Rotten to the Core

by Casey Kelleher

  “Oh sorry, I was miles away… what did I miss?”

  Sonia put her cutlery onto her now empty plate. She had had sea bass on a bed of lentils. She felt very out of place in this restaurant, where there were too many glasses and too much cutlery, and the main meal had been so small that her stomach grumbled for more. Still, the evening so far was going quite well, although she could tell that her son was on something, and this annoyed her, for once why couldn’t he just make the effort? He was fidgety and his eyes were like saucers, she hoped he could behave himself for the rest of the meal. She could see that Billy was trying really hard with Jay, really making an effort.

  “I was just saying that I like your dress, honey,” Sonia smiled at the frosty-looking Tanya, “is it designer?”

  Looking flattered that her beautiful dress had finally been noticed, Tanya nodded to indicate that it was; she didn’t bother giving Sonia the designer’s name, as by the look of what she was wearing, she probably wouldn’t have heard of him, much less appreciate the amount that the dress had cost, which had been charged to Billy’s credit card: the least he could do.

  “Her dress designer? Of course it is. Probably had a designer price tag, too.” Billy looked at it now and had a feeling that his credit card had been given another bashing: Tanya had expensive taste.

  Tanya bristled at his disapproving look.

  “Well, it’s nice to make an effort sometimes, and for someone to actually pay me a compliment,” she threw back. She added a little chuckle, but the stiffness of her mouth indicated to everyone at the table that she was gritting her teeth.

  Kate was having a lovely evening; it had gone much better than she had hoped. The food had been good; she was getting her appetite back, which was just as well as since she had lost the baby, she had lost so much weight that her clothes were loose. Billy was making an effort, she couldn’t believe that she was sitting between her brother and her boyfriend having a very lovely meal. She had had the toughest few weeks of her life. She had thought that nothing could come close to the pain of losing her mother, but this had. She was heartbroken and still in shock, she was finding it hard to take in the fact that she would never properly be a mother herself.

  When the baby had died, so had Kate’s dream of her and Jay’s little family. But tonight was helping, she had never thought that Billy and Jay would be able to sit at a dinner table and share polite conversation and a meal. She appreciated what her brother was doing and was so grateful to have him supporting her the way he had the last few weeks, he had been a pillar of strength to her and she would have been lost without him. Things were finally going to be okay.

  “Well everyone, I’ve got some news for you all.” She smiled, looking around the table. “I’ve got a bit of good news. I’ve got a new job, starting from Monday.”

  She had been saving this news for the meal. She knew that the people around the table cared for her and worried about her, and she wanted to let them know that she was okay and moving on.

  “Well done, babe.” Sonia beamed; she was glad that Kate was making plans for herself.

  “Where?” asked Jay, barely hiding the fact that he was a bit miffed that Kate had left him in the dark about her plans; surely he should have been the first person that she told.

  “You are now looking at Paul Goldie’s personal assistant.” Kate grinned, feeling proud that she was going to be able to stand on her own two feet. Hopefully Jay would see now that she didn’t want to live off him and his money, but earn her own. She was supposed to have started her job weeks ago but what with losing the baby and everything, it hadn’t happened. Paul had been good about it. She had rung him a few days after she had been discharged from hospital and explained why she hadn’t turned up on the original Monday that she was originally supposed to start. She had been completely honest with him, and had told him everything; she was surprised at how easy it was for her to talk to him. He had told her to take all the time she needed, and that there would be a job for her when she was ready. She had felt bad about lying to him in the first place, and she was glad that they now had a clean slate; work would be just what she needed to help put all of this behind her.

  Jay went very quiet at the news. He decided not to say anything, but he was not a happy man. Paul had it in for him: what the hell was he playing at offering his bird a job?

  Billy was happy enough: he respected Paul, he was a decent guy, and Kate need never find out that Paul had organised Jay’s beating. Knowing that Paul felt almost the same as he did about the guy made him feel better about the whole thing. A personal assistant: the guy must be moving up in the world; he chuckled to himself and raised his glass to everyone at the table.

  “To Kate. Well done, little sister; you’ll do a cracking job for him. Knowing you, you’ll be running that place alongside him before long.”

  Everyone smiled and chinked glasses. Looking over at Jay, Billy smirked, although it was obvious enough for only Jay to see it, and he did.

  After desserts and coffee had been had by all, except for Tanya who insisted she was watching her figure but kept the wine flowing, Billy said that he would call a couple of cabs. He was glad the night was over. It hadn’t been too bad, but he didn’t think he could stand being in Jay’s company for another second, how he had hidden his feelings this long he didn’t know. Sensing this, and trying to make Billy’s life harder, Jay piped up: “Oh, but the night is still so young… why don’t we come back to yours for a nightcap?”

  Before Billy had a chance to make an excuse and get rid of this waster, Kate smiled at her brother, happy that this was all working out so nicely between them. “I don’t mind, Billy; it’s only early, what do you say?”

  He couldn’t refuse his sister. Sonia made her excuses and got her own cab. She was going to have a nice cheese sandwich and a cup of tea when she got home, this posh food wasn’t enough to keep her full, no wonder all the celebrities that ate here were so skinny; poor buggers were living on child-sized portions.

  Kate and Jay got in a cab with Tanya and Billy and headed to their house. Billy was going to have to let Jay into their home, and he would grin and bear it even though he was not happy about it. Tanya didn’t give a shit by now, she had had a rather good night herself, the blond guy in the corner had been giving her the eye all night, and the more she had drunk the hornier she felt. She gave him a look of regret as she brushed passed him through the restaurant and out to the waiting cab. She planned to have a few more glasses of wine at home and hopefully then pass out, as there would probably be no chance of any bedroom action with Billy, again! Kate was a bore, but Jay she found quite amusing. He was a cocky little shit and she could see through him, but she was finding it highly entertaining that he could so easily wind Billy up.

  “Nice gaff,” Jay said, looking around the designer kitchen, this was exactly what he wanted, state of the art, really modern, a far cry from the shithole in which he lived with Sonia and Kate. This house was plush, if small.

  “Tanya designed it, fancies herself as a bit of a Linda Barker. Spent a small fortune, didn’t you, Tan?”

  Tanya smiled back at Billy, but her smile did not meet her eyes. She was close to losing it; why did things always come down to money with him? Okay, so it was his money, and she had indeed blown a small fortune on the flat, but he had told her to get what she liked so why was he being sarcastic?

  Sensing the atmosphere, Kate went to use the bathroom, leaving the room quiet, with the three running out of things to say.

  Going through to the lounge with some glasses and a bottle of chilled wine, Billy’s mobile buzzed on the table.

  “I’ve just got to get this,” he said, as he picked up his phone and left the room; his calls came through at all times of the day and night because of his dealings abroad and the time differences, so his phone was never far from him, which was another thing that pissed Tanya off.

  Kate came back to find Tanya and Jay laughing at some joke that Jay had made. Tanya had
her feet up on the chair and you could practically see her knickers, she was definitely pissed. Tanya got up to fill her glass again, but stumbled and ended up in a heap on the floor, laughing and struggling to stand. Jay put his hand under her arm and pulled her to her feet.

  “I think I need my bed,” Tanya slurred.

  “It’s upstairs on the right, Jay, you’d better help her,’ Kate said. ‘I’ll go and get Billy, I’ll ring us a cab too, babe, maybe it’s time to call it a night.”

  Kate looked at Tanya, slumped over drunk and shook her head before heading off to get her brother.

  Jay almost had to carry Tanya up the stairs, as her legs didn’t seem to want to go in the same direction as her body. Laying her down on the bed in the darkness, Jay was stunned by the strength of her when she reached up and pulled him on top of her. Her mouth reached for his, and he could taste the wine she had been drinking. He felt himself getting hard. She reached inside his trousers, laughing quietly. He realised then that she had not been as drunk as she had made out; realising that maybe she had planned this, he felt the urgent need to take her. He could feel her warm hand gripping him tight and he wondered how she would feel and taste. She was obviously gagging for it. Looking down at her, he saw she had tits to die for. What is it with the women in Billy’s life: they just can’t resist me… He kissed her hard and his hands cupped her breast, feeling his way down her body, almost making it to her thigh, and then jumping from the bed as he heard Billy coming up the stairs; he went to leave the room, reaching the door just as Billy did.

  “Fuck me, she is in a bad way, gone and passed out,” he whispered to Billy, who was poking his head into the room and could barely make out Tanya’s silhouette on the bed through the darkness.

  “Yeah, she knocked them back a bit tonight, silly mare.” Billy was physically holding himself back; Jay was standing in his bedroom, in his fucking house. It was taking all his willpower not to throw the fucker out. Jay stepped out of the room, and just as Billy closed the door out, they both turned as they heard Kate calling up the stairs that their taxi had arrived.

  23

  Emma was a mess. Her hair was greasy, her breath stank, she had big sores all over her chin and her sunken eyes had large bags under them. She was rock bottom, and she knew it, and worse than that the punters knew it too.

  When she had first started out doing this, apart from the nutter who had attacked her, she had been treated like a sex toy; she was desired; the men had taken her body but in a strange way she had felt that they had almost been grateful to her, impressed by her eagerness and willingness and, of course, her womanly curves.

  Of course there had been a few weirdoes, and a few of them she wouldn’t have gone near for any amount of money, but her standards were slipping. Emma thought she could handle it at the beginning, thought she could stay in control, but the drugs had taken over. The lower she sank so too did the quality of men she entertained. They were as filthy as she looked, and they just used her like she was a piece of meat, like she was nothing in fact. She had lost so much weight that her ribs were sticking out, her womanly curves had gone. She looked pale and gaunt, like a skanky druggie, which in fact was exactly what she had become.

  The only thing that was of any concern to her these days was where her next bag of gear was coming from; first thing in the morning, last thing at night, these were her only thoughts.

  Emma knew where it had all gone wrong; the turning point had crept up on her slowly and then smacked her straight in the face. She thought that she had him right where she wanted him, but she felt stupid now that she had even considered blackmailing him and telling Kate what her precious Jay had been up to. Stupidly, she had said to Jay the night she had been attacked, when he had come to help her, that she could tell Kate at any minute what had been going on; her threat had been loaded, but Jay hadn’t risen to the bait, he had just ignored it, or so she had thought.

  Jay had looked after her, he had sorted her out when that nutter raped her, he had cleaned the place up for her, spent a bit of time with her, and he had been nice to her. She had begun to think that he might have feelings for her. One night he had given her so much gear, she felt as if she was flying. He had told her that they were going to a party and that he had some special friends that he wanted her to meet. He had even brought her a new outfit, a very slutty looking one, a black silk babydoll with lace around the plunging neckline, it looked more like lingerie, but she just thought that that is what a typical red-blooded male would chose, and she was happy that he wanted to show her off. She had made a real effort, looked really sexy for him.

  He had taken her to a dingy little flat, which she really didn’t think much of, the things he had told her about these “friends” of his didn’t add up to a pokey little flat in Vauxhall. They had money, they were supposed to be high flyers, men who knew what they wanted and got it; it just really didn’t make sense.

  As soon as she walked through the door and saw the five men, she had known. She was at a party all right, only she was the main source of entertainment. Emma had felt scared, and had kept looking to Jay thinking that even though he had set this up, he was going to be her saviour.

  Someone had given Emma a whiskey, and then she had a few lines of coke, or what she thought was coke. It helped, as she began to relax a little, helped by another whisky. The men were smoking: gear, cigars. She was feeling out of it, she had only had a few drinks but then she suddenly felt as though she were losing consciousness.

  She had slipped in and out of what had happened next. She recalled lying on a big bed, faces near her, bodies on her: touching, pawing. She couldn’t stop them, she was too weak. She felt as though she were floating, like she were asleep, but she could hear them laughing around her; strangely, they sounded far away.

  Even the next day, when she had woken back in her own bed in her own flat, she had no real memory of what happened, or how she had got home. She was sore between her legs and felt sick with fear, used and dirty. She didn’t have to wait long to find out what had happened.

  Jay had been sitting in her lounge with two spotty boys, who looked no more than fifteen. She didn’t recognise them, but that was nothing new, there were more people in and out of there on a daily basis than Emma could keep up with. She saw that they were looking through some paperwork or something. They sniggered as she stumbled past them to get a drink of water. Jay glared at her; she had a miserable expression on her face and this riled him.

  “Morning!” he had chirped sarcastically. “What’s got your knickers in such a twist?” He smirked at the two lads, and they both laughed as if sharing some kind of private joke between the three of them.

  “I’m fine, just need a drink.” She fought back the tears; she felt humiliated, she couldn’t understand why he was acting so nastily.

  “We’re just going through a few photos, Emma,’ Jay said, ‘you should have a look, there’s a few gorgeous ones here, bet your mum and dad would love a few of these for the family album.”

  Her heart pounded in her chest. She knew even before she looked down at the coffee table what she was going to see, although never in a million years could she have imagined that the images would have been so graphic. The pictures were sickening. She looked at a photo of three or four men groping her, doing horrible things to her, including having sex with her. It was like looking at somebody else in the photos, the girl in the images had a blank expression and glassy eyes; she looked like a hollow shell, someone who wasn’t really there. Emma knew, looking at the photos, that she had been drugged last night. Running to the bathroom, she threw up. The vomit burnt her throat. She dry-heaved for a few minutes. When she looked up, she saw Jay in the mirror; he was standing behind her.

  “Don’t ever try and blackmail me again, do you hear me?” His voice was low and heavy, and Emma knew he meant it; he could cause her a serious amount of grief.

  “You think I’m going to feed you the best gear going for the last few months for nothing?
You’re having a fucking laugh. You’re nothing but a dirty slag, love; you owe me, and you’re going to start paying me back. Any grief from you, and I think Mummy and Daddy may stumble upon these.” He tapped the envelope in his hand and looked at Emma in disgust, as he left her to cry her tears to herself on the bathroom floor.

  That had been a few weeks ago. Now, she was desperately lonely; she had no-one to talk to or to help her. He had her now, she knew that. She had thought she had it all under control, sure that if she played it right Jay would see that he would be lost without her. He had just been using her, like the rest of them. Firstly, for his own dirty needs, and now he was done with her purely to line his pockets.

  She hadn’t heard from Kate in months, and couldn’t bring herself to call her. What would she say; where would she start? It was all too much. She was ashamed of what she had become.

  Her parents had called a few times, and she had made up a lie about landing a good job as a flight attendant. Emma made up stories to tell her mum on the few occasions that they had spoken since then. She had described the glamorous locations to which her job was taking her, and her mum had hung on to her words, glad that her little girl was making her own way in the world at last. As Emma made up lie after lie about the hotels she stayed in and the people she had met, she had almost started believing it herself. Her own fantasy world sometimes had herself convinced, letting herself float away in the pretence of it all, even if it was just for a few minutes. Emma had almost convinced herself, and her parents had seemed to buy it completely.

  24

  Kate was beaming. She had made it to the end of her first week in her job, and was actually looking forward to the next one. She had really got stuck in; busying herself with sorting out the office for Paul had been her main challenge to start off with and after spending hours putting contacts into his database and filing paperwork and invoices and making things a whole lot easier to find, she had been over the moon to see Paul look impressed with her efforts. Then she had sorted out the rotas for the staff; she could see straight away that there were a few shifts not covered well enough by the bar staff, and then as if that wasn’t enough she had even suggested a few promotional evenings to Paul to bring in more money.