Page 69 of Shattered Pieces

There was a small line, so we waited for our turn before showering, the familiar discomfort filling me when I stepped out with the towel around me to get dry by the far wall. The girls hated it when you got dry in your stall if it was busy.

It didn’t faze me so much if I had to change in front of the girls in my cell block, but there were a lot of people in here.

Lexi and Tilly seemed so used to it as they dropped their towels to dry themselves, and Lexi glanced at me when I didn’t move.

“You good?”

I nodded, releasing the towel to quickly rub it over my damp skin, and I relaxed a little when I noticed Lexi was drying herself behind me, her body and towel shielding me.

With my temporary cover, I finished drying myself and got dressed, sending her an appreciative smile when I was done.

“I’m watching a movie with Jamie tonight, if you want to join,” Tilly offered as we made our way back to our block.

“We’re having a snack party. Maybe a naked pillow fight,” Lexi hummed, earning the side-eye from me.

“Maybe not.”

Tilly rolled her eyes, used to Lexi’s flirting. “You know, you’re like the creepy old man at the bar. Hitting on everyone and can’t take a hint.”

“Except I’m hot, hygienic, and I last longer than thirty seconds,” she smirked, hooking an arm around my shoulders to smack a kiss on my cheek. “Right, Donovan? You like it when I hit on you.”

“Feel free to keep embarrassing yourself,” I replied with a scowl, wiping the wet kiss off my cheek.

She chuckled, leading me along the hallway. Tilly headed straight over to Jamie’s room to see what she was doing, while we headed into Lexi’s room once I put my caddy in mine and grabbed some snacks.

“We should play truth or dare,” she announced, and I raised an eyebrow as I opened a bag of chips.

“Are you a sixteen-year-old boy? The only way you can make a girl kiss you is by daring her to?”

“You can always turn it down,” she teased, closing the door and sitting beside me as she opened a candy bar.

“Tell me about stripping. What’s that like as a job? I’ve heard a lot of bad shit,” I stated, making her shrug.

“We deal with a lot of creeps, but Arch doesn’t allow harm to come to any of his girls. Those who want to work on stage do, those who want to do extra activities can choose to do so, and he pays really well. The whorehouse is popular, and the girls that work it are there because they want to be.”

“Do you work the whorehouse?”

“I’ve done some work in the past, I make good money, but Archer gets jealous and bans me a lot.”

“How old were you when you started?” I asked carefully, knowing she was similar in age to me.

“Stripping? Around fourteen. The whorehouse? Sixteen.”

My nose scrunched but she didn’t seem bothered by the fact grown men paid her to strip at fourteen.

“What about you? You lived in the Heights, right? How did you get by?” she asked, breaking a piece off her candy bar to share with me.

“Stole a lot or went without. Max, my sperm donor, kind of vanished when he lost his fortune, so I had to figure it out myself from the age of eight.”

“You really had no one? I mean, my parents died and I lived on the streets, but at least I had Archer to make sure I was fed,” she said with a frown, stealing one of my chips.

“I had Luke, who I grew up with since he was my neighbor in Ashburn before I moved to the Heights, but we had a falling out when I was thirteen. Didn’t see him again until I moved back to Ashburn and discovered he was friends with my sperm donor’s new girlfriend’s son. It was a little jarring, actually. No one really warns you how hard it is to get used to being around company. I’m getting fat living at the Holloways’ too because their chef feeds me extra all the time,” I huffed, motioning to the snacks. “I never could’ve done this before. If I stole snacks, I saved them for when I really needed to eat.”

“You’re hardly fat. I can see your damn hip bones.”

“I’ve put on seventeen pounds.”

“Sounds like you needed it. You look really good, Donovan. You should let me tattoo you some time. You’d look super hot with sleeves,” she grinned, taking my wrist to hold my arm out. “Roses and thorns would look good. I could do both the same so they match, or we could change it up.”