Enticed:A Dangerous Connection (Secrets) by Melody Carlson Page B

it hurt?
    “Thanks.” She grins. “You’re Serena, right?”
    I nod. “What’s your name?” I grab another towel to wrap my dress and underthings in so they won’t drip all over the floor.
    “Ruby.” She hops down from the counter. “Ruby Red.”
    I blink. “Really? Ruby Red? ”
    She laughs. “Well, you know.”
    And then I realize that, like me, she’s been assigned a fake name. “Yeah … I know.” I hold up my wet laundry. “I’m going to put these in my room to dry.” But now I’m worried I might get locked up again, so as I go down the hallway, I continue talking to her about music and singing. I’m hoping I can entice her to follow me. At least if I go into lockdown, I’ll have company. “ American Idol is one of my favorite shows,” I say as I go into my room.
    “Yeah, me too. And I used to dream about being on it someday,” she admits as I’m putting my soggy dress on one of the hangers.
    “That’s cool,” I say as I hook the hanger over the top of the blinds, hoping the sun from the window will dry it.
    “I guess that won’t be happening though.”
    “Why not?” I arrange my underwear on the other hanger, hooking it on the blinds too. “You can keep auditioning until you’re twenty-eight. And I’ll bet you’re not even old enough to try out yet.”
    “Yeah. I’m just fourteen.” She stops herself like she’s given out too much information.
    “It’s okay. It’s not like I’ll tell anyone.”
    She looks relieved.
    “You shouldn’t give up your dreams,” I say. “And you should keep on singing, too.”
    “Really? You think I have talent?”
    “I think you have a sweet voice and you should keep working on it.” At least that was honest. “Maybe we can sing together sometime.”
    “Yeah, that’d be cool.”
    “So, how long have you been here?” I use my fingers to comb my damp hair.
    Her brow creases. “You mean here in this house?”
    I shrug, trying to figure this out as I go. “Yeah, whatever.”
    “We all came to this house in May, I think it was.”
    “Oh …” I try not to act too interested since I know everyone here is pretty tight-lipped. I just act like I’m making conversation.
    “We were all in different places before coming here.”
    “All? You mean besides Jimmy and Tatiana?”
    “Yeah, the other girls.”
    “Oh, yeah. So you’ve only been together a couple months …”
    “Well, I’ve known Jimmy longer than that. About a year I guess. Maybe a little more.”
    “Uh-huh.” I try not to look shocked, but I assume she was only thirteen when she got stuck in this lifestyle. “How did you, uh, come to be here?”
    “It was pretty messed up at home. At least my mom’s boyfriend was messed up, you know what I mean?” She peers curiously at me.
    “Yeah.” I nod like I get this — and I think I do. “That sucks.”
    “Tell me about it. He’s a total loser who thinks he can use me the same way he’s using my mom. So one day I was fed up with the jerk. And I confronted my mom and I was like , ‘It’s him or me, Mom. You gotta choose.’”
    I shake my head sadly. “And … ?”
    She looks down at her feet. “She chose him. Duh.”
    “I’m sorry.” I place a hand on her shoulder. “That’s so wrong.”
    “Yeah. So then it was like, what do I do? I stayed with a friend for a while. But then her mom was going to report everything to CPS. So I was like see ya later. And then I was on the streets and it wasn’t so bad since it was summer. And a lot of kids were homeless.”
    “So you kinda banded together?” I’m trying to wrap my head around this.
    “Yeah. But the weather started getting cold. So some of us came out here and that was better for a while. But then it started getting pretty rough. And I didn’t really know anyone and I was ready to just give up.”
    “Did you ever think about going home?”
    “I called my mom’s phone and the jerk answered and I just hung up.”
    “Oh.”
    “That’s when Jimmy found