When he arrived in Lima, the place which he would be calling home from this point forward, Blaine was exhausted. The train journey felt as though it had lasted a year, and the main thing on his troubled mind was sleep. On the way, he had counted $302 in his bag. That would be enough to check into a hotel and get by for a few days, at least. He reassured himself that by the time his funds had run dry, he would have found a job.
Continuing to tell himself that everything was going to work out calmed him a little – even though he was far from being convinced.

After wandering around the city like a lost sheep for just over thirty minutes, Blaine emitted a sigh of relief, once a hotel finally came into view. There was so much that he knew needed to be planned out, but his head was pounding, his stomach felt sick, and his legs were growing tired. The decision that everything serious could wait until the morning was an easy one.
He entered the hotel, greeted the friendly-looking lady at the desk, and booked a room with a single bed. Room 23 was nicer than he had expected it to be, with a modern looking TV, shower and internet access, but specifics didn't matter right now. He didn't even bother changing before getting into bed. Although Blaine's body was desperate for some rest, his mind seemed adamant to stop that from happening.

Worries about tomorrow, and disgust at his father hitting him – actually hitting him – were two of the many things that were managing to prevent him from getting the sleep that he genuinely needed. He tried to shut the bad thoughts out."Stop thinking too much, idiot. It's not like anyone's going to miss me. Not even Mom and D–" But Blaine stopped that thought, before he finished the sentence in his mind.

His mother would care.

She was probably the only person in the world that would care, and now, guilt was thrown into the mess of emotions stirring in a boy that was too young to deal with all of this.
Once he had spent at least an hour tossing and turning, trying everything he could think of to block out the horrible thoughts in his mind, Blaine eventually fell asleep, with tears still drying on his face.

He dreamed of his mother.
In the dream, she didn't say anything. She simply sat alone in their living room, crying. Blaine had taken his first steps in that room. He used to watch TV, curled up on the sofa beside his mother, in the exact same spot that he could now see her sitting in, trying to hide her tears from her drunken husband.
The hands that Blaine used to hold while he crossed the road, because it was scary without a grown-up, were now being held out, in an attempt to defend herself as her husband tried to hit her. Then, screaming was the only thing that Blaine could hear.
He ran toward his father, ready to lunge at him, when –

Blaine felt his body jerk forward as he frantically awoke, sweating a little. Glancing to the side, he noticed that the small clock on his bedside table read "07:49". It was earlier than he was used to, but that dream definitely wasn't something he wanted to be thrown back into.

Once he had showered and eaten the breakfast that was included with his hotel stay, Blaine left, and began to explore the city. Each time he passed by an open store, he stopped to inquire about whether or not they had any jobs available. The first five had nothing available, but that didn't worry him. Then the next ten had nothing to offer.

Slightly more worrying.

All of the managers apologized with a lack of sincerity, said how the recession had hit everyone pretty hard, and sent Blaine on his way. Annoyed and nervous with how bad things were beginning to look, he drearily continued to look for somewhere, anywhere, to offer him something.

He found nothing.

Seeing as he had run away before finishing school, Blaine was fully aware that a low-paying job in a grocery store, or something of the sort, was the best that he could hope for. But that was okay. That was all that he wanted for now. Just enough to get by, and start anew – away from his past.

He stopped his search to have dinner, then again to rest his legs when he came across a park that was lined with benches. A couple of children were playing nearby, chasing each other on the grass, and Blaine managed to crack a smile for the first time in two days at how happy and innocent they seemed. He watched two little girls laughing on a swing set. It reminded him of the countless times he had begged his own mother to take him to the park a few blocks away from their house, and how she –
Oh. His mother.
The smile quickly faded, until his expression was blank. "This is pointless," he mumbled to himself, running a hand through his hair. This place seemed to be pretty big, and although he was beginning to panic, Blaine kept stupidly reassuring himself that if he didn't find something today, there had to be somewhere else that would want him tomorrow.

Until the sky had darkened and the temperature had fallen, Blaine stayed in the park, smiling faintly to himself at the loud conversations that the children were having while they played. One of the mothers who had arrived and sat on the same bench as Blaine struck up a conversation with him. She proudly pointed toward a little boy that Blaine assumed was no more than six or seven. He was right. The woman, who introduced herself as Kathy, informed him that her son had just turned six.
As they talked, Blaine watched the young boy run across the grass with quite a large group of his friends, laughing as they played around with a ball. It was obvious how much this woman loved her child, and as she talked about how proud she was of all of his little achievements, it caused a lump to form in Blaine's throat. He wanted nothing more than to break down and cry about everything he had been forced to go through, but instead, he hid how he truly felt.
He made up stories about his perfect family who lived nearby. He shared the hilarious tales behind a few of the fake happy childhood memories that he had always longed for. The stories about the crazy antics he had gotten up to with the friends he never had. The non-existent happy times he had spent with his family, that had all been fabricated on the spot.
He watched the little boy laugh with his friends, and remembered what it had felt like to sit alone and talk to himself, while the other boys laughed and played, when Blaine was only six.

They carried on with their light-hearted conversation as normal, until it was time for Kathy and her son to go home, and time for Blaine to come back to reality. He watched them walk away, hand in hand, and smiled weakly at the sight, feeling bittersweet.

It was after nine pm, and it had gotten fairly cold. Deciding that heading back to the hotel was the best option, Blaine stood up, put his hands into his pockets to keep them warm, and left the park. He accidentally turned left instead of right in the unfamiliar city, and walked in the wrong direction for ten minutes. Then, he almost bumped into a pole, which was enough to make him realize that he needed to pay more attention to what was going on around him, and stop over-thinking. His mind was overwhelmed, and it was giving him a headache.

It wasn't until he had walked for over half an hour and passed all of the places which had turned him away, that Blaine noticed just how many stores he had inquired in, and just how much ground had been covered today. Once it was clear that he was still going in the right direction, a quick break, leaning against a wall to rest his legs seemed necessary. He momentarily let his eyes fall shut as he took in a deep breath of cold air, in an attempt to clear his mind a little.

It didn't work.

The money that was left would only guarantee one more night in the hotel, then there was food to worry about, and...

Blaine worried his bottom lip between his teeth, staring blankly at the ground, as he tried to come up with some way of getting around this.

Several people had walked past Blaine and had paid no attention to him, but no more than two minutes had passed when a man who appeared to be in his early thirties, or possibly late twenties, approached him.

"... How much?"
"Sorry, what?" Blaine raised an eyebrow as he leaned a little closer to the man, assuming he had misheard him, after making no sense of the question he had been asked. The stranger seemed... uncomfortable? Blaine wasn't sure if that was it. He wasn't making eye contact, and he kept his voice relatively low, which made it difficult for Blaine to hear him.
"I said... how much? How much do you charge?"
There was no mistaking what had been asked, this time.
"Oh, I – no, no, I'm not –" Blaine stepped away from the wall he had been leaning against, suddenly realizing what this must have looked like.
"No, I was just leaning here, I – I'm not.." The stranger didn't appear to be embarrassed, or taken aback. Instead, he let out a quiet laugh. Blaine simply stared, unsure of what to do. He noticed the man looking up and down at his body, before meeting the younger boy's widened eyes for the first time. He smiled, while Blaine stared blankly. "Name your price. I'll meet it." Blaine took a step back. "No, I – I mean, I'm... I..."

He could feel his hands starting to tremble slightly. "You can fool yourself all you want, Blaine. With your qualifications, the chances of you getting a job tomorrow are as good as they were today," he thought to himself. But... could he really do this? Could he sink this low? He had convinced himself that anything was better than home, but... this?

"What do you... want, exactly?" Blaine realized how stupid the question was, once he heard it out loud, and felt disgusted with himself for even considering the proposal. "Look, you're a pretty boy. And you don't seem to be slow. I'm not going to force anything on you, but my offer stands. I'll meet your price, because you're definitely the best looking I've seen around here."

After the bewilderment of somebody actually finding him appealing had sunk in, half of Blaine's mind seemed to be screaming at him to run away. The other half was telling him to give in, because it had already lost all hope.
He was Blaine Anderson. A worthless, unqualified teenager, who barely had enough money to survive for the rest of the week. He had almost no self-respect, as it was. He had nothing to live for. He was lonely. He was empty, with no motivation.

He was broken.

As he fearfully looked into the eyes that were locked onto his, Blaine inhaled shakily.
If he did said yes to this, maybe he could get enough money to get by until he somehow found a job. A real job.
If he didn't say yes to this, he knew that he would end up sleeping on the streets by the end of the week, and who knows what that could lead to.

After a brief moment of silence, Blaine's stomach felt sick as he nervously nodded his head, and broke eye contact with the man. All day long, he had struggled to find any sort of solution to his lack of money, and regardless of how disgusting it made him feel, this offer was the only thing that could actually work. What choice did he have?

Feeling terrified, he blinked back tears and whispered out a timid "... Okay. I'll do it."