Hold Me Harmless

[Bang]

Navy jumped as the taxi cab backfired. Her nerves were running haywire in her body. Her body. That's something she really couldn't say anymore. She lost all rights to her body long ago. Now it belonged to anyone with a twenty and a car.

Navy rubbed her forearms for warmth. None would come. She hitched up her skirt, placing an almost bare leg into the street. Of course, a young man pulled up within seconds. And of course, he stared at her with expectant eyes. She put on her best fake smile and waited for the window to go completely down.

"Hey, baby, lookin' for a good time?"

The young man in the car couldn't help but smile inwardly. Navy noticed he couldn't have been more than eighteen, nineteen at the most.

"Actually, yeah. Get in."

Navy obeyed, relishing in the new-found warmth of the expensive looking car. She sniffed the air and noticed a hint of that infamous *new car smell.* Navy smiled as she fiddled with the zipper of her mini-skirt. Hmmm, this kid must be rich. She ventured a look in his direction. He was a good lookin' kid. He had blond hair shoved into a black baseball cap, but a few pieces hung out.

"So, where we goin'?" She asked, in her think New York accent.

"Oh, you'll see... so, what's your name?"

"Navy."

"Navy? What an interesting name."

"Mm, yeah. What's yours?"

He smiled a crooked grin. "Roly."

She almost laughed. "Really? And I thought I had an odd name." She noticed he couldn't keep the smile off his face. He must really want this. She coughed to cover up her laughter. Must be a first-timer.

"Okay, we're here."

Navy looked up at their arrived destination. All thoughts of this guy being rich were quickly conveyed. She was literally breathless. This place was so beautiful on the outside, that she could hardly wait to see the inside.

Roly got out of the car and quickly shuffled to her side. She was still in her trance when he got there. He opened the door and gently nudged her. "Hey, it won't hurt you. Come on." He held his hand out to her.

Navy looked at his hand, confused. Was she supposed to give him something? He noticed her expression and carefully picked up her hand and pulled her out of the car. Navy realized what he meant and looked down in embarrassment.

He gently pulled her chin up and smiled. "Come on. It's cold out here."

She smiled back, and let him lead her into the hotel. They rode the elevator up to the top floor and entered the last suite down the hall. Again, she was amazed out how beautiful everything was. Never in her lifetime had she been in a place like this.

"Here, lemme take your coat." He pulled the worn pleather jacket off her shoulders to reveal a very bright pink, tight wrap-around. "Wow, very loud."

"Well, I like to be noticed." She retorted with fake enthusiasm. He stared at her for a second, then went to hang up their coats. "Why you're at it, take that hat off. You're not hiding anything."

She made herself comfortable on the sofa and watched as he pulled the hat off his head, and let his hair tumble. Okay, so it's not as long as I thought. Thank God! His golden hair fell to his shoulders and curled out. He walked over and sat beside her. Here we go.

"Look, I want you to know I didn't bring you up here to do... what you normally do."

Navy rolled her eyes. How many times has she heard that?! Oh great, he's gonna wanna do kinky shit. "Yeah? Well what did you have in mind, cowboy?" She slowly ran her fingers over his chin, smiling out of habit.

"No," he grabbed her hand, and pulled it away. "No, we're not going to do anything like that. I just want to talk."

Navy became enraged and her eyes proved that. "What? You brought me up here to TALK! Jesus, this is a lost cause! I need money for food, I need food to survive! Talking won't get me anywhere." She got up to leave but he grabbed her arm, pulling her back down.

"Do you like what you do?"

"What kind of question is that? Do you think this is some sick hobby? I hate what I do!"

"Then why are you doing it?"

"Because I have to. How else will I survive?"

"Trust me, there are plenty of other ways."

"Look, what are you? Some do-gooder? I don't need your charity or your words of wisdom. I knew from the second I saw you, that you were some rich kid. Boy was I ever right. Do you get off on doing this?"

"Doing what?"

"Doing what you're doing."

"And that would be..."

"Interfering with my life! What? Did you opt for *Eenie-Menie-Miney-Moe* or was it someone's dare to pick me up?"

"Damn girl, you are just a big ball of negativity, aren't ya? If you must know my story, the least we could both do is get more comfortable. Cause we're gonna be here for a long time. Now, I put some clothes in the bedroom that are about your size. Go pick something out and put it on." Navy went to protest but he put his finger on her lips. "Go."

"Fine. But it better not be any Old-Granny clothes."

"Trust me baby, anything would look better than that little number you're sporting now."

She glared at him, but said nothing. Instead she retreated to the room he was pointing to. She entered and found, to say the least, three very conservative looking outfits. She picked the blue skirt with the matching top and jacket. She threw the jacket aside and put the other two articles aside. She walked over to the mirror. Not bad. But too nice for just talking. She picked up the other outfit and disgustedly threw it back down. There was no way she was wearing that. The last was a pale green flowing skirt, with a white halter top and a see-through shimmering shirt. Now this is actually cool. She quickly changed and walked back out.

"Better?"

He smiled, brightly. "Much. My brother picked that one out. You'll have to thank him later."

"Your brother?"

He nodded, totally sure of himself. "Yeah, you'll meet him and the rest of the family later. Anyway, come sit and I'll dish out my story. You deserve that much."

She smiled politely and joined him on the couch. "Thank you. Alright Roly. Lemme have it."

"Okay, first off. My name isn't Roly. But Roly is actually short for Rolyat, which is Taylor backwards. That's my real name, Taylor. Well, actually, my real name is Jordan Taylor, but my friends call me Taylor or Tay..."

"Okay, I got it!"

"Sorry, anyway. I've been to New York frequently, and every time I come up here, I see you standing at the same spot... just waiting... and it saddens me, really. A beautiful girl like you, reduced to selling her body for money." He got a distant look on his face, but snapped out of it when she snapped. "Oh yeah, anyway, so I promised one day I would come and rescue you."

"Taylor, that's sweet. Really, it is. But you can't save me, okay? You can't just ride in here on a white horse and whisk me away. Face it baby, life doesn't work that way."

"I know. I'm not naive. But I've already planned this stuff out, so don't worry about it..."

"Don't worry about it? Taylor, this is my life we're talking about. Did it ever occur to you that maybe I don't want you to save me?"

"But you said so yourself that you hate what you're doing. Why wouldn't you take the opportunity to get out of it!"

"Because I'm not like that."

"Then tell me. What does it feel like to have guy after guy screwing you with no emotion what-so-ever? How does it feel to be labeled a whore? How does it feel to feel the way you do?"

Tears tempted to fall down Navy's face, but she held them back. "How dare you! You have no idea what I feel like, so don't even try to pretend like you do. You don't understand!"

"Then make me understand, Navy. Trust me, I want to understand why you would want to even consider doing this when you have the chance to stop. Don't you want to get rid of the pain?"

"I'm immuned to the pain. It's nothing I haven't felt before."

"Don't give me that. I may not go through what you do, thank God, but I do know you can't immune yourself to that kind of pain. Don't lie to me."

"Okay, fine. You want the truth?"

"More than anything."

"The truth is... the truth... the truth is that it hurts like hell each and every time! To look into the eyes of the man above me, and see how cold his eyes are, makes me want to die! To know that he looks at me like common street trash, knowing that what he sees is what I am. And nothing in the world could change that. Every morning I wake up and hope someone like you would come and take me away from all of this, but stuff like that doesn't happen to me..." The last wall of her barrier broke and she stared at him through tear-filled eyes. "Why are you here? Why are you trying to help me?"

He gently draped an arm over her shoulders and pulled her to him. She tucked her head under his chin and cried into his neck. "Like I said, you're too beautiful to do what you do. And if you'd give me the chance, I'd like to get to know you for who you really are. I want to take you away from all this..."

He stopped when he felt Navy unbuttoning his shirt. He looked down and quickly grabbed her hand. "Hey, no, you don't have to do that."

She looked up as new tears fell. "See! That's the only thing I know how to do! I'm not good for anything else."

"That's not true. I'm sure you're good at a lot of things, you just haven't focused on them. Please come with me and let me bring those things out in you."

She looked down at her hand, which was resting over his heart, with his over top. She leaned down and kissed his hand. "I guess it wouldn't hurt to try, huh?"

He smiled brightly and kissed the top of her head. "Thank you. You have no idea how good this will be for you."

"Where exactly am I going?"

"My home."

"Which would be?"

"Oklahoma."

"Oh, wow... that is... a lot... um, different than New York."

He rolled his eyes. "Please, I know what you're thinking."

She looked at him, innocently. "What?"

"'Only two things come out of Oklahoma. Steers and Queers. And I don't see no horns on you boy!'"

Navy busted up laughing. "Oh my God! That is so funny! Where did you hear that?"

"Never heard that before?"

"Nope."

"Oh, well, it's not important. Anyway, I might as well tell you a little bit about my family since you'll be spending some time with them. Okay, there's Isaac, my older brother. He picked out the outfit you're wearing."

"Older? How old are you?"

"Seventeen. You?"

"Eighteen, continue."

"Then there's Zac, Jessie, Avery, Mackenzie, Zoe and Emmy. And of course my mother, Diana, and my father, Walker."

"Wow, you have a huge family."

"Yeah, we're all connected. Wouldn't be the same without any one of them."

"So, um, they know about me?"

"To some extent. Isaac and Zac know pretty much the most cause I tell them everything. But the younger kids just know you're a friend coming to stay for a little while. That's all my parents know too."

"Mmm-hmm."

"Yeah, they're all great, ya know. I'm sure you'll get along with all of them..." He looked down and noticed her breathing had become even. He smiled and gently scooped her into his arms. After tucking her into bed, he carefully placed a kiss to her forehead. "Good night Navy."

He was just about out the door when her soft voice called out to him. "Taylor?"

He turned around and made his way back over to her side. "Yeah?"

She tried to say something, but it seemed to be caught in her throat. He knew though. He stripped himself down to his boxers and climbed in beside her. She turned around and instantly went to her new favorite position. Her head tucked neatly under his chin, and her hand laying on his chest, right over his heart. He wrapped his arms around her tightly, and felt himself falling. The last thing he heard before he fell asleep was Navy's sweet voice.

"Just hold me harmless tonight."