Olivia ran one hand through the fog on the bathroom mirror. When she saw the end of the tattoo that curled around her collarbones like a necklace she tried to reposition herself to hide it.
She sighed and cleared off more of the mirror. She looked over her body with sad, tired eyes. She held her hands in front of her breasts, trying to remember what she had looked like before getting implants. She wondered if she would ever be able to get them out, to have the tattoo removed, and to somehow go back to who she used to be. She looked at the scars on her forearms and upper thighs and she felt like she could cry.
"Hurry up in there!" A shouting voice accompanied a pounding at the door. "Some of us have to get to work!"
"I'm sorry!" Olivia pulled her baggy sweatshirt over her head. She wrapped a towel around her wet hair and another around her hips. She grabbed her clothes from the floor and rushed out.
"I don't know why you can't wait until we leave to shower. It's not like you have a job," her roommate Nick said to her in an annoyed tone. "Did you at least leave some hot water this time?"
"I'm sorry." Olivia couldn't look at him. He wasn't angry, just irritated, but it was still more than she could handle. She rushed to the apartment's small living room, pulling a makeshift curtain shut behind herself.
She didn't have many clothes, so it didn't take her long to select an outfit. She dressed in baggy cargo pants, a sports bra, and her baggy black hooded sweatshirt. Her blonde hair was still wet, but she took off the towel to let it air dry.
"Are you dressed? Can I come in?" The voice accompanied a gentle knock on the wall just past the curtain.
She hurried over to pull the curtain aside for her other roommate, Keith. She mumbled another apology and rushed back to pick up her clothes from the floor by the couch.
"No, don't do that," Keith told her. He put his hands on her shoulders. "Don't apologize for being here. It's okay. We're happy to help you out until you're on your feet. Nick is just annoyed, he's not mad at you."
Olivia looked at him and nodded, but she still winced when she heard the shower stop.
"I'm going to go get ready for work," Keith said. "Let's talk after. Come meet us at O'Connor's around five and we can help you figure out a plan, okay?"
Olivia nodded.
"Okay?" Keith asked more intensely, shaking her gently by her shoulders.
"Okay," Olivia managed, a small smile touching her lips.
*****
Olivia had met Keith on the bus two weeks earlier. It was after her second night in a homeless shelter, and she was on the edge of tears at the prospect of going back. Keith had sat across the aisle from her and asked her what was wrong.
They talked for a while. Keith missed his stop, and they got off together at the next one. He bought her a sandwich and told her she could stay with him and his roommate until she figured things out.
Olivia couldn't tell Keith much about herself. She didn't know who she was or where she was from. She couldn't tell him that she had been kept as a slave in an old industrial building. That she didn't know her real name, that she was known as Whore Seven until she escaped. She had heard the name Olivia on the radio and decided she liked it.
She couldn't tell him that she had only vague memories of her childhood or her parents. She had spent a long time in a haze of drugs. After that she had been kept in a cage like an animal, taken out to be exercised, bathed, or fucked.
She told him that she didn't know where her family was or how to find them. She told him that she didn't have any money or ID, but she was sure she could pay him back when she found out who she was. She told him that he was the only the second person she could ever remember being kind to her.
*****
Olivia knocked on the pub's window, hoping to get Keith's attention. Nick looked up instead. He let out an exhausted sigh when he saw the sad look in her eyes. He tapped Keith on the shoulder.
Keith looked up at her and smiled. He waved her over. Olivia put up her hands in a helpless gesture and shook her head. Keith said something to Nick, then stood up and left the table. A minute later he walked up to Olivia outside the bar.
"They wouldn't let me in without an ID," Olivia explained.
"Of course. I'm sorry. Maybe we can just get a coffee and take a walk instead."
Olivia nodded. It was a beautiful spring evening. She felt warm in her oversized sweatshirt, but she didn't dare take it off and reveal her body.
They walked and talked. Keith offered suggestions for how she could figure out who she was. Olivia didn't want to go back to the shelter and was terrified of the police. She had been taken out to fuck enough officers when she was known as Whore Seven, and she was terrified one of them would take her back to the place she had escaped.
They were walking through a park and discussing how they might use social media when a sound made Olivia freeze.
"Good girl!" A woman said to a large, fluffy dog as she took a tennis ball from the dog's mouth.
Olivia's body locked up. Her nipples were suddenly hard and sensitive, and the confinement of her sports bra chafed her. Her pussy felt warm and swollen, and the scratchy fabric of her cargo pants was unbearable. She felt like she could orgasm at the slightest movement. She clamped her thighs together and couldn't take another step.
"Are you okay?" Keith reached out to touch her arm. She felt weak and dropped her latte on the pavement. She wasn't sure how she was still standing.
"Let's get you home." Keith's eyes were confused and kind.
*****
"Are you afraid of dogs? Did that Newfie scare you?" Keith asked. He hadn't talked on the walk home, and Olivia had hoped he wouldn't say anything about it.
"No, that's not it. Just please, don't..." she pleaded weakly.