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Has it only been a week? It feels like forever, but I push the thought away. It doesn’t matter right now.
“You have no idea what the situation is,” I say. Would I rather be on the floor than be constantly used as Giulio’s sex toy? To have to spread my legs for him as well as Damien and Slayer any time they want me? To know they’re trying their best to get me pregnant and tie me to them forever? In this moment, I’m honestly not sure.
“Ignore them,” Stef says to me. “They’re just jealous Giulio likes you more.” She takes my hand and leads me to the couch on the far end of the room, then leans close to whisper, “Thank you, by the way. For the other day. I really… I really appreciated you comforting me.”
I sit down next to her, and I offer a faint smile. “I’m just sorry I can’t do more, Stef,” I say quietly. “I really, really am.”
“It’s okay. We’re all in the same boat,” Stef says softly. “We all have nowhere else to go, no other options.”
I nod, though I hate myself for just agreeing with her. But where else would she end up? They have her addicted to drugs, in debt to them because of their fucked-up system, and she has nothing to call her own. They have her trapped, and it’s as much slavery as anything else. “I’m sorry,” I say again, because I can’t think of anything else to say.
I don’t tell her that I’m not in the same boat at all, that I once could have taken my father’s money and finished college, gotten a normal job, and left the dark underbelly of the cities behind.
There’s an awkward silence, where we both don’t know how to continue the conversation. I don’t actually know anything about Stef, and I don’t want to do the kind of small talk that students on campus would default to.Where are you from? What are you studying? Do you have siblings, pets, a significant other?
Thankfully I’m saved from having to think of new, less invasive questions, by Elena entering the backstage. Both Traci and Cat share giggles and turn away from her. I notice the other women avoid her gaze too, as if the scars are contagious.
“Stef, you haven’t gotten started at all?” Elena asks sternly. “We open in half an hour!”
Stef scrambles up to her feet, looking guilty. “I’m sorry,” she says, heading straight to one of the vanities.
I appreciate that she doesn’t bring me up as the distraction that’s kept her away from her job, but I don’t want her to take full responsibility, either. “It was my fault,” I tell Elena. “I was distracting her.”
Elena frowns at me. “Well, you can make it up to her by helping apply her makeup.”
I don’t want to say that Stef would probably end up looking like a clown if I helped her. I wear very little, and the sort of elaborate makeup they use is beyond me. “I’m willing to learn how,” I tell her, heading over to the vanity Stef has claimed.
It’s uncomfortably close to Traci and Cat, who have taken to whispering between them, and I stay on the opposite side from them.
Elena hands me a small tube of foundation and a foam ball. “Here, get the foundation on her. What color palette do you want for tonight, Stef?”
Foundation is easy enough, at least. I wish I’d spent more time practicing with Lucia, who could look flawless in fifteen minutes flat. Even while we were trapped in that house, she put in the effort.
Or maybe she’d known that she had to look good or risk the consequences.
“Can you do something with pinks and purples?” Stef smiles shyly. One of her legs jitters while she talks. “I liked how you did my makeup last time.”
“Of course,” Elena answers smoothly. She picks up one of the eyeshadow pallets on the vanity, which has twenty pans of color in it. I wouldn’t even know where to start with that many. Elena catches my expression and purses her lips. “Have you done anything like this before?”
I shake my head and start applying the foundation to Stef’s face. “The most I do is foundation, powder, mascara, lipstick… maybe a little bit of eye shadow, but just in one color. I don’t know anything about blending or anything more advanced than that. I can learn, though,” I add hurriedly, wanting to feel like I can do something to help.
“All right. We’ll start with the base layer.” Elena pauses. “Well, if we had more tools available, we’d start with primers and toners, and we would probably have a better skincare regimen, but…”
Suddenly, Traci bursts out laughing. “Yeah, you’d need the skincare regimen, wouldn’t you.”
I whip my head around to stare at her, unable to believe what she’d just said. “Excuse you?” I demand, not even giving Elena or Stef a chance to respond.
“On account of, y’know, her face.” Traci smirks at me. “But no amount of cream is going to cover up that mess.”
The eyeshadow pallet clatters to the floor loudly. Elena’s hands shake, and she squeezes her eyes shut, breathing hard.
“Take that back!” Stef shouts, surprisingly boldly. “Like, what the fuck have we done to you that you’re such a bitch to us?”
“Oh, please,” Cat scoffs. “She’s just telling the truth. There isn’t enough primer or toner in the world to fix that ugly face.”
I’m seeing red. I can’t believe that they’d talk that way about Elena, especially when she’s right there. I don’t doubt they talk behind her back, but this? This is inexcusable. “You’re just jealous because she’s still beautiful, no matter what happened to her face,” I snap. “Unlike the two of you, who are so ugly on the inside that it’s a wonder it doesn’t show on the outside.”
Both Cat and Traci burst out laughing.
