Reggie squeezes her knee, and kisses her neck fondly. “No one could replace you Maxi, or you Paige,” he says turning to me. “You two are my absolute best. I just want to make sure you don’t get bored. We need someone new, to spice things up. You like new playmates too, don’t you?”
“Of course we do,” I smile, sipping at my champagne. There are already six of us, living in a single room. It’s starting to get cramped. But what Reggie wants, Reggie gets. And god help anyone who goes against him.
We arrive at a nightclub that I’ve never been to before. The way people are looking at us as we exit the limo, you’d think we were celebrities. Reggie wraps his arms around the both of us and walks us inside, straight up to the VIP area.
He orders more champagne and instructs Maxine and I to go and dance while he talks ‘business’ with some guy with dark slicked-back hair, who looks a bit like a mobster in his pinstripe suit.
We move to a vacant piece of floor, knowing that he wants to be able to see us, and start to move together. I briefly wonder where the new girl is while I move sensually against Maxine. If I was sober, I think I’d feel foolish right now. A bit like a trained monkey, performing for treats. But I’m not sober. I haven’t been sober since the day I entered Reggie’s apartment.
It helps, because when Maxine starts to kiss me, I just go with it. We’re here to entertain him while he works. After a while, we’re joined by a third girl. We allow her to dance and touch with us without question. This is what Reggie does – he adds ‘more’ to whatever we’re doing. He always wants more.
It isn’t long before he has us all leaving again, with the new girl in tow. He leads us to the waiting limo, grinning broadly after his fresh purchase.
Once inside, the privacy screens are up, and our designer clothes are shed as he instructs us in his own version of a live show.
We do as we’re told, including the new girl, despite the fact, we don’t even know her name. I’d like to say that this was somehow fun, or perhaps erotic in some way. But I can’t. I don’t feel anything anymore. I simply do whatever he says.
Chapter Thirty
It’s takes a while, but I open my eyes and sit up on the bed. I’m one part of a mass of bodies. Flashes from the night before flit through my mind. There was a time when I woke from a night like that and felt cheap and dirty, but that’s long gone. I don’t care enough to be upset anymore. I’m numb.
“Look at Paige!” a girl called Chelsea giggles, as she points at my naked body. “She’s so skinny that she looks like one of those kids on TV!”
I walk over to her and grab at her face. “Shut the fuck up!”
“You’re just jealous because Reggie likes me better than you. He’s not calling you up as much anymore.”
Chelsea is fairly new. She put up a huge fight when she got here, but now she’s just like the rest of us. Completely dependent, and willing to do anything he asks.
I grab a fistful of her hair and pull back hard. “You’d better start eating Paige or he’ll get bored with you and toss you out,” she laughs defiantly.
I curl my lip back and spit in her pretty face. The other girls in the room just look on uncaring, or else they don’t even hear or see.
“You’re a bitch Paige,” she says as she wipes off her face and gets up to leave the room.
I roll my eyes and reach for a silk robe and slip it on my frail body as I scan the room. In the middle of the bed I can see a tuft of red hair where Maxine is still lying, fast asleep.
“Hey Maxie,” I call out to her, tying the sash at my waist as I walk back over to the bed, intent on shaking her awake. But she doesn’t stir. “Maxie,” I say again, louder this time.
“Oh shit,” Jenny, the girl on the bed next to her says. When our eyes meet I know it’s not good, the bottom of my stomach feels like it just dropped out. “She’s cold.”
“No!” I shriek, rushing to sit next to her. Everyone in the room scatters as I try to lift and shake her. “Wake up damn it. Wake up!” I cry.