Page 115 of The Sun Sister

It was Miles’s turn to stare at me in shock. ‘You mean you don’t know how much you’re worth?’

‘No. I live in a very nice apartment, and I buy whatever I need, although I get given most of my clothes for free from designers. There’s not much else that I’ve wanted – other than drugs and alcohol. Though there is something I want now.’ The thought of it made me smile.

‘Excuse me for saying, Electra, but shouldn’t you know how much money you’ve got? I personally don’t trust anyone but me when it comes to my dollars.’

‘Oh, they show me the accounts once a year and tell me about my investments, but they’re just columns of figures and...I don’t have a clue what they actually mean,’ I confessed.

Suddenly, Miles reached out a hand to stroke the side of my face gently with his fingers. He gave a sigh as his eyes focused on mine.

‘You sure act like you’re a tigress, but you’re just an innocent cub underneath it all, aren’t you? You make me feel real old,’ he smiled. ‘Hey, and I should be getting to bed like people of my age do.’

As I watched him stand up, all of me wanted to ask him to stay and stroke my face again. But I didn’t, because I felt too shy – a first for me.

‘Goodnight, sweetheart,’ he said as he walked away into the darkness.

That night, I didn’t sleep well, even though I was physically exhausted from the horse riding. This was partly to do with Vanessa, who was having another restless night, but also because I couldn’t stop thinking about Miles. I thought I was quite good at getting a handle on guys, but I seriously couldn’t work him out. A Harvard-educated lawyer, former addict, saviour of junkies and a Christian...

Then I wondered if he was married, because he never talked about a wife, not that we’d talked that often. Besides, what did I care? He was way older than me and we lived in different worlds.

I woke up feeling groggy, as if I’d taken stuff. When I looked at the clock by my bed, I saw it was gone ten o’clock. Normally, the morning gong would sound at seven, giving us half an hour before we needed to gather together in the canteen for the serenity prayer, but today was a Sunday, so there was no gong and prayers were at ten.

‘You missed breakfast an’ prayers,’ said Vanessa as I sat up. ‘I got you a bowl of grits and some juice.’ She indicated my desk.

‘Oh,’ I said, touched by her thoughtfulness. ‘Thanks.’

‘’S’okay. Miles wanted to take me to church in town, but I told him I had to stay an’ look after you.’

‘Hey, I was just sleeping. You could have gone with him.’

‘You think I want to go to that place? They’re as bad as the pushers, tryin’ to get you onto all that Jesus stuff. I googled you last night,’ Vanessa continued. ‘You must be the most famous supermodel in the world and I’m sharin’ a room with you. Ain’t the world a crazy place!’

‘It sure is,’ I agreed as I reached for the grits, which I hated, but I didn’t want to upset Vanessa.

‘How’d you get to be a model?’

‘An agent spotted me in Paris when I was sixteen,’ I shrugged. ‘It was just luck.’

‘It’s ’cos you’re as tall as a giraffe,’ she giggled, and even though the joke was on me, it made me happy to see her smile. ‘You make the clothes look good. An’ you’re pretty too. Where are your folks from?’

‘I don’t know. I was adopted. You?’

‘Mom was Puerto Rican an’ Dad, hey, he was just a sperm, y’know?’ Vanessa studied me. ‘Your hair real?’

‘No. Not most of it anyway. I wish I had hair like yours, Vanessa. It’s so long and beautiful.’

‘You don’t want nothin’ that I got,’ she said, but her expression told me she was pleased. ‘You like bein’ a model?’

‘It’s okay. I mean, I get paid well, but it can get boring being dressed up like a living doll every day, and all the hair and make-up stuff.’

‘Like your body ain’t your own?’

‘I suppose so, yes.’

‘Hey, I sell mine every day to anyone who wants it. So I guess we’re just the same, ain’t we?’

With that, Vanessa got up and walked out of the dorm.

‘Wow. Wow...’ I breathed, feeling my heart banging against my chest. Tears sprang to my eyes because somehow, a young junkie plucked from the streets of New York had made me feel about two inches high.