Summer Break (Love Nibbles Book 4) by Bonnie Dee

her.
    “You have questions?” he prompted.
    “Oh, uh, right.” Megan pulled out her notebook and a small recorder from her purse. “You don’t mind if I tape this? It’s easier than writing everything down.”
    He considered a moment then nodded.
    She pressed the button and spoke. “Interview with…Mouth. White male, age…?”
    “Seventeen.”
    “Can you tell me a little about your family and your parents?”
    “There was just my mom.” He didn’t offer anything else. Megan began to understand why Ricky had laughed when he suggested Mouth for an interview. He wasn’t a talker.
    “How did you come to be on your own?”
    “My mom was an addict. After we got evicted, there didn’t seem to be much point in sticking around anymore. I could take care of myself better than she could.”
    “You didn’t have any relatives to stay with?”
    “No. I stayed at a friend’s place for a while, but I couldn’t live there forever. Then I hooked up with some other kids who live in this abandoned building.”
    “What about a foster home? Did you consider that?”
    He stared at her for a second like she was stupid. “No. I’d rather be on my own.”
    “How did you reach the point of,” she searched for a polite way to phrase the question, “considering prostitution as a source of income?”
    “Some of the kids I knew were whoring, but I wouldn’t at first. I was sure I could find a job. But the days went on and I had no money. This kid, Donnie, convinced me sucking cock was a pretty simple way to make fifty bucks. So one night I did it.”
    Megan swallowed. “How did you feel about it?”
    “I didn’t feel anything. He was right. It wasn’t such a big deal and I had enough money to eat for a few days.” His voice was perfectly steady and emotionless.
    Megan felt the cold reality of his answer hit her in the chest. Jesus, what kind of a life was that for a kid? She stared at her notepad, scribbling a few words, afraid he might see the pity in her eyes. “So how old were you when you did that? When you first sold sex?”
    “Sixteen.”
    He hadn’t been on the game all that long then. Megan remembered what she’d been like at sixteen when the whole focus of her life was school, she had an unrequited crush on the captain of the football team and her knowledge of sex was still mostly theoretical except for a little fumbling with Ray Marsden at a house party one summer evening. And even then, nothing much had happened.
    “May I ask about your early sexual experiences?” She referred to her list of questions. “How old were you when you first had sex?”
    “Fourteen.” Again, his answer was succinct, and Megan had to ask him to elaborate.
    “Kristina Taylor. Eighth grade formal. In back of the gym. Less than five minutes.”
    “How did you feel about it?”
    “Embarrassed. But she was cool about it and it was better the next time and even better after we’d had more practice.” There was a hint of humor in his tone despite his blank face.
    “When did you realize you were gay?”
    “I’m not.”
    Megan paused, taken by surprise. “But your clients are male.”
    “What I do is work. Doesn’t mean I like it. You know anybody who works at McDonald’s and loves the job?” He smiled slightly for the first time.
    “True.” She returned his smile.
    The waitress returned with Mouth’s meal and a soda for Megan, who turned off the recorder.
    The boy tore into the burger, his jaws bulging as he chewed an oversize mouthful. He didn’t look at her as he methodically ate his way through the food, chased by great gulps of soda.
    Megan wondered when he’d last eaten.
    If it bothered him to be watched, he gave no sign of it, but then anyone who engaged in intimate acts with strangers on a daily basis must have long ago lost all self-consciousness.
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