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Remi closed her eyes and shook her head. "I’m sorry, what?"
"I’m selling my virginity online," I repeated.
"Um, how?" Remi was super-intelligent so I figured this was less of an actual question and more of a statement along the lines of ‘what the fuckety fuck are you talking about?’
I pressed my hands on the table between us, spreading my fingers. "Don’t freak out, it’s all legit, all above board. I’m using a proper auction site…"
Her brows hitched so high they almost popped off her head.
"And… I’ve got a bidder."
Remi blinked again and sat forward, quite literally on the edge of her seat. “What?” She shook her head rigorously. “What’s going on, Rose?”
I took a deep breath. A lot had happened in the last three days. Too much to allow me to pause for a second to text my best friend. And news like this couldn’t be explained in 200 characters or less, which was why I’d finally insisted on meeting face-to-face when everyone else was no doubt still sleeping off their post-result hangovers.
She sucked on her water bottle, her eyes imprisoning me so I couldn’t escape.
“Okay, here goes,” I muttered, almost to myself. “When I got home from The Six the other night, Jeff hit me.”
Water came flying out of her mouth all over the table and two hands grabbed mine.
“He what?” Her voice was softer now.
I’d rehearsed it so I could sum up the whole horrid episode in one sentence. The more I dwelled on it, the more it felt like was all my fault, and I simply couldn’t afford to give in to that temptation. “He’d heard what I did to Penelope in The Six, and you know how he idolises her father… Well, he hit me.”
Remi pressed a hand over her mouth. “What did your mum say?”
My eyebrows twitched despondently. “Nothing. She didn’t even acknowledge it. Or my grades for that matter.”
“Are you being serious? You mum’s always been so protective of you… so proud.”
“Yeah, maybe.” I waved her off, not wanting to remember those days when they were so far removed from these.
“Did you try talking to her?”
I nodded. “She doesn’t want to know.”
I’d tried to talk to her again the following morning but she’d barely looked at me. She bustled around, her migraine clearly gone, too preoccupied to make time to speak to her own daughter. She’d behaved that way for a while, I reflected. For around three years if I really thought about it.
Remi’s eyes dropped to where her thumb brushed over the back of my hand. “This is why you’re selling your V-card?”
“Yeah,” I replied, quietly. “I need to get away from here. I’ve accepted a place at Edinburgh College of Art. I can get a loan to pay the fees; I just need to earn the money to pay rent. And find somewhere to live in the meantime.”
Her gaze flicked up at mine. “You have a whole summer to get through, Rose. Why don’t you stay at mine? Mum and Dad won’t mind – they adore you.”
I shook my head. “I love you for saying that Rem, but you don’t have the space, and I can’t stay around here. Not when Jeff and Penelope Ross are potentially around every corner.”
She reached out and lightly touched my cheek, only just noticing the bruise I’d tried to cover with makeup I rarely wore. “I can’t believe he did that to you.”
I swallowed back the ball of emotion hovering in the base of my throat. I wasn’t sad for myself; I was sad for my mum. Jeff had done something to her, pacified her. She had no energy these days, only damn migraines, and I was old enough to sort my own shit out. So that’s exactly what I was doing.
“Wait…” Remi squeezed her eyes shut then pinged them open sharply. “You said you’ve got a bidder? Someone has bid on your virginity? Back up a little. I need information. Where are you auctioning yourself off? How exactly does it work? And…” she squeezed her eyes closed before narrowing them back on me, “how the hell did you come up with that idea?”
I allowed a grin to take over my lips. “Well, the last one’s easy. It was something Penelope said actually, right before I threw my pint over her head.”
“I don’t recall the two of you conversing.”
“No. It was something she said behind my back – that the only way I’d ever lose my virginity was if I sold it at an online auction. I wouldn’t have thought of it otherwise.”
