*Next chapter is nearly ready.
I love this series, and if I finish the chapters I'll issue them faster.
All Characters are 18+*
*
"Neil!" I caught his semen in a twist of tissue.
He always said that when he came. Always. It bothered me. It bothered me more then some of the things I did at night. At least they knew me as Ryan. At least they paid me a decent amount. At least they didn't know where I lived.
I stood up in a hurry and left the back room, unlocking the front door and taking down the 'back in five minutes' sign.
Ten days. Ten days and almost three thousand dollars. I was still just doing blowjobs, but I had a couple of regular customers now, people who liked me better then the others. I had more clients. Some nights, I made my entire week's pay.
Now, the hardest part was how to be careful with it so Ben didn't know. Sometimes it was pathetic how easy that was. I was even paying Mom's old hospital bills. I looked at all of the mail, so it was easy to remove the notices telling us to pay the minimum interest. It was easy to hide the notices telling us how much we still owed. Easy to hide the bills that I was paying. With Ben, out of sight was out of mind. I was close to paying almost all of that old hospital bill, and he didn't have a clue.
He would find out one day. And I still didn't know what I would tell him then. But I wouldn't be doing this forever, just until Toby got back and got a job. It was nice getting this much money, but it wasn't worth it. Not worth what I had to do every night, not worth the deception.
I had been stuffing frozen peas into my shopping bag, and I stood stock-still when I had that thought. What about Drake?
That was the real question.
---
I got home and they were fighting.
Ben was glaring down at Calvin and Calvin was glaring right back. Celia was nowhere to be seen, and Lisse was bawling in her playpen. She saw me and reached out appeasingly.
"Neeeiw! Neiw!" She couldn't pronounce L's, I was Neiw to her. I rushed to her and picked her up, bouncing her.
"What's going on?" I asked flatly, trying to sound like I was in authority. My stomach felt sick.
Ben was furious. "Calvin thinks he can just eat every damn thing in the house. He doesn't know how much groceries cost!"
I looked at Calvin, and Calvin's round face flushed with heat. "I can NEVER bring friends here, I just gave them some ramen noodles and Ben wont shut up about it!"
Ben interrupted him. "You and one other kid ate SEVEN cups of ramen! That's more then your entire family eats in one day you little pig! We were gonna eat that tonight you fat little bastard!"
I saw tears beading in Calvin's eyes. "You all hate me!" He bawled, trying to wipe his eyes with his bare arm and trying to keep the angry tears from his voice. "Every damn one of you!" He ran away and I swore under my breath. Lisse hiccupped a sob and bleated "Bad word Neiw, bad word!"
I shoved the groceries at Ben. "You're older than me! You should know better!" I bounced Lisse in my arms and ran after Calvin, hearing Ben sputter behind me.
I opened the door. Calvin was in the top bunk, facedown in the pillow, sobbing. Celia was in the bottom bunk, her homework on her lap, her forehead furrowed with stress.
"Here, hold Lisse." I murmured. Celia took Lisse and played patty-cake with her. Lisse didn't know how to sing the song, but she loved to clap hands together and babble nonsense-words. She was very vocal, even for a toddler.
"Patty-cake, patty-cake, bake-she a rake!! bwah bwah, cake fast as a can!"
I saw Calvin smiling as he sobbed. Lisse could make anyone smile when she didn't smell like shit. I put my hand on his shoulder, and I could feel the extra meat there. He was going to be overweight if he didn't watch it.
"That wasn't a smart thing to do." I murmured. "But Ben is overreacting, and I'm not mad at you. Just stay in here and I'll talk to him, okay?"
He nodded, not wanting to say anything when he was so upset.
---
"Let's go out for dinner."
Ben looked at me like I was crazy. "We can't afford that."
"I was just thinking McDonalds. I made an extra twenty bucks today helping Browning unload some supplies. That's more then enough for five meals as long as the kids get kid's meals." I couldn't tell if I was grateful or dismayed at how easily the lie rolled off of my tongue. We had more money now, and whenever we bought something, I just said that I had unloaded for Mr. Browning. How much longer could I use that excuse?
He turned, his face was red. "Are we rewarding Calvin for eating seven meals by buying him another one? What's wrong with you? And besides, that should go towards paying Rosa, or groceries, or--"