11 Aug 2013

Bonus: Meet Justin and Mya



“Krista” My name escaped his lips as a gentle moan. He was spent. My clients were often done before me, and it came as no surprise that I was left unsatisfied. I smiled politely, before rolling off the bed and redressing. He sat and reached for his wallet, counting some notes before handing them to me. “I’ll recommend you.” His face was twisted into a smirk, satisfied and still drenched in post-coital ecstasy.
“Thank you.” I replied to his comment, before seeing myself out.

My line of work isn’t something you plan for; it isn’t something little girls dream of becoming. But it’s all I know. Most people assume that prostitutes choose their work for two reasons. One because they were abused as children and so become so mentally scarred that they need to feel needed, and satisfying the unsatisfied is all that they can think of. Two is me. Drugs. A drug habit isn’t cheap, and it isn’t something I’d wish on anyone. You’re controlled by your habit, and everything you do revolves around the drug. You trust nobody, but you’ll do anything you can to get your fix. You don’t care that you look like death, haven’t showered in weeks. I try to make more money than I need for my habit, I need to, I have a son to think of.

When I get home, my housemate is asleep on the couch. She’s like me, only she doesn’t have a child. We met on Seventh, in Bridgeport's red light district, when I was fifteen and she was eighteen, we’ve looked out for each other ever since, and now we take shifts looking after Justin. You make more money at night, so we’ve worked out a system where we work every other night, and on the night’s we don’t work, we work the day. The day shifts go slowly, it picks up a little when the local businesses let out for lunch break, but other than that you’re lucky if you bring in a hundred simoleons. The only reason we do them is so there’s always someone here for Justin.

I gently shake Sasha awake, she smiles when she sees I’m home, and points to the kitchen. I can tell she’s had her share, she looks sleepy and relaxed.
“Got you one set up.” She states, drowsily. I nod and move to the kitchen. There’s a syringe already loaded for me on the counter, so I tie off my arm and inject. I sit as I gently release the tourniquet and feel the golden brown liquid course through my veins and hit my heart. I feel the beating slow, and a feeling of normality hits. All sense of guilt over what I’m doing to Justin is gone, and everything is right with the world.

I don’t know how much time has passed before I grab myself a glass of water and join Sasha in front of the TV. She tells me she fell asleep watching a documentary about a guy going to rehab to kick his heroin habit, and we laugh at the irony.
“How’s Justin?” I ask.
“He’s been an angel, as always.” She replies. My Justin is an angel. Before I fell pregnant with him, I was living with Austin. He told me he wasn't going to raise any child I had, and as 'a dirty skag head' there was no way to prove 'it' was his. I know Austin is Justin's father. I guess I chose the name Justin as a sort of hint to Austin if they ever eventually met, but now I know that's almost impossible. Finding out I had a life inside of me made me cut the heroin down to a minimum, and Sasha and I looked for an apartment, vowing to always be there for each other. We’re all each other have. Addicts don’t have supportive parents to fall back on, not usually; there are a few who do, but not us. Sasha doesn’t talk about her parents, and so I don’t ask. Mine kicked me out and all but disowned me when I was fourteen. They said they couldn't handle me any more, but I know I could never do that to Justin no matter what he did. I’ve met many people during my life since all this began, and they all have a dirty secret. You learn not to ask too many questions, especially when those questions give you information about the person that could be used against them in court. I’m not sure Sasha’s parents could, but I still won’t ask all the same.

Some days I worry about never coming home. I wonder if Sasha would stay and care for Justin if I was gone. There was recently a spree of missing prostitutes, and Sasha and I had to cut back on hours, it just isn’t as safe out there as it used to be. I’ve tried to quit the drugs, and I’m going to do it properly soon. Last time, I went cold turkey. Sasha bought me coke and speed to get me through, but the draw was too big. It’s just too easy to get hold of heroin in Bridgeport. I’ve thought about moving, but I don’t think Sasha would come with me. I want a better life for Justin. He’ll be starting school next year, and that means he’ll be mixing with people like me.

*~*

When the investigators collected the body, they didn’t care. Nobody cares about people like us. I wish that I’d got home before Justin. I was supposed to, but my dealer was messing me around and made me wait on that corner for an hour. When I made it back to the house, he was sitting on the overgrown lawn, white as a sheet. He was staring off into the distance, and even though I was fiending, I could tell something bad had happened. He wouldn’t talk to me, and when I put my arm around him, he pushed away and walked off down the street. I was torn between going after him and investigating the house. I could see the front window was broken, completely cleared. Like someone had thrown something through to break it, and then pulled the remaining glass out to gain access. I knew Sasha was in there, but I didn’t want to prove it to myself. I didn’t want it to be true.

It all happened so fast after that. The investigators arrested me. They said I wasn’t under suspicion, but they had evidence of my soliciting and drug use around a minor. They said they were willing to let me go if I would talk. I refused at first. I knew exactly who had done this, and I wasn’t about to meet the same fate as my best friend, but they offered me witness protection. In a quiet countryside town, with a good school for Justin to attend. Eventually I complied, and before I knew it Justin and I were ushered back to the house and were hastily packing what we could before boarding a bus set for Winchester.

*~*

My mum has a new name. Mya Hope. They said it would be too confusing for me to change my name, so I’ve stayed Farrow for now. I can’t help but hate her for this, even though she didn’t pull the trigger, she bought this situation into our lives, and my ‘aunt’ Sasha is dead because of it. I’ve had to leave all my friends behind, everyone I ever knew, without even saying goodbye! Tom Farley was having a pool party this weekend at his grandparents loft, I bet they have a great time without me.

I took a wander around this town yesterday. I only saw about four people, all middle-aged, and all rich-looking. We don’t fit in here. This place is so upmarket that even the stupid trailer park is hidden behind rows of perfectly trimmed conifers. I doubt anyone even knows we’re here. I didn’t see any kids at all, even though I hung around the park for a while. The park was right next to the school, and it’s tiny. My old school was four floors, plain grey concrete with black asphalt surrounding it, and this new one looks like a log cabin made by the damn pioneers! I'm surprised they even have electricity out here in the backside of nowhere.

I go out for another walk. My mum is trying to find some way of making money here, because there’s no way this town would have enough of a dark side to need her ‘services’ enough to fund her habits. She keeps saying she’ll quit, but I don’t think she’ll ever manage it.

I end up back at the park, and play on the swings by myself. There’s a blonde girl about my age arguing with who I assume to be her older sister. They look like try-hards. Wearing designer clothes, but they don’t look rich. I wonder if they got those clothes from the back of a truck, like my mum does?

I continue watching the ‘blonde family drama’ as a woman I assume to be the mother comes out of the hut (which I assume contains toilets) to tell them off. The three of them look like clones or something, and I’m shocked when a brown-haired man comes out behind the mother carrying an equally brown-haired toddler. Boy, I think. I take a wild guess and say he’s the step-father and the toddler is a half-sibling to the blonde girls. I follow them with my eyes as they make their way over to the lake to have a picnic, and notice another girl about my age is now sitting on the bench. She looks about as lost and lonely as I feel, so I go over to try and make my first friend.



__________________________________________________________________
The first part of this, I wrote a few months ago. I have many short stories half-written, and as I started typing backstory I remembered it. So I changed the names and edited it a little to suit my needs. Easy!
For those of you who are lucky enough to have not been exposed to drugs before, here's some information about heroin, which Mya/Krista was using in that first part. The kind of thing I imagined her on last chapter, was mephedrone (known around here as 'M-cat') and alcohol, but the late stages where she was coming down from the 'cat'.

14 comments:

  1. wow that was great Gemma! I loved getting that background even with out pictures. Poor Sasha shot? By someone they are now in hiding from. Sucks that they didn't give them better arrangements if they are in Witness Protection.

    Poor Justin, having to be the one home to find the body. :( That kind of thing will scar a child for life sadly.

    I think the system has failed him. To see what kind of situation he was living in, knowing what his mom did, and to still leave him with her. Not only that, but they left them in a dump of a place, no help for her addiction. They got what they needed and moved her away not caring about her or Justin.

    I really feel for him and I understand now why he's so much more mature acting. He's lived through a lot at his young age.

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    1. Thank you :) I wanted to keep with the diary-style theme, though obviously I skipped a few years between the first two entries.

      Yes, 'Mya' has lost her best friend and been uprooted from the city she's always lived in, and moved to 'the backside of nowhere', and stuck in a dingy trailer park. I'm unsure yet as to whether the mystery killer is any threat, or whether they were locked up with the evidence 'Mya' provided.

      Poor Justin indeed! Before that he could pretty much handle his unconventional life, but finding a woman who was like a mother to you dead in your house after school at 12 years old will do things to you. The system has most definately failed Justin, and Mya to an extent. She has no qualifications, and they've not attempted to find her a job, or get her help for her drug addictions. Justin should have been taken off her, she isn't currently fit to raise him, even though she does love him. Unfortunately, things like that do happen, possibly not in this same scenario, but there have been many children whos cases have been ignored and awful things have happened. I don't plan on making this story end up like that, and hopefully things will start to look up for Justin now they're out of the city.

      Yes, he has grown up very fast. Hopefully he can relax and be a kid a bit more now he's away from most of that!

      Thank you for your kind comment :)

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  2. Aw, this was so sad, Gemma! And really well done.
    No wonder Justin is so jumpy. He's seen a lot more than a kid his age should have to see. Especially that he was the one that found Sasha's body, how horrifying!
    It's too bad his mom hasn't been able to clean herself up, but that's a really hard thing to do, especially without support.

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    1. Thank you! I'm glad it was sad, LOL! They've had a hard time of things.

      Yes, 'Mya' will never forgive herself for that. She would have usually been home before he finished school, meaning she could have stopped him from seeing that, but she was out getting her fix instead.

      Yes, overcoming addiction is extremely hard, and I can only imagine it's been made a lot harder by the fact her best friend was shot. Hopefully she can find a job like Justin was mentioning, and then start taking steps to turn her life around. Maybe someone in town will be nice and help her out, but as of yet April is the only one who knows she exists, and she doesn't fully understand, and is definately too young to help!

      Thank you for commenting :)

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  3. This was so, so sad :-(. Seeing Sasha's body must have been really horrifying for poor Justin, I feel so much for him.

    And I also feel bad for his mother, only she shouldn't be taking care of Justin right now. I hope she gets some help soon.

    It was very well written, congratulations! :-)

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    1. It was pretty sad, sorry about that! :(
      Yeah, I can't imagine finding the body of someone you love. Even a body of someone you've never met would be awful!

      No, she shouldn't be taken care of him at all. She isn't, really. The police should have placed Justin in foster care and told Mya that she couldn't have him back until she was clean. That would have been best for the both of them, but they didn't care, as Mya said.

      Thank you :D You guys are making me all warm and fuzzy inside.

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  4. Phew! Wow. Mya is really messed up. And her messed up has messed up Justin. It really is amazing she has survived this long, though thankfully she has since otherwise Justin wouldn't be around for us to get to know with April. *hugs for Justin and here's hoping life gets better for him. I'd hope that Mya would go straight sooner rather than later, but her type rarely does when they've managed to get by for so long. How does she get by in such a small town?

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    1. Yeah, unfortunately, having messed up parents will mess a child up.
      It is kinda twisted, but we do need Mya to survive a bit, and the cops needed to ignore the situation for us to meet Justin. He should have been put in care, when Sasha was killed, if not before. If they had evidence of what Mya was doing, why did they not step in sooner?
      Hopefully life will get easier for him, or at least he won't follow in his mother footsteps. And hopefully his mother will go straight, it must be harder to get the drugs now she's out of the city, especially if Justin was right about there not being such a big customer base for her services.
      I honestly haven't put a lot of thought into how she gets by in such a small town. But then, there are dark sides to every town, and April is a very long way from all that stuff. Or, she was. Who knows what she'll end up involved in now? Hopefully not a lot at age 12 :|

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  5. There is always another point of view and another side to every thing.
    Mya seems as lost and alone as Justin thought that April was.
    I am a bit worried now that they will be tracked down by whoever it was she escaped from.
    Such trials for the little boy.

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    1. Yes, there is, you're right!
      She is a bit. April isn't really, she was just a bit down that day, but Mya is another story.

      Hm. I wasn't planning on the murderer tracking her down. To him, she'd be just another junkie, and he probably won't even remember her. I think she's safe.
      Yeah, poor Justin :(

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  6. Random aside before I get to my actual comment: It's always weird to see my name in a story! Especially since it's spelled with a K. o.0

    Regularly scheduled comment: Poor Justin! He's been through so much for a kid his age. Although Mya/Krista does really care for her son, she needs to get her act together. For real this time. Also, I'm worried that whoever they ran away from is going to find them...

    I have unfortunately been exposed to drug addiction in my extended family and know how hard it can be for someone to get off the stuff, or even to take the necessary steps to get help. I think you wrote Mya/Krista's tribulation with it quite realistically. Just throwing that in there.

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    1. Oh... Hi! :D
      LOL! Sorry! She's not called Krista anymore. I just suddenly realised as I was writing this that they'd have changed her name for witness protection, and that was the first name that popped into my head. Maybe I was subconciously dreaming of you? Who knows... ;)

      Yeah, hopefully he won't be too scarred for life! And hopefully Mya can sort herself out before it's too late. I'd not planned on them being found, so I don't think we need to worry about that... But, I reserve the right to change my mind at the drop of a hat! ;)

      I'm sorry to hear that :( *hugsss*
      Thank you, I guess? They say you write what you know, but honestly? My parents neve split up, my Mum never had an affair, I never met a random boy with a prostitute junkie as a mother... Who knows where that saying comes from?

      Thank you for reading! I'm not really advertising this, because I'm so awful at getting round to updating it that it seems cruel :)

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  7. wow. Justin has been through hell. I agree with Jazen. The system failed him. Yes, he may want to be with his mom for the simple fact that she's his mom, but he might be better off elsewhere.

    That was great to hear his story!

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    1. Yeah, he has, poor boy :(
      Yeah, the system not only failed him, but totally ignored him! I think at this stage he doesn't care whether he's with his mother. Obviously, he'd be devastated if he had to leave, but while he's with her he wishes he wasn't. Does that make sense? He'd miss her because he does love her, but they're not getting along and his hormones are just starting to kick in, so he hates everyone.

      Thank you! A lot of this stuff April may never find out, or if she does it won't be for a good many years. We'll have to see what her reactions to it all would be if/when she finds out. :)

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Thank you for reading! Now let me know what you think. Any tips on what I could improve on? Anything you particularly liked? Or maybe you just want to comment, I'll read it and reply whatever you write :)