I sat there on the bench outside of my school cafeteria with my best friend since grade school. She was chatting away about some guy that bumped into her in the hallway. We were the popular girls. The prettiest of the pretty. And I, well I was what they called the leader of the pack. Yay, for me. I loved the attention but sometimes it would bite me in the ass. I'd say I'm pretty and not because I'm arrogant or conceited. I had confidence and sometimes that came off rudely. I was nearing 5'10' and was only 110 pounds. I was blonde and had green eyes. I was always tanned and I made our school outfits look, well more like what you'd see at a club. But my legs...Well my legs were longer than my freaking body. So it made my skirts look really short. I hated them sometimes, my legs that is. But when I needed them, they did their job.
"Vanessa? Have you heard a word I've said?" my friend, Ashley asked. She was pretty to. Blonde hair, blue eyes, about 5'5. She was the real spoiled brat, not me.
"No sorry. I kinda zoned out." I told her apologizing.
"You okay?" she asked. I nodded as the bell rang to go back to class. Then stopped.
"Hey, Ash. Tell Mr. Jones that I wasn't feeling good. Get my work and bring it to me. I'm gonna go home and chill." She nodded and walked away. I went to my car and drove off. I hated this school but I had to graduate at the top or my money would be gone. Yes, I'm spoiled too but jeeze, you'd like it too if money was always being thrown your way. Besides, I only had a few more months 'till graduation. Goodbye white shirt, plaid skirts and irritating squeals of the girls that gathered around my boyfriend. Yeah, I got one alright. High school hottie, football and baseball player, dirty blond hair, blue eyes and built like a marine. He thought he was all that, he though I was all that, but he wasn't. It's high school. In a few months he'd be at the mercy of being a freshman again when he started college. My parents thought I was going to college. I had other plans. I was going to take a break. Find the real me. Do things I wanna do. Not shop, tan and talk about who Lindsey or Paris is sleeping with. I wanted to find the real me.
Now I wasn't what everyone thought I was. They thought I was a spoiled innocent little rich girl...Adjectives are my favorites. Anyways, I had a wild side. I had friends out side of school. People that saw through the prettiness and big house. My friends would flip if they knew but I liked it. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't like really wild. I didn't like do drugs or drink way too much. But I went to a few parties and got a little wasted. Nothing like I was with Ash. We might be pretty but we couldn't be sluts. We didn't drink. We stayed by our man, well boy. We had too look innocent. Ya see, we were the popular ones that were smart. Not the popular ones that were not so smart. They slept around, we didn't. Well, they didn't. I'd never tell Ash but I wasn't exactly a virgin. I've had a few one night stands but nothing big. But I was far from a whore or slut. My own boyfriend didn't even know I wasn't a virgin but that was okay. I knew he wasn't. He slept around on me. He would never admit it but he slept around on me. I was okay with that. I didn't want a boy, I wanted a man. If I only knew where that was going to get me.
"Duncan, you here?" I called as I entered my house. Duncan was my step-father. He was okay. I played nice so I could get my share of the money I was entitled too. Why was I entitled? Well, because I had proof he was sleeping around on my mom, with girls my age, girls I knew. It was hush money but I took it. My mom wasn't my best friend. My dad was. Was being the operative word, he died about two years ago. Right after y sweet sixteen. It tore me up. He was my world. I was a Daddy's girl in all ways. It was after that, that I changed. That's when I started hanging out with Heather. I'd met her at the mall. She was pretty, she had what it would take to be popular except for one thing. Money. She came from the bad side of town. Her brother was in a well known gang. She kept me away from that. It was fine with me. Sure she hung out with them too but she wanted a life away from drugs and guns.
"Duncan!" I yelled again for my wannabe father. I walked into the kitchen and found a note on the fridge.
'Nessa, Your mom went out of town. I went out too. Be back tomorrow morning. Dun.'
"Great! Probably out with Melissa Wineheart. She said she had big places tonight. So what to do now?" I asked myself as I turned around in the empty kitchen. On the counter I saw a few bills.
"Ohh...Duncan left me cash." I smiled as I counted out four one hundred dollar bills. "Huh, a little extra today. Maybe it's not Melissa." I said. A few minutes later my cell rang.
"Looky here! She knows when I got money. Hello!" I said as I answered.
"Hey! What's up? Tell me you step-monster has plans because I need to have fun." she asked barley taking a breath.
"Yes, he does and he left me a nice wad of cash too. So what are the plans?" I asked joggin up the stairs to my room.
"Well, I'll meet you at the Diner like usual, my brother is home tonight, but meet me there at...oh let's say 7 sharp. And we'll wing it from there." I told her that was fine and went to jump in the shower. On my way out my bedroom door I saw the picture of my dad. He was a good looking man for his age. He was 47 when he passed and had not one light hair on his full head of hair to show for it. He was tall and still pretty well built. I got my tallness from him. He was almost 6'4". My mom was about 5'4" so I got the little shortness from her. I picked the picture up and placed a kiss on it. A half an hour later I was done and out of my shower.
"Okay now what to wear?" I asked myself as I stood in the towel in my closet. "It's a pretty warm night so how's about a skirt?" I pulled out a dark blue denim skirt, along with a black strapless top that came down about five inches from the bottom of my skirt. I got dressed and looked at myself in the mirror. "Hummm...shoes?" I then pulled out a pair of black flip flops that had fake diamonds on them. I looked at myself one last time before grabbing my purse and leaving. "Dressed to kill."
I pulled into the Diner and saw Heather inside but she wasn't alone. She had like four other guys with her. She looked annoyed to. I figured it must have been her brother and his friends being that they were all covered in tattoos. One guy looked to young and scrawny to be in a gang. I hesitated going in because I knew she didn't want me around them. But I thought what the hell. Just one meeting, just one time. Right?
"Heather!" I called walking into the Diner. She looked up and went pale. She quickly stood up and ran over to me.
"What are you doing? Can't you put two and two together? They have tattoos and are big and scary, didn't you get they were in a gang?" she kept asking all these questions.
"Yeah but I didn't think it would be a big deal." I told her. Then I saw them getting up and walking toward us. Three of the were white, one black. They all had tribal tattoo's everywhere, except the skinny one. He had tattoo's but not like the others. They all looked scary and bad but one...The tallest one...There was something about him. He had that presence that said he was it. He was the one you don't fuck with. He had this vibe that said if you talk shit, you'll get hit. And well, my god the boy was gorgeous. Well, he looked nothing like a boy, he was pure man.
"So whose this?" asked the skinny white boy looking me up and down. Paying special attention to my legs.
"A friend. Now stop staring at her. She' s not a piece of meat." Heather snapped at him. "Vanessa, this is my brother Baggy..." She said pointing to one of the guys, "this is Bodie..." pointing to the black man, "Joe..." pointing to the one that was still staring at me...well they were all staring, "and Billy, Joe's older brother." she said finally pointing to the big man. He was tall...and lean. Built to. I could only imagine what he looked like without that black shirt on. The thought made me smile. "Guys, this is my friend Vanessa. Now if you don't mind, we're going out."
We went to leave but her brother...Baggy was his name, weird...grabbed her hand. "Where?"
"Out." was all she said.
"No, how 'bout you pretty little things come hang out with us?" said Bode smiling. He seemed nice enough and actually looked like he had some sort of common sense. Heather started to say no but Baggy and Joe agreed.
"No! We want to have fun. Now go away." she said, trying to walk away again.
"Please, just for a few. If you ain't having any fun by..." Bode said looking at his watch " 9pm, you girls can leave. At least give us 'till then?" he asked and smiled again. Heather looked at me and I shrugged. She said fine and we headed outside. When I walked up to my car I heard someone whistle, it was Joe.
"You a rich bitch?" he asked as he looked over my car, it was an Audi.
"Yeah. Are you a poor bastard?" I asked back. He just stared at me while everyone else laughed, well all except for Billy. He hadn't said one word, not even a sound. Come to think of it he hadn't changed his facial expression at all. I was starting to think it was stuck.
We got in and followed the boys to what I assumed was Billy and Joe's place. We got out and walked into the building and up three floors. When we walked in there was at least 15 people there. All drinking, smoking and well some making out...and doing drugs. Heather told me they wouldn't push drugs on me, they knew better than to do that to a girl.
"Wow! A gang with morals." I said sarcastically. Heather just laughed and got us a beer. I looked around. It looked like a party. The room was crammed full, it was smokey and the music was loud. It was a pretty cool vibes though. I spotted Billy over on the couch with a smutty looking girl in his lap. As a matter of fact there was a lot of girls around him. But he expression was still stone cold.
"So...What's his deal?" I asked Heather. She looked over and shook her head.
"He's just pissed. He's not so bad on his good day. Everyone's scared of him. The boys practically bow down to him. But he keeps shit in order." she said dragging me into the living room where people were dancing. We started dancing and laughing having a good time. We had a few more beers and by the time 9 came around Bode called us over. He was in the kitchen with Billy.
"So you having fun?" he asked knowing he was right.
"Yes, Bode. We are having fun. Thank you for suggesting this. You can say I told you so, if a want." I said laughing and swaying a bit.
"Well, I told you so!" he said and walked off grabbing Heather's arm and going to dance. It was silent as I turned back to Billy. His face had softened a little.
"So are you the strong but silent brooding type?" I asked hoping onto the counter making sure to cross my legs so I didn't flash anyone. He leaned back on the counter across form me and stared at me.
"I'll take that as a yes. A know some girls like that." There was still silence. "But with your posses of hookers I betch knew that already, huh?" I asked. He smirked a little and put out his cigarette.
"What makes you think they are hookers?" he asked. God, his voice was deep. Husky. Sexy...hamm. Why didn't he talk more?
"Are you kidding me? Look at them." I said hoping of the counter and turning to look at them behind me. "They look like hookers. I betch they even smell like hookers. I bet you smell like a hooker right now!" I exclaimed standing next to him and leaning back. He looked over at me and smiled.
"Who are you?" he asked turning to me fully. I leaned up to his ear and put a hand on his chest.
"Whoever you want me to be?" I whispered.
