Beli'Eve' - Chapter 17

After a month of anticipation, Eve finally found herself walking in to meet her therapist. She'd completed her intake session a couple of weeks ago and she'd been waiting ever since. Nerves ran through her, causing a light sweat despite the cool air outside. Spooky season had come and gone and November was in full swing.

After checking in, she was taken straight back. Eve sat down, the oversized chair coming up to meet her in the unfamiliar space. The two large windows allowed warm light to pour in from outside, bringing a heat she hadn't expected. Something in her mind had always made her think that a therapist office would be cold and void of color. That and that there would be some monotone, unrelatable old lady that sat across from her. To her surprise, neither of those were the case.

She paused, taking a breath before she began with the fucked up story of her life.

***

The bar was dark, barely lit anywhere except for the stage. You could hear the slight buzzing of the fluorescent neon sign hanging on the walls. Each one depicted some form of alcoholic beverage. It smelled of sweat and old french fries with just a touch of cigarette smoke, and Eve found herself suppressing a cough as she took a few steps further in.

Her parents, on either side of her, were pushing her forward towards an older gentleman leaning against the bar. Eve shivered as the air conditioning kicked on somewhere from the back of the room. Somehow she was sweating at the same time.

As they got closer, Eve could make out more details about the man, mongoose, as if nothing else was fitting. His mustache was thingy and patchy, but he held it with pride. His yellow teeth clamped down around a toothpick and he twisted it around as he eyed the 14 year-old walk towards him.

"Vicky and Roy, it's so nice to see you. I can always count on you to bring me the good stuff, and it seems that this time is no different." The mongoose's voice was thick and raspy, and for a second Eve wondered where he could've gotten his accent from. She hadn't really gotten the chance to consider different regions before she was pulled from her thoughts. A clammy hand ran down her cheek, brushing some of her hair back over her shoulder.

"You keep your hands off of her, Dean, she's only 14" Eve's mom hissed, swatting away his lingering presence, "She's here to serve food, and beer if she has to. Nothing else."

Dean snickered, "Whatever you say, Vicky." and turned away, pulling the toothpick from his mouth as he thought, "I'll pay the standard rate and I want my order increased to weekly."

Roy's eyes grew smaller, his brow furrowing as he stepped forward, "Oh, no, you'll pay top dollar for my daughter, and you'll get what we give you. Understand?"

Another long, chittery noise came from the lanky figure, "I'm not seeing much in the way of benefits to me. Why would I let a child serve drinks and risk my merchandise unless I get something out of it? So what's it gonna be?"

"We'll increase your order, but she gets paid better than the rest. The cash is the only thing that keeps our supply up to meet your needs." Her mom spoke this time, her voice stern and fierce. A tone that Eve had heard way too many times as it was directed at herself.

"Deal. She can start tomorrow night."

***

"I can see how much of a burden that must have been put on you, especially at such a young age..." The middle-aged woman spoke, scribbling a few more notes before carrying on, "Why don't you tell me more about your childhood?"

"Oh trust me, I'm just getting started."

***

The cool air around her was almost worse than being outside, and she resisted the temptation to complain. The mid-winter wind cut through the trailer's walls like a knife through butter. But Eve knew that nothing good would come of any complaints. It was pretty standard for their heat to be out this time of year, as business went through a bit of a lul around the holidays, but this year's winter was proving to be one of the worst.

"Hey, mom?"

"Yeah, sweetie?"

"Loomy invited me over to her house to stay the night. Can I go?" Her voice was small as she spoke, not wanting to give her mom an excuse to say no based on 'attitude' or something of the like.

"Oh, I'm sorry honey, but I don't have time to take you over there today, Mommy's very busy."

"That's okay, Loomy's mom said she can come get me." Eve's eyes grew wide, hopeful.

Her mom hesitated, calculating different possibilities in her own mind before turning to meet Eve's gaze. "I said no, Eve."

"But I-"

Vicky raised a hand, causing the 15 year old to flinch, but no strike came... this time, "Don't be disrespectful. I need you home to help with deliveries this weekend. I can't afford to pay for all of the shit that you need so you need to pull your weight. Consider yourself lucky."

Eve knew that deliveries meant that she would be sent to meet sketchy people in dark alleyways to pass out their next fix and collect their money. Up until this point they had always been the ones handling everything- she was just along for the ride. When she was younger, she was even given the pleasure of it being called a 'family outing' for them all to spend time together, but that had ended a long time ago.

"I thought the money I made at the bar was enough..."

"Well, you thought wrong. We need you to do both. You can take the car downtown. I'll get you a list of customers and where to meet them."

"Mom, I can't drive..."

"Use the car, use your legs, I don't care how you get there. Make sure you're on time, though, you know they get cranky when they don't get their merchandise." Her mother turned, gathering various items from the table, "Who knows what they'd do to you."

"O-okay." Eve's voice wavered, tears boiling up at the thought.

Vicky turned back to face her daughter holding a handful of baggies filled with white powder, "Oh, you'll be fine. Here." Eve's arms were quickly filled with baggies of different sizes, and a list that seemed to go on for miles. "If you can finish that by tomorrow, I'll let you go to Loomy's for the weekend."

"Really?" The light returned in the young cat's eyes, rejuvenated by the thought.

"Really. Now go."

***

"It seems like your parents put a lot of responsibility on your shoulders."

Eve shrugged, her own parentification wasn't something new to her,"Yeah, actually, there's more."

"Oh?"

***

"Eve!" Roy shouted from across the bar, Dean followed close behind as they walked away from the back office.

Eve was hunched over, mopping up the mess of her table that had just left. "Yeah Dad?" She shouted back, peeking her head over the back of the booth towards the two men.

"Come over here dear. I've got wonderful news."

With a nod, she stood, patting her outfit clean of any grime and she padded over to them. "What is it?" Her smile was wide, in full customer service mode.

"You've received a promotion." Her father continued, buttoning up his suit jacket that had come undone.

Dean stepped forward, a sneer lurking on his face "Yes. It seems I'm short a girl and you seemed like the perfect replacement."

"Gir-" Oh. Realization crashed over her, taking her smile with it, "You want me to dance? I thought I had to be 18."

Roy glanced around, making certain that no one had heard, "That'll just have to be our little secret, now, won't it? Come on, let's go get you some new clothes so we can get you started right away."

"I still have tables-"

Her dad reached out, grabbing her by the wrist and yanking her towards the door, "They'll be taken care of."

"Ow, dad, that hurts!"

"Toughen up. Stop being such a girl about everything."

***

"That was the first night that I stripped and since I developed" Eve motioned towards her own breasts, "at such a young age, I brought home so much money that my dad wouldn't even consider letting me stop. At that point, I think I was making more than they were." She let out a light laugh, but there was pain behind it, unrecognizable to most.

"Your dad seems like he was pretty hard on you."

"Yeah, sometimes I would dream about having a dick because I thought my dad would treat me better." Another pained laugh.

Dr. Watson was undeterred, however, by her deflective humor, managing to come across as supportive without encouraging the comments. "So, just so I can make sure that I understand, you started serving at a club when you were 14, you helped deliver illicit substances at 15, and were forced to strip for adults at 16?"

"Yep." Eve said with some weird form of pride, playing her own game of 'how much can I scare my therapist?'

"It can be really difficult to get through things like that especially if you have little support and stability. While you were talking, I heard you mention a... Loomy? Can you tell me more about them?"

Eve's eyes lit up at the thought of her best friend, "Oh, yeah, it's Lumina.. Loomy's a nickname. But I wouldn't be alive without her."

***

"YOU DID WHAT?!" Her dad's voice seemed to echo off of the walls as he spoke, the beer bottle raised in one of his fists.

"Oh go fuck yourself, like you've never been with another woman!" Her mom's voice may not have been as loud, but it was laced with such venom that it hurt to hear.

Eve stayed back, tucked into the corner of the living room, trapped by her parent's fight. She tried to make herself as small as possible, pleading that neither one of them noticed her. It wasn't the first time she'd seen them fight, but it was definitely one of the worst, and neither one of them seemed to have their heads straight.

Roy stepped forward, his hand still gripped around the beer bottle and swung at his wife's face, missing by mere centimeters. "You whore!" He hissed.

"Don't you EVER call me that." A nearby book sailed across the room towards her father, Vicky smug in her attempt to hurt him.

"Oh you've done it now." Her dad stormed forward, trading the beer bottle for a knife that was left on the counter.

Eve couldn't sit still any longer, she couldn't watch this. Screaming and threatening was one thing...but a knife? "DAD NO!!!" She screeched as loud as she could, her throat straining to keep up the noise. She celebrated a momentary success when he stopped dead in his tracks. But then he turned to her.

"You." His teeth were wide in almost a snarl, the knife straight up in his clenched hand, "Ungrateful piece of shit..."

"Eve RUN!" Her mom shouted, showing at least an ounce of maternity towards her daughter.

And Eve did just that. She ran until her lungs seemed to close in on themselves and her legs burned. She was drenched in sweat despite the freezing temperatures outside.

She stood breathless in front of the only place that she ever referred to as home.

"Eve?" Loomy's voice rang out from a window above, "What are you doing here?"

With tears beginning to pour down, Eve managed a raspy "Can I stay with you?" as she collapsed, exhaustion taking over.