boy who looked to be about fifteen or sixteen.

"Merry Christmas..." He says looking up at me.

"Merry Christmas. Do you want to come in?" I ask him, opening the door a bit wider.

He nods and enters the room. I close the door behind him and turn to face him.

"This is a nice room." He says looking around

"Thanks."

"So you're new here?" He asks.

"I guess you can say that."

He looks me up and down and giggles.

"What is so funny?" I ask defensively.

"You're kind of naked." He says and I look down noticing I was only in my underwear.

"Sorry." I smile embarrassed and walk over to the bed putting on my joggers and shirt from yesterday.

He sits down in the chair next to my bed, and I sit back on the bed.

"If you don't mind my asking what is your name?" He asks.

"My name is Darrien." I answer. "And yours?"

"My name is Vontez."

"Nice to meet you Vontez. Say, how old are you?" I ask.

"I'm 17." He responds back.

"What are you doing here?" I ask jumping the gun...

"Do you want go shopping?" He totally disregarded my question.

I look back at my clothes and squint in disappointment. "Yeah. I could go for that." I turn back around and he's already standing up.

"Meet me downstairs in an hour. All the stores aren't gonna up until twelve." He says to me as he walks to the door.

I watch as he leaves and I lay back. It's 11:00a.m right now so I should be getting in the shower. I sit back up, grabbing my towel from the side of the bed, and I stand up. This was going to be a long day. While I walk down to the bathroom I had to stop by Isis's room. I knocked on her door, and she opened quickly.

"Sorry to bother you Isis. You didn't tell me which bathroom station was mines."

"That's because you're sharing with me." She laughs a little.

"Oh okay. Sorry to interrupt your sleep." I say and she laughs again.

"Honey I wasn't sleeping." She says moving her head to the side to where I could see a body lying in the bed.

"Oh. I. Oh" I say and she rolls her eyes.

"See ya kid..." She closes the door and I walk off to the bathroom. Once I get in the bathroom I see plenty of other hookers whom I hadn't had the pleasure of meeting. They really didn't do anything but eye me up and down. I shrugged it off though. Most of them didn't pay me attention.

I walked straight back to Isis's stall, and turned the shower on. The water was immediately hot, so all I had to do was strip and get in. The water felt wonderful. I always enjoyed my baths or showers back home. Baths were always a release for me when I wanted to wash the filth from my skin. I didn't make the shower a long one seeing as I needed to be out and dressed soon.

I wrap my towel around my body, and run back to my room. The cold air was ruthless. I open my door, and Daddy Mac was sitting on my bed. I tense up, and stand still in the doorway.

"Come in and shut the door." He motions to me and I follow orders. "Come here." He says licking his lips.

I slowly approach him and once I'm close he pulls me near by my towel. I gasp at his action. He scans me up and down, looking at me like prey. He rubs his hand up and down my thigh, but not going too high. "I heard you disobeyed orders yesterday." He says still examining my legs.

"I'm sorry Sir. I was just try to---"

He cuts me off with his finger on my lip. "Call me Daddy Mac." He says with a side smirk.

"Daddy Mac...." I clear my throat. "I needed money and I was just wondering around."

"How much did you make?" He asks looking up at me.

"I made $1,302" I tell him honestly.

He smiles and licks his lips. "How much do you think I should take?" He asks rubbing his thumb in circles on my moist arm.

My nervous twitch on my eye starts jumping again, and I start to studder. "How m-much ever y-you want Daddy Mac." I say terrified.

"Nah, I'm not gonna take your money." He laughs and stands up. "You keep whatever you make. If I feel like taking something. I'll take it." He winks and exits my room.

I couldn't help but feel nervous. That's the same behavior Jalonni exhibited before his attacks. Why couldn't he have just left me alone? I don't think I would ever be able to stand up to Jalonni. I'm not a strong person in that manner. It's years later and still I'm scared to face my past.

After he leaves I glance at the time and it's 11:36am. I scramble over to the side of my bed, and grab my last outfit. I pull out the Army Joggers, Black V-Neck, and I'll just put on my Jordans with it. I take the towel off, and finish drying off. I grab the lotion off the dresser, and lotion up my body. Afterwards. I put on my clothes. Once I'm done I quickly walk out of the room, and head for downstairs.

Once I get downstairs I see Vontez talking to some guy.

"Please just let me have this day to myself." He cries trying to get away from the man's grip.

"I come to spend Christmas with you and you want to leave. Who is he? Huh? Bitch tell me." The man starts shaking him and I run down the stairs.

"Vontez..." I call out and the man pushes him into a wall and takes off.

"Are you okay?" I ask helping him up.

"Yeah.." He nods rubbing the back of his head.

"Who was that?" I ask.

"My John. He's convinced we are in a relationship. I met him on the corner 2 years ago and I kept seeing him since." He starts to dust himself off.

"So you met him when you were 15 and how old is he?" I ask pointing behind me.

"He's 27." He says flatly like it's not a big deal.

"Wow." I say in shock.

"Can we just go?" He asks and I nod. We exit the building and head down the Alley to the main road.

********

"How does this look?" I ask coming out of the dressing booth to show him.

"I like it." He smiles.

"Okay. I'm gonna buy it." I say excitedly. I walk back into the dressing room and take off the outfit. I picked out seven outfits at this store. I bought mainly Joggers and shirts. They are just comfortable. I also went to the shoe store and bought some Brown Timberlands, and some all White Nike low tops. After I take off the outfit I gather up my things and walk back into the dressing room entrance.

"You ready?" I ask Vontez as he goes into the booth to try on his outfits.

"Yep." He stands up and takes four of his outfits into the booth. After about two minutes he comes back out and shows me his first outfit. It was a long white sunset tank top, and some light blue denim jeans.

"You like?" He asks.

"Yes. I like." I say, clapping lightly for his style.

He smiles and goes back into the dressing room. He tries on the other five outfits he wanted m, and I liked them all. I noticed he likes to show his skin in his clothes which is okay with me. I have scars so I can't be clothed less for too long. He comes out with his last outfit on, and it was a grey crew neck shirt, and some white skinny jeans.

I give him the thumbs up, and he nods in approval. Once he walks back in something caught my eye. I turn to look out of the dressing room area and I saw him. The man who put me in the hotel and took advantage of me. It hadn't slipped my mind that I may run into him again. He was with a woman and a child. A baby? Lamont used me. I thought he was this genuine person, but he never was genuine with me. Vontez comes out of the dressing room, and grabs my shoulder causing me to jump.

He places his hands up and backs up. "It's just me."

"I'm sorry." I fake smile.

"It's okay. Are you ready to go?" He asks holding his clothes in hand.

"Y-Yeah." I nod and grab all of my clothes.

We walk up to the cash register to pay for our clothes. "Did you find everything okay?" The cashier asks Vontez, smiling at him flirtatiously.

"I did." He smiles back.

I nervously look around and shake my leg as my twitch is going crazy. Vontez pays for his clothes and the boy bags them up. I get up to the cash register and the boy just stares at my face while ringing up the clothes. "Are you okay?" He asks as my twitch has gotten worse.

"Yes. c-can you please hurry." I tell him as I look around again. Vontez was looking at me worried.

He rings up all my clothes and finally tells me the price. "That'll be $243.23." I dig in my pocket to pull out my wallet.

"I'll pay for it.." That all too familiar voice that I was try to avoid says.

He reaches over, and hands the cashier his credit card. The boy rings it up and hands me the bag. I grab it and quickly try to exit the store, but Lamont grabs my arm once we are outside.

"So you just leave me and not expect me to find you?" He questions holding my arm tightly.

"You're hurting me Monty." I wince trying to pull back.

"You think I'll let you disappear on me like that again? Huh?" His grips gets tighter.

"You have a wife and child in there. Just please let me go." I cry.

Vontez suddenly hits him upside the head with a brick. He lets me go and I fall to the ground. Vontez picks me up and we begin to run with our bags in hand. "Come on...!" He yells as we take off down the road. Cars are honking at us, and people are stopping to help him. Where was the help when he was hurting me? We reach a cut and we take off through it once we hear police sirens. We both stop to rest on a wall behind some building.

"Thanks..." I say breathing out heavily.

"Never speak of it. Come on I know a way back home." He says and we begin to walk. I can only imagine how much more craziness is yet to come.