Page 64 of Ruined
I texted back:What day?
Today, she responded.
And she hadn’t told me until now?
If I hurried and got ready for work before I left, I could make it and still be back in time for my shift. I didn’t want to miss seeing Lucas.Where?I sent.
School theater. Please don’t be mad.
Not mad. I’ll be there, I sent. And she responded with a smiley face. I texted Lucas before I could think better of it:Nora has a dance recital at 5. Want to come?
I stared at my phone for a few seconds; Lucas was usually pretty quick about texting me back. But this time, it took a couple of minutes before he responded. Standing behind Mel, I pulled my hair into a low bun and made small talk. I wore my lingerie under a dark shirt, a sweater, and leggings. I looked respectful enough for a rich kid’s dance recital, while still being ready for work.
Would love to, but can’t, he finally responded.Can’t wait to hear about it tonight.
I had figured as much, but it didn’t hurt to try. I told Mel to unplug the curling iron before she left, then headed to the academy.
The theater was draped in red curtains, with window boxes off to the side for theextremelyrich parents. The place was packed, though luckily not sold out, considering I had learned about the performance that evening. It made me happy that even if these kids were wealthy beyond my wildest dreams, they still had enough support at home that it was nearly a sold-out show. I sat at the very back and watched as the different groups bounced across the stage.
Then Nora pranced onto the stage with the rest of her troupe, and they all sat on the ground, their knees bent underneath them. The music started, and they clasped their hands to their heads as if about to scream, then rolled forward, stretching across the stage.
I should have been furious. Not only had Nora lied to me, but she had done the exact thing I had forbidden her to do. But I wasn’t mad. Not at all. Each time she stretched her legs and arms with her fellow dancers, they moved together, and I knew that all she wanted was to be like Mama. To be like me, too, probably. Why wouldn’t she want to learn how to dance, when her mother and her older sister did? And why should I shame her for wanting to learn?
All her life, I had done my best to follow Mama’s wishes, to not let any part of that world touch her. She knew I worked where Mama used to work, but she didn’t know what that truly meant.
But learning to dance didn’t seal Nora’s fate.
I didn’t need to be ashamed anymore. I would do the best that I could to keep Nora hidden, and that would keep her safe. I could even ask Lucas for help if I needed to.
That’s what people did when they cared about each other, right? They helped each other out.
***
Once inside of the Greenhouse, I ripped off my clothes down to my lingerie and slipped into stilettos. I had forgotten that I had set up a meeting with Aldrich, and was a half an hour late. We had scheduled this slot a long time ago, before he cut me. Before Lucas.
As usual, we met in the massage therapy themed room. He glared at me from the back corner, crossing his arms. Aldrich didn’t care for massages, but he liked the long table for the access it gave him to the entire body.
“I’m sorry I’m late,” I said.
“You’re late on my birthday,” he said. It was his birthday every other month. He used that line to make us feel obligated. We couldn’t questionwhenhis birthday was, for his fear that we would find out how old he actually was. I stopped questioning him long ago. “What are you going to do to make it up to me?”
Those kinds of guilty words were his way of poking at my virginity. But that no longer existed. Relief washed over me, replacing all of that old anxiety with a renewed sense of self. “Actually, I’d like to talk about our terms,” I said. I pulled up a scanned copy on my phone. This wasn’t going to end well, but it needed to be done. “You’ve broken my boundaries enough times. I’m done doing knife play with you.”
The muscles in his face and neck visibly tightened. “You must be mistaken,” he said slowly. “I have never broken your boundaries.”
“I never agreed to be cut. You know that.”
“And I know that those exact words aren’t written on that sheet.”
He was right about that. It was the explicitness ofI don’t want to bleedthat Dahlia didn’t want us to put in writing. We had agreed to knife play. Because ‘play’ made it seem innocent. A silly little game.
“You should reconsider what you’re proposing,” he said. “Without knife play, all we have left is your virginity. And we both know how you feel about that.”
I stared at him, resolute in my decision. “No more knife play.”
He sucked in a breath and looked away. “I’ve been meaning to tell you. The academy. A friend of mine said you were there. And I’d hate for the academy to find out about what it is that you do here, exactly. To send them proof. You know, that sort of thing.”
Damn it. Tina and the headmaster already knew about the Dahlia District, but if they had proof, photographic evidence of what I did here, would that screw Nora over completely this time?
