Chapter 7: Truth and Lies

"You WHAT?"

Josephine covered Catalina's mouth. "Dammit, Catalina, you said you wouldn't scream!"

Catalina threw her friend's hand off of her mouth. "Josephine, you stupid bitch, how the hell do you want me to react to that?" A few onlookers glanced at the two. Catalina sneered at them before grabbing her best friend by the arm and dragging her down the school's hallway. "You never said how bad of a situation you and your dad were in." She whispered harshly.

"It's not really something I want to share about you know," Josephine replied drolly. "Besides, it'll get me big bucks and I can pay off the debt-"

"In what, ten to twenty years?" Catalina snorted, glancing around at people just in case they were eavesdropping. "Josephine, I don't think this is a good idea."

"It's a really…prestigious strip club." The dual eyed girl said, continuing to walk through the school's hallway and towards her locker. "It'll get me and my dad out of trouble and we'll be able to pay off those crooks."

Catalina frowned, chewing on her lip. "I don't like it. And since when is a whore's club prestigious?"

"I'm not kidding you. The owner's totally wacky for high and mighty girls. This one chick was obnoxiously talking on her phone and wham! She was gone!"

They continued to walk around the school with no intent to attend class. "I don't know, Jojo, it sounds suspicious…and," Catalina turned towards Josephine, frowning. "You have researched a stripper's life, right? It's horrendous. And do you have the guts to rip off your clothes?"

Josephine rolled her eyes. "I already did that, it's not that hard. And besides, it's not like I'm going to be there and smoke cocaine and all that crap. I'm going in and out. Just for the money."

"Gah! I still don't like this." Catalina sighed heavily. "What if those old men try to paw you and stuff?"

"That's where I come in and swoop my Josephine away from them." Arms wrapped around Josephine's waist and held her up in the air.

"Let me go!" Josephine screamed, kicking out her legs and squirming around in the tight embrace.

"Never, my little hellcat." Ross ducked his head at the crook of her neck and landed a soft kiss. "You're mine forever!" He let out a deep evil laughter that came from the pit of his stomach.

Josephine elbowed his stomach, making him groan in pain. When he didn't release her, she did it again and fell to her knees. "You didn't need to drop me, you prick!" Josephine whined as she rubbed her throbbing knees. She glanced at over her shoulder and glared at him. "Go away, dammit. You're so annoying."

Ross merely laughed, bending down to hug her. He wrapped his arms around her and laid on the dirty floor of the school's hallway. "Josephine, my flying machine!" He began to sing.

The girl harshly shoved him away, kicking him in the stomach as he rolled to the side all while laughing. "Catalina, I thought you were my friend, tell him to go away!"

Catalina was too busy staring at Ross's buttocks as he rolled.

Josephine sighed heavily, dusting herself off. "Piece of shit, keep rolling on the ground." She snarled, stomping away from the two. She felt irritation tickling at her, provoking her to release the huge amount of anger that was built up within. But stubbornly she put a belt around the doors to prevent it from escaping. She felt Catalina come by her side, chattering about band practice and her boyfriend. Josephine lent an ear, nodding every so often and mentally sighed.

"I'm going home. I don't feel like being here." Josephine told Catalina.

Her friend nodded, her lips slightly tugging downwards. "Alright, Josephine. If you need anything then give me a call or something. Come sleepover whenever you want and so we can raid the kitchen like last time, el oh el. Remember how pissed off my dad was when we finished his oreo pizza? Nasty but completely worth it."

Josephine rolled her eyes at remembrance of the challenging father and daughter duo and nodded. "See you later." With a flick of her hand, Josephine turned heel and walked down the sidewalk.

Once she was out of the school, she felt like she could finally breathe. For some reason, being in there was like having a pair of hands squeezing her windpipe slowly.

Because of the tight-money situation her father and her were in, she wasn't able to get her own car, much like the other seniors in her school. Every since junior high, she settled for the healthier way: riding her bike.

Said girl turned to the side of the school's building, dropping all of her belongings inside the caged basket that was attached to the front of the bicycle. After unlocking the chains, she threw the metal objects with her books and bag before jerking the bike away from the rusty bicycle rack.

Within three minutes, she was out of the school and slowly pedaling through both sidewalk and streets on her way home. Though her bike was quite old, Josephine was satisfied that it survived through the years of mistreatment and neglect.

For a moment, Josephine imagined herself as a sweet, young nerd riding her way home with a yellow puppy Labrador in her basket and whistling in the wind with saccharine ignorance.

The image was quickly swept away by a loud roar resonating besides her.

"What the hell?" Josephine's eyes widened, taken by complete surprise with the motorcycle that was a bit too close to her liking. She narrowed her eyes, pedaling faster in an idiotic way of hoping that she could outrun the biker.

The owner of the bike merely sped up to her, staring at her regardless of the moving traffic up ahead. The person ignored the blares of the horn behind him, riding slow to match her fast-pedaling speed in order to take a good look at her.

"Fuck off, asshole!" Josephine snarled, narrowing her eyes and making the meanest expression she could possible conjure.

Luckily for her, it worked.

The rider twisted the handle bar, making the motorcycle's engine roar once more before he sped off.

Josephine narrowed her eyes, ignoring the car's insistent honking behind her since she chose to ride inside of the streets. "Alright, alright, sheesh, I'm getting off." She yelled, flicking the car owner off before turning into the small street of her neighborhood. "People are so damn impatient nowadays."

Once she was inside of the house, Josephine threw her stuff on the table near the doorway. "Dad?" She called out, removing her shoes to prevent dirt marks to rub on the white carpet.

When no one answered by the loneliness of the house, she sighed and trudged to her bedroom with her belongings.

What did she expect from her father? Honestly, as sad as it was she couldn't rely on him anymore. Everything was now on her shoulders.

Humming a lullaby her mother used to sing to her as a child, Josephine made way into her room. She started her computer all the while running to the bathroom for necessary supplies. It took a while for her to get everything ready but in the end, everything was there.

Because she didn't have work today, she was going to try and 'beautify' herself as a hooker so that she could dwell well with the future customers.

At the thought of it, she winced. This wasn't exactly a memory to think back about when she got older. But because of her father's late payments and the insane interests from both bank and loan shark, this job was vital. Josephine didn't exactly have five years to major in medicine to get nice, fat dough into her pockets. All she had right now was a year or maybe more.

She'd be lucky to even have half a year.

Josephine shook her head of such negative thoughts, thinking hard on the positive as she went straight to the internet.

How to put on make up

She paused at her search, puckering her lips as she mold over the thought.

How to put make up like a hooker

Backspace-

Prostitute

Backspace-

Escort.

Backspace with a stabbing finger-

Stripper

If she was going to be selling and using her body for some greens, she at least wanted to be some high-ranking woman. But life wasn't exactly fair. Josephine sighed. But she wasn't about to be looking cheap either. With a last decision she replaced 'stripper' with 'escort'. Pleased with her search, she clicked enter while she prepared all of the makeup she had bought after her audition. Though it was cheap makeup from Rite Aid, it was durable from what Catalina told her.

She clicked on the first seven links that showed up on the search engine and read each one by one.

A fuzzy, soft sensation ran across her legs, vibrating like a mad thing. Josephine smiled, leaning down to give Jinx a small scratch behind the ears. "Go find your food bowl. I left a prize there."

But the cat, was a cat, and continued to purr madly for affection as she continued to read the directions. Forcing herself to pay attention, she retracted her face from Jinx (who was quite irritated at her lack of attention, but went wandering around anyways) and picked up a peach colored jar.

The foundation touched her skin, and she started her work of slutty art. Josephine was sure to cover the areas underneath her eyes, down her nose and neck, and across her forehead. As soon as she was finished, she picked up the black liquid eyeliner and squinted at the computer screen for further directions.

Constant erasing and redoing later, Josephine was finished.

She straightened up from her hunched position before the compact mirror and gave off a heavy sigh. "Damn, this took forever," she murmured beneath her breath.

Josephine stood up, throwing her hands outwards in a delicious stretch as she glanced at the clock. Sighing she closed the window, feeling the cool draft becoming too much to bear. It was seven thirty and her father was still not home. She stopped herself from gnawing on her lower lip as she walked to the bathroom, thinking about her father drunk at some random bar.

She shook her head and refused to think about it.

As soon as she walked into the restroom, she took one look in the mirror and screamed. "Man, what the hell is this?"

Because she only had a small compact mirror to concentrate on small portions of her face, she didn't realize that the total outcome would be disastrous.

Her left eye had the eyeliner thick and long, giving out a wing to the side to attempt a cat-eye. Her right eye was just dolled up with purple eye shadow, massive amounts of mascara, and a minimal amount of eyeliner so that the smoky context would make her more alluring. Her mouth was pink and pouty; it was as if she ripped off Barbie's lips and placed it on her face.

The three, fat, obese moles she placed under her eye, over the corner of her lip and near her nose did nothing to heighten the exotic feature she was going for.

Josephine groaned, throwing her hands up in the air as she prepared to wash off the makeup. When she placed a wet cloth to her cheek, light-scratching noises made her pause.

In confusion, she leaned out the doorway. "Jinx?"

The scratches continued.

Wondering if Jinx exited after she closed the window, Josephine walked into her room and headed straight for the window, pushing the yellow curtains to the side. "Jinx?" She called out, squinting her eye as she tried to find a recognizable dark fuzzy shape.

Josephine opened the window and was about to lean out when she felt the familiar softness tickling her calves. "Oh, there you are-"

"Boo!"

The terrified girl screeched, backing away from the window as she stared at half of a human's body protruding inside of her window. The expression of fear on her face disappeared when she realized who it was. "What the hell?"

Ross cackled and was about to climb inside until he caught a glimpse of her face. "Oh, shit, it's a drag queen!" And because he was distracted with her new features, his hand slipped and he fell.

His screams of profanities and drag queens made Josephine roll her eyes. She merely walked up to the window, sneered down at him rolling on the grass before closing the window. "Asshole," she cursed, going back to the restroom with wounded pride. She worked hard to glamour herself and this is what she gets!

The wet make-up remover tissue dragged its way across her face numerous times until Josephine was satisfied. Throughout the whole time she was cleaning her face, the doorbell was being harassed, ringing more than once in a second.

"Josephine, my sex machine," His powerful singsong voice resonated throughout the whole house despite him standing at the doorstep. She can only imagine how much the neighbors could hear.

With the speed of a cheetah, Josephine darted down the hallway, jumped the stairs and threw herself at the door. She yanked it open and snarled, "Fuck you, Ross!" before grabbing him by the ear and throwing him inside.

He yelped, holding his throbbing ear with his hand. "What was that for?"

"For singing such a nasty song!" Before she reached the door, lyrics about doing it doggy-style and weed danced within the interior of her house. Josephine glared at him. "What do you want?"

"Can't I just visit my sweet pea?" He lowered his voice a notch or two, causing a blush to rise on her face.

"No, and I'm not your sweet pea, dammit." She turned away from him and walked up the stairs. "If that's all, you can let yourself out."

"Hell no, I wanna see your place!" Ross danced up the stairs, wrapping his arms around his waist. He ravished her neck in a play-like manner and retreated when she whapped his head.

Josephine rolled her eyes, too tired to deal with him. Suddenly, a thought hit her.

She slowly turned to Ross, watching his grey eyes twinkle with life as he started talking animatedly about trespassing the green area they had done days ago. Those words went from one ear to the other as she continued to stare at him. "You're a boy." She said with sudden realization.

His hyper, playful attitude disappeared. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Ross frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. "What, you didn't notice my glorious manhood between my thighs before?"

Ignoring his question, Josephine nodded before jerking her head up the stairs. "Come here, I wanna ask you something for my psychology class," she said with a breeze. When it came to lying, she was a friggin' professional. "I'm doing a survey on boys and sexuality, something I'm sure you're familiar with."

A slow grin made way on his face. "Well, if you wanted to do me, all you had to do was ask-"

Josephine rolled her eyes and walked up the stairs. "No, I'm not gonna have sex with you Ross. I just want to ask you something."

"Did you know that throughout every girl in our year, you're the one of the girls in the five percent that I haven't bed?"

"I can imagine the many STDs festering in your genitals." She said drolly.

"Imagine my dick, without the STDs." Ross said charmingly, throwing a wink in her direction.

A heavy sigh escaped from her as she motioned him to stand next to her computer. "Okay, so, I'm creating a survey restricted only to the male sex to question them on which type of face they would be more…a-allured to…sexually." Josephine coughed in her fist, swerving her computer chair so that she could open up the windows. "So, pay attention to their faces and tell me."

One by one, she clicked each window at a slow pace so he could study the features. If the sex god rebel of the school likes one then by god, she'd take it, knowing that the piece of information can benefit her for work tomorrow.

When she finished, she turned her head around to face him as he stood behind her studying the screen. "So…?"

Ross frowned, leaning over her to grab the mouse. Josephine whipped her head forward, fighting the blush from her face as she felt his chest brushing the back of her head. Heat emancipated from him, warming her to the bones.

What the hell? Since when did she have an attraction to Ross?

She silently cursed at herself, mentally beating herself up for demoting herself to such a level. There was nothing attractive about him. He was the most infuriating person she'd ever met in his life?

Perhaps this wasn't an attraction. Perhaps it was just close uncomfortable proximity due to his overwhelming presence.

Yeah, that was completely it.

Ross sighed, his breath tickled the hair on her head, making a few strands flow around wildly. "Well, in my personal opinion, I like a clean, natural beauty; a clean face. I don't like waking up in the morning, wondering who the hell I'm sleeping next to when they remove the gunk they had all day only to look like a different person."

Josephine groaned. "No, that's not what I'm asking. You're saying that as if that's what you would like your married life to be. What I'm asking is what kind of face would you be sexually attracted to!"

"Your face."

"Oh, dear god, why are you such a pain in the ass?" Josephine groaned, throwing her head back to glare at him as he hovered over her with his weasel grin.

"Spiderman kiss!" He grabbed her head with his hands and before she could stop him, he swooped down and left a nice, wet kiss on her lips.

She brought her arm up and wiped off the kiss, too concentrated on the make-up to berate him for his kisses. "Come on, Ross, just choose a goddamn picture!"

Ross sighed heavily and stared at the pictures, feeling gloom since Josephine wasn't playing around with him with her usual spitfire. "They're not even attractive. They look like hookers." Her body stiffening didn't go unnoticed to him. "But, if you reaaaaally want me to pick then I'd have to say this."

Just as Josephine was waiting for her answer, her chair suddenly swerved around. Ross pushed her legs apart and knelt between them. "What the hell are-"

"Start with what you had before." His hand came up to her face, fingers trailing lightly up her cheek in sweet, sweet seduction. "The smokey make-up was good, you just need a bit more collecting around the corners of your eyes rather than the inside of your eyelid." The pad of his index finger ran beneath her eyes, back and forth. "Then put some eyeliner here, with mascara."

Then his fingers swept down her lips. Too stunned to say something, she stared into the depths of his eyes.

"Now, here…here is what you…" His words traced off into nothing and along with it his fingers stopped moving.

"I…?" Josephine repeated, not knowing if she wanted information or more of his touches.

His head moved away. "Oh, so this is the critter you've been feeding." Ross picked up Jinx who was wiggling around in his grasp. "Heavy thing you got here."

Josephine snapped out of her daze, blinking fast as she forced herself to leave the dream-like state she was in a couple seconds ago. "Watch out, Jinx doesn't just like anybody." Her strong, hard voice was back with a trace of annoyance.

"I beg to differ." Ross brought the cat into his arms, stood and sat on her bed.

As Ross tried to woo the cat onto his side, Josephine narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "Do you like makeup or something? How do you know about the tools even I don't know how to use until recently?"

"I have a sister." He replied, not bothering to go any further as he scratched beneath Jinx's chin. The truth was that he bed women (young and cougar-like), and women stayed over or he stayed over. And every morning he woke up, he would watch each and every women apply their make-up. It had become a routine he became too familiar with.

"Oh?" Josephine cocked her head to the right. "How old is she?"

"I forgot." Ross smiled at Josephine's rolling eyes before asking, "So, whom do you have down for your survey?"

Josephine's nose twitched. "You're the first. I'm thinking about switching topics since it was too difficult to get any information out of you. Just thinking how difficult the other boys will be makes me want to change it."

"I'm not difficult, I just have a specific preference. Right, Mr. Cat?" Jinx meowed rather cutely and batted Ross' chin with his paw. "See, even your cat agrees!"

"Get out of my house, you ass." She laughed, waving him away. The words made her stop. "Wait, how did you know where I live?"

Ross smirked, continuing to pet the traitor cuddling against his chest. "I drove down this road once and saw you letting in this beast into your window. Out of curiosity, I kept riding down here and saw you letting in Jinx-y here when it scratched your window. So, I decided to give it a try."

Josephine frowned. "Stalker." Before she turned back to her computer, she paused. "Did you follow me home today?" The motorcyclist from before came back to her memory.

He shook his head. "Nope, I'm not that crazy, Josephine." He was playing with Jinx's paws, making it look like the poor cat was a boxer. "I was in detention and decided to drop by."

She pursed her lips before shrugging. "Whatever, just get out."

Ross grinned, placing the hairball on her bed. He swaggered towards her, wrapping his arms around the unsuspecting victim and landed a very wet kiss on her cheek. "Goodbye, my sex machine." With a deep chuckle, he was out of the room.

The kiss tingled, lingering on her cheek before her face twisted in disgust and she wiped it away. "Gross."

The stairs echoed with his weight, creaking once or twice from the excertion it was forced to bear all these years. Ross shook his head, opened the door and made sure to lock it before exiting the house. He wouldn't want anyone to creep up on his Josephine while she was busy with her so-called project.

Ross walked to his bike, placing his helmet on as he gazed at the house for a second. He threw a leg over it, kicked up the stand and turned on the engine. Before he drove off into the night, he stared once more at Josephine's house with a long hard look.

From the short years he had known her, he knew that she was always telling him the truth, be it brutal or a light snap at his behavior, actions, etc. That was one part he loved about her.

He could tell an instant lie from a mile away, knowing from personal experience the tell-tale twitching of the face, darting eyes, fidgeting fingers and stuttering words. Everything Josephine said was hardcore truth. It was something fresh, something so pure white in his dark life he could bask in. It was something he really appreciated.

As Ross rode off, he was wondering why in the world she was lying to him.

And why now?

Definition of make-up:

A completely disgusting substance that some girls feel the need to rub all over their face, usually made out of fish scales, whale blubber, rabbit poop, and the parts of pigs they can not feed you ( even in hotdogs).

FINALLY LOL HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN? DX Almost a year! DX

Sorry for those who waited so long for an update :c I literally had no idea what to do with this chapter and even thought of so many ideas, but it didn't dwell well with it Dx This one wasn't going well, but I managed it LOL

MY BETA: I will send you this file! X)) I just don't have the time right now, need to get to school D:

I DO NOT THINK OF MAKEUP LIKE THAT LOL I love makeup even if I rarely wear it, haha. I get these witty definitions from urbandictionary (dot) com. GO search a word, it's hilarious! I picked that definition because I made it in Ross' perspective, since he likes clean faces (swoons). I was going to put up quotes from a youtube video I found so hilarious LOL go check it out! (Whore Makeup Tutorial by glowpinkstah) I love this video, it's freaking hilarious xD

New story up, check it out ;D

I was going to reply to all of you guys, but I'm in a bit of a hurry D: I have school so no updates nowadays :c I will reply in the next update!

THANK YOU MY REVIEWS, JUST KNOW THAT I LOVE YOU TO ITTY BITTY BITS! X3 (that's a heart LOL)