Your Favorite Girl (YFG Series) (11 page)

Mr.
Shriver proved less congenial.  He started grinding his teeth, his heavy lower jaw like that of a cow chewing the cud.  If I'm good at anything, it's detecting people's moods.  You tend to develop that ability when you live with an asshole.  Mr. Shriver's face was cold, his eyes deep and black.

"You're a woman, aren't you?"
he said, the whole question coming out like one long grunt.

Brian laughed maniacally, and the pianist hit
another wrong note.

There was no point in holding back now. 
The venom in that question was the tipping point.  I wanted to kill him.

Still, my fate rested in his hands, and like every rich man I'd ever met, only two things mattered to him: money and sex.  I couldn't compete with his product, so Ted's
estate was all the leverage I had.

"A million dollars a day," I said.  "Right?  Give me what I paid for and keep billing me.  Flora is mine until the money runs out."

"And then what?" Mr. Shriver asked.  "Turn you loose?"

"She can live with me," Kate said.

He folded his arms and nodded, smiling.  "Come here, darling."

She went to him slowly, like a child who knows she's in trouble.
  Mr. Shriver wasted no time.  The moment she was within reach, he grabbed her by the bicep and popped her in the mouth with his fist.  Then he slapped her so hard she fell to the floor, sobbing and cupping her chin to collect the blood.

"I'll work for you," I said.

He laughed. 
"Doing what?"

Patton raised his hand.  "I put in for a new teacher's assistant three months ago."

"I know," Mr. Shriver said.  "You remind me every goddamn day."

"Well?"

"Her?"

"Why not?"

"We can't trust
her
."

"We don't need to," Patton said.  "She'll never be without a teacher's supervision, and when the work day is over she'll be delivered immediately back to Kate's room.
  I'll assume responsibility for her."

Mr. Shriver considered Patton's request, ruminating amidst
the chaotic section of the song.  It took me a moment to realize he and Sean were looking at each other.

Sean said, "Collect the estate, delay penalty."

Mr. Shriver nodded.

"What did I do wrong?" I asked, regretting it immediately.

Mr. Shriver turned operatic.  He literally sashayed as he spoke: "Well, now, according to Mr. Moses here, you lured him away from his supervisory position and drugged him.  You
slut
.  And now that I think about it, that violation invalidates your contract.  Brian, get the girl."

"
Clifton," Brian said, "get the girl."

"Naw,
naw
," Clifton said, shaking his head vigorously.  "He said you, Brian!"

Brian sighed and stomped his feet as he stood.  He left the circle of chairs and went around the corner of the L-shaped room.  The music stopped, and a moment later Flora emerged, both eyes swollen and purple, with dried blood crusted on one temple.  She wore
the same dress in which she'd been delivered: a transparent white that plainly showed her naked body underneath.  Despite the beating she'd received, her hair was freshly combed.

We locked eyes immediately, and as she approached I couldn't help but notice the change in atmosphere.  Every person in the room was drawn to her, every demeanor lightened.  Sean even lowered his blade and turned to stare at her, a breathtaking beauty, even with
black eyes and swollen cheeks.

Was that provision really in the contract?

Flora stepped into the circle of chairs and stood there with her fingers interlocked against her midriff, studying Mr. Moses, her mouth slightly open.

"I want to see it," I said.

At first Mr. Shriver didn't know I was talking to him.  He did a double-take, then said, "What?"

"I want to see my contract
," I said.  "You say I violated it by drugging Mr. Moses.  I want to see that rule."

Patton shook his head
, sighing, and my heart sank.  I don't know if I was afraid for myself or hurt for having let him down.  He spoke with regret in his voice.  "It's true, Melissa.  Only the client is permitted to ingest the chemical.  It's a standard violation."

"Sean," Mr. Shriver said
, "if you will."

Sean didn't hide his eagerness.  He
was upon Flora in a flash, dragging her first to a table between two of the leather chairs, where he scooped up the roll of duct tape he'd uses to tie Mr. Moses, and then onto the platform, where he taped her to the poll, wrists first, then ankles.

As her skirt hem tickled his bald head,
Flora began to shake like a leaf, though she expressed no emotion on her face, numbed, perhaps, by the beating someone had given her.

Her ankles secured,
Sean stood and turned in my direction.  I didn't realize he was looking right at me until he removed his glasses.

Brian had irises th
at looked like galaxies; Patton a bright, glowing sky-blue color; and Mr. Shriver's were solid black.  Clifton's eyes were normal, if a little misaligned.

Sean, though, had solid white
irises that matched the rest of his eyes, which seemed to bulge from their sockets, his tiny black pupils dancing about as if independent from the eyes themselves.

Who were these people?  Were they human?  Half-humans born of an extraterrestrial father?

He drew his blade once more and began to circle the pole, studying the torsos of Flora and Mr. Moses, as if deciding where first to plunge his knife.

I looked to Patton for help.  He sighed and put his arm around me, pulling me to him.  I fell to pieces, starved as I was of the slightest comfort.
  He hugged me close and I tugged on his shirt, crying into his chest, while Kate stared at us, bewildered and hurt.

"Don't kill them girls."
  It was Mr. Moses.  I hadn't heard him speak since before I drugged him, sealing his fate with my selfish desire for revenge.  "Please don't do it, Mr. Sean."

Sean stepped up to him casually.  "I'm going to cut her tit off and stuff it in your mouth."  Then he
moved around to the other side of the platform.

Flora's breathing quickened.

"No, stop!  I did it!"

"You did what?" Patton asked loudly.

"I drugged myself," Mr. Moses said.  "Told Mrs. Reed I'd kill her if she told the truth.  I did it."  Then he started laughing maniacally, his voice so deep and strong that it echoed from every corner of the library.  "Whew, what a ride!  I gotta give it to you, Brian, that was some funky shit.  Couldn't resist no more."

Patton grabbed me by the shoulders and lifted my chin with his finger.  "Is that true?" he asked.  "Did he drug himself?"  His eyes were so close and so bright I couldn't even see his face.

I wanted to say yes, but I couldn't condemn the man again.  I was in a catch-22.  Say yes and Mr. Moses dies.  Say no and Flora dies.

"Ain't that right, Mrs. Reed?" the battered deliveryman shouted.
  "I fucked yo' Favorite Girl before you ever got a chance, and since I work for this company, that makes the company liable.  Tell these crazy-eyed crackers.  Ain't that right, Mr. Shriver, sir?  Ain't no such thing as a pre-fucked virgin.  I do believe you owe Mrs. Reed a discount."

Mr. Shriver was laughing, inaudible at first but gaining volume as Mr. Moses spoke.

I wiped my tears and looked up at Mr. Moses, strung up like a piece of meat, panting, weakened from the pain and blood loss.  I surveyed each wound, scanning his entire body all the way up to his wrists, which were bound with Flora's.

The
two of them were holding hands.

Sean was running the tip of his knife up and down Flora's stomach.  Brian had returned to his chair, once again checking his email or playing a game on his phone. 
Clifton sat at the edge of his seat, licking his lips, waiting.

Mr. Shriver plopp
ed back into his chair, his laughter turned to coughing.

"I tell you what," he said when he finally cleared his throat.  "Tomorrow, Kate will show take you down to the Showcase Hall and you can pick a brand-new, one-hundred percent virginal Favorite Girl.  It would be unfair of me to charge you for a defective product."

I opened my mouth to speak just as Sean plunged the knife into Flora's throat, but all that came out was a whimper.  Blood gushed out of her neck, a crimson waterfall, soaking her white dress.

I fell to the floor and vomited.

Mr. Moses began to scream.

─A Girl's Night─

BRIAN ESCORTED Kate and me back to the room while Patton assisted Clifton in collecting the bodies and transporting them to Level A, the floor Clifton supervised, apparently.  Before Brian ushered us out of the library, I heard someone say something about an incinerator.

He locked us in the room and I immediately ran to the bed and hid myself under the covers, crying
for half an hour before finally passing out.

When I awoke, the lights were off and Kate lay at the foot of the bed watching a movie
at low volume.  She had stripped off her dress and lay on her stomach wearing nothing but red panties, her feet in the air, her toes wriggling.  In her left hand she held a half-eaten red delicious apple, its skin black in the glow of the enormous flat screen.

"What are you watching?"

"I don't know what it's called," she said, giggling.  "It's pretty funny though."

"Funny?"

She glanced over at me.  "Kinda."

I sat up slowly, my body stiffened and aching.  "How can you laugh at anything right now?"

"I don't know," Kate said.  "I guess it gets easier to deal with."

"What?  Murder?"

"Seeing someone die."

"They didn't just
die
, they were
butchered!"
  I was furious.  I wanted to jump on top of her and push her face into the pillow.  "Flora didn't even do anything!"

Kate sat up, wrapping the sheet around herself.
  "None of them do anything," she said with a slightly snarky tone.  "That's just the way it works.  You have to learn to deal with it or you'll never make it here."

She had a point, but right now I didn't care.

"How many people have you seen them kill?"

"I don't know."

"A lot?"

"No, most just special occasions.  They have parties sometimes and big executives from all over the world come to get drunk and play with the used Favorite Girls.  I don't get to attend those parties, but I've seen girls being wheeled
out before, cut all to pieces.  There's one guy in particular, Yakov.  Russian guy.  Patton told me he buys a used Doll Girl every time he comes here just so he can kill her.  One time--"

"Stop."  I couldn't take anymore.  I had so many questions.  "How many types of Favorite Girls are there?"

"Eight right now.  Apparently more are in development."

"What's a Doll Girl?"

Kate shook her head, visibly upset.  "I can't--you'll just have to see.  Mr. Shriver said to take you to the Showcase Hall so you can pick a new girl tomorrow.  Of course, there won't be another Flora Girl for a few more weeks."

"Why not?"

"The next one in line isn't eighteen yet."

"Tell me how that works."

"I don't know the whole process," she said.  "They keep me in the dark.  Patton put in for the new teacher's assistant position for
me
.  I was
supposed
to get that."

"I thought you liked your job."

"While I'm working, yeah, because I take the Libido Drug and it makes me hot for whatever asshole strolls through the door.  But then I come back here and I'm alone and I go to bed every night wanting to kill myself."

My rage began to taper off.  I had to remind myself
how terrible her conditions were.  Sex goddess by day, rape victim by night.

"I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault."

"If I'd never come here, none of this would have happened."

"You didn't know what you were getting yourself into.  I didn't either.  I was just a high school student trying to pay my car insurance with a part-time job.  Then one night while I was closing up, Patton appeared out of nowhere, which scared me because I'd already locked the door.  I had no idea about the hidden elevator, any of this stuff.  I do remember men going behind the counter to the back office and disappearing for a long time, then reemerging later looking messy and smelling like sex.  I just thought the store manager was gay and had a lot of boyfriends."

I laughed, surprising myself.

"So he just offered you a job out of nowhere?"