It started with a whisper
Title: It started with a whisper
Author Name: cillab42
Genre: Supernatural RPF, J2 AU
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Rating: NC-17
Word count: ~10,353
Warnings: Male/male, prostitution,violence
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction, Jared and Jensen belong to themselves and there is no money made from this story.
Summary: Jared has been on the streets as a prostitute since he was sixteen and wants to get out of this life, because seven years has been long enough for him. He has been watching Jensen from afar for the past year, until a chance meeting gives him hope that someone can love him.
A/N: This is a fill for my hc_bingocard for prostitution. Thank you vunadiwai for the quick beta and any mistakes found are my own. Title is from Neon Trees ‘Everybody Talks’.
Right on time and there he is again, six o’clock on the dot. For a little over a year, Jared has made it a point to be here every evening, so that he could watch the ridiculously handsome man leave the bank building. He doesn’t know what time the man comes to work. That’s because when the man he has christened ‘Gorgeous’, is likely to be going to work , Jared is making his way back to the fleabag motel he calls home, after his night on the stroll.
The man is simply the most beautiful person Jared has ever seen and he would love to get close enough to talk to him. He doesn’t though because he knows that as soon as the man opens his mouth he’ll ruin the illusion. The truth is, Jared has never met a man as good looking as Gorgeous, that wasn’t an asshole. One day he would love to know what color his eyes are though, just to make his jerk off fantasies more accurate. So instead of approaching him, he just watches as Gorgeous walks away, with a gait that is confident and sure.
Jared has been working the streets for almost seven years now. Ever since he was sixteen and his mama got an eyeful while he was on his knees sucking Chad Michael Murray’s cock. So no, he isn’t whoring himself for something as noble as working his way through college; nor does he have a heart of gold and is helping the nuns keep the local orphanage running because they don’t have the funds to keep the doors open. The only noble thing his money has ever gone towards is food, shelter and whatever cast-offs he can find in the dollar bins of the local thrift shops.
As Jared watches the man walk away, he hopes that he doesn’t have a trick come by and ruin what is arguably the best part of his day. This man is to a whore, what Bigfoot is to a hunter of the supernatural. They both don’t exist. Or so Jared thought, because this man makes Jared want sex for the enjoyment of it rather than as a means to support himself. He hasn’t wanted that since Chad Michael Murray. Perhaps Bigfoot is real after all.
“He ain’t ever gonna want you,” says a bitter, unwanted voice that interrupts his daydream where he and Gorgeous have a house with the prerequisite white picket fence, 2.5 adopted foreign babies and a dog from the animal shelter that Jared visits when he needs to know that love is still available for free.
“A boy can dream can’t he?” Jared asks Trevor nonchalantly. Trevor Donavan is a former friend who used to be someone the boy Jared once trusted. Now he is someone the man Jared has become knows better than to even think about trusting.
Reluctantly he looks away from the man before Trevor realizes that he has an unrequited crush on him and reports the information to their pimp, J.D. Morgan. He really doesn’t want that to happen because it is J.D’s goal in life to break every dream his whores ever had, making him their only saviour. If he knows how much Jared lives to see this man each day, then J.D. will make him switch strolls and Jared would probably never see Gorgeous again.
“Why are you here?” Jared asks, knowing that his annoyance of having to talk to him is lost on the other man.
“Oh yeah, J.D. wants Samantha and Tracie for a private party in an hour, so you need to go home and change.” Trevor answers.
Jared both loves and hates J.D.’s private parties. He’s only had invitations to a half dozen of them, but he always seems to be popular and comes home with a lot of extra cash. When he attends these parties, it means that he is off the street for the rest of the night, but it also means that he has to dress like a girl and endure rich men calling him Samantha. For the life of him, he can’t understand why men who like to fuck boys want them to dress like girls and call their assholes pussies and their dicks clits. They even have to talk like girls. If they want to fuck girls, then go find one, because J.D. has a stable full of them to choose from, in any ethnicity and from ages fifteen to fifty-five.
Jared takes one last look in Gorgeous’ direction before he turns away and hurries back to the motel in order to be ready when J.D. sends the car for them. Jared knows from experience that J.D. probably told Trevor about the party much earlier, but Trevor either got high or just wanted to get Jared in trouble with their volatile pimp. It will take him about thirty minutes to get ready, but he’ll have to be faster than that today because sometimes an hour to J.D. could actually mean fifteen minutes and the bitch of it is that you’re supposed to know which time frame J.D. is using, the one everyone else does or the one in his head.
After a quick shower and a thorough shave, Jared starts his transformation from a tall skinny boy next door to that of a tall slender girl next door. When J.D. began making him attend these parties, he learned very quickly what Trevor and the others still haven’t, and that is what this particular group of men want. They want to fuck their daughters, the girl they couldn’t get in high school, and their wives 30 pounds lighter and twenty years younger, but with a dick.
The men who attend these parties have paid an exorbitant price to J.D. to set this up, so anything Jared and the others make in tips they get to keep. In the event that J.D. changes his mind, which he often does, Jared has sewn a pouch in the waistband of his skirts so that J.D. will find only the money that Jared wants him to find.
When Jared walks out of the motel forty minutes later the car that J.D. sent for them has already been waiting for five minutes. As he hops in the car, he knows that he stands out amongst the rest of the girls. Where they all look like drag queens, some with too much makeup and the sluttiest clothes they could find, Jared looks like the girl next door, natural and innocent.
He knows that he is taller than the average man as it is, so he doesn’t make himself taller; he chooses flats instead of heels and slumps his shoulders to make himself look smaller and vulnerable. He is wearing a little blue jean mini skirt from the GAP that would probably be knee length on a real girl, and a simple little white sleeveless cotton top that shows off his black, paper-stuffed, lacy bra underneath. His makeup is so subtle, it looks barely there, and instead of lipstick, he has on shiny cherry lip-gloss. To complete the image, his hair is in two little ponytails at the base of his skull, putting the final touch on that look of innocence. He thought about ribbons, but decided that would be over the top.
Jared barely makes it inside the door of the party before someone manhandles him into one of the rooms set aside for sex. Within thirty minutes, Jared has already had three different cocks in his mouth, having given blowjobs to drunk men who are grateful that he doesn’t laugh at the fact that he barely gets his mouth on them before they’re coming. They tip him well so Jared is grateful for maximum pay for minimum play, and he hasn’t had to fuck anyone yet. He is just walking away from blowjob number three and reapplying his lip-gloss when Gorgeous walks in.
Green. His eyes are green.
There is a protocol for these parties and there will be hell to pay if the girls don’t follow the rules. To keep the partygoers from being harassed, the men will make the advances, not the other way around. Tonight however, Jared decides he is going to break this cardinal rule because he does not want any of the others to get their hands on this man.
He’s not stupid enough to not be subtle about it though, because he knows that J.D. has eyes everywhere. So he walks past Green Eyes, gently bumps his shoulder and asks in a high falsetto, “You wanna date?”
Blushing furiously, Green Eyes throws up his hands and apologizes by saying, “Oh no, sorry Miss. It was an accident. I…”
He didn’t get to finish his sentence because a little blonde shrimp with hair longer than Jared’s starts laughing at his friend’s mistake, “Jensen that ain’t no girl, he’s one of the party favours.”
“Oh,” Jensen said, and then as if he just understood what the Shrimp meant, his eyes became owlishly large behind those sexy as hell wire framed glasses and he repeats, “Ohhhhh,” and it was so fucking adorable.
“You wanna?” the Shrimp asks Jensen cocking his head towards Jared, and if it is humanly possible, Jensen turns even redder as he shakes his head no.
“Well then I do,” He announces as he grabs Jared’s hand and leads him into one of the empty rooms.
“Chris, I’ll just wait over there,” Jensen says as he point to some chairs sitting by the wall.
Well fuck! Jared thinks to himself. He wants nothing more to get his hands on that perfect specimen of a man but the blonde shrimp called Chris thwarts him. So yet again he watches him walk away. At least he has learnt his dream man’s name is Jensen.
Before Jared and the Shrimp go into the room, Jared turns back to look and see if Jensen reconsiders and follows them but he doesn’t. He wants to fuck Jensen so badly but apparently, Jensen doesn’t feel the same. When Jared turns around to focus on the man he’s with, he finds his date, Chris staring at him as though he is reading Jared’s mind.
“I wanna fuck him too,” Chris admits, “He’s the reason I’ve been walking around with a permanent hard on since the day I met him. He doesn’t have a clue though.”
As Chris takes his shirt off, Jared leans in and says, “Well we can’t have that now, can we? How do you want me to take care of this for you?” he asks as he grabs the man’s cock. Jared begins to stroke it through his jeans while silently wishing that it was the dirty blonde with the startling green eyes that he was making the offer to.
“I wanna fuck, but I guess this time I won’t be the only one pretending that it’s Jensen I’m fucking. I have no desire to fuck a girl though, pretend or otherwise, so how about you give me a man’s name first.”
“In that case, just call me Jensen,” Jared answers.
*****
Jared is tired as hell. He is tired because he had an hour of sleep before receiving a summons at ass o’clock in the morning to go see J.D. Experience has taught him that it’s never a good thing for J.D. to send for you, but the upside is that it’s even worse if he pays you a visit. Jared is racking his brain trying to figure out what he did wrong last night, and the only thing he can come up with is that someone saw him approach Jensen. It was probably that son of a bitch Trevor. He hopes that’s it, because if J.D finds out about the money he has been keeping from him, there will be no safe place for Jared to hide.
Jared has never been to J.D.’s palatial home before. Jared knows that his own parents were not poor people, and he never went without, but this mansion is more than his parents could ever afford. The car pulls into a circular drive and stops in front of massive double doors. As Jared is shown inside, he wonders how many of his blow jobs have paid for this garishly decorated home. As he walks down the hall to the office where J.D. waits for him, he notices a baby grand piano and realizes that maybe it was more than blowjobs that helped pay for this place.
“Good morning Jared,” J.D. greets him as he enters the office. “How are you feeling?”
“Good,” Jared answers cautiously, because he’s still not sure why J.D. wants to see him.
“That’s right Jared you are.” J.D agreed with a huge smile on his face. “How many parties have you serviced for me now, three or four?”
“Six,” Jared corrects.
“You were my most popular girl last night, Jared.” J.D. compliments.
Jared just stares at the man because he’s not sure where the conversation is going, but as long as J.D. isn’t knocking him around the room, he considers it a win. That small win starts quickly going over to the loss column when J.D. reaches into his desk, and Jared is just waiting for a gun to appear. But no, he’s pulled out a little white box instead, so Jared’s breathing slows to almost normal.
The white box along with a white envelope that Jared hadn’t noticed at first was pushed towards him, but he was honestly too scared to pick it up just in case this was one of J.D.’s fucked up tests.
J.D. laughs when he sees Jared’s reluctance to pick up the envelope, “Too bad the rest of those bitches aren’t as well trained as you. All it took was one night on my cock to get you to toe the line. Look at you, no booze, and no drugs. You’re as clean as a street whore can be huh Jared?”
When Jared hangs his head to hide his shame and embarrassment, J.D. asks once again, this time his voice is hard and his tone brooks no argument, “Did I fuck some sense into you boy?”
“Yes J.D., you did,” comes the soft answer.
Jared isn’t just paying lip service to J.D.; the man really did fuck some sense into him. It was the final nail in his coffin concerning friendships because it’s the one event that taught him that Trevor was not his friend, and as long as he has to survive by selling his ass, Jared mustn’t trust anyone. Jared was fresh off the bus from San Antonio when he ran into Trevor at the station. Like him, Trevor was carrying a duffle bag and telling a similar story, where when his family found out he likes boys instead of girls, they kicked him out of the house, but not before they tell him how disgusting they think he is.
The two boys went separate ways when they left the station and didn’t see each other again until he and Trevor accidently started running into each other a couple of weeks later in the park. At the time, Jared had no way of knowing that Trevor had never lost track of him, that he was just waiting for the desperation to set in. For the much needed cash or something to eat. So, when Trevor spins a believable story about how he’s staying with friends and that he’s sure that Jared would be welcome as well, Jared believes him. Jared didn’t feel comfortable about staying with someone he didn’t know, but he convinced himself that even if he had to sleep on the floor, it had to be safer than sleeping on a bench in the park. Jared felt that way right up until the time that Trevor ducked out and Jared finds himself with two men who began forcibly stripping him of his clothes. Rosie (he learns the name later) held him down as J.D. brutally fucked him as a welcome to his stable.
“Good, to know Jared, good to know.” The older man shakes his head and half smiles at the memory, whereas even after all of these years, Jared has to force himself not to throw up. “The reason you’re here Jared is because men have been asking about you since that party in Plano and I’ve been watching you ever since. Next week we have a huge party in Parker, and the men with the money want you there. If you do well there, this may be your last week on the stroll, and it will be strictly parties for you.”
Jared is speechless and not just because he’s scared, but because of the rumours he’s heard through the grapevine about the parties in Parker. He knows that the money will be fantastic and it means that he can add more to his bank account and get out of this life a hell of a lot sooner than he was expecting to. Breaking out of his reverie about the extra cash, Jared watches carefully as his pimp presses a button on his desk, because he still thinks that J.D. has plans to hurt him. So he’s surprised when two seconds later a beautiful blonde woman walks through the door.
“This is Katie, Jared and she’s the real reason you’re up early,” J.D. says. “She’s taking you shopping.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Shopping?” Jared questions the older man.
“Yes shopping. You can’t show up in Parker wearing cast offs from a thrift shop,” J.D clarifies, “Katie will take you to several upscale boutiques and shops where I have accounts so that you can buy clothes that will allow you to dress the part. You will buy six outfits, suitable for both Samantha and Jared, because at some of these parties, girls aren’t welcome.”
He pushed the white envelope towards Jared and explained as he leered at the younger man, “This is your cut from last night Now you can handle this one of two ways, you can purchase your own clothes or I can take it out in trade.”
“I-I’ll pay,” Jared stutters. There is no way he wants to owe J.D. Morgan anything. Owing him is akin to slavery and he will end up doing these parties for free and fucking J.D. or his friends whenever and wherever he wants him to. If he takes out the costs of the clothes he has yet to buy in trade, it means he will be J.D.’s forever because he will be the one to say when Jared’s debt is paid in full.
“That’s too bad Jared, I was looking forward to you owing me,” J.D. said lasciviously, “Any way, there’s your cut and this is your new phone. I will text you when I want you to be ready and no more relying on that fuck up Trevor. After the party if any of the men want to see you later, then they will set it up with me, and I will call you, understood?” he asked Jared. “Good,” he says once Jared nods his understanding. “Now let’s go eat breakfast because you look like you could use some coffee.”
The rest of the morning was surreal, sitting in J.D.’s beautiful house and eating breakfast with him, and then spending the next three hours shopping in stores for clothes that he barely had enough money to cover, even if they were on the sales racks.
He and Katie were wary of each other as they sat in the car on the way to the boutiques. If he had known that shopping in the ritzier part of Dallas was on the menu today then he would have dressed better. He had never been more aware of the cheapness of his clothes until he sat next to Katie. She looked as though she just stepped off a fucking runway. To top it off, if he didn’t feel bad enough, the first sales woman looked down her hawk-like nose at him as though he was something she needed to scrape from the bottom of her shoe.
It’s difficult to spend hours shopping with someone and remain standoffish, so thirty minutes into their shopping adventure Jared and Katie begin to thaw towards each other. He learns that J.D. found Katie on the streets and thought that she was too special and took her home with him, cleaned her up to work parties, and now she did grooming and recruiting. Recruiting? Is that what Trevor did, recruit him?
“Don’t give me that dirty look,” she chastises him, “I don’t trick the people I recruit. They know exactly what they’re getting into. J.D. is correcting a mistake with you, and I told him that when I first saw you.”
Jared looks at her and decides that he is not going to indulge himself in what might have been. He could drive himself crazy if he begins asking himself what his life might have been like if Katie had been the one to greet him at the bus stop instead of Trevor. Fucking Trevor.
After his shopping adventure, Jared manages to get a few hours of sleep before he has to be back on the stroll. He had a couple of johns right away, and that should’ve made him happy considering the amount of money he’d spent earlier, but the quick business makes him too late to catch Jensen as he leaves for the day and his chest constricts at the loss.
The next day Jared arrives early because he actually has business inside the bank. This is going to be a tough week for him because he still has to deposit money in his savings despite the fact that he will not have enough for food. The hunger will last a couple of days, but the money saved will get him off the streets for good. He’ll just have to hit the soup kitchens until next week.
When he enters the bank, despite the way he dresses for work, he tries to make sure that he is clean and presentable. The security guard and the tellers know what he is, what he does and he tries not to take offense when the tellers use the sanitizer after handling his money. As he is walking out the door, he spots Jensen inside one of the offices. He is talking to someone who must have said something funny because his head is thrown back and he’s laughing. This is the first time since he’s been coming into the bank that he has glimpsed Jensen inside.
He wants so much to call out to him, or wave even, just to feel how addressing Jensen, to say his name other than when he’s jerking off, feels on his lips. He doesn’t do either though, as he’s sure that the former high-school Dallas Cowboy wannabe-cheerleaders that work in the bank will give Jensen hell simply because the whore from the corner knows his name.
Later that day Jared is just getting out of a car when he notices that it is almost six. Instead of making sure he’s available for his next potential customer, he hides back so the others can’t see him, but he will still be able to see Jensen when he walks out of the bank. He looks at his watch to check the time constantly but when it reads 6:10, he thinks that he has missed the man two days in a row. Just as the disappointment is setting in, he hears, “Jared?” from behind him. Fuck! Jensen used a different door to exit the bank today and has caught Jared by surprise.
“Jared…right? The voice behind him questions. The problem is that even though he’s only gotten to hear Jensen speak once, it’s something that he will never forget. Turning to face the voice, Jared smiles and replies, “Yes, it’s Jared.”
“I saw you inside earlier, why didn’t you speak?” Jensen asks. Jared would swear he almost sounds… hurt.
“Well, you know what I am and more importantly, your co-workers know what I am. I don’t want you to have to explain how we met if I suddenly come in your workplace calling you by your name.”
“Oh. I guess I hadn’t thought of that. I just…look can we grab a bite to eat, talk maybe?” Jensen asks.
Jared can’t believe what he is hearing. But he knows Trevor and others are watching so he takes a deep breath and replies.
“Jensen, while your business hours are ending, mine are just beginning. Like you I have a boss to answer to and trust me when I say that the repercussions are different if I don’t meet quota. So if you want my time, you’ll have to pay for it.”
Jared wishes he could shrivel up and die. The man of his dreams is asking him out and he finds himself reminding the man that he is a whore and has to be paid for his time. Now he wishes Jensen was still just Gorgeous and he could still foolishly dream. Reality bites.
“…how much?” Jensen asks.
“Huh?” Jared asks stupidly.
“For an hour Jared, how much?” Jensen asks again.
Jared is momentarily stunned. When he quotes his hourly rates, Jensen nods and says, “I’m parked over here,” and begins to walk to his car, not waiting to see if Jared follows.
Jared gets into the car and once Jensen is in his seat, he immediately reaches over to unbuckle Jensen’s belt. But the older man stops him by batting at his hands. “No Jared. Now it’s my time to remind you, that this is my place of business. I have a place where we can go. Buckle up please.”
If he keeps behaving like this, Jensen is going to doubt that Jared has any brain cells left. What was he thinking? This man has him feeling as he did when he first hit the streets; out of his depth. Since he left his parents’ house, he very rarely gets what he wants. But here he is, alone with Jensen and now that he is, he doesn’t know what to say or how to behave. So instead, he just looks out the window and wonder where he’s going.
As Jensen drives, Jared realizes that he has been driving for fifteen minutes and Jared doesn’t recognize this part of town. He should probably ask Jensen where they are going. Everything here is nicer than what he’s used to and he thinks that if Jensen’s going to hurt him at least he’ll die in an area where someone will care enough to help. A few minutes later when Jensen pulls into the parking lot of a barbeque restaurant, Jared again reaches to undo Jensen’s pants, and yet again Jensen bats his hands away.
“We’re here to eat Jared,” Jensen explains.
“You know that this counts as part of your hour,” Jared clarifies so that there will be no misunderstanding later. God he hopes that there will be no misunderstanding because if he has to fight with Jensen, then he will have the marks on him to show it and that means less money because johns don’t like their whores to sport black eyes.
“It’s my money Jared, let me worry about how I spend it. Now come on let’s go eat.”
Jared follows Jensen inside and thanks God that he chose to wear something that does not make him stand out like a sore thumb. The restaurant has a sign boasting that it makes the best barbeque in Texas and inside the entry is a framed newspaper article showing that it was featured on the television show ‘Diners, Drive in’s and Dives’.
The décor is like most barbeque places in Texas and the clientele is a mixture of people both upscale and rednecks, black, white and Hispanic all bought together in a way that only good food can. So far, so good. When the greeter seats them and leaves them with the menu, Jared looks at the prices and mentally counts his money and comes up short. He knows that even with what Jensen is going to pay him, he still doesn’t have J.D.’s cut and that means that he will have to hustle like hell when he gets back to his stroll to make up for what this dinner is going to cost him. He silently hopes that money is all this dinner is going to cost him, because his heart will be too high of a price to pay for beef brisket.
“Jared,” Jensen says not looking up from his menu, “dinner is on me so order what you want and let me worry about paying.”
Jared is still hesitant because he doesn’t want to worry about paying later, especially to J.D. Jared sees the sincerity in Jensen’s eyes and decides to stop protesting and order the brisket and maybe the entire left side of the menu. If Jensen is going to pay then he is going to enjoy his food, because it’s not often that he gets a treat like this.
At first, the conversation between the two was awkward until they started discussing sports and Jensen discovers that Jared is a Spurs fan, rather than Mavs supporter.
“How can a Dallas boy not like the Mavs? That’s a sacrilege.” Jensen exclaims.
“Not a Dallas boy,” Jared explains as he moans obscenely around a bite of beef brisket. “I’m from San Antone, where real basketball is played.”
“What are you doing here then Jared?” Jensen asks playfully but what Jared heard is, why are you whoring yourself.
“Right now, I’m eating.” Jared snarks “If you want to know why I’m selling my ass every night then please, can we save the psychoanalytic bullshit for another night.”
Suddenly Jared realises he snapped at Jensen lot louder than he intended. He looks around the restaurant nervously to see if the other patrons heard his outburst, if he’s going to be thrown out because he’s too dirty to eat with these good people in the reddest state in America. Here in this restaurant ,in this suburban part of town he is normal, not a whore and he has to go ahead and lose his fucking temper and announce to everyone in earshot that he is a whore. As he looks around everyone is too busy eating their food to pay attention to him. Thank god.
He can tell that his comment has offended Jensen. He must have misunderstood the comment because the look on Jensen’s face is warring between anger and hurt. The anger Jared can take, but the hurt has an apology on the tip of his tongue that, for some reason he doesn’t understand, he bites back.
Jensen sits up in his chair suddenly. Without saying a word, he stands up and walks towards the door and Jared thinks that he’s leaving him to pay the bill, but he isn’t. Jensen stops at the ATM machine by the door and withdraws cash.
There was a look of determination on Jensen’s face as he walks back to their table. Once there he sits down and gives Jared a stack of twenties that Jared knows immediately is more than his fee and dinner. A hell of a lot more.
“I’m sure that it’s been a while, so you don’t recognize polite conversation when you hear it, but if it embarrasses you to talk about what you do then it’s probably wise that you find a new profession.” Jensen advises before he resumes eating his dinner.
Just like that, his childish outburst has ruined the mood, and they finish their meal in silence. When Jensen calls the server for the check and she starts clearing away their plates, Jared quickly asks for a carryout box. There is too much food left to be thrown away when he knows it will keep a friend from choosing between going hungry or being beaten because she didn’t bring in enough money.
While Jensen pays the bill, Jared grabs his Styrofoam box and heads outside to wait for him and to hide the extra money so if J.D. surprises him, he won’t get it all. Once they are in the car Jensen asks, “Are you going to be able to keep that somewhere it won’t spoil?”
“It’s not for me,” Jared mutters. “It’s for a friend.”
There is no response to Jared’s explanation. The ride back to Jared’s stroll continues in silence, and Jared knows it’s because he fucked up. Shit like this doesn’t happen in dreams.
Once they are back at the bank parking lot, Jared hurries and tries to jump out of the car before it comes to a complete stop. But Jensen impedes his escape by grabbing his arm and says, “Please be careful Jared.”
He nods his head and steps back to let Jensen drive away. Jared clutches the Styrofoam box like a lifeline and glances up and down the street. The food really is for a friend, Lauren Tom. Lauren is the one who nursed him back to health after his night with J.D and later she gave him pointers on how to keep his money safe and how to protect himself from nasty johns and anything else she thinks of that will help him survive. At fifty-five, she is the oldest girl on the stroll and in J.D.’s stable. Her age means that she’s not getting as many dates as she used to and no dates mean that she doesn’t eat, so Jared tries to watch out for her now.
He spots her in the doorway of a store that’s closed, “Hey Lauren you do ok tonight? Jared asks.
“Yeah, Jared I got J.D.’s cut, where have you been, boy? No one has seen you in hours, not since you got in that car, and I was beginning to worry.” She chastises him as she stands on her toes to reach up to brush his hair out of his eyes. He smiles and bends down to meet her hand.
“There’s no need to worry, mama, I let a pretty boy take me to dinner and I bought you something back,” he explains as he hands her the box.
“You were gone for three hours, so I hope you got me something too, sweetheart,” J.D.’s voice grates in his ear.
Jared finds his body stiffening at the sound of J.D.’s voice. While it’s not unusual to see the man out checking on his stable, he usually sends one of his henchmen to patrol them. J.D. hasn’t been out here in weeks, so why is he here tonight? As Jared stands up and turns to face the man, he has his answer. Trevor. He’s leaning against the man’s car as though he is waiting for a show, but unfortunately, he won’t get one tonight. Jared isn’t stupid enough to have been off his corner for three hours and not have money to show for it.
“Of course I do J.D., the john was just wining and dining me, that’s all,” Jared answers nervously.
“Let me see Jared,” J.D. demands as he motions his hands in the universal sign of money.
“It’s in my sock,” he warns the man because he doesn’t want him the think that he has a weapon of some kind and end up hurt, or worse, dead.
“Let Rosie get it for you, because you know how I hate surprises,” J.D. states, motioning his head towards the bald man accompanying him to search Jared’s sock. “Assume the position Jared, and check his pockets too, just in case he’s holding out.”
Jared stands up, spreads his legs and folds his hands behind his head as Rosie pulls his money from his sock before turning to show it to J.D. Once his boss nods his head in satisfaction, Rosie stands and shoves his hands in Jared’s pockets. Finding nothing he turns them inside out for J.D to see.
“That’s all he has,” Rosie confirms for his boss.
Jared stands there on the sidewalk with his hands behind his head as though he is the bad guy in some B grade Hollywood movie and he is thinking that it can’t get worse until he notices Jensen driving past in his car, witnessing his humiliation. He notices that the car is slowing down as though he’s going to stop, so he shakes his head, telling the man that he’s all right and to keep going. It could get ugly if Jensen tries to defend him and he doesn’t want this man hurt because of him.
It’s hard to decide who shows the most disappointment, J.D. because he misses out on another chance to have Jared owe him, Rosie because he won’t get the chance to beat the shit out of Jared, or Trevor because Rosie will get the chance to beat the shit out of him for wasting his and J.D.’s time.
Jared doesn’t waste his time thinking about it because one of his regulars pulls up looking for a date, and Jared is happy to oblige to get the hell away from the trio.
Jared’s not sure what it is about Jensen, but as soon as he lays down on the pancake he calls a mattress to go to sleep, he can’t because he knows that Jensen’s eyes are green and his goddamn voice sounds so smooth, like top shelf whisky. It’s hard to believe, but after fucking all night long, his dick twitches and gets hard every time he closes his eyes and finds green ones staring back at him.
At five forty-five, Jared is trying to make it back to the stroll, but he’s feeling a little worse for the wear. His last trick tried to get a fuck for the price of a blowjob and when Jared declined his generous offer, he received a fist to the face. He also got a scrape on his arm as the son of a bitch pushed him out of the car. That doesn’t mean he can call it quits for the day though. He won’t make as much, but as long as his ass and his mouth are functional, most of the men who frequent this area don’t care what his face looks like. Jensen does however.
Just as he’s makes it back to his spot to catch a glimpse of Jensen, he hears the man call his name. When he looks up, Jensen is motioning for him to come and get into his car. Before he joins Jensen, he makes sure that he tells Lauren where he’s going so he won’t have a repeat of last night.
“Jeez, Jared did those guys do this to you last night?” Jensen asks once he sees the young man’s face.
“No, this was someone who thought he was going to get a twofer.” Jared says feeling embarrassed that Jensen was a witness to such an awkward situation.
Unaware of Jared’s discomfiture, Jensen gives Jared a blank look and so he explains, “Two things for one price, Jensen. A twofer.”
“Oh,” is all Jensen says when he has a light bulb moment.
Tonight they are at a burger place and the smells are driving Jared crazy. Just like the barbeque place, it is nothing fancy, just good food. Once again they talk about whatever, but nothing in particular. Jared realizes that he can’t allow himself to become too comfortable with Jensen because when the other man’s fascination with him is over he’ll still be the whore on the corner and Jensen will probably tell the story to his friends about the time he went slumming.
While Jensen’s talking, Jared monitors his food to make sure that he leaves half for Lauren so she won’t have to go to bed hungry tonight.
“Dude, you can’t be through, you’ve only eaten half,” Jensen observes.
“I’m good, I’ll save the rest for later,” he lies as Jensen signals for their server.
“I’d like a hamburger platter to go when you bring my check,” Jensen says when the server arrives at the table. Once she’s gone, he looks at Jared and asks, “Still full?”
“I don’t need your pity,” he starts, but Jensen cuts him off.
“Look, I think we had some variation of this conversation yesterday, so please don’t start tonight and ruin my dinner. Why don’t you tell me who is it that you’re willing to go hungry for?”
At first, Jared was going to be defiant and not answer, but he had some questions of his own. “I’ll tell you if you tell me why you’re paying a whore to eat with you when you can take anyone in this restaurant home for free.”
Jensen purses his lips as though he’s thinking over Jared’s question. Jared really did try not to moan but the sound escapes anyway, so he’s just glad that he has a french fry in his mouth, allowing him to pretend that it’s the food and not the thought of Jensen’s mouth around his cock.
“Okay,” Jensen finally agrees, “but you go first.”
“Lauren. Her name is Lauren Tom and she’s the reason I’ve been able to survive. Hell she’s the reason I’m still alive, so yeah. Lauren.”
He deliberately leaves it at that, not mentioning anything specific. He shudders when he remembers his first few weeks on the street. He was on such a shitty stroll that he had been robbed, beaten and raped. Then Lauren took pity on him and essentially saved his life. He’s not sure that the petite woman is even aware what she did. It was not the dangers on the street she saved him from, but the bottle of pills he was going to swallow because of the misery in which he found himself.
“How…how long have you been on your own Jared?”
“Seven years,” he answers but doesn’t elaborate. Instead he waits for the why don’t you get a real job and stop selling your ass diatribe that he’s heard over the years from countless social workers who didn’t believe that he could and were simply caring by rote.
“That’s a long time Jared, I’m sorry.” Jensen states quietly.
“So am I.” Jared agrees. “Now it’s your turn.”
“It’s simple really; I just want to get to know you, to know somebody without all of the pretence that goes with it. I know what I’m getting and you know what you’re getting.” Jensen responds.
“You know that you’re getting a whore, but even though you seem to be a nice guy, I really don’t know what I’ve got here except some extra cash.”
“Why do you always refer to yourself as a whore?” Jensen asks, “Is it to remind me or you?”
“Me I guess,” Jared answers after he mulls over the question, “I guess it’s to remind me that this isn’t real, that I’m not Julia Roberts and you’re not Richard Gere.”
“Damn straight,” Jensen agrees, “I’m much better looking.”
When Jensen asks for the check, the server brings the carryout box with the order Jensen placed earlier. As he slides the box to Jared’s side of the table, an envelope comes along with it. Putting the envelope in his pocket, Jared excuses himself to both count the money and put any extra in the hidden pocket in the waistband of his jeans so neither Rosie or J.D. can find it in the event of a surprise inspection.
Tonight he has been gone four hours instead of three, and it’s amazing how in just two days he feels … normal. Like this is the date he never had, and blowing Chad Michael Murray totally doesn’t count. He knows whatever fascination Jensen has with him will eventually fade away, but for now, he is going to enjoy the attention.
Once they get back to the stroll, a hand stops Jared before he opens the door, “Tomorrow, just meet me by my car. Oh, and you can choose the restaurant if you want.”
The rest of the week goes the same, with Jared meeting Jensen at his car at six each night. The only thing that changes is the amount of time that they spend together, as it gets longer and longer each night and Jared is upset that Jensen continues to not try to touch him. It figures that the one person that he actually wants sexually doesn’t feel the same, yet Jared is unable to force the issue in the event that Jensen will stop seeing him altogether because that will come soon enough.
Friday is that last day that he will get to see Jensen, because starting Monday, he’ll be doing private parties only and he won’t be on the stroll any longer. He feels sad because he is thinking of calling J.D. to tell him that he’d rather do blowjobs in those dirty alleys rather than give up his time with Jensen. He doesn’t though because even Jensen will tell him that’s the stupidest thing that he’s ever heard.
As they drive to the restaurant, another steakhouse, Jared is quiet and just listens as Jensen talks. He’s trying to remember every little thing about the older man so when he’s gone from his life, he’ll have the good memories. He knows that when he’s not out there anymore that Jensen isn’t going to go out of his way to find him.
“This is my last week on the stroll,” Jared blurts out once the server shows them to their table. He wasn’t going to tell him, but that was before he comes to the realization that he wants to keep seeing Jensen, to see what can come of this relationship between them. If friendship is all he can ever get then he’ll be happy with that because that is more than he has now.
“Are you…quitting?” Jensen asks.
“No,” Jared laughs and suddenly for the first time in a long time, he wishes that he could. “No, J.D. wants me to do parties only now. I’ll be on call starting Monday.”
“So this weekend?” Jensen asks.
“The stroll,” Jared answers wanting this time to speed by so that he will be off the streets.
“What if I want you all weekend?” Jensen asks, “Can you spend it with me?”
Jared wants so badly to say hell yes, but he knows that he can’t, that he has to let J.D. set a price and to let someone know where he is for his own safety. The funny thing is that he feels safer with Jensen than he has with anyone since he left his parent’s home.
“Those arrangements are made through J.D.,” Jared reluctantly tells him, as reaches in his pocket. He pulls out the phone he’d been given earlier in the week and with shaking hands, he dials the older man’s number. Once it starts ringing, he gives the phone to Jensen.
“J.D.,” Jensen says into the phone, but that is all Jared hears because Jensen stands up and walks outside as he arranges to have Jared for the weekend. He knows that he should feel shame about the fact that there is a barter taking place about his body and he has no say in the outcome, but he doesn’t. If they can agree on a reasonable price, then he will have a sense of freedom for the first time in seven years.
When Jensen comes back to the table, he gives Jared his phone back and advises him that J.D. needs to confirm the arrangements with him.
“J.D.,” Jared speaks cautiously into the phone.
“Are you drumming up business for me boy?” J.D. laughs as though he’s just heard the funniest joke ever, “Well, here’s your weekend plans Jared. You’re to meet Rosie in about an hour where moneybags will hand over part of the money since it’s too late to get it all tonight. You’re his until Monday unless he wants you longer. You’re to get the rest before you part company that morning and Rosie will meet you at the hotel to pick it up. Don’t fuck this up boy, because if you do you’d better believe that it’ll come out of your ass, are we clear?”
“Crystal, J.D., crystal,” Jared assured the man.
Once Jared completes the call, Jensen calls the server to the table and places an additional large order to go. On the way to the car, to ease the tension, Jared teases about them working up an appetite. The only funny thing is the fact that Jared is nervous about being with Jensen. He wants this man, but that is not the most pressing thing. He wants to know more about him, like what is his favourite food, favourite color, what does he look for in a…friend.
“This is for your friend, Lauren. If you’re going to be gone all weekend, I want to make sure that she will have something to eat.”
In that moment, Jared knows that it’s too late, that he’s gone against his own advice and fell in love with this man that he knows he can never have. Fuck! This man that he has only known for a week cares about making sure that Lauren, the woman who has been like a mother to him, is okay. As they drive he fights to hold back the tears that suddenly fill his eyes.
Once they leave the restaurant, they pull up to the bank and Jensen withdraws the cash he needs and they make their way back to the stroll and pull up to the corner where Rosie had pat him down earlier. As soon as the car pulls up to the curb, there are several men, women walking up, and asking if he wants a date until they see Jared in the vehicle.
“You stay here, Jared, but tell me which one is Lauren,” Jensen says. He looks to the older woman that Jared points to. She’s standing in the doorway of a storefront as though she is trying to hide herself instead of trying to make the money she needs. Grabbing the food, Jensen walks up to her.
Of course Jared can’t do as Jensen asks and he rushes from the car. His heart beats a little faster and he falls just a little more for this man at what he hears.
“Lauren?” Jensen asks.
“Yeah, you looking for a date honey?” she asks, standing a little straighter at the thought of this handsome young man walking past all of the others to get to her.
“I’m a friend of Jared’s and he’s going to be with me all weekend. I don’t want him to worry about you, so this is for you,” he explains as he hands her the bag and she looks up at him in surprise when she feels the bills that he hands to her as well. She looks past him and that is when Jared knows that Jensen realizes that he didn’t stay in the car, because he turns to look at what has caught Lauren’s attention.
Lauren takes in the looks that pass between the two men and chuckles, “I’m not sure what he did, but all I can say is that he’s a stubborn little fucker when he wants to be.”
“Don’t give all my secrets away Lauren,” Jared chastises, “Hey have you seen Rosie tonight?”
Laruen uses her free hand to point and both men look up to see the bald man walking towards them.
“You Jensen?” Rosie asks as he nods his head towards Jensen.
“Yes.” Jensen nods
“Good, come with me,” he commands and walks back towards the direction he came from.
Rosie stops at the end of the block next to a huge SUV, opens the door and gestures for Jensen to get in.
Jared and Lauren watch as Jensen disappears in the vehicle and it pulls away from the curb. He begins to worry the moment the vehicle pulls away and silently prays that the man is ok.
“Who’s he Jared?” Lauren asks him, “Everyone has been talking about how you’ve been spending hours with some john all week. Is that him? Please be careful. Rumour has it that Trevor has been telling J.D. that you’re sweet on this guy, so please tell me you’re not getting in over your head.”
“Don’t worry about me Lauren, I’m always careful just like you taught me,” he assures her with his eyes trained to the spot where the SUV had been. “And besides, I stopped believing in fairy tales the moment I met J.D.”
When the SUV pulls back to the curb and Jensen safely steps out onto the sidewalk, Jared let go of the breath he was holding. As he rushes towards Jensen, he misses Lauren’s cryptic, “Sure you have baby boy, sure you have.”
The ride to Jensen’s house is quiet. This is the first time in years that Jared doesn’t have to worry if he’s going to make enough money or if he’s going to live to see the next morning. Jensen has the radio tuned in to a country station and is humming along and Jared closes his eyes to listen. He must have fallen asleep because soon Jensen is shaking him awake.
He awakes with a start and calls himself stupid for falling asleep because he should have been noticing the drive, street signs, stores or something but his dumbass falls asleep like some newbie. Now not only does he not know the name of the street, but also he wakes up in a garage and he doesn’t even know what the goddamn house looks like. He looks at the man he’s with and realizes he trusts him. Besides there is nothing he can do about it now.
He follows Jensen to the door and stands behind him as he unlocks it. Jared yelps in surprise as he’s almost knocked down by what looks like Oscar the Grouch come to life.
“That’s Oscar,” Jensen laughs as he reaches down to pick up a bundle of white fur, “and this little man is Icarus, but he answers to Icky.”
Jared kneels down and lets the dog bestow kisses on him, and falls instantly in love. He’s not sure what kind of dog this is, but he’s beautiful just like his owner and just as loving. Although Oscar is not the same breed, he reminds him of the puppies he had to leave when he left home.
“Come on Jared, he’ll want you to pet him all day, and you look as though you’d do it,” Jensen teased as he carries Icky inside to stop his attempt to get Jared pet him as well.
The kitchen is the first room they enter as they walk in from the garage and the dogs race towards Jensen and begin whining.
“Okay guys, I know, I know, you wanna go out, but you can blame that guy for making me late.”
“I guess it’s lucky that they have those fancy automatic feeders or you’d be blaming me for starving them huh?” Jared joked.
Oscar and Icky barrel out the door once Jensen opens it for them to go relieve themselves while Jared and Jensen sit on the deck and wait for them to finish. Jared’s body was strumming with so much excitement that he could hardly sit still. After a year of lurking, he was finally going to get his mouth and hands on that body.
When the dogs bound back up on the deck, Jensen tells him, “I’ll clean it up tomorrow; experience has taught me to wait until I can see before venturing out in the dark,”
Jared never thought that his foray into Jensen’s house would exclude his bedroom. He is laying in Jensen’s guest bedroom staring at the ceiling trying to figure out why he is lying here in this bed alone instead of sharing the huge one down the hall with Jensen.
Before they went to bed Jensen gave him some soft sleep pants and an old t-shirt before taking the time to show him around and tell him that if he gets hungry during the night that he could go downstairs and make himself something to eat. Unfortunately, for Jared, the kind of hunger he’s experiencing is not something a sandwich will satisfy.
Finally, he couldn’t take it longer and he’d like to think that he stalks down the hall but it was more like creeping. He didn’t want to make any noise in the event that between the five feet from the guest room to Jensen’s, he changes his mind that he won’t have to explain to Jensen what he’s doing in the hallway.
Once he is standing in front of Jensen’s bedroom door, he hesitates before he knocks and he then chickens out and decides that he will wait until morning He forgot about the dogs though, and their fucking supersonic hearing. He can hear them snuffling away on the far side of the door, trying to reach him. There was no backing out now.
So he knocks.
“Jared?” Jensen calls out sleepily.
“Um, yeah,” he mutters as he secretly curses Oscar and Icky for giving him away while at the same time trying not to think about how Jensen’s sleep rough voice is the sexiest motherfucking thing he’s ever heard in his life. Ever.
Jared gathers his nerves, and opening the door slightly, ducks his head in to the room. Tentatively he asks, “Why did you…why don’t you want me?”
How bad of a whore is he really that he can’t even give it away for free? He would suggest that he at least be allowed to give Jensen a blow job in exchange for dinner, but he doesn’t think that the will go over well.
He hears the bedcovers rustle as Jensen sits up, “C’mere Jared,” Jensen softly requests.
With a feeling of trepidation, Jared walks to the bed, but he looks at his feet because he doesn’t want to see the rejection in Jensen’s eyes as he explains how Jared is a charity case. That Jared is stupid to think that a man as beautiful as Jensen would waste his time on a whore when he can have any man (or woman) that he wants. If Jensen were to ask him that question now, he now has a better explanation as to why he refers to himself as a whore. It’s simple really, it’s because it’s what he is and it should have kept him from falling head over heels for someone he knows that he can’t have. Yet here he is willing to beg for it if he has to.
“What makes you think that I don’t want you, that I don’t desire you Jared?” he asks once Jared joins him and sits on the side of the bed.
“You won’t let me touch you,” Jared explains, “every time I reach for you, you back away with a different excuse each time.”
“It’s not that I don’t want you Jared, because trust me I do,” he laughs at himself, “but that part of you, the carnal knowledge, you share that on a daily basis as a part of your job, but this part of you that you’ve been sharing with me? That’s mine. I know the rest will come later.”
“I don’t understand, I mean what part of me exactly am I sharing with you?” Jared let his confusion show. “The part of me that everyone wants, you’re not interested in, so help me out here, make me understand.”
Jared ducks his head and absently begins petting Oscar who bounced towards him as soon as he sat on the bed, while he waits for Jensen to answer his question. When the silence ensues, Jared takes a chance and looks up and almost like a reward, Jensen smiles.
“That part, Jared,” he finally answers, “that shy little kid seeking approval, the man that has the most amazing smile that I just want to kiss. Damn, I wish I’d met you when you first came here.”
“Oh, so you could’ve saved me huh?”
“Yeah, I would’ve, I’d try now, but you’re too god damned stubborn to let me save you now,” Jensen admits.
“Not stubborn,” Jared denies, it’s just that he doesn’t want to be saved, he wants to be loved, so he ducks his head and asks, “Hey Jen even if we’re not going to do stuff, can I sleep in here with you?”
Jensen answers by throwing the covers back on the empty side of the bed and he chuckles when Oscar yelps as Jared scurries past him to get under the covers. Once there Jared is not sure what to do with himself until Jensen takes pity on him and reaches over to pull him close.
“See Jared this is what I mean, this part of you. You know the act of sex, but you don’t know how to be intimate.”
Jared lay there and let Jensen’s words wash over him, what was sex if it wasn’t intimate? Wasn’t letting someone inside your body and swapping bodily fluids as intimate as you could get? It wasn’t like he let any of those horny bastards kiss…oh. The last time he’s had anything other than a kiss on the cheek (from Lauren) was from Chad Michael fucking Murray. He was the fucking beginning and the end of everything good in his life, his benchmark. He seriously needs a new one.
“Hey Jen,” he whispers, “Can I have a kiss?”
The End
Author Name: cillab42
Genre: Supernatural RPF, J2 AU
Pairing: Jared/Jensen
Rating: NC-17
Word count: ~10,353
Warnings: Male/male, prostitution,violence
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction, Jared and Jensen belong to themselves and there is no money made from this story.
Summary: Jared has been on the streets as a prostitute since he was sixteen and wants to get out of this life, because seven years has been long enough for him. He has been watching Jensen from afar for the past year, until a chance meeting gives him hope that someone can love him.
A/N: This is a fill for my hc_bingocard for prostitution. Thank you vunadiwai for the quick beta and any mistakes found are my own. Title is from Neon Trees ‘Everybody Talks’.
Right on time and there he is again, six o’clock on the dot. For a little over a year, Jared has made it a point to be here every evening, so that he could watch the ridiculously handsome man leave the bank building. He doesn’t know what time the man comes to work. That’s because when the man he has christened ‘Gorgeous’, is likely to be going to work , Jared is making his way back to the fleabag motel he calls home, after his night on the stroll.
The man is simply the most beautiful person Jared has ever seen and he would love to get close enough to talk to him. He doesn’t though because he knows that as soon as the man opens his mouth he’ll ruin the illusion. The truth is, Jared has never met a man as good looking as Gorgeous, that wasn’t an asshole. One day he would love to know what color his eyes are though, just to make his jerk off fantasies more accurate. So instead of approaching him, he just watches as Gorgeous walks away, with a gait that is confident and sure.
Jared has been working the streets for almost seven years now. Ever since he was sixteen and his mama got an eyeful while he was on his knees sucking Chad Michael Murray’s cock. So no, he isn’t whoring himself for something as noble as working his way through college; nor does he have a heart of gold and is helping the nuns keep the local orphanage running because they don’t have the funds to keep the doors open. The only noble thing his money has ever gone towards is food, shelter and whatever cast-offs he can find in the dollar bins of the local thrift shops.
As Jared watches the man walk away, he hopes that he doesn’t have a trick come by and ruin what is arguably the best part of his day. This man is to a whore, what Bigfoot is to a hunter of the supernatural. They both don’t exist. Or so Jared thought, because this man makes Jared want sex for the enjoyment of it rather than as a means to support himself. He hasn’t wanted that since Chad Michael Murray. Perhaps Bigfoot is real after all.
“He ain’t ever gonna want you,” says a bitter, unwanted voice that interrupts his daydream where he and Gorgeous have a house with the prerequisite white picket fence, 2.5 adopted foreign babies and a dog from the animal shelter that Jared visits when he needs to know that love is still available for free.
“A boy can dream can’t he?” Jared asks Trevor nonchalantly. Trevor Donavan is a former friend who used to be someone the boy Jared once trusted. Now he is someone the man Jared has become knows better than to even think about trusting.
Reluctantly he looks away from the man before Trevor realizes that he has an unrequited crush on him and reports the information to their pimp, J.D. Morgan. He really doesn’t want that to happen because it is J.D’s goal in life to break every dream his whores ever had, making him their only saviour. If he knows how much Jared lives to see this man each day, then J.D. will make him switch strolls and Jared would probably never see Gorgeous again.
“Why are you here?” Jared asks, knowing that his annoyance of having to talk to him is lost on the other man.
“Oh yeah, J.D. wants Samantha and Tracie for a private party in an hour, so you need to go home and change.” Trevor answers.
Jared both loves and hates J.D.’s private parties. He’s only had invitations to a half dozen of them, but he always seems to be popular and comes home with a lot of extra cash. When he attends these parties, it means that he is off the street for the rest of the night, but it also means that he has to dress like a girl and endure rich men calling him Samantha. For the life of him, he can’t understand why men who like to fuck boys want them to dress like girls and call their assholes pussies and their dicks clits. They even have to talk like girls. If they want to fuck girls, then go find one, because J.D. has a stable full of them to choose from, in any ethnicity and from ages fifteen to fifty-five.
Jared takes one last look in Gorgeous’ direction before he turns away and hurries back to the motel in order to be ready when J.D. sends the car for them. Jared knows from experience that J.D. probably told Trevor about the party much earlier, but Trevor either got high or just wanted to get Jared in trouble with their volatile pimp. It will take him about thirty minutes to get ready, but he’ll have to be faster than that today because sometimes an hour to J.D. could actually mean fifteen minutes and the bitch of it is that you’re supposed to know which time frame J.D. is using, the one everyone else does or the one in his head.
After a quick shower and a thorough shave, Jared starts his transformation from a tall skinny boy next door to that of a tall slender girl next door. When J.D. began making him attend these parties, he learned very quickly what Trevor and the others still haven’t, and that is what this particular group of men want. They want to fuck their daughters, the girl they couldn’t get in high school, and their wives 30 pounds lighter and twenty years younger, but with a dick.
The men who attend these parties have paid an exorbitant price to J.D. to set this up, so anything Jared and the others make in tips they get to keep. In the event that J.D. changes his mind, which he often does, Jared has sewn a pouch in the waistband of his skirts so that J.D. will find only the money that Jared wants him to find.
When Jared walks out of the motel forty minutes later the car that J.D. sent for them has already been waiting for five minutes. As he hops in the car, he knows that he stands out amongst the rest of the girls. Where they all look like drag queens, some with too much makeup and the sluttiest clothes they could find, Jared looks like the girl next door, natural and innocent.
He knows that he is taller than the average man as it is, so he doesn’t make himself taller; he chooses flats instead of heels and slumps his shoulders to make himself look smaller and vulnerable. He is wearing a little blue jean mini skirt from the GAP that would probably be knee length on a real girl, and a simple little white sleeveless cotton top that shows off his black, paper-stuffed, lacy bra underneath. His makeup is so subtle, it looks barely there, and instead of lipstick, he has on shiny cherry lip-gloss. To complete the image, his hair is in two little ponytails at the base of his skull, putting the final touch on that look of innocence. He thought about ribbons, but decided that would be over the top.
Jared barely makes it inside the door of the party before someone manhandles him into one of the rooms set aside for sex. Within thirty minutes, Jared has already had three different cocks in his mouth, having given blowjobs to drunk men who are grateful that he doesn’t laugh at the fact that he barely gets his mouth on them before they’re coming. They tip him well so Jared is grateful for maximum pay for minimum play, and he hasn’t had to fuck anyone yet. He is just walking away from blowjob number three and reapplying his lip-gloss when Gorgeous walks in.
Green. His eyes are green.
There is a protocol for these parties and there will be hell to pay if the girls don’t follow the rules. To keep the partygoers from being harassed, the men will make the advances, not the other way around. Tonight however, Jared decides he is going to break this cardinal rule because he does not want any of the others to get their hands on this man.
He’s not stupid enough to not be subtle about it though, because he knows that J.D. has eyes everywhere. So he walks past Green Eyes, gently bumps his shoulder and asks in a high falsetto, “You wanna date?”
Blushing furiously, Green Eyes throws up his hands and apologizes by saying, “Oh no, sorry Miss. It was an accident. I…”
He didn’t get to finish his sentence because a little blonde shrimp with hair longer than Jared’s starts laughing at his friend’s mistake, “Jensen that ain’t no girl, he’s one of the party favours.”
“Oh,” Jensen said, and then as if he just understood what the Shrimp meant, his eyes became owlishly large behind those sexy as hell wire framed glasses and he repeats, “Ohhhhh,” and it was so fucking adorable.
“You wanna?” the Shrimp asks Jensen cocking his head towards Jared, and if it is humanly possible, Jensen turns even redder as he shakes his head no.
“Well then I do,” He announces as he grabs Jared’s hand and leads him into one of the empty rooms.
“Chris, I’ll just wait over there,” Jensen says as he point to some chairs sitting by the wall.
Well fuck! Jared thinks to himself. He wants nothing more to get his hands on that perfect specimen of a man but the blonde shrimp called Chris thwarts him. So yet again he watches him walk away. At least he has learnt his dream man’s name is Jensen.
Before Jared and the Shrimp go into the room, Jared turns back to look and see if Jensen reconsiders and follows them but he doesn’t. He wants to fuck Jensen so badly but apparently, Jensen doesn’t feel the same. When Jared turns around to focus on the man he’s with, he finds his date, Chris staring at him as though he is reading Jared’s mind.
“I wanna fuck him too,” Chris admits, “He’s the reason I’ve been walking around with a permanent hard on since the day I met him. He doesn’t have a clue though.”
As Chris takes his shirt off, Jared leans in and says, “Well we can’t have that now, can we? How do you want me to take care of this for you?” he asks as he grabs the man’s cock. Jared begins to stroke it through his jeans while silently wishing that it was the dirty blonde with the startling green eyes that he was making the offer to.
“I wanna fuck, but I guess this time I won’t be the only one pretending that it’s Jensen I’m fucking. I have no desire to fuck a girl though, pretend or otherwise, so how about you give me a man’s name first.”
“In that case, just call me Jensen,” Jared answers.
*****
Jared is tired as hell. He is tired because he had an hour of sleep before receiving a summons at ass o’clock in the morning to go see J.D. Experience has taught him that it’s never a good thing for J.D. to send for you, but the upside is that it’s even worse if he pays you a visit. Jared is racking his brain trying to figure out what he did wrong last night, and the only thing he can come up with is that someone saw him approach Jensen. It was probably that son of a bitch Trevor. He hopes that’s it, because if J.D finds out about the money he has been keeping from him, there will be no safe place for Jared to hide.
Jared has never been to J.D.’s palatial home before. Jared knows that his own parents were not poor people, and he never went without, but this mansion is more than his parents could ever afford. The car pulls into a circular drive and stops in front of massive double doors. As Jared is shown inside, he wonders how many of his blow jobs have paid for this garishly decorated home. As he walks down the hall to the office where J.D. waits for him, he notices a baby grand piano and realizes that maybe it was more than blowjobs that helped pay for this place.
“Good morning Jared,” J.D. greets him as he enters the office. “How are you feeling?”
“Good,” Jared answers cautiously, because he’s still not sure why J.D. wants to see him.
“That’s right Jared you are.” J.D agreed with a huge smile on his face. “How many parties have you serviced for me now, three or four?”
“Six,” Jared corrects.
“You were my most popular girl last night, Jared.” J.D. compliments.
Jared just stares at the man because he’s not sure where the conversation is going, but as long as J.D. isn’t knocking him around the room, he considers it a win. That small win starts quickly going over to the loss column when J.D. reaches into his desk, and Jared is just waiting for a gun to appear. But no, he’s pulled out a little white box instead, so Jared’s breathing slows to almost normal.
The white box along with a white envelope that Jared hadn’t noticed at first was pushed towards him, but he was honestly too scared to pick it up just in case this was one of J.D.’s fucked up tests.
J.D. laughs when he sees Jared’s reluctance to pick up the envelope, “Too bad the rest of those bitches aren’t as well trained as you. All it took was one night on my cock to get you to toe the line. Look at you, no booze, and no drugs. You’re as clean as a street whore can be huh Jared?”
When Jared hangs his head to hide his shame and embarrassment, J.D. asks once again, this time his voice is hard and his tone brooks no argument, “Did I fuck some sense into you boy?”
“Yes J.D., you did,” comes the soft answer.
Jared isn’t just paying lip service to J.D.; the man really did fuck some sense into him. It was the final nail in his coffin concerning friendships because it’s the one event that taught him that Trevor was not his friend, and as long as he has to survive by selling his ass, Jared mustn’t trust anyone. Jared was fresh off the bus from San Antonio when he ran into Trevor at the station. Like him, Trevor was carrying a duffle bag and telling a similar story, where when his family found out he likes boys instead of girls, they kicked him out of the house, but not before they tell him how disgusting they think he is.
The two boys went separate ways when they left the station and didn’t see each other again until he and Trevor accidently started running into each other a couple of weeks later in the park. At the time, Jared had no way of knowing that Trevor had never lost track of him, that he was just waiting for the desperation to set in. For the much needed cash or something to eat. So, when Trevor spins a believable story about how he’s staying with friends and that he’s sure that Jared would be welcome as well, Jared believes him. Jared didn’t feel comfortable about staying with someone he didn’t know, but he convinced himself that even if he had to sleep on the floor, it had to be safer than sleeping on a bench in the park. Jared felt that way right up until the time that Trevor ducked out and Jared finds himself with two men who began forcibly stripping him of his clothes. Rosie (he learns the name later) held him down as J.D. brutally fucked him as a welcome to his stable.
“Good, to know Jared, good to know.” The older man shakes his head and half smiles at the memory, whereas even after all of these years, Jared has to force himself not to throw up. “The reason you’re here Jared is because men have been asking about you since that party in Plano and I’ve been watching you ever since. Next week we have a huge party in Parker, and the men with the money want you there. If you do well there, this may be your last week on the stroll, and it will be strictly parties for you.”
Jared is speechless and not just because he’s scared, but because of the rumours he’s heard through the grapevine about the parties in Parker. He knows that the money will be fantastic and it means that he can add more to his bank account and get out of this life a hell of a lot sooner than he was expecting to. Breaking out of his reverie about the extra cash, Jared watches carefully as his pimp presses a button on his desk, because he still thinks that J.D. has plans to hurt him. So he’s surprised when two seconds later a beautiful blonde woman walks through the door.
“This is Katie, Jared and she’s the real reason you’re up early,” J.D. says. “She’s taking you shopping.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand. Shopping?” Jared questions the older man.
“Yes shopping. You can’t show up in Parker wearing cast offs from a thrift shop,” J.D clarifies, “Katie will take you to several upscale boutiques and shops where I have accounts so that you can buy clothes that will allow you to dress the part. You will buy six outfits, suitable for both Samantha and Jared, because at some of these parties, girls aren’t welcome.”
He pushed the white envelope towards Jared and explained as he leered at the younger man, “This is your cut from last night Now you can handle this one of two ways, you can purchase your own clothes or I can take it out in trade.”
“I-I’ll pay,” Jared stutters. There is no way he wants to owe J.D. Morgan anything. Owing him is akin to slavery and he will end up doing these parties for free and fucking J.D. or his friends whenever and wherever he wants him to. If he takes out the costs of the clothes he has yet to buy in trade, it means he will be J.D.’s forever because he will be the one to say when Jared’s debt is paid in full.
“That’s too bad Jared, I was looking forward to you owing me,” J.D. said lasciviously, “Any way, there’s your cut and this is your new phone. I will text you when I want you to be ready and no more relying on that fuck up Trevor. After the party if any of the men want to see you later, then they will set it up with me, and I will call you, understood?” he asked Jared. “Good,” he says once Jared nods his understanding. “Now let’s go eat breakfast because you look like you could use some coffee.”
The rest of the morning was surreal, sitting in J.D.’s beautiful house and eating breakfast with him, and then spending the next three hours shopping in stores for clothes that he barely had enough money to cover, even if they were on the sales racks.
He and Katie were wary of each other as they sat in the car on the way to the boutiques. If he had known that shopping in the ritzier part of Dallas was on the menu today then he would have dressed better. He had never been more aware of the cheapness of his clothes until he sat next to Katie. She looked as though she just stepped off a fucking runway. To top it off, if he didn’t feel bad enough, the first sales woman looked down her hawk-like nose at him as though he was something she needed to scrape from the bottom of her shoe.
It’s difficult to spend hours shopping with someone and remain standoffish, so thirty minutes into their shopping adventure Jared and Katie begin to thaw towards each other. He learns that J.D. found Katie on the streets and thought that she was too special and took her home with him, cleaned her up to work parties, and now she did grooming and recruiting. Recruiting? Is that what Trevor did, recruit him?
“Don’t give me that dirty look,” she chastises him, “I don’t trick the people I recruit. They know exactly what they’re getting into. J.D. is correcting a mistake with you, and I told him that when I first saw you.”
Jared looks at her and decides that he is not going to indulge himself in what might have been. He could drive himself crazy if he begins asking himself what his life might have been like if Katie had been the one to greet him at the bus stop instead of Trevor. Fucking Trevor.
After his shopping adventure, Jared manages to get a few hours of sleep before he has to be back on the stroll. He had a couple of johns right away, and that should’ve made him happy considering the amount of money he’d spent earlier, but the quick business makes him too late to catch Jensen as he leaves for the day and his chest constricts at the loss.
The next day Jared arrives early because he actually has business inside the bank. This is going to be a tough week for him because he still has to deposit money in his savings despite the fact that he will not have enough for food. The hunger will last a couple of days, but the money saved will get him off the streets for good. He’ll just have to hit the soup kitchens until next week.
When he enters the bank, despite the way he dresses for work, he tries to make sure that he is clean and presentable. The security guard and the tellers know what he is, what he does and he tries not to take offense when the tellers use the sanitizer after handling his money. As he is walking out the door, he spots Jensen inside one of the offices. He is talking to someone who must have said something funny because his head is thrown back and he’s laughing. This is the first time since he’s been coming into the bank that he has glimpsed Jensen inside.
He wants so much to call out to him, or wave even, just to feel how addressing Jensen, to say his name other than when he’s jerking off, feels on his lips. He doesn’t do either though, as he’s sure that the former high-school Dallas Cowboy wannabe-cheerleaders that work in the bank will give Jensen hell simply because the whore from the corner knows his name.
Later that day Jared is just getting out of a car when he notices that it is almost six. Instead of making sure he’s available for his next potential customer, he hides back so the others can’t see him, but he will still be able to see Jensen when he walks out of the bank. He looks at his watch to check the time constantly but when it reads 6:10, he thinks that he has missed the man two days in a row. Just as the disappointment is setting in, he hears, “Jared?” from behind him. Fuck! Jensen used a different door to exit the bank today and has caught Jared by surprise.
“Jared…right? The voice behind him questions. The problem is that even though he’s only gotten to hear Jensen speak once, it’s something that he will never forget. Turning to face the voice, Jared smiles and replies, “Yes, it’s Jared.”
“I saw you inside earlier, why didn’t you speak?” Jensen asks. Jared would swear he almost sounds… hurt.
“Well, you know what I am and more importantly, your co-workers know what I am. I don’t want you to have to explain how we met if I suddenly come in your workplace calling you by your name.”
“Oh. I guess I hadn’t thought of that. I just…look can we grab a bite to eat, talk maybe?” Jensen asks.
Jared can’t believe what he is hearing. But he knows Trevor and others are watching so he takes a deep breath and replies.
“Jensen, while your business hours are ending, mine are just beginning. Like you I have a boss to answer to and trust me when I say that the repercussions are different if I don’t meet quota. So if you want my time, you’ll have to pay for it.”
Jared wishes he could shrivel up and die. The man of his dreams is asking him out and he finds himself reminding the man that he is a whore and has to be paid for his time. Now he wishes Jensen was still just Gorgeous and he could still foolishly dream. Reality bites.
“…how much?” Jensen asks.
“Huh?” Jared asks stupidly.
“For an hour Jared, how much?” Jensen asks again.
Jared is momentarily stunned. When he quotes his hourly rates, Jensen nods and says, “I’m parked over here,” and begins to walk to his car, not waiting to see if Jared follows.
Jared gets into the car and once Jensen is in his seat, he immediately reaches over to unbuckle Jensen’s belt. But the older man stops him by batting at his hands. “No Jared. Now it’s my time to remind you, that this is my place of business. I have a place where we can go. Buckle up please.”
If he keeps behaving like this, Jensen is going to doubt that Jared has any brain cells left. What was he thinking? This man has him feeling as he did when he first hit the streets; out of his depth. Since he left his parents’ house, he very rarely gets what he wants. But here he is, alone with Jensen and now that he is, he doesn’t know what to say or how to behave. So instead, he just looks out the window and wonder where he’s going.
As Jensen drives, Jared realizes that he has been driving for fifteen minutes and Jared doesn’t recognize this part of town. He should probably ask Jensen where they are going. Everything here is nicer than what he’s used to and he thinks that if Jensen’s going to hurt him at least he’ll die in an area where someone will care enough to help. A few minutes later when Jensen pulls into the parking lot of a barbeque restaurant, Jared again reaches to undo Jensen’s pants, and yet again Jensen bats his hands away.
“We’re here to eat Jared,” Jensen explains.
“You know that this counts as part of your hour,” Jared clarifies so that there will be no misunderstanding later. God he hopes that there will be no misunderstanding because if he has to fight with Jensen, then he will have the marks on him to show it and that means less money because johns don’t like their whores to sport black eyes.
“It’s my money Jared, let me worry about how I spend it. Now come on let’s go eat.”
Jared follows Jensen inside and thanks God that he chose to wear something that does not make him stand out like a sore thumb. The restaurant has a sign boasting that it makes the best barbeque in Texas and inside the entry is a framed newspaper article showing that it was featured on the television show ‘Diners, Drive in’s and Dives’.
The décor is like most barbeque places in Texas and the clientele is a mixture of people both upscale and rednecks, black, white and Hispanic all bought together in a way that only good food can. So far, so good. When the greeter seats them and leaves them with the menu, Jared looks at the prices and mentally counts his money and comes up short. He knows that even with what Jensen is going to pay him, he still doesn’t have J.D.’s cut and that means that he will have to hustle like hell when he gets back to his stroll to make up for what this dinner is going to cost him. He silently hopes that money is all this dinner is going to cost him, because his heart will be too high of a price to pay for beef brisket.
“Jared,” Jensen says not looking up from his menu, “dinner is on me so order what you want and let me worry about paying.”
Jared is still hesitant because he doesn’t want to worry about paying later, especially to J.D. Jared sees the sincerity in Jensen’s eyes and decides to stop protesting and order the brisket and maybe the entire left side of the menu. If Jensen is going to pay then he is going to enjoy his food, because it’s not often that he gets a treat like this.
At first, the conversation between the two was awkward until they started discussing sports and Jensen discovers that Jared is a Spurs fan, rather than Mavs supporter.
“How can a Dallas boy not like the Mavs? That’s a sacrilege.” Jensen exclaims.
“Not a Dallas boy,” Jared explains as he moans obscenely around a bite of beef brisket. “I’m from San Antone, where real basketball is played.”
“What are you doing here then Jared?” Jensen asks playfully but what Jared heard is, why are you whoring yourself.
“Right now, I’m eating.” Jared snarks “If you want to know why I’m selling my ass every night then please, can we save the psychoanalytic bullshit for another night.”
Suddenly Jared realises he snapped at Jensen lot louder than he intended. He looks around the restaurant nervously to see if the other patrons heard his outburst, if he’s going to be thrown out because he’s too dirty to eat with these good people in the reddest state in America. Here in this restaurant ,in this suburban part of town he is normal, not a whore and he has to go ahead and lose his fucking temper and announce to everyone in earshot that he is a whore. As he looks around everyone is too busy eating their food to pay attention to him. Thank god.
He can tell that his comment has offended Jensen. He must have misunderstood the comment because the look on Jensen’s face is warring between anger and hurt. The anger Jared can take, but the hurt has an apology on the tip of his tongue that, for some reason he doesn’t understand, he bites back.
Jensen sits up in his chair suddenly. Without saying a word, he stands up and walks towards the door and Jared thinks that he’s leaving him to pay the bill, but he isn’t. Jensen stops at the ATM machine by the door and withdraws cash.
There was a look of determination on Jensen’s face as he walks back to their table. Once there he sits down and gives Jared a stack of twenties that Jared knows immediately is more than his fee and dinner. A hell of a lot more.
“I’m sure that it’s been a while, so you don’t recognize polite conversation when you hear it, but if it embarrasses you to talk about what you do then it’s probably wise that you find a new profession.” Jensen advises before he resumes eating his dinner.
Just like that, his childish outburst has ruined the mood, and they finish their meal in silence. When Jensen calls the server for the check and she starts clearing away their plates, Jared quickly asks for a carryout box. There is too much food left to be thrown away when he knows it will keep a friend from choosing between going hungry or being beaten because she didn’t bring in enough money.
While Jensen pays the bill, Jared grabs his Styrofoam box and heads outside to wait for him and to hide the extra money so if J.D. surprises him, he won’t get it all. Once they are in the car Jensen asks, “Are you going to be able to keep that somewhere it won’t spoil?”
“It’s not for me,” Jared mutters. “It’s for a friend.”
There is no response to Jared’s explanation. The ride back to Jared’s stroll continues in silence, and Jared knows it’s because he fucked up. Shit like this doesn’t happen in dreams.
Once they are back at the bank parking lot, Jared hurries and tries to jump out of the car before it comes to a complete stop. But Jensen impedes his escape by grabbing his arm and says, “Please be careful Jared.”
He nods his head and steps back to let Jensen drive away. Jared clutches the Styrofoam box like a lifeline and glances up and down the street. The food really is for a friend, Lauren Tom. Lauren is the one who nursed him back to health after his night with J.D and later she gave him pointers on how to keep his money safe and how to protect himself from nasty johns and anything else she thinks of that will help him survive. At fifty-five, she is the oldest girl on the stroll and in J.D.’s stable. Her age means that she’s not getting as many dates as she used to and no dates mean that she doesn’t eat, so Jared tries to watch out for her now.
He spots her in the doorway of a store that’s closed, “Hey Lauren you do ok tonight? Jared asks.
“Yeah, Jared I got J.D.’s cut, where have you been, boy? No one has seen you in hours, not since you got in that car, and I was beginning to worry.” She chastises him as she stands on her toes to reach up to brush his hair out of his eyes. He smiles and bends down to meet her hand.
“There’s no need to worry, mama, I let a pretty boy take me to dinner and I bought you something back,” he explains as he hands her the box.
“You were gone for three hours, so I hope you got me something too, sweetheart,” J.D.’s voice grates in his ear.
Jared finds his body stiffening at the sound of J.D.’s voice. While it’s not unusual to see the man out checking on his stable, he usually sends one of his henchmen to patrol them. J.D. hasn’t been out here in weeks, so why is he here tonight? As Jared stands up and turns to face the man, he has his answer. Trevor. He’s leaning against the man’s car as though he is waiting for a show, but unfortunately, he won’t get one tonight. Jared isn’t stupid enough to have been off his corner for three hours and not have money to show for it.
“Of course I do J.D., the john was just wining and dining me, that’s all,” Jared answers nervously.
“Let me see Jared,” J.D. demands as he motions his hands in the universal sign of money.
“It’s in my sock,” he warns the man because he doesn’t want him the think that he has a weapon of some kind and end up hurt, or worse, dead.
“Let Rosie get it for you, because you know how I hate surprises,” J.D. states, motioning his head towards the bald man accompanying him to search Jared’s sock. “Assume the position Jared, and check his pockets too, just in case he’s holding out.”
Jared stands up, spreads his legs and folds his hands behind his head as Rosie pulls his money from his sock before turning to show it to J.D. Once his boss nods his head in satisfaction, Rosie stands and shoves his hands in Jared’s pockets. Finding nothing he turns them inside out for J.D to see.
“That’s all he has,” Rosie confirms for his boss.
Jared stands there on the sidewalk with his hands behind his head as though he is the bad guy in some B grade Hollywood movie and he is thinking that it can’t get worse until he notices Jensen driving past in his car, witnessing his humiliation. He notices that the car is slowing down as though he’s going to stop, so he shakes his head, telling the man that he’s all right and to keep going. It could get ugly if Jensen tries to defend him and he doesn’t want this man hurt because of him.
It’s hard to decide who shows the most disappointment, J.D. because he misses out on another chance to have Jared owe him, Rosie because he won’t get the chance to beat the shit out of Jared, or Trevor because Rosie will get the chance to beat the shit out of him for wasting his and J.D.’s time.
Jared doesn’t waste his time thinking about it because one of his regulars pulls up looking for a date, and Jared is happy to oblige to get the hell away from the trio.
Jared’s not sure what it is about Jensen, but as soon as he lays down on the pancake he calls a mattress to go to sleep, he can’t because he knows that Jensen’s eyes are green and his goddamn voice sounds so smooth, like top shelf whisky. It’s hard to believe, but after fucking all night long, his dick twitches and gets hard every time he closes his eyes and finds green ones staring back at him.
At five forty-five, Jared is trying to make it back to the stroll, but he’s feeling a little worse for the wear. His last trick tried to get a fuck for the price of a blowjob and when Jared declined his generous offer, he received a fist to the face. He also got a scrape on his arm as the son of a bitch pushed him out of the car. That doesn’t mean he can call it quits for the day though. He won’t make as much, but as long as his ass and his mouth are functional, most of the men who frequent this area don’t care what his face looks like. Jensen does however.
Just as he’s makes it back to his spot to catch a glimpse of Jensen, he hears the man call his name. When he looks up, Jensen is motioning for him to come and get into his car. Before he joins Jensen, he makes sure that he tells Lauren where he’s going so he won’t have a repeat of last night.
“Jeez, Jared did those guys do this to you last night?” Jensen asks once he sees the young man’s face.
“No, this was someone who thought he was going to get a twofer.” Jared says feeling embarrassed that Jensen was a witness to such an awkward situation.
Unaware of Jared’s discomfiture, Jensen gives Jared a blank look and so he explains, “Two things for one price, Jensen. A twofer.”
“Oh,” is all Jensen says when he has a light bulb moment.
Tonight they are at a burger place and the smells are driving Jared crazy. Just like the barbeque place, it is nothing fancy, just good food. Once again they talk about whatever, but nothing in particular. Jared realizes that he can’t allow himself to become too comfortable with Jensen because when the other man’s fascination with him is over he’ll still be the whore on the corner and Jensen will probably tell the story to his friends about the time he went slumming.
While Jensen’s talking, Jared monitors his food to make sure that he leaves half for Lauren so she won’t have to go to bed hungry tonight.
“Dude, you can’t be through, you’ve only eaten half,” Jensen observes.
“I’m good, I’ll save the rest for later,” he lies as Jensen signals for their server.
“I’d like a hamburger platter to go when you bring my check,” Jensen says when the server arrives at the table. Once she’s gone, he looks at Jared and asks, “Still full?”
“I don’t need your pity,” he starts, but Jensen cuts him off.
“Look, I think we had some variation of this conversation yesterday, so please don’t start tonight and ruin my dinner. Why don’t you tell me who is it that you’re willing to go hungry for?”
At first, Jared was going to be defiant and not answer, but he had some questions of his own. “I’ll tell you if you tell me why you’re paying a whore to eat with you when you can take anyone in this restaurant home for free.”
Jensen purses his lips as though he’s thinking over Jared’s question. Jared really did try not to moan but the sound escapes anyway, so he’s just glad that he has a french fry in his mouth, allowing him to pretend that it’s the food and not the thought of Jensen’s mouth around his cock.
“Okay,” Jensen finally agrees, “but you go first.”
“Lauren. Her name is Lauren Tom and she’s the reason I’ve been able to survive. Hell she’s the reason I’m still alive, so yeah. Lauren.”
He deliberately leaves it at that, not mentioning anything specific. He shudders when he remembers his first few weeks on the street. He was on such a shitty stroll that he had been robbed, beaten and raped. Then Lauren took pity on him and essentially saved his life. He’s not sure that the petite woman is even aware what she did. It was not the dangers on the street she saved him from, but the bottle of pills he was going to swallow because of the misery in which he found himself.
“How…how long have you been on your own Jared?”
“Seven years,” he answers but doesn’t elaborate. Instead he waits for the why don’t you get a real job and stop selling your ass diatribe that he’s heard over the years from countless social workers who didn’t believe that he could and were simply caring by rote.
“That’s a long time Jared, I’m sorry.” Jensen states quietly.
“So am I.” Jared agrees. “Now it’s your turn.”
“It’s simple really; I just want to get to know you, to know somebody without all of the pretence that goes with it. I know what I’m getting and you know what you’re getting.” Jensen responds.
“You know that you’re getting a whore, but even though you seem to be a nice guy, I really don’t know what I’ve got here except some extra cash.”
“Why do you always refer to yourself as a whore?” Jensen asks, “Is it to remind me or you?”
“Me I guess,” Jared answers after he mulls over the question, “I guess it’s to remind me that this isn’t real, that I’m not Julia Roberts and you’re not Richard Gere.”
“Damn straight,” Jensen agrees, “I’m much better looking.”
When Jensen asks for the check, the server brings the carryout box with the order Jensen placed earlier. As he slides the box to Jared’s side of the table, an envelope comes along with it. Putting the envelope in his pocket, Jared excuses himself to both count the money and put any extra in the hidden pocket in the waistband of his jeans so neither Rosie or J.D. can find it in the event of a surprise inspection.
Tonight he has been gone four hours instead of three, and it’s amazing how in just two days he feels … normal. Like this is the date he never had, and blowing Chad Michael Murray totally doesn’t count. He knows whatever fascination Jensen has with him will eventually fade away, but for now, he is going to enjoy the attention.
Once they get back to the stroll, a hand stops Jared before he opens the door, “Tomorrow, just meet me by my car. Oh, and you can choose the restaurant if you want.”
The rest of the week goes the same, with Jared meeting Jensen at his car at six each night. The only thing that changes is the amount of time that they spend together, as it gets longer and longer each night and Jared is upset that Jensen continues to not try to touch him. It figures that the one person that he actually wants sexually doesn’t feel the same, yet Jared is unable to force the issue in the event that Jensen will stop seeing him altogether because that will come soon enough.
Friday is that last day that he will get to see Jensen, because starting Monday, he’ll be doing private parties only and he won’t be on the stroll any longer. He feels sad because he is thinking of calling J.D. to tell him that he’d rather do blowjobs in those dirty alleys rather than give up his time with Jensen. He doesn’t though because even Jensen will tell him that’s the stupidest thing that he’s ever heard.
As they drive to the restaurant, another steakhouse, Jared is quiet and just listens as Jensen talks. He’s trying to remember every little thing about the older man so when he’s gone from his life, he’ll have the good memories. He knows that when he’s not out there anymore that Jensen isn’t going to go out of his way to find him.
“This is my last week on the stroll,” Jared blurts out once the server shows them to their table. He wasn’t going to tell him, but that was before he comes to the realization that he wants to keep seeing Jensen, to see what can come of this relationship between them. If friendship is all he can ever get then he’ll be happy with that because that is more than he has now.
“Are you…quitting?” Jensen asks.
“No,” Jared laughs and suddenly for the first time in a long time, he wishes that he could. “No, J.D. wants me to do parties only now. I’ll be on call starting Monday.”
“So this weekend?” Jensen asks.
“The stroll,” Jared answers wanting this time to speed by so that he will be off the streets.
“What if I want you all weekend?” Jensen asks, “Can you spend it with me?”
Jared wants so badly to say hell yes, but he knows that he can’t, that he has to let J.D. set a price and to let someone know where he is for his own safety. The funny thing is that he feels safer with Jensen than he has with anyone since he left his parent’s home.
“Those arrangements are made through J.D.,” Jared reluctantly tells him, as reaches in his pocket. He pulls out the phone he’d been given earlier in the week and with shaking hands, he dials the older man’s number. Once it starts ringing, he gives the phone to Jensen.
“J.D.,” Jensen says into the phone, but that is all Jared hears because Jensen stands up and walks outside as he arranges to have Jared for the weekend. He knows that he should feel shame about the fact that there is a barter taking place about his body and he has no say in the outcome, but he doesn’t. If they can agree on a reasonable price, then he will have a sense of freedom for the first time in seven years.
When Jensen comes back to the table, he gives Jared his phone back and advises him that J.D. needs to confirm the arrangements with him.
“J.D.,” Jared speaks cautiously into the phone.
“Are you drumming up business for me boy?” J.D. laughs as though he’s just heard the funniest joke ever, “Well, here’s your weekend plans Jared. You’re to meet Rosie in about an hour where moneybags will hand over part of the money since it’s too late to get it all tonight. You’re his until Monday unless he wants you longer. You’re to get the rest before you part company that morning and Rosie will meet you at the hotel to pick it up. Don’t fuck this up boy, because if you do you’d better believe that it’ll come out of your ass, are we clear?”
“Crystal, J.D., crystal,” Jared assured the man.
Once Jared completes the call, Jensen calls the server to the table and places an additional large order to go. On the way to the car, to ease the tension, Jared teases about them working up an appetite. The only funny thing is the fact that Jared is nervous about being with Jensen. He wants this man, but that is not the most pressing thing. He wants to know more about him, like what is his favourite food, favourite color, what does he look for in a…friend.
“This is for your friend, Lauren. If you’re going to be gone all weekend, I want to make sure that she will have something to eat.”
In that moment, Jared knows that it’s too late, that he’s gone against his own advice and fell in love with this man that he knows he can never have. Fuck! This man that he has only known for a week cares about making sure that Lauren, the woman who has been like a mother to him, is okay. As they drive he fights to hold back the tears that suddenly fill his eyes.
Once they leave the restaurant, they pull up to the bank and Jensen withdraws the cash he needs and they make their way back to the stroll and pull up to the corner where Rosie had pat him down earlier. As soon as the car pulls up to the curb, there are several men, women walking up, and asking if he wants a date until they see Jared in the vehicle.
“You stay here, Jared, but tell me which one is Lauren,” Jensen says. He looks to the older woman that Jared points to. She’s standing in the doorway of a storefront as though she is trying to hide herself instead of trying to make the money she needs. Grabbing the food, Jensen walks up to her.
Of course Jared can’t do as Jensen asks and he rushes from the car. His heart beats a little faster and he falls just a little more for this man at what he hears.
“Lauren?” Jensen asks.
“Yeah, you looking for a date honey?” she asks, standing a little straighter at the thought of this handsome young man walking past all of the others to get to her.
“I’m a friend of Jared’s and he’s going to be with me all weekend. I don’t want him to worry about you, so this is for you,” he explains as he hands her the bag and she looks up at him in surprise when she feels the bills that he hands to her as well. She looks past him and that is when Jared knows that Jensen realizes that he didn’t stay in the car, because he turns to look at what has caught Lauren’s attention.
Lauren takes in the looks that pass between the two men and chuckles, “I’m not sure what he did, but all I can say is that he’s a stubborn little fucker when he wants to be.”
“Don’t give all my secrets away Lauren,” Jared chastises, “Hey have you seen Rosie tonight?”
Laruen uses her free hand to point and both men look up to see the bald man walking towards them.
“You Jensen?” Rosie asks as he nods his head towards Jensen.
“Yes.” Jensen nods
“Good, come with me,” he commands and walks back towards the direction he came from.
Rosie stops at the end of the block next to a huge SUV, opens the door and gestures for Jensen to get in.
Jared and Lauren watch as Jensen disappears in the vehicle and it pulls away from the curb. He begins to worry the moment the vehicle pulls away and silently prays that the man is ok.
“Who’s he Jared?” Lauren asks him, “Everyone has been talking about how you’ve been spending hours with some john all week. Is that him? Please be careful. Rumour has it that Trevor has been telling J.D. that you’re sweet on this guy, so please tell me you’re not getting in over your head.”
“Don’t worry about me Lauren, I’m always careful just like you taught me,” he assures her with his eyes trained to the spot where the SUV had been. “And besides, I stopped believing in fairy tales the moment I met J.D.”
When the SUV pulls back to the curb and Jensen safely steps out onto the sidewalk, Jared let go of the breath he was holding. As he rushes towards Jensen, he misses Lauren’s cryptic, “Sure you have baby boy, sure you have.”
The ride to Jensen’s house is quiet. This is the first time in years that Jared doesn’t have to worry if he’s going to make enough money or if he’s going to live to see the next morning. Jensen has the radio tuned in to a country station and is humming along and Jared closes his eyes to listen. He must have fallen asleep because soon Jensen is shaking him awake.
He awakes with a start and calls himself stupid for falling asleep because he should have been noticing the drive, street signs, stores or something but his dumbass falls asleep like some newbie. Now not only does he not know the name of the street, but also he wakes up in a garage and he doesn’t even know what the goddamn house looks like. He looks at the man he’s with and realizes he trusts him. Besides there is nothing he can do about it now.
He follows Jensen to the door and stands behind him as he unlocks it. Jared yelps in surprise as he’s almost knocked down by what looks like Oscar the Grouch come to life.
“That’s Oscar,” Jensen laughs as he reaches down to pick up a bundle of white fur, “and this little man is Icarus, but he answers to Icky.”
Jared kneels down and lets the dog bestow kisses on him, and falls instantly in love. He’s not sure what kind of dog this is, but he’s beautiful just like his owner and just as loving. Although Oscar is not the same breed, he reminds him of the puppies he had to leave when he left home.
“Come on Jared, he’ll want you to pet him all day, and you look as though you’d do it,” Jensen teased as he carries Icky inside to stop his attempt to get Jared pet him as well.
The kitchen is the first room they enter as they walk in from the garage and the dogs race towards Jensen and begin whining.
“Okay guys, I know, I know, you wanna go out, but you can blame that guy for making me late.”
“I guess it’s lucky that they have those fancy automatic feeders or you’d be blaming me for starving them huh?” Jared joked.
Oscar and Icky barrel out the door once Jensen opens it for them to go relieve themselves while Jared and Jensen sit on the deck and wait for them to finish. Jared’s body was strumming with so much excitement that he could hardly sit still. After a year of lurking, he was finally going to get his mouth and hands on that body.
When the dogs bound back up on the deck, Jensen tells him, “I’ll clean it up tomorrow; experience has taught me to wait until I can see before venturing out in the dark,”
Jared never thought that his foray into Jensen’s house would exclude his bedroom. He is laying in Jensen’s guest bedroom staring at the ceiling trying to figure out why he is lying here in this bed alone instead of sharing the huge one down the hall with Jensen.
Before they went to bed Jensen gave him some soft sleep pants and an old t-shirt before taking the time to show him around and tell him that if he gets hungry during the night that he could go downstairs and make himself something to eat. Unfortunately, for Jared, the kind of hunger he’s experiencing is not something a sandwich will satisfy.
Finally, he couldn’t take it longer and he’d like to think that he stalks down the hall but it was more like creeping. He didn’t want to make any noise in the event that between the five feet from the guest room to Jensen’s, he changes his mind that he won’t have to explain to Jensen what he’s doing in the hallway.
Once he is standing in front of Jensen’s bedroom door, he hesitates before he knocks and he then chickens out and decides that he will wait until morning He forgot about the dogs though, and their fucking supersonic hearing. He can hear them snuffling away on the far side of the door, trying to reach him. There was no backing out now.
So he knocks.
“Jared?” Jensen calls out sleepily.
“Um, yeah,” he mutters as he secretly curses Oscar and Icky for giving him away while at the same time trying not to think about how Jensen’s sleep rough voice is the sexiest motherfucking thing he’s ever heard in his life. Ever.
Jared gathers his nerves, and opening the door slightly, ducks his head in to the room. Tentatively he asks, “Why did you…why don’t you want me?”
How bad of a whore is he really that he can’t even give it away for free? He would suggest that he at least be allowed to give Jensen a blow job in exchange for dinner, but he doesn’t think that the will go over well.
He hears the bedcovers rustle as Jensen sits up, “C’mere Jared,” Jensen softly requests.
With a feeling of trepidation, Jared walks to the bed, but he looks at his feet because he doesn’t want to see the rejection in Jensen’s eyes as he explains how Jared is a charity case. That Jared is stupid to think that a man as beautiful as Jensen would waste his time on a whore when he can have any man (or woman) that he wants. If Jensen were to ask him that question now, he now has a better explanation as to why he refers to himself as a whore. It’s simple really, it’s because it’s what he is and it should have kept him from falling head over heels for someone he knows that he can’t have. Yet here he is willing to beg for it if he has to.
“What makes you think that I don’t want you, that I don’t desire you Jared?” he asks once Jared joins him and sits on the side of the bed.
“You won’t let me touch you,” Jared explains, “every time I reach for you, you back away with a different excuse each time.”
“It’s not that I don’t want you Jared, because trust me I do,” he laughs at himself, “but that part of you, the carnal knowledge, you share that on a daily basis as a part of your job, but this part of you that you’ve been sharing with me? That’s mine. I know the rest will come later.”
“I don’t understand, I mean what part of me exactly am I sharing with you?” Jared let his confusion show. “The part of me that everyone wants, you’re not interested in, so help me out here, make me understand.”
Jared ducks his head and absently begins petting Oscar who bounced towards him as soon as he sat on the bed, while he waits for Jensen to answer his question. When the silence ensues, Jared takes a chance and looks up and almost like a reward, Jensen smiles.
“That part, Jared,” he finally answers, “that shy little kid seeking approval, the man that has the most amazing smile that I just want to kiss. Damn, I wish I’d met you when you first came here.”
“Oh, so you could’ve saved me huh?”
“Yeah, I would’ve, I’d try now, but you’re too god damned stubborn to let me save you now,” Jensen admits.
“Not stubborn,” Jared denies, it’s just that he doesn’t want to be saved, he wants to be loved, so he ducks his head and asks, “Hey Jen even if we’re not going to do stuff, can I sleep in here with you?”
Jensen answers by throwing the covers back on the empty side of the bed and he chuckles when Oscar yelps as Jared scurries past him to get under the covers. Once there Jared is not sure what to do with himself until Jensen takes pity on him and reaches over to pull him close.
“See Jared this is what I mean, this part of you. You know the act of sex, but you don’t know how to be intimate.”
Jared lay there and let Jensen’s words wash over him, what was sex if it wasn’t intimate? Wasn’t letting someone inside your body and swapping bodily fluids as intimate as you could get? It wasn’t like he let any of those horny bastards kiss…oh. The last time he’s had anything other than a kiss on the cheek (from Lauren) was from Chad Michael fucking Murray. He was the fucking beginning and the end of everything good in his life, his benchmark. He seriously needs a new one.
“Hey Jen,” he whispers, “Can I have a kiss?”
The End