“I know that. I don’t think your parents would like me if I wasn’t dealing. But they’re weird so who cares?”
Brandy sighed. “We didn’t come here so you could deal Chad. We were both supposed to get clean. You were supposed to have a real job waiting for you.”
“I know baby. I gotta go.” Chad turned to leave.
“I love you Chad.”
When he didn’t reply she said “There’s someone else isn’t there?”
Chad turned back. “Brandy don’t be ridiculous. How could I handle another woman? Sometimes I think you’d be too much for two guys to handle.”
Brandy rolled her eyes. “Ha ha. Do you have a cigarette?”
“I’m almost out babe. I’ll pick some up while I’m out.”
“Give me what you have left then since you’re going to pick up more while you’re out.”
Chad sighed and pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. He took one out and threw the rest of the pack to Brandy. She caught it. He turned to leave again. “Hey.”
Chad turned back. She could see that he was losing patience with her. “What Brandy?”
“Aren’t you gonna kiss me goodbye?”
Chad moved back to the bed. She ran one hand over his crotch while she ran her other hand through his hair. When Chad pulled away from her kiss several minutes later, he shoved her hand away and gave her a look that so was close to disgusted that she felt insulted.
“Brandy.”
“What? I told you I was horny. Don’t you have time for a quickie before you go?”
“No. Damn, sometimes I think you’re a sex addict.”
“You admit that you’re addicted to sex so what does it matter if I am?”
Chad sighed. “I’m gonna go because you’re going to try to trap me here all night if I don’t.”
He walked out of their bedroom and closed the door behind him.
She threw his pillow at the door. “Fuck you Chad. You wanna know who’s trapped? It’s sure as hell not you.”
She heard Chad laugh as he opened the door to the apartment. It closed with a loud bang. She wondered why he didn’t care about waking up the neighbors since they had kids, but then she figured that he didn’t care because half of the people that had kids in their building bought drugs from him.
Brandy lay back on the bed and lit a cigarette. She stared at the water stains on the ceiling and wondered how in the hell she had gotten herself into this life. When she was little she’d had dreams like everyone else. They had started to go away after she’d ended up pregnant twice a teenager though, and everyone seemed to stop looking at her as anything other than a pretty, stupid girl who wouldn’t keep her legs closed.
She had truly thought that Chad loved her when she’d come to Brunton with him. She’d thought that he was going to get her away from her parents and give her a good life. She’d been sure that they would eventually get married and have kids. She missed Joey, her three year old son that her parents had insisted she put up for adoption so much that she could hardly stand it. She didn’t want to admit to Chad how much she wanted to get married and have a baby though. She was sure he would think it was silly.
She put her cigarette out in the ashtray on the nightstand and picked up the remote for the DVD player. She’d missed the good part of the movie when she’d been arguing with Chad, and she wanted to see it. She found the scene, and started it over, trying not to let herself feel anything. She missed Chad. She missed the way their relationship used to feel. She also wanted to get high pretty badly and she really was rather horny she thought.
Brandy was asleep before the movie ended. She was half awake the next morning when she rolled over and patted the bed beside her without opening her eyes, hoping to feel the warmth of Chad’s naked body since he always slept nude. She was still horny and she was hoping to talk Chad into some wake up and make up sex-but his side of the bed was empty.
She groaned as she sat up, feeling totally pissed off that he wasn’t home. The clock on the nightstand read 5 minutes after 8. That meant he’d been gone at least eight hours. Just how long did he want her to believe it took him to buy drugs she thought?
She got out of bed and used the restroom then lit a cigarette and walked out to the living room, blinking in the bright light because the blinds had fallen down again. She sighed when she saw that Chad wasn’t in either the living room or the kitchen and reminded herself to put the blind back up after she got dressed. She wondered if she had enough change to call his cell phone as she headed back to the bedroom.
She put her cigarette out after smoking half and dug in her purse for her wallet. She had enough change to make three phone calls and nothing else. There wasn’t even a rumpled dollar bill in the bottom of her purse. She knew that the fridge was almost empty again so she hoped that Chad came back soon for more reasons than one.
She started the movie that she’d watched the last night over because it had been part of the reason that she’d been feeling so turned on the night before. She thought the male lead was very hot. She wanted that feeling when Chad finally decided to come home, instead of all the anger that was starting to bubble up at him again.
He wasn’t home by the time the movie was over and she’d let the movie get to her even more than it had the night before. She liked to think that it was funny when Chad said the movies she watched might as well be porn, but sometimes she thought that it was true. She only liked movies with hot actors who didn’t mind taking their shirts off that also had racy sex scenes.
She went into the bathroom and turned the shower on, hoping that the hot water was in the mood to last today because it certainly wasn’t always. She stripped and stepped under the spray, wondering if she could wait until Chad got home to release the sexual tension that had been building up since the night before. She pondered the idea for a minute then decided that she’d wait since it always felt so much better to have Chad do the things to her that she liked and even better when he did things to her that she couldn’t do for herself. She washed her hair and her body thoroughly, rinsed off and turned the shower off.
She stepped out of the shower and frowned at her reflection in the mirror. She had dark circles under her eyes and a pimple had popped up on her chin. She washed her face again and wished that whoever had told her you stopped getting pimples at twenty had been telling the truth.
She dressed and went out to the living room. Chad still wasn’t home. She re hung the blinds and made herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, wishing that they had bananas. She was tired of peanut butter and jelly, and bananas made the sandwiches less boring though the only time she ate bananas was in sandwiches or cereal.
She went back to bedroom with the thought in her head that if her boyfriend had to be a drug dealer the least he could do was be good at it instead of being so bad that they were barely able to pay the rent and utilities and put food on the table, and buy cigarettes once in a while. Of course they both had a coke habit, and Brandy had a feeling that Chad had been using meth for a while now too. She flopped back onto the bed with a sigh, wondering when it was going to be her turn to have a fairy tale romance.
She watched three movies and fell asleep again, trying to keep her craving for coke at bay. When she awoke several hours later the apartment was silent and she knew that Chad still hadn’t come home. It was dark outside and she was hungry again. She lit a cigarette and went to the kitchen. She opened the cupboards, but only managed to find a dented can of tuna and a can of peas. They didn’t have any mayonnaise or mustard, which were the only ways she could stand to eat tuna fish. She opened the fridge again, not finding anything besides the expected loaf of bread, and jar of jelly.
She made herself a sandwich and took it with her outside to the payphone. On the way, she ended up giving her sandwich to a sad eyed dirty little kid who was wandering around in the parking lot of the complex. She thought that he belonged to one of the women that bought drugs from Chad on a regular basis, but she wasn’t sure. She fel
t guilty that she didn’t have more to offer the child when he ran back towards the playground.
She checked the phone to make sure it had a dial tone and then put her money in, dialing Chad’s number from memory. Her call went straight to voicemail. She cursed under her breath while she waited for the beep.
“Where the hell are you Chad? There’s no food in the house. I’m almost out of cigarettes and I want to get high. You know they threatened to cut off the electricity if you didn’t pay them something by tomorrow. So get your ass home. And bring me a soda, cigarettes, some coke and something real to eat. Bye asshole.”
She hung up the phone and walked away, glad to see that the child had disappeared inside. She went back to her apartment and made herself another sandwich and took it back to the bedroom with her not caring that Chad always bitched at her when she ate in bed because she always managed to leave crumbs on his side of the bed.
She finished her sandwich and wanted another one, but there were only a few pieces of bread left. She really didn’t think that her mother would send her more money even if she told her she was starving. If Chad was around they could go to a food bank in the morning but she couldn’t walk there and walk back with the boxes of food by herself. She was even more pissed off at him for not being home by the time she fell asleep that night. She only had two cigarettes left.
The next morning she awoke to a knock on the door. She rolled over in bed and sat up; giving Chad’s side of the bed a dirty look when she saw it was still empty. The knocking had subsided. When she opened the door she noticed a truck with the logo from the power company pulling out of the lot. She pulled the shut off notice off of the door, balled it up and threw it back in the house. She didn’t bother to put her shoes on before she headed to the payphone. She didn’t care that she was in her pajamas either.
She pulled the change out of her pocket that she’d put there before she’d left the bedroom and picked up the phone receiver. The dial tone buzzed at her. She put the coins into the slot and dialed Chad’s phone number. It kicked straight to voicemail again, and she cursed aloud this time.
“Fuck.” She waited for the beep and then said “Get your sorry ass home Chad. I mean it. And stop and make a payment on the electric bill on the way you jerk since it’s in my name. I want food, and I want cigarettes. I want something to drink besides nasty tap water and I want a line like you wouldn’t believe. You’d better be nice to me if you ever want to get laid again.”
Brandy banged the phone back into the cradle. She stalked back to the apartment and paced back and forth across the living room for a while. It soon made her realize how hungry she was and she made herself a sandwich. She ate in the living room, staring out the window, blinds open so that she could see Chad’s crappy car as soon as it pulled into the lot. He still hadn’t returned home by the afternoon. She was tempted to call her mother but wondered if she’d bother to answer the call since she’d have to call collect again.
She decided against it, and went back to the bedroom and watched another movie. She fell asleep. When she woke up, she heard loud music and brightened, thinking that Chad had finally decided to come home. But she soon realized that the noise was coming from the apartment next door. She debated on smoking her last cigarette and decided against, it wondering what in the hell she was going to do if Chad didn’t bother to come home at all.
She used the last of the peanut butter and jelly dreading the fact that she’d have to make herself eat a tuna fish and pea sandwich in the morning. She paced for another little while and blasted Chad’s stereo to give the neighbor’s the hint that it was rude to blast music so loud, no matter what time of day it was. They got the hint and turned their music down. She turned hers off, but by then she had a headache so she wondered if she’d really accomplished anything worthwhile.
She went back into the bedroom and wondered whether she had anything left that was worth anything at the pawn shop, but realized that other than a few movies, and an old DVD player, there wasn’t much that she could pawn for even enough money to buy something decent to eat. Chad’s stereo was too old. The TV was nice, but they were borrowing it from a friend of Chad’s until they had the money to buy their own.
She was very depressed by the time she fell asleep that night and there was still no sign of Chad. When she woke up the next morning, she wasn’t surprised that his side of the bed was still empty. She used the restroom and realized that the light wouldn’t turn on. She flipped the switch in the bedroom, and it wouldn’t turn on either.
“Fuck. What in the hell did I get myself into this time?”
She threw Chad’s pillow as hard as she could at the bedroom door and wished she could throw something harder and not at the door but at his head.
She lit her last cigarette and got dressed in her best jeans and a low cut shirt, wondering if she could talk someone out of a ride to the local food bank or the church that sometimes helped people out with utilities when they had the funds. She put her shoes on and decided to try one more time to call Chad. She grabbed her purse and headed out the door, locking the door of the apartment behind her.
She reached the payphone and dialed Chad’s cell phone. It went straight to voicemail again, and she knew that he was ignoring her. She wondered how a drug dealer was supposed to make any money when he wouldn’t answer his damned phone, but then thought again that Chad had never been much good at dealing anyway. She waited for the beep.
“Okay Chad. I guess it’s starting to get pretty fucking obvious that you’re not coming home. If you’re hurt or in jail there’s not anything I can do about it because I am totally broke now. An asshole like you wouldn’t get hurt or caught anyway. I truly appreciate all that you’ve done for me. I am so glad that I was never dumb enough to sleep with you without a rubber. If I was pregnant I’d hunt you down and wring your neck. I might anyway. I hope you took your pussy ass out of town because I’m not gonna forgive you for this shit. Ever.”
Brandy banged the phone back into the cradle and almost jumped when she realized that someone was standing right behind her. It was her neighbor from the other side, not the one who had been playing the obnoxious music the day before.
“Hi Trina.”
“Hey Brandy. Is everything okay?”
Brandy sighed. “No, it’s not okay. Chad’s stupid ass left me. They shut our electricity off. There’s no food in the house and I have no money. I have no idea what I’m going to do.”
“I’m sorry sweetie. I’d loan you some cash to eat, but I’m broke myself. Have you tried the food bank? They’re open every day during the week aren’t they?”
“Yeah, but they give you a lot of food since you can only go there twice a month. I can’t carry it all home by myself. We had that cart so I could go get groceries while Chad was gone but it broke.”
“I’m sorry hon. I’d give you a ride but my boyfriend has the car all day. He’s a courier during the day and he delivers pizza at night. It sucks not seeing him, but he makes pretty good money between the two jobs.”
“Yeah. I guess I’ll have to look for a job, though that doesn’t help me right away.”
“What about your parents?”
“They don’t want to talk to me anymore. They barely want to admit that I’m their daughter since I took off with Chad and started using coke. Do you have a cigarette Trina?”
“I quit a couple weeks ago hon. I’ll have my man bring you one if you still need one when he gets back okay?”
“Yeah. I guess I’m gonna head downtown. Thanks for trying to help Trina.”
“No problem.” Brandy started to walk away, but Trina called out “Hey Brandy?”
Brandy turned back. “Yeah?”
“I might know of a place where you can get some cash today.”
Brandy made a face. “No way am I going down to sell myself on the street corner Trina.”
Trina rolled her eyes. “It’s not that bad. Well, not quite that bad and it’s a job.”
&nb
sp; “Huh?”
“Have you heard of Gabe’s Place? I’m sure you’ve walked by it. Big neon sign with pink letters? I worked there for a while. The owner will hire any girl if she’s pretty enough. You’re definitely pretty enough Brandy.”
“I’m not 21 Trina. I thought you knew that.”
Trina shrugged. “Put down a fake birthday and hope he doesn’t look too closely at your ID. He pays at least eight bucks an hour. Or at least he pays women that. Give it a try Brandy. It’s not like you have a lot of pleasant options right now.”
“It sounds way too much like being a hooker except with less pay and harder work. If I want to sleep with some nasty guy with a beer belly I’ll go down to the street corner. It’s okay Trina. I’ll find a job at one of the stores downtown. I’ll figure out some way to get through until I get a paycheck.”
“Gabe doesn’t have a beer belly. He’s one of the best looking guys I’ve ever seen. And he’ll give you money whenever you need it.”
Brandy rolled her eyes. “I don’t want to sleep with my boss. I’ve got to go Trina. If Chad happens to come back tell him to come find me okay? We need to have a little talk.”
“You know he ain’t comin’ back girl. Well, remember Gabe’s if you get too desperate. Though sometimes I think I’d pay him to sleep with me he’s so fine.”
“Are you talking about the married guy that hires girls on the same day they go in there and supposedly pays them more if they give him a blow job as soon as he hires them? No thank you. He must have every STD there is.”
Trina laughed. “He’s clean. He doesn’t hire girls that look too down and out.”
“Right. I’ll see you around Trina.”
“Bye Brandy.” Trina turned and walked away.
Brandy headed downtown. She stopped every place she could think of and filled out an application even if they said they weren’t hiring. By lunchtime her stomach was growling. She wished she’d remembered to eat before she’d left. Only two places out of all the places she’d stopped had seemed even half interested in hiring her, and they both wanted to call her to schedule interviews which was a little hard since she didn’t have a phone. She was feeling dejected and pissed off by the time she passed by Gabe’s Place for the second time that day.
Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set Page 39
